Oct 13 Continuity

Team:

With your permission, I'd like to ask Joy Wiggins to come and speak to our group, during the last 30 minutes of the Continuity. She might want to do a speaker phone call in like Scott does because she lives in Dallas but I hope she can come.

Joy is a professor at UTA who is going to work with children in Tanzania this summer through a UNESCO and UNICEF program. Joy and I are copPIs on a Quality Enhancement grant (Podagogy) I wrote last year for an internal program at UTA which is working to increase interactive learning and HOTS (Higher Ordered Thinking Skilss) with undergraduates on campus.

We have talked briefly about how great it would be if she could work with reading and writing with the Tanzanian children there, and then have them podcast the Bluebonnet SI who would then respond to the children's writing and podcast back.

I need Joy to explain it to us either via this board and/or at Continuity so we can see what we could do about getting funding to work with her. I don't know what equipment her children would have or what kind of internet access. Those are things we might find out. We also might could use the "Helping Kids Cope Kits" to send to Tanzania if we can fundraise a way to get the books again. We need to pray for a corporate sponsor from here to take us on! Ideas anyone!

Katherine, I'm hoping you and maybe Scott could help research a funding agency for this grant, but let's start now, by talking to Joy. I'm going to invite her to our blog.

What say thee(s)?????????

Time to Begin to Write Our Renewal Grant

Will you please Re-read last year's grant. Think about what we did that we said we would do, what we did not do, what we want to do again, what we want to do new and what we want to do differently. Tall order, I know.

I think I better e-mail this to you--unless Scott, you can set us up to be ble to use the Start Logic server space and be able to add attachments to this doc?

I'm also going to e-mail you an article Jill wrote at a Writer's Retreat where she looked at some of these issues. Remember, awesome writer that Jill is, this is her take on where we are, what we did, and what we need to do. Each of you will be resonsible for writing a portion of the grant and then I'll fold it together into one document.

This year, I would like you to also put together a SPECFIC budget for your area of responsibility.


Joyce--Continuity and are you Recruitment as well?

Scott--Technology Liaison

Jill--Are you continuing with Professional Development

Scott and I--Web-Based Professional Development (I have an idea to provide this service to school districts--am looking for a grant or start up funds for pay for writing the modules--if not forthcoming we'll just ask whoever wants to write the modules to do it on a spec basis and they'll get a percentage of the profit)

Janelle--Co-Director and ELL-----Young Authors' Camps

Katherine--Did we figure out what your area of responsibility was--you were going to bridge between Scott and Joyce, but did we get a particular area named for you?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have a continuity this coming Sat. Scott will you be doing a call in?
Joyce, what is on the agenda?
Who is coming?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, I know we could not find a common time to meet, but we need at least monthly updates from each other about what we've been doing and are planning on doing.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jeannine's Update:

Finished the budget and that got turned in. I'm looking for someone from UTA (maybe a grad accounting student) to do accounting for us and am getting ready to start that search into the accounting department.

Paperwork: All of our registrations, air fares, and various supplemental pay paper work is done. HOWEVER, I am not allowed to turn it in until the new accounting year is up and running. Don't ask. I can't write this out on the internet, but will be glad to explain this to you in person. This is more about the College of Ed than UTA, but we just have to be extraordinarily careful about accounting. I'm hoping that Monday, I can send everything forward. Don't panic. We are in plenty of time still for everything. Oct 6th we're encouraged to get our registration in for NCTE so we get a hard copy receipt back, but even after that it is not too late to register.

Online Blogging--Scott has been keeping us so informed about what is going on--he's an extraordinary resource of resources. I've been reading his posts and getting all kind of ideas. I encourage you to do the same. Even if you just sit down once a week and read a couple of posts, it is well worth it.

Recruiting Plan--I've been thinking about this and using the phrase "Inside Out." I think we need to brainstorm, plan and implement Project: Inside Out. Unless we have 15-20 people in this next writing institute, UTA won't fund us anymore. You all know the story of how we had 19 up until 2 weeks before school atarted and then 7 dropped.

I want someone to design a brochure and registration form (updated) which can go on the web sites and go in paper copy to our Bluebonnets, to language arts coordinators, principals, etc. We have many, many districts around us, and I want to physically go out and meet people and encourage them to go to the Mid Winter Conference--we need a brochure and registratin form for this as well. I also want to use the Region Service Centers to distribute that information as well.

Budget: We need to start looking to grow our staff development, work on grants, get corporate sponsors, or I don't know how we'll grow. All our big grant goes basically to tuition and fees for our summer institute, books for that, and pay for those of you who work on leadership, and a tiny bit for travel. My travel is always paid through UTA. I do not take grant money for salary; that is paid through UTA as part of my regualr pay. I don't get any monetary compensation for this job. I get one course reassignment in the spring and that's it. But, I feel that what I get from the Writing Institute is so much bigger than monetary compensation.

RESEARCH!!!!!!!!! We need to get a strong team of teacher researchers. For those of you in a district that won't allow research in the district--you can always research in other ways outside your district--

Keeping the Community Growing--writing and sharing is what brought us together--and a desire to learn more about our craft of teaching--and it's what needs to happen to keep us together. I hope that we can make this part of every continuity and the village.

I had NO intention of writing this much! I'm off to send you last year's grant.