Teacher-Writers Enjoy Palm Springs Writing Retreat

By: Jane Hancock
Publication: The Voice, Vol. 6, No. 1
Date: January-February 2001

Summary: Jane Hancock describes the pleasure of having time to write at California Writing Project's statewide writing retreat.

The weekend began on Thursday, October 5, 2000, as California Writing Project* fellows arrived at the Shadow Mountain Resort and Racquet Club for a retreat devoted to profes-sional writing. They came from Los Angeles and other nearby counties; they came from northern California. One, a former Bay Area Writing Project fellow, came from New York City.

The flexible schedule included large blocks of writing time with freedom to choose when and where to meet with writing groups or consult with each other. We checked in, occasionally, to report on how we were doing. We checked in to hear Art Peterson, National Writing Project editor, talk about his watchwords for NWP writing. We checked in to eat.

Other than that, we wrote in our rooms, at the park, around the pool. We found outlets for our laptops at tables under umbrellas or on the decks of our condos. We were comfortable. We produced.

On Sunday morning, we shared what we had written. We laughed. We cried. Jim explored his use of writing in his AP physics class. He wrote about his reaction to an anonymous student's note: "I didn't take AP physics to waste my time with reflective note taking." Catherine told the story of how, as a result of her own journal keeping, it became possible for a student to get the mental health help he so needed. Pauline asked the questions, "What has happened to portfolio assessment?" Mary began the process of translating her dissertation into an article to submit to a refereed journal. Becky discovered she has a voice.

Sidnie wrote, "This is certainly how you get professionals of any type to write about their work. The mix of input (very scant), time to write (a lot), and opportunities for feedback (only when needed) was perfect."

Laurie summed it up. "By trusting us as thinkers, writers, creators and allowing complete freedom of time and space, the process of writing could proceed as it needs. Thoughts could emerge, roll around; words could hit paper, be twisted, reordered, erased, reborn. Ideas had the chance to evolve, be trimmed, expanded, merged. . . . Ideas and words could bloom. . . . What a gift."

It was a gift. Thank you, California Writing Project, for making it happen.

*The California Writing Project is the state network of writing project sites.

Download "Teacher-Writers Enjoy Palm Springs Writing Retreat"