It's my lunch break, my grades are due for the first quarter in just a few days, and I should be grading right now.  However, as I am grading my Creative Writing students' Poetry Portfolios, I am blown away by their writing.  It's genuine, and raw, and haunting.  I find myself scrawling on their papers, let's submit this for publishing.  I've told them about a yearly magazine that publishes student poetry, stories, art, etc.  They are all pumped about it, but it got me to thinking . . .

As a teacher shouldn't we practice what we preach?

I love to write. Though I don't seem to have time for it much lately, I do write with my students every day when they write.  It's the most relaxing part of my day.  However, if I tell my students they need advocate for themselves and work to find a broader audience for their work, I need to do the same.

I'm not submitting anything to Time and I won't be putting together a novel or collection of short stories, but I guess I will jump on the blogging bandwagon.  If my students are publishing, I ought to as well.