May 2, 2009
Cherokee Rose Writing Project Retreat
Breakfast: We were wooed and welcomed to our retreat by the smells and flavors of Tami’s delicious breakfast casserole (or was it soufflé or quiche). You out did yourself on that one, Tami. Fresh fruit, donuts and other treats rounded out our first meal together. It was all good. Slurp! Sip! Sup! Yum!
Icebreaker:
We began the day with a trip into our imaginations by time traveling to the year 3009. Upon arrival we found that we were on an archeological site titled Uni sity of Georg. As archiologists, our task was to interpret how an ancient civilization from the year 2009 would use some of the artifacts discovered on the site. Some of your miraculous revelations were as follows:
* Miranda discovered star shaped sticky things. Through her extensive research, she concluded that the 2009 Homo sapiens thought the objects were sent from the heavens by gods and were rewarded to only the most chosen people.
* Brandi uncovered an ancient eating devise that could be used by any species with or without thumbs.
* Ian and company determined that their devices could be linked together to become an ancient time travel machine. Through your many efforts, new discoveries were made. Many thanks to you, our talented researchers who participated in this historically important event.
Teachers Teaching Teachers:
Shoney Brice from ISI 08 shared her many experiences with the Cherokee Rose Writing Project including the anxieties she felt when she first arrived at the ISI, the close bonds with her new found friends, the feeling of living the writerly life, helping her students discover the writer within, meeting Ralph fletcher at the National Writing Project Conference, and sharing her experiences with other teachers. Yep, once a CRWP fellow, always a CRWP fellow.
Demonstrating a Demonstration: How can teachers motivate students to want to write and what is a demonstration anyway? We developed a beginning idea of what a demonstration is while learning more about writing in the classroom. Based on the works of Donald Graves, Peter Elbow, Nancy Atwell, and Lucy Calkins, Cathleen shared with us how to motivate young writers. Young writers need a teacher who:
* understands writing on demand
* shows and tells how to write
* develops a writing community where it is safe to share
* includes time for writing
* provides opportunities for feedback
* invites students to join in writing adventures
* provides an authentic audience who celebrates published works
Cathleen then demonstrated for all of us how she uncovers her writing spaces. Through the process we learned that she has a “condo” for her dogs and a marvelous “farm”! The rest of us participated in a “forced choice” to select a topic, and did some free writing. Did you notice our many new participants who shared their writing? That was fantastic.
All in all, we gained a clearer understanding of what a demonstration is and became better writers as well. However, participants looked like "Doe in the Headlights" when told to bring drafts of their teaching demonstrations in by June 1.
Lunch yet?
Lunch was delayed just a bit so that participants could learn about blogging the CRWP way. Danilo and Penny showed how to sign on to gmail to contribute to the CRWP Blog. Little did you know that there is a technical side to Writing Project.
Yes, Lunch!
Cathleen and Penny shared a scrumptious lunch of spaghetti and meatballs, tossed salad, bread, and cookies. Would you believe it took Cathleen days and days to make her homemade meatballs and Penny baked cookies for hours? Don’t.
Writing Project is ...
Tami introduced us to the many “opportunities” we will have during writing project including:
* the difference between a log, blog, teacher demonstration, writing group, inquiry group, and peer conferencing
* signing up for your chance to bring breakfast
* how to get a “legal” parking space
* how registration occurs including 6 incredible hours of credit
* how to find the CRWP website
* the many treasures to be found on the NWP website
* how inquiry groups will be determined on our Blog … so what do you want to learn anyway?
* What should you do if you have a question? Ask it on the Blog … our CRWP social network … and you thought Twitter was the latest greatest social buzz.
Can't wait to see what happens on our first day!
You may also view today's Log on googledocs (link below)
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfk3v42w_146g7ww32hp&hl=en
Enjoy!
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