Every Memorial Day we have a picnic at our house, and every year more and more people from town show up for an afternoon of food, fun, and anticipation--anticipation for the summer that is soon upon us. Yesterday I gave my final exam to my 8th grade English students. As soon as that pile of pages--some three hundred or more pages--are graded and returned, my thoughts turn to the "Fitz's Summer Writing Program" that I have been running for the past five summers. My summer blogs are a venture that I am proud to have started, and that I am inspired to continue again this summer and for many summers henceforward.
To write well, a writer must write often, and, just as importantly, discover a reason and purpose for writing. As a teacher of writing, it is my calling and mission to make true writers out of every student I teach. Every day throughout the school year I write in a blog for my class, and I share, cajole, encourage, and implore my students to find their unique voices as writers, thinkers, poets, and storytellers by writing in their own blogs in a shared community of their peers. These 61 teenagers wrote over four million words (yes: 4,000,000) over the course of the school year, all of which they freely shared with each other. Now is my time to return to this, my personal blog, to do what I truly love doing; writing for the sake and beauty and power of the written word--and to share this passion with whomever wants to join me, from the youngest writers to the wizened veterans of the writing process, all in separate peer-based, password protected communities. You are welcome and encouraged to join me in a summer writing program to help find and develop your own voices and skills as a writer in whatever way you choose.
Check out my website, TheCraftedWord.org if you are interested. I hope you are!
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