Crafting 7,8, and 9

I have found "Crafting Writers" to be so inspirational. I am so excited to have this book as a resource to help me teach in a method that I am excited. Using the mini lesson by its very name implies that we will be teaching the students a new skill. And keep oursleves on task by questioning our intentions with the questions
"What exactly am I teaching and Why am I teaching this? How will it help my students" (p.99)
To me this is almost revoultionary, even though a completely natural teaching model, in my opinion. We the teachers are responsible for providing safe places and hope of new learning for all of our students.
Much of our job will be as inspirers and a resouce for how to for we all know"At heart we know that no one can educate another person, that all of us educate ourselves."(p. 122)We must inspire them to be curious and confident in their abilities.
All children learn! As teachers we must learn how to teach all learners. "merly complimenting students is a missed opportunity. The key to powerful conferring is teaching all students their strengths regardless of their ability, withthe same seriousness we give to their next step"(p.123). Which Hale goes onto describe as potentially being student owned and driven.
Buiding on strengths, no matter how small, and limiting ourselves to one building block at a time allows us to meet the students where they are and allows for them to be accountable and in charge of their own creation.