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The Write Time with Author Erin Stewart and Educator Esther Theodore Jul 30, 2020

Show notes

For this episode of The Write Time, we visit with author Erin Stewart. Erin uses her background in journalism to research and write fiction based on real life and her debut novel is Scars Like Wings.

Leading the conversation is Esther Theodore, an English Language Teacher at Stamford High in Connecticut and a teacher-leader with CWP-Fairfield. Esther is originally from Haiti and believes that every individual carries with them a story that enriches the educational journey, stretching it beyond the classroom.

Being Heard: Students Presenting Live to State Senators on Local Issues—Part 7 of The Nebraska Experience Jul 25, 2020

Show notes

The final episode of our seven-part series, The Nebraska Experience, explores an approach to teaching argument writing that involves students in researching local issues and presenting advocacy writing live to legislators at the state capitol. The project detailed here involved a semester-long collaboration between college and high-school students as part of the Husker Writers program, which sponsors secondary-university writing partnerships. High-school teacher Jessica Meyer and college professor Rachael Shah describe how they designed their collaborative unit and explain how the National Writing Project's College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) and place-based writing principles informed their pedagogy. The podcast highlights student voices by featuring excerpts of the students’ collaborative advocacy presentations on the cost of college and mental health resources, and it includes interviews with students about their experience writing for state senators. Jess Meyer and Rachael Shah reflect on what they have learned about facilitating local issue writing for audiences beyond the classroom.

Guests

Jessica Meyer, English Teacher, Lincoln North Star High School
Dr. Rachael Shah, Assistant Professor of English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Adam Morfeld, Nebraska State Senator for UNL/North Star District
Students in Meyer’s composition class and Shah’s preservice education class

Writing the River: Nebraska Writing Project and Niobrara Scenic River Partnership—Part 6 of The Nebraska Experience Jul 24, 2020

Show notes

Hear about a new partnership between the National Park Service and the Nebraska Writing Project that is under development and moving toward a planned river float for area high school students to allow them to experience the Niobrara River in a way they may not have done in the past. The Nebraska Writing Project is planning writing experiences in the areas of the significant river ecology, paleontology, Native American history and use, the historical Fort Niobrara cavalry including buffalo soldiers, railroaders, homesteaders, and ranchers.

More About Niobrara

The Niobrara Scenic River lies in Cherry County, Nebraska, the largest county in Nebraska comprising an area of 6,009 square miles of which 49 square miles is water. Cherry County which abuts South Dakota on its northern border is Nebraska's largest county in land area and larger than the state of Connecticut, or the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Running through Cherry County is the Niobrara River, 568 miles long, from its head in Wyoming to its mouth on the Missouri in the state of Nebraska. Seventy-six miles of the Niobrara have been designated a National Scenic River. The Niobrara National Scenic River will be the third jewel in the crown of National Park Service/Nebraska Writing Project Partnerships.

Guests

Susan Cook, Chief of Interpretation and Resource Management; Program Manager for Interpretation, Education and Volunteers, Niobrara National Scenic River
Bobbie Roshone, Niobrara National Scenic River
Jan Knispel, Adjunct Professor, Midplains Community College

The Write Time with Author Adib Khorram and Educator Aram Kabodian Jul 23, 2020

Show notes

For this episode of The Write Time, we have the pleasure of visiting with award-winning author Adib Khorram. Adib is the author of Darius The Great is Not Okay and his next book, Darius The Great Deserves Better, will be released August 25, 2020.

Leading the discussion will be Aram Kabodian, a longtime educator, the 2016 MCTE Middle School Teacher of the Year, and a Red Cedar Writing Project teacher-leader.

Bare Bones: Place-Based Teaching through the Stories of Agate Fossil Beds National Monument—Part 5 of The Nebraska Experience Jul 23, 2020

Show notes

Part five of The Nebraska Experience gives an outline of the initial work between the Nebraska Writing Project and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and examines the rich place-based teaching that occurred in this partnership. Our guests describe how they developed the paleontological, geological, and early history of the plains stories from this park into a series of workshops designed for teachers.

The goal of this partnership was to create place-based workshops which:

immersed teachers directly in the experience of the park,
provided writing experiences that both enriched the park experience and were recreatable in the classroom,
and met the teacher as a writer and an educator.

Teacher-participants join the podcast to share how the workshop series evolved and impacted them as place-based writers and educators.

