General Session Writings 2007
Date: November 16, 2007
Summary: Educators reflect on their profession and NWP. Here is a sample of their writing from the General Session at the 2007 NWP Annual Meeting.
I'll Never Be the Same
Conformation, affirmation, collaboration . . . I can't choose one, solamente one, thing about my writing project experience. . . . I think the best way to describe it is "transformation and awakening." From my first day at summer institute something lying dormant within me broke free, and I have never been—will never be—the same again. The way I teach all of my students, the way I view them all as successful contemporary future fellow-writers is inspired by and motivated and renewed through the writing community of which I am now a part.
--Susan Piper, Sun Belt Writing Project
That Glimmer
What's most important in my WP experience is sitting next to and around me. What's most important is that glimmer in a student's eye when I see the thought translating from mind to pen, and that thought becomes validated because it becomes a text that speaks, that can be shared, that can scream, or can whisper. What's so important to me is that I actually know how to trigger and shape and model so that it can occur. The NWP has taught me. My NWP colleagues have supported this and I'm so lucky. This is the one gift I've been given as a teacher.
--Maggie Divine, NWP at Rutgers, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Professional Community
Collegiality. A professional community that values diverse methods for advancing shared goals; that recognizes and respects the knowledge that comes from experience as well as research; that inquires into problems with the goal of finding new knowledge and collaborating on possible solutions; that allows the voices of stakeholders in this enterprise we call education to be heard, clearly and loudly.
--Peter Kittle, Northern California
Continuing to Grow
My WP experience is important because it keeps my thinking and my teaching fresh. I have colleagues who, with 25 or 30 years of classroom experience, still teach the way they did 25 or 30 years ago. I don't want to become one of those teachers. Even if my methods are great today, the students and the time will be different ten years hence; what is effective today might not work ten years from now. Many ideas that were new when I encountered them in an SI are standard practice now. I look forward to continuing to encounter creative and effective practices.
--Tom Thompson, Lowcountry WP
A Sense of Rightness
"What is most important about my writing project experience is all of it" is the short response. Often I experience a sense of rightness—a sense of coming home, when I encounter an idea I know will be important to me.
In the writing project I literally have that feeling all the time. It is the most rewarding, most powerful and the most important part of my work. I feel honored to be a part of the network, grateful for the support provided by the National Writing Project and continually inspired by the teachers I work with everyday. Thank you for your thoughtful approach and your support of the intellectual work of teachers.
Passion
The passion and enthusiasm expressed by my students who have engaged in projects which were stimulated by the NWP participation. The project has given me the confidence to view myself as a valuable (and valued) educator. Although I am not in a classroom setting, NWP core principles apply outside the doors of a traditional setting—to inspire and provoke inquiry and (once again) passion for written expression.
Collegiality
The most valuable aspect of my writing project experience is the network. The collegiality and support of a like minded—or equally committed—group of people dispelled the notion of isolation and despair that overcomes teachers behind closed classroom doors.
Writing Helps Get to Know Students
[What is most important is] the change in myself to allow writing to become a more intricate and daily activity in my Science class. The activities (writing) allow me to see the needs of the individual student, get to know them better than in previous years and appreciate the diversity of luggage the students bring to my classroom.
Teacher Heroes
My Writing Project experience has transformed my teaching. I am a community college English professor, one who had absolutely no training in teaching of writing before I began teaching eleven years ago. I have found an amazing network of teacher heroes—women and men who tirelessly work on top of their full time teaching professions—to make sure that teachers find their voices, find their way to reaching every student in an increasingly hostile teaching environment.
People Who Love Language
I like being with other people, particularly ones who work hard and earnestly to teach young folks. I also like being with people who love language—love playing with it, love trying to use it to get their thoughts out, and love deciphering others' uses of language.
I also really like process and processing stuff, and we do that a lot in the Writing Project. I like how we live the theory of writing as a process, with products we produce at various stages, and process our process as we develop as a site...
Far from Alone
It has been invaluable to me to have a group of professionals with whom I can grow intellectually and learn from regularly. The excitement for the teaching and writing we share breeds even more excitement. When I started teaching 9 years ago, I felt like I was all alone in my passion for learning, teaching, and writing. But after my NWP experience, I understand that I am far from alone. I am confident that with my network of teachers, I will continue to be passionate about my profession and be nurtured into a more complete teacher.
--Mari Uscatequi (Tampa Bay Area Writing Project)
Nobility, Passion, and Dedication
The writing project has been the most transformational professional experience of my career. It has allowed me to see the nobility, passion and dedication of so many teachers around me. I had previously thought that such teachers were anomalies, a few brave among the masses. I now have a support network of these fine people to call in times of great joy, sorrow, and always in times of educational need. I am so privileged to have become a part of the WP. It has truly opened many doors for me and for the children I teach each year.
--Melissa VanKlompenburg (Lake Michigan WP)
Feeling Like a Writer
There are several things, so it's difficult to identify one, but I can say that during the SI, I felt like a writer for the first time. I had been teaching for about five years (teaching college English), but had never really written anything that wasn't "required." Writing during the SI was a job, not a chore (as it had been) before. And, I think from that point on, I've had more respect for my reluctant student writers and have also made attempts (and strides) in my classroom to help students feel/attain the same joy.
Mind Shift
Its now been 13 years since I was in the SI. While I learned much about the teaching of writing: strategies, resources, etc., there are 2 things that cemented me to TCWP for life, so to speak. One was the mind shift of thinking of myself as a writer, not just a teacher of writing. The other was the collegial base. Never before had I participated in a group where we had the luxury of talking deeply about teaching. What a treasure for a teacher who was near disillusionment.