According to what I'm told, during the Albany Middle School coach refresher workshop at Karen Larson's house this week, coaches plunged into a lively dialogue about not only how to approach coaching with emerging writers as compared to coaching proficient writers, but about how to handle a variety of other coaching circumstances. For example, how do you approach a student who seems afraid to write, or appears to be intimidated by a writing assignment? This blog is the place to share your insights or ask questions about this stuff.
In an earlier post this morning, I described how to post a message, and it couldn’t be simpler: just
email me what you want to say and I’ll post it. We’re
screening posts for reasons involving confidentiality, but we intend the blog
to be an open forum. So unless there’s a violation of confidentiality
involved, I’ll pretty much be posting whatever anyone submits.
The blog has category options, over there on the left. When you send me your message for posting, you can either
tell me which category you’d like your message to be in, or I’ll pick the
category that seems appropriate. On the blog’s main page, where you probably are right now, the messages appear
chronologically, just like the conversation this is supposed to mimic. But if you want to see only the “coach tips”
messages, for example, you can just hit “coach tips” on the list over there on the left.
There’s also an easy way to identify what your message talks about (if, for example, you’re
in a dialogue about coaching students at varying skill levels). Just identify your topic in the title of your post. For example, “Emerging writer coaching
tip,” or “Proficient writer coaching tip,” or “What to do when your student
seems intimidated by the writing assignment.” Make it clear in your title what
you’re going to talk about, so readers can quickly identify which messages they
want to pay particular attention to.
Happy blogging--and don't hesitate to send photos for posting!
Bob Menzimer
