As the 2020-2021 school year sets to start, we recognize that educators need each other more than ever. We need to hold onto our beliefs about the teaching of writing while becoming ever more flexible in our approaches. We need to grow in our understanding of Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy (as described in Gholdy Muhammad’s book, Cultivating Genius: A Four Layered Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy) and challenge our privilege and our biases. We need to explore ways to use digital tools to reach and teach students in a hybrid and remote learning setting. We need to understand better trauma-informed teaching and how to help our students who need social and emotional support. All of this is occurring during a global pandemic that rages on in many places. It is an all-hands-on-deck time in teaching. It is a time where everyone needs to pay attention, raise questions, offer ideas, work on solutions. It is a time when more voices are needed.
At Two Writing Teachers, we are always looking to invite voices that reflect the society of education in which all of us contribute. We recognize our community is composed of thoughtful and resourceful teachers of writers and invite these perspectives to share in the conversation of writing practices.
In celebration of this message of unity and openness, we happily announce our Voices from the Community initiative. We invite contributions related to the teaching of writing to be shared and published with attribution on Two Writing Teachers. Posts should reflect a workshop approach to teaching writing and remain under a 1,000 word count.
In our Mission Statement, we assert, “Ideas are free when they are free-flowing. We want to make the most of our ideas with words from our hearts and our process as writers, teachers, and believers. This is why we do not accept advertising, affiliate with advertisers, or receive profits from our work here at Two Writing Teachers.” The work we do at Two Writing Teachers is not financially compensated and guest writers would be contributing their ideas without expectation of receiving payment.
Why do we write and share at Two Writing Teachers….and why should you contribute a post? At heart, we believe in the power of educators to make the world a better place, one writing workshop at a time. We strive to help educators grow as teachers of writing because, in turn, that helps students to grow as writers. A society where people think deeply and share their ideas clearly, with passion and purpose, is a world we desire. Exchanging ideas is how we grow. We hope that our writing about teaching inspires conversation among educators. By contributing writing and your ideas, you are helping all of us to see a new perspective, to try out a different strategy, to question a past practice, to reflect on our own practice. We hope you will consider being one of our Voices from the Community.
There are six different topics which we would ask you to select from when writing a post to share. Click the image to see the slideshow, which shares the topics and questions to guide your thinking as you prepare your post.
If you are interested in contributing a post to Two Writing Teachers, please read this document on how posts should be formatted and edited prior to submission. Once your post is ready, please fill out the Google Form to share your writing with us. This will hopefully be an ongoing feature on our site so there is no specific due date for submitting a post.
Please understand we reserve the right to publish posts we feel best fit the needs of our community. Not every submission will be published. We anticipate responding to you within a week’s time. If you have further questions or concerns, you can reach out via email at mrs.sokolowski@gmail.com. Thank you for your willingness to share your passion and expertise on teaching writing. We look forward to reading your ideas!
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