DECEMBER
2019,
ISSUE
NO.
5
Star Light, Star Bright A holiday newsletter from the Prairie Lands Writing Project
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM PLWP Many thanks to our fabulous PLWP Advisory Team which meets twice each year to advise the director and program coordinators and who collaborated to bring you this excellent publication, edited by PLWP Co-Director Amy Miller.
PLWP Advisory Team: Elisabeth Alkier, SJSD Dana Barnes, Mid-Buchanan Josie Clark, SJSD Jody Henderson, Cameron Christie Jackson, SJSD Amy Miller, MWSU Dawn Terrick, MWSU
Inside this issue: LETTER FROM THE PLWP DIRECTOR - 2 GRADUATE COURSE INFORMATION - 3 YOUTH PROGRAMS - 4 SUMMER INSTITUTE - 6 WRITING RETREAT / MARATHON -7 FEATURE: INSPIRATION IN ROOM 409 - 8 PLWP BOOK CLUB - 10 TC SPOTLIGHT - 10
Letter from the PLWP Director Dear PLWP Family,
Welcome to PLWP’s 2020 Holiday Letter! Read on to find lots of information about upcoming PLWP events and programs, including opportunities for you to reconnect and become involved. In 2019, we launched our fun Pizza and Pedagogy book club/social hour, which we plan to continue through 2020. Many thanks to those who attended both events and who helped shore up our educator community. The PLWP Advisory Team met in December to review participant suggestions from the last gathering. For spring we have decided to move to a quieter venue (likely a library meeting room) and have selected Educated by Tara Westover as our spring book. This best-selling memoir has been a favorite in other educator book clubs, and it’s one we think our network will enjoy. Watch your PLWP listserv, website, and social media sites for updates about the next place and time for the spring gathering. We will be reading another book this summer/fall, so stay tuned for the announcement this summer! Our main request to our PLWP family is for 2020 Summer Institute recruitment. As we all know, emails and flyers are easily lost in the shuffle. What matters most in getting an educator to apply is a personal
nudge and a sincere testimonial from a friend or colleague. Please reach out personally to all the educators you know to teachers who would benefit from our handson, life-changing, teachers-teaching-teachers approach to professional development. Although the Summer Institute cannot be offered for free this year, the PLWP tuition scholarship still saves teachers over $2000 for six graduate credit hours. Please remember to tell potential recruits that Summer Institute applicants don’t have to be English teachers. We love it when friends in other content areas can join us! Print off the flyer and application or send interested teachers to the Summer Institute page on our website. The deadline is March 3. Please contact recruits directly by sending them the flyer and application, but please also let us know to contact them officially by submitting names and emails in the simple form below.
We hope you enjoyed a warm and restful winter break, with all the good things that the season has to offer. Best wishes, Susan Martens, PLWP Director MWSU Associate Professor of English
VI EW /P RI NT SU MM ER IN ST IT UT E FL YE R AN D AP PL IC AT IO N NO MI NA TE CO LL EA GU ES FO R TH E SU MM ER IN ST IT UT E
Graduate Courses Offered at Special Teacher Tuition Rate! BY SUSAN MARTENS It’s not too late to sign up for Spring 2020 graduate classes through PLWP at MWSU, but it will be after January 8! We are offering two three-hour courses at the low PLWP tuition rate of $225 (plus MWSU fees).
PLWP TC AWARDED GRADUATE
CERTIFICATE IN TEACHING OF WRITING
Please download admission / readmission and registration forms on our PLWP website. These rates are available to ALL Missouri teachers, so spread the word! These classes and many others can combine with your Summer Institute credit hours to launch you on the path to a Graduate Certificate in Teaching Writing degree (only 18 credit hours total)!
Spring 2020: Teaching
Writing
with
Technology,
ENG/EDU 512 (3 credit hours), online with Dr. Susan Martens (may be repeated under a different course designation, either ENG or EDU)
PLWP TC Diane Mora, 2019 KCPS Teacher of the Year, earned the Graduate Certificate in Teaching Writing in December, 2019, from Missouri Western State University. Mora teaches at East High School in Kansas City. Way to go, Diane!
