NYCWP Voices - An unofficial social network for teachers in the New York City Writing Project

An unofficial social network for teachers in the New York City Writing Project

A place for New York City Writing Project teachers to connect with each other and the world.

Project Space

NYCWP Teachers Digital Writing
Search our work:
Hypertext Stories
Postcards by Paul Allison
The Key & the Board by JoAnn Chen Stockbridge Stories by Julie Conason
Having Kids by Wendy Farkas
Chapeaux by Margaret F.
Running Memories by Mat Gerowitz
The Smell of Gardenia by Julia Loving
My Brown Purse by Aileen Malave
Landslide by Julie Miele
My Grandmother by Beth St John

VoiceThread Narrative Discussions
Family Camp by Paul Allison
Quality of Life by JoAnn Chen
Ellie Tells a Story by Julie Conason
Childhood... by Wendy Farkas
Life in Shards by Margaret F.
Honeymoon by Mat Gerowitz
My Loving Family by Julia Loving
Family Stories by Aileen Malave
Travel by Sonali Matani
Amsterdam 2008 by Julie Miele
My Running... by Beth St John

Our reflections on creating these VoiceThreads.

Tumblr Inquiries
Values & Education by JoAnn Chen
Curriculum Reform by Julie Conason
The Final by Wendy Farkas
My Tumblr Project by Margaret F.
Tumblr Postings by Mat Gerowitz
Social Activism by Karen Levy
My Journey by Julia Loving
Confidence by Aileen Malave
Becoming... by Sonali Matani
Finding Faith by Julie Miele
Social Networking by Beth St John

Groups

2009 Summer Invitational

19 members
Transitions Team at In...

17 members

Evolution / Revolution...

2 members
Reading Connects Us

16 members

Writing with GCA

15 members

Latest Activity

Christina Zawerucha left a comment for yasminsiddig

Hi Yasmin- I was hiking in the woods with no cell phone reception so I am sorry that I did not get back to you sooner. Did you fill out an application for the summer school? If not, I'm not sure that they will take you. Do you live anywhere near H...

5 hours ago

Cecilia replied to Grace R.'s discussion 'Elbow-ing Our Way Into Writing' in the group 2009 Summer Invitational

Elbow's discussion about "An Approach to Writing" certainly gives language to most of my struggles as an academic writer. Elbow's work provides me with a new way to think about my writing process. His ideas remind me of the process I went through ...

6 hours ago

Anthony Paul Nocerino replied to Grace R.'s discussion 'Elbow-ing Our Way Into Writing' in the group 2009 Summer Invitational

I enjoyed reading Elbow because for several reasons. First, I agree that "writing calls on two skills that are so different they usually conflict with each other: creating and criticizing." (7) I suppose I knew this, but I Elbow describes the impo...

6 hours ago

DaisyGuo replied to Grace R.'s discussion 'Elbow-ing Our Way Into Writing' in the group 2009 Summer Invitational

I totally agree that in a limited class time, how much time we can fit in the free writng when we have to train our students to be able to response to the fixed test format well. A lot of times I feel that it takes away the creativity from the wri...

6 hours ago

Jessica Perez replied to Grace R.'s discussion 'Elbow-ing Our Way Into Writing' in the group 2009 Summer Invitational

I was pretty annoyed by Elbows characterization of two kinds of writers: one that has trouble, but when given room to "freewrite" shows blossoming creativity, and the other that flows out continuous mediocrity. How can we identify only TWO types o...

6 hours ago

Maria Lam replied to Grace R.'s discussion 'Elbow-ing Our Way Into Writing' in the group 2009 Summer Invitational

Cara Cara, I think we both feel similarly about people making claims about the writing process. What makes them more qualified to talk about a writing process than us? Then again, I feel that since there are no universal truths in writing, I can ...

6 hours ago

Tomasz Grabski replied to Grace R.'s discussion 'Elbow-ing Our Way Into Writing' in the group 2009 Summer Invitational

For some odd reason I thought that the author of Writing With Power was a woman when I first picked up the reading. Obviously I skipped the cover and the title page. Just like the article on composing, I found Elbow's comments and advice helpful a...

6 hours ago

Dara Winkler replied to Grace R.'s discussion 'Elbow-ing Our Way Into Writing' in the group 2009 Summer Invitational

I can appreciate your comments about finding voice. It is elusive and yet we want to see it in our students work. Also, there is a point where Elbow states that English teachers (even though you teach history, you're in the club here) "usually can...

6 hours ago

Welcome!

The public blog posts, photos, videos, and music (podcasts) in this center column are by teachers in the New York City Writing Project's two Summer Institutes:
* Our 31th Annual 4-week Summer Invitational
* An Open/Advanced Technology Institute for teachers, "Youth Voices"

In the left column, you'll find:
* our online digital magazine, "Project Space." We welcome your comments.
* private group Discussion Forums that we use in our Institutes
* links to the Latest Activity on this site.

Other New York City Writing Project members, as well as friends from other National Writing Projects and the edublogosphere are invited to join us on the public parts of this site.

