Good Advice for Writing Teachers

I like this advice from the Two Writing Teachers blog:

If you are looking to lift the level of your writing instruction, then I invite you to write. Start a notebook (or dust off an old one), play with words, try your hand at the current writing project your students are working on, just write. Then make a little list of the things you notice about your own writing process.

With all the grading I have to do, I don't know if I'd have time to write essays along with my students, but I've written enough of those essays (mostly for fun, though occasionally for publication) that I can share first-hand my knowledge that the writing process truly does become more fluid as you mature as a writer.

I do hope I can find some time to work on a few essays this semester, though. "Having to do it for a class"--even though it's the class I'm teaching--seems like a good enough excuse!