| Welcome to the Dakota Writing Project. |
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| Dakota Writing Project Summer Institute 2008 |
| DWP Opportunities for Educators |
| Educators in any subject area and at all grade levels (K-16) are invited to apply for the DWP 2009 Invitational Summer Institute. Read more. |
| The DWP is leading a year-long study group for South Dakota educators in ESA 2, with the focus of "Improving Writing Through Literacy." DWP teacher-consultants Cindy Nelson, Anne Moege, and Sylvia Kroger are leading this group. Read more. |
| The DWP is also providing professional development at Wagner Public Community School, with DWP teacher-consultant Sue Morrell leading the way. |
| The date has been set for the Sorcerer's Apprentice Creative Writers' Camp for high school students: September 26, 2009. Educators will be invited to nominate students for this camp at a later date. The camp is a collaboration between the Dakota Writing Project and the Vermillion Literary Project, a university student organization. Check back at a later date for more information. |
| DWP/NWP Honors and Accomplishments |
The general public attended a special session of the DWP 2008 Invitational Summer Institute on June 25, 2008, when Lil Manthei presented, "Writing the Sacred into the Real: (Re)visiting Spirit Mound." Read more.
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| Cindy Heckenlaible, a DWP teacher-consultant, a high school English teacher at Vermillion High School, and a USD English Ed. alum, now has an article published in the National Writing Project's March 2008 eVoice, entitled, "The Research Paper: Engaging Students in Academic Writing." Cindy worked on this article at an NWP writing retreat, where an NWP editor read it and invited to submit it. |
| Other DWP News |
| Nineteen DWP teacher-consultants from all over the state attended the DWP Professional Development Weekend Warrior Retreat on April 18-20, 2008. This retreat provided DWP educators with the opportunity to strengthen themselves as teacher-leaders and share their expertise with other South Dakota teachers. Read more. |
| Rebecca Mehrens, Karen Rahn, and Michelle Rogge Gannon attended the NWP Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C. April 3-4, 2008. They visited with the educational aides of Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Tim Johnson, and John Thune; they also got to visit with Senator Thune. Representative Sandlin signed the House "Dear Colleague" letter of support for the National Writing Project, and Senator Johnson signed the Senate "Dear Colleague" letter of support for the NWP. |
| DWP teacher-consultant Lindy Obach and Prairie Winds representative Paul Higbee presented a collaborative session at the TIE Conference, on Tuesday, April 8. For more information about the TIE Conference, visit http://conference.tie.net/. |
| A small group of teachers and students (grades 4-6) attended the Sioux Falls Writing Workshop at the Sertoma Butterfly House on March 15, with students participating in the morning and teachers in the afternoon. Annie Christain, a 2006 DWP teacher-consultant, was the featured poet who led the participants in creative writing exercises and also facilitated an afternoon discussion with the teachers on using creative writing in the classroom. This event was co-sponsored by the Dakota Writing Project and Prairie Winds, with additional support by the South Dakota Arts Council. Learn more. |
| A number of DWP teacher-consultants attended and/or presented at the SDCTE 2008 Spring Conference in Chamberlain, including Tim Duggan, Anne Moege (SDCTE president), Sue Morrell, Sharon Olbertson, Karen Rahn, Linda Rothermel, and Nancy Zuercher. Karen promoted the DWP, sharing DWP materials and stories. Tim Duggan was a featured speaker. |
| DWP director Michelle Rogge Gannon and SI co-director Karen Rahn attended the NWP Annual Meeting in New York City on November 15-17, 2007. They attended sessions and workshops in the exciting Times Square area of New York. DWP teacher-consultant Anne Moege, who is also SDCTE president, attended the NCTE Conference held at the same time in NYC; she attended some of the sessions of the NWP strand at the NCTE Conference. |
| The DWP held its annual fall reunion on September 29, 2007. Approximately sixteen DWP teacher-consultants attended this meeting, held on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion. Leading demonstrations were veteran teachers Sue Morrell (Wagner Public School) and Cindy Nelson (Hayward Elementary, Sioux Falls). The focus was "Developing a Vision for Professional Development in South Dakota Schools." |
