NWP
I’ve been accepted into the NWP Summer Institute at Rutgers! I’m very excited. I’ve wanted to do this for years, but when I lived in Virginia there wasn’t a local NWP site for me to attend, and up until now I couldn’t afford it. I still can’t really afford it, but maybe I can’t afford not to do it, either.
We had a meeting a few weeks ago before they made their final decisions about who was accepted into the program, and since then they’ve notified me that I’m in. I’ve even enrolled in the course.
One of the main reasons that I want to do this is that I really would like to be connected with other educators in the area who are interested in professional development. I have some great colleagues here at school, but would like to develop more professional ties to others in the profession. Since my defeat in the NCTE election last year when I ran for Secondary Steering Committee, I’ve not been very active in NCTE or any other professional organization. I went to NCTE in New York, but didn’t have any role other than attendee. It was a bit refreshing, but I also felt like I was missing out. I’ve considered getting involved in the New Jersey affiliate of NCTE, but just haven’t done so yet. I’m hoping that the NWP will provide the community I need.
Also, looking back at my list of goals for the year, I think I may have identified a few people in my department that I can approach to see if they’re interested in starting a writing group. We’ll see what I can get going there. If I can get it going, maybe I can even turn it into a professional development course. At my school we have to complete 21 hours of professional development courses. We can take a wide variety of courses (many of them about technology) and we can also submit proposals to present courses (for which we get paid). I might be able to do a workshop on writing that could meet each month and we would not only have a useful writing group, but could knock out some PDC hours in the process.
National Writing Project
I’ve been accepted into the NWP Summer Institute at Rutgers! I’m very excited. I’ve wanted to do this for years, but when I lived in Virginia there wasn’t a local NWP site for me to attend, and up until now I couldn’t afford it. I still can’t really afford it, but maybe I can’t afford not to do it, either.
We had a meeting a few weeks ago before they made their final decisions about who was accepted into the program, and since then they’ve notified me that I’m in. I’ve even enrolled in the course.
One of the main reasons that I want to do this is that I really would like to be connected with other educators in the area who are interested in professional development. I have some great colleagues here at school, but would like to develop more professional ties to others in the profession. Since my defeat in the NCTE election last year when I ran for Secondary Steering Committee, I’ve not been very active in NCTE or any other professional organization. I went to NCTE in New York, but didn’t have any role other than attendee. It was a bit refreshing, but I also felt like I was missing out. I’ve considered getting involved in the New Jersey affiliate of NCTE, but just haven’t done so yet. I’m hoping that the NWP will provide the community I need.
Also, looking back at my list of goals for the year, I think I may have identified a few people in my department that I can approach to see if they’re interested in starting a writing group. We’ll see what I can get going there. If I can get it going, maybe I can even turn it into a professional development course. At my school we have to complete 21 hours of professional development courses. We can take a wide variety of courses (many of them about technology) and we can also submit proposals to present courses (for which we get paid). I might be able to do a workshop on writing that could meet each month and we would not only have a useful writing group, but could knock out some PDC hours in the process.
I’m a slacker.
So it’s been since November since I’ve blogged. Oops.
Strangely enough, I’m sitting in a workshop about blogging right now, which is what prompted me to write.
So let’s check in with what happened with my list from November:
1. Revive the writing group that I started last year at my old school or start a new one at my new school. Nope, didn’t manage to do this.
2.Do some research on graphic novels. I’d like to look at how readers are creating meaning with graphic novels. This might end up being a big project. I did look into it a bit, but didn’t have the time to do such a big project. Maybe next year.
3. Present a Professional Development Course for my school on graphic novels. Nope, not yet.
4. Write a proposal for next year’s NCTE or CEL conference. I’m not sure what on yet, but being at the conference this year without any official role was a bit strange. I like being a part of the conference, not just an attendee. Nope, failed here, too.
5. Do the National Writing Project at Rutgers this summer. I hoped I’d be able to afford it last year, but we bought a house instead. I think I can do it this summer. I’ve applied. Hopefully it’ll work out.
