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Advanced Institute

Orientation — Saturday, June 6, 2020

Welcome!

Please mute your audio.

In the top right hand corner of your video display, click the three small dots. Then, click “Rename” and use this format:

First Name (Pronouns) Location in Philadelphia Region.

on Writing, Learning, and Leading

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Welcome to the 2020 Advanced Institute!

Co-Facilitators: Dina Portnoy, Reed, and Trey Smith

PhilWP Administrative Assistant: Miriam Harris

PhilWP Director: Diane Waff

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AGENDA

1:00 - 1:05 Welcome

1:05 - 1:30 Writing and Reflecting on Being Part of a

Teacher Network in These Times

1:30 - 2:00 NWP Social Practices

2:00 - 2:05 Break

2:05 - 2:30 Course Info and Next Steps

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Write a Little More...

What does it mean to be part of a teacher network in these times?

What spaces/places are we part of that allow us to feel comfortable and challenged as we learn?
How can we make sure that we create that kind of space—here, with colleagues, in schools, in classrooms?

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Write a Little More...

What does it mean to be part of a teacher network in these times?

What spaces/places are we part of that allow us to feel comfortable and challenged as we learn?
How might we create similar spaces—here, with colleagues, in schools, in classrooms?
How do the readings “Maintaining professionalism in the age of Black death” and “Teaching as activism, teaching as care” help you think about this question?

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Social Practices

ISI includes writing/writing groups/use of writing; after the ISI TCs use writing as a practice in order to do many things, including reflecting and inquiring.

During and after ISI we might make our practice public in articles, workshops, cross-visiting, observational rounds, demo teaching, publishing curriculum.

ISI has reading groups and visiting speakers to engage with literature/research and questions about aspects of your practice; after the ISI TCs engage in reading research and contributing to it through their own publication, participate in professional activities like developing standards, etc.

ISI requires teachers to be engaged and reflective participants so that the role of responder in a writing group is as important as the presenter; after the ISI involves continued use of learning protocols, “oral inquiry processes” as Lytle and Cochran-Smith describe, or the participatory structure of events where everyone is a participant, or teacher research.

Taking role of facilitator/leader in ISI activities as a kind of ‘requirement’ of successful participation; planning and leading work under the PhilWP banner after ISI.

Helping new TCs advocate for policies and practices at school, district, state, and national levels; working toward equity, including taking action with and on behalf of marginalized students, families, communities, and/or professionals; hosting a legislator in your classroom, advocating at spring meeting, writing to advocate for the profession.

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We Write

Most people agree that the easiest way to recognize a writing project event is by the words: “Let’s take some time to write.”

WHY do we write?

In an article entitled “1,000 Writers Writing,” our colleague Bob Yagelski, of the SOMEWHERE UPSTATE NY WP describes an NWP meeting in which he sits among 1,000 teachers in a ballroom writing together as the first moment that he thought: the act of writing is separate from the writing that it produces.

When we focus on the act of writing, writing becomes a way of being in the world.

The practice of writing enacts a theory of learning that emphasizes doing,

Writing has transformative power

We write because we want to to; write because we need to; write because it focuses us on learning by doing, learning HOW instead of WHAT We write because it helps us make sense, helps us know what we think. We write because doing so teaches us to believe in a growth mindset, because we can see for ourselves and our students that with practice we get better at writing..

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We Learn

Like our colleague, Susan Lytle, a founding director of the Philadelphia Writing Project, I find particularly distressing the “rapidly disappearing notion in the public discourse of teaching as a professional practice with the capacity for and the commitment to improving itself.”

Unlike the public discourse around teachers in the United States which often suggests that teaching is simple, that all we need are “teacher proof curriculum”, the writing project discourse is complex and never boring.

This spring I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack Powers for NWP radio. Jack is a veteran teacher,with 38 years of classroom experience, and a widely published poet. He has also been an active TC with the COnnecticut Fairfield Writing Project. When I asked him if he had advice for new teachers he said “NEver Stop Learning. IF you aren’t getting better, you are getting worse. Plus you would just be doing the same thing over and over. IT would be boring.

