“Last” National Writing Project Annual Meeting: Part One, Wednesday Social

With the National Writing Project not receiving the large SEED (Supporting Effective Educators) grant it has received in the past, NWP Director Elyse Eidman-Aadahl warned that this would be the last Annual Meeting of its kind. “The NWP Annual Meeting is the one time each year that Writing Project writers/makers, teachers, leaders, hackers, and learners come together in one large gathering of the community that is the National Writing Project to explore connected learning and leadership” (NWP website).  

Many of you got to attend the Annual Meeting when it was held in Minneapolis two years ago, so you know what an inspiring experience it is to hear the plenary speech, to meet people like yourself who are doing similar ground-breaking work on the teaching of writing all over the country, attend break-out sessions on all aspects of site work, find out about grant opportunities for the coming year, connect with NWP friends, and feel supported in the work we do.

Knowing this would be the “last” Annual Meeting, I headed down to St. Louis last Wednesday determined to get the most out of the experience. The meeting kicked off with a Wednesday evening social—I greeted my fellow C3WP leadership team members—Rachel Bear, Tom Fox, Casey Olson, and more. My conversation with one TC took a sad turn, when she revealed she just finished crying before the meeting, knowing this was the last time we would all be together like this. I commiserated, and then filled my plate with more domestic cheeses. While I would have liked to talk longer with the people I already know, I pushed my introvert self to meet and get to know some new people too. When I was new, I always appreciated the openness of other NWP teachers who reached out and struck up a conversation with me, and now that I’ve been around for awhile, I realized, it was my turn to take up this role, even if there would be no annual meeting next year. The room was filled with people, and everywhere I looked, people were highly engaged with sharing the amazing work they do at their local sites. I got a big bear hug from Bryan Ripley Crandall, one of my heroes, who does amazing work with New Americans in Fairfield, Connecticut. 

When the social was over, I went on to a meeting with Mark Dziedzic and our team who has been working on a Midwest Regional Writing Conference since we first met at the NWP social in 2015 in Minneapolis. We were happy that our Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota TCs could finally attend a national conference within driving distance. We then came up with the idea of having a Midwest conference, and after a couple of years of conference calls, our idea is coming to fruition with the first Midwest Summer Conference of the NWP to take place August 3-5^th in Madison, Wisconsin. Registration is open, and costs only $125 until January 31^st. Dorm accommodations are an affordable $37.23 per night for a double room. Digital Writing guru Troy Hicks is the keynote speaker. Participants can expect to leave with greater expertise in digital literacy and the C3WP program, as these will be strong threads at the conference. 

If your district or institution requires you to be on the program in order to fund your conference, then there is also a link to sign up to be a presenter. I would especially like to encourage those who have received stipends to participate in the C3WP and ILI to pay forward their professional development by presenting at this conference.

Check back on the blog tomorrow for the Part 2 of the “last” Annual Meeting