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 3-5th in
Madison, Wisconsin. Registration is open, and costs only $125 until January 31st. 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.
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
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