Starting Writing Workshop

I am an 8th grade Language arts teacher. I am going to start my 8th year of teaching (how time flies).My hope is that this is a place where I can write about my experiences conducting writing workshop in my classroom. I just completed the most valuable professional development I have ever taken this past summer! I was part of the National Writing Project at Kent State University. I learned so many new ideas and am going to try writing and a little reading workshop in my class this year.

I had tried writing workshop a few years ago, but it failed because I didn't have the right resources, knowledge or support to make it successful. I tried to make my classroom look like the room of a teacher who has conducted writing workshop for many years. I have learned to start small and build on what I am doing each week, month and year. It is going to take me a few years to have my class run exactly as I would like in a complete reading and writing workshop.

School starts next week, so I hope to document my experiences- the good and the bad from the trenches- here in this blog.