Our New Professional Learning Community
We're pleased and excited to announce that
the San Jose Area Writing Project
will be introducing a new
Professional Learning Community (PLC)
in conjunction with our 2009/2010 Super Saturdays.
Teachers Helping Teachers
The SJAWP (San Jose Area Writing Project) is a California Subject Matter Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project and the California Writing Project. An organization of, by, and for teachers, SJAWP is dedicated to improving the teaching and uses of writing at all grade levels (K-16) and in all disciplines. Teachers helping teachers.
Teacher Professional Development
Working from a firm belief in the power of classroom tested knowledge, the SJAWP is composed of successful, practicing teachers who have participated in the Invitational Summer Institute. In this intensive five-week program, teachers
- Read and discuss research on teaching English Language Arts
- Share writing in response groups
- Explore the relationships among writing, reading, thinking and learning in disparate subject areas
- Demonstrate successful teaching practices
- Develop professional leadership roles as practitioners, researchers, writers, and in–service providers
Literacy Development
Participants in the Invitational Summer Institute go on to become project Teacher Consultants (TCs). With these Teacher Consultants, SJAWP works directly with the schools to improve student writing and reading skills by teaching teachers to examine their language arts programs, students' work, and own teaching practices. SJAWP maintains that significant change happens over time rather than offering prepackaged formulas. SJAWP encourages diverse approaches to the teaching of writing.
I've come to the frightening conclusioin that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.
∼ Dr. Haim Ginott