The Call of the Words: My Journey Toward Becoming a Better Writer and Teacher of Writing

       I. Bitten by the Byline Bug

Believe it or not, when I was an elementary school-aged child, I was a prolific author. My third grade teacher, Mrs. Hudson, gave me the writing bug. She had all of her students maintain writer’s notebooks, which were full of our scary stories, poems, and other original literature. We also wrote, constructed, and illustrated our own original books for her class. Outside of school, I often wrote into the Providence Journal to enter their kids’ contests. One time, I won $25 and had my writing featured in the paper. “Just Call Her Flipper” was the title of the blurb that announced my winning paragraph on why I would be a dolphin if I got to choose to be any animal. My aunt and father talk about it to this day, and my aunt still has the saved clipping!. These were formative experiences for me which combined to boost my confidence as a writer and scholar. This intensified when I got into middle school and heeded one teacher’s advice. She put it this way: “Want to know the scoop? Join the student newspaper.” In actuality, what the paper’s staff produced was a one-sheet news bulletin. Still, I felt intrigued, so I signed up and became part of the staff. The rest is herstory…

       It was then, when I was a sixth grader at Western Hills, that I became interested in being a reporter. My first story detailed how our school’s enrichment program had recently been “swept under the rug.” My sense of accomplishment with coming up with the article’s concept and seeing it through to fruition, paired with the positive feedback that I received from one or more classmates’ parents who’d read the article, further boosted my ego and newfound identification as a writer. In high school, I worked my way up from entertainment editor to managing editor of our school’s newspaper. The editor-in-chief and I gladly accepted a New England Newspaper and Press Association award in Boston for our work on the West Wind as well as the broadcast counterpart, The West Watch. We received an honorary mention and certificate for the paper as a whole, and I took home a certificate for writing and anchoring a West Watch news package for my review of our school’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

This is a fellow staff writer and myself in front of

    Fenway Park on the day we accepted the NESPA award.

This is a photo of myself (center), the editor-in-chief (right), and

a staff writer for The West Watch that we took in high school. We

had a blast working on the student publication and developed

strong friendships.

Other than the school paper, in high school, I took a creative writing class and was in AP English. One time, outside of school, I attended an open mic night at the Arcadia YMCA and shared a poem I’d written. It was about a substitute teacher who I had a crush on. Besides my friend and classmate, who’d attended with me, no one in the who heard me knew who the poem was about, but I still felt weird for sharing it. I haven’t mustered the courage to read any of my work aloud in public since then. That night reminds me why some of my students may not like sharing their work, especially if it is personal. As an educator, it’s my job to know that it’s ok for them to hold back. I shouldn’t push them.

        The Best Thing I Ever Wrote

The biggest milestone of my adolescence happened during my sophomore year, when I wrote an op-ed piece for The West Wind entitled “Excuse Me While I Drop the ’ette Bomb.” Basically, in my piece, I said that it was a shame that the many decorated academic clubs and teams at Cranston West weren’t celebrated as much as our dance and cheerleader squads. The dance squads were called the Falconettes and Westernettes, hence my story’s title. Some girls on the dance squads misinterpreted what I’d written as me saying that the dancers were sluts, which was a huge reach; however, I did mention that they were somewhat of sex symbols in school in the story, so I understand where that came from. Students’ reactions were strong. One girl, a Falconette captain, even cried in the hallway because she felt like I’d tried to tarnish the squad’s reputation.

Pretty much everyone at school read the article on the day that the newspaper was distributed, and people either loved me or hated me for what I’d written. We ran out of copies of the issue that day, which hadn’t happened in years. Even my creative writing teacher got into the spirit, instructing us to read and discuss what I’d written as a class. The hallways were like that scene in Mean Girls when Lindsay Lohan’s character imagines all hell breaking loose, except instead of me attacking the popular girl, all types of student,-- some I knew, and some I did not-- approached me to tell me what they thought of what I’d written. 

Later that year, at a talent show, the ’ettes used my words-- I’d referred to them as “the almighty ’ettes once in my op-ed-- and repurposed them as “mighty ’ettes, which they displayed collectively at the end of their performance. Each dancer wore a letter on her back. As an audience member, I found that clever, but I still thought that the squad’s negative response was over-dramatic. As an adult, now I can understand how a young person may feel upon reading her peers’ seemingly hateful comments about the team. Although I am still proud of what I wrote and its impact, this experience gave me a crash-course in the so-called “power of the pen.” I realized how important it is to say exactly what I mean in everything that I write, and to be respectful and kind. I still make mistakes, but I have improved.

