So today there was quite a bit of time to reflect and collaborate.... and I am left feeling a bit....lost? My focus today was elsewhere, and I wonder if it is becuase I have so much to process from these past 6 days?
The teacher as writer, inquirer, and professional...So many hats for just one body. I want my portfolio (or whatever the portfolio becomes) to showcase this idea: the many hats we wear. During these past few days I have really begun to develop as writer, as a thinker, as a teacher, as a collaborator...etc.
I have been using EAnthology to work through drafts. I have been posting to a Google Doc and discussing with my writing group. I have been blogging and commenting on blogging. I went on a writing marathon. I have been writing into the day on a daily (or even multiple times a day) basis.
Some of the stuff I have created is complete shit. Other things I will continue to go back to over and over again as I have begun to embrace this idea of revision for what it is: re-visioning a piece...
The interesting thing about this idea of being a writer, is that although I know that I am a writer, I very rarely think of myself as such. As Carrie said, "I think of it as something I do, rather than someone I am..." Thinking about writing. Writing about thinking.
Where was I today? Maybe on a mental vacation? I was physically present, but not sure if I was intellectually available. So much to think about...Still working through it all.....
Aileen, funny that you would mention your mental battle to stay engaged...so true that we, as writers - or thinkers, creators, artists, reflectors ( the nouns are endless) - ebb and flow recursively. I try to think of my off days as really 'on' days for subconscious processing...I mean, it's ok to step back and just breathe! I'm right there with ya sistah!
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about what aspects of teacher are carried in the term itself and which words we have to add so that the concept becomes available. For example, if someone is talking about her mother-in-law, she would have to say, "Oh I really like her; she is really neat" so that people would not assume she is the wicked witch of the North. So when we say teacher as writer or teacher as professional, are these terms we have to add because they are not there is the teacher-term itself. If we think of the word professor, we don't have to say "professor as scholar" or "professor as teacher"--the term itself carries those connotations. So not being a writer, but doing writing, may be part of the teacher identity we need to revise so that it is embedded in the term.
ReplyDeleteI certainly understand what you mean about the amount of information and ideas that we have to process. I am in a similar place. Like you, I also agree with Carrie's thought about writing being what you do. I am becoming more and more sure that I will have to claim the identity of a writer. Then work like heck to make sure that I can live up to that expectation. You are a WRITER! Claim it, then make sure that it is so.
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