Jen Munnerlyn is a teacher, literacy coach, and international educator. Her family has been working in international education for 30 years beginning with her parents first overseas teaching assignment in American Samoa in 1980. She is married to a man she met in 8th grade at International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and has her… Continue reading The Fun of Hard Work: A Guest Blog Post by Jen Munnerlyn
Category: teacher of writing
The Power of the Parts
I'm slowly making my way through the keynote addresses from last week's Writing Institute. Today I bring to you my notes and some highlights from Roy Peter Clark's speech, "The Power of the Parts: How Writers Learn and How Teachers Teach." Clark wrote a book I've been reading for awhile now, Writing Tools: 50 Essential… Continue reading The Power of the Parts
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Bringing Our Strange Selves to the Page
Day One of the TCRWP Writing Institute. I listened to Lucy Calkins's Keynote Address entitled "Great Expectations." I attended my first morning session, "We Do Not Teach Alone: Using Reading/Writing Connections to Lift the Level of Non Fiction Writing," with Cory Gillette. I wrote a lot in James Howe's afternoon session "Writing from the Heart." … Continue reading Bringing Our Strange Selves to the Page
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Day 19 of 31: SOLSC
Happy Friday! Today is the 19th day of our month-long writing challenge! Give yourself a pat on the back for participating in the Challenge today. Click here to read a post I wrote on the Stenhouse Blog about teacher-writers. I hope it will affirm all of the amazing writing you've been doing this month. Please… Continue reading Day 19 of 31: SOLSC
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Teacher Compensation & Standardized Test Scores
Last week I began reading Steven L. Layne’s Igniting a Passion for Reading: Successful Strategies for Building Lifetime Readers (2009). By the time I finished page five, I had a highlighter and a pad of post-its in hand to record my thinking. Layne wrote: It would seem that there is every reason to believe that… Continue reading Teacher Compensation & Standardized Test Scores
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Tatum: Using the Pen to Rescue to Power
“Let our testimony be our pen.” – Anonymous African American Male from Chicago I found myself rushing to get my lunch from the Reading Terminal Market so I could eat it while listening to Alfred W. Tatum yesterday afternoon. My sandwich landed up sitting in the bag for an hour and 15 minutes since I… Continue reading Tatum: Using the Pen to Rescue to Power
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Writing About Thanks
There's just a little over a week to go before Thanksgiving. Do you know what you're most thankful for? Want to ruminate about the things you're most thankful for through writing? If so, take a cue from Molly Irwin's Blog, where she writes about the idea of recording the things for which you're… Continue reading Writing About Thanks
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Would you like to be a better writer?
Ruth and I have completed about 25% our manuscript. We’re in the midst of working on the section of Writing 180 that deals with conferring. Even though we’re in the thick of writing, we’re both constantly trying to make our writing better by reading books about writing. I’m unsure of which professional book Ruth’s reading… Continue reading Would you like to be a better writer?
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Gimmicks Versus Authentic Experiences
Have you read the comments from this post? They were a luxury for me this weekend and so very good for my soul. A special public thank you to all those who left a comment. You will never know how much it blessed me. Lately I've been struggling with the vast amount of stuff-- activities,… Continue reading Gimmicks Versus Authentic Experiences
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Reflections on the 2008 – 2009 School Year
On Monday, June 29th, we will begin our summer posting schedule. Therefore, I wanted to take some time to reflect, publicly, on my school year, which ended yesterday at 11:00 a.m. Challenges I'm delighted to have hosted the Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC) this past March. It was fantastic to "meet" so many new… Continue reading Reflections on the 2008 – 2009 School Year
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Stimulus Dollars + Writing Instruction
I, clearly, love the idea Mary Tedrow proposes in her article about investing money in quality writing instruction for our Nation's students. Please read this article about spending stimulus dollars on writing instruction. Then, let me know what you think by posting a comment. Is this where you think a lot of stimulus dollars should… Continue reading Stimulus Dollars + Writing Instruction
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Thinking More About Teachers & Notebooks
I'm sitting in Nashua preparing for tomorrow's presentation. Part of my preparation means returning to my old binders and files when my thinking changed about the teaching of writing. The shift in my thinking came in 2006 when I was engaged in my studies as a graduate student in the Teachers College Literacy Specialist Program.… Continue reading Thinking More About Teachers & Notebooks
