Teachers Teaching Teachers #59 - 06.27.07 - Welcoming new voices

Joining Paul Allison (NYC), Lee Baber (Virginia), and Susan Ettenheim (NYC) on this show were two new voices on Teachers Teaching Teachers and one regular guest (with a side of him we haven't seen before):

Karen McComas was finally able to join us. (She has had a class on Wednesday evenings.) Karen is Associate Professor of Communication Disorders at Marshall University, in West Virginia. She is an ASHA-certified Speech-Language Pathologist and Audiologist. Karen also serves as the Chair of the Technology Liaison Leadership Team of the National Writing Project and as a Teacher Consultant for the Marshall University Writing Project . For her, writing is an historical and political act. She writes to understand and preserve the story of her life. She has also been an inspiration for teaching with technology in the National Writing Project for many years. Here's Karen's blog ...in mind's eye...

Betty D. Collum was able to get on using her cell phone. Betty is a 5th/6th writing teachers in Webster County Schools, Eupora, Mississippi. She is also the Mississippi State University Writing Project Tech Liaison, and a member of the National Writing Project's Tech Liaison Leadership Team. This year Betty's students have been contributors to a podcasting project that includes teachers and their students from all over the country, Youth Radio: Connecting Youth Voices to the World.

Bill O'Neal also joined us. Bill has worked with us for several months on YouthVoices.org. He is an English teacher at Trenton Central High School, West, and he is the Tech Liaison for the Trenton Writing Project. After show #58 (06.20.07), Bill wanted us to know that he also has a life in music! When we asked if we could highlight his website about his musical life he wrote:

"The music on my site has little to do with education... but whatever. This fall I am, however, reviving a guitar workshop for the students. I limited enrollment to eight. The district sent us to a weekend workshop (a few NYC teachers also attended) for a not-for-profit group called Little Kids Rock. They will provide the guitars. Lack of instruments was my biggest hurdle the last time I ran a workshop: Very few students owned guitars. Their web site is: http://littlekidsrock.org."

Bill's music site is: www.billoneal.com

Enjoy this a low-key, summer show. We recorded this webcast in the middle of electrical storms that kept knocking out our Skype connections, something you will probably barely notice because of Susan Ettenheim's amazing editing skills!

Please add a story of your own about something that you did in your classroom this year, something that you want to do better in the fall... or something that you want to continue doing.