But HOW do we learn?

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We Go Public

Sometimes when you talk to teachers about their practice, they demure, or speak vaguely, or name practices but don’t show what they look like.

In the writing project, beginning in the summer institute, teachers bravely put their practice out in public. We show each other exactly what we do, and what student writing is produced when we do that. We tell the truth about what we do, when it works, when it doesn’t, and we try to understand why. We share our work openly.

Teacher Consultant Monica Avila of the Central Arizona Writing Project described the impact of making her work public, and seeing other teachers’ work in the summer institute in this way:

“Becoming a part of the National Writing Project helped me see how I wanted to shape the next steps in my career as a high school English language arts teacher working in an urban school in Phoenix, Arizona. The CAWP 2016 Invitational Summer Institute helped me find my voice as a teacher and writer. It gave me a foundation to use writing to express what matters to me in my teaching. In the months following the Summer Institute, I took the writing ideas, resources, and support from the summer and used these to fuel my teaching. I started to tap into, nurture, and exercise my authority and expertise as a teacher.”

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We Collaborate

To be clear, we don’t go public to show off or because we love shame or humiliation. We go public in order to collaborate. We trust each other inherently, believe that from your “onlyness” you have something to teach me, something that you do better than I do.

I lived where I grew up for most of my teaching career. When I became a literacy coach i worked in a school with a teacher who, when we were little, had been the beloved teacher in second grade. My brother had been lucky enough to have her, I had not. This teacher was still beloved by parents and students who strove to get into her class. But the younger teachers in her building approached her with a mix of fear and hatred. She never shared anything. And she never believed that she had anything to learn from another teacher.

I found, as good as she was in the classroom, this teacher seemed self interested -- more interested in being seen as the best than in making sure as many young people as possible had access to what she knew. She believed there was only one best teacher spot and she cared about that more than helping other teachers or thinking about what it would mean to have a better school. She worked from scarcity. As my colleague Anne Whitney describes it, “in the NWP I learned to work from abundance, not scarcity.

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We Lead

In 2006 our colleague Linda Friedrich set out to write a book about how teachers become leaders based on her experience of amazing teacher leaders in the NWP network. The idea was a great one, that almost didn’t get off the ground: Call together a group of around 30 teacher leaders from the NWP network and invite them to write their leadership stories. The problem? 30 teachers in a room who had been nominated by writing project staff who had worked with them to lead national and local programs all looked at the project staff, and each other, and the blank page, and said, “I’m sorry. You have the wrong person. I am not a leader.”

Were they speaking two different languages?

So much of what we mean when we talk about school leadership is about a job in the central office: the principal, the curriculum coordinator, the … but in the NWP we really mean teacher leadership….

• Advocating what’s right for students;

• Opening the classroom door and going public with teaching;

• Working “alongside” teachers and leading collaboratively;

• Taking a stand; and

• Learning and reflecting on practice as a teacher and leader

But for me, going back to the classroom is the thing. That’s the real thing. . . . I want to give them [my students] everything I have . . . and to open the door for them. . . . That’s the pivot for me. And that’s what gives power to the teacher-leader. (Teacher, June 2006)

You believe in something and you want to spread it, so even if you just spread it to one person, you feel like you’re making a difference. Whereas there are teachers in my school who I think are great teachers, but all they do is go and close their door. (Teacher, June 2006)

It helps you to see the value in supporting your colleagues, so that you don’t have to get the credit. Because if you help someone else and they do a wonderful job and they get accolades, it makes you feel good because you helped support them. (Teacher, June 2006)

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We Advocate

Anne Whitney, who writes a lot about the importance of writing and about the NWP, once said,

Having articulated the thinking behind some aspect of teaching to oneself and to one’s professional peers makes it easier to defend those practices to colleagues and principals, to parents, or even just to stay committed to them yourself. Soon you find yourself taking leadership by making your practice and your theorizing of it public. You speak out on questions that matter to you. This is a version of “author”ity that comes not from readers who read your article but from you. “