6. Write an article for NJCTE’s journal. Nope, didn’t do it… yet.
7. Take an online creative writing course from Indiana University. YES, this course will be complete next week!
So I didn’t complete as many of the projects as I wanted to do, but I’m proud that I took the class online and am looking forward to the NWP this summer, hopefully I can still afford it!
I’ll try to post again soon about the class I took and how my school year is going.
Post-NCTE Quarterly Blog
Unless you’re a blogging super hero like Bud Hunt, it’s often difficult to blog frequently when you’re a classroom teacher. My friend Bill Bass and I joke that as classroom teachers we only have the time to blog quarterly. Now that Bill’s left the classroom to help other teachers use technology in their lessons, he’s been able to post much more frequently to his blog. I, however, am still posting very little. As you can see, this is my first post since July.
But I’ve just gotten home from another terrific NCTE conference. Actually, I’ve come home every night of the conference, since I was able to just take the train in each day, but it is now over. The conference was fantastic and, as usual, has inspired me in many ways. Last year after the conference I made a list of all the projects I wanted to do over the next year and posted it here on this blog. It was an ambitious list, and I’m happy that I accomplished most of my tasks. I’ve made a new list of projects to keep me busy this year, here it is:
1. Revive the writing group that I started last year at my old school or start a new one at my new school.
2.Do some research on graphic novels. I’d like to look at how readers are creating meaning with graphic novels. This might end up being a big project.
3. Present a Professional Development Course for my school on graphic novels.
4. Write a proposal for next year’s NCTE or CEL conference. I’m not sure what on yet, but being at the conference this year without any official role was a bit strange. I like being a part of the conference, not just an attendee.
5. Do the National Writing Project at Rutgers this summer. I hoped I’d be able to afford it last year, but we bought a house instead. I think I can do it this summer.
6. Write an article for NJCTE’s journal.
7. Take an online creative writing course from Indiana University.
We’ll see what I get accomplished over the year. I’ll let you know what’s happening in my next quarterly post.
I’ve been blogging, just not here
So I guess I’m back to posting here quarterly. I had hoped to develop a better blogging habit.
I have been blogging a bit more frequently, just at another site. Back in April I decided I wanted to be deliberate in reading at least 50 books this year. To keep myself honest, I decided I would blog about it as I went. So over at this site, I’ve been writing about what I’m reading. I’m not writing much more than a record of what I’ve read and how I liked each, so if you’re looking for astute, articulate writings, you might wish to go somewhere else.
How Honest Can You be While Blogging?
A while ago, my friend and blogging idol, Bud Hunt, recently wrote about an experience in which someone wrote an article about teachers blogging. In the article, which was poorly researched, the author thought that Bud was blogging anonymously, assuming that budtheteacher was a username that he hid behind. Bud corrected her.
Then today I was writing an e-mail to a colleague about blogging, expressing my hesitations about writing honestly on a blog.
I’ve been a member of the NCTE-talk listserve (now called engteach-talk and hosted at interversity) for many years and have always been careful what I post. My thought is that anything I send out onto a listserve or blog could be picked up by just about anyone. In fact, if I google my name, I get hits in the archives of both NCTE-talk and engteach-talk, some of them from years ago. In the non-English teaching world, I also read several personal finance blogs. On those I see some people discussing their personal finance situation in detail, without names but with actual numbers and names of banks. It makes me very, very afraid for them.
So while I like blogging, I always try to be careful what I say. Not that I have huge amounts of nasty things to say, but that we all know how easy it is to misinterpret what we initially thought were simple, benign thoughts.
I don’t know where that leaves me. I like blogging because we can share ideas. But can we ever really share them honestly if we think or fear someone might be listening in? Is is worse for people who are not tenured and do not have job security? Perhaps this is why some people do not want to blog or read blogs. Perhaps this is why it is still crucial that we develop actual, personal conversation with colleagues. Perhaps this is why we still need to work together in departments, attend conferences and still go to meetings.
Teacher Writing Group
Well, since Louann Reid reminded me (and the world) that I have committed to blogging, I suppose I should try to post. I’m not the prolific poster that Bud Hunt is, but I’m trying to post when I have something worthwhile to say.
