To help better serve the needs of our LMWP community, I have posted a survey .  You can complete the survey by following the link  or I have also sent an email to each registered site user.  The survey will close on October 31.  Please respond before then.  Thank you in advance for you consideration and time.  

The teacher research class is well underway, as you can see from reading the "Our Classrooms" section of the website.  These TC's are embarking on a great journey of discovery about their own teaching practices.  They will form questions, read educational literature, collect and analyze classroom data, and write up their findings.  I can't wait to see what they accomplish by the end of the school year...and I bet they can't wait either!

For the rest of us who are merely trying to survive in the day to day workings of the classroom, I encourage you to put on your own teacher-research hat.  What are the burning questions you are dealing with?  What questions keep you up at night?  Might this be the year that you attempt to answer one of these questions?

As teachers, time is always an issue, but we can find small ways to be researchers.  We can keep a journal listing some of our questions, reflections, and classroom observations.  We can get a group of colleagues together to look through student samples of a piece of writing.  We can have another teacher observe us and collect a specific type of data for us (perhaps scripting our questions, or scripting our students' answers during a discussion).  We can check out books from the LMWP library to see what recent literature has to say about our questions.

I encourage you to try one of the above tips this month, and I also encourage you to share what you are learning with your LMWP colleagues. 

Perhaps putting on a new hat, your researcher hat, will help make the long stretch from the beginning of the school year to Thanksgiving seem much more meaningful and productive.

Happy researching!

Websitter #2 (Jen VanDerHeide)

Yes, you heard me.  Write on!  In order to continue the conversation of the LMWP during the school year, we have added a new component to the website.  Each month a different member of the team will be websitting.  This websitting is our way of inviting and encouraging the ongoing scholarship that we all yearn for while away from the Summer Institute.  The duties of the websitter are much like those of a babysitter.  The websitter will post a blog entry for the month keeping you connected with the work of the team, and also remain a vigilent respondant for anyone that posts to the the site.  Your voices are being heard year round.  So, write on! 

As we work to improve our site, it will undergo periodic maintenance.  Most recently, a new posting option has been added for posting to Our Reading.  Please post any new reading thoughts under the Alumni or Book Review categories instead of selecting an SI 2008 Group.  Under Our Writing, please select a genre for any new post instead of selecting an SI 2008 Group.  Please continue to post your writings and reading responses.  I look forward to reading each of them.

Happy writing to you all! 

LMWP love,

Websitter #1 (Melissa VanKlompenburg) 

Greetings from 5280 feet above sea level (a.k.a. Denver, Colorado).  Having arrived yesterday after uneventful travel, we spent the afternoon reminiscing with friends and enjoying the sights of Boulder.  The kick-off dinner started the event off on just the right note as we met new writing project friends from around the nation. 

We have spent the majority of our time engaging in a variety of strategic thinking and creative activities that have given us further insight on ways to best utilize this space.  With our minds reeling and our bellies full (as we know the long-standing writing project tradition of breaking bread together) we are eager to continue this work throughout the remaining time at this retreat and long after we arrive back in West Michigan.

Looking forward to sharing our process with you!

Lindsay and Amanda