Literature for Adolescents, ENG 500 (3 credit
hours), Wednesdays 5:00- 7:50 p.m. with Dr. Mike Cadden
VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE
Coming in Summer 2020: Seminar in Professional Writing, ENG/EDU
612 (3 credit hours), Online with PLWP TCKelly Lock-McMillen, May 25- July 24 (may be repeated under a different course designation, either EDU or ENG)
INFORMATION ABOUT THE POSSIBILITIES!
YOUTH 2019 YOUTH SUMMER WRITING PROJECT "OUT OF THIS WORLD" BY ELISABETH ALKIER The
2019
Youth
Summer
“SKY’S THE LIMIT” AT 2019 MIDDLE SCHOOL WRITING PROJECT BY JOSIE CLARK
Writing
Project
serviced over 100 area students in 3rd through 8th grades. Located at Bode Middle School and offered in partnership with SJSD’s summer school,
the
"Write
Out
of
This
World"
elementary school program and the "Sky’s the Limit"
middle
25th
through
school June
program
19th,
both
ran
from
May
culminating
in
celebrations where students read their original writing for families and friends. Some of the highlights of the programs were trips to the Albrecht-Kemper local
artists
and
Museum
of
performers,
Art, and
visits
from
hands-on
learning experiences with amazing PLWP TCs.
This summer, fourteen middle school students from all around St. Joseph came together at Bode Middle School to find out just where writing can take them. Spoiler alert! They found out it can take them anywhere they set their minds to! They wrote their hearts out, letting their characters develop and their ideas fly. Their favorite activities included giving life to ordinary objects around school with stick-on googly eyes (we went a little far with that one), writing in the sun on the lawns of Bode, exploring the world of paragliding, and creating their own prompts to end the day. Students attending this year’s “Sky’s the Limit” themed writing project joined other aspiring authors in writing marathons, field trips,and fun writing prompts. They learned about the history of Mt. Mora
Cemetery as they wrote around the grounds. They explored the Glore Psychiatric Museum, using the underground tunnels and displays to stretch their creativity. They used writing to inspire kindness with uplifting letters to strangers hidden around the school. They used words in new ways. They worked together. They laughed. They embraced their weirdness as all authors must. They laughed some more. But most importantly, they wrote. And they found out that when your heart and mind and pencil let loose in a notebook, the sky may not even be the limit.
CHECK OUT OUR ANTHOLOGY HERE!
PROGRAMS WRITING "BETWEEN THE LINES" AT HIGH SCHOOL WRITING DAY 2019 BY AMY MILLER
This summer, 135 students from eleven area high
(including a visit from Cerner
schools
horror writing to cryptids, and even magazine
convened
at
Missouri
Western
to
celebrate writing. The morning began with a writing
activity
in
which
students
tech writers),
writing, sportswriting, and photojournalism.
selected
famous first and last lines and wrote between
As usual, the day ended with the legendary
them.
open-mic session. We were all amazed and inspired by the talented young writers in our
After being inspired and motivated by the oneand-only
Terrance
Ceremonies Assistant
and
Sanders, Frontier
Director
Curriculum/Instructional
Master
STEM
community.
of
Schools'
of
ELA
Coach,
students
High School Writing Day 2019 is just around the corner on March 7th. This year's theme is "Fight For Your Writes!" We can't wait to
attended breakout sessions facilitated by PLWP
share another day of writing community and
Teacher
inspiration with area teachers and students!
Consultants
exploring a range of to technical writing
and
MWSU
faculty,
writing, from found poetry
2019 SUMMER INSTITUTE SHINES 2019 SUMMER SCHOLARS BY DANA BARNES Summer Institute facilitators Dana Barnes, Elisabeth Alkier, and Amy Miller certified the following thirteen educators as NWP Teacher Consultants on October 5:
Mindy Andrews (Excelsior Springs #40, Westview Elementary, 3rd Grade) Eden Beasley (Winston R-IV, 9-12 ELA) Amanda Cunningham (NKC, Oak Park High School, ELA) Ethan Evans (Lathrop R-II High School, Media Specialist) Katy Foster (Lathrop R-II, 5th Grade) Vickie France (Winston R-IV, 4th Grade) Jennifer Hughes (SJSD, Spring Garden Middle School, ELA) Mary Laughlin (Park Hill, Walden Middle School, 7th Grade ELA) Ron Leader (Maryville R-II, 4th Grade) Krissy Lee (Winston R-IV, 7th & 8th Grade ELA; Media Specialist) Britne Misner (SJSD, Spring Garden Middle School, ELA) Sarah Pauley (Tri-County Middle School, ELA) Eric Williams (Polo R-VII, 9-12 ELA)
On October 5th, 2019, the PLWP celebrated the certification of its new teacher consultants from the 2019 Summer Institute. After light breakfast refreshments, the new TCs introduced themselves, shared updates about their inquiry projects, and received their certificates.
