A Report from NWP: San Antonio

By Kevin Hodgson

Thursday

I arrived with no time to attend any Thursday sessions, so Leslie and I toured the Riverwalk and got afeel for downtown San Antonio. We attended the NWP Social event that night and ran into all sorts of folks from the networks (mostly, the technology networks) and connected back in with NWP. At night, I joined Bruce and Susan for a dinner celebrating the publication of our Monograph and in conversationswith other folks (including those from New York and Rhode Island), Bruce and I realized that everygroup went through a similar process of editing, reconstructing and revamping their Monograph projectsover the few years it took to bring the entire thing into fruition. Bruce and I talked about finding a spacefor all of the personal vignettes that did not make it into the Monograph but which still resonate withexperience for our project site. (reminder to me: dig around files for all of those vignettes!). The dinnerwas nice and so was the feeling that our site had contributed some collective knowledge that other sitescould draw upon for preparing for change.

Friday

The day opened with the ever-wonderful opening session, where new NWP Executive Director SharonWashington shined as she talked about opening yourself up for the unexpected and be ready forwonderful things to happen in the world. Other speeches of interest included the new president of NCTE, who talked about launching a National Day of Writing in October in which teachers, students andothers would be showcased as writers in the national spotlight. She urged NWP folks to get involved inthis, and I think our writing project site should keep an eye on the development of this endeavor,particularly with the Summer Institute. It might provide another avenue for our folks to see themselvesas something larger and grander. Finally, there was also a heart-wrenching story from a TC from Texaswho talked about her history of living near the Texas-Mexico line and never feeling as if she belonged toeither culture, as she never learned to speak the Spanish tongue of her family due to the English-onlymandates of the schools she attended. Her emotional story reminds us that we must validate andcultivate a wide angle lens on the experiences of our students and that this will bring richness to ourclassrooms.(Note: I have published podcast versions of Sharon Washington's speech and a few others at ourWMWP Online News Site:http://masswp.org/wmwpnews/)

Friday, Afternoon Session 1:

The session I attended centered on something called The National Conversation on Writing (by TheCouncil of Writing Program Administrators' Network for Media Action). This group of college professorswants to change the public perception of writing by creating an online showcase of the varied styles of writing being done in classrooms and set forth a new public face of how we are teaching writing andhow students are writing. Their mantras are that "everyone is a writer" and that "everyone needs avoice." Their message resonated with me, but I have to say, the effort seems more disorganized than Ihad expected. When I asked who the audience is for their site (http://www.ncow.org), they admittedthat they were still struggling over whether it was more for teachers to gather resources or for thepublic to understand what writing is and can be. Instead, the message I got was that journalists cannotbe trusted to tell the real story of how young people write and therefore, we must counter thesesensationalist "Why Johnny Can't Write" missives with real writing. (As you can imagine, I had to pipeup and defend journalists and told the room that people need to cultivate relationships with reporters,invite them into the conversations and not just stereotype reporters as front page headline hogs. Stopcomplaining about lack of coverage and become proactive. There was a little bit of silence in room whenI said that).However, the group is looking for something interesting that could be part of our writing project site,particularly in the Summer Institute. They are looking for stories of teachers, and students, and others,on what writing means to them. They would love to have some video interviews, but it could be in print,or as a podcast, or any format at all. This will become a showcase for thoughtful reflection on theimportance of writing in our lives, told as personal stories. Wouldn't it be great if we did a local version