Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Lady Lester's "Write Group"
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
NWP Tech Matters Reunion in NYC
Alabama Writing Project State Network
Friday, November 16, 2007
Preparing for our NWP Presentation
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Awards and Accolades
Co-Director Angela Crawford's Wiki Wonderland
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Teaching Foreign Language in a Digital Era
Jessica Montalvo, 2005 Fellow and Team Leader, conducted a workshop for the UMS Foreign Language Department last month: Teaching Foreign Language in a Digital Era.
Jessica expressed that the participants were very receptive to learning about incorporating technology into the curriculum and particularly how to develop strategies for promoting writing in the target languages they teach (Spanish, French, Latin, Greek). Jessica found that the technology integration was for her, "the best part of MBWP."
Thanks for sharing this with us Jessica and keep up the good work!
Monday, November 12, 2007
National Writing Project Meeting in New York
2006 Voices From A Safe Harbor ~ Published!
VOICES FROM A SAFE HARBOR
Congratulations to Dr. Daphne Hubbard, editor and contributing authors:
Cindy Adams, Paige Baggett, Barbara Bateman, V. Battiste, Deanna Beck, Torrey H. Berry, Beth Burke, Leslie Carson, Gail Cates, Mary Beth Culp, Sylvia D. Cummins, sandy Davis, Tracy Davis, Kimberly Endt, Kelly Evans. Gail Filotei, Ardith Goodwin, Maureen Glavey Goodwin, Patsy Hamilton, Patsy Hamilton, Helen Hare, Adrienne Haynes, Linda Helton, Donna Hildreth, Shayna Hollowell, Barbara House, Daphne W. Hubbard, Sonja Hughes, Lady Lester, Stephen McClurg, Kathy McLeod, Angela Merrick, Marcelle Rathele Naman, Carly Marie Nelson, Diane Oliver, Teffine Petro, Luann Rice, Robin Rivers, Fran Roberts, Beverly Rossini, Sondra Thomas, Audrey P. Tucker, Debbie Tuggle, Molly Wagner , Kristy Weatherford, Jackie Wesson , Della White, and Jayne Yarbrough.
The anthology is a collection of poetry and prose written by fellows of the 2006 Mobile Bay Writing Project Summer Institute.
Although I take no credit, I know from first-hand experience the time and effort that went into developing the personal pieces, editing, and bringing this manuscript to publication. I applaud the WRITERS who participate in the National Writing Project Summer Institutes across the United States.
"Better writing and bold leadership are the core of local summer institutes, conducted each year by nearly 200 National Writing Project university-based sites. Participants in four-week institutes (accomplished, thoughtful teachers) prepare for leadership roles by demonstrating their most effective practices, studying research, and IMPROVING THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF WRITING BY WRITING THEMSELVES."
~from the National Writing Project 2006 Annual Report
I applaud the Mobile Bay Writing Project authors for the time and effort put into this publication.
Please contact Dr. Paige Baggett if you would like to purchase a copy of Voices From a Safe Harbor ($15.99 + tax) or order online at www.kyteflyte.com
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Share your Literacy Teaching/Learning Ideas
What have you been doing lately to facilitate writing in your classroom? Please share your ideas with us.
I created a new wiki to share art resources among graduate students, undergraduate students, and teachers who want to facilitate understanding and responding to visual arts. Check us out and add some ideas at http://arttalk.wetpaint.com/
Writing about personal interpretations of visual arts is one of my favorite ways to inspire students to explore multiple literacies. Of course add technology in the mix and all my professional passions are integrated.
MBWP Awards and Accolades
Please add your awards and accolades as comments so I can submit them to the National Writing Project! I won't know if you don't tell me.
Janis Price and Wynter Galloway, 2007 fellows, along with director and technology liaison Paige Baggett presented Mobile Bay Writing Project (MBWP) Teacher Consultants Use Web 2.0 Technology to Communicate and Collaborate in the K-12 Classroom at the University of South Alabama Technology Fair on October 26, 2007 sponsored by Biomedical Library, Faculty Senate Technology Unitization Committee, and University Academic Computing Committee, with a Grant supported by National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Southeastern/Atlantic Region (SE/A).
Sondra Thomas, 2001 fellow, was named Theodore High School's Teacher of the Year in 2006, and then awarded the High School Teacher of the Year for Mobile County. Much of the information in her portfolio was based on her teaching of writing.
Regina Dossett, 2007 fellow, won the University of South Alabama Stokes Scholarship for Poetry as well as for Fiction this year through the University of South Alabama English Department. She also published a story entitled "Red Wrong" in the Oracle, University of South Alabama’s literary magazine. Her unpublished novel, Mayonnaise Sandwiches, was chosen as a semifinalist in the William Wisdom Faulkner Novel Writing Competition for 2007. And she will be writing and reading a poem at the Mobile, AL Saenger Theater for the Martin Luther King celebration in January.
Ron Polizzi, 2007 fellow, had two short stories published recently. One in Bewildering Stories, and another in Crimson Highway.
Paige V. Baggett, Director of the MBWP received the University of South Alabama Lisa Mitchell Bukstein Foundation Scholarship for Developing Faculty in Education. Paige received this for her pursuit of promoting literacy, creativity, and artistic expression through digital storytelling. This project was initiated through her work as technology liaison which was facilitated by the award of the NWP 2006 technology mini grant.
Carol Case, 2000 fellow, recently had a poem published in Whatever Remembers Us. This is Dr. Sue Walker's Poet Laureate project. She has collected poems by and about Alabama. Carol's poem is entitled, "Wildlife Sanctury."
MBWP Tech Team Presents
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Women in Art...could we write about this?
Press the play >button and enjoy!!!
What writing ideas could this facilitate?
Writing Resources
Dictionary.com Word of the Day
At this site, a new word is presented every day with its definition and example sentences from actual published works. I especially like the example sentences from published works!
Our own Jackie Wesson shared that she uses this site in a number of ways:
Jackie said: "The Thesaurus on the site is an excellent way to have kids find their own WOW WORDs. They just type in an overused word (such as big) then use a better one from the list given." She also uses this to make synonym posters for each classroom, "making a list of synonyms for each overused word and adding these lists to the WORD WALL. This site also offers a language interpreter that will transpose whatever you type into another language. Then it can be cut and pasted into WORD. The kids love seeing funny sayings like "kiss my grits" as it would appear in Chinese or Greek."
The MBWP Website is "Under Construction" but meanwhile, I know there are other favorite writing resources you could share with us as we prepare for the new year. Feel free to post them here under comments!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
MBWP ADVANCED Institute Feedback
What/where do you teach? What was personally most rewarding about the MBWP Advanced Institute experience?
What did you learn, view, and/or engage in that will be most useful to your future teaching? How do you plan to implement these ideas?
What do you suggest for continuity of what we established in the MBWP?
MBWP 2007 Summer Institute Feedback
What was personally most rewarding about the MBWP experience?