SLIDE 1
SMWP 2011
Christine James
My journey began back when I would play school with my sister and brother in Illinois. I was the oldest, so I always played the role of the teacher. In 1992, I graduated from San Diego State University. I was the first in my family to accomplish this. My younger siblings followed in my footsteps. At the time of my graduation, I thought I wanted to own my own
- preschool. That dream lasted about
six years. Even though, I loved the smaller children, I needed to be able to support myself financially. So, I decided to enroll at National University to get my credential. This way I could still work full time and go to school at night. I think the combination of work experience and the credential program helped prepare me for the classroom. I learned how to prepare a six step lesson plan, assess my students, conference with parents, and follow a pacing guide. Writing was the one area I never felt comfortable
- teaching. In the beginning, I just
followed what my mentor teachers were doing. I realized just how difficult it was to teach writing. Plus the students seemed bored with the writing process. How was I going to motivate my students to love writing when I really didn’t love it myself? I decided to ask a friend of mine what she did. I knew she loved writing and I started to see how excited her students were to
- write. She was the one that introduced
me to the Writer’s Workshop. For the next couple of years, we planned lessons together for both our reader’s and writer’s workshops. It was during this time, she told me about the Six + 1 Traits and Ralph Fletcher. That first year we got our ideas from picture books and wrote in our Writer’s
- Notebooks. I then found my love for
- writing. My students thrived.
Last year, I added new
- pportunities for my students to use
technology to encourage writing
- utside of the notebook and the
- classroom. We used a social network
called EDMODO in school and at home, along with iPods in the
- classroom. By providing my students
so much time to write, I saw them grow as writers. Although, I witnessed the growth, I knew I needed to do more. This is why I wanted to join the Writing
- Project. Now I’m hoping to add the
conferencing piece with my students next year.
Technology in a Writing Classroom