Last school year was a truly amazing experience being a Montana Writing Coach in the Flathead Valley. There were so many wonderful kids and writing assignments! What impressed me the most was the dedication of the teachers and the seriousness with which the students took their projects. In two schools, I was lucky to have volunteered through more than one iteration of writing and got to see several of my group of middle schoolers more than once. The change in their writing from one session to the next was inspiring!
The assignments are thought-provoking and my duty as coach was to assist the students to expand and extend both the depth and breadth of their writing. What was so lovely was that regardless of the varied skill level of the writers, they all seemed to take the coaching seriously and wanted to turn out a nice piece of work. My job to encourage them seemed pretty easy!
Speaking of encouragement, I’d like to encourage anyone to become a Montana Writing Coach. Your fellow coaches are warm, kind, funny, and generous. The teachers are so grateful that you can help with this huge task; they simply cannot do the deep dive on large assignments with every young writer! You will go home with a big smile knowing that you have met some great kids and helped even just a little bit to have them believe in themselves as writers. It’s not a big job, but it might be just what is needed for this particular child on this particular day. JOIN US!
