A year ago, knowing Felicia Rose Chavez's The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop was hitting the national market, I did a call for site directors to bring teacher leaders together for a series of conversations. Actually, my own teacher leaders wanted this and I followed their lead. We met for a semester, read and discussed the book, and began thinking about how it might influence the work we do at our own sites. A special shout out to Dr. Tonya Perry, University of Alabama at Birmingham, for being the leader who featured featured Chavez's work on The Write Time.
Our team, with our teachers, presented at NCTE in November, but are fortunate to go forward with the 'research arm' this morning at NCTEAR - the National Council of Teachers of English Assembly of Research. We are thrilled to bring the work to the vision of Dr. Detra Price and her leadership team for this year's conference.
We were VERY deliberate about inviting sites to represent regions of the United States, as we wanted to vary the localities where we are thinking about Chavez's work.
The bottom line for me this morning is how lucky it is we have one another. The National Writing Project transcends state boundaries and caters to the best educators in the nation. It takes a particular type of stellar individual to do a teacher institute, and an even better one to put themselves at the helm of their school and district. Yet, here we are, united as a crew of several states, about to discuss ways we might enhance writing instruction for all learners in our care.
I, personally, cannot wait to hear what my colleagues have to say, and I'm extremely thankful to Felicia Rose Chavez for contributing her thought-proving guide. It's a Saturday, there's not a lot of time (but there's much space to write up what we're learning), and NCTEAR is an incredible outlet. In these times, when so many work to divide and distract us from what it truly important, I'm thankful to be part of this incredible team who always, in all they do, keep the National Writing Project mission moving forward.