An Impossible Task

In 1990 after my third year as an elementary school classroom teacher, I attended a 4 week intensive "Invitation Summer Institute" led by Dr. Fran Simone of the WV Writing Project. I eventually became involved in the leadership of that group and in the National Writing Project. Along with 39 others, I was asked to write an essay about my NWP experience to celebrate the 40th summer of holding these summer programs, which started in Berkeley, CA and spread around the country. They published my essay today: http://our.nwp.org/ Here it is:

I (along with 39 others) was asked to contribute 500-1000 words summing up what NWP means to me. I’m not sure I could do it in a book length piece, though maybe I could do it in a haiku:

Young struggling teacher

Lifted by Summer Institute

Retired Director

No, doesn’t come close. Okay, who is my audience? Is it young teachers entering the profession, floundering as I once did? Feeling overwhelmed, small, under a microscope, everyone expecting that college and student teaching has created a professional who knows the answers, but finding that it’s not as easy as it looks, and that these eager or bored or angry or sad or hurting or confused faces cannot be fooled; they know when you are confident and when you are uncertain, and they crave your certainty, your control, they want you to have all the answers, to make it easy for them, and ultimately you learn you’re all in the same boat, learning together, but the lessons are painful and lead to sleepless nights.

What can I tell the young teacher attending a summer institute for the first time—that it’s never completely under control? To have ideals, but not hold yourself to them? To understand that if you’re doing the best you can, that’s good enough? To try to create community? To listen to students, especially the ones who are the most difficult? To give everyone a voice? To write, write, write, and share, share, share? To understand that there will always be far too many demands and expectations, objectives, and content standards, and that schoolwide, districtwide, nationwide goals will come and go and ultimately you should strive to make your classroom a place where learning takes place most of the time? It sounds somewhat defeatist; but it was my Truth. And every student I have met years later has smiled when she asked, Do you remember me? Yes, even the young man last week who was picking up the garbage can from my driveway.

Or am I speaking to the NWP veteran? The Director who has spent a career in the university setting and was asked to take on this extra project and found it taking over his life and career, guiding his research, pushing him toward leadership, management, budgeting, administrative roles he never envisioned. Or am I speaking to the classroom teacher who found a home in her local writing project with like minded teachers who supported each other as writers, who listened to and responded to each other’s stories of divorce, deaths, and illnesses, of births and embarrassing moments, of likes, dislikes, travel stories, fantasy, or poetry. Who got asked and answered, Yes, and found, as I did, it was not like at school where you learned that saying yes could lead you to doing other people’s jobs, to jealousies or politics, to uncomfortable positions making presentations of new strategies or curriculum that someone else decided was best for your school or district or was purchased from a textbook company and you were to follow the script and tell others to be true to the Program. Somehow the writing project was different; the teachers were working together, supporting each other, asking questions, exploring new methods that they truly believed in, and….what is it, what’s so different about this? Oh! They’re listening to ME! They think I have ideas worth listening to! These amazing teachers who have so much to teach me think I have value? I’ve never heard that before! Yes! I will present my classroom demonstration at that workshop; I will help write that grant; I will attend that national meeting. Oh my goodness, here are these amazingly smart people from all over the country, and they all listen to each other, they all work together, they all write, they all ask questions, none of them claims to have all the answers! Yes, I’ll serve on a national committee; are you kidding? You want me, an elementary school teacher to co-direct the Rural Sites Network? Yes, I’ll write an article, participate in a study. Just say yes became my rule of thumb when it came to NWP.

Only when I saw my local writing project in danger did I say no to NWP. No, I can’t right now, I have to lead at the local level. And that was truly the hardest work, at least for me. How can anyone ask busy teachers to do more? And how can an outsider really operate in a university? But those are simply questions, the answers are, in the end simple: It’s never completely under control.  Have ideals, but don’t hold yourself to them. Understand that if you’re doing the best you can, that’s good enough. Try to create community. Listen to the teachers, especially the ones who are the most difficult. Give everyone a voice. Write, write, write, and share, share, share. Understand that there will always be far too many demands and expectations. Oh, I left out one important ingredient…celebrate success! Congratulations on 40 years of changing the lives of teachers through holding Summer Institutes and improving teaching and learning throughout the world, NWP!

