The author opens the book by describing an event when a grasshopper came through an open window into the classroom as she was introducing a writing lesson on observation to a creative writing class. The author used the incident to develop a spontaneous lesson about grasshoppers, drawing on a poem she had in her resource cabinet. The incident served to illustrate the notion that writers get ideas for writing by observing the world around them, as that evening the author wrote about the grasshopper in the class in a poem titled “Sometimes Poems Come,” which she dedicated to her creative writing class and read to them the next day. The grasshopper event and the poem resulting from it is a wonderful example of the core idea of this book, for teachers to open the windows of their classroom, literally and figuratively, to let teaching be their writing muse, and to begin becoming a teacher who writes.

In his Foreword to the book, Mark Gutkowski, Global Academic Dean of Avenues: The World School, reflects on the author’s positing of a tenth muse, one of learning and teaching, to stand alongside the other nine muses of the Greek world. He proposes that the Museum of Alexandria, transformed from the ancient mouseion (a religious center in which muses were worshipped) to a secular place of learning, can be considered to have been the purview of a muse of Learning. He goes on to suggest that a classroom can be a place to experience the power of a learning and teaching muse, to celebrate and capture in words the small moments of humanity that exist in the classroom and share them with the world.

The Introduction to the book opens with a poem whose opening lines are: to teach is to learn to learn is to be These words summarize key ideas in this book about both teachers and students learning and teaching from and to each other and about the process of teaching and learning being one of becoming. Students and teachers, and their writings, are thus works in progress. The author introduces her own evolving story, in which the muse of teaching transformed her from at first a writing teacher who could not herself write to a writer, a teacher-writer, and ultimately a teacher-artist. Just as she took on the identity of writer as a lifelong process, she hopes her book will help those who teach writing and other subjects to be transformed by the process of becoming a teacher who writes. The book is for all teachers, especially those who think they cannot write or that writing is not relevant to their subject area. Its philosophy is interdisciplinary and all-inclusive: everyone is creative and can write.

Chapter 1 presents the book’s central thesis that student writing should be regarded as works in progress and that student writers should be regarded as works in progress as well. This thesis is demonstrated through the author’s teaching of “a most unlikely creative writing class” – a group of 5th year seniors who had failed the High School Proficiency Test twice. The author teaches poetry to the students who create poetry books. Chapter 1 demonstrates that a teacher’s unshakeable faith in students’ innate creativity can inspire basic student learners and engage them in authentic learning through creative writing. Chapter 1 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and a “Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day” writing prompt.

Chapter 2 presents the book’s central metaphor – windows – through the author’s childhood story of a classroom window and a 4th grade teacher who opened her eyes and transformed her. Windows in this chapter includes the notions of openness and receptivity, two attitudes fundamental to creativity and creative teaching. The author introduces the concepts of teaching the spontaneous lesson and going outside to write. The remainder of Chapter 2 defines and explores the terminology, history, and scholarship of creativity, creative teaching, and creative writing. Chapter 2 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and a “Gift of Windows” writing prompt.

Chapter 3 presents the book’s central premise – that courage is necessary to make being and becoming possible – and that it takes courage to teach any discipline. The author demonstrates the premise through a teaching story of a mathematics teacher. This chapter encourages teachers to give themselves more credit. It takes courage to teach a subject like writing or writing within a discipline when student and teacher are co-learners. The remainder of Chapter 3 explores and defines the terminology and scholarship of courage and creative courage, “the heart of our teaching.” In “What I Learned” the author discusses discarding “the tyranny of perfection.” Chapter 3 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and “Responding to Courage, Creative Courage, and Moral Courage” writing prompts.

