Teachers, Librarians, Homeschool Parents, and Children’s Writers: Do not miss one of the most enriching personal and professional development opportunities of the summer: Teachers Write. By participating in Teachers Write – renowned author Kate Messner’s free, on-line summer writing camp – you learn to be a better writer, you instantly integrate into a community chock-full of captivating individuals from all over the world, you have opportunities to interact with an awesome panel of authors AND you can win free books for your classroom or library!
What: Teachers Write: Virtual Summer Writing Camp for Adults
Who: Hosted by children’s author and educator, Kate Messner
For: Geared to all Teachers and Librarians, but anyone can benefit!
When: Now through August 16 – sign up today or when your schedule permits
Where: Online
How Much: Free!
Why: Become a better writer!
Sign-up: Click here!
Teachers Write virtual summer writing camp helps you become a better writer at your own pace and when it’s convenient for you. Although geared to all teachers and librarians, anyone can sign up and benefit from the many treasures Teachers Write has to offer. Even if you are not a teacher or librarian, you can access the daily writing plans and guest writer posts, as well as participant comments and opinions. Teachers Write opens up an entirely fresh way to fall in love with writing for the 1st time … or the 100th.
The camp’s creator, children’s author and educator Kate Messner, describes Teachers Write as, “a community of teachers and librarians who believe that people teaching writing should walk the walk.” Messner’s goal is to provide teachers and librarians opportunities and encouragement to write, learn, and share. She offers her own support, as well as support from an awesome group of published authors, who currently volunteer their time to interact with the camp’s participants.
Teachers Write is in its second year of growing popularity. The 2013 camp began on June 24 and runs through August 16. If you haven’t yet had a chance to sign up or if you’re concerned about joining because you’ll be away at some point during this timeframe, NO PROBLEM! You may sign up for Teachers Write anytime it works for you this summer and you can take breaks whenever your schedule necessitates. While Messner provides a “plan-of-the-day” timetable for the summer, this virtual camp’s flexible structure allows members to, in Messner’s words, “participate in whatever floats your boat and skip the rest.”
Everyday, Messner provides writing exercises that she or a guest author creates.
Here’s a sneak peek at what a week of Teachers Write virtual writing camp looks like:
Mini-Lesson Monday:
The week begins with a writing craft or logistics workshop-style lesson, complete with ideas, tips, examples, and a Monday Morning Warm-up Exercise that you can either work on right away or save for later. Messner provides simple, but critical tricks to help you enhance your writing and better captivate your audience. Just like so many aspects of life, it’s the little things that can often make all the difference with your writing. For example, simply purchasing a journal or a notebook and writing in it regularly is a crucial element to enhancing your writing. Whether you write a list, scribble a plan, or doodle, writing every single day is the first, all-important step to becoming a better writer.
Tuesday/Thursday Quick-Write:
Messner provides various Quick-Write exercises every Tuesday and Thursday to help writers get started, get unstuck, or consider a different point of view. These writing and brainstorming exercises are gems for expanding and opening your mind to new ideas or enhancing your current project. Use these valuable tools and ideas in your writer’s toolbox to reflect on works in progress or on something completely new and different!
Wednesday Q and A
Every Wednesday, Messner provides a forum that allows participants to pose general or specific questions to her or to any of the guest authors! This open-ended question and answer opportunity gives you an invaluable opportunity to interface with well-known and successful authors!
Friday Writing Happy Hour
Share, share, share! Happy Hour is a time to share your writing, ask others for feedback, or provide feedback to others every Friday. Bonus: author Gae Polisher also hosts a Feedback Friday on her blog, so you may also stop by there, as well, to share your work and to offer or receive feedback. Share anything you’d like – your weekly progress, links to projects you’re proud of, or snippets of your writing you’d like comments about.
Sunday Check-in
Each Sunday, re-charge and spend time with your on-line writing friends. Teacher-writer Jen Vincent hosts an on-line writing group on her blog. She provides encouragement and shares her reflections on being a teacher. This is a fabulous writers’ support group that focuses on goals, progress, setbacks, and achievements.
Looking for feedback on a larger body of work? Participants of Teachers Write can easily share full-length compositions and access others’ work – one of the very best ways to gain insight and inspiration. Messner also promises some surprises this summer, such as free book giveaways and unscheduled star guest posts.
Teacher’s Write is an incredible resource and opportunity! Use it!
**Thanks to W.O.R.D. Ink team member Jacquelyn Wood for her coverage of this week’s blog post!
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