at the end

I teach a  grade 6 and 7 combined class in Richmond, British Columbia, in the country of Canada.

Currently I am working out the rough bits of implementing the workshop format into the way I teach reading and writing. I turned to this approach after feeling frustrated about my ability to engage the range of diverse learners in our classroom. I was unhappy with expecting students to be performing the same tasks at the same time. I looked for a change and I found it in the workshop classroom.

I have used primarily as my guides the work of two teachers and authors whom I deeply respect and admire: Nancie Atwell and her work with the Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop format with 7th and 8th graders; and Dr. Frank Serafini, who has laid out in inspiring detail the philosophical framework, the research justifications for, and the practical application of the Reader’s Workshop. I am greatly indebted to these two authors, whom I believe have offered me a years long shortcut toward realizing my “preferred vision” for my teaching practice.

I’ve been inspired by reading and writing my whole life, and as a result, tool a BA in English Literature from Simon Fraser University. I followed that up with a BEd from the University of British Columbia, where I am currently pursuing an MEd in Educational Leadership.

It is my intention to use this blog as a reflective tool as I venture through the Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop, as well as all the other stuff that I teach, with my students. I hope to share my successes and my challenges failures, so that I may learn from them, but too that others may be able to learn from my work as well.

“In the service of meaning”