Chapter 4 presents for teachers who are “becoming” the opportunity to explore their writing memories or “creations.” The author begins with her poem, “Kindergarten Creation,” an experience that dashed her creativity. She then recalls her elementary, high school, and college writing memories that made her realize “the creatively barren existence” she had in school. Yet, in “What I Learned,” the author maintains that her experiences as a student helped her define the teacher she hoped to be. She could not teach writing the way she was taught, confirming the chapter’s thesis: that part of walking your path is knowing where you’ve come from. Chapter 4 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and “Education or Mis-education?” writing prompts.

Chapter 5 introduces teachers to the concept of baggage in need of discard. Such baggage comprises obstacles that keep teachers from becoming, and so from teaching with joy, creativity, and authenticity. The author discusses how as a writing teacher she discarded the baggage of absolute authority and reframed it within an apprenticeship model. The author reframes and discards several myths: (1) writing teachers must be writers; (2) you can’t teach creative writing; (3) you can’t teach creativity. In doing so, the author presents strategies and solutions for teachers of all subjects. Chapter 5 also introduces baggage that cannot be discarded: “The Tyranny of the Ts” – time, tradition, textbooks, teacher guides, tests, and “they” – in addition to the new educational environment brought about by Covid-19, school lockdowns, and virtual learning. Chapter 5 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and a “Discarding Your Baggage” writing prompt.

Chapter 6 introduces 20th and 21st century scholarship on the teaching of creative writing in America and Britain. In “Trends and Findings” the author traces the decline of creative writing experiences from a high in the elementary years to a low in high school and college. The author supports these trends and findings with evidence from her students’ memoirs. Chapter 6 tackles the dilemma all teachers face: how to teach writing in your subject area if you are not a writer or a creative writer. The author offers an answer: becoming a teacher who writes. The remainder of Chapter 6 presents a model creative writing classroom based on the author’s Creative Writing I semester-long elective. In “how to” fashion, the author demonstrates a “day one pep talk,” establishing a community of writers, process writing prompts, a contract grading system, and portfolio assessment. Chapter 6 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and a “Non-Stop” writing prompt.

Chapter 7 addresses the question: Who takes a creative writing class? The author’s answer – a mélange of students. Chapter 7 presents that mélange of students, affirming the power of “the community of writers” to transition and transform students. Chapter 7 begins with a poem by a graduating senior (Judd) struggling with transition, followed by a series of case studies. In “Transformation of a Resistant Writer,” Judd explains entering creative writing by a schedule default, his “hatred” of writing, resisting participation, and finally engaging in the community of writers. In the second case study, the author discusses Tim and Robert – “Polar Opposites” – one, a fifth-year senior repeating English credit for graduation, the other a soon-to-be salutatorian. In “Here’s to Heterogeneity,” the author confirms her greatest pleasure witnessing the power of the diversity of voices to teach, motivate, and inspire not only writing, but the transformation essential to writing. Chapter 7 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and the “Times of Transition; Times of Transformation” writing prompts.

Chapter 8 introduces scholarship defining the terms “gifted,” “talented,” and “gifted and talented.” The author presents “A Case Study: Mike, The Story of my Life as a Writer in the Making.” The author discusses how to identify the creatively “gifted” student writer. Chapter 8 offers guidelines for teaching the creatively gifted: provide freedom, provide structure, be a good reader, provide challenges, enable students to function as professionals, and do no harm. Chapter 8 includes Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and a “Creative Personality” writing prompt. The author presents “Mike in Science Class: Under the Teacher Radar” and gifted science students in English class writing science and math poetry, in addition to “10 Dimensions of Complexity” and the “Paradox of the Creativity Personality.” The author concludes with a caveat: teach all as creatively gifted.

The thesis of Chapter 9 centers on a paradox: “confronting limits for the human personality actually turn out to be expansive. Limiting and expanding go together.” Chapter 9 demonstrates the “balancing act” of freedom and structure in writing through a series exercises. The author offers “Freedom in Writing” exercises (free writing, flow) and “Boundaries in Free Writing” exercises (non-stop writing, interrupted journal writing). The author also offers “Boundaries in Fiction Writing” (expansion exercise) and “Boundaries in Poetry Writing” (closed form poetry). In “What I Learned,” the author affirms the value of balancing freedom and boundaries as a guiding principle for classroom norms, lessons, and strategies. Chapter 9 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and a “Balancing Freedom and Structure in Your Discipline” writing prompt.

