Last week, four teachers from Spartanburg District One wrapped up four weeks of participation in the 2016 Spartanburg Writing Project Invitational Summer Institute.

Teachers Catherine Claycamp and Amanda Thomas, from O.P. Earle Elementary, and Becky Hockenberry and Danielle Whitlow, from Campobello-Gramling School, were selected to participate in this once in a lifetime professional development opportunity to grow as readers, writers, teachers and professionals.

Through daily writing exercises, book studies, weekly trips, and professional collaboration, eight teachers from across Spartanburg County not only had the opportunity to write and learn new writing strategies to use within their classrooms, but were able to form bonds that made learning and writing more meaningful as teachers, writers, and friends.

Campobello-Gramling School teacher, Danielle Whitlow, explained that the most important aspect of the Spartanburg Writing Project was that the participants were required to identify instructional roadblocks, conduct research to solve the issues, and create a presentation to be shared not only in their class, but in their schools and at conferences across the state.

“Through SWP I was able to spend the past four weeks rededicating myself to writing and have found passion in genres of writing that I never knew I had before! One of the main things we learned in the writing institute is that students have to study the type of writing you want them to write, and what better writing to show them then your own,” says Amanda Thomas.

The Spartanburg Writing Project (SWP) is a professional development organization that seeks to improve writing and the teaching of writing. Founded in 1982, SWP provides resources to teachers, students, schools and school districts in our service area. SWP is an affiliate of the National Writing Project, which is a successful model for professional development with more than 180 sites worldwide.

– article submitted

by Sandra Williams