Quick news... very exciting...
Just wanted to post that I received word this week that I've been awarded an Aetna Fellowship to study with the Connecticut Writing Project this summer at their Summer Invitational Institute.
The CWP is part of the National Writing Project (NWP). In the summer institute, I'll get to work with a group of fellow writers and educators, devote 4 weeks to researching a topic of interest in teaching writing effectively, create and present a 90 minute workshop to the group, as well as develop 4 of my own pieces of writing in a writing group to present/share.
I'm thrilled about this opportunity, although it is 4 weeks of my summer, because I've been wanting to do something more to jump start my writing process/product. Blogging more often has helped, but this will focus me a lot more on developing larger finished pieces.
Some topics I'm thinking about researching are: Teaching Grammar in Writing Workshop; Inspiring Boys to Write; Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing... I'm strongly considering the last one b/c I've been starting to use mentor texts a lot more in my classroom and am finding them to be so effective - so I could hopefully combine some of my experience with my research and develop this aspect of my teaching to a deeper level.
Will keep you posted...