           Making Sense of It All

     I think that the biggest reason why the experiences I’ve mentioned were positively impactful on me was that they always included supportive teachers. Looking back, my teachers not only helped me to develop and maintain a love of writing; they shielded me from a lack of a strong student-teacher relationship and from non-constructive criticism and from others. Yes, my third-grade teacher (Mrs. Hudson) bolstered my writerly ego with praise and encouraging words, prompts, and projects. She also served as a buffer among my classmates and I, though. For instance, when we had our weekly meetings where we could share our writing and opinions freely, our teacher guided us toward staying on-topic and offering only positive feedback to one another. In college, I learned the meaning of the expression, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” when I had one journalism professor who didn’t “get” my ideas (so my final writing projects were muddied by our divided vision of where the stories should go, which made them-- wait for it-- confusing!), and at least one teammate on our student music media organization belittled the writing that I did during an internship. When he playfully called me out for using the verb “croon” too frequently in my Billboard song reviews, his words damaged my writerly spirit a little-- so much so that I vividly remember them and-- the feeling I had up upon hearing them today--, almost ten years later. Because of that particular conversation with my classmate, I realize how strong words can be, especially if they’re directed toward someone’s work. When I teach writing, I am careful not to belittle anyone’s work, instead opting to offer constructive feedback that’s couched in kindness. Once I get to know a writer or learner, then I know how blunt I can be when delivering my thoughts and ideas for improving his/her/their work.

How My Background and Resources Influence My Teaching

Thinking about my upbringing, I know now that I was relatively privileged. I did not  I realize that subconsciously, I’ve embraced parts of my given identity more than others. These are the white, middle-class, and educated pieces of who I am. This shows up in my work as an English teacher because, although I am struggling to work my way up in life, I feel like I owe it to my students to “pay it forward” whenever I can and whenever it is necessary. I also feel strongly that most of my students need the physical books to do their best reading and writing, and to help develop their love of reading that is, for the most part, currently nonexistent. 

On the bright side, I have the knowledge, experience, and means to purchase and acquire books for my students to read during English class and while doing silent sustained reading for enrichment.  If I am ever in a pinch, though, I am tech-savvy enough to figure out how to incorporate ebooks and audiobooks into my classes’ lessons. This is thanks to the fact that I have a storied relationship with digital media, one that dates back to my middle school days. At the time, I had a private blog that was housed in a Livejournal account. I recorded almost everything in there, and it was mostly trivial, pre-teen stuff, like recollections of going ice skating with friends. Today I have a Penzu blog. It’s another free, web-based writing program that can be private or public. I use a Macbook and also a Chromebook regularly, and have been obsessed with Google Drive since it was only Google docs. I have been using social media platforms since I was a teen, starting with Facebook in 2006 and then signing up with Twitter in 2010. I also use Snapchat and Instagram-- though not in my work as a teacher-- and this helps me to relate with my students who utilize those as well as blogging platforms. Sometimes, we discuss what we’ve seen on one or more outlets, and other times, I am able to refer to them when discussing different types of writing and reading in our English class.

  When I worked at a public relations and marketing agency a few years back, I learned how to use content management systems like Wordpress to manage websites and was also trained to send professional, friendly emails. The latter skill has helped me to “cold call” many, many people via email since. Usually, I do this to gather information for articles that I write for Motif. Sending lovely-sounding emails is part of my current digital identity, as is my proficiency with Google, word-processing programs, Google Classroom, and other digital tools. Being a journalist, occasionally, I like to record my interviews. I have a digital recorder, but if it’s broken, I can use my cell phone or a Garage Band-type application (in college, I recorded numerous interviews that way). When I teach, I try to vary the technology that my students and I use. I know that some students enjoy and are more comfortable using certain software than others. Since no two learners are identical, it’s important that I constantly switch things up and am open to suggestions and feedback.

         The Next Twenty Years

I feel like I’ve been a real writer since I was in the third grade, back when I sat on the classroom rug in Mrs. Hudson’s class with my writer’s notebook in my lap. It’s crazy to think that I’ve identified as a writer for more than twenty years! If I felt jaded about writing, or didn’t want to do it anymore, I could’ve stopped at any time, but I still feel excited to discuss my passion for expressing myself with written words. By helping others learn to write and discover an appreciation for writing, I’m fulfilling one of the biggest dreams I had when I was a kid. My dream was to have a positive effect on the world. At the very least, I know I’ll pass along the joys, memories, and insights that I’ve gathered onto my students.