These have been perhaps the most transformative four weeks I have experienced. I have grown exponentially as a writer and a teacher of writing. The amount of time and focus devoted to personal writing through NeWP is such a gift; I can see through the body of work that I produced how much I have developed as an artist. I have discovered and honed skills I wasn’t really aware I had, like those for poetry writing (even slam poetry, a new genre of writing for me). I reflect on my personal writing and am very proud of what I produced. I was also pushed further in my professional writing through NeWP. Academic writing is probably the mode with which I was most comfortable, having had much experience with it as an undergraduate not long ago, but the writing I did for my EQUIP and inquiry project allowed me to flex those muscles that had gone soft from disuse, and it feels wonderful to be back.
This writing growth will be crucial to my teaching of writing. Not only do I now feel I have cultivated skills that I can model for my students, but I have newfound empathy for their writing struggles. There were many times I felt my writing would be inadequate and I lost confidence. There were times I felt I was stuck during the revision process, times I didn’t even know where to begin or what to write about. It helped me remember and recognize these kinds of struggles in my students. Having seen myself in them over the past four weeks, I feel a renewed sense of responsibility for guiding them through the writing process, something that can feel daunting to students. I also have a new appreciation for the importance of their seeing themselves as writers. With this development in my own identity, I can clearly see its significance in fostering confidence and stamina and establishing a culture of writing in my classroom.
Another of the countless gifts NeWP has given me is a renewed professional identity. Someone in our class reminded us one day that if we as teachers do not speak for ourselves and our profession, someone else will speak for us. Being part of NeWP has given me the opportunity to join some very important conversations that exist in education (through the EQUIP, the inquiry project, etc.). I have done a breadth and depth of research on social justice pedagogy, as well as empathy and its many facets and implications in the classroom. I feel inspired to further pursue research in these and other subjects in order to better inform my professional identity and, hopefully someday, offer contributions that matter. Regardless of whether this happens, I will use research to make contributions that matter with my own students. However, I don’t want to keep my newfound insights gained through research and writing to myself; otherwise, what good are they? If I do not share what I have learned with the others in my building or beyond, I would be doing a disservice to all the people who influenced me through NeWP. I plan to meet with the other members of my department and my building administrator to share this experience, and hopefully with my department members, this could become a more regular meeting where even further development could occur.
Completing my EQUIP was a valuable experience. The research done for it helped me cultivate new knowledge and name a rationale for practicing social justice pedagogy, something dear to my heart and educational philosophy. Although I would refine and further develop many parts of it, I would love to share it with peers eventually. An audience of the other teachers in my building would be a strong place to start and could be done very easily at a faculty meeting. With the aforementioned further development and tweaking, it may someday be something I’d be prepared to present to my ESU or further. No matter what, further researching social justice pedagogy and effective methods will be something that is part of my future.
Of course, the inquiry project was another fruitful experience. Not only did it give me a further knowledge base about empathy and its place in education, but it reminded me of the value of research for the sake of learning and generating ideas, not simply to produce a presentation, essay, or other final product. Additionally, the research we did affirmed my identity as an empathic teacher and provided me with a rationale for fostering empathic practices, which can be perceived as “soft,” unimportant, or not rigorous. I see now that empathic thinking is challenging thinking and pushes students to new places, and I plan--after developing a solid research base on empathy--to consciously implement it into my teaching and reflect on its presence in my classroom. With this personal exploration as well as further scholarly research, I hope to join this emerging educational conversation one day with something valuable to say.
The aspect of NeWP that I will miss the most as I return to my own school will be the people. I have established some amazing connections with other like-minded professionals, others who are equally as dedicated to learning, professional development, and fostering their own writing abilities, others who share a similar educational philosophy to my own. I have been inspired by the work these teachers produced in their EQUIPS and inquiry projects, the ideas they voiced in discussions, and the eloquent personal writing they shared. I have a folder full of concrete teaching ideas that will make me a more effective teacher of writing. Networking with these professionals has helped me in another way that I believe benefits all teachers in our state: they have pushed me and inspired me to be better. The level of excellence exhibited by these teachers is so high, and it makes me want to meet it. Not only have all of us learned and grown together, but we have nudged each other out of complacency in our own teaching practices and into new ways of thinking and educating.
While I am a little sad that this experience is ending, I can take heart knowing that it has changed me, that things will never be the same. And for the sake of my students and my own professional and personal identities, I wouldn’t go back.
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