There is a moment of uncomfortable realization every teacher faces: the moment you realize the skill you are demanding from your students is one you haven’t truly practiced yourself in years.

For me, that skill was consistent, reflective writing. I was demanding my middle schoolers produce pages of thoughtful analysis and narrative every week, yet my own writing practice consisted solely of emails and lesson plans.

The Mirror Moment

It was during my time at Denny International Middle School in Seattle that this hypocrisy became painfully clear. We were fortunate to work closely with Cornelius Minor, a brilliant educator and site developer from Columbia College who championed authentic literacy. He delivered a quote that hit me like a revelation:

“Before something becomes a habit [for a student], it needs to be a habit of the person who is teaching it to you.” – Cornelius Minor

Suddenly, the difficulty my students had sustaining a writing habit made perfect sense. How could I expect them to push through the frustration, the “blank page syndrome,” and the daily grind of revision if I wasn’t doing it myself? I was asking them to become something I was not.

My “Habit of the Teacher” Intervention

I decided right then that if I was going to be an authentic writing teacher, I had to become an authentic writer again. I started a simple but non-negotiable practice: daily journaling and written reflections.

This wasn’t about grading or formal essays; it was about the raw, sometimes painful process of getting thoughts onto paper. It became my personal laboratory for writing.

What I Learned from Being the Student:

• The Pain Points Are Real: The first thing I learned was the sheer mental effort it takes to sit down and initiate a writing session, even when I wanted to write. When a student claimed, “I don’t know what to write,” I finally understood that wasn’t an excuse—it was a genuine barrier.
• The Power of Low Stakes: My private journal was safe. There were no grades, no rubrics, and no external judgment. This taught me that my students needed low-stakes, frequent practice to build fluency before tackling high-stakes assignments.
• The Teacher’s Perspective Shift: Being a struggling writer again immediately shifted my grading philosophy. I stopped looking only for the perfect final product. Instead, I started looking for the effort, the resilience, and the process—the messy, incremental steps that I now knew were necessary to create any quality piece of writing.

By stepping into the role of the writer I expected my students to be, I gained the empathy and insight needed to truly coach them. I learned the precise pain points and could teach them the strategies that genuinely helped me overcome them.

If you want your students to read, you must read. If you want them to be reflective, you must reflect. The most powerful tool we have for changing student behavior is modeling the habit we wish to instill. The habit starts with the teacher.

Are you consistently practicing the core skill you demand from your students?