Recently, my graduate teaching assistant, Lois Lake Church asked me to list the five attitudes I might encourage in her and other graduate student writing teachers. The more I thought about her question, the more I thought about what I believe and my answers below reflect an ethos or spirit Here's what I came up with, but it's really about an ethos or spirit of the class learning communities I try to create.

Language is the best part of being human so carefully consider students' particular strengths and weaknesses to teach them how to use language effectively and to better assess their own writing and thinking.

Love is service, and the best educational love is caring about students' individual learning challenges while staying informed and able to meet a variety of curricular and real world needs.

Teach writing as the search for truth in words and always be honest, even when that means admitting error.

Accept humanity's flaws as what it means to be you. Sometimes how we write ourselves is all about the heuristic of failure.

Encourage students to use both heart and mind to think for themselves.