Where do I go from here?

This is the question that has been in my mind for the last couple of weeks. I feel the pressure of time to narrow down my research ideas. I am unsure of the road I need to take. In one of the readings this past week a specific quote jumped out at me:

"All teachers have wonderings worth pursuing. Transforming wonderings into questions is the start of teacher research" (Hubbard & Power, p.2).

I am realizing that in my pursuit of answers I may indeed find more questions. A while back, in reflecting over my years of teaching I wrote the following, “As a teacher I am continually learning – about myself as a teacher but also as a learner, as an individual but also as a member, in my successes but also in my failures, about my students but also from them – learning who I am, what I am called to do and how I should get there.” I feel the need to expand that to include that I am also learning from my search for answers but also from my growing list of questions.

Writing is a vast area and with many possibilities. I have compiled a list of questions. However, the list of questions seems to grow and my hope of bringing about answers seems to become less and less of a reality. I know I need to choose one small piece of the writing puzzle. The more I read and research about writing, the more I am convinced that this is indeed my focus. More specifically, I am thinking of choosing strategies that would help teachers at any grade with writing across the curriculum. As a teacher I always find myself with the need to integrate subjects if I am to attempt to cover all that students need to learn through the year. Writing becomes integrated in many curricular areas. So to target writing is to not only help writing itself, but all curricular areas. What is it then within writing strategies that I want to invest my time into? Another area of possible focus is the connection that exists between oral and written language. A specific question that comes to mind is: “How can oral language help, enable or support the teaching of the written language in the primary classroom?”

I am continuing to search for a specific direction in the coming weeks. Reading will continue to guide my thought process as well as conversations with colleagues. My hope is that I will gain clarity in my journey and a light to guide me.