Teachers Write Wrap-Up – Sharing a Secret

I’m a little weepy today… I know you all need to get back to your classrooms and libraries if you’re not already there, but it’s tough to say goodbye after such an amazing six weeks of writing and sharing together. The good news is that your Teachers Write buddies are never far away, though. Our Facebook community lives on through the school year, and we’ll be back with another online workshop next summer!  A HUGE thank you to Jennifer, Gae, and Jo for making these six weeks so great.

If you’ll be at NCTE in Boston in November, you can meet up with Gae, Jennifer, Jo, and me in person (and participant Brian Wyzlic, too!) Please make plans to attend our session on Sunday morning.  “Teachers Write!: How Teachers Writing Now Can Build Student Writers of the Future” is officially session L-32 and it’s being held at the Sheraton, Beacon E from 8:30-9:45 on Sunday, November 24th. Also…if you know you can be there and might want to help us out with a special secret project, please let me know.

I know that I won’t get to meet many of you in person any time soon, but if you’d like personalized, signed copies of any of my books, The Bookstore Plus, a great indie in Lake Placid, NY, is hosting my WAKE UP MISSING launch on September 21st. If you give them a call at 518-523-2950, they’ll happily take your order over the phone and send your books (free for orders over $50) after I sign them in September. They carry all of my books, including my new picture book, SEA MONSTER AND THE BOSSY FISH, and you can also pre-order my fall science thriller WAKE UP MISSING. (If you do order personalized books for yourself, please let them know you’re part of Teachers Write and I’ll write a special inscription! I’m also happy to sign holiday gifts or books to your classroom.)

And now the secret I promised… Teachers Write is going to be a book! The folks at Stenhouse who published REAL REVISION: AUTHORS’ STRATEGIES TO SHARE WITH STUDENT WRITERS have been after me to work on a new book, and I told them that I’d really love to write something that celebrates what we’ve been doing at Teachers Write these past two summers…something that empowers educators to facilitate this kind of supportive writing community in their own districts. So that’s what we’re doing! I’ll be looking for a little help from some of you.  I’d love to include some of your writing from the past two summers as well as some quotes about how being part of a writing community has impacted your teaching. I won’t be able to include quotes from everyone – I wish I could – but I’d love a sampling. If  you’re game to help out with that, there’s a place in the final survey where you can let me know.

If you enjoyed Teachers Write this summer, please remember to show your support for all of our organizers and guest authors by ordering books for yourself or your classrooms or libraries. Want to do more? If you read one of our organizer or guest author books and love it, please consider nominating it for your state children’s choice award list. My writer-friend Lisa Schroeder has a creative blog post called “Supporting Authors When Your Heart Is Bigger Than Your Wallet” with even more great ideas.

And finally – please share your feedback from this summer by taking our survey here.  It’s just ten questions, asking you to reflect on what worked for you and what you’d suggest for next year, among other things. If you have a few minutes to complete it, it will be a great help. Many thanks for that – and for the gift of your words this summer. Have a great school year, and we’ll see you in June!

xoxo~Kate

P.S. You are all so talented. Please keep writing and never forget what Jo told everyone yesterday… That thing you are writing is awesome!