First of all, to clarify… my topic is different from many of the issues chosen to write about on the blogs. Writing for publication is not something usually thought about in the context of secondary education where most writing is done for a grade not for pleasure or pride. There is something very special about being published, whether it is through something like “this I believe” or even for just the school newspaper. I think middle and high school age students have so much going on inside their heads, a treasure chest of ideas and thoughts, if they would only tap into them. I know there are many students who dislike to write, but that could be changed with the chance to “become famous” through publication. As a teacher, I plan to give my students chances to publish their work in different avenues as they please. This will hopefully give them a purpose in their writing and also create great learning opportunities when rejection or acception occurs. So even though writing for publication may seem a bit broad or a bit old for secondary education, I attest that it is not, as many great writers came up with their best pieces in their younger years, (think To Kill a Mockingbird and The Outsiders). That being said, this is something that I want to implement in my classroom and to do so I have to learn what avenues are available for the students to pursue and what steps they must take as they do so. As I said in my previous post, this is a learning process for me as well. I know very little about the publication process and would like to be well- informed for both myself and my students.
This is a learning experience.
Happy Martin Luther King Day. I kind of feel bad for all the students who had today off because of the holiday. Of course it would snow a lot on a day when many did not have school anyway. 
Ahh but Life goes on.
Obviously, this is my blog. As far as a topic goes, I wanted something that would produce good articles for the most part, not a lot of junk for me to go through, so I chose “writing for publication” as my general topic. To correspond with that I subscribed to a blog known as “writing journal”, which posts helpful tidbits about writing just about anything.
I also subscribed to the NY Times book review so I can keep current on the types of books being reviewed and read by the general public. To keep up on National education issues I subscribed to the education section of the NY Times and I did the same with the education section of the BBC world news to grasp a global perspective.
Even though my free time is usually at a minimum, I would like to write for myself more than I do and that is why I chose writing as a feed to search for. As a teacher, I feel that it is important to give your students opportunities to search inside themselves for what they are thinking about and feeling and writing is a great way to do just that. Plus writing of all kinds can be found in just about any English curriculum.
I am not sure where this blog will take me in the end…therein lies the question mark. But that is ok for now.
This is a learning experience.
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