A Little About Me

This Is Your Writing Life:  John Dutton

I have sixteen years of teaching experience ranging from elementary school to high school; the last eleven of those years, I have taught language arts to middle school students [sixth grade]. I strive to make language arts appealing to adolescents through hands-on activities along with integrating technology into the classroom to enhance needed life skills. I firmly believe that if you want to be a better reader, you write more; if you want to be a better writer, your read more. I will never teach one without the other, because both skills work to enhance the other. To model the importance of writing, I am a classroom scribe; for when I assign a creative writing assignment – and there are many – I write the assignments alongside my students.

As a lover of puzzles and games, I enjoy writing poetry because each poem is a challenge of rhyme, rhythm, and poetic form.  I have even written a series of poems to help teach the poetic structures, Character and Conflict Series – Travels across the Poetic Structures. In this series of poems using the different poetic structures, I have a character (Armadillo) who gets herself into much mischief. I use the series as a teaching resource, and I challenge the students to write their own.

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to stumble upon Nick Maneno's Writing 695 class offered specifically to teachers. It was, by far, the best class I have ever taken. His class inspired me both as a writer and as a teacher. I now encourage other teachers to take this fabulous class. Here are some of my favorite classroom activities I learned from Nick Maneno:

· Poem Sketching using the vocabulary words
[Objective: Use four vocabulary words of your own choosing to show Tone and Mood. Use the four words moving forward in a positive connotation. Next, moving backwards in reverse order, use the words in a negative connotation.]

· Compare yourself to a crayon in a box [72] of Crayola Crayons
[Objective: Pick a colored crayon with which you can associate. Next, create a simile or metaphor using that specific color. Begin your poem using the words, I am (color you have selected)]

· Excerpt writing from a novel, short story, or poem
[Objective: Pick a line or two from the novel, short story, or poem you are currently reading. Create a short story or poem incorporating the line(s) into your work. This creates an unlimited supply of story starters and also allows for student choice!]

I have been active in two writing groups, Write by the Rails [W.b.t.R.] and the Prince William County [PWC] Poet Laureate Poetry Circle, since December of 2013. It was poetry that led me to discover both writing groups. Within the first ten months, I have branched out into attempting other forms of writing. I have tried writing some anthologies, memoirs, and short stories. I am even attempting to write my first novel, The Boys of Company Z. Then, to celebrate my one year anniversary of joining Write by the Rails, I created Spilled Ink. Spilled Ink is an Open Mic night the Friday after the monthly W.b.t.R. meeting. Finally, this past March, for the W.b.t.R.’s monthly meeting, I invited Nick Maneno to lead a poetry workshop. It was so well received that Nick was invited back next year to do it again.

This summer, during the month of July, I am looking forward to not only teaching at the Northern Virginia Writing Project, but also learning. As a devout life-long learner, I look forward to acquiring new writing techniques and sharing my own personal favorite writing lessons.