Someone suggested we make a list of prompts. Let's do it here as comments to this post? Here are some of my favorites:

I remember

I don't remember

from the fray archives (fray.com) -- these are all separate prompts

With a sharp excuse me and a businesslike shove to the right, I was initiated into rush hour.

When I think about the last year, it comes back to me in moments.

It's a place I will always love, but can never go back to.

It's not my life. It's just my job. Really.

Amanda keeps talking, but I'm stuck thinking about books and the evil curse of wonderful memories.

I left. All my friends did the traditional sobbing and email promising. All except one.

Yes, I am bitter. But it's not my fault.

I cranked the stereo up and the windows down. I was ready for an adventure. And I was gonna get it.

It's not that we fight; we just don't connect.

There was never any doubt about what Cali was going to do.

I put my ear down on the rail to check for vibrations.

I made small talk and watched as the cars blurred by. Eventually I worked up the courage.

Maybe it was the gentle rain that made him reserved. Maybe it was the stress. Maybe it was me.

If it's just an innocent little flirtation, why do I feel so guilty when he catches me?

That day, torn from my history, has never made me think. Until now.

G h o s t s: They were subtle, mental, hidden. It was their house.

An ancient black and white photo preserves my oldest memory of Grandpa Rohde.

How many names do you have? Most people have two, maybe three. Not so for me.

These women had lives as crazy and muddled as mine. I was sure.

Sometimes it's not the quality of the disasters that counts,it's the quantity

Home for the Holidays. In one week, I'll be back in the room I grew up in. I hate that room.

Who have you left?

Whose house do you remember?

What are you celebrating?

What have you done to be interesting?

Have you ever been tempted?

(prompts from http://www.fray.com/-- probably not a site to share with students)

What is within your grasp right now? What do you feel is totally do-able?

o Talking less as I teach

o More writing daily writing

o Generating writing form heart to head & helping kids do this

o Sharing our own writing with students

o Student generated prompts

o Put all my writing together in a binder

o Do 7-min. writes on my own–– daily practice

o Put a link on the blog to prompts

o Revise how I do journals in my class: 3 kinds: prompt, weekend, writer’s notebook

o Pull lines out of my own text and start there

o Carry a little, teeny-tiny notebook

o Rethink how I give feedback and how kids give each other feedback

o Get kids to generate criteria for poetry

o Keep a professional notebook

o Collect golden lines from readaround and use as prompts

o Sleep!

o Keep meditating on my hopes for my classroom and the reasons I want to teach

o Not collecting my students’ first drafts and getting them in writing groups

o Have writing groups invite the teacher to join as needed

o Blog about how writing groups are working in my classroom


In what areas do you feel on the “frontier”--you are breaking new ground and it is within reach, if you stretch a bit?

o Talking less than that

o Trying to keep motivated with my own writing; stay in touch with my writing group via email

o Publication in some format in all my classes

o Balancing creativity and structure

o Looking at voice

o Sneak in toward Portfolio Pieces

o Teacher exchange-- new and experienced teachers

o Using more primary sources

o Publication: poetry slams, gallery walks

o Publishing a booklet of poetry for waiting rooms, etc.

o Blogging

o Blogging with another teacher or class

o Make time to read more


What ideas and achievements are on the horizon for you--not reachable yet, but within your vision?

o Use writing to learn

o Make time for digital publication

o Make time for our own writing groups

o Establish after school writing groups

o Teach in silence

o Change students’ perspectives on revision

o Get kids to be able to write not just for now but from a sense of being rooted in the past and the future; find the context and connect to their own knowledge

o Make “I Am” presentations more dynamic

o Work with colleagues to share teaching demonstrations

o Bring some of NWP model to faculty meetings