Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, Chicago IL
Participate in the Community of Writers Poetry Workshop in Olympic Valley, CA, to re-invigorate a personal writing practice and reinforce writing techniques and approaches for reintroducing writing as a form of personal expression that is valuable and inspiring.
Writing about childhood home rooms in front of Victor Hugo's home!
At Monet's lily pad garden made me feel as if I were a part of his paintings.
I had to literally stop and smell ALL of the roses in front of the Museum of Natural History.
All the splendor and glory of gardens of Versailles.
One of my cohort's final group readings after visiting the Museum of Perfume.
My cohort on our way to observe and write at the Picasso Museum.
When tasked to write a fiction piece on the first day, I felt both out of my depth + exhilarated. I learned that it takes a different kind of imagination. It made me understand that I should stretch myself that way as a regular practice, even if my preferred content of my writing is non-fiction. This experience created my mind-set for the rest of the workshop: push my imagination, listen carefully, try new things. It had been such a long time since I did something like that and it was thrilling.
Going in to this, I was not sure of my talents as a poet. The people I shared poetry with were my close family and friends. They were unlikely to offer me criticism. But, for two of my pieces of writing, my cohort was moved to tears. We are taught to be humble, to not flaunt your gifts. But, to know that what I wanted to communicate, how I wanted to communicate it was effective and moving, it made me understand that I was a good writer in my own right, not just to people who loved me.
While I knew I was going to be writing with a cohort, I didn’t come in to this experience with an expectation of friendship. I’m not sure why. I was solely focused on the opportunity to have hours to myself to write. I wasn’t expecting the community and support that I found. The cohort I was in were are female writers, with families, with jobs, with so many responsibilities in their “normal” life. We bonded because we loved writing + understood each other’s lived experiences so wholly.
Part of the writing inspiration of this workshop was that of “place”. Not only were we in Paris, our teacher led us to different nooks of the city every day, gave us different prompts connected to the place we were, then, had us write in that place. I am going to do the same with my students. I am going to take them to different locations on campus and do a few of the same exercises that my teacher led us in. This will make writing more exciting for students, and give them a new perspective.
I will create an authentic learning experience for my students by having them amass a body of writing, edit, revise, cull and then curate a few finished and polished pieces to share with their classmates. They will have to get up in the front of the room, and read their (in their mind) best work. I will create an atmosphere like that of a café. I will bring in snacks and tea. Secondly, the cohort that I was with in Paris now meets once a month, and talks about the practice of writing.
Beyond my classroom, I will be among the presenters at my school’s professional development activity called “Young University” where I will not only be presenting about my experience at the Paris Workshop but also a) how teachers in any discipline can use writing as a way to problem-solve and b) reiterate the philosophy of FTT which so many teachers dismiss, which is, personal development, as teachers, is key to staying a teacher who loves their job. It’s key to not burning out.