Tigard teacher shows the write stuff

By Darryl Swan

The Times, Apr 18, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Steven Kobor

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TIGARD — Steven Kobor has a newfound respect for, and from, his students at Fowler Middle School in Tigard.

The seventh-grade language arts teacher threw himself into the void of uncertainty that all too often accompanies fiction writing and came through a changed man.

In fact, he emerged as one of the few participants in the Portland-based “Community of Writers” workshop program to have his work appear in the new anthology, “The Teachers Always Write.”

During the program, Kobor, 41, was placed in the position as student and forced to bring his creative juices to bear in several timed writing exercises.

“It teaches you how to not just give writing assignments, but it takes you through the process as a student,” Kobor said of the program. “It’s easy to give your students tons of writing assignments, especially creative writing assignments, but it’s another thing to take one on yourself.”

“It didn’t always come easily,” he said.

He also got a refresher course in the fine art of constructive criticism (having felt the sting of the alternative) and gained a new level of empathy for his students as they struggle with revision.

Kobor’s work, called “The Love of Her Life,” was selected from the works of hundreds of program participants for publication and is the only appearance in the anthology by a teacher from the Tigard-Tualatin School District. The story follows the emotional trial thrust upon a young woman after learning about her husband’s death while serving overseas at a time of war.

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