NATE NET bulletin Summer 20919
NWP (UK) Writing Groups for Teachers
‘a touchstone of my teaching practice’
How might an English teacher keep alight the flame that made them choose to be a teacher? How do we, as we begin, and continue, to navigate the world of teaching, discover ourselves as teachers of reading and writing? How do we solve the problems that students and texts and senior management team place before us? How do we continue to strengthen our love of language and find ways of sharing what we know with those we teach? There are many answers to these questions. One that I recommend, is that you join a teachers’ writing group as part of a nationwide network, the NWP (UK).
The NWP, which has its origins in NATE conference workshops, takes its inspiration from the NWP (US). It sees teachers as agents of reform and promotes professional development through shared practice. Its groups provide teachers with a space and a community where they can write together and reflect on their writing and the teaching of writing. They share ideas and they might be involved in research. There is often cake. The combination of writing, sharing that writing and entering into conversation with other teachers about ourselves, our writing and our practice is a heady mix. Teachers who attend the groups will tell you that they always feel better after a meeting:
…the sense of doing something that simultaneously provides massive personal satisfaction and genuinely worthwhile professional development. I think the reason I think it is so good for my teaching is because it is good for my personal wellbeing; being taken back to the reasons I love English helps me to teach it better because I feel good about the subject - but in a practical sense, I also gain skills, exercises, ideas and a more acute sense of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to writing.
Visit the NWP website (nwp.org.uk) You will see the kinds of things groups do and find plenty of teaching and writing ideas there. Join a group. You can get in touch with local groups through the website. If there is not a group near you, then start one! In this, the tenth year of the project, we are seeking to extend the number of groups and believe that small is beautiful. We are developing starter packs and ways of mentoring new groups. Some of our longest serving groups began with two or three of us around a coffee shop table. Contact us through the website, or contact me directly:
([email protected])
Jenifer Smith co-director NWP (UK)
‘a touchstone of my teaching practice’
How might an English teacher keep alight the flame that made them choose to be a teacher? How do we, as we begin, and continue, to navigate the world of teaching, discover ourselves as teachers of reading and writing? How do we solve the problems that students and texts and senior management team place before us? How do we continue to strengthen our love of language and find ways of sharing what we know with those we teach? There are many answers to these questions. One that I recommend, is that you join a teachers’ writing group as part of a nationwide network, the NWP (UK).
The NWP, which has its origins in NATE conference workshops, takes its inspiration from the NWP (US). It sees teachers as agents of reform and promotes professional development through shared practice. Its groups provide teachers with a space and a community where they can write together and reflect on their writing and the teaching of writing. They share ideas and they might be involved in research. There is often cake. The combination of writing, sharing that writing and entering into conversation with other teachers about ourselves, our writing and our practice is a heady mix. Teachers who attend the groups will tell you that they always feel better after a meeting:
…the sense of doing something that simultaneously provides massive personal satisfaction and genuinely worthwhile professional development. I think the reason I think it is so good for my teaching is because it is good for my personal wellbeing; being taken back to the reasons I love English helps me to teach it better because I feel good about the subject - but in a practical sense, I also gain skills, exercises, ideas and a more acute sense of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to writing.
Visit the NWP website (nwp.org.uk) You will see the kinds of things groups do and find plenty of teaching and writing ideas there. Join a group. You can get in touch with local groups through the website. If there is not a group near you, then start one! In this, the tenth year of the project, we are seeking to extend the number of groups and believe that small is beautiful. We are developing starter packs and ways of mentoring new groups. Some of our longest serving groups began with two or three of us around a coffee shop table. Contact us through the website, or contact me directly:
([email protected])
Jenifer Smith co-director NWP (UK)