For Teachers, By Teachers, About Teachers: Supporting Teachers to Support Students, Learning and Literacy
BSWP Home     BSWP Teacher Consultants     Prof. Development     Teaching Resources     Southern Idaho Cohort     Events Calendar     News     Contact Us     Three year calendar      
In the News
Initiatives
Make a Donation

 

Get To Know the BSWP!

 

 

The Boise State Writing Project is committed to providing resources and opportunities for educators throughout Idaho.  We are actively involved in a number of Professional Development projects throughout Southern Idaho.  Although we are funded through a grant from the National Writing Project, we are always seeking  motivated members of the community to help support our  programs, as well as energetic and enthusiastic teachers who wish to participate in BSWP sponsored activities. 

 


What We're Doing!

Rural Sites Network
Debbie Dehoney, BSWP '07
Jeff Roper, BSWP '06; Frank Dehoney, BSWP '07; John Poole, BSWP '05

The RSN Conference/ Boise, Idaho 2013 planning has begun.  The initial
committee has been formed with new members joining as time and need
permits.  The conference venue has been narrowed down to 2 places -  The Boise Center on The Grove and The Boise State University Student Union Ballrooms.  We are waiting on bids from both places and will make our decision as soon as we receive them.
 
We have decided on proposing two conference themes which will
ultimately be decided on by the RSN leadership team in November at the
NCTE meetings.  The theme will center on celebrating the uniqueness of
rural life and encouraging our students to embrace that uniqueness and
get as much education as possible and bring back that learning to their
communities instead of leaving and never returning.  We will also
address the needs of ELL learners and those students living at the
poverty level.
The conference will be held in March of 2013.  


Common Core Standards

Rachel Bear '07



The Boise State Writing Project is working with NWP, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Literacy Design Collaborative to develop rich curriculum informed by the Common Core Standards.  The team from BSWP is focusing specifically on how to blend Inquiry with the Common Core Standards and ways to assist teachers in planning units with this in mind.  


ICTE/BSWP Partnership

Brandon Bolyard 09


BSWP and ICTE continue to work together to support the teaching of literacy in Idaho. 

 

Through a partnership with the Idaho Reading Association, BSWP/ICTE co-sponsored a fall conference in Meridian, Idaho that featured nationally known speakers James Bucky Carter and Donald Leu.  In addition to these speakers, several BSWP fellows led sessions on topics ranging from grammar instruction to graphic novels.

 

BSWP and ICTE plan to continue to fine tune their relationship and maintain co-sponsorship of fall conferences during Idaho in-service days when the conference is located in the Boise and/or Twin Falls areas. 

 

Beyond the fall conference, we would like to sponsor speakers or workshops in the spring to provide teachers with more opportunity for professional development.

 

ICTE continues to promote BSWP-sponsored institutes and has encouraged members to apply for the summer invitational institute.


Leadership Council Report/Legislative Update 2010

Nikki Matthews, BSWP 07


The BSWP’s legislative goal for this year was to meet with our Congressional Delegation at the NWP Spring Meeting and put a face to our BSWP. Jeff Wilhelm, Jerry Hendershot, Debbie Dehoney, and Nikki Mathhews traveled to Washington DC on March 24-26 and met with Senator Crapo, Senator Risch, and the education assistants for Congressman Simpson, and Congressman Minnick. Letters were compiled  containing BSWP Teacher Testimonials, a Leadership Site Map, Research Briefs from the NWP, and the BSWP Key Figures and Activity Summary to give to each legislator. Each meeting with the elected officials, allotted for 15 minutes, went very well. Our most exciting meeting was with Senator Crapo. He was our last meeting of the day and he was very enthusiastic about the NWP without us even having to say much about it! He believes the instruction of writing in schools is of extreme importance and has previously supported the federal funding of the NWP. He promised to sign the Dear Colleague Letter which was circulating around the Senate for support of the NWP funding and did so that very day! His signature of support was announced the next day at the beginning of Friday’s activities of the Spring Meeting. We later received Senator Risch’s support as well and became one of the few states (eight) in the country that had the support of both its senators! They were also two of only six Republicans out of thirty one senators who were co-signers of the Dear Colleague Letter.