The video defintely had some interesting points on the teaching of writing. From the beginning, I liked the emphasis that they put on giving students a safe environment to do their writing. I agree that this is a very important aspect on the teaching of writing. The process can be quite revealing. Even when not writing about private personal matters, writers put their ideas, and to an extent themselves,  on paper to be looked at and judged by others. For writing to be as good as possible, students need to feel comfortable revealing themselves to at least some extent, which is why this sense of safety is so important.

The idea of a community of learners was also emphasized. I think this is very helpful, too. It gives the students the sense that they are all in it together, through thick and thin, from research papers to poetry. This comraderie is beneficial in couple of ways. Sometimes it is useful to the students as part of the activities that they do. Though I personally don’t care for peer-editing (as I’ve pointed out multiple times), I know that some teachers and students find it to be quite beneficial. Other times it’s just nice to have someone to help clarify an assignment or feel your pain. Either way, the sense of community in the classroom allows these types of interaction to go on more often, so that students can be most helpful towards one another.

A final thing that happened in the video that I really liked was the Monday Meeting that the teacher had with her students, which allowed her the chance to get to know her students better personally, as well as allowing the students to build relationships with one another. This is very good for a couple of reasons. First of all, as we are constantly reminded in education courses, relationships and rapport are crucial to creating a good classroom environment. Secondly, knowing a little bit about the other people in the classroom goes a long way towards building the previously mentioned sense of community.