The Southwest Georgia Writing Project

Alright Ladies-

                            
It’s time to pack up and head out.  We’re meeting for what seems to be our second annual Leadership Retreat in Pine Mountain, Georgia, at FDR State Park.  I don’t have the skinny on the location of the huts just now, but I’m sure Bren. or Peg will be happy to email that out.  So far the plan seems to be show up when you can on Friday and plan to stay until Sunday lunchish. 

In order to make things a bit LESS painful this year for all of us, we’ve come up with a menu and a shopping list.  I spoke to Peg and Irm at the State Director’s Meeting last Saturday, and Laura, Keisha, and I have been chatting today, so I hope that we have a representative view of the food we’ll all want.  If there is something on this list that you wouldn’t eat in 100000 years (ah, hummus?), then bring your favorite to take it’s place that day/time.  Knowing what’s planned in advance can help us plan to make it gastro-happy for everyone!

·     Friday pm- Sammiches and Chili

o  White bread (Lacey -duh)

o  Wheat bread (ugh-Lacey)

o  Weird bakery bread (Peg?)

o  Meats:  Ham, turkey, roast beef (Lacey)

o  Cheeses:  American, provolone, swiss (Lacey)

o  Veggies: lettuce, tomato, pickle (Lacey)

o  Peanut Butter and Jelly (Lacey)

o  Chili- (Keisha)

o  Sour cream, shredded cheese, soda crackers for chili (Keisha)

o  Chips and dip- Genie

·     Saturday am- Muffins, toast, bagels, cereal

o  Weird bakery muffins- (Peg?)

o  Blueberry bread and cream cheese (Lacey)

o  Granola cereal (Lacey – yes, a shock)

o  Frosted Flakes

o  Bagels and cream cheese – Genie  and Irm

o  Juices: Apple, Orange, Grapefruit, Pineapple Orange, weird blends? Irm for blends

·     Saturday noon- Salads, Sammiches, leftover chili

o  Salad fixin’s: lettuce (romaine?), carrots, onion, cucumber, baby tomatoes, olives?,  dressings (oli and vinegar?, ranch, 1000 island Irm) The whole shebang - Bren

o  Hummus (gack!)- Genie

o  Fruits : apples, oranges, grapes( for Peg), nanners, fresh pineapple chunks- Irm

o  Granola cookies (for Peg)

o  Non-granola cookies - Genie

·     Saturday pm – Peg’s Spaghetti – mmm good

o  Stuff to make spaghetti – Peg

o  Garlic Bread-Irm

o  Cheese – the sprinkle cheese parmesan Irm says and will pick up

·     Sunday am- Laura and Keisha’s Breakfast Goodness Casserole

o  Laura has this covered along with the way to make it!

·     Sunday noon – Leftovers

o  Raid the fridge

·     Misc:

o  Cups (coffee and regular) -bren

o  Cutlery - bren

o  Coffee, coffee filters, creamer, sugar, sugar substitute – Irm’s bringing Café Campesino

o  Trash bags (we ran out last year!) – Genie, Irm

o  Wine?  :) -Irm

o  Sweet stuffs:  those little treasures variety bags always seem a hit

o  2 Cases of water - bren

o  Cokes (or sodas for those NOT from ‘round here):  Diet Coke (genie) - bren

o  paper towels, napkins, plates- bren

o  Mousetraps???  [Just a joke :o) Although, Keisha thinks we might should bring some, so I’ll pick up a set]

Everything in green is already spoken for, so that leaves the black text in those lists that need to be accounted for.

If there’s something up there that you think we need, feel free to bring it yourself.  If your name isn’t by anything, sign up and bring it.  To sign up for a thing, email me or comment here so that we don’t all wind up bringing wine and mousetraps. 

Also, save your receipts, and you’ll be reimbursed for your purchase (except for the wine). 

Thanks and I’ll see you all next weekend!

Lacey

Wow, this is an exciting time of growth for us. We'd like to invite
everyone back to see the changes we have made in our Summer Institute
and our year round events. Did you hear that 7 teachers were sent to
Philadelphia for our National Conference with all expenses
paid??? Next year it could be you.

