Books I Want to Write – if you could take a year sabbatical to write, what would you write about?
February 27, 2009
I would love to be an author. (who wouldn’t want to be a late night, coffee drinking, wordophile?) I have often pondered writing science fiction books for boys aged 10-12, a very specific genre that is severely lacking in quality reading materials. The only books I know in the genre are the works of John Christopher, The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, and The Pool of Fire.
I also would love to write about education, which surprises me. I dreaded starting a master’s program because I have always dreaded writing and research. Much to my surprise, I have found the writing for my master’s program to be the easiest part. Not to say that I am great at it, or even good, but I guess I have a lot to say and it seems to be easily coming out of me. I guess I’d like to think that after 10 years in the field of education I have a few things to say about it.
So if I were to write an educational book I would probably write about school climate or student and teacher interactions. I am a firm believer that the greatest impact on student learning is the relationship student’s have with their teacher. I’d love to research this and write about how teachers can impact students simply by how they interact with the kids. I think it is a simple thing we can do. It doesn’t involve standards, technology, money, resources. It’s simply how we talk to kids, how we react, what we say, how we say it.
2 Responses to “Books I Want to Write – if you could take a year sabbatical to write, what would you write about?”
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Interesting study about the rapport between student and teacher. I completely agree that it makes the difference between memorable/effective teaching and just teaching. In fact, maybe there should be a category on the evaluation scale dealing with a teacher’s rapport with the students. I know, I know…that’s asking for a heap o’trouble because then we’re “evaluating personality and style vs. teaching content.” But….it is something interesting to consider. Maybe that would curb people from getting into education who really don’t like kids!
March 18th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I find this a very interesting question. Often I have thought about writing a fiction book. There are several ideas floating around in my head (sci-fi or fantasy), but I often find myself wondering if what I write would ever be good enough to publish. Last summer I did begin writing something, but I haven’t had a chance to get back at it. Maybe someday I’ll feel inspired to work on it some more.
I have never thought about writing an educational book, but I do wonder if my action-research project for my masters would be something that could work. My topic focuses on student motivation, and I am learning quite a bit about it through my research. I’ll let you know how it turns out when I’m through.