Superhero With Autism Wins WV Young Writers Contest

"Never accept something as a disability, look at it as a special superpower that makes you unique!" Sawyer Hiinton, 3rd Grade

Friday, May 9, was West Virginia Young Writers Day, as Director of the Central WV Writing Project (CWVWP), I was in charge of the WV Young Writers Contest and the celebration day. The Governor had signed a proclamation proclaiming Young Writers Day statewide. It was read from the stage of the University of Charleston (WV), a small institution on the bank of the Kanawha River opposite the WV State Capitol, by Madame Secretary of Education and the Arts Kay Goodwin, followed by a few remarks from the Superintendent of Schools for the state of WV, Dr. James B. Phares. After a morning keynote speech and a couple songs by the editor of Goldenseal Magazine and award winning songwriter, John Lilly, who talked about his writing life and the need to write honestly, the students attended workshops with regional authors of children's literature Belinda Anderson, Marie Godby, and Cheryl Ware. The high school seniors had a writing workshop with Lilly, the teachers with writer and publisher Cat Pleska, and the families an activity with Dr. Elizabeth Campbell of Marshall University South Charleston campus, where CWVWP is housed.

After lunch, nearly 200 students from grades 1-12 who were winners in their divisions at the county level made a grand procession into the theater to the applause of about 450 family members and teachers. The six first place winners, five girls and a third grade boy, came to the stage and sat in chairs behind the lectern. They would read their stories aloud and receive medals and cash awards before all two hundred of the county winner were called to the stage to receive certificates and shake my hand as we smiled for the cameras. 

I looked over the crowd and began speaking, "Isn’t it wonderful to see these young writers receive applause for the achievement of communicating their ideas in writing. The stereotypical writer toils in isolation, struggling silently and often fearing rejection from fickle readers, publishers who are concerned about making money, and demanding critics, yet writing does not have to be that way. Reading and writing take us outside ourselves to other times and places, take us inside ourselves to ponder life’s meaning; they can help us understand the world and ourselves. I don’t know how these students were encouraged to write their stories and essays, but in a few moments you are going to hear a tale of a magical house,  a humorous yarn about secret agent squirrels, a beautifully descriptive and poignant piece about a West Virginian’s sorrowful goodbye to her mountain home, an experience many West Virginian’s have shared. You will be taken back in time to one of humanities’ worst periods, during the 2^nd World War, and into the tortured mind of a Jewish man, a father, suffering persecution during the Holocaust. The winner of the 11^th -12^th grade division will read her essay that attempts, no succeeds, in explaining something fundamental about the purpose of life, despite the acknowledgement that we inevitably grow old and die, if we live long enough. 

"Perhaps the most remarkable of all the pieces you will hear today is one written by a very special young man from Mingo County, Sawyer Hinton. Sawyer is autistic, and I am breaking no confidence in telling you that, because Sawyer takes you inside his mind in his writing, a place where he spends much of his time, and after reading Sawyer’s description of what it is like to live with autism, I had a new understanding and appreciation of this condition, and you will too.

"As I said, I don’t know how these students came to be such fine writers, how all of you who won your school and county contests were encouraged to become writers. But I hope that it was a joyful experience, not a lonely one. Great teachers of writing are able to create a community of writers in their classrooms, communities that will encourage all students to express themselves honestly and creatively, no matter their skill level, no matter their intelligence, no matter their abilities or their struggles, and in that community everyone will feel valued and encouraged and will be willing to do the hard work of writing, rewriting, revising, and polishing their work until it shines. And that great teacher will then make sure the work is read by others and listened to, because the act of writing is an act of communication, and the great teacher will make sure that every student hears the applause they deserve, as you heard the applause today. And now, before we hear from our first place winners, how about if we give a round of applause to all the teachers and families who encouraged our young writers….Thank you." 

The winner of the grades 1-2 division was cute and did very well reading her  fantasy about a magic house. And then Sawyer Hinton, the third grade statewide winner of the grade 3-4 contest, from Mingo County, one of the poorest counties in the nation, got up to read his award winning piece. I announced, “The1st place winner in grades 3-4 division is Sawyer Hinton, 3rd grade. He goes to Lenore PreK-8 in Mingo County. The title of his essay is “Superhero Without a Cape.” His teacher is Peggy Hannah. Sawyer approached the microphone and read,

“Did you know that not all superheroes wear a cape?  I have a superpower that makes me very special.  I am completely different from every other 8 year old that I know.  The thing that I call my super power is what most people call Autism. I know that it is normally seen as a disability. But I look at it in a different light. I would much rather call it a special ability. Autism allows me to process everything in the world around me differently than the average child. My family has helped me cope with my diagnosis. So hopefully after reading my story, you will discover that there are superheroes all around you. They just don’t wear capes.  

