No Writing Teacher Is an Island

Hello!
I look forward to the inaugural Transitioning to College Writing Symposium next Friday and Saturday on the beautiful Ole Miss campus in Oxford. I appreciate all the hard work the CWR and the University has put into providing this event.

I have been teaching writing for three decades, beginning as a graduate teaching assistant at two universities and teaching for 19 years at the community college where I still work today. I almost shudder when I recall my early days in the classroom when I was a little too confident that what I was doing was easy and that I was completely prepared to do it. The humbling began rather quickly, however, and I soon developed a healthy respect for the complexity of the writing teacher’s task and a gratitude for the company of teachers willing to share and encourage. Today, I still seize any chance to interact with others in the profession, in hopes of learning my craft a little better.

This symposium promises to be one of those opportunities. I am most impressed with its simple and sensible focus: the movement of the student writer’s learning process from secondary to post-secondary levels. I see this event as an invitation to explore my part in this dynamic process of mentoring and ushering the young into their adult lives, helping them to discover and develop their precious minds through writing. Working with others engaged in the same efforts should help make the current flow a bit more smoothly for our students. I agree with Karen: many people stand to benefit from this symposium. Many hearty thanks to Alice and company (the one in Somerville Hall, not the one on University Avenue) for making it happen.
Deborah Kehoe