Reflection on Writing Workshops

I've never considered myself a very good writer. I found it time-consuming and exhausting but that's probably because I am a bit of a perfectionist and would spend hours revising just one simple little sentence. In high school, I used to take pride in editing my brother's papers for grammar and spelling mistakes. Keep in mind that I was the little sister pointing out my big brother's mistakes. You can assume that I took great pleasure in this experience. To this day, my brother's grammar is god-awful; however, who is the one writing 3-4 papers PER WEEK in his PhD program and reading 30 novels in one semester? - my brother! So, even though I was the one fixing his mistakes, he was the one utilizing his creativity and putting his ideas onto paper. You see, I never liked to take that risk because I enjoyed the role of "editor" more so than the role of "writer." So, while my brother is cranking out paper after paper like it's second-nature to him, I am sweating at just the thought of having to write a MGRP this semester. If only I would have taken that risk and tried expressing my ideas onto paper more often as a child, then maybe I would feel comfortable and confident enough to call myself a "writer" as an adult.

So, the point of this whole little summary about my writing history is that now I am yet again assuming my role as "editor" in my field experience. Even though we've only had two days in our field placements, I have already done two writing conferences. For my very first writing conference, the classroom teacher  just kinda threw me into it. I had barely enough time to even read my "instructions" on how to edit the students' papers. So, there I was---feeling very unprepared and about to make or break a child's confidence as a young writer. It wasn't easy trying to keep my perfectionistic "Mr. Hyde-type" personality locked deep inside my head. I kept thinking to myself, "For a second grader, shouldn't he know the difference between 'Jim' and 'Gym?" I mean, it's logical that a young boy would like 'Jim' class and for all things considered, the spelling does make sense. So, how was I supposed to explain that the word starts with a "g" and has a magic "y" in the middle that sometimes makes the short /i/ sound???? I can only imagine how confusing the sound of "y" might be for a child. Sometimes you slap "y" on the end of a word to make the long /e/ sound but then...oh wait...now we can use it in the middle of a word for the short /i/ sound? How confusing! So, I tried focusing on content rather than grammar. It's hard giving recommendations to a stubborn 2nd grader who is absolutely, 100% positive that he wants to have the word "And" at the beginning of every sentence! Obviously, I know that as I continue having writing conferences, I will become more comfortable and confident giving young writers praise and suggestions for improvement.