Blog Posts

My Unforgetable Past

My beautiful times has passed so fast,

So, I named them as my beautiful past

My beautiful past has remained some glories,

So, I named them as my beautiful memories,

My beautiful memories has remind me of peers,

So, I named them as my beutiful tears,

My beautiful tears has remembered the award days,

So, I named them as my beautiful rays,

My beautiful rays has remind me my teachers,

So, I named them as my thankful creatures,

My thankful creatures has gave me manythings,

So, I want to sa… Continue

Posted by Hareem Qureshi on June 23, 2009 at 2:10pm — 2 Comments

The life is a gift

Today before to tell an unpleasant word, think of those who cannot speak. Before to complain of taste of meal, think of those who has nothing to eat. Before to complain of the husband or the wife, think of those who asks god not to leave it. Before to complain of a life, think of those w… Continue

Posted by ♥ Fidan Musayeva ♥ on June 12, 2009 at 9:42pm — 3 Comments

The Second Time Around

I don’t know about love, but certainly the Second Annual NYCWP Celebratory Reading at the Nuyorican Poets Café, on Saturday May 30, 2009, seemed even better this second time around. Twenty-one students representing ten schools supported by NYCWP consultants, presented poems, memoirs, myths and insightful observations to a rapt audience of friends, family schoolmates and educators.

For the second consecutive year, Christopher "Cannon" Mapp, a former student of consultant and event chairperson Al… Continue

Posted by Joe Bellacero on June 10, 2009 at 12:49pm

Mushroom hunting

Yesterday, I worked on part of a rainwater harvesting system for my garden. We've hung up gutters that run into food-grade rain barrels. We'll be adding spickets shortly that will allow water from the roof of our house to water our entire garden, as well as a garden sink that we salvaged from the dump.
Today I woke up early and went up to Westchester to attend a mushroom identification hike. Don Shernoff, an amateur mycologist for nearly 60 years, took us for a hike on a trail where a train used… Continue

Posted by Christina Zawerucha on June 7, 2009 at 10:38pm

Saturday at the Oasis

“Jen cut the dirty brown dreads that spiraled down her back and became bald. I don't know her anymore. Jen, where are you now? I want to tell you that someone painted the outside of the museum yellow.”--Donna Hutchinson

Columbus Circle, The 42nd Street Library, The Conservatory Gardens of Central Park, The South Street Seaport, Greenwich Village, Ellis Island, Harlem, The Cloisters and Crown Heights…

Over the past three school years the NYCWP has held nine writing marathons in some of t… Continue

Posted by Joe Bellacero on June 1, 2009 at 2:53pm — 1 Comment

The Adventures of a Plastic Pepsi Bottle

I lay empty on my side bereft of my contents-sweet syrupy Pepsi! I am happy to be rid of my contents. I prefer to lay here in the warm summer sun instead of standing at attention with my contents inside me in a cold freezer. I also hated being constantly tilted as my contents were being poured out by the thirsty humans. My greatest fear was to fall and get cracked like Humpty Dumpty.
Now, I can leisurely observe what is happening around me and look back at my past and wonder what my future will… Continue

Posted by FAITH MOXEY on May 21, 2009 at 2:18am — 3 Comments

THE PHEASANTS ON THE JOHN BOWNE LAND LAB

They stood on the upper bars of the aviary, decked out in splendor with their brightly-colored feathers. These were the males. On the floor below were the inconspicuous females, with their newly-hatched chicks. These were the pheasants of the John Bowne High School Land Lab.
As I entered the gates of the farm, I was attracted to the bright flecks of color from the aviary to my right. I moved closer to get a first-hand view of these beautiful birds. The highly ornate males perched together on top… Continue

Posted by FAITH MOXEY on May 21, 2009 at 2:17am — 1 Comment

Response to Hernando's blog on the Shananahan Article

I agree with you Hernando. Not only is our future as a society dim but our present is full of problems which are a direct result of the decline in literacy among the adolesctents.The students entering college are unprepared and unfortunately they leave college with poor grammar skills which are being passed to the next generation.The suggestions provided by the Shannanan article are very helpful,we must address all subject areas.Inaddition,we have to provide as many incentives for these students… Continue

Posted by FAITH MOXEY on April 30, 2009 at 2:25pm

Rethinking content literarcy

The quote that stood out to me the most is “The mathematicians also emphasize that letters and symbols signify specific meanings in some cases but, as variables, change their meanings in other. Being able to read these symbols embedded in both English prose and algebraic equations were considered to be crucial."
This stood out to me the most because I am a math teacher. I see this everyday in my classes. If I don’t explain the math terms to my students they would have no idea what I was talking… Continue

Posted by Lauren on April 23, 2009 at 3:59pm — 4 Comments

Literacy Article

My first thought after reading the article, "Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking Content-Area Literacy," is that the United States has itself a huge problem. I think it is scary that we have 9 year old students that are showing much higher reading skills than 15 years ago and that those same students as adolescents in high school are actually reading worse or not better than a generation ago. Its frustrating that we cannot get ahead altogether. You would think that working… Continue

Posted by Nicole Cacciatore on April 19, 2009 at 9:17pm — 4 Comments

Youtube extraction

A good way to to do this is to go to http://keepvid.com
The process of extracting a youtube or any other web video from your cache to your hard drive is both explained and done by the website.

