Two Things I Love about Teaching Writing

Today, I kick off a new series of posts in which we TeachingAuthors share some of our favorite things about teaching. I love teaching! As a girl, I dreamed of growing up to be either a teacher or a writer, so I'm thrilled to be doing both. I could share a long list of the aspects of teaching that I enjoy, but in the interest of time, I'll limit it to two:

1) Learning alongside my students

I love learning, too. Teaching allows me to and expand my own learning. Even when I teach the same course I've taught before, I still manage to learn something new. In part, it's because I'm always looking for ways to make my classes better and more interesting. But it's also because I learn from my students, about the writing process as well as the craft of writing. Last fall, I blogged about Two Things My Students Have Taught Me, but there are many more.

2) Watching my students grow and succeed as writers

I love nurturing other writers. I believe we each have our own stories to tell and I enjoy helping writers find the voice to tell those stories. I have the privilege of teaching all sorts of writers, from nine-year-olds in my summer writing camps to retired adults in my Adult Continuing Education classes.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to share from my writing camps, but here's one from a writing workshop I taught as part of a school visit:

Students come to me with a variety of goals, whether it's simply to have fun, to get better at the writing craft, or to see their work published. I'm thrilled to facilitate the process of meeting those goals and celebrate with them when they do. One of the great things about having this blog, is that I can share some of those Student Success Stories with you, our blog readers. So far, we TeachingAuthors have shared twenty of our Student Success Stories here. I look forward to reading and sharing many more.

Speaking of teaching, I'm offering my Adult Continuing Education class in Writing for Children and Teens again this Spring at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL, Wednesdays, 7—9 p.m., April 18-May 23, 2018. See my website for details. 

I'm looking forward to reading my fellow TeachingAuthors' posts about what they love about teaching writing. I hope some of you, our readers, will share what you enjoy, too, whether you teach writing in a traditional classroom, on school visits, or elsewhere.

Don't forget to visit this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Check It Out.

And remember to always Write with Joy!
Carmela