Monica Avila, who I also quoted earlier in this talk about the impact of the writing project on her teaching practice went on to talk about becoming an advocate for her own work and the NWP by making congressional visits, and convincing 3 republican senators to sign NWP’s dear colleague letter. She says: I shared my advocacy journey with teachers in this summer’s CAWP Summer Institute and I plan to continue my work as an advocate for Arizona schools and teachers at the local and national level through my writing, teacher-research, teaching, and work with the National Writing Project. Every NWP teacher has the power to become an advocate. Your story matters. Let it be heard.

Writing about the NWP earlier this year, Tom Fox said

The energy that enlivens the network comes from a commitment

to education as a public good

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Ideating/Discovery: Roses, Thorns, and Buds

Rose

“I feel like I’m already doing some of this…”
“I feel comfortable doing this…”

Thorn

“This feels challenging to me…”
“I have concerns about how to do this…

Bud

“I see a lot of potential for my own growth here...:”

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Overview of Advanced Institute

ORIENTATION

June 6

INSTITUTE WEEK

July 20 - 24

READ / WATCH / LISTEN

Readings, podcasts, and videos

WRITE / SHARE

Brief reflections and responses on TPS Teachers Network

WRITE / WATCH / READ / DISCUSS / CREATE / PLAN / COLLABORATE / CURATE

Prepare to:

Engage in school and classroom inquiries that can be shared with colleagues, including through publications and conference presentations
Designing and facilitating professional development with/for other teachers and leading school-wide change
Advocating for our students, schools, communities, and profession

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Overview of Advanced Institute

ORIENTATION

June 6

INSTITUTE WEEK

July 20 - 24

CELEBRATION OF WRITING AND LITERACY

October

CHECK-IN 1

November

CHECK-IN 2

December

CHECK-IN 3

January

CHECK-IN 4

February

CHECK-IN 4

March

CHECK-IN 6

April

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Everything You Need in One Place...

tinyurl.com/philwp2020ai

Go to Daily Agendas > Orientation

Find today’s agenda and links to (1) focus questions, (2) readings, (2) shared documents, (3) resources

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Readings During Summer

Readings During Fall and Spring

Grouped with focus question
Primarily found in physical bulk pack, delivered to your home in about 2 weeks
Also available digitally through our shared site

Selected by Monthly Paired Facilitators (You!)

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Course Registration

Tuition is free ($970 paid by TPS grant)

$50 fee for materials paid via “Donate” button on PhilWP website

To register for the course, complete form on our ISI site

Asks for SSN and PA Professional ID (PPID)
May call Miriam to share SSN by phone

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Billing

Once Miriam registers you for this course, Penn will generate a bill.

If you’re new to Penn, you’ll also receive a PennKey.

Bill will be mailed to your home address (late July or early August).

Grant funds covering tuition will later be applied to your account.

* Be mindful: Billing and application of grant funds are not simultaneous; therefore, you may see a balance one month. That balance should disappear with the next month.

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Course Credit

1 continuing education course unit (CEU) from PennGSE equivalent to 3 continuing education credits

You will receive a grade of “Pass” after completing all requirements, which includes participating in all sessions and submitting a final portfolio by the due date.
You will receive an “Incomplete” if all requirements are not fulfilled by due dates.
If all work is not completed, the “Incomplete” may be permanent.

30 ACT 48 credits

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New This Year: All Online!

Hoping to use affordances of Zoom each morning to be present with one another and collaborate
Lunch and afternoons will largely be asynchronous, although you will find times for Journal Groups, Reading Groups, and SIGs to convene

Morning Meeting

Journal Group

Reading Group

SIG

9am

noon

...

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Reflecting on today...one word in a group poem

Powerful

Healing

Supportive

Generative

Hopeful

Listen

Fellowship

Courage

Community

Solidarity

Push

Challenge

Advocacy