I Write. Therefore I Tweet

Melissa led us in freewriting after reading Terry Tempest Williams excerpt "Why I Write" from Creative Non-fiction. I write because I am meant for expression. I am meant to share, to talk, to write. Therefore...I tweet.

Today is the second day of the Summer Institute. Last night I went home at 5:00 p.m. This is the first year, in four years of facilitating, that I didn't feel like there was "something pressing to do for the next day." It felt good to go home to my porch, enjoy the outdoors of the Ozarks for a little bit. Take a walk with my dog, grab dinner with a friend, and then, once I got home, I felt inspired to read, to write, to look at our schedule and see what's ahead. Instead though, I tweeted.

This is the first summer institute with live tweeting for the OWP, and it's been fun to experience. Actually, it's my first SI with live tweeting anywhere. I've been tweeting since December of '08, but didn't actively follow my Twitter account until October of '09. This opened up a whole new world of professional learning for me. Twitter is my space, and I'm away from my students. I was a Facebook teacher for many years, and still am, but Twitter has become my place for learning, and reading, and getting a grasp on what's happening in the world around me. Twitter is a place where I can follow people with the same like-mind. I read what they are writing, I read what articles online they are sharing. They read about the weather in Colorado and what's for dinner in Kansas City. But, it's more than just that. The social network aspect isn't what keeps me tweeting. In fact, I find myself deleting tweeters who only update about their social lives. Mostly, it's because I can find those updates on Facebook. However, tweeting an online article about paperless classrooms, or writing instruction, or technology in the classroom, or grading without letter grades, those are the articles that keep me going back to twitter. I can search anything with the hashtags, but I admit my tags for the last few months have only been writing project related as this is my professional learning community and I have a deep trust and commitment to those who have participated in writing project events around the nation.

And...time's up...more to come tomorrow I'm sure.

My Table's Response to Processing Freewriting

I had a hard time getting started today. I'm not sure if it was everything I'm thinking I need to be doing, or thinking about the day ahead, but I had a hard time getting that process going. Plus, because I was posting to my personal blog, I almost think that hindered me. Maybe I will go back to private writing in a journal.

Actually, once I started freewriting, it helped me to organize my thoughts and kind of gather what it was I needed to do.

Shelli: I don't yet know what or how feel about freewriting.

Vanessa: I mostly enjoyed writing, but I really enjoyed listening to others. I felt nervous about sharing. I want to steal lines from others.

Kelly: I think it's so nice that everyone's mind is going everywhere.

Allison: I like freewriting--I feel more focused and my head feels clear. I also think it builds community and sharing.

Marla: 20 minutes is a long time to write. Do I even have enough to say?

Just a total mess of a freewrite...for the first day of SI.

I've been thinking a lot about my classroom recently. I feel like there's a shift happening. Back to freewriting. I feel a little scattered, and a little unorganized. I feel unprepared, or is that just nervous. I have all of this knowledge, but am I ready to share it, to help others guide themselves to deeper research and meaning in their own work.

It makes me think of Senior Projects. (I think everything makes me think of Sr. Projects.) But on the night of the Senior Showcase, I think the kids must be feeling this nervousness that I feel. This knowledge of what's about to come, yet knowing there's the unexpected about to come as well. The unpredictability is what is scary and exciting all at the same time.

I'm not freewriting very well at all today. I feel preoccupied. It's the first day of SI in many locations and my twitter feed is going crazy. I'm going to have to turn off the tweetdeck so it doesn't pop up on my screen every 10 seconds. Thomas showed me how to do that the other day, but, of course, I totally forgot how. And I don't want to take the time right now to figure it out.

I'm sharing with my small writing group a piece on the traveling journal. I'm about to conduct research on it for the TEacher Inquiry Institute. I think EVERY teacher should go through the TII. It would be kind of neat if it were a class that all graduate students had to take, but, sometimes graduate students don't have to have teaching experience. I wonder if programs would be more authentic, more relevant, if they stuck to the prerequ that teaching experience is required, because that changes the whole context of research.

I've got butterflies in my stomach. Butterflies I say, but they are beautiful Monarchs. We are writing for a long time this morning. I'm glad for this. What if I don't have a "timed" writing in my classroom next year? Not starting out with the 7 minutes. Not having the clock running. Will that change the outcome of the freewriting?

And the freewriting begins...

It's the first day of the Summer Orientation. We are sitting in the new Collaboration Classroom at Missouri State. It's the first time I've heard this many fingers pecking the keyboards in the orientation. Normally, it's one or two with personal computers. I see four people handwriting and I wonder how this will affect freewriting by composing at the computer. Will people Fellows write, unhibited, like in the passage Keri read from Write to Learn? Will they write without assessment? Without heed to structure and content, but simply write, whether right or wrong.

Will they write without assessment?

I do not know if my student will ever write without assessment. Well, I know they will write, but they will write for feedback. It's hard, it's really hard, to think about not writing for the grade, and that's what I'm talking about when I talk assessment. My students hardly write for any audience but the teacher. I don't want to write about work...and I feel like that's where this is headed. I want to write about the first day of the Summer Institute and this orientation, and how in less than three months the 16 new faces in this room will be my friend, my colleague, and part of my professional learning community. And I think back to the past summers and all the teachers since the mid-1970's who have participated in a summer institute and who's classrooms have been changed because of it. I think about this network of people who make teaching professional. And here I go again--back to the loop of writing about work.

Priorities

We start classes in our new high school tomorrow. If I were on top of things, I could post a few pictures or add some audio or video to this post. But I'm not on top of things and I find myself being pretty low on the motivation scale when it comes to using technology in my work these days--not because I don't want to, but because it simply doesn't exist.

But, that's okay. The soda machines are full and the snack machines are stocked. We do have priorities at Republic High School.