What advice do you have for teachers who are intimidated by writing themselves? How can they develop their own skills and confidence?

You know a lot of people are not really comfortable in their own skins as writers. They don’t feel very confident about how well they write and they don’t particularly see writing as an enjoyable activity. That’s the case for a lot of people in general, but it’s also the case for quite a few teachers. If you were thinking about this from the point of view of your own child and you asked his or her teacher, “do you like to read?” You’re expecting that they’re going to say yes. You’re hoping the same thing with writing.

So one of the things that I think is important is for teachers to look for ways, if they’re not comfortable as writers, to help themselves become that. I think one of the best ways of doing this is to organize or join a writing group of other adults where you share your writing with them. The other thing that works really well is to bring your writing into the classroom. Kids love to hear what teachers write! They love to see teachers as writers. After all, you’re asking them to write for you — you should be writing for them, too.