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Writing and Me

I've always considered myself a good teacher of writing and I love to write. My students leave my classroom at the end of each year loving to write, as well. Nevertheless, I haven't always seen myself as a writer. I do write a lot but most of it has been for my own consumption. I think of writers as people who share some of their writing with others by publishing it - with a capital P. Yet, this summer I've begun to rethink this image I have of myself and what a writer looks like. This despite all of my intellectual rationalizations about writers and writing. Go figure!

This summer I've been doing a lot of writing while simultaneously reflecting on myself as a writer. I already think of myself as an avid reader. I have no trouble with this label. Could it be because most of the reading I do is solitary except for the occasional book study or book club I've been involved in?

Here's a list of the writing I've been doing this summer:
--papers for my doctoral course.
--an entry for an educational blog I've been invited to participate in.
--an essay that I've submitted for publication.
--online book reviews.
--social networking such as on Facebook, Twitter, listservs, etc.
--my journal.
--an entry for a friend's 50th birthday celebration book.

Case closed: I do a lot of writing and I do publish my writing even if it's not in the traditional sense of publishing with a capital P.

In the past, I have tried sharing some of my writing with my students. Truth be told, I can probably count the number of times I've done this in one hand! Hmmm... This coming school year I plan to share more often. I want to use my writing to share about my life with my students as well as for teaching purposes. I'm excited about doing this at the same time that it makes me a bit nervous.

So how do you see yourself as a writer? Do you like to write? What kinds of things do you write? Who do you write for? Does it matter?

I'm hoping blogging about this issue will give me courage to post something on the National Gallery of Writing.

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