Chapter 10 encourages all teachers to break boundaries within their disciplines to further their personal and professional growth. The author demonstrates the value of breaking physical boundaries, disciplinary boundaries, and interdisciplinary boundaries with her students and colleagues from across the nation. The author demonstrates how physical boundary breaking can initiate creative and innovative projects such as “Poem Pals,” in which students select their favorite poems in five categories and exchange the poems in letter form with like classes in different states. The author also discusses how she broke disciplinary boundaries by reframing her teaching of the five-paragraph essay in Honors English III by providing alternate ways to write the academic essay, developing an authentically driven Honors Thesis as an exit project. In the remainder of Chapter 10, this book’s major contributors demonstrate how they broke boundaries within their disciplines. Steven N. Handel, plant ecologist, broke boundaries with his artful editorial demonstrating the value of creative writing strategies in scientific writing and journals. Amy Uyematsu, a mathematics teacher, broke boundaries when she wrote a ground-breaking term paper, “The Emergence of Yellow Power,” at UCLA and included three unassigned protest poems. Lastly, Arthur J. Stewart, aquatic ecologist, broke boundaries when he published his article, “On the Need for Poetry by Scientists,” his first formal attempt to “bridge poetry and science.” Chapter 10 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students: Breaking Disciplinary Boundaries and a Section One Envoi Poem by Arthur J. Stewart, “Learning.”

Chapter 11 describes how the author discovered the creative writer within. The moment of occasion is her grandfather’s 80th birthday when she wants to give him a present. She recalls a writing exercise she had taught to her students – memory association technique – and decides to try it herself. She prompts her memories with an object – the old nut bowl she played with as a child. She turns the key beneath the nut bowl and hears music. A chain of memories flows. The author writes several pages and then a poem comes to mind. The author drafts “Grandpa” and presents the poem to her grandfather on his birthday. In “What I have Learned,” she discusses how writing becomes a path to self-discovery. “Chaining memories” helped her write with a greater sense of personal authenticity. In Chapter 11 the author offers a model from plant ecologist, Steven N. Handel’s memoir, “Beginning at the End.” Teachers will find the model useful for students seeking their future path. Chapter 11 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and a “Returning to a Place” writing prompt. The author encourages all subject teachers as they are becoming writers to share their writings in progress with their students to further discipline-related writing in their classes.

Chapter 12 describes how the author discovered the poet within, prompted by a moment of necessity. The moment began with a phone call: “Grandma has cancer.” Shortly thereafter, when the author was preparing for a dinner party, she recalled how her grandmother “made roses out of radishes.” For months thereafter, images of radishes kept recurring to her. One week before her grandmother’s 83rd birthday, she saw the image – radishes in cups of water. As the author reclaimed the hidden image of blooming radishes, she wrote her first poem, “Born of Necessity,” and read the poem to her grandmother one month before she died. “In What I Learned,” the author discusses how that poem may not have been written if it were not for years of teaching poetry. She discusses the influence of William Carlos Williams, but knows her poem remains her own. From its creation, she teaches her students that poetry is “saying something you can’t say in any other way.” Chapter 12 concludes with a model contributor poem, “Dipping into Infinity,” by Amy Uyematsu; Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students; and a “Reclaiming a Hidden or Recurring Image” writing prompt.

