Today (July 15) is the official launch day of the Write Out project, an open learning partnership between the National Writing Project and the National Park Service to connect educators with NPS and other park spaces for project-based learning opportunities.
You can read the first newsletter of the two-week project here. You’ll see a variety of different activities, depending on your time frame, and all built around the concept of mapping out the world, your connections and potential partnership possibilities. We’ll also be hosting a Map with Me Google Hangout on Tuesday and a Twitter Chat on Thursday (both take place at 7 p.m. eastern standard time).
I want to invite you to join in for the upcoming Write Out project, an open learning adventure sponsored by the National Writing Project and the National Park Service and built off the concepts of the Connected Learning MOOC (CLMOOC) experiences of the past few years. I am one of the facilitators of this new experience.
Write Out is being designed to connect educators to open and public spaces, such as the National Parks network (but not limited to those places), and we will be working on mapping as a central theme this summer. We aim to have teachers and park rangers and other explorers in the mix.
Write Out officially begins on July 15 and will run for two weeks. There will be invitations for making maps and making connections, for making media and writing stories, and more.
If you have five to ten minutes, we’ll have some suggestions. An hour? We’ll have suggestions. A day or two? We’ve got you covered. As with CLMOOC, you engage where it interests you, with no pressure other than a sense of connection and community.
Our aim is to open more doors for teachers, and their students, to the outside world. If you go to the Write Out site, you can sign up for newsletters and information.
Take a listen to the overview via NWP Radio from some of the facilitators:
PS — By the way, CLMOOC is still happening, too, in a sort of parallel and connected path as Write Out, with CLMOOC-inspired daily doodle prompts on map and open space themes, and art swap sharing activities happening. See more at the CLMOOC website.
I’ll be sharing more about a project called Write Out as the summer progresses, but I am a co-facilitator for an open learning adventure this summer that connects the National Writing Project and the National Park Service together, helping teachers make connections with park sites and historic sites, and vice versa.