Funding in Jeopardy: NWP shouldn’t have to race!

I have taught writing for 20 years, and had taught it blind until the Writing Project.   Until I wrote with my peers and truly experienced what it felt like to be a writer, I didn’t fully understand how my first graders felt.        –Marsha Page, 2006 UPWP SI Kickoff

That is a quote from my dear friend and colleague, Marsha Page.  Marsha is a second grade teacher in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  To say she is magnificent is quite simply an understatement.  I am so lucky to have connected with her via the Upper Peninsula Writing Project in that glorious summer of 2005.  At the end of that summer I wrote, “Participating in the summer institute was the best thing I’ve done for ME in a long time.”  As an educator I was shuffled through many hours of workshops all in the name of professional development.  Most of the time (like 99.9%) we (the teachers) would sit and listen while the presenters (aka the experts) talked at us about the latest and greatest “best practices” in education.  At the end of the day, we would return home, exhausted, only to get up and step back into our classrooms the next day, regular schedule in full swing. There was no time for reflection, no time for discussion, no time to incorporate ideas into current paradigms.  Just back to the classroom.  The National Writing Project is not like that.  NWP believes in creating a community, putting teachers in the role of expert and developing a sustained ongoing relationship with you in order to help you become a better teacher.  It isn’t just about standards, new methodologies, or “the next best thing”.  No.  NWP has developed a powerful network of teachers working together to share with each other their experiences and their passion for education. The research is pretty amazing.

It was during the summer institute that the director of the UPWP discovered my geeky love for technology.  (I was passionate about wikis and digital photography!).  As I organized our photographic experiences and encouraged collaboration online, I was quietly applying for the position of the UPWP technology liaison.  When they asked me to take on this role, I enthusiastically said yes! I had spent the previous five years in the throws of motherhood.  Now that I had three young children, who were slowly becoming more independent, I felt the need to reconnect with my professional side.  I needed to belong.  They needed me.  It was a perfect fit.

The rest of the story?  While it is a wonderful tale, it is not the one I am telling today.  Right now the NWP needs help.  After many years of bi-partisan support and direct funding from the federal government, the current administration has proposed a change in the structure of the funding, placing the NWP funds in a literacy group that is attached to Race to the Top money.  This of course, means that projects all over the country will be in jeopardy of losing the funding if they don’t choose to compete for RTTT funds.  If you’d like to read more, please visit the NWP Works Ning.  Today I wanted to share this video I created for the UPWP Summer Institutes’s Kick-off weekend.  As I explored different digital tools, it became a tradition of sorts to create a slide show each year highlighting the previous summer, welcoming back teacher consultants and creating a focus of sorts for our leadership team.  This video is my last kick-off celebration.  I am proud of the work I did with the UPWP and continue to do with the Chippewa River Writing Project and my friends at NWP.