SoBoCo teacher spends summer in Missouri Writing Project
When the temperature inside a classroom is around ten degrees hotter than it is outside, teachers are sometimes as reluctant as their students to go back to school in August. Not so for some local teachers, who return this fall rejuvenated by summer professional development experiences.
Southern Boone Middle School writing instructor Justine Rogers spent two weeks this summer as a fellow in the Advanced Institute of the Missouri Writing Project. During the intensive session, Rogers and other teachers from around mid-Missouri shared best practices for teaching writing from their own classrooms. They also focused on themselves as not only teachers of writing, but also as writers.
Writing from the institute focused on the theme of character of place and civic literacy. Each participant completed a portfolio of professional and personal writing as part of their workshop experience. Rogers submitted a portfolio entitled "Coming Home, Speaking Up, and Moving On," which was selected by class instructors to be the theme for the group's anthology.
The Missouri Writing Project hosts both an annual four-week summer institute and an advanced institute. Participants for both workshops must apply to be a part of the program and receive graduate credit from the University of Missouri for their work. The Missouri Writing Project is a site of the National Writing Project, which works to improve writing instruction in classrooms all over America.