As you begin a new school year, consider how you might return the investment that teachers in the writing project have made in you. Whether you present your teacher research at a conference, put in place an action research plan, lead professional development in your school, or write with your students, the good work you do each day is a continuation of the hard work that began this summer.

It’s been a hard day’s night, each fellow living in a fog
It’s been a hard day’s write, “Pop Music” gives us Tuesday’s log
But when the breakfast is through, there’s reading coaching to do
It makes us feel so bright…

You know we work all day to grapple grammar to write our things
And it’s worth it just to hear Helen say, “Noden’s gonna make us grammar kings.”
Writing pleas guarantee, our congressmen will agree
To fund the N-dubya-P

When thoughts roam, mentor texts anchor me tight
With my tome, typing at the speed of light, light

Owww!

It’s been a hard day’s write, and I’ve been working like a dog
It’s been a hard day’s write, I should be sleeping like a log (with Gerard)
But when my stories accrue,  my an-thol-ogy debut
Will make me feel alright
You know I feel alright
KMWP is  alright…

We ask you please to respond to three of the following prompts and give Amy Byram a print copy Thursday morning, July 1, 2010.

1. What have you learned about yourself as a writer?

2. What have you learned about inquiry and research during the SI that you might transfer to your school and classroom?

3. Describe a connection between something you have written and something you have read since the Institute began.

4. How will you use what you have learned about yourself as a writer to improve your teaching of writing?

5. What aspect of collaboration have you learned or grown to understand better through participation in the KMWP?

6. Analyze your insights as a learner and a teacher during this experience in the KMWP SI. Write about yourself as a teacher; as a writer; as a KMWP community participant.

A Journal Prompt: Before reading, write 3 one-paragraph definitions of language. Each of the following sentences should begin one of the paragraphs:

• Language is like a tree.
• Language is like a river.
• Language is like a building.

Excerpted from Neil Postman’s, The End of Education

Despite the current focus on technology in the writing classroom, and the pressures to adopt them, it’s important to remember that it’s not the tools we use the teach that are most important, but the reasons why we use those tools. As teachers, we know best what tools our students need to be successful, and while access to technology is increasingly relevant when we discuss writing tools, I sometimes wonder if we stop and ask ourselves, and our students, what true value do these “new” technologies have?

If we are not using technology, as Brynn so wisely investigates in her teaching demonstration, to instill empathy, to create community, and to engender a more compassionate connection to others–then what exactly is the point? As members of the National Writing Project, we have a responsibility to take a balanced view of technology and writing, that considers not only the how, but the why we use technology.

In “The Word Weavers/The World Makers,” a chapter from Niel Postman’s End of Education, he says “let us assume that we may overcome any obstacles to making the story of technology a core subject in schools. What is it we would want students to know? [...] I would include the following ten principles.

All technological change is a Faustian bargain.  For every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage.


1. The advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among the population. This means that every technology benefits some and harms others.
2. Embedded in every technology there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or three powerful ideas.
3. A new technology usually makes war against an old technology.
4. Technological change is not additive; it is ecological. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything.
5. Because of the symbolic forms in which information is encoded, different technologies have different intellectual and emotional biases.
6. Because of the accessibility and speed of their information, different technologies have different political biases.
7. Because of their physical form, different technologies have different social biases.
8. Because of their technical and economic structure, different technologies have different content biases.

Your task: Reflect upon any one (or more) of the ten principles listed above. How does it relate to your own classroom? How does it relate to your experience in the Summer Institute? Leave a comment below with your thoughts, and reply to at least one other fellow’s comment on this post.

I’m open to questions and suggestions!

Janis starts the day step inside for a ride

Becky shows that music is a vehicle for all… so climb aboard and  take that Journey out of REM to a place where good people go and all the little ants march to crisp apple an d melting chocolate.  We must be out of our minds as I think about the time I drove in your car rushing on a  jewel encrusted magical mystery tour past big yellow taxis.  Truckin’  toward the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.  It’s all part of our rock ‘n’ fantasy.

Come, friends, who write like Kathleen

Truce to navigation

Take another station

Let’s vary piracy

And all join the GCTE

Welcome to the jungle of proposal writing time,

write your proposal like an advertisement and you will do just fine.

Shoobie doobie do wop
Kitty Drew made it
Pop pop shoo wop
Activate it

Pop corn

Pop Ups

Post it notes

New York, Ecuador, Paris, Cleveland
Everybody talk about KMWP man
Talk about, pop up books
Talk about, pop corn
Hot hot hot hot  pockets

New York, Ecuador, Paris, Kennesaw
Everybody talk about book club
Talk about, committees
Talk about, anthology
Good good good good reads

All around the world
wherever you are
write in the street anything you like
write it in your car in the middle of the night
La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la

(In honor of the upcoming holiday and with

thanks and apologies to Lee Greenwood)

If tomorrow all the work was gone

I’d worked on ‘most the night

And I had to start again

With my notes and my book light,

I’d thank my lucky stars to be

Standing here today

‘Cause this class has taught us writing

And you can’t take that away.

I’m proud to be at KMWP

Where it’s tuition-free

And I won’t forget you guys who tried

To take this course with me,

And I’d proudly stand up next to you

Defend our presence here today

Aint no doubt, I love this class

God bless us here today!

Thank the Good Lord Brynn and Kristy

Can cook as well as write,

Friday’s food was so delicious–

Their duet poem just right!

Becky’s quick reminders

About the E-Anthology–

Ole’ fashioned notes that should be sent-

Without technology.

I was thrilled to be with Marla

Exploring writing persuasively,

The game Four Corners helped us all

To see it visually.

We know writers don’t just write

From experience, but from empathy,

Aint no doubt, I love this class

In spite of technology!

If tomorrow I have new students

Some quite young or maybe old

Children’s books are the way to reach them

Jessica ‘n  Kristy have foretold.

“If You Give A Mouse A Cookie,

Grapes of Math; Eat Shoots, and Leaves

There’s a kid’s book for every writing skill

You or I could ere’ conceive.

Janis spoke to us of metaphors

That work culturally

Improve our scores, and help kids write

Amazing poetry!

All these strategies that we have learned

Will stand us in good stay

Cause there aint no doubt Summer Institute

Is here for good, Always!

Janis Hill