Core Principles of National Writing Project

The National Writing Project (0f which I am part of) recently released its updated Vision Statement. It is thoughtful and a great way to think about both the organization (inclusive, open and giving leadership to teachers) and writing itself.

Writing in its many forms is the signature means of communication in the 21st century. The NWP envisions a future where every person is an accomplished writer, engaged learner, and active participant in a digital, interconnected world.

Here are the Core Principles of NWP:

The core principles at the foundation of NWP’s national program model are:

  • Teachers at every level—from kindergarten through college—are the agents of reform; universities and schools are ideal partners for investing in that reform through professional development.
  • Writing can and should be taught, not just assigned, at every grade level. Professional development programs should provide opportunities for teachers to work together to understand the full spectrum of writing development across grades and across subject areas.
  • Knowledge about the teaching of writing comes from many sources: theory and research, the analysis of practice, and the experience of writing. Effective professional development programs provide frequent and ongoing opportunities for teachers to write and to examine theory, research, and practice together systematically.
  • There is no single right approach to teaching writing; however, some practices prove to be more effective than others. A reflective and informed community of practice is in the best position to design and develop comprehensive writing programs.
  • Teachers who are well informed and effective in their practice can be successful teachers of other teachers as well as partners in educational research, development, and implementation. Collectively, teacher-leaders are our greatest resource for educational reform.

You can read the entire Mission Statement here.

Peace (in the words),

Kevin

The Disposable World

Here is the second in my series of Boolean Squared comics about Freejunk (ie, Freecycle) and also about the dangers that are some of the older computers that we just toss into the landfills. (In fact, this series of comics was as much inspired by the Freecycle movement as pictures of landfills with piles and piles of old desktop computers).

Peace (in the waste),

Kevin

What Obama Will Say

Last night, we received one of those automatic phone calls from our community’s School Superintendent, informing us that she is asking principals to show President Obama’s speech tomorrow. At the school where I teach, we are planning the same thing and my principal sent home a letter on Friday, alerting families.

This whole thing is crazy but it makes sense: when we showed our sixth graders the presidential inauguration, we got an angry phone call from a parent who was passionately opposed to his son watching with the event in school.

I know politics is alive and well, but to complain when the president wants to talk to kids about staying in school, show respect to teachers and other kids, and also to study hard for a better life — that seems absurd to me. I would not have complained if my kids watched a Republican Rightwinger President talk about those things.

My aim is to grab the text of the speech, pop it into Wordle and have my students examine themes and phrases that Obama uses, so that we can talk about rhetoric. Talk about a learning experience, right?

On Friday, I showed this interview with my students and they were impressed by the student reporter and by the president’s responses.


Peace (in the message),
Kevin

Found: A note to a teacher

This comes from Found Magazine, which is worth your time.

And my response:

Dear student,
You’ve probably had a lot of teachers who have fed you lessons and learning with little reason behind it. I know I did when I was growing up and it made me crazy. I hope I don’t do the same with you as your teacher, although there are going to be times when it may seem as if I am making you do things that are isolated and out of context. I hope to keep those activities to a minimum. Sometimes, we need to lay the groundwork for better things to come.
I want you to care about what you are doing because caring people shape this world for the better. You may be young, but you have a voice, and I want to help you find that voice and use it as best as I can. You should care because your interest and curiosity now will set the stage for an intriguing life later on. You should care because all of us have something inside us that drives — all of us are poets, all of us are scientists, all of us are musicians — and you nurture that kernel of being by caring for the world and yourself.
I can’t help you answer this question alone, though.
You need to be on the journey, too, and let me help you with your explorations. Let me show you how caring looks and then maybe, hopefully, you’ll see how one person can impact another in a positive way.
Sincerely,
Your Teacher

Peace (in answering that question),
Kevin

World Statistics

This site is intriguing and good use of congregating data collection across a wide variety of sources. How accurate is it? Not sure. The site is called Worldometers and it claims to have real-time stats on a variety of issues from across the globe. (Read about its gathering of numbers, if you want to dig a bit deeper)

There are some interesting stats about the environment there that are just plain sad to read, particularly how much forest areas are being lost and how much junk is being pumped into the air by companies.

But this area interested me. It shows media and publishing.

What do you make of a world where more cell phones are sold in a day than books that are published in a year? And just look at the number of email messages sent, number of Internet users and blogs posts. Fascinating. And are there really still that many newspapers around? You’d think there were only a handful left if you read the news about the news.

Peace (in the numbers),
Kevin

A Kid’s View of Gaming

This high school freshman lays out the rationale for gaming and learning. She talks about character development, story development and interactive immersion into other worlds as learning experiences.

Peace (in the immersion),
Kevin

Why No Tech (at all)?

My school district is launching into a two year Literacy Initiative and part of that push is to send a bunch of us to a conference called Literacy for All in November (right before I head to Philly for various National Writing Project and National Conference for Teachers of English conferences).

The Literacy for All Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, has a lot of interesting sessions and many seem very useful to me as a teacher of writing and reading. I can’t wait to gain some new insights and some new approaches, and be part of the conversations. Now, I know this Literacy for All is not a technology conference, but you would think that in this day and age, there would be some technology integration into some of the topics and workshops being planned.

Right?

Wrong.

As far as I can tell from the descriptions of the sessions, there is a complete absence of the digital world reflected in the workshops being presented at Literacy for All. Isn’t digital composition the platform for real writing that kids are doing outside of school and shouldn’t that be reflected in some of the ways we approach teaching? I think so.

I’ll contrast that to the NWP and NCTE meetings that follow Literacy for All, where much of the focus will be on ways that technology and digital tools are impacting the writing process and how teachers are using these concepts to engage their students in new and interesting ways.

I am looking forward to Literacy for All, but it just made me wonder …

Peace (in the Digital Age),
Kevin

Rockin’ in the Hood

I live in a pretty cool neighborhood. We have all sorts of parties and gatherings and plenty of families. Last night, one of the neighborhood teenagers and his friends put on a rock concert on their front lawn. This four piece band of high schoolers (called Menivest Destiny) played to a packed lawn of friends and neighbors on a beautiful summer night with a full moon shining down.

Unlike my old days of playing in a high school rock band (China Grove, Rolling Stones, etc), these guys were incredibly hip. Amazingly so. Here are a few bands they covered:

  • Fountains of Wayne
  • Cake
  • Semisonic
  • Cold Play
  • Cold War Kids
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • and some others that I sort of recognized but not really.

I had a neighbor come up and whisper, “Do you know any of these songs? Because I don’t. I feel old.”

Yep — rock and roll.

Here is a clip from Youtube of Meninvest Destiny from some school event and they are playing an original song they wrote:

Peace (on the lawn),
Kevin

iGoogling Comics

I know I am a Google fan and I know I say that with a critical eye because I worry that at any moment, Google could turn from being my techno friend to my techno enemy. For now, though, I like Google. Here is an example: I love to create my own iGoogle homepage and change it all the time with new widgets and new themes.

I need change to keep me happy. A new friend in my Twitter network who also integrates comics into his classsroom noted something about new themes for iGoogle using Comics. Well … now you are talking my language and there are a load of new themes for the homepage. Just click and you have recreated your homepage with new artwork. Amazingly simple.

I chose a new comic book that my four year and I just love — Robot Dreams — and made that the theme of my homepage. I can’t wait for him to see it!

Peace (with robots),
Kevin