Teacher Researchers Take NCTE by Storm

Cathy Fleischer, Co-director

Strong voices from the EMWP Teacher Researcher Group made their presence known at November’s NCTE Convention in Orlando.

Sarah Andrew-Vaughan and Cathy Fleischer,
 Winners of James Britton Award for Teacher Research

Sarah Andrew-Vaughan, Molly Fichtner, Kris Gedeon, and Carrie Melnychenko offered a session entitled “Grassroots Professional Development: Start a Teacher-Research Revolution.” In the session they talked about how they turned to teacher research when they were tapped by their school districts to lead various professional development ventures. Specifically, they took their experiences in our TR group to introduce a teacher research approach to their school colleagues. Kris reported on her work in starting the Britton-Macon Area School Teacher Research Group, Sarah talked about the Washtenaw Writing Collaborative Steering Committee, and Molly and Carrie shared their experiences as leaders of the Huron River Writing Connection.


Angela Knight, another member of the TR group, presented with her Hamtramck colleague (and EMWPer) Tricia Maslowksi about the summer camp for students and teachers they’ve begun. Entitled “Creative Inklings: Creative Writing in Classrooms and Summer Camps,” they outlined the vision for their summer work and then explained how teachers might adapt that vision for regular classrooms.
We were well represented by other EMWPers, too: from Andrea Gilles who presented in the High School Matters session (on “Using Multigenre Writing to Create Community in the Classroom”) to Jennifer Walsh and Jennifer Buehler whose talk was entitled “Celebrating the Newest Award Winners in Young Adult Literature.” (And there may be more of you that I’m missing! Please let us know at EMWP if you presented, and we missed your name here.)
Next year’s NCTE Convention is in Chicago, and online proposals are due January 19. Let’s see even more of the excellent work you all do represented at that conference! If you have questions about creating a proposal, ask one of our now-experienced TCs or contact Bill, Doug, John, or Cathy!