Teachers Teaching Teachers

NWP Urban Sites Conference in Louisville, KY April 2009

An irrespressible man...Dr. Tom Owen led a walking tour of Louisville to kick off the conference. He's a librarian, archivist, and city councilman and all around Louisville cheerleader. We saw buildings that were once comatose and now beautifully restored.and. ......the mighty Ohio River which gets its start 600 miles away in Pittsburgh AND a hundred year old statue of Thomas Jefferson who was the governor of Kentucky when it was still part of Virginia.
Bonnie Bernard keynoted and told us that in her research in resilience that educational policy employs strategies that emphasize content and not people, has control as the philosophy and meet the needs of bureaucracies, not the students. IN SPITE OF THAT, the research shows that most people are resilient....70% of them.....in spite of adversity.....and that people make a difference. Teachers....we are affecting lives. (That helps me in Detroit!!)

Dr. Dottie Willie developed the curriculum for National Public Radio and the "This I Believe" series and she is a part of the Louisville Writing Project.....she showed us how to engage students in trying to write their own "This I Believe" essay. It was profound.

And, we had a session with Kentucky writer and poet, George Ella Lyon and our own Mary Cox. George Ella is known for her "Where I'm From" poem that Mary used with her students at Renaissance HS in Detroit. We all gave a try to write our own and a visiting teacher (there were several there from all corners of the world) from Morocco said he would use this info and poem as soon as he returns to his country. Mary....great job.

Look at the video and photos and consider a NWP conference....they make a teacher feel like someone cares.

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