The event also included an open writing marathon, with new TCs joined by Advisory Team members and students in Dr. Martens’ ENG/EDU 501: Writing Marathon Practice and Pedagogy class. Groups dispersed around St. Joseph to visit coffee shops, libraries, cemeteries, and other interesting locations. The event culminated in a read around at Mokoska coffee in downtown Saint Joseph.
View Flyer & Application
SHINING A LIGHT ON WRITING ANNUAL RETREAT RECHARGES WRITERS SUSAN MARTENS Our 2019 Writing Retreat at
community-building
Conception
was
activities, and plenty of time
WRITING MARATHON CLASS HITS THE
another fantastic event that
to write. It’s quite a bargain,
recharged the writing lives
since
BOOKS - AND THE STREETS
for the ten teacher-writers
write
in attendance. This year we
people
enjoyed a writing marathon
contemplative
at the nearby Chapel of the
priceless.The
Sisters
Perpetual
limited to 16 participants,
guidance
with
Adoration,
Abbey
of the
the
opportunity
with in
like-minded a
beautiful, setting retreat
preference
given
is is to
and support of our fabulous
PLWP
guest editor, Dr. Marianne
deadline is May 15.
Kunkel, and the return of
Susan Martens to reserve a
our beloved Writer’s Circle
spot! Participants attending
tradition on Saturday night.
the full retreat may also
In the summer of 2020,
register with MWSU to earn
PLWP will again host a
one graduate credit hour at
Writing Retreat, June 12-14.
the special teacher tuition
It will begin Friday with
rate of $75, plus MWSU fees.
dinner
conclude
Watch the PLWP website,
Sunday after lunch. The cost
listserv, and social media for
will be $190 for two nights’
updates
lodging in private rooms, six
forms.
and
TCs.
to
on
Registration
enrollment
Abbey meals, a publishing seminar, groups,
peer
response
E-MAIL SUSAN MARTENS NOW!
Eleven PLWP TCs enrolled in the Fall 2019 graduate course on writing marathons spent three Saturdays writing at locations around Saint Joseph, reading about writing marathon pedagogy, and developing marathon-based projects for their own schools and communities. Alongside course instructor Susan Martens, they developed poems, essays, and articles based on marathon writings, soon to be featured in an upcoming PLWP web publication. All PLWP TCs are welcome at our annual open writing marathon, held in conjunction with our new TC certification ceremony during the first Saturday in October. Stay tuned to the PLWP website, listserv, and social media for information about upcoming writing marathons in 2020.