At the NCTE conference I made a list of projects that I wanted to work on when I returned to school. Here’s my update:
- Work with Jim Mahoney to set up a CEL blog with NCTE.–I spoke with Jim about being a part of this, and he was interested in me helping, but then I never followed through. I know that CEL has started a blog, but I’ve been so busy lately, that I haven’t had a chance to even check it out.
- Finish the article I started on Saturday for Terry Bigelow and Michael Vokoun’s column in English Journal. I’ve worked on it and took a draft of it to the writing group. It’s almost ready to go.
- Enroll in an online course such as this one. Nope, I didn’t do this. I really meant to, but with school, kids and buying a house, I just didn’t have the time.
- Look into establishing a writing group with teachers in my school. Yes! We’ve started the group! I’ll talk about it more below.
- Write a proposal to present at NCTE about our writing group. Yes! We submitted it on time!
- Write a proposal to present at NCTE, continuing to work with Bill and Bud, thinking about our use of technology in the classroom. Yes! Well, Bud isn’t able to make it to that conference, but Bill and I submitted a proposal and Bud’s hoping to be a part of it online.
It looks like I’ve gotten more than half of my projects started, but I’m most excited about our writing group. I found some people in my department who were also interested in writing, talking about writing, and starting to think of ourselves as writers. We believe that, as teachers of writing, we should also be writers. Very much the same idea that if we encourage our students to blog (which I do), we should blog ourselves.
Once I found a few people to help me get the project going, we solicited the entire faculty to join. We haven’t had anyone from other departments yet, although some are interested. We’ve only met twice now–once just to organize and once with actual writing to talk about. For the second meeting, I submitted the article I’m working on for Terry and Michael, one person submitted poems, one submitted part of a memoir, and two submitted fiction. Basically, most of us stayed within our comfort zone. Next week a few of us are going to try to branch out and try something new, so I’ll be submitting a poem. I’m a bit nervous about this–I never write poetry. I’ve already drafted it and read it to a class of mine, but I’m still not that happy with it.
NCTE Podcast
My friend Bud Hunt just posted a podcast of our presentation at NCTE last month. I haven’t listened to it yet, so I can’t vouch for the audio quality, but I remember it being a good presentation. I’m not too sure I want to listen to myself speak, but I know I want to go back and listed to Bud and Bill.
Anyway, you might want to check it out. It’s my first time being part of a podcast in any way.
The Dilbert Blog
Recently I came upon The Dilbert Blog by Scott Adams the cartoonist. It’s usually an interesting read. Today he talked about something that relates to writing that struck home to me:
When I think about a topic, it’s almost always in the form of how I would explain my views to a hypothetical other person. Then I imagine how it would sound to the other person and judge the worthiness of my thought that way. Thoughts without words are just feelings, and hard to trust. But if a thought is easy to describe, there’s a fighting chance it makes some sense.
I almost always think about things this way, explaining to some imaginary person what I’m thinking as a way to clarify what I’m thinking. I also realize that I usually come up with my best ideas while in conversation (real or imagined). I know there have to be some implications about this concept and the teaching of writing, but at 3:00 on a Friday I’m not sure what they are. I’ll think talk to some imaginary people about it over the weekend and let you know what I come up with.
Actually, come to think of it, I think this is actually why so many people like blogging. As a blogger, you can think aloud to a real audience, figure out what you really think and still get feedback from other people. Hmmm.
Trying to Develop a Blogging Habit
Well I’m trying to develop a habit of writing on my blog. Like I tell my students with their journals, writing is like exercise–it’s a lot harder to do if you don’t do it consistently.
Last time I reported a long list of projects I want to work on. I’ve started working on some of them. The one that I’m most happy with is the idea for a writing group. I’ve approached some teachers in my department and three of them have expressed interest in starting a writing group. In fact, those three are all as excited as I am, which is great. We’re going to meet sometime next week to discuss what we might want to do and then put out a memo to all faculty, inviting them to join us. I think it would be great to get some teachers from other departments, too. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m very excited.
I was inspired to start this project from a presenation at NCTE, so I e-mailed Penny Kittle (one of the presenters) and she sent me a couple articles she had written about writing groups and a very helpful e-mail. Apparently she’s written a few books published by Heinemann, too, though I have yet to read any of them.
I’ll let you know how our groups gets on. Wish us the best.
