Emily's Blog

I have always loved writing. Ever since I learned how to write, I did it during my free time; I kept a journal of poems that I wrote all throughout elementary school, and I wrote stories in my free time about my own life and about fictitious characters I would create in my head. My dream was to write and publish a series of books like the ones from the American Girl or Nancy Drew series because they were my favorite books at the time. I was a bit of a nerd, because I remember in 8th grade skipping break time a lot of days to work on my self-assigned "mini novel." I made sure to be a part of the very small Creative Writing group that met during lunch once a week during middle school. It was my chance to share my creations with fellow students.
I think that trying to instill a love of writing in one's students at an early age is so important because writing assignments will continue for them through any level of education they attain. I'm not sure when I started to enjoy writing so much, but I do know that making students feel like they are good writers will increase their interest in the subject. I remember in 2nd grade being excited about winning a writing contest held by the school, and in 3rd grade being complimented often by my teacher about my papers. It made me want to write more and it made me feel like my writing was special. As a teacher, I hope to make all the students in my class feel like their writing is special because it is their personal creation, after all. Most of all, though, I want to to instill a love of writing in all of them and a love of the entire writing process. If I can show them that the pre-writing stage is fun because you get to use your imagination, the actual writing stage is fun because you get to develop your creative ideas, then maybe they will enjoy it.

I've liked having a blog because there is no limit to how much you can write or what you write about. The less restrictions in creativity, the better!

I'm not sure what I'm going to write my book about yet. I look forward to illustrating it, though, because I love drawing but as usual I can't decide on a topic. I considered writing about my study abroad experience, but I thought that might end up being too personal for this project!