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CWP News
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CWP co-sponsors Colorado
Day of Writng
CWP co-sponsored a Day of Writing for teachers on April 7, 2012. Twenty-four teachers attended the session in Colorado Springs
led by CWP Director, Karen Hartman. Host, Vince Puzick, gave the following report of the day: "After a 90 minute workshop session with Karen Hartman
to get our narrative juices flowing and ground us in the idea of teacher stories, the participants wrote independently for
the next three hours. When we gathered together to share our writing at the end of that time, we had a rich tapestry of
teacher stories. Our narratives ranged from humorous lessons during TCAP preparation, to emotionally moving accounts
of teacher -student interactions, to articulated frustrations when the cry for more accountability crashes into our plea
for more authentic experiences for our students. As is usually the case after experiencing writing workshop and sharing
our writing, a small community of teacher-writers came together and shared in meaningful ways.
Participants
had this to say about the day:
“This was a shot in the arm for me! I love that there was time to write deeply.
When is the next one?”
“Excellent conference – I want to use the line ‘Who needs to hear this
story and why?’ in my class.”
“Today was a wonderful opportunity to get to sit and organize my thoughts
and to be reminded that, as a teacher, I have to take the time to tell my story.”
CWP Consultant Co-Authors Book
Stevi Quate's career in education has spanned many years as a secondary teacher, service as State Literacy Coordinator
for the Colorado Department of Education and a professor at University of Colorado -- Denver. She embodies that dictum
that teachers of writing must also be writers themselves. Her recent book, Clock Watchers (Heinemann),
draws on all her experience and addresses what she and her co-author, John McDermott, felt was an essential and necessary
focus of their teaching: “How can I motivate my students and then create a context that will engage them?”
Clock Watchers is their powerful answer to that question—a plan that gets kids to care about learning and truly
engage with the curriculum.
Quate and McDermott apply the research on motivation and engagement to support
increased achievement and improved attitudes about school, using a framework that:
·
catches students’ interest across the content areas
· holds it through
meaningful learning and valuable interactions
· uses assessment to create
further opportunities to connect kids with content
· sustains it all with
ideas for projects, activities, and even classroom routines and rituals.
The book has received positive reviews
from educators who have used its ideas and strategies to address issues of motivation with a variety of students across the
grade levels. Congratulations to Stevi.
CWP Collaborates in South Africa
In June 2006, CWP Director, Karen Hartman, and consultants Sheila Kaehny
and Stevi Quate spent 2 weeks in Dundee, South Africa, at the invitation of the South African Writing Project, working with
teachers in the township schools there. They worked at a high
school in the township with about 35 teachers over 10 days. CWP had sponsored two teachers from Dundee the previous summer,
Sizwe and Mpume Mchunu, to come to Colorado and participated in the summer CWP I workshop. They each spent an additional
two weeks helping two of our consultants teach CWP I, so that they experienced the course both as student and teacher.
The South African North Star Writing Project helped arrange for CWP to come
to Dundee in to work directly with a larger group of teachers.
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CWP Consultant Publishes 2nd Novel
Tim Hillmer's 2nd novel, Ravenhill. explores school violence through the
eyes of multiple characters on a fateful day in a public high school. Reviewer Clay Evans of the Boulder Daily Camera
says the book "bravely addresses some tough issues for both kids and adults. Ravenhill is a fast,
compelling read that offers a vivid, realistic glimpse into a (white, middle-class) school environment." Hillmer works with early career teachers in the Boulder Valley School district
in addition to his position as a teacher consultant with the Colorado Writing Project. His first novel, The
Hookmen, received the The Colorado Fiction Award and grew out of Tim's other passion, guiding river rafts.
Both books are available at Amazon.com.
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CWP Grad Publishes Novel
Sharon McAnear of Durango recently wrote to CWP to announce the publication of her first novel, Corner of Blue.
Dear Karen,
Thank you, Colorado Writing Project, for lighting a fire under my pen to publish a novel. As of last week, my
first novel, Corner of Blue, is on the bookshelf of our local bookstores as well as all the
online booksellers' sites! It is the first in a series of five novels that all began with a short story I wrote in
Karen Crawford's CWP class here in 2001. The first chapter begins with that very story. The CWP pen Karen gave me was
the same one that I used to sign the contract with my publisher. No lie.
Thanks again, Sharon McAnear
Congratulations, Sharon!
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