4NWP

I have been teaching 10 years.  As I reflect on how my teaching has changed over the years, and how I myself have changed over the years, I must say that the most positive influences have come from participating in professional organizations.  The International Reading Association has been an incredible resource for learning how to teach, but tonight I want to write about The National Writing Project.  This is an organization that empowers teachers to step beyond teaching our students and to become leaders in the educational world.  Since participating in the twentieth Writing Project at Western Kentucky University, I have become a professional.  The Writing Project taught me to develop relationships among colleagues in order to collaborate and share ideas, spreading good lessons to more students.  I have met some of the most incredible teachers through the Project and feel blessed to have them not only as colleagues to learn from, but also as life-long friends.  I have stepped up in my school building to take on leadership roles because of the encouragement from the Writing Project.  I have learned from my students through action based research and inquiry-style teaching ~ This was a complete paradigm shift for me, and I owe it all to the Writing Project.  My students have surely benefitted from my participation ~ my instruction has improved greatly!  I could go on for hours about the benefits the Writing Project has to offer, but I must get to the point of this rant.  I learned this week that the federal government has cut all funding to the National Writing Project.  I understand that in this economy, we must be particularly careful how we spend our money and that there must be cuts.  I also understand that no one wants the money they are using to be cut.  I must say that it worries me greatly that the people we are cutting money from, when we cut things like writing project, are our future. We are cutting from the education budget!  The right to free public education is the one thing that sets this nation apart from the others.  Education is a path to a better life for so many in our nation.  My hope is that the money will be restored before too many students miss out.  Let's make some choices for the future!