#CWPLeader June
When the Directors of CWP’s local Writing Projects met last fall, we wanted to create a way to celebrate the Teacher Consultants whose hard work, expertise, and leadership is at the heart of CWP support for educators and students, schools and districts. We never imagined then that there would be a clamor from CWP Teacher Consultants to recognize and celebrate the Directors of their local Writing Projects. #CWPLeader June celebrates them.
The California Writing Project and its local Writing Projects aim to be professional learning homes for educators for the lifetime of their career, from their earliest inclinations to teach, through their years in classrooms with student writers, and for many, in the work they continue to do with their local Writing Projects in retirement.
The most important responsibility of CWP Directors is to co-construct and co-sustain these professional learning homes, the local Writing Projects, with the Teacher Consultants who have participated in their leadership programs.
“In such a community, teachers learn to open up their practices in the teaching of writing to their colleagues; they search for ways to better meet the needs of their students, and they find peers to join them in this collective search.” Writing Projects share the following principles and practices that underpin the Invitational Leadership Institute in the Teaching of Writing and inform every professional learning program they offer.
• Approaching every colleague as a potentially valuable contributor by honoring teacher knowledge.
Teachers. K-university, teach each other in workshops, conferences, and sustained professional learning programs. Teachers develop ways to share what they know and to take seriously what others know.
• Situating human learning in practice and relationships.
Learning is both active and relational. Learning-by-doing and learning within relationships serve as guideposts for professional development.
• Reflecting on teaching through reflection on learning
Teachers learn, not because they were explicitly taught but because they had time and space to talk about books, research, and writing in the context of a learning community. In the process, they learn that professional learning and student learning are mutually dependent and intertwined.
• Adopting a stance of inquiry
Fundamental to good teaching and learning is the idea that questioning and searching is an attitude that helps teachers stay positive, despite difficult contexts and tough teaching problems. This stance helps teachers develop a reason to improve rather than complain about difficulties.
• Rethinking professional identity and linking it to professional community.
Teachers collaborate and go public with their teaching, writing, and inquiry. This kind of learning often changes the way they think about being a colleague and illustrates how professional knowledge can be collectively owned.
The work of the National and California Writing Project is “about learning what it means to continue to learn and help others learn, to go public with one’s work, and to continually ask questions of it.”
(Adapted from “The National Writing Project: Commitment and Competence" by Ann Lieberman)
Thank you, Directors, for taking such good care of the local Writing Project homes and for all you do for students, your colleagues, and for CWP.
To learn more about each of these outstanding educators and leaders, click on their pictures, which are the links to their profiles.
The California Writing Project and its local Writing Projects aim to be professional learning homes for educators for the lifetime of their career, from their earliest inclinations to teach, through their years in classrooms with student writers, and for many, in the work they continue to do with their local Writing Projects in retirement.
The most important responsibility of CWP Directors is to co-construct and co-sustain these professional learning homes, the local Writing Projects, with the Teacher Consultants who have participated in their leadership programs.
“In such a community, teachers learn to open up their practices in the teaching of writing to their colleagues; they search for ways to better meet the needs of their students, and they find peers to join them in this collective search.” Writing Projects share the following principles and practices that underpin the Invitational Leadership Institute in the Teaching of Writing and inform every professional learning program they offer.
• Approaching every colleague as a potentially valuable contributor by honoring teacher knowledge.
Teachers. K-university, teach each other in workshops, conferences, and sustained professional learning programs. Teachers develop ways to share what they know and to take seriously what others know.
• Situating human learning in practice and relationships.
Learning is both active and relational. Learning-by-doing and learning within relationships serve as guideposts for professional development.
• Reflecting on teaching through reflection on learning
Teachers learn, not because they were explicitly taught but because they had time and space to talk about books, research, and writing in the context of a learning community. In the process, they learn that professional learning and student learning are mutually dependent and intertwined.
• Adopting a stance of inquiry
Fundamental to good teaching and learning is the idea that questioning and searching is an attitude that helps teachers stay positive, despite difficult contexts and tough teaching problems. This stance helps teachers develop a reason to improve rather than complain about difficulties.
• Rethinking professional identity and linking it to professional community.
Teachers collaborate and go public with their teaching, writing, and inquiry. This kind of learning often changes the way they think about being a colleague and illustrates how professional knowledge can be collectively owned.
The work of the National and California Writing Project is “about learning what it means to continue to learn and help others learn, to go public with one’s work, and to continually ask questions of it.”
(Adapted from “The National Writing Project: Commitment and Competence" by Ann Lieberman)
Thank you, Directors, for taking such good care of the local Writing Project homes and for all you do for students, your colleagues, and for CWP.
To learn more about each of these outstanding educators and leaders, click on their pictures, which are the links to their profiles.