National Writing Project Annual Meeting

“How do we find material (financial and organizational) support for our work that will sustain the core ideas of the National Writing Project?” This question seemed to be mixed into every conversation at the NWP Annual Meeting this year. Lil, Cindy and I spent a lot of time talking with other sites about how they are figuring things out given the absence of direct federal funding. In the formal sessions designed to focus on these ideas and talks with colleagues in-between, we found some answers and also more questions. There were discussions of varying models for Summer Institute. Some sites were focusing more on their youth programs; still others were connecting to community organizations with interests in writing and literacy and working with their departments of public instruction to design workshops around the Common Core Standards. Everyone seemed focused on meshing Writing Project work with initiatives that are important to schools and teachers. The UNC Charlotte Writing Project has been thinking about all of these things, too, especially since our Sustainability Institute last summer. We are excited about our work with Common Core Standards, about our new summer youth programs being sponsored by schools, and our ongoing partnership work with area schools and districts. While we did not find big answers, and it was really useful and energizing to connect with other Writing Project sites who are just as deep in this work of imagining new possibilities.

The NWP seems tenacious and eager to work with local sites to sustain our work together. If you haven’t joined NWP Connect, you should do so right away to stay abreast of all that is happening http://connect.nwp.org/national. Our site has a presence there so that we can stay in conversation together and with the national community. Also, if you haven’t already, check out our site’s work on Digital Is http://digitalis.nwp.org/. We are going to stay alive in this new terrain… and we are going to hold on to our principals even in this new terrain.

NCETA Conference

Summer Institute Reunion and Professional Development Meeting

On Thusday 9-22-11 two events took place in room 419 of Fretwell Hall at UNCC: a reunion of several 2011 Summer Institute  participants and a professional development meeting involving many of those same 2011 Summer Institute (new TC’s) as well as TC’s from at least 5 different years of the program!

What would a Summer Institute meeting be without a chance to write into the day? Or, rather, into the evening as we began around 5pm. We responded to Marge Piercy’s poem The Low Road before a bit of a “shake down.”

We wandered through small bits of red tape and reflected back on the summer while thinking ahead to our own classrooms. I always love how a “theme” starts to develop, even if one wasn’t originally planned. Don’t you find that that happens in your own writing? For this evening of the UNCC Writing Project the overarching message was Mapping.

One activity was to draw maps of our classrooms and schools. We were then to map out where writing could be found for student’s as well as teachers. We overlayed a transparency that allowed us to draw connections between where writing circulates in our classrooms and schools. I found myself asking who are the audiences for the work that my student’s create? What about my own writing? Should I share it with students?

This description just touches the tip (or perhaps compass) or the Map and the connections we are making as teachers, writers, and TC”s. We finished off our meeting by looking at the UNCC Writing Project map projects to see where we might belong.

At 6pm the other TC’s joined our group. We had a chance to get to know each other before pizza, snacks, and traveling around to “Choose Your Own Adventure” stations which were geared towards developing programs for upcoming camps, spring conferences, and fund raising ventures for the UNCC Writing Project (see – I told you there would be more maps).

It was wonderful to be around many of my 2011 Summer Institute TC’s and I felt that I was brought in to the larger Writing Project community by meeting participants from previous years as we all tried to tackle what we could do to map out creative writing ventures for our students, fellow teachers, and ourselves as writers.

I can’t wait for the next trip.

The Fall 2011 Digital Is Resource Retreat

                                                   References

Fraiberg, Steven. “Composition 2.0: Toward a Multilingual and Multimodal
     Framework.” College Composition and Communication. The National
     Council of Teachers of English 62:1 (September 2010): 100-126. Print

State Network Meeting

This past weekend while retreating at the Elerbee Inn, we had a State Network Meeting with our pals at the Tar River Writing Project.  We started the meeting with a little ranting and riffing Youth Roots style, tweaked by Lacy and Lil..  What a powerful way to clear the air about the frustrations of the past months with the federal budget and then begin to re-build together through the sharing of ideas and the building of ideas from each other.  We were able to discuss what each site is doing to seek funding from the state and university level and share roadblocks as well as successes.  We also were able to share some vital contact information and get a better understanding for the changes going down at NCDPI.  We have now shared our Sustainability Google Site with the Tar River group so that they can continue thinking with us there.

Before if was over, Lacy and Lil were firing off e-mails right and left and we were starting to think of ways to restructure NCETA and work with NCDPI.  More importantly, we were able to reconnect face to face with another group of teachers, writers and thinkers in the state who share our passion for the Writing Project.  I left the meeting reminded that when we say “In Solidarity” these great people are right there with us!