I have been called some really ugly names for being different. But being peculiar is just who I am.  I want to explain how you could always turn a disability into a superpower by just looking at things in a different way. Take my obsessiveness of order routine for example.  Most people consider that a disability.  I, on the other hand, just think that I am more organized than everyone else.  Now doesn’t that sound more positive by just changing the words? I prefer to be alone most of the time. But I really have more time to think, read and dream.  I come around people in my own time and at my own pace. Is that not how most people get to know one another? I just take a little longer. My brain is larger than normal. Seems to me that is a positive trait. I have room to learn more.  One of the stigmas placed on people like me is that we are mentally retarded. That could not be farther from the truth. I am a genius when it comes to certain things. Putting what I know on the outside is what I struggle with. However, the ability to retain information by just hearing or reading it once is definitely a perk.  So, has it become more apparent that I am super special?  I cannot bear the thought of certain textures, smells, tastes and things that have to do with sensory perception. Guess I am just set in my ways. But isn’t every single person that way? I am a little extreme but still not disabled.

I have not mentioned all the quirky things that I do. But what superhero reveals all his secrets?  I just hope that I can make a difference to someone else like me.  I urge you to take the time to look at the things that make you different and embrace them. Never accept something as a disability, look at it as a special superpower that makes you unique! Hopefully now you can see the superheroes living all around you."

The audience erupted in strong applause, which built and built. People began to stand and the applause continued. I stood behind the lectern and watched as the whole audience began to rise to their feet. Tears come to my eyes as I recount this moment, probably the most powerful moment of my teaching career. This is what it's all about, I thought. This is what it's all about. 

I've been e-mailing the parents and learned they took video. I hope to have it soon. I warned the father that putting this out on the web might change their lives, that, it's possible that if the story got big, for awhile he and his wife might become parents similar to those who travel around with a child who is a sports star, an actor or beauty contestant, and the father wrote this,  "It was an amazing experience! Thank you all for acknowledging how difficult it was to share something so personal. Writing and sharing it was hard but it was also an avenue of escape and release for him. He said even if he helps one child like him then it was worth it."

My 2-Day Diet Progress Week 27, May 11, 2014 

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 62

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 43 in.

Current waist size: 38 in.

Weight end of this week:  179 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week:  +1 lbs.

Total Gain/Loss:  -30 lbs.

What A Week! Granddad, Fundraiser....

My 2-Day Diet Progress Week 23, April 13, 2014 

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 61

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 43 in.

Current waist size: 38 in.

Weight end of this week:  180 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week:  +1 lb.

Total Gain/Loss:  -29 lbs.

Gain a pound, lose a pound. Life goes on and I feel great. I've got a lot going on in this busy life of my so-called retirement! A grandchild, my only, therefore my first, was born this week. Jack Mullen Martorella is the healthy child of Rita's older son, Drew and his wife, Caitlin Green. Drew and Patrick, Rita's sons, were both adults when Rita and I started dating twenty years ago, so neither ever called me Dad, and I never really thought of them as my children, though I've certainly helped Rita with the kind of parenting issues that you never seem to outgrow. But there is no such thing as a step-Grandchild. Jack is MY GRANDCHILD as much as he is anyone's, and I have the same feeling of love and pride that any grandparent would. I'm sure it will get even stronger once I have the opportunity to hold the little guy--we had a FaceTime video chat using the big screen TV: it was almost like being there!

Those of you who know me well know I've worked with the Central West Virginia Writing Project (and National Writing Project) for many years. This is an organization whose mission is to improve the teaching of writing and learning, and as a teacher, I earned a little extra money presenting professional development workshops, co-directing summer writing institutes, and eventually co-directing the program, becoming director when the previous director became ill just before I retired. 

I have been in a transitional phase this year handing off the director role to a full time faculty member of Marshall University South Charleston campus (where the project is based), and directing the WV Young Writers Contest (possibly for the last time). That part of the work becomes very busy this time of year as we prepare for WV Young Writers Day, a big celebratory event held at University of Charleston, when we honor 300 or so winners and their teachers and families from 55 WV counties in grades 1-12. 

