The Top Ten Things Educators Talk About When They “Just” Write

Teachers, do you write? Why or why not?
​Please talk freely!

Dear Fellow Teachers,
 
This week, I’m heading to NCTE, the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English. (#NCTE19 is in Baltimore, this year, so send your local eating and touristing recommendations.)
 
One of my presentations at NCTE will share some research on what happens when teachers write. I plan on discussing the top two or three themes that came out of my research. I thought I’d use my blog to post the full top ten I worked with, for anyone who’s interested. I’m hoping it will spark some discussion, so please comment at the bottom of this post.

Best,
Eve

A little story

Here’s a little story about my transition from writing and editing, which I did for the first two decades of my career, to teaching English, which I’ve now done for just about as long. I was in my early 40s and I had a young child. In my first year of full-time classroom teaching, I had a hundred-fifty students, and was learning on the job. On top of that, I had to get a master’s degree to get certified to teach in New York State, so I applied to a somewhat fly-by-night teaching program. Upon enrollment, students were asked to submit a short essay on an assigned topic, to demonstrate writing fluency. At this point, I was the author of thirty young adult novels including a few bestsellers, and a variety of short pieces for adults. I’d been far too busy as a brand-new teacher to do any writing, and this was a good excuse. I wrote something invested and poignant and lovely—at least I thought it was. I got a letter back from the school. Is this your thesis statement? Where are your topic sentences? Apparently their definition of essay and mine were not the same.
 
I tried again; I think I was required to. I did it just the way my mentor teacher at my new job had instructed our 8th grade students to do it. I boiled water, opened up the cellophane package, and dropped in the noodles and contents of the flavor packet. Presto! Ye olde five-paragraph essay. Which by the way, I’d never

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