WMWP

06/07/2024

Check out our most recent Chalk Talk below - co-written by last year's Summer Leadership Institute cohort!

Jennifer DiGrazia, English professor at Westfield State University and co-site director of WMWP: In the Western Mass Writing Project (WMWP) Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), we think that good teaching begins with good questions, the sorts of complex...

05/29/2024

Do you teach middle or high school in a rural community of Western Massachusetts and seek to engage your students with an authentic civics project that will meet the Massachusetts Department of Education’s curriculum requirements? Or, are you looking for ways to incorporate authentic journalism or argument writing into your curriculum?

The Western Massachusetts Writing Project is part of a National Writing Project Civic Journalism Project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation. We’re looking for teachers in a variety of content areas, who work in rural school districts to engage students in community-based journalism projects. The project is aimed at areas that are considered “news deserts,” places where there might be little opportunity otherwise for student work to be seen by a larger audience.

Rural Ink’s aim is to foster student voice and civic engagement in communities, with the publishing of student work on topics of high interest to them as a central aim.

Participants will engage in a day-long workshop at Westfield State University on Tuesday, August 20th from 9-3, and then implement lesson plans that draw on National Writing Project resources with students in the fall, leading to publication of student work on a CIPA/COPPA-compliant NWP platform and, possibly, in conjunction with a local newspaper. Periodic video check-ins with facilitators will be part of the professional development.

Teachers will earn a $250 stipend for this work, paid at the end of the project after student work has been published, as well as 10 PDPs.

Registration: https://forms.gle/HBveoou8bxXZMdE57

This initiative is being facilitated by Leslie Skantz-Hodgson and Kevin Hodgson, both of whom are longtime teacher-consultants with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project and former journalists for the Springfield Republican newspaper.

04/18/2024

Congrats to Dr. Ives!

Join us on Wednesday, April 17 at 6:45pm, for an engaging Book Talk and Discussion with Dr. Denise Ives, who recently published her book, Discourse Analysis of Language, Literacy, Culture, and Teaching: Concepts, Theories, and Methods in Action. Dr. Ives is an Associate Professor at the UMASS College of Education’s Children, Families, & Schools Program.

This event is free and open to the public, and there will be refreshments preceding the talk. Event organized and sponsored by the Student Advisory Committee of the Language, Literacy, and Culture program (LLC SAC).

04/18/2024

We have extended the deadline to April 21st! Nominate a deserving WMWP teacher today!

04/08/2024

We would like to invite you to register for the 2024 Best Practices in the Teaching of Writing Conference at Westfield State University on April 27 from 9-3. This year, we will have Anne Elrod Whitney--an author, teacher and UPenn professor of writing--as our keynote speaker as well as a range of presentations for teachers of all grade levels focused on our theme of (re)engaging teachers and students. Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmTWLQbhK-2tO957IAWSpUQuvjYfO185Qp8NO47OYQrOYs7w/viewform

Please share the attached flyer with your colleagues (feel free to print it and hang it in your school). We hope to see you there!

03/29/2024

There's still time to register for this year's Best Practices Conference, taking place at Westfield State University on April 27th! Check out the registration form for more info. and to sign up!

Please supply the following information. You will receive a copy of your responses after submission.

03/11/2024

Check out our March Chalk Talk, written by incoming Co-Director of Teacher Programs, Nicole Godard!

It’s March again, which means that in many high schools a new semester is well underway. At the end of every grading period, the same conversation starts making the rounds in teaching circles, on social media, in the teacher’s lounge, all sharing a...

03/01/2024

It's that time of year when amazing teachers apply for local Writing Project summer institutes to share and learn alongside other amazing teachers. Find your local Writing Project site and look into it today! The experience will be transformational, we promise. https://www.nwp.org/what-we-do/sites

02/27/2024

Thanks for the shoutout National Writing Project!

WMWP is now housed at Westfield State University! Check out their beautiful website with their history, resources, program info, and news. https://www.westfield.ma.edu/western-ma-writing-project

02/27/2024

The deadline for nominations and applications for the Pat Hunter Award and the Charlie Moran Fellowship is coming up soon! Don't forget to apply or nominate another educator by March 25, 2024. Information on how to apply or nominate is below.

PAT HUNTER AWARD
WMWP is seeking nominations for the Pat Hunter Award. As many of you know, each year we honor a member of the WMWP community with an award in memory of Pat Hunter, one of the founding co-directors of the WMWP who died in 1999. She was an outstanding teacher and teacher leader. The award recognizes “a member of the WMWP community who has contributed substantially to the work of WMWP and who best exemplifies the values that Pat embodied in her work with teachers and writers.”

If you would like to nominate someone for the award, send an e-mail to [email protected] explaining why you think that person is deserving of the award. Only people who are nominated may be considered, so if someone comes to mind, please submit their name. Be sure to explain your reasons for nominating the person. Current co-directors are not eligible: they include Chelsea Pacheco, Samantha Briggs and Chris Rea. The selection committee includes the co-directors and site director.

I know we have many other WMWP TCs who are deserving of this award, so please help us select this year’s recipient by sending along a nomination. The nomination deadline is March 25, 2024. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions regarding this award.

CHARLES MORAN TEACHER LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP h
Please consider submitting to the Charles Moran Teacher Leadership Fellowship. This fellowship provides an opportunity for WMWP teacher-consultants to propose a program and receive a small grant to implement it.

To honor the memory of our founding site director, Charlie Moran, and extend his legacy, WMWP instituted in 2016 an annual award: the Charles Moran Teacher Leadership Fellowship. The purpose of this fellowship is to build capacity within WMWP and the larger education community through projects designed and facilitated by WMWP teacher-consultants who have not yet held leadership positions in the network but who aspire to leadership roles. The successful candidate for the Moran Fellowship will develop and implement a program for teachers during the coming year.

Applications are now being received for this year's award. What's your idea for teacher leadership? See the attached flyer for details about the fellowship and the application process. Email all application materials to [email protected] by the proposal deadline, March 25, 2024.

The award and fellowship will be presented at this year’s Best Practices Conference on April 27 2024.

02/27/2024

Celebrate NWP's 50th birthday by reflecting on the past and honoring the experiences that have shaped you as a teacher-writer. The Writers Who Care editors encourage you to share your NWP journey, including memorable moments, influential people, practices, and joys. Reflect on significant events, milestones, or individuals in your Writing Project site's history, as well as your initial (and later) summer institutes, and how these experiences have influenced your teaching and approach to working with writers. Deadline: March 31 https://bit.ly/wwc-2024-call-for-blogs

02/15/2024

If you’ve been near a high school for any significant amount of time in the last 10 years, you’ve likely encountered the often abstract idea of “early college.” It’s certainly an important buzzword in education these days, but what is it exactly? Does...