Inspired and motivated by students at Cayuga Community College

Talk about the ups and downs of a roller coaster – this is my writing life in the past twenty-four hours. Yesterday’s peer review left me frustrated and full of doubt but this evening’s speaking opportunity brought be home full of inspiration to write and for the future of our college bound high school graduates. I had the pleasure to speak to one of Cayuga Community College’s writing classes at their Fulton extension this evening.

With a Power Point to guide us through our time together we set sail for an hour and half of discussion, teaching and learning. I pray they each learned something new that helps them improve their writing and their outlook towards writing. While the purpose of my presentation was to teach them ways to write “outside the box”, their participation taught me some new things. I love to learn new things.

I learned a student’s IEP is honored at college through a conversation about talk to text software. This inspired me ~ the same software we start teaching fourth graders to use for state testing purposes will be accepted (and provided) at the collegiate level! Wow! I know an IEP follows the child yet to know they are followed and are tools to support student learning, I am so very thankful. I will share this tidbit with students for years to come – one student’s willingness to share will be an inspiration too many of the students I work with at school ~ it is possible to go to college and be successful with an IEP. This young woman is proof positive.

As we talked about things we can do to help writer’s block or the environment we write in ~ students shared their personal favorites and accepted challenges from me on ways to mix things up a bit. Their hunger to learn was motivating ~ they choose to attend college and they are giving it their all. Kudos!

At the conclusion my presentation I shared a bit from my book, “Where’s Heidi? The Search Begins”. I read my original opening and then the final revision sent to publishers. Their response warmed my heart and brought tears to my eyes. I’ve been blessed with the help of editorial friends and critiques group yet to share my story with a potential reader can take my breath away…their response humbled me and inspired me to keep writing. (And I’m revising the final chapter in the near future, lol)

Thank you Ruth and CCC for a wonderful evening of learning, inspiration, and motivation! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.