My program inspires educators to feel more confident at teaching creative writing. Many teachers don't enjoy writing and feel frustrated teaching it. I show simple and effective strategies to help students actually write stories as opposed to simply writing about something that happened to them. Using my own published stories, I teach the difference between a story and an incident and help teachers empower their students; showing them how ideas come from a combination of everyday life and imagination. I also show how drawing stories and telling stories transition into writing stories.
Creative writing is one of the few things a child does in school where he or she decides the answers; what works best for their story. Writing stories involves creativity, problem solving and decision making; these are tools educators and students can use in many courses and careers. Much of what I show also relates to non-fiction writing, essays and narratives - good writing is good writing regardless of whether the story is true or not.