Inservice In-dispensable

by Susan Biggs

This year inservice at the project is taking on a new look. Schools are opting for semester long courses that offer their teachers graduate credit over the one-shot workshop. Although these longer pieces of inservice mean fewer TCs get called to go out into the field, they provide teachers with more in-depth study that often has a greater effect on change in teaching and certainly is more in line with our Writing Project philosophy. This fall we have been teaching a three-credit course for the Amherst Public School District. The course, "Bringing Writing into All Classrooms," has peaked the interest of other school districts as well. In fact, we have begun teaching this course in Millbury, Oxford and Springfield. So, thanks to Bruce Penniman, Susan Biggs, Moira Collins, Tina Browne, Mary-Ann Devita Palmieri, Mary Ginley and Leslie Skantz-Hogdson for taking these courses on.

For smaller pieces of inservice we often rely on teacher-consultants within the program to bring us into their schools. Take for instance Pam Howes who took the initiative to suggest the Western Massachusetts Writing Project to her administration for a recent professional development day. Not only did we send teacher-consultants to South Hadley, but these workshops helped spark an interest in the Summer Institute for Mary Farrin and Kathleen Boissoneault, both of whom attended the institute this summer. I should mention, as well, that Mary was a guest presenter at the Amherst course this fall and she will be giving her "assessment" workshop at all three classes that we teach this spring.

Lisa Lamothe was also instrumental in getting WMWP into her school district. When the superintendent spoke with her about the work she did in the Summer Institute in 2001, he was impressed enough with her experience that he asked her advice on bringing WMWP to the North Brookfield school district. Lisa did a lot of the legwork surveying teacher interest and need, and finally we sent Diana Callahan to work with the elementary school teachers. So, if you are missing the work you did with WMWP during your Summer Institute, consider talking to your administration about bringing WMWP into your school.

The last piece of news is that we are working on creating a Teacher Resource page on our website that would include resources on many topics, such as writing process theory, assessment, and writing to learn. Resources will include handouts used by many TCs, articles and publications on the topic and links to helpful websites. We hope to also have a page that includes guidelines and helpful hints for TCs heading out to do inservice. This is definitely a large task and a work in progress. If you have ideas or contributions for this resource file please contact Susan Biggs at vinbiggs@aol.com.

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