Based on a series of seven summer workshops on creative writing and pedagogy, this book offers an "inside-out" approach to teaching and writing, an approach that teachers can use for personal growth and self-enrichment as well as for application and inspiration in their public school classrooms. Essays in the book are: (1) "'The Writing's for Us': Granting Ourselves Permission through Personal Narratives" (Michael Steinberg); (2) "Writing the Outdoors: From Journals to Essays" (Robert L. Root, Jr.); (3) "Of Road Kill and Community History: Exploring the Past and Present through Writing" (Stephen N. Tchudi); (4) "Making Poetry: In Search of the Delicate Balance" (Gloria Nixon-John); (5) "Shape, Sound, Form: Crafts from Which to Sing a Poem" (Anne-Marie Oomen and Ruth Nathan); (6)"What We Talk about When We Talk about Writing Fiction" (John Smolens); (7) "Courting the Notion: Anecdotal Writing for Self-Enrichment" (Alan Weber); (8) "Inviting Success: Ways into the Writer Engagement" (Paul Wolbrink); (9) "The Individual Conference in the Writing Center" (John S. Dinan); (10) "Response Groups in the Writing Center" (Michael Bacon); (11) "Creating Our Own: Writing about Literature in Expressive and Imaginative Forms" (Michael Steinberg); (12) "'Well, I Was Born in a Small Town': Popular Media in the Language Arts Classroom" (Robert L. Root, Jr.); (13) "Talking to Yourself in the Car Is Okay: A Workshop about Writing Monologues and Dialogues" (Anne-Marie Oomen); (14) "Going Where the Lightning Is: Fifteen Ways to Start Writing" (Paul Wolbrink); (15) "Writing and Grammar: Bridging the Controversy" (Alan Weber); and (16) "English through the Open Door: Foreign Language in English Language Study" (Marguerite Cotto). Appendixes present examples of teachers' writing, excerpts of learning and reading logs, teaching ideas, and two personal views on organizing and administrating a writing conference by teachers who are also workshop administrators. Contains 35 references. (RS)