Chapter 13 describes how the author discovered the professional writer within and published her first article for English Journal, “Let Found Poetry Help Your Students Find Poetry.” She was prompted by her students’ question – “Have you ever published anything?” – and her colleague’s encouragement – “You should really write that up.” In Chapter 13 the author recounts how she wrote the article; how it helped her to “enter the professional conversation;” how one publication led to another; and, most importantly, how the experience confirmed her identity as writer in the eyes of her students. In the author’s view, “It was a major turning point in my life.” Chapter 13 raises the question: why publish? The author answers: to enter the professional conversation, to contribute to your community, to publish with your students. The author describes how her identity as a published writer enabled her students to participate in poetry book publications and projects. Chapter 13 concludes with an Opinion Editorial: “Seed Op-Ed,” by Steven N. Handel, plant ecologist; Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students; and a “Discovering the Professional Writer Within” writing prompt.

Chapter 14 centers on the author’s signature poem, “Blueberry Pie,” and her discovering the power of audience. The author introduces the concept that every poem has a creator – the poem’s first audience. That is why she introduces the poem as a dialogue between herself (creator) and her poem (creation). In the process, the author relates the publishing history of “Blueberry Pie” emerging from the dark of creation to the light of multiple audiences. In “What I have Learned” the author discusses how “Blueberry Pie” taught her the power of audience: “I was blind to the accessibility and appeal of my poem.” Chapter 14 presents “Blueberry Pie as Window,” a lesson created by the author demonstrating multiple audiences. The author applies the psychological model, the “Johari Window,” to poetic understanding of her poem. Drawing on communication theory, the “Johari Window” posits four perspectives, or quadrants: Open (known to poet, known to others); Blind (unknown to poet, known to others); Hidden (known to poet, unknown to others); Dark (unknown to poet, unknown to others). Chapter 14 concludes with Arthur J. Stewart’s signature poem, “Ladoga Lake and Nyos”; Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students; and a “Poetry as Window” writing prompt.

Chapter 15 centers on what scholars and researchers understand about the creative process, and what poets and writers say about how they write. The author introduces the chapter with “Grandma Came Down,” a poem she wrote that “came without warning” while she was driving the car. It’s coming was a mystery to her, but seemed like a “gift” from her deceased grandmother. Chapter 15 addresses “How Writers Write,” applying Dorothea Brande’s concept of the “dual nature of the writer – artist (unconscious, emotional self) and artisan (conscious, workman self, critic) and E. M. Forester’s question: How do I know what I think until I see what I say? With the artist and artisan in mind, Chapter 15 offers tips for discovering the creative process: write from your heart, edit with your head; separate the creator and the editor; the creative process is less linear than recursive. The author references the five-stage creative process delineated in Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi’s pioneering research study. Chapter 15 includes Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and an in-depth discussion of the Forester aphorism based on Richard Swedberg’s “The Aphorism, Science and the Creative Process: How do I know what I think till I see what I say?” Swedberg affirms “courting your subconscious” as a major strategy and then “switching gears” to explicate and build the idea.” Chapter 15 concludes with “Discovering the Creative Process: Artist and Artisan” writing prompts.

Chapter 16 introduces the concept of teacher-writer and presents the author discovering the teacher-writer within herself. In the process, the author becomes a co-learner as well. The main body of Chapter 16 is organized in three parts – “Writing with, to, and for Your Students” –followed by Interdisciplinary Applications. In “Writing with Your Students,” the author engages in “Poem Challenges” with her creative writing class. While she writes random words on the board, a student challenges her: “Ms. Gorrell, I want you to write to a poem with three words – “blue goo, comb, and a vibrating egg.” The author writes on the spot a memory poem about combing her daughter’s hair that she later titled “Combing a Memory.” In “What I Learned Writing with My Students,” the author discusses how poem challenges generated for her not only authentic writing that matters, but new, immediate teaching lessons as well – the concept of Robert Bly’s “leaping poetry.” In “Writing to Your Students,” the author introduces the concept of poems of address that teachers can write to their students. In “Writing for Your Students: Models for Instruction,” the author offers an introductory lesson in narrative structure from Richard Wright’s autobiography juxtaposed with the author’s autobiographical model, “Shame.” Chapter 16 includes Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students in which teachers are encouraged to write with, to, and for their students and discipline-related models for instruction. The chapter concludes with Arthur J. Stewart’s “Rat Dissection,” a model of science instruction in poetry form.

