a text message.

i saw a workshop that is just like ours used 2 b!!!  🙂

I received this message on my phone last week.  It came from a former student who was observing Writing Workshops as part of her cadet teaching experience.  After one of her observations, she sent the text.  Here are the reasons I feel compelled to share this with our blog readers:

• She was a student in my seventh grade class.  She was observing a second grade class.  So much of strong workshop teaching trancends grade level.  It is a philosophy about the way people learn to write — it is not a lockstep program according to age.
• Her use of “our.”  She was referring to Writing Workshop in seventh grade.  Even after five years, she still has a sense of the community that was formed and the fact that it was everyone’s — not just the teacher’s.
• She is on her way to becoming a teacher.  One of the primary reasons is because she wants to teach Writing Workshop.  She believes in the power of Writing Workshop because it transformed her.  I, for one, am anxious that soon we will have colleagues who believe in workshop teaching, not only because of book-knowledge, but because of experience.  Can you imagine the incredible workshops she will lead?  She knows (and believes) in the power of Workshop.  I want dibs on hiring her!  🙂