How Do We Reach More South Dakota Teachers?
Thoughts From NWP Meetings, Nashville, TN, November 2006
by Nancy Kampfe, Stevens School, Rapid City School District
I learned so many ways to improve our image and our status across the state that I almost don’t know where to begin. Key to this discussion is the question, How can we design our programs to maximize their impact and thereby set the stage for effective marketing of all DWP has to offer South Dakota’s teachers?
This program design with the marketing strategy built in is an intentional change in what we do to build impact and to market the Writing Project. Our reputation builds by what we do and how we do it. We were continually cautioned to avoid looking at numbers as the definition of “success” in Writing Project programs. The value of the program to those who participate is far more important because those people talk to other people, and interest in our programs will grow. Success depends on key people doing it the right way (following the NWP model), not on numbers. We were urged to always stick with the NWP Model – never to adapt ourselves so much that we lose site of our mission!
Summer Institutes are the mainstay of a writing project, and many sites have built in more ways to help TCs continue their affiliation with the WP and also continue their professional growth. One project sets up a Yahoo! Group for their SI participants, and the group continues after the Summer Institute. Other projects use the NWP blog during the SI, just as we do. Mississippi State WP uses the NWP blog in Summer Institute, requiring participants to post a draft of their professional piece to the blog within two weeks after the SI. Responses to/by writing group members are required about prompts that help them connect the piece to their own classroom practice.
Some projects require that a new TC lead some kind of project in their school in the year following their attendance at Summer Institute. Then the TC goes to another school to do a demonstration as inservice. The third step in the professional growth process is for the TC to write an NCTE proposal to present nationally. Other writing projects pair a veteran TC with a new TC, asking them to lead some kind of presentation or workshop.
To make such a requirement work, we might also consider holding an in-service session for Administrators of TCs with TC and administrator attending together. The session models how to advocate for the Writing Project in the school and gives examples of how the TC learns in the Summer Institute. Administrator and TC are also given the opportunity to discuss how the TCs expertise can be used in school in-service. The Vermont WP holds a two-day Administrators Writing Workshop with TCs presenting demonstrations as a variation of a study group. This is another good way to build administrative support for the Writing Project model.
The Denver WP holds a Summer Institute for SI Alums for one week, held at the same time as the regular Summer Institute. The project director emails alums to ask their assistance in mentoring SI participants with demonstrations. The Connecticut WP holds an advanced institute called “Revisiting the Summer Institute,” a four-day workshop that they write into their annual grant so they can pay attending teachers $50 a day. The institute refreshes teachers on the NWP model, and helps them develop curriculum as well as preparing them to do professional development work for the project.
The Kennesaw Mountain WP in West Virginia holds an Advanced Summer Institute that brings together teachers who have already completed an SI and who want to work on professional writing projects of their own. Affiliates who did their initial NWP work with another site are also welcome to attend the KMWP advanced program. Again, large numbers are not needed; only an interest in writing to share their expertise with the profession is required.
One Michigan WP holds a Three-Day Reunion Retreat in first week of August. The TC pays the cost of the retreat, usually held at some camping site, or possibly at a church camp. Day one, participants reconnect in a variety of ways, one being to write a letter to themselves: where I am, what I plan to do this year. The Project Director mails the letter to TCs in January when the doldrums hit, so they can revitalize themselves. On the second day, a guest author is invited. The TC’s administrator is invited on the final day; a mini-writing marathon is done, along with a “sharing celebration” so the administrator also gets to see what the SI helps teachers write. This writing celebration is held during the August reunion to help new TCs to bond with other TCs rather than only continuing the close-knit bond formed with SI participants during SI. What a wonderful way to begin a new school term!
Programs held throughout the school year are another way to provide continuing professional development for TCs, and these programs can also be a way to get non-Writing Project teachers interested in what we do. The Vermont WP offers “Saturday Special” workshops at the university site. They charge teachers $20 to attend—this is for TCs and those who have never been to SI. They provide breakfast snacks and lunch along with a variety of demonstrations about writing. They never hold a Saturday Special in September as teachers are too busy to attend, and they make a glitzy brochure to advertise the programs.
The Chicago WP holds Saturday Seminars, charging teachers $20 to attend, giving a $5 discount if you bring another teacher from your school. They run three concurrent sessions for one and a half hours, followed by a break, followed by three more one and one-half hour sessions. They have the same strands on each Saturday. (We could substitute any other grade level for the ones here). They advertise the program in advance and put pdf flyers on their website.
| 9:15-10:45 | 11:00-12:30 |
| A. K-2 session | D. Writing to Learn |
| B. 3-5 session | E. Writing Workshop |
| C. 6-8 session | F. Miscellaneous: Poetry, Assessment, Reading-Writing Connection |
Saturday sessions would provide new as well as continuing TCs with professional development opportunities, either in attending or presenting sessions for other teachers.
The Upper Peninsula WP in Michigan also holds Saturday Sessions, from 9 am to noon, four times per semester. Participants write to a prompt, share student work, and do some problem-solving of classroom issues. These sessions are advertised beforehand in local newspapers. Dividing their state into sections (focused around where TCs live) helped the UPWP decide where to hold the sessions each time.
We might also consider dividing our state because we are so far apart from east to west. Holding the sessions in a different place each time would also open up opportunities for more teachers and for more TCs to help provide professional development to their colleagues.
Mississippi State WP formed six continuity areas for their mid-week sessions held at night. A TC leads the group, with the agenda decided by the group assembled or by the TC. Participants earn Continuing Education credit.
Northwest Inland WP in Idaho forms One Book One Community groups. With a bookstore willing to do it, the group can meet one night at the bookstore to look for a book to teach a literary element in your classroom. The bookstore gives a free book to each TC who attends and brings another person along.
It may be time for us in the DWP to take the Institute to the teachers, as the Oregon WP does. Oregon’s Satellite Institutes began as Open Institutes. Now they are four weeks in length and teachers get a stipend. Oregon holds three Satellite Institutes in sites around their state. One director of the OWP is in residence at the Satellite Institute for the first week to complete the necessary paperwork and for quality control in getting the institute off and running. Oregon holds pays a $1000 stipend to participants, and the two most enthusiastic TCs in the SI become co-directors of the next Satellite Institute. The Oregon WP got a Project Outreach grant to move their Summer Institute from LaGrande to Pendleton. Maine WP holds an Embedded Institute online during the school year, an idea that might also work across our miles here in South Dakota.
All these ideas demand time to come to fruition. Long-range planning and thinking into the future are needed as we think of more and better ways to help our TCs continue to develop professionally and to bring the Writing Project message to more teachers in South Dakota. If we take baby steps, go back, review and reflect, try and try again, I know we will be thrilled with the results.
