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My daughter talked me into it: taking a combination kickboxing/step aerobics class. We were going to do it together, but after the second session, she put her step on the other side of the gym because (she said) it was too embarrassing to be next to me. I just couldn't get it. I was stepping up when everyone else was stepping down, kicking to the left when I should have been punching to the right. When I tried to copy others in the class, I was at least a move behind.
One evening the instructor started classes the way she always did. After teaching short bursts of kicks and steps, she said this in a perky voice: "You all have the pattern, right? Let's go!" As she turned on the music, what went through my head was this: Pattern? Pattern?! What pattern? And in a flash I thought about my middle level students in writing class. When I taught lessons on abstractions related to writing-think thesis statements, unity, flow; topics that seem so logical to me-they probably thought just what I thought in that step class: What is she talking about? By putting myself in a learning situation where I was not very adept, I learned something about my students, something that made me a better writing teacher even though the class was not in any way related to teaching writing.
Now, I don't recommend kickboxing or step aerobics classes as the most effective or efficient professional development experience I ever had. But in some ways it is more typical of professional development (PD) I have endured: It's not really about me or about what I need to learn. It's more about the time there. Yes, I learned something, but I could have learned more from more effective PD. And that's where the National Writing Project comes in.
The National Writing Project (NWP) began in 1974 at the University of California-Berkeley, based on a few very important principles: (1) Teachers teach writing better when they are writers themselves and (2) teachers have a lot of important knowledge to share with other teachers. Writing Project sites are now housed at more than 200 universities nationwide (www.nwp.org). The keystone for these sites is summer institute (SI), an...