While I haven’t missed being tethered to the computer quite as much as I was during our school year, I have been missing the conversations that are unfolding within various networks here! My blog has also suffered some intentional neglect as I find myself filling up on the reading I’ve waited all winter to get to and planning for the WNY Young Writers’ Studio, which begins in two short weeks!
On Sunday, I met with Alyssa and Sarah, who are high school students that will be interning as co-facilitators with me in the grades 2-12 program. We spent some time talking about school and Studio and what they think engages young writers most and least during that meeting, and by the time we parted company, I was feeling really good about the direction we’ve been heading in over the last year. I needed their input and the input of other kids in the Studio before I could feel that way though.
It’s important to me, when I work with anyone, that they aren’t merely jumping through hoops. I want to be able to meet people where they are at, to genuinely support the learning they have planned for themselves, and to make the time that they spend with me worthwhile. Writing might feel a bit like driving through a dense fog from time to time, but I never want any learning experience that I’m facilitating to feel that way. I’m so grateful to kids like Sarah and Alyssa for taking the time to consider my ideas and making the effort to provide honest and specific suggestions around how I might be able to make our time together even better. Adults are often less willing to do this than kids are. I wonder when that starts to happen? I wonder why too.
