# data[].attributes.body
SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST BORN
GOOD WRITERS
Jill Parrott

The majority of the students that I teach say they are not good writers.  I think that this article highlights the issues surrounding the messages that students receive when they write.  If students do not follow set rules in classrooms, they feel unsuccessful and these rules and conventions, which have a function, often discourage creativity and the consequential belief that students are not "good writers."

Parrott writes, "Indeed, research in writing studies shows that improved writing can be taught to writers at all levels, but we must first debunk the deeply held idea in the collective psyche that only some lucky people are good writers. If a person thinks their writing ability is
stuck in place, improvement is incredibly difficult, further solidifying as a self-fulfilling prophecy the belief that they are a hopeless cause. This idea that some people are good writers while others are not can be truly crippling to a writer.

I have many "crippled" writers in my classrooms and know that by working to provide content, collaboration, and creativity, the students can potentially change their beliefs and begin to enjoy writing. I have started a Daily Writing practice in my course where I find fun prompts and tell the students to write for 5 minutes a day not worrying about grammar or perfection but being creative and just writing. I truly enjoy reading these each week and am seeing the creative nature of the students grow.

# data[].attributes.body
ONLY GENIUSES CAN BE WRITERS
Dustin Edwards and Enrique Paz

This section from Bad Ideas About Writing emphasizes the idea that writers who are engaged with the world and with other writers and not recluse geniuses are the writers to be lifted up and emulated.

I loved the section where the authors focus on collaboration and its importance in writing in today's world:

"What’s more, collaboration involves more than the act of writing with other warm bodies in the room. It also involves a different kind of collaboration: reusing, recycling, and repurposing existing materials for new uses. In our digital age, everyday people increasingly have access to vast reservoirs of archived materials. Significantly, these materials can be put to use for new purposes".

The idea that writing takes many different formats in the digital age is essential to remember when teaching writing. I have added a digital component to our College Writing course and have students create Google Sites where they create a digital written platform, highlighting their original writing and expressing themselves. The students enjoy the creativity of the digital expression.

# data[].attributes.body
These are my dos, Mickey is a black and white, border collie, terrier mix. He is about 6 years old and we adopted him during COVID. He has a lot of energy! Duke is a pug/cocker mix and is 10 years old. We rescued him from a kill shelter when he was 1. He is truly more like a stuffed animal than a dog - loves to sleep, snores, and loves to give and receive love :)

# data[].attributes.body
"While the three “standards” we have described for academic writing might appear simple, they are devilishly hard to teach and even to observe in any given piece of writing".

This quote from Thaiss, Chapter 1, resonates with me as I work with seniors in high school and, while I teach languages (Latin and ancient Greek) and I work with my colleague to create meaningful assignments, the idea of how difficult it is to define academic writing and how to teach it in an engaging way is something we are continually working towards.  We are fortunate at Holy Family that we can create content and have autonomy in our classrooms.

I found this section on alternative formats to academic writing interesting and gave me ideas for continuing to modify and define the genre of writing we do in College Writing.

• Alternative formats, as exemplified in Lancaster’s Life Is Hard, with its use of journalism, field notes, interviews, letters, autobiographical detail, etc.; these may also include unconventional layouts and typography; shifting margins; overlapping text and text boxes; creative use of
sentence and paragraph structure.
• Alternative ways of conceptualizing and arranging academic arguments, as exemplified by the paper written by the student from Sierra Leone.
• Alternative syntaxes (language and dialect differences), which we have characterized as varying in their acceptance by academic readers.
• Alternative methodologies, which entail experimenting with methods and ways of thinking outside one’s disciplinary tradition.
• Alternative media (email, hypertext, blogs, digitized text and images, video), which we recognize as having the potential to change utterly the way “academic writing” gets written and read.

# data[].attributes.body
I have primarily been a mom for 24 years and have loved that work and, while I worked to keep engaged in my teaching, my career was important but the needs of my children (including my youngest with type 1 diabetes) were my main focus. At this point, as they all have transitioned and are transitioning to adulthood and need me in different ways, I am leaning into discovering what I would like to do and diving into my passions.  I am an active person and love running, walking, biking and yoga.  I have finished 200 and 300 hour yoga trainings and am no teaching yoga on the weekends at Lifetime Fitness and LOVE it.  It is filling my cup!  I am also taking opportunities to travel (France in May) and have applied for an NEH study grant for this summer.  My children are my biggest cheerleaders and I so appreciate their support and love!  I live in Minneapolis (our zip code in St. Louis Park is Minneapolis and love that I moved from western suburbs to this location.  I love to be near the city and love all that the city has to offer.  I am the head of our DEIB committee at Holy Family and am helping to lead the school in discussions about diversity and what that means at a Catholic, primarily white student body setting.    I am really enjoying being able to delve into things that I am truly interested in and passionate about both in school and out as I step into this new chapter of my life :)

The picture is me with my teachers at my graduation from 300 hours of Yoga Teacher Training in November.

# data[].attributes.body
I have been teaching for over 25 years.  I have a Master's Degree in Classical Languages and have primarily been a Latin teacher for most of my career.  I have taught in public, private, charter and on line school throughout my career and my career path was dictated by the needs of my 4 children.  I have loved teaching in a variety of environments and have learned something in each school I have taught!  I have landed at Holy Catholic High School in Victoria, Minnesota.  I am in my 3 year teaching there and am happy to be there.  I have a very supportive administration and I love my students.  I was selected to give the graduation address last year and feel like I have found a place to teach, grow, and share my passions with students!  I teach Latin I, II, III/IV, ancient Greek I/II, College Writing and do the yearbook and newspaper (I am handing that off next year because it is too much to handle this year as my other classes grow).  I am taking this course because we have started the College in the Schools program and Holy Family and, while I have 2 Master's Degrees, I do not have 18 graduate level credits in English needed to teach College in the Schools for St. Mary's University in Minnesota.  So, here I am!  :).

The picture is me with the 20 students and 2 other chaperones on a trip to Italy (Florence and Rome) last June. It was wonderful! This May we are going to France with students! I love being able to travel with students now!

# data[].attributes.body
I am a mom of 4 young adults. My daughter, Brynne, is 25 and in her first year as a middle school English teacher. My three sons are 24, 22, and 20 and my eldest, Connor, works as a consultant and my two younger sons are at the University of Minnesota and Hameline University. This is our most recent picture on Christmas Eve when we went to see Avatar, chosen by my son, Connor, whose birthday is Christmas Eve! I live in St. Louis Park, Minnesota with my two dogs, Mickey and Duke (rescues and mutts) and which ever of my children need a place to stay while transitioning to their own places. Right now, Connor is living with me and the younger boys come and go when not at college :)