ABSTRACT
Ellen, a writer came to place-based education through her own deep connection to the power of writing. As a teacher of writing, it has always been about students making connections to what is around them. Knowing that good writers write about what they know, it just makes sense to her to write what's close. She believes that students' writing improves when they have real reasons to write and an audience for their work. The writing projects that she asks her students to undertake are imaginative and rigorous; they head out to nearby village to witness moments of everyday life and learn to listen intently when people talk. The sensory monologue is about learning to really observe. As part of local geography lesson, she assigns a mapping activity for students to assimilate sources in an initial attempt to locate their watershed. She ponders the complexity of the task when they are challenged to resolve the maps with what they already know.
