Feather Circle

This is a picture of the Feather Circle Stick on top of the stack of essays written by my students. Today, I tried my first community writing group, a Feather Circle. Following the concepts bestowed upon me in my graduate program, I asked my classes to design a logo and write about it for the class. The black and white beads represent the monotonous pattern that we face on a day to day basis. The clear beads represent the fact that reading in front of people feels strange and uncomfortable---like people can see right through you. But after you go through the feather circle, it gets easier. Encouraged by the excitement of my students, I'm a firm believer in the community based writing theories. At the conclusion of the readings, we write thank you notes to our peers to thank them for sharing. One of my students wrote, "I love this class. Thank you for making me feel like I can do anything." Wow. I love my job!