National Writing Project

Listen to a conversation with several site leaders who are building NWP Connect spaces that support, enhance, and develop communities of practice, both online and face-to-face.

This episode features Bob Fecho, director of the Red Clay Writing Project, and Ian Altman, Paige Cole, Angela Dean, and Lisa Hall—all Red Clay Writing Project teacher-consultants. We talk with them about dialogic teaching—what it is and how teachers can move toward more reflective teaching practices—as well as about the role of writing projects in this work.

In celebration of Poem in Your Pocket Day, this NWP Radio episode featured Joshua Mitchell, a youth poet at Figment.com and Katie Robbins, Director of Educational Programming at Figment; Bud Hunt, teacher-consultant with the Colorado State University Writing Project; Chris Tsang and students from his Boston middle school; and Grant Faulkner, Executive Director of the Office of Letters and Light.

Join Ralph Cordova of the Piasa Bluffs Writing Project and other colleagues of the Cultural Landscapes Collaboratory (The CoLab)—a creative collaboration across National Writing Project sites, museums, and informal community-based institutions—as they share the "roots and routes" of their 3RD Space work. You"ll also hear about how you can get involved in the 5-day Advanced Leadership Institute they"ll be hosting this summer.

We spent an hour with Stephanie Vanderslice, director of the Great Bear Writing Project in Arkansas, and author of Rethinking Creative Writing. Stephanie talks with us about her book and her thinking about how and why we should reform undergraduate and postgraduate creative writing programs.

The 2012 Review of NWP Site Reports captured promising practices and thinking from sites to produce The Model at Work, a resource of ideas from across the network. In this episode of NWP Radio, we hear from site leaders who are exploring this new resource and considering its implications for the work of their sites and for the NWP network.

Listen to an interview with Kira J. Baker-Doyle about her book The Networked Teacher, to learn about research and theory behind social networks and gain practical advice about how new teachers can create networks of peers and mentors for support. Also hear writing project leaders Kevin Thienes and Lanette Jimerson talk about their writing project-based work with new teachers.

How can sites best support teachers in working with the Common Core State Standards? Along with other guests, we visited with Tonya Perry—Site Director at Red Mountain Writing Project and author of Supporting Students in a Time of Core Standards: English Language Arts, Grades 6–8—to get some ideas.

In the lead-up to Digital Learning Day on February 1, NWP educators from around the country—including Troy Hicks of the Chippewa River Writing Project and Janelle Quintans Bence from the North Star of Texas Writing Project—discussed why digital writing matters for themselves as professionals and for the students they teach.

Hear from several site leaders about their plans for raising visibility and advocating for their sites in the coming year. The show includes news about the FY12 federal budget and an update on plans for the Spring Meeting.

NWP sites across the country offer a wide range of programs for youth authors. This broadcast of NWP Radio features a look at youth programs at three Writing Project sites, including a discussion of how sites can think about expanding youth programs to increase visibility, build partnerships, and raise funds.

Through an array of site practices, programs and partnerships, NWP sites provide teachers with opportunities to explore the strengths and challenges that define rural education in America. This episode features what NWP has learned from its member sites about teaching and learning in rural schools.

Directors from various NWP sites unpack the complexities of transitioning a writing project site from one leader to the next and share honest insights about what they learned through the process.

Visit with Maureen Picard Robins and several teacher-authors of a new essay collection titled The Pressures of Teaching: How Teachers Cope With Classroom Stress. Hear about the genesis of this collection and listen to the stories of three chapter authors: Bryan Ripley Crandall, Fred Haas, and Bruce Green.

NWP Radio takes a look at the issues faced by returning servicemen and women, many of whom are now entering universities and community colleges or resuming their places in the families of children in schools. We take a particular look at their experiences as we think about writing and healing.