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WHO WE ARE

The Middle Tennessee Writing Project (MTWP) is a professional development program for teachers, K-college and across disciplines, striving to improve writing instruction. MTWP is one of nearly 200 sites of the National Writing Project (NWP), and the second of three NWP sites in Tennessee. The Middle Tennessee Writing Project seeks to serve teachers in Maury, Williamson, Bedford, Rutherford, Cannon, and Wilson counties.


WHAT WE DO

The mission of the MTWP is to improve writing and learning in Middle Tennessee’s schools. The goal is to promote effective writing instruction through a teachers-teaching-teachers professional development model, which recognizes the importance of teacher knowledge, expertise, and leadership.

 

MTWP offers a variety of services, including a month-long invitational summer institute for educators, youth writer’s camps, an annual fall conference, and other professional development opportunities throughout the year. We hope you enjoy perusing the website, and should you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us.

 

ADVOCATE for the NWP
Whether you were a part of the first ISI or just finished last week, there are certainly many lessons and ways of thinking that continue to inform your teaching. And while the ISI is a large part of what we do, there are many other works that the MTWP and NWP support to help further excellent writing instruction. In order for all of these programs to continue, however, we must have the financial support of the Federal government. Under current proposals, the National Writing Project could be lumped together with other programs, causing some states to lose all Federal funding for this important program.

So here’s how you can help:

  1. write to Senator Alexander about your experiences with MTWP and NWP. Senator Alexander is a powerful voice in Washington for education. You can find his contact information here: http://alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email
  2. join a new MTWP initiative to write all of our Representatives and Senators on a monthly basis to keep the NWP on their minds. Our plans are to rotate this responsibility monthly, so by signing up to help with this, you are only committing to writing one or two letters a year (depending on the number of volunteers. To join this effort, email Ashley Whitaker (whitakera@rcs.k12.tn.us), who is organizing this initiative. Be sure to include your zip code, as Representatives will only accept correspondence from their constituents.
  3. Look for news in the spring concerning the “Dear Colleague” letters that circulate throughout Congress. This is a specific time that we all need to write our Senators and Representatives letters telling them how the NWP has impacted our teaching and our students.
  4. Consider attending the Spring Meeting of the NWP in Washington to meet with these same Representatives and lobby for their support. In which of these ways will you help insure the NWP and MTWP continue to change teaching and learning in Tennessee and across the nation?


QUICK LINKS

85561194 Apply for the position of Coordinator of Youth Writer’s Camps here. Deadline to apply is August 1.

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 MTWP’s sixth ISI is in full swing. Click here to see pictures of teachers writing and learning.
blog-image Check out the MTWP Blog for announcements about upcoming events and TC news.


Visit the National Gallery of Writing
p1013103 Looking for a place to share your writing or reconnect with other TCs? Click here to visit the TC-Connect forum.
dc8 In early April 2009 seven members of MTWP traveled to our nation’s capital to speak to members of Congress about NWP. Read Teacher Consultant Ashleigh Stone’s account of their advocacy work.
p1013275 Did you miss the last chat in our series on Writer’s Workshop? Click here to read the transcripts of the session, and be sure to join us next month to add to the conversation.