Chapter 17 presents teacher-writers writing about their students and disciplines affirming this book’s central thesis – that teaching and learning are inextricably bound and that teaching is our writing muse. In “Writing about Your Students,” the author offers model contributor poems by Amy Uyematsu, math teacher: “When Geometry Gets Mixed Up with God and the Alphabet” and Juan’s Numbers.” In “Writing about Your Discipline,” the author offers Amy Uyematsu’s poem “The Invention of Mathematics” which explores her passion for numbers – rational and irrational – and her passion for language and wordplay. Chapter 17 concludes with aquatic ecologist Arthur J. Stewart’s discipline-related poems, “Professor Thermocline” and “Limnology Quiz,” followed by Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and a “Writing about Your Discipline” writing prompt.

Chapter 18 introduces the concept of teacher-artist, offering model projects that embrace three or more subject areas, art forms, or disciplines. The author begins with her own “Teacher-Artist Story” in the context of her creative writing classroom: how she responded to the “teachable moment,” how her students responded in writing, and how the project “Artifacts: Kids Respond to a World in Crisis was created. The author’s students wrote ecphrastic poems to the “lost works of art” which were in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The author mailed the poems to Scholastic Writing and Art Awards and asked them to forward them to the young artists whose works were destroyed. The remainder of Chapter 18 features model teaching artist projects. Part Three offers Inter-Arts Projects: “Jersey Rain (creative writing, poetry, musical composition, choral performance) and an “Our Town” Inter-Arts Book Project (poetry of place, ecphrasis, photography, self-publishing). Part Four Interdisciplinary Applications for Students and Teachers offers a total of four model across-the-curriculum projects involving teachers, scientists, and teaching artists: Science Poetry: Interdisciplinary Literacy Tool; Anne Osbourne’s Science, Art and Writing Initiative; CuriousSCIENCEwriters; and Youth Birding Alaska. The author concludes Chapter 18 by encouraging teacher artists to engage with their students in creating inter-arts and interdisciplinary projects to improve artistic, ecological, and scientific literacy.

The Epilogue addresses the radical changes in education which were brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, including a new kind of window on education: that of virtual learning. Students’ poetry and prose from the pandemic written is featured, followed by a look at a teaching collaboration involving a Inside Looking Out / Outside Looking In exercise in which most students wrote about “windows of memory” that helped them escape the stark realities of the pandemic.

The Conclusion revisits the global pandemic and its effects on learning, literacy, creativity, and education. Whatever the “new normal” will be like, it will require teachers who are becoming to teach those students who are becoming, too. The author reminds readers of what they have learned in going through the book as they have become a courageous and creative teacher-writer and a teacher-artist – whether an English teacher, language arts teacher, or a teacher of another subject – while teaching their students to become courageous and creative writers. Walking a path of becoming a teacher who writes has meant opening new windows for self and students to include the worlds inside and outside, local and global, and cyber. It has also meant becoming prepared to face the future and whatever unpredictable teaching situation may appear, while maintaining a focus on creativity, literacy, writing across the curriculum, and collaboration across disciplines. Those who have read this book have accepted teaching as their muse and to teach is to learn, and have learned much. The teaching pedagogies offered in the book are summarized with reference to teaching in these uncertain times. The Conclusion ends with a reflection on the continuing need teachers have for open windows.

In the Afterword, the author asks a series of questions about what has happened to those who have read her book about how they have changed in their teaching and in themselves. She also asks, “What comes next?” This, she maintains, is up to each teacher and reader of her book. She would like to hear from other teachers and readers, to know what they have learned and how they have changed. As a final reflection, she closes the book with a poem by one of her students in which she muses on muses.