The cards are stacked in favor for the first Global Writing Project Summer Institute

It’s a picture perfect setting for the first day of class.  The grass is green the sky is blue, the weather is perfect and the floating stack of playing cards make great seats.  No I’m not imaging things, it’s true. The Global Writing Project (GWP) Summer Institute really has floating cards as seats.  How is this possible you might ask? Well, The GWP Summer Institute is located in a 3D immersive environment known as Second Life.  Peggy Marconi, associate direct of the Oregon Writing Project at the University of Oregon, had an idea to counter the federal budget cuts for professional development of educators in the US.  Armed with a team of experts in literary arts, technology and 3D immersive environments, Peggy opened up this idea to all educators from around the globe.

 On June 25^th 2012, the first ever literary arts professional development summer institute in Second Life began.  Classmates gathered from different corners of the world including, Lagos Nigeria, Rodos Greece, Washington DC and Oregon USA.   The first day consisted of an overview to the class, interactive lessons on using the 3D space, professional photo shoot for all participants (aka avatars) and meeting fellow classmates.  It was a full morning of adjusting to a totally new and exciting environment.  Reflecting on her first day in the GWP Summer Institute, Anastasia Bekou, an English Teacher in Greece, noted that the experience “was exciting!”

The second day had some technical difficulties.  The voice chat feature wasn’t working, but it didn’t stop the participants from effectively engaging through the chat box with presenters and fellow classmates.  The topics presented ranged from “Setting Web Preferences” to “Using art as inspiration to write in the middle grades” and provoked interesting discussions.  

Regardless of the learning curve or technical difficulties, one thing is for sure. Everyone is excited to see what happens with this new approach to educational professional development and the global connections that ensue.

Project DIRECT at AERA

On April 16th 2012 in Vancouver BC, the paper "Rural Educators in the 21st Century: Using Evidence-based Practices with Communication Technologies" was presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in the poster session of Division C - Learning and Instruction/Section 7: Technology Research. Alongside my co-author Lynne Anderson-Inman, we answered a stream of questions about the uniqueness of Project DIRECT to interested scholars from around the nation. One passerby, whom also works in professional development, expressed such an appreciation for the project he will be joining us in Second Life as a guest to witness this magic in action. One thing was quite evident at AERA this year,  there is a push for more innovative means of professional development and Project DIRECT is among a handful of initiatives leading the way.  If you or anyone you know is interested in visiting Project DIRECT in Second Life, please be our guest. For an invitation simply send an email to projectdirect2010@gmail.com.

Why Twitter?

Twitter is undoubtedly a hot topic and has probably hit your digital palette at least once in the last year. However, there is a bit of a learning curve and this can be reason enough to put off one of the most powerful social media tools on the market. This quick overview and tutorial will hopefully peak your interest and encourage you to spread your twitter wings and fly...up, up and over that tiny learning curve.

Emerald Empire Reading Council and ORA's Winter Institute

A reminder about the EERC’s Writing Workshop program on January 9 from 4–6 at the Lane ESD.

Can there be more to writing than the traits and assessment? We think so! We will explore some other aspects of writing such as the importance of motivation, choice, audience, and purpose. We will look at some writing categories proposed by Ralph Fletcher in What a Writer Needs and some others from Jeff Anderson’s new book, 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know as well as explore Katie Wood Ray’s idea of close study. There is no charge for the workshop but registration would be appreciated. Questions? Reply to this message. To register, just reply to this message to say you will attend.

Don’t miss an opportunity to hear nationally acclaimed experts in the field of teaching writing and teaching adolescents at the ORA Winter Institute, February 10 and 11 in Portland at the Crowne Plaza hotel. On Friday, Katie Wood Ray will present to K-5 teachers about writing while Kylene Beers and Bob Probst will share their expertise with working with adolescents. On Saturday attendees will learn about the Common Core State Standards from Penny Plavala and then choose from a number of break-out sessions by Northwest educators and consultants:

Morning sessions:
Barbara Swanson Sanders: Best New Books to Enrich Your Curriculum (K-5)
Mary Palmer Nowland: Authentic Conversations about Writing (K-6)
Mindy Larson and Donna Kalmbach: Effective Writing Conferences in the CCSS Classroom (4-8)
Sue Lenski: What RTI Means for Content Area Teachers

Afternoon sessions:
Robert Young: Light the Fire with Nonfiction (K-5)
Carol Laritzen: Meet the CCSS Literacy Requirements in Science with Reading and Writing (2-8)
Barbara Swanson Sanders: Best New Books to Enrich Your Curriculum (6-12)
Betty Shoemaker: Read Like a Reader, Read Like a Writer: What’s the Difference? (6-12)

To register, visit www.oregonread.org