Reflections

This week we wrapped up our physical time together for our Wyoming Writing Project summer institute.  We were joined this summer by eight gifted teachers as full time participants and several others joining us for tastes of WWP in hopes of joining us full time next year.  I have been thinking about numbers and events in terms of data as we get ready to give updates to stakeholders.  The numbers just don't tell the story.

We traveled to Wheatland, Evanston, and Laramie.  In those places we worked with a total of 35 K-12 teachers directly through their attendance at our professional development events.  We had more than 45 join us for community writing marathons.  Here's what those numbers don't tell:

• Our new Teacher Consultants delivered PD to their colleagues- some for the very first time.
• These consultants ranged from teachers who recently retired to new teachers finishing their first and third year of teaching.
• We received feedback like "I grew so much today and I NEVER say that about PD" and "Please come back and do more" and "I learned so much about writing and teaching writing"
• We networked with teachers and administrators in areas of the state that our university doesn't always reach and we now have connections in those places for future work.
• We have teacher consultants in at least eight locations in the state who are poised to support their colleagues in the work of teaching writing
• We connected through social media with authors and other Writing Project sites and we went Facebook Live for the very first time reaching viewers all over the nation.  

We spent more than 100 hours with our participants studying two professional books and working on their individual research projects.  Those numbers don't tell the full story.  We formed a family.  We are now a community poised to support each other in our own writing and the teaching of writing.  We are strong and passionate and excited for what is to come.  And, there is a lot to come so stay tuned!

I'm so grateful to work with so many gifted people in our Writing Project.  Our leadership team makes me laugh and cry and laugh again.  They remind me constantly of why we are doing this work and how important it is to classrooms.  They go home and their own children organize writing marathons in their backyard and it lets me know that what we do makes a difference in the lives of students.

So, we wrapped up.  Participants are working online with us to complete their professional writing as they plan or complete their inquiry projects.  We will see them in the fall when they present with us at  our fall Literacy Conference on campus.  It will be a glorious reunion and celebration.

We wrapped up but the work is not complete.  We've only begun and I can't wait for my co-director to again say, "I have an idea!"  It's those ideas that have given us momentum.  My own writing has dramatically increased with the encouragement of my writing family and I find myself wanting to set things aside and write more often.  I'm making time for writing and not making excuses.  One of our participants said that sometimes you just have to give up the fight and just write and that advice has helped me keep going on days when the juices don't flow.  Writing is a practice.  I'm practicing more and more.  I hope to share some of that writing with you in blogs to come.