This is the cover of my mentor text notebook, housing the writing I’ve done with and for children across grade levels.
I believe that every child is a writer, because every child has a story. Every child has feelings and ideas. The writing teacher simply shows how to tap into these feelings and ideas, to give voice to them, to organize them, so that the mind and heart of the writer impacts readers.
Writing is about the human experience: We are all born to shine.
We shine through our fears, our losses.
We shine beyond the choices we make and the choices of others, beyond the things done to us and the things we have done.
We shine no less in our failures than in our successes; in fact, in learning and pressing on, we shine the brighter.
We shine in knowing what to hold onto and what to let go.
We shine when we harness anger before it burns away all that’s of value within us.
We shine by leaving footprints of hope for others to follow, for the human heart runs empty on despair.
We are ALL born to shine. Whether or not we do is up to us.
Reflect: In the book The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip, 1974, a mysterious creature had the power to turn people’s eyes around to see inside their minds; they died from what they saw there. Writer, know thyself. Look deep within. You will be surprised by what you discover – the beautiful and the not. Write – and shine.
lit bits and pieces 
Beautiful notebook! I LOVE this line, “I believe that every child is a writer, because every child has a story.” YES! YES! YES!
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It’s so true – the challenge is getting them to believe it! Once they get a taste of the power of their own voices, they realize. Thank you~
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Shining really is about story. Finding and telling stories. I tell students all the time that they love to read and write; they simply may not know it yet.
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I tell students that writing is the closest thing to magic. Their discovery of their voices, their stories, is a wondrous thing to witness.
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