Ms. @ 40 Essay Contest

Ms. Magazine Essay Contest

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Ms. magazine in January 2012, Stanford University's American Studies Program, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and the Program for Feminist Studies is sponsoring an essay contest that has writers look at some iconic Ms. magazine covers and write about what it means to you. 

 Over the years, Ms. magazine has covered everything from feminist grassroots oganizing to in-depth investigative reporting to national politics. The letters to the editors from readers over the past four decades reveal the magazine's incredible impact on the everyday lives of women around the country. 

"For women throughout the country, it was mind-blowing. Here was, written down, what they had not yet admitted they felt, had always feared to say out loud, and could not believe was now before their eyes, in public, for all to read."

   --Carolyn Heilbrun, Gloria Steinem biographer

More information, entry link and a picture of all the covers are linked here, but here's the gist.

What: 150-word essay about one of the covers
By when: October 15, 2010
Prize: Ten $100 cash prizes for the best short essays judged on originality, vision, awareness of feminist issues, and quality of expression
Winning entries will be shown next to the covers at Stanford University for their celebration

This information came my way via TC Esther Kotke, but NWP was asked to disseminate this information to our teachers (sorry, I've been out of the loop and didn't get this message earlier to you).

I'm typing this as I'm sitting in my 2nd of three grad classes this weekend, so maybe you too will have some time to write something down by October 15.

Good luck and happy writing.

October 20: National Day on Writing

To celebrate this year's National Day on Writing (Thursday, October 20), the New York Times National Learning Network, the National Writing Project and  Figment is accepting student work on the question "Why Do You Write?"


They want to hear all the diverse answers in the form of a poem, a short story, a play, a personal essay. . they want it all.


Submissions are going on from September 28 through October 29. 

Want other ways to get involved in the National Day on Writing?
Check out the NCTE site for more tips and ideas for you and for your students. The easiest thing to do is to write, but you can also involve your students, involve your staff, involve your families, involve your community. Invite an author. Tweet. Comment. 

Write


Write


Write (not just on one day, but every day)

Renew Yourself with October's Continuity Session

It's almost fall break and we're all looking forward to a little down time  - so enjoy, relax, feel the sand in your toes and the sun on your face because after that week, it's back to school.

Let Lehua Writing Project extend that joy for a little longer. Come to the October continuity session and renew yourself  because "me" time is sacred!

Continuity is all about teachers teaching teachers. It's about being niele and peeking into each others' classrooms to see what they're doing, to check out their student work, and to steal, borrow, pilfer (it's all good) whatever we can to bring back to our own classrooms.

We'll be in Hilo this time at UHH UCB331 from 8:30-11:30 on Saturday, October 22. If you're coming from the west side, north side, south side, make a day of it. Go to our Farmer's Markets, plan to go out to lunch, bring a colleague, do some shopping, rejuvenate.

We invite you to peek into Lynn Nagata's elementary inclusion class for Happy Memory Poems and Tamara Morrison's middle school English class for playwriting and the "Theatre of the Absurd." She'll also be sharing out mana'o on Lee Cataluna's playwriting workshop at UHH.

If you're coming, email me at caikeda@ksbe.edu - I'll try to send out evites too, but come - let's catch up.  I haven't seen you folks in a long time and I miss the fun.

Mahalo,
Cathy

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day

Every day is a day of thanksgiving, but if no one has spoken your name in kindness, offered a lending hand, given you a free smile or a warm embrace today, then know that today we speak your name, we honor your strength, we marvel at your stamina and we acknowledge the hard work you put into every day, not for any monetary gain, but for the intangible rewards of being a teacher.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day to our Dear Friends, Colleagues, Heroes

Summer Reading List Item: A Place to Stand

Thank you Esther Kottke for sharing this video on Facebook.

This is a teaser trailer for Jimmy Santiago Baca's memoir A Place to Stand. If you're looking for a non-fiction book to read this summer, this looks good.

From Amazon.com Reviews:

Anyone who doubts the power of the written word to transform a life will know better after reading poet Jimmy Santiago Baca's wrenching memoir of his troubled youth and the five-year jail stint that turned him around.

Congratulations also go out to Esther for being accepted to the High Desert Writing Project this summer. She will be as valuable an asset to them as she is to us. Hoʻomaikaʻi!

Why Hawai'i Needs Writing Project

We are an island state in the middle of the ocean. When the wind shifts from tradewinds to southerly Kona winds, the whole state is covered in volcanic haze. When there is a threatened dock strike, every roll of toilet paper, from Kauai to Ka'u is whisked off the shelves by customers envisioning a cut off of all our supplies. As a small state, one community's suffering is all our suffering. 


If you look at our students and our schools in a clinical, statistical way, we are labeled as "less than," "deficient," "not meeting." We are a majority of minorities. We are a marginalized people. But look closer.  We are a rich quilt of ethnicities. We are a mirror for a better world. We each possess voices that need to be heard. In our hearts we contain old knowledge that hold answers for these times. In our na'au, our gut, we are centered to the teachings of the world.


Hawaii needs Writing Project (National Writing Project, Hawaii Writing Project, Lehua Writing Project) because this is a network of teachers that understands and values the knowledge of our people.


This is a network that uplifts the marginalized people and gives them a voice, even while others try to take that voice away.


This is a network of educators and community supporters that understands that all our answers are already within us. We don't have to worry if the planes aren't flying or the ships aren't coming in. Writing Project shows us that we have everything we need right in our own backyard.


We need Writing Project because they understand that literacy is the bridge to freedom from oppression, from colonization, from conformity.


We need Writing Project because they adamantly believe that the quality of the student comes from the quality of the teacher. I'm sure the National Writing Project leaders don't know the following Hawaiian proverb, but they live it - and that's what Hawaii needs - an educational support group that can help us to bring out the mana, the power, that already resides in us, so that we can pass that mana onto our own students.


I maika‘i ke kalo i ka ‘ōhā. The goodness of the taro is judged by the young plant it produces.

One voice is not enough. NWP bloggers have been blogging about their own thoughts on the power of NWP as well as their outrage that our government is not supporting national literacy programs like National Writing Project. If you want to read more blogs, go to the #blog4nwp archives. 

Tell us about your experience with Writing Project by posting your own blog or commenting on this one.


Always remember, you are not alone. ‘A‘ohe hana nui ke alu ‘ia. No task is too big when done together by all.

Aloha, 
Cathy Ikeda

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