Featured Teacher Consultants
Melody Munger, a 1998 Summer Institute alumni, reflects about the impact the Oregon Writing Project has had on her teaching career.
How did your participation in the Summer Institute of the Oregon Writing Project at Willamette impact your career?
As I look back over the intervening nine years, I see the Summer Institute as a turning point in my professional career. Through the encouragement and work done during the Summer Institute, I began to feel more confident about both my ability to teach writing, but, perhaps, more importantly, about my ability to write and share my writing with my students. My willingness to share the rough, rough drafts of my own writing has led to creating an safe environment for students to take risks in their own writing.
How have you been involved in the Oregon Writing Project?
Following the Summer Institute, I have enjoyed serving on the Advisory Board for eight years, worked with talented, dedicated teachers in developing a Young Writer’s Camp through Willamette University, traveled to the Galapagos Islands, again with talented colleagues, to develop my ELL skills and do volunteer teaching on the island of San Cristobol, and have served as coordinator of our growing State-wide In-service Day for three years. In addition, I have had the opportunity to travel to several National Writing Project conferences, and have served as a spokeswoman for the National Writing Project in Washington D.C. I have enjoyed the collaborative efforts with other Teacher Consultants while developing a college course on supporting beginning teachers. I have grown both professionally and personally through the work done for the Oregon Writing Project at Willamette.
How has the Oregon Writing Project at Willamette benefited your school?
The Santiam Canyon School district, where I teach, has been fortunate to have two Young Writer’s Camps located in their district, at no charge to the district, and have had the expertise of five teachers participating in Oregon Writing Projects, provided support for our young writers by inviting them to the Willamette campus to write with renowned authors, reaped rewards from having outstanding fellow Teacher Consultants do demonstration lessons at our middle school, and, of course, the impact on hundreds of students by having excellent writing teachers, who write.