Appalachian Writing Project
News
Winter Writing Retreat a Success
Nine area teachers met at the Ohio University Inn in Athens Satuday, January 15, to work on
both personal and professional writing. Teachers, K-16, worked on individual writing projects and
offered each other feedback in small groups. Don Dudding led the discussion. The group intends
to write an academic article examining the connections between teachers as writers and writers
as teachers.
The Fourth AWP Summer Institute is Underway
Once again, fifteen area teachers have been accepted to the AWP to participate in an intense four-week institute held from June 21st through July 15th. This institute aims at helping teachers futher develop their own thinking, researching, and writing skills so that they may become better teachers of writing. If you are a veteran of the 2006, 2007, or 2008 Summer Institutes, we warmly invite you to Visitor's Day potluck luncheon on Wednesday, July 14th, at 1:00 p.m. in Ellis Hall, room 111, on the Athens Campus.
The OU Appalachian Writing Project Holds a Winter Writer's Retreat
On January 16th & 17th, 2010, the OUAWP was pleased to hold its first Writer's Retreat. Fifteen Writing Project Fellows gathered together at the Ohio University Inn for a special one-day/one-night event to discuss and share current writing projects. Fellows represented all three years of Summer Institutes from 2007 to 2009. A wide range of writing was shared including writing to heal, young adult fiction, poetry, memoir, travel pieces, and more. This is an event the OUAWP would like to see repeated in the future.
The National Writing Project's Annual Meeting in Philadelphia
The OUAWP was proud to support four Teacher Consultants to the NWP 2009 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA in November from the 18th to the 22nd. Susan Hagerty, Technology Liasion, Jackie Duffy, Inservice Coordinator, Lois Spencer, and Sue Fletcher joined Co-directors, Don Dudding and Debra Nickles in representing our project. TCs participated in workshops, special sessions, socials, and many other activities that will help promote and develop the future of our local site. For more information regarding possible future opportunities, check out nwp.org for details.
2009 Summer Institute is Well Under Way!
Area teachers have once again gathered together for four weeks of intensive writing, reading, and research. If you are a veteran of the 2007 or 2008 Summer Institutes, we warmly invite you to an Ice Cream Social on Friday, June 26th, at 2:00 PM in Ellis Hall, room 111, on the Athens Campus.
Otherwise, keep Wednesday, July 25th, 2009 open for Visitor's Day. This year, we will have a potluck luncheon as we listen to teachers talk about their teaching, their writing, and their Summer Institute experience.
For more information about either event, please call 740.593.2784.
Teacher Consultant Sue Fletcher Accepted to the 2009 Memorial Library Summer Seminar on Holocaust Education in New York City
Sue Fletcher, an AWP fellow from the 2008 Summer Institute and a teacher at Hocking College, has received a generous fellowship from the National Writing Project, in partnership with the Holocaust Educators Network. She will attend a Holocaust-focused seminar in New York for two weeks in July. The seminar will be lead by Dr. Sondra Perl, founding co-director of the New York City Writing Project and professor of English and Urban Education at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Sue will be among 25 teachers staying at Columbia University while learning from Holocaust survivors and experts. Sue plans to offer a workshop for AWP in the future.
Congratulations, Sue!
Appalachian Writing Project Leadership Team Announced
Thursday evening, March 5th, marked the official development of the OUAWP'S Leadership Team.
Fellows from previous Summer Institutes agree that the Writing Project has reached a crucial stage in its development and is now ready to embrace more challenges. The overall Leadership Team consists of 10 TCs (Teacher Consultants) who will offer specialized projects to our schools and in our communities. These leaders have decided to branch out into three focused teams: the Activist Team, a Community Outreach Team, and an Inservice Team. Susan Hagerty, our established Technology Liaison, is also looking to build a team around technological support.
These three teams plan to encourage political activism by addressing the educational changes taking place right now in Ohio legislation, to cultivate relationships with school districts by offering ever-more meaningful inservice opportunities, and to invigorate community investment in the simple gift of writing.
Can you see yourself participating in any of these activities? Do you wish to renew friendships with the teachers you met at the Summer Institute? Do you want be more involved? If so, contact a Teacher Consultant from the following list--today!
| Activist Team | Sue Fletcher, Hocking College |
fletcher_s@hocking.edu |
|---|---|---|
| Inservice Team | Tonya James, Logan-Hocking |
tjames@loganhocking.k12.oh.us |
| Community Outreach Team | Jackie Duffy, Logan-Hocking Chris Duke, Logan-Hocking Carly Hayes, Eastern Meigs |
|
| Technology Liaison | Susan Hagerty, Belpre |
bc_shagerty@seovec.org |
Teaching and Writing Fellows’ Homecoming
Teachers from both Summer Institutes, 2007 & 2008, met in November to discuss the future direction of our site. We began with directed writing, using a microtheme index card to visually express, in a single word, our relationships to writing and how writing fits into our lives now. We then moved on to discuss what types of writing and teaching groups we wanted to form and how best to sustain them. Finally, the evening ended by rearticulating our vision for OUAWP and bouncing around recruitment strategies for the 2009 SI. If you missed the meeting and would like a quick update, feel free to contact Deb Nickles at nickles@ohio.edu or give her a call at 740.597.1869 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Susan Hagerty Named as Technology Liaison
Congratulations to Susan Hagerty for being named the Ohio University Appalachian Writing Project's Technology Liaison! Susan currently teaches at Belpre City Schools and is also a Teaching Consultant from OUAWP's first Summer Institute in 2007. She will be accompanying the AWP director and co-directors to the Annual National Writing Project's Meeting in San Antonio, Texas during the third week of November. At the meeting she will learn to access the Technology Liaisons Network and help our site to "use and integrate technology to support the teaching and learning of writing" both locally and on a national level. Welcome, Susan.
Teacher Fellows Present Inservice
OUAWP would like to thank Melissa Hillard, Merrilee Carlon, and Kris Strawser for presenting a Writing Strategies inservice last September for all 5th grade teachers in the Logan-Hocking Local School District. Kris says that "it went well and we got positive feedback. We also passed out applications for the class next year. Several people picked one up, so I think we are getting the word out about how great the program is."
Great work, folks!
If you are interested in providing an inservice for your own district and would like support, please contact the office at 740-597-1869 or awp@ohiou.edu for assistance.
Back from Chicago, TC Lois Spencer has "Great Experience"
Working with "some of the top English teachers around," Lois Spencer, from Fort Frye Local School District, spent September 24-27 in Chicago scoring middle school students' writing as part of the NWP's research effort to evaluate five years' worth of professional development partnership activities. Lois explains that the project is designed to "determine if there is significant differences between scores on papers scored analytically as opposed to those scored holistically." She is also looking forward to reviewing the data and hopes to return to another session in June, this time in Denver. NWP covered her travel expenses and provided a modest stipend of $500. We are glad to have Lois, and any other TCs who may be interested, represent our site and region at such NWP functions. Thanks, Lois!
Fall Gathering Date Set for November 8th
The OUAWP fall workshop has been set for November 8th, 5:30-7:30 p.m., in the Faculty Commons at Alden Library. We are especially excited to gather on this evening because teaching fellows from both Summer Institutes will meet and share writing experiences from all over the region. How fabulous to be in on the first gathering of such a committed and outstanding community!
Teacher Consultant (TC) Tonya James Selected for Professional Writing Retreat
Tonya James, the OUAWP's first teacher consultant, has been selected to participate in the National Writing Project's Professional Writing Retreat to be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico in June. Tonya was selected from applicants at over 200 National Writing Project sites. Congratulations Tonya!
Tonya James at the 2007 SI