Rural Sites Network

Teachers Teaching Teachers #154 - Resiliency: What are we learning with our colleagues (Part 2 of 2) -06.03.09

On this second of a two-part 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.

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

Teachers Teaching Teachers #133 - Holocaust Educators Network: Teachers on a Journey - 12.17.08

On a snowy, windy night last week, Dr. Sondra Perl, Lehman College, CUNY, NY and five National Writing Project (NWP) teachers from rural sites joined us to describe their journeys as teachers of Holocaust studies.  We took a look at their experiences in 10-day seminars that Dr. Perl
led this summer and last summer. We learned more about how these teachers have integrated teaching
about the Holocaust into their work with students. Perhaps you will be
inspired by these teachers to begin your own journey into studying and teaching about the Holocaust.

On a snowy, windy night last week, Dr. Sondra Perl, Lehman College and Gradate Center, CUNY, NY and five National Writing Project  teachers from the Rural Sites Network joined us to describe their journeys as teachers of Holocaust studies.  These are the teachers who you'll hear on this podcast:

  • Danielle Bethune, McCool Junction Schools, Nebraska
  • Kristi Bancroft Boucher, Oxford Hills High School, Maine
  • Gail Desler, Elk Grove School District, California
  • Ilka Hanselmann, Wind Gap Middle School, Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania
  • Susan Hodgin, Moscow Senior High School, Idaho
  • Larry Neuberger, Miller High School, Springfield, Missouri

We took a look at their experiences in 10-day semHolocaust Survivor, Irving Rothinars that Dr. Perl led this summer and last summer. We learned more about how these teachers have integrated teaching about the Holocaust into their work with students. Perhaps you will be inspired by these teachers to begin your own journey into studying and teaching about the Holocaust.

The purpose of the Holocaust Educators Network (HEN) is:

...to provide a forum for faculty interested in studying and teaching the Holocaust. The Network extends the work of the summer seminars sponsored by the Memorial Library. Located at Lehman College of the City University of New York, HEN uses an inquiry-based approach to focus on how educators can engage students with difficult material and how writing and dialogue can help move students from shock and denial to empathy and action. We look to support educators from middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities in the following ways:
  • By examining teaching practices both critically and generously;
  • By sharing resources and devising new approaches in workshops and in online forums;
  • By inviting noted scholars and researchers to present new work to the group; and
  • By developing and conducting workshops in teachers' own schools and communities.
(Image: Holocaust survivor, Irving Roth)

This summer the Holocaust Educators Network will once again offer a ten-day summer seminar led by Dr. Sondra Perl to middle school, high school, and college teachers from rural sites within the National Writing Project. To find out more or to apply for this summer's seminar, please send an e-mail to [email protected]

Don't delay! Applications for this summer need to be in by mid-January.

For the 2009 summer seminar, we invite applications in two formats: 1) applications by individual teachers who are already members of the National Writing Project (NWP) and 2) applications by teams of two teachers from different subject areas in which at least one is a member of the NWP. Click here to download an individual application form; Click here to download a team application form. Please note: applications for the 2009 summer seminar must be postmarked no later than January 16, 2009. Applicants will be notified of all decisions by March 2009.
This year, rural teachers outside of the National Writing Project may also apply. Click here for a flier with more information about the program; click here to download an application form.
Click Read more to see a transcript of a chat that was happening during the webcast. 
Subscribe to RSS - Rural Sites Network