Monday, April 21, 2008

It was a pleasure to meet a published writer and an honor to have her share her experiences with our class.  It has been a dream of mine to some day publish at least one children’s book, so I appreciate Francis inviting Katie Beatty to our class so we could learn from her valuable experiences.

I really liked how she shared with us how she got her idea for her book “Red Buggy Day” that ended as “Red Wagon Day.”  I know that when I am writing I am constantly rearranging, scratching out, and moving sentences, paragraphs and words.  With the number of drafts that she had, with notes scribbled on the side and new drafts, with new words and phrases, it really made me realize that all authors are continually making changes until they know from deep within that the piece is perfect.  I am really glad that she showed us how many different drafts she wrote before she got to that point.  She helped me realize that even published authors move through the same writing processes that we as “educationalist” will help our students learn.

I also appreciated Mrs. Beatty sharing her experiences on getting her writings published.  This is good information that will be helpful if I ever do put pen to paper and write that children’s book that keeps floating around in my head.