I'm getting ready to launch a small fundraising campaign to raise $1,200 to pay for cash awards for the 18 state winners. University of Charleston used to write the checks, but they've decided not to this year, and its much too complicated to try to get Marshall University or WV Department of Education to write checks to students--a bureaucratic nightmare. Luckily, Cat Pleska, my dear friend and now a bona-fide publisher at the helm of the non-profit Mountain State Press, has agreed to write the checks, but I need to raise the money because she works on too tight a margin to donate the money herself. Hope you'll help out if you can. I just launched an online fundraiser so you can contribute to the effort by clicking here: http://igg.me/p/awards-for-the-west-virginia-young-writers-contest/x/4779309

And, I'm getting ready to launch a website, funding campaign, and the whole "kit and caboodle" as my mother used to say, for AWARE: Artists Working in Alliance to Restore the Environment, and our first event, a concert and arts/crafts show at the Civic Center on July 5th! Stay tuned for more on that.

A Cut that Hurts

Recent cuts to the 2011 federal budget have ended funding for the National Writing Project (NWP), an organization I care about deeply (full disclosure: for several years it has provided me a part-time job, something most teachers need). NWP received $27 million in 2010 and distributed much of it to over 200 writing project sites around the country in operating grants of under $50,000.

When I was in my third year of teaching, I participated in the West Virginia Writing Project’s “Invitational Summer Institute,” an intense program of writing, of reading research and teachers’ stories of teaching writing, and of designing and presenting demonstration lessons. This experience, as it is for many of the thousands of teachers each year who participate in NWP programs around the country, was career changing. Life changing, in some ways.

Before that, in my education classes and in professional development offerings by my school and district, I had understood that someone else had the answers and becoming a teacher, a good teacher, was a matter of doing what I was told in ways that I was told research said would work. Unfortunately, research could be found that said just about anything would work. In practice, I, like most beginning teachers, found the actual classroom experience daunting, challenging, exhausting, and often filled with failure by students who seemed to lack the skills and motivation to achieve, especially when asked to set pencil to paper.

Dr. Fran Simone, who served as director of West Virginia Writing Project at that time, created an atmosphere in which each teacher felt valued as a member of a professional community searching for the best possible answers to the questions and challenges the classroom experience presented. We became better writers and created a caring community by sharing our stories, which were often personal in nature. Over a few weeks of full day workshops and evenings working on our own writing, we learned more from each other than from any article or book that we read, though we learned from them as well, especially the ones written by other classroom teachers whose writing was more accessible than university based researchers, and whose classroom experiences rang true. Through this transformative experience, I became a better teacher, a better person—one who began learning to nurture the voices of students, to encourage their self-expression and through that to impact their skills and their motivation to learn.

In the years that followed that experience, I implemented many of the practices and lessons I had observed—not all at once, but as I was ready and able. Eventually, I became a leader and innovator, and have been recognized by NWP and the College Board for the work I’ve done at Ruffner Elementary School. In a perfect world, the type of professional learning community created through the NWP model would be re-created in every school and district in the country. However, it rarely occurs in schools.

Perhaps it is too much to expect teachers to share their successes and failures, frustrations, their personal stories with those who evaluate them and pay their salaries. Perhaps only an outside player like NWP, a university/district collaboration, can fill that role.

During my twenty-four year teaching career, I have had the opportunity to do for others what Dr. Simone did for me: facilitate professional learning communities with teachers who come voluntarily during the summer to improve their classroom practice involving writing. Now this program may come to an end. It will not cause closures of schools or layoffs of large numbers of teachers. It will not immediately impact student achievement throughout the country. However, multiple studies have found that students of teachers who have been through NWP programs on average write significantly better than students of teachers who don’t.

In a time when the challenges teachers face and the expectations the public has for them continue to mount, we should be putting more funding into cost effective programs such as NWP, which leverages support at three dollars for each federal dollar.

Some argue that the role of the federal government should be limited to defense, enforcing laws, and providing (as little as possible) for the neediest among us. Education, they insist, is only a local concern. But it takes more than a village to raise a nation of children who will be able to compete in this global economy, and we should not be throwing out any effective programs that are improving their chances of doing so.