INSPIRATION IN ROOM 409 BY DAWN TERRICK
On May 22, a beautiful and bright Wednesday, I visited East High School in Kansas City to attend Diane Mora's Fourth Quarter Publishing Party and Open House where her students would be sharing their multi-genre essays with the theme "If My Life Had a Playlist." These essays consisted of personal narratives, opinions and analysis of songs that tell the story of students' lives. I am always excited to visit classrooms, talk to teachers and students, and see what work they are accomplishing. However, today I was more excited than usual. This classroom was special -- it was an award winning classroom with an award winning teacher. Diane Mora had just been awarded the title of Kansas City Public School Teacher of the Year for 2019. It was also a classroom populated by refugee and migrant students as well as 1.5
students, students who were born in the United States but do not speak English at home. To be invited to a classroom so different from mine was an honor. As I crested the fourth flight of stairs, I was met with a hallway that looked like any other high school hallway: distressed lockers, a display cabinet with trophies and school banners and a few stray students milling about the hallway. But as I approached Room 409 and peeked in, forclass was still in session, I was intrigued. A bright classroom with student work on the walls, snacks on a long table in the back of the room, books in piles, colorful post-it
notes tacked around the room, and desks arranged in pods so that students could face and actually talk to each other. Students and teachers were engaged in lively conversation as they read student work and traded headphones to listen to music. I could feel the energy and the organized chaos. I already loved this classroom. Suddenly, a loud bell. Students began to pick up their backpacks and as Ms. Mora and others praised the students, spirited chatter followed as they filed out of the classroom with noticeable grins. During this session of the Fourth Quarter Publishing Party and Open House, I mingled among the students, with other teachers, staff, and visitors, reading students’ stories of struggle and hope and how the music we were listening to illustrated their lives, their
journeys, their education and their hopes. They told me stories of refugee camps, of working to support their families, and of their dreams to be writers and engineers. As I read student essays and talked with them about their experiences and the music that spoke to those experiences, I was shocked to learn that most of the students had only been in the country for about two years. Their communication skills were impressive, as they were, according to Ms. Mora,
“expressing themselves in their newest language, English.� I was also amazed that they were so willing and comfortable in talking to me, a complete stranger, and sharing with me the details of their lives. All of Ms.Mora's students were energetic and engaged with the course work and their audience. I also read their journals, peer responses and reflective writings and saw that Ms. Mora's students were taking part in the same writing process as my own college students. The intelligence and work ethic of these students was phenomenal. And the purpose, passion and skill of Ms. Mora, as a teacher, mentor and motivator was equally phenomenal. I left the Open House with a smile on my face and hope in my heart. I truly hope to see some of the students from Room 409 in my college classes.
2ND ANNUAL NWP MIDWEST CONFERENCE HELD IN MINNEAPOLIS AMY MILLER
The 2019 NWP Midwest Conference, "Race, Writing, and Power" was held in August at the University of Minnesota. Amy Miller presented "Let Their Voices Ring: De-Centering Power in the Composition Classroom."Highlights of the conference included a selection of writing marathons on the beautfiul camps, and keynote speaker, author, and activist Bao Phi. The 2020 Conference, "2020 (Re)Vision: Looking Backward, Looking Forward, Acting Now!" will be held in Fargo,North dakota from July 31 through August 2nd.
Learn More
About the 2020 Conference!
SUSAN MARTENS
PLWP OFFERS PIZZA AND PEDAGOGY JODY HENDERSON This year, PLWP decided to try something new; a book club and social hour for all area educators. The book chosen to discuss was: It Won't Be Easy: An Exceedingly Honest and Slightly Unprofessional Love Letter to Teaching, written by 2014's Minnesota Teacher of the Year, Tom Rademacher. Pizza and Pedagogy took place in April and December at Geneo’s Pizza in St. Joseph and was facilitated by TC’s each time. In total, over twenty educators were able to meet, discuss, laugh, and eat pizza together! Be on the lookout for the next book club announcement for 2020 including a new book and new venue! We've selected Tara Westover's acclaimed recent memoir, Educated.
TCs Mitch and Dana Barnes are
TC Spotlight
PLWP's
very
own
power
couple!
Mitch completed his Educational Doctorate
in
Leadership
through
William Woods University in July of 2019.
He is currently the 6-12
principal at West Nodaway.
Dana
was named the assistant principal at Mid Buchanan Elementary School beginning in the fall of 2019. Dana and Mitch attended the Summer Institute
together
summer of 2014.
STATE WRITING PROJECT NETWORK BUILDS BRIDGES
during
the
Four PLWP TCs are working on a National Writing Project grant program called “So This Is Missouri,” which brings urban and rural high school teachers together to create a shared curriculum that they will use in their classrooms. Jade Lewis, (Benton High School in Saint Joseph), Diane Mora (East High School in Kansas City), Cara Simmons (West Platte High School in Weston), and Blake Thorne (Grain Valley High School) met with TCs from the other National Writing Project sites in Missouri through the Missouri Writing Projects Network at a retreat in Boonville on Sept. 6-7 and are continuing to work online under the leadership of Kate Kline, Director of the Greater Kansas City Writing Project and Julie Sheerman, MWPN Director of Professional Development. The National Writing Project will be sharing playlists developed by these teachers through its LRNG platform later this year.