I have learned much about myself as a writer.  Before this blog, I thought of myself as a good writer in terms of research papers, and alright in terms of fiction.  The pieces that I had to work on for this project showed me a little bit more about what writing in the context of teaching would be.  I learned to try new things, be open to review, and to never settle on a draft as the finished work.  

Writing about myself directly has always been difficult for me.  I have put myself into some of the fictional characters that I wrote about in the past, but conglomerated them with attributes that I would not apply to myself.  To be asked to write six things about me was taxing in an unusual way.  Normally when I write, I do research and get all of my facts straight.  I then mentally organize my thoughts and decide how I want my work to be organized.  For the Six Things About Me project, I already knew the information about me, but I had no idea how to pick out the six most important aspects of who I am as a person.  My first thought was to include what got me interested in academics and what my passion is that drives my love of literature: mythology.  Mythology speaks to fundamentals of human nature, and sees gods as fallible and heroes as flawed.  The brilliance of Greek myth has inspired countless other brilliant works of literature.  This also leads into my love of creative language, which I think is underestimated in modern literature.  

I could not be who I am today without my twin sister, Mariah, who has Down Syndrome.  My life with her has taught me that no matter how society perceives you, everybody has the capability to learn.  As for my interests, my love of board games and travel I thought would add a little background to my personal life and how I like to spend my time beyond reading.  Finally, a love of animals is common and I love and have had experience with many different animals throughout my life.  The revision process for this work was really difficult, as it is difficult to suggest to someone an improvement on how they see themselves, but some structural advice was helpful for the final project.  

Editing during the Op-Ed piece I found very helpful.  I’m not used to writing purely opinion based pieces like this one, and struggled to get my argument across as effectively as I would have liked. My classmates helped me find the weaknesses in my prose, which I found very helpful in the final draft of the work.  I don’t often draft, because my method of writing I feel is most effective when I just write what I am thinking and then edit and organize while I am writing.  This piece made me think of how sometimes I can miss things or someone else may see a weakness where I did not catch it.  The use of a different type of writing piece helped me realize that the style I am used to writing in may not be the most effective and that implementing that can make me grow as a writer.  

Finally, the resource review provided another opportunity for me to write in a different format then I was used to.  It also helped me connect writing to teaching in a way that the other works didn’t.  The resource I chose presented tasks for a class that had to do with whether or not the Electoral College should continue to exist.  The articles and videos in the resource did an excellent job for educational purposes, but I felt that the writing prompts were a little weak or did not go far enough to stimulate the imagination.  Writing a review helped me focus my thoughts on what I liked about the resource and what I didn’t like about the resource.  It also showed me what I would value in a writing project for my students and how various the prompts for writing can be. Because of this review, whenever I assign a writing project, I will endeavor to be aware of creative and effective ways to engage students in important topics.  

My goal for myself as a writer or teacher-writer is to try to continually expand my horizons and see what value lies in different kinds of writing.  While there is value in writing essays or journal entries, I hope to show students the value of blog posts like this one, reviews of works they’ve read, and of course writing into the day.  Peer review will certainly be a part of my classroom, as peer readers can see things that the author can’t and are in the same position as their peers.  This means that there is less stress than if the teacher is reviewing your paper, but still gives you the opportunity to improve your writing.  I hope as I move into the future, that I can implement the lessons I’ve learned through doing various writing tasks to my students by making their writing experience just as varied and exciting.