Guests

Diana Weis, 5th Grade Teacher, Millard Cather Elementary School
Alvis Mar, Lead Park Ranger, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
Jan Knispel, Teacher, Midplains Community College
Tess Sykes, Henry Doorly Zoo School, Papillon
Brenda Larabee, 10-12 Teacher, Stuart High School

Place-Conscious Experiential Writing for Students and Teachers: Part 4 of the Nebraska Experience Jul 22, 2020

Show notes

This podcast—part four of a seven-part series—focuses on how the Prairie Visions Writing Workshop for students and teachers came about due to the wish of the Homestead National Monument of America’s National Park Service to bring a focused writing workshop to the monument location that would take advantage of the history and process of the Homestead Act of 1862. The workshop developed writing sessions that brought students to experience the physical environment and ecology of the TallGrass Prairie, to see the artifacts and historical documents of the Homestead Visitors center, to feel the centeredness of earthing (being in contact with the earth), and mindfulness (being conscious of place, being in the moment). The emphasis on place-based writing engendered a greater appreciation in students of the history of the Homestead Act. The place of Homestead Monument allowed students to focus their writing experiences on the concept of home of the past, present, and future.

Guests

Susan Cook, Chief of Interpretation; Program Manager for Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers, Niobrara National Scenic River
Jan Knispel, Retired Valentine High School, Current Midplains Community College
Ramon Mangual PhD, Supervisory National Park Service Ranger, Manhattan Sites
Diana Weis, 5th Grade Teacher, Millard Cather Elementary School

Blending Place Based Education and C3WP in Rural Nebraska: A Focus on Civil Discourse—Part 3 of The Nebraska Experience Jul 21, 2020

Show notes

This podcast focuses on Nebraska Writing Project co-director Melissa Legate’s pedagogical work to blend a place-based study of rural population decline with the College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) focus on writing from multiple perspectives and nuanced claims. This project is offered as an example of the place-conscious principle of creating active citizens in the local community. Legate explains a “text set” developed from local newspapers on rural decline in her area and her 9th grade students’ response to the writing from that study. She goes on to describe the class follow-up final research project to investigate multiple points of view in a local issue, focusing on one student’s project on Willow Lake Recreation Area outside of town, and the many reasons for seasonal algae blooms there.

Guests

Dr. Robert Brooke, Director, Nebraska Writing Project
Melissa Legate, Secondary English Teacher, Pierce Public Schools; Co-Director, Nebraska Writing Project

We Are All Immigrants: Part 2 of the Nebraska Experience Jul 20, 2020

Show notes

This podcast describes an 8-week joint class project between Nebraska Writing Project teacher-leader Cara Morgenson’s Thematic Issues course for level three English Language Learners at Lincoln High School, Dr. Robert Brooke’s college junior Uses of Literacy students, and Homestead National Monument of America. The project focused on immigration issues in Lincoln, Nebraska, grounded in the historical study of the Homestead Act as a “first wave” of immigration in Nebraska, Morgenson’s students’ first-person accounts of recent immigration to Lincoln, and cooperative work with four local agencies providing support for refugees: Center for People in Need, El Centro de las Americas, Asian Community and Cultural Center, and the Yazidi Cultural Center. The project is an example of the place-conscious educational principle of “spiraling out” from local to regional/national/international issues.

Guests

Dr. Robert Brooke, Director, Nebraska Writing Project
Cara Morgenson, Doctoral Candidate, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education; former Lincoln North Star High School English Language Learners Teacher

Basics of Place-Conscious Education: The Nebraska Experience Jul 19, 2020

Show notes

This podcast is the first of a seven-part series that introduces the big concepts of place-conscious education as used by Nebraska Writing Project teachers. Special guest Dr. Robert Brooke, director of the Nebraska Writing Project, situates listeners to place-conscious work in Nebraska in three stages: the Rural Institute program developed 1995-2007; the online Place-Conscious Institute and the suburban inquiry team 2008-2015; and the current community engagement/literacy programs of Husker Writers and the National Parks Service partnership. Then, four main concepts of place-conscious education are explained:

Active citizens as opposed to migratory education
The 3-legged stool of education, community vitality, and environmental quality
Spiraling out from local community to regional, national, international knowledge
Watershed and commonwealth as the crucial web of interrelationships

We finish with examples of two exemplar projects: the Henderson/Bradshaw school consolidation project; and the Greater Omaha schools Urban Justice Project.

The Write Time with Author Laurie Halse Anderson and Educator Rebecca Marsick Jul 15, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of The Write Time we are honored to have Laurie Halse Anderson join us to discuss writing, learning, and life. She is the author of Speak, Prom, Twisted, Catalyst, Wintergirls, The Impossible Knife of Memory, and more.

Laurie is interviewed by NWP teacher-leader Rebecca Marsick who has taught elementary, middle, and high school, and is currently a Secondary Literacy Coach for Westport Public Schools.

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