ABSTRACT
The author found herself in a middle school classroom where she was responsible for teaching readers and writers. She was killing the love of reading and writing each day with her stupid language arts class. She wanted to convey how to cultivate the stories and messages of young writers so they can bloom, making the world a better and more beautiful place. Learning how to apply recent brain research will help teachers wrap strong arms around children from hard places and give them a chance to rewrite their stories. But first the author had to figure out how to stop destroying readers and writers. Her journey led her to best practices and workshop teaching, transforming her work. She was having so much fun meeting the challenge of growing readers and writers that she never wanted to leave the classroom, but she did. Eventually she became a district instructional writing coach.