Posted by Jim Petrilli on April 2, 2009 at 9:58am

Learning to Ning

I experimented with joining My Space out of curiousity because of my students' obsession. I spent an entire evening downloading music and video clips of Joni Mitchel tunes as "safe" public content in a very public space.

More excitedly, I joined the International Society of Technology Education (ISTE) and found some common minds interested in curriculum reform, mapping and Adobe software education through ISTE. I am part of a couple NINGS with ISTE teachers, and have enjoyed a book study group… Continue

Posted by Diana Friedline on March 12, 2009 at 4:30pm — 2 Comments

HOW I GOT THE DISSERTATION HELP TO GET MY DISSERTATION AAPROVED !!!

When Dissertation Troubles Surrounded Me:

This is an appreciative letter to thank the people who provided pin-point and professional dissertation help at the time when I was totally disappointed and had braced myself to meet the disaster regarding my PhD degree. It was the worst time of my life when I even thought of my dissertation disapproval.

I was busy working and handling my social life. You can say that I was hanging in bala… Continue

Posted by suzzane donald on January 17, 2009 at 12:19am

Hello out there...

It's been a wild ride these past few weeks, with much to do. We were supposed to leave on a brief vacation this week, but circumstances seem to be telling us that that may not be possible, or will perhaps have to be truncated and/or postponed. But nothing is all bad, and mostly it's all good.

I've taken great pleasure in taking more time to look through all of our work together this summer. This little post is mostly to let you know that I'm thinking about all of you, and wondering how you are,… Continue

Posted by Julie on August 10, 2008 at 6:30pm — 1 Comment

On Reading "Old Friend From Far Away" in Natalie Goldberg's book Thunder and Lightning

I supposed it's a bit ironic that I'm reading a book titled Thunder and Lightning on a gorgeous, breezy August Saturday morning. My house is quiet and the world is calm (thanks Wallace Stevens). Or course, as I read thunder and lightening boom and crack in my own mind: I am going to use this for my own writing! thunders an internal voice. But there is the lightning: I wish the teachers at JHS 194 were reading this! I wish I had a link to send this around! The unit is virtually all here!

"The Ol… Continue

Posted by Maureen Picard Robins on August 9, 2008 at 12:00pm — 2 Comments

MySpace or Facebook: That Is the Question

Who remembers that in our techstitute in July, perhaps ever so fleetingly, a conversation meandered toward the question "If one were to have a social networking site page, do professional adults use MySpace or Facebook?" In Virginia Heffernan's "The Medium: Coldpage," she comments, "... the university crowd may have quit the boisterous MySpace for the wittier and more austere Facebook" (The New York Times Magazine 13 July 2008 and here's the link to this article: http://www.nytimes… Continue

Posted by Margaret F on August 4, 2008 at 10:30am — 2 Comments

More Still Skeptical

Thinking about the connectivity angle and the EdTalk conversation Wednesday night, I'm wondering about the issue of e-conversation or e-feedback. In our July tech institute, we barely had time to "finish" our projects and also comment on each others', though that was our dedicated tech-time and we did, and I certainly enjoyed reading others' responses to everyone's creations and to mine though some responses were more thoughtful than others. We even had voices outside our institute group, such a… Continue

Posted by Margaret F on August 3, 2008 at 12:30pm

Still Skeptical

Continuing to learn about technology, this week at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, a week-long "Storycentric" workshop for K-12 teachers about film and story, my skepticism survives. The first three days, we were watching and learning about how filmmakers create meaning, and it was a great pleasure and time well spent to watch and discuss Psycho, In the Mood for Love, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with experts and fellow educators. Today, we made "films"… Continue

Posted by Margaret F on July 31, 2008 at 8:00pm

My Writing Piece

The Writing Institute
By Grace Raffaele
Summer 2008

I am swimming
in a sea of writing,
powered by
waves of memory
and topical currents.

I am swimming
in rhythmic strokes
above the water
or diving with urgency
beneath the galloping lace-trimmed waves.

Swimming
To reach a destination
Or floating aimlessly
Watching the stones that glimmer with
The visual life on loan to them by the water.

I am swimming with dolphins –
Those larger-than-me
Writers in the same sea.
You who urge me on, stay… Continue

Posted by Grace R. on July 28, 2008 at 8:38am — 2 Comments

Missing you all...

...okay, honestly, it was no problem filling the hours from 9-2 last week, what with my favorite 2 1/2-year-old in our cabin (trucks! fire engines! sound-enabled fire-engine puzzles! yesss!!), but I've already been wondering how these new communications tools (hypertextopia, VoiceThread, tumblr) or others not yet introduced might replace the widely-criticized PowerPoint, yawnnn, presentations, ... and I'm in the thick of a free-lance project in which this is a question. So if anyone who is still… Continue

Posted by Margaret F on July 27, 2008 at 10:15pm