Pure Manaʻo

It's the first week of school in Hawaii. Have you been reading to your kids? I saw a post on Martha Stewart Living that listed favorite back to school books so I decided to make a list of my own. Please add on. These are children's books meant for all grade levels (everyone deserves to be read to), with an emphasis on nurturing writers. Harold and the Purple Crayon  has been around for more than 50 years, but the power of a pen - or in this case a purple crayon - still sticks with me. The dot  is a cute little book about a student who does not feel like an artist until her teacher "publishes" her art and has her own it by signing it. This recognition spurs her to do better and in the end she is able to mentor a child who also does not believe in his abilities.  Yes it's about art and not writing, but the students get it and it sets a good tone for writing expectations and the kind of environment they can expect to work in. These two books by Doreen Croni...

I am not, by nature, a cocktail party person. I am introverted, more comfortable on the sidelines, and I do not, like engaging in small talk. Writing Project leaders, though, by nature are outgoing, friendly people persons. What do Writing Project people schedule for their first activity at a new site director's conference? A cocktail party of course. An introverts strategy at a cocktail party is to stick close to the person you came with, and if you find yourself separated, then find one person you connect with and stick to them. That's how I met Cheryl Canada Logan, director for the mid Ohio writing project. Something just clicked with us. She was just back from Jamaica, having worked with teachers there. I talked about my interest in culture-based education and we hit it off. Who knew that the encounter at a cocktail party in Arizona would turn into an opportunity to join Cheryl in South Africa two years later, but that's how things seem to happen in life, so I...

and why we must provide the tools for our digital natives. Nwp Digital Is De Voss View more documents from devossda .

Writers- teachers - lovers of the Big Island, there are 26 days to submit your pieces to the local gallery Na Leo o Hawaii http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/88467 Gallery Title: Na Leo o Hawaii - Voices of the Big Island Gallery Description: This gallery will highlight the voices of the Big Island of Hawaii - from our kupuna (elders) to our keiki (children) - from the fishing village of Milolii to the town of Hawi. This gallery is about living on the Big Island. If you'd like an easy tutorial to submitting your work, please watch the how-to video below: How to submit your writing

The Lehua Writing Project is a new site sponsored by the National Writing Project and the University of Hawaii at Hilo. For our first summer, we are offering the summer writing institute geared for educators teaching at the pre-13 level. Teachers will study successful classroom strategies for teaching writing, read and discuss research, and improve their knowledge of writing by writing themselves. Most importantly, like all national writing project courses, the strength of the program is in the ability of teachers to teach and learn from each other. The summer institute is a 3 graduate level course with tuition covered by grants. The course runs for 3 weeks, June 15 - July 2, 2009; 8:30 am - 4 pm in the lush Hamakua coast community of Honoka'a. The location is ideally centered on the big island. Scholarship and travel stipends are available, and if you are traveling to our island and are in need of accomodations assistance, please contact us. For more information and for an applic...