Partnering with CMU’s Center for Excellence in Education, the Chippewa River Writing Project has kicked off an exciting new year in professional development with the K-12 Statewide Writing Conference. Four members of the CRWP leadership team led the event, which took place Monday, January 17th, alongside the direction of CEIE facilitator Andrea Abke.
Liz Brockman, Penny Lew, Beth Nelson, and Erin Busch-Grabmeyer combined past experience and expertise to offer conference participants a wide range of opportunities for using technology in the classroom. Teacher participants representing schools across the state experimented with digital storytelling in Brockman, Lew, and Nelson’s session, “Personal Stories, Poetry, and PSAs: Crafting Digital Videos,” while Busch-Grabmeyer offered insight on forging cooperative writing opportunities through Google docs and wikis in the session “Collaborative Writing with Wikis and Google Docs.”
The conference not only served as an introductory course to new technologies but explored the possibilities in using digital media to build bridges both inside the classroom and between schools. Lew notes the potential in offering students a digital-ready learning environment. “Technology is vital to classrooms today,” she observes. “Not only does it keep our kids engaged while we teach them our subject-matter material, but technology is also an important end itself. We have a responsibility to our kids to do all we can to ready them for the world we live in.”
Teachers participating in the event echo Lew’s enthusiasm. “It rocked,” notes one participant, reflecting upon the conference experience. “It’s exactly where we need to start heading.”
This conference conference highlights the ways in which CRWP teacher consultants are mentored into professional leadership, as well as a particular strength of the Chippewa River Writing Project’s work — a technologically-rich and pedagogically-sound approach to teaching writing with technology.
For more information on CRWP’s professional development opportunities, please visit the PD page of this website.