I’ve never been to Rwanda.  Ever since the 100-day genocide – and after watching Hotel Rwanda – I’ve followed news stories, always hoping to better understand how survivors find the resilience to return to “life as normal.” At last, I am traveling from California to Rwanda….virtually. Thanks to the vision and determination of my amazing [...]

I have a folder in my file cabinet marked Teachers Teaching Teachers. In it are notes I’ve jotted down from various Teachers Teaching Teachers shows – snippets of inspiring quotes from teachers across the nation or sometimes the world, titles to insightful books and  articles, links to thought-provoking websites, and always, always ideas that prompt [...]

“A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start      arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.”   Salman Rushdie It’s April. Time to update last year’s Igniting National Poetry Month post (whoohoo, all the links still work!) with a few new resources: Addition #1 [...]

I just returned from a 4-day trip to the fabulous CUE Conference in fabulous Palm Springs, California. In addition to joining some outstanding speakers and sessions (which I’ll blog separately later today), the conference was also the first time my National Writing Project/MERIT colleague Natalie Bernasconi and I were able to co-present our Digital ID [...]

I’m starting the countdown to California’s February 1 Digital Learning Day celebration and feeling very fortunate to be attending the event with three outstanding teachers from my district. Lesley McKillop, 4th grade teacher at Prairie Elementary and Area 3 Writing Project colleague, will share how her students use filmmaking as tool for transforming their writing [...]

Traveling to Chicago for the 2011 Annual National Writing Project (NWP) and National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) Conferences was not in my budget this year, so I was delighted by the opportunity to attend three  four sessions virtually: Andrea Zellner’s NWP Hackjam session – Thanks to tweets from Paul Oh and others and [...]

Writing in its many forms is the signature means of communication in the 21st century. ” (National Writing Project) I was not taught how to teach writing as part of my teacher credential program.  It is through my 16-year affiliation with the National Writing Project that I have joined conversations, learned strategies, and shared best [...]

I won’t know for about 6 weeks if I passed the California Teachers of English Learners (CTEL) test , which I took yesterday at CSU, Sacramento. Taking the CTEL is an all day affair, if you’re planning to take all three sections. I signed up for all three. From the parking lot, I joined a [...]

On this rainy Sunday afternoon, I’m about to curl up in front of the fireplace and delve into my hot-off-the-press copy of the National Writing Project’s Because Digital Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in Online and Multimedia Environments. Through my on-going affiliation with the NWP, I’ve been privileged to work with, listen to, and learn [...]

The video below will give you a window into my two-year journey as coordinator for my district’s EETT grant. In exchange for the funding to purchase laptop carts and cameras and to provide professional development for 4th and 5th grade teachers and students at three elementary sites, I was charged with helping teachers and students [...]