| The DWP Pre-service Teachers' Retreat was held the weekend of September 21-22, 2007. Twenty-free pre-service teachers attended, including students from both the University of South Dakota and Mount Marty College. U. assistant professors Timothy Duggan and Susan Gapp also attended. Sharon Olbertson and Lindsay Sorben, two DWP teacher-consultants, led this retreat, which focused on bringing writing into the classroom. Read more. |
| The Dakota Writing Project teamed up for the second year in a row with the Vermillion Literary Project to offer The Sorcerer's Apprentice Creative Writers' Camp. Thirty-two high school students from schools around the region attend the camp, which was held September 22, 2007, on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion. Workshop leaders and facilitators include DWP teacher-consultants Mary Begley, Krista Bruggeman, Annie Christain, Greg Dyer, Marcia Kear, Lindy Obach, and Dennis Sjolie, along with leaders from the Vermillion Literary Project and Prairie Winds. Read more. |
| The DWP 2007 September Showcase featured DWP teacher-consultants Dawn Lewis, Sue Morrell, Tim Duggan, and Tammy Maeschen demonstrating how to integrate writing effectively in the classroom, at different grade levels and in a variety of disciplines, with DWP teacher-consultant Heather Gayken facilitating the Showcase. The Showcase, which was free, was available on the Dakota Digital Network (DDN), allowing teachers and administrators from all over South Dakota to participate in these interactive demonstrations. All sessions took place on Wednesdays in September 2007, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. CST. Read more. |
| Fifteen South Dakota educators in a variety of grade levels and disciplines, including returning DWP teacher-consultant Sylvia Kroger as a participant-coach, attended the Dakota Writing Project 2007 Summer Invitational Institute June 4 - June 28, 2007, at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. At the Institute, educators wrote daily, did research on writing and teaching, and shared strategies on how to strengthen the teaching of writing. Read more. |
| Twenty Rapid City educators attended the DWP-RCAS (Rapid City Area Schools) Open Institute in Rapid City June 24 - 29, 2007. This one-week institute was facilitated by DWP teacher-consultants Nancy Kampfe and Connie Krueger. Read more. |
| DWP teacher-consultants Lil Manthei and Dixie Linn-Norberg attended the Rural Sites Network Conference on March 9-10, 2007, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They presented their innovative White River-Takini Nicenet project at this conference. |
- The conference led Lil Manthei to rethink her definition of what it means to be rural. Read more.
- In reflecting on this experience, Dixie Linn-Norberg wrote, "I have concluded that the entire experience has transformed my perception of teaching and learning in rural schools. I am very appreciative of the opportunities I have been given through DWP. When I consider the progress that I have made as a teacher of writing since DWP 2005, I feel very humble and grateful. My students, of course, are the real winners." Read more.
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A group of DWP teacher-consultants led by Greg Dyer and Michelle Rogge Gannon participated in the DWP 2006-07 Electronic Writing Marathon, examining ways in which to integrate writing and technology effectively in the classroom. They explored and wrote in technology environments such as Tapped In, weblogs, Nicenet, Google.Docs, wiki systems, podcasts, and digital storytelling. Participants include Annie Christain, Deb Harrison, Dawn Lewis, Anne Moege, Reva Potter, and Karen Rahn. |
- Annie Christain used Google.Docs in her college composition class for online peer review. She also did a podcasting demonstration for the DWP-Wagner partnership.
- Deb Harrison did podcasting with her eighth-grade students.
- Anne Moege has been busy at her middle school with classroom weblogs, Nicenet, wikis, and podcasting!
- Reva Potter has been making digital stories with her seventh-grade students, bringing together student poems with visual images and music, using iMovie.
- Karen Rahn focused on collaborative writing, using Google.Docs with her high school English students. This included an experimental collaboration with another school, Oldham-Ramona.
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