I know your days are full, but I'd like you to take some time and
think about who would be a good person to participate in Summer
Institute 2010. Then talk with them about what the Institute offers
to teachers, share some personal experiences of what happened when
you shared what you learned with your students. One recent attendee
said a student she'd had as a 9th grader came back to her for 10th
grade and after the class ended, she asked, "What happened to
you? You are like on fire or something. Oh, I really liked the
class this time." The teacher didn't know she had changed that much
and perhaps she hadn't, maybe she had just regained some of her
passion for her work. Still Summer Institute clearly made a
difference in at least one student's experience.

Oh, and I hope, if you have forgotten what it was like to be a part
of the Southwest Georgia Writing Project, please call me--we've got
so much happening, so many opportunities for teachers, and we want to
spread the word.

From the heart to the pen,

Peg Ellington

PS I've uploaded the nomination form in the side bar[having a tech snafu, but I'll have it uploaded by the end of the day]--remember to talk with the
teacher first before you send his or her name in. Oh and pass this
on to your principals. This is a grant supported professional
development program, where teachers earn six hours of graduate credit
and the tuition is free.

We've been playing with text and image today at our Super Saturday Workshop on Using Your Digital Camera in the Classroom.  I snuck off to do this:

I "wordle"ed our homepage.  Seems that we work a lot and drink a bit of coffee.  Sounds about right.

That image was screencapped from their website.  They have a creative commons copyright on that image.  This one in fact.  Thanks Wordle for the cool image.

Whatcha' doin' Saturday?

We're  meeting to learn new things to bring to our classrooms.  Wanna join us?  Come on down to English 212 to learn how to use your digital camera in your classroom.   We have other fantastic tech oriented workshops planned throughout the year as well.  Check the listing below.  When you pick your favorite ones, you'll need the registration form to print and send in.  You'll find it located just to the right over there -> under Business Forms.  See you there!

It's true- we have been both recently.  Joye from National and Ellen from Mississippi flew in to help us think, rethink, and eat a lot of fried food.  We met on Friday, August 7 to discuss where we've been, where we're going, and how in the world we plan to get there.  It was a great help to talk to them both, people who had been where we were and who had been so involved in the work of NWP.  Peg amazed us all by putting all of our work in a binder- it wouldn't close very well.  We're still on the road, work ing through the work, but we've done so much already. 

Saturday dawned bright and early for some as we met at GSW for our journal and a smattering of breakfast foods from our local bakery.  We then loaded up and headed to Global Village, a project created by Habitat for Humanity.  We toured the grounds where they have poverty housing recreated along side the houses that Habitat builds in countries around the world.  It was humbling to walk through the shanty town and imagine what it was like to call that place home.  Many of us wondered at the Habitat housing, thinking "my, this is much too small for a family."  As soon as we thought it though, we were able to turn around and see where many of these families were moving from- tin shuttered shacks- and we were humbled again. 

A short stroll down the street brought us into the warm aroma and cool darkness of Cafe Campesino where a friendly Joe behind the counter poured iced joe for the group.  We met Bill Harris, a man on a mission, who helped found the coffee roastary and who told us the story of this little coffee haven.  As Peg sipped a "Pat Fox" - two shots of espresso over ice, add milk- we listened to Bill explain how his co-op works.  They buy organic, fair trade coffees from eleven countries around the world.  Bill says that they do business "by the Golden rule" and treat everyone involved- farmers, workers, staff, the environment- as they would like to be treated.  He took us on a tour of the roasting room and the coffee lovers were in heaven with the heavy smell of freshly roasted coffee thick in the small roasting room. 

After our tour, we met back in the coffee house to write about the connections we have between us all. 

Farmer-importer-roaster-seller  

Teacher-student-parent-citizen-world

Before we left, we heard from another member of Americus and the charitable community that surrounds us.  A very funny, very charismatic representative from the Fuller Center for Housing spoke to us about Millard Fuller's last great work.  He spoke to us about Millard seeing African students in the Atlanta airport after her left Habitat for retirement.  Millard asked his friend, "How can I turn my back on those people?"  From there, he opened his heart once again and started another housing foundation.  This time it's to help the disabled stay independent by rehabilitating the houses in which they currently live, or in some cases, build houses so that they can become independent.  We were all moved by his stories of going to the poorest of the poor in foreign countries, into countries Habitat couldn't afford to go, and building houses just the same.  Dr. Ellington shared her story from El Salvador about the woman who worked to shelter her family and move them from the tarp house they had always known as home.   

It was a fantastic day, and all hats off to Irm who organized a meaningful experience for us all.  We wrote, talked, and thought about social action, social justice, and social responsibility.