Prairielands

Each year PLWP sponsores an evening of readings by writing teachers.  This is a great opportunity for new TCs to share their writing with other teachers who write. It also provides an opportunity for them to get acquainted with teachers who are part of a writing group.  One such group meets regularly to write and help each other with writing.  See more about this evening at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/plwp/wwtw08/ or http://www.efljblog.blogspot.com/

Mary

PLWP celebrates with the final meeting of SI08 on Oct. 4th.  This was a day of online learning with Kevin Hodgson as our keynote speaker.  See http://www.missouriwestern.edu/plwp/08saturdayseminar/info.html  for more information and posted handouts. There is a link here to Kevin’s presentation online at http://dogtrax.googlepages.com/prairielandswp

Mary

I see a whole year has come and gone since I last posted to this blog.  PLWP Summer Institute 2008 had a lively group of teachers who as always found they never had enough time to write.  Discussions about writing and teaching of writing take up a lot of time.

June 2008 saw the largest group of TCs from all over the state of MO attending the annual PLWP writing retreat.  Rebecca closed the registration at 25 participants.  Britton Gildersleeve of the OK. writing project acted as the guest editor.  This retreat is held just 1.5 miles from where I live.  It is held at the Conception Abbey Monastery in rural NW Missouri.  I get to be the meet-and-greet person each year.  This year I conducted two tours of the newest sites in rural MO–24 electricity generating giant windmills dot the landscape.  We have two on our property so I could get people up close and personal with the windmills.  Rebecca wrote a little about the windmills during the retreat. See http://plwp.wetpaint.com/page/PLWP+2008+Writing+Retreat  .

July 31 and Aug. 1 saw 8 PLWP TCs attending the Missouri State Writing Project Network in Columbia, MO.  It was a rewarding two day retreat complete with a writing marathon and open mic.  My writing marathon group chose two art galleries, an ice cream shop called Sparkys and a tatoo parlor as our writing marathon stops. 

Some of the activities ahead for PLWP are the Fall Finish, Oct 4th with Kevin Hodgson as the keynote speaker.  I am looking forward to visiting with Kevin.  The Fall Finish is the final meeting for the SI and also provides workshop sessions as professional development opportunities for area teachers.  October 14th is the annual When Writing Teachers Write meeting.  It is an evening opportunity for teachers to read some of their writing and discuss writing and teaching of writing with like minded teachers.  Following October is the November NWP meeting.  I am looking forward to seeing many friends I have made in the area of writing.  Mary

This the group of writers from Missouri Writing Projects that spent a weekend in June 2007 at Conception Abbey writing and revising work.

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Regional Professional Development sites and the Missouri Writing Project Network are working together to provide middle school teachers with strategies for teaching writing. The purpose is to increase state standardized scores.

Missouri Writing Project Network (MWPN) held its annual retreat in Columbia, MO in early August. How do we help students become better readers as well as writers? National Writing Projects focus of Teachers Teaching Teachers is what helped MWPN to be well on its way when the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ask for help to provide teacher in-services that focused on improving student reading and writing. This group of Missouri Writing Project directors and teacher consultants has been meeting for several years to discuss the State of the State challenges in reading and writing.

I had the opportunity to present to a group of third grade students about living and growing up on a century farm.  Being a NWP TC with the Prairie Lands Writing Project I had to integrate writing. See http://mistyblue.edublogs.org to read the class poem about farms.

Mary

Twenty Years Celebration

Saturday Oct. 6, 2007 in conjunction with the final meeting for our 2007 Summer Invitational Institute Prairie Lands Writing project celebrated 20 years of teachers teaching teachers.  See the program for the day at: http://www.missouriwestern.edu/plwp/saturdayseminar/index.html

A slide show of remembrances of 20 years of Invitational Institutes and other events was presented as participants mingled and caught up on fellow TCs lives.  Self-formed groups found their way through their years scrapbooks to laugh and remember the writing pieces shared with each other in their particular Invitational.  Information about the PLWP site and NWP were presented in the form of a slide show quiz.  The Missouri Western State University(MWSU)  President welcomed everyone and the dean of the graduate school expressed his congratulations.  MWSU has only recently achieved university status.  PLWP had the very first graduate certificate program approved by Western. See information at: http://www.missouriwestern.edu/plwp/graduatecertificate.html

PLWP has had three directors.  The first director Dr. Norma Bagnal was present with words of wit.  Heidi Mick spoke of her memories of Dr. Judy Martin who died in 2003.  Dr. Jane Frick, current director, proctored the quiz sharing data from the local site and NWP.  That information should appear on the PLWP site shortly.   There were about ten of the 1987 writing project TCs present. 

Seventeen new TCs were presented to the group.  Three of them read their final pieces.  Others spoke about writing projects they are now using in their classrooms.  Some talked about how the power of learning and writing with other teachers has touched their professional and personal lives. 

Five workshops were presented:

Teachers, Teaching and Academic Writing: Where Recipes Fail. Tom Pankiewicz (pankiew@missouriwestern.edu) and Dawn Terrick (terrick@missouriwestern.edu), Missouri Western State University English instructors.
Creating a Brain-Compatible Classroom. Diane Scollay (dsgateway@umsl.edu), Gateway Writing Project Director at the University of Missouri – St Louis. The MAP, GLEs, and DOKs: An Interactive Workshop. Sally Minnick(minnick@nwmissouri.edu), Communication Arts Facilitator for the Northwest Regional Professional Development Center at Northwest Missouri State University.
Exploring the Nation’s Attics to Make Learning Real: Using American Memory and Other Free Public Resources in Your Classroom. Barbara Price (bprice@truman.edu), Truman State University English professor.

Found Poetry: Read! Search! Find! Write and Remember! Ann Dotson (ann.dotson@sjsd.k12.mo.us), St Joseph Skaith Elementary grade four teacher, and Joe Marmaud (jmarmaud1@missouriwestern.edu), Missouri Western State University adjunct English instructor.
As you can see when reading about the presenters four universities were represented on the workshop program.

Mary

August 1-3, 2007

Evening of Aug. 1 the 4 site representatives meet to get reacquainted and hear the state-of- the state address. After a burger and chicken bar dinner it was time to unpack and get ready for the next day.  The day started as all writing projects start with food.  Participatns had the option of selecting to attend 2 form 5 different presentations.  After lunch groups set out on a writing marathon to a number of interested sites.  At 5 we met at a pizza place to enjoy more eating.  Open mike from the writing marathons was the entertainment.  I will write more about the meetings when I get home.  Too much networking makes it past my bedtime now.  Mary in Missouri