In search of heart, courage, and spirit, I came to Washington D. C. to find a champion for literacy. In the recent attempts to curb spending, the 2011 house has cut programs like the NWP, RIF, striving readers, National Board and more. In an effort to demonstrate the impact this has on me and my classroom, I would like to tell just one brief story...
When I graduated from college in 1994, I went into my first classroom in Mansfield, AR armed with a textbook and a genuine desire to shape education and lead my students to a love of literacy that I had. I thought all I needed to do was share my passion and they would fall in love with it as much as I had. What I learned was that no matter how much students loved me personally, and some did...that love did not translate to performance or good learning.
So, I went back to my University, Arkansas State University, to work with professor Rob Lamm, in my first summer institute. In that 4 week seminar class, I found teachers just like me in search, on a quest, for meaningful literacy instruction that could be immediately applied to our classrooms. We shared theories, ideas, but most of all...we wrote. We wrote about our kids, about our families, and about us. And we shared what we wrote with each other. I was hooked. The writing project listened to me and helped me develop meaningful instruction that showed me to really teach I had to share not only my knowledge with my students, but I had to share myself. My thinking, my writing, my process in a way no teacher had ever shared with me.
17 years later, living in Puyallup, Washington, I come back to this project like a camel to an oasis. I come back to refill on my practice, my hopes, and my faith in my ability to make a difference. In these days when I have 170 students per year in my English classes, overwhelming pressure to affect test scores, and 5 minutes of contact time every day with each student, I am looking for a champion who will stand up for literacy, who will stand up for me and stand up for my kids by not taking away the single greatest thing I do every summer when I share the writing project with other teachers and drink my fill at the NWP oasis. I am looking for a champion who knows the impact of burnout on those of us in the trenches. I am looking for a champion who knows that to have a generation of literate students, we need teachers passionate about literacy. I am looking for a champion in Washington, DC who will stand up for what's best for kids. Who in the senate, the house, and the white house will heed this call?
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One heartening thing that I've learned through my school's at-risk program (LSC) is that even if students don't show it immediately, positive relationships CAN turn into better learning...eventually. I have a student this year, for example, who JUST decided she cared. Not because of me, but because of our LSC teacher. She never even comes to my class except to receive/turn in work. Since first semester she only attended school enough to not get withdrawn and now she is doing her work on a regular basis, I won't complain.
ReplyDeleteThat said...ZOMG the writing project has helped me so much. The one year I was privileged to run an open institute was mind-blowing, for no other reason than that I was able to spread the powerful learning that I got when I was a participant - first in your Tacoma Open and then in the Invitational. It remains the best PD I have EVER had...and I don't know anyone who has taken it that disagrees. The fact that it's even considered as a cut is a travesty in my mind.