Day 8 of Writing Boot Camp: Sasha

Perhaps it’s my lack of motivation or maybe it’s the fact that my neglected house is so messy it’s starting to stink. I’m not sure which but this blog is not coming easily. As if the work of writing wasn’t hard enough, couple that with having to put it out into the world and let it be read by anyone. It has made me freeze up. I can feel my anxiety turn to fear turn to more anxiety and I’m left with a blank page.

I tell myself, “girl…it’s just words on paper”.  I know I’m going to have to put words on this blog. Not just one word but many words which means there no room for the “I can’t write attitude”. So I’m going to push up my sleeves and get to work. So, here goes.

Warm-Up

It’s day eight of writing camp and Heather wakes us up with the warm-up bell. She didn’t give her warm-up a name but I would call it Bell Buzz-Word. We each got three.  What would you do with; enthusiastic, puke green and bra?

Our First Demo Lesson!

Afterwards it was time to start the Demo lesson phase of our course. Cindy bravely went where no fellow had gone before and volunteered to go first.  I thought she introduced her lesson as being about essay writing. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t excited about writing an essay. I remember them in high school and hoped I’d never have to endure them again. Boy was I relieved to find out all I had to come up with was six words.

“To be, or not to be…”

“Six words, so few yet so many”

Who knew you could say so much with only a few words? They really aren’t stories, but yet they are, by having an implied character, action and conflict. Ok…so it’s not as easy as just writing six words. It takes some skill. In order to do it right you have to put the words together and use punctuation to get at the true essence of what you want to say.  

Questioning and Conferencing

I could have written six word stories all day but Andra reminded us we had a job to do. She had us ask ourselves these questions as we worked on our writing.

·        What do you want your reader to feel or know?

·        What do you think of what you’ve done so far?

·        What are you working on as a writer?

All questions I had no answer for…yet.

We also spent some time discussing how to give valuable feedback while conferencing. Finding the time to sit one-on-one with students has always been a struggle for me so if I can remember to use this question and comment I will be happy.

·        What do you think you need to do?

·        Some writers have tried this… (for making a suggestion).

Historical Fiction Writing

After some genuine workshop writing it was time for our second Demo Lesson. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for Historical Fiction writing, but John told me that my brain was a genius! Apparently I could do calculus so I could do this.  He brought in a basket of objects he called artifacts that we were to use as inspiration. Some-time during the lesson John said something about Bloom’s taxonomy but I didn’t catch it. I was too busy trying to figure out what the hell these things were, where they came from and why? I wish I’d chosen to study Nancy’s artifact, a shiny sword. From the giggles across the room, it looked like that sward was conjuring up some exciting thoughts. One thing was for sure, weird objects allow for higher level thinking. Amy reminded us that that was the best kind of teaching; when students don’t even know they’re learning. Always stay curious because everything has a story.

Response Groups

Almost everyone wanted more time to finish writing but it was time to meet in response groups. At the end of a long week of writing, I had about as much drive as a flat tire.  I came to find out my team mates felt the same way when our response group turned into a gripe session. Although Andra and Margret might not think us productive, I thought it was time well spend.  Jeanne made sure we were all clear on upcoming assignments. Informational writing, our self-reflection and argument writing were all due next week.

Debrief

We are going to try Socratic Circles next week so I better get caught up on my reading.  We were all asked to bring 5-10 genuine questions to bring to discuss.

Oh yah, we get paid to do this. $350! That will make the work a little more bearable.

Phew! Done for now. It might not be great but I can’t wait for the perfect words. I’ve got dishes to scrape and hungry kids. My sentences might not be a work of art… but its words on paper. I guess this writing thing isn’t as hard as I thought. I just have to tackle it like I’m going to tackle this messy house, by tidying up one small corner at a time.