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Welcome to The Fine Line!

I christened this blog ”The Fine Line” as a play on words: it alludes to excellent writing and how we inspire that in our students, but this blog also honors that fact that teachers often become tangled in the fine lines between binaries that make up the dogmas and trends in education. We often get trapped between false dichotomies: academic vs. creative writing, structured vs. unstructured writing, authentic artistic endeavor vs. work produced for a grade or to demonstrate ”mastery”. Teachers live and breathe these tensions: where is the fine line, for example, between scaffolding that supports vs. scaffolding that deadens? Between useful feedback and subjective grading? Where is the balance between explicit instruction and implicit modeling? Between Shakespeare and Kendrick Lamar?

Lastly, nothing is new under the sun. A good teacher is a pirate, a thief, and a generous cook who is constantly putting a delicious spoon under someone else’s tongue. We steal and we share. I cannot remember even a fraction of all the people and books that have sparked these ideas or provided detailed outlines for some of these lessons. In order to provide a one stop shop for enough cool activities that people that can use, I had to name other people’s babies. But I can acknowledge and credit many of the resources I have pulled from: Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction edited by Tara L. Masih, specifically Lex Williford for his Rorschach writing prompt. Regina Marie Woodward for her portrait project, and Reading, Writing and Rising up by Linda Christenson are all huge influences. The Sun Magazine is also a constant source of light and inspiration.

For this blog, my essential question is this:

What are the best practices that both nurture writing skills, while also fostering joy and meaningful endeavor in my classroom?

I strive to create a classroom full of self-discovery and life, a place where the clock is not watched, nor the dismissal bell pined for. A place where every kid sees themselves in a promising light. It doesn’t always happen, but those are my marching orders.

 

 

 

 

Welcome to my site!