Kittles Podcast & Kittle chapter 6

      I absolutely loved listening to Kittle's podcast! She made herself vulnerable by revealing those who have helped her through her writing process  and the times she didn't feel that she was an adequate writer. Listening to a woman who has won awards for her writing speak about her fears and issues along the way, makes listeners like me who are still on the early phases of their writing journey extremely encouraged. I always say this but I truly do appreciate my graduate school experience. I am truly learning and picking up on ways I want to manage my classroom when I am trusted with one. Hearing Kittle speak on her family life growing up with an abusive father and hectic household reminded me the power that writing has. I myself began writing because I was filled with so much emotions about everything in my life. I kept journals and diaries and songs and stories under my mattress right up to my senior year of high school. Writing was more than an outlet it was how I spoke to the rest of the world and more importantly how I spoke to myself. Though I loved all my English teachers throughout my middle and high school education, personal writing was not really encouraged. I wrote in my home journal about me and then I wrote in my school journal about the book we were reading. But what about students that didn't have journals at home? How are they supposed to speak to the world or speak to themselves? Kittle brings up this point very beautifully. Writing is a way to engage with the world and often standardized testing and such take away this mode of communication from students. Students forget that writing is thought on paper. Writing instead becomes a strict formula to be followed. I really did enjoy listening to Kittles speech, it honestly made me take her book a little more seriously.
   I  love the idea of a clipboard to make sure you get to every student during the day! Wow! I also love the statement where she explains she doesn't revise plans. Its so easy to hear a plan that you know may not go so well and want to shut it down, but part of the process of developing ones self as a writer is to be able to take a look at ones own work and determine what works and what does not, as oppose to others revising for you. The chapter focuses on students writing and learning at their own pace, Tuesday's can't be devoted to editing and Thursday's polishing. What if one spills into another? Then the students pacing and time spent on their work will not be genuine. But I also asked myself, aren't there due dates? Ultimately students work are being timed and graded. In my writing workshop class I completely forgot I we being graded because the teacher and class encouraged me to challenge myself as a writer but due dates haunted me like scars from s drunken night one can not remember. I had to have my draft by a certain day and then the final paper by a certain day. Though this teachers students how to write in a timely fashion, it can cause the writing to be less genuine. Which is where maybe free write journals would be a good asset. I think I'm writing as I'm thinking at this point.
     Overall Kittle is a very vulnerable writer and is transparent with her readers. These are two important characteristics to posses as s writing teacher.