I was very pleased to meet dozens of educators yesterday at my Motivating Boy Writers poster session at the International Society for Technology in Education conference in Denver, Colorado.What struck me most in reflecting on yesterday's session was that the many teachers I talked with nodded knowingly when we talked about those few boys in our classes who are reluctant writers. As we talked further about boy writers, it seemed to me that connections were being made to the few boys "back home" for which writing is a challenge.
Another thing that struck me is the surprise folks had as they were walking by the session and read the title. Perhaps they had missed the session description in the planner as there are so many to choose from, but many stopped and repeated the title, "Motivating Boy Writers", and then said something like, "Well I have three boys at home and I know how difficult it is for them to write".
Also, fellow Ontario educational technology teacher, Jason Eygenraam, said it well when he tweeted after the session, "They talk about reluctant readers, but he's talking reluctant writers". I guess that is true. There are a lot of resources on motivating boy readers and I'm very pleased to have made the writing part of the equation one of my passions. I do realize that the two go hand-in-hand, but the many research articles I have read over the last two years speak specifically to writing for boys. So, thanks Jason for pointing that out.
There were many folks yesterday who handed me a business card or talked about making some kind of connection in the future. I am grateful for this as making connections are so important to keep this area of interest alive.
I hope those that did make a personal connection, will get in touch so we can keep the conversation going.
Posts
