How has NWP affected me as a person and a teacher?  Being a “veteran” teacher of 28 years, your image of me may suggest a stereotype of old lesson plans that I blow the dust off at the beginning of the year and recycle for the next group of students.  While I have never been that kind of teacher, and have tried to do new and innovative work with my students, I still was unable to pull together all the pieces.

That is, until last summer, when I participated in Chippewa River Writing Project (CRWP), a National Writing Project (NWP) site at Central Michigan University.  

CRWP was an intense month of the best professional development in my teaching career. During that month, I was a student of writing, a teacher of writing and a teacher researcher. Each day I had numerous opportunities to develop myself as a writer.  I did not view myself as writer, so the nurturing environment of our small writing groups was exactly what I needed.  This best practice has been infused into my second grade class as a direct reflection of CRWP.  MY students, at only eight years old, are able to offer suggestions to their peers.   If you ask me or my students if we are writers, the answer would be a resounding, YES!

Trying to find the perfect words to convey the magnitude the National Writing Project and specifically Chippewa River Writing Project has had on my life and that of my second graders is difficult.  As I reflect, I realize the words do not need to be mine.  The students have told me indirectly how important CRWP has been to them.  They know that they are writers and tell me so quite often.

One Monday morning a very active boy rushed up to me and ask me to guess what he and his parents and done over the weekend.  I was a bit afraid to guess.  I noticed that there were no body parts missing or bandaged, so I took the bait and said, “I don’t know, what?”  With a huge smile he said, “We checked out our class’ digital writing.  I liked mine the best.  So did my mom and dad.”  

Dipping my toes into the waters of digital writing is a direct result of my participation in CRWP.  Because of CRWP, I was exposed to and encouraged to use digital tools in my classroom.  I have embraced this challenge.  The students in my classroom are motivated to share their writing digitally.  I have been thanked by parents and grandparents for sharing the students’ writing this way.  As you can see, the effects of NWP  ripples out from the site, to the students, to the families.  

Friday, one of my second grade students asked me what I was going to do over spring break.  Without thinking, I answered, “Read good books and write.”   With a twinkle in her eye and a smile on her face, she said, “Me, too.”  My eyes followed her as she left.  She walked away with a bounce in her step, grabbing her writer’s notebook and a stubby, yellow pencil with no eraser.  She plopped down in one of the comfy blue bucket chairs in our room and feverishly started to write, pausing only to consider which “absolutely true story” to write about, how to spell a word, or how to say the same thing in a better way.

I have kept my promise to myself and “Paige” (not her real name) and have written during my spring break.  I have written numerous emails, list, and lesson plans.  But when I answered Paige, I was not thinking of this type of writing.  I was thinking of personal writing, writing that pushed me to think , reflect and be creative.  The type of writing that I was immersed in this past summer at CRWP’s summer institute.  I have written poems to share with my class and now I venture into a new genre of writing a blog in the hopes of sharing the importance of funding NWP.

Before last summer, I was a writing teacher but not a writer.  I don’t know the exact moment it happened but I do know where it happened, it happened at CRWP.   Because of CRWP, I wrote a poem for my sister-in-law  after watching her approach two smoking teenage girls knowing her dad is struggling with emphysema.  I wrote for another sister-in-law and her family when her dad passed away.  My dear husband has received gifts of writing as well. I AM A WRITER. This is a phrase that I heard this summer during our writing marathon the first week of our summer institute at CRWP.  The difference is now, I believe it because of participating in CRWP’s summer institute.

I have been able to teach my second graders that they are writers too.  My next endeavor is share this with the staff at my school.  One of the NWP’s  philosophy is for teachers to teach teachers.  It is NWP  professional  development model.  They call it “home-grown” networking.  Next school year, I am going to be presenting four after-school professional developments for the staff at my elementary school.  They approached me, asking if I would be willing to offer this professional development in digital informational writing.  I would not have the confidence to attempt this without participating  in the summer institute and the on-going support of CRWP.   I am my staff’s “home-grown” resource.  I plan on planting the seeds of  writing in many more students, adults and families.  

Please reconsider funding NWP because without the soil of the philosophies of NWP, the sun of the summer institutes around the nation that shine inspiration into teacher consultants, and the professional development that waters teachers with research, ideas, and best practices in writing, the seeds of writing in our students will not be the thriving resource our nation needs.

Dusty lesson plans, I hope that is not how people perceive me.  I would rather be the sun inspiring others to teach and write, watering the students and teacher I meet with confidence and encouragement, planting seeds in the soil of best practices and research.  Please join me by funding the NWP so STUDENTS and TEACHERS can bloom together.

Delia King

Chippewa River Writing Project