This podcast is the second part of a two-part webcast about Resiliency, produced with the help of Christina Cantrill and the Urban Sites and Rual Sites Networks of the National Writing Project.

On the first of these two shows (TTT#151) our guests gave personal definitions for this field of educational research that describes resiliency in students, we asked these Writing Project teachers to describe what it look like in the classroom:

What specific structures, decisions, books, approaches, projects or technologies have you learned to employ in your classroom to provide the "protective factors" that enable "at-risk" students to develop the resiliency they need to succeed?

On this podcast, Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim were joined for a second time by five Writing Project teachers from around the country:

• DeWayne Dickens, Oklahoma State Writing Project
• Suzanne Linebarger, Northern California Writing Project
• Irina McGrath, Louisville Writing Project
• Lynette Herring-Harris, Thinking Partner for Rural Sites Network, Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project
• Vanessa Brown, Thinking Partner for the Urban Sites Network, Philadelphia Writing Project

Enjoy their conversation! It is laced with provocative questions, inspiring stories, detailed descriptions, and political urgency. In this second podcast, you will hear DeWayne, Suzanne, Irina, Lynette, and Vanessa discussing how resiliency:

• helps them to understand and to demand the use of technology to give students voice, social comptency, and power
• and provides a important context for the professional development work they do with their colleagues within their own schools in in their Writing Project sites.

That's a mouthful, but we think you'll understand after you listen to these engaging teachers describe the work that resilency has inspired them to do with their students and colleagues. Enjoy!

Image Credit: "resilient spirit," Uploaded on January 6, 2006 by dlemieux.

Click Read more to see a transcript of a chat that was happening during the webcast

42:28 minutes (4.86 MB)

The week before Thanksgiving, many National Writing Project (NWP) teachers participated in the NWP's Annual Meeting. Several presenters at the 2007 Annual Meeting joined us for a live webcast on Wednesday, November 28th. This is an edited podcast of that conversation with these teachers:

• Cynthia Calvert, Alcorn Writing Project
• Jason Shiroff, Denver Writing Project
• Lynne Culp, UCLA Writing Project
• Kevin Hodgson, Western Massachusetts Writing Project
• Peter Kittle, Northern California Writing Project (invited)
• Christina Cantrill, NWP Program Associate in Technology

We asked pairs of teachers who presented at the NWP Annual meeting to continue their dialogue on this webcast. We focused on their collaboration before, during, and perhaps after their face-to-face presentation. Find out what their conversations and questions are now.

The theme of the webcast was about how moments where teachers have the opportunity to gather and share practices, such as the NWP's Annual Meeting, are important points along the continuum of on-going conversations and sometimes even collaborations which begin long before the "events" and which often last long after.

We asked our guests to tell us what they learned from planning and presenting together -- both from each other as well as the extended network -- for their Writing Project sites as well as their classrooms.

Chat Log

43:00 minutes (9.83 MB)