Lady Lester's "Write Group"

As I enter data in our inservice and continuity MBWP spreadsheet, I'm reminded of the great work our own Lady Lester does to encourage us to take time to write personally. If you have not attended a Write Group Meeting, you are missing a real treat! Lady facilitated an art themed meeting with Ron Polizzi sharing his ideas in September and had our MBWP founder and co-director Dr. Mary Beth Culp share the history of the project and "new beginnings" with fellows in October. Thank you Lady and all who attend. I'm looking forward to our next get-together!

NWP Tech Matters Reunion in NYC

I was able to catch up with my NWP Tech Friends at John's Pizzaria. The eggplant parmesean was delicious, but not surpassed by the fabulous company. These ahead-of-curve teachers from across the country are doing so much to promote the learning and teaching of writing with web 2.0 tools!

Alabama Writing Project State Network

Among the many wonderful events I participated in at the 2007 NWP Annual Meeting, I joined our state network at the Crowne Plaza Times Square Restaurant to catch up on the writing project happenings across the state of Alabama. Our state director Lisa Williams (sitting next to me on the right) is from Jacksonville State University Writing Project. This was a welcoming group from which I can learn a great deal. I'll be sharing the ideas and future events they presented as I learn more details

Preparing for our NWP Presentation

I've never had such a wonderful time preparing for a conference presentation. It could have been the flat in New York, quiche, sushi, wine & cheese; or maybe it was the great company! Cynthia, Tracy, Jason and I have spent over a year, since meeting in Chico, California, collaborating and supporting the technology and leadership endeavors we individually and collectively set as goals through our technology minigrant. As I experienced all year, the group came together with the whole being so much more than the sum of its parts. I'm looking forward to sharing our journey tomorrow with writing teachers from across the country.

http://commonthreadsnyc.blogspot.com/

Awards and Accolades

Read the latest Awards and Accolades at the National Writing Project Site. Mobile Bay is at the TOP.

Co-Director Angela Crawford's Wiki Wonderland

Angie Crawford, MBWP co-director, tech team member, and English teacher at Spanish Fort High School has taken our summer institute tech focus and run with it. In addition to using Google Docs, and finding a home for my Art Talk wiki, Angie has developed her own wiki, http://sfhsaplit.wetpaint.com/, which is fast becoming an integral part of her classroom. Angie claims that "her students love it" and she is constantly searching for ways to maximize its use.

Angie integrates art and music within this digital learning collaborative (and of course I also value these capabilitites). I agree with Angie who expressed "it's fun for me too." So Angie has definitely crossed over to the wonderful world of being a digital teacher/learner!

I'm really looking forward to Angie's research goal of surveying her students to see how much the wiki improved their engagement in the curriculum. Her anecdotal observations indicate that students enjoy"playing" on the wiki and may "accidentally" be more apt to do homework or engage with the curriculum because they ARE digital learners.

Teaching Foreign Language in a Digital Era

Another example of MBWP TC's leading the way through literacy and technology...

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!

National Writing Project Meeting in New York

I have the pleasure of traveling to one of my favorite cities to present with some of my favorite people. I will leave for New York Wednesday to attend the National Writing Project Annual Meeting and present with my friends, self-named "Common Threads." Cynthia Calvert, Alcorn Writing Project; Tracy Duckart, Redwood Writing Project; and Jason Shiroff, Denver Writing Project are fellow technology liaisons from across the Technology Liaisons Network who will join me in telling our leadership-building stories, from participation at the 2006 Technology Matters Institute in Chico to minigrant development and implementation. We will share our resources, such as tech institute agendas, and methods of communication and collaboration, including Skype conversations and Google Tools. I met Cynthia, Tracy, and Jason at Tech Matters in Chico, California during the advanced NWP tech institute summer of 2006. We had the good fortune of being grouped together for reasons still unknown to us (pictured above working on a podcast in Chico) and the rest of the story is history. We supported each other in the process of mini grant implementation throughout the year with the use of web 2.0 technology. Tracy has developed a BLOG (still under construction) to share our presentation resources which I will post here as well as highlights of what I learn during the NYC adventure. Stay tuned this week....Paige

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

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

What have our MBWP Fellows been doing?

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

Janice Price and Wynter Galloway, joined me to present their technology products from Summer Institute at the University of South Alabama Technology Fair in October. They shared their digital stories and how they currently use technology to enhance the teaching of writing in their classrooms.