Renew and Rejuvenate at the NWP Annual Meeting in Indianapolis

By: NWP Staff
Publication: The Voice, Vol. 9, No. 3
Date: 2004

Summary: The NWP Annual Meeting in Indianapolis in November 2004 offers an excellent opportunity to renew your enthusiasm for teaching and experience a sense of community with other teachers...

The National Writing Project Annual Meeting offers an excellent opportunity to renew your enthusiasm for teaching writing and to experience the sense of community created by nearly 1,000 writing project site leaders and teachers coming together to share what they know. We hope you will join us in Indianapolis on November 18–20 for the 2004 NWP Annual Meeting.

Held in conjunction with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention, the NWP Annual Meeting includes interactive workshop sessions, roundtable discussions, and demonstrations of successful practice, all conducted by writing project directors, site leaders, and teacher-consultants. To learn more about Thursday, Friday, and Saturday events, see "2004 NWP Annual Meeting Overview" (page 11) and check the NWP website at www.nwp.org.

Special Events

This year's annual meeting will feature a number of special events, including the English Language Learners Network Social on Thursday evening, the NWP Reception on Friday evening, and the Rural Sites Network Breakfast on Saturday morning. Local host sites in Indiana are also organizing a living history experience and dinner on Saturday evening at Conner Prairie, a 19th-century open-air living history museum and frontier village made up of five distinct historic areas. Visit www.connerprairie.org to learn more about Conner Prairie. And visit the NWP website at www.nwp.org for more details on the special events.

Hotel Information and NCTE Registration

All 2004 NWP Annual Meeting events take place at the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, One South Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46204. As always, the meeting is held in conjunction with the NCTE Annual Convention, and hotel reservations must be made through NCTE. We encourage writing project participants to register for the NCTE convention as well. Register and make your hotel reservations online at the NCTE website, www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/res/118728.htm?source=gs, or download the hotel registration form and mail it to NCTE. Mailed forms must be postmarked by October 20, 2004, but you should submit your request early if you want to book a room at the Hyatt Regency, where all NWP events occur.

What to Do in Indianapolis

If you've ever wondered what a Hoosier is, or if the only thing you associate with Indianapolis is the Indy 500, visit the official site of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Bureau at www.indy.org to learn more about the city with "the perfect balance of big-city style and small-town charm." You can also learn about famous writers from Indiana—James Whitcomb Riley, Kurt Vonnegut, Theodore Dreiser, Dan Wakefield, and Hoagy Carmichael to name just a few—at www.bsu.edu/ourlandourlit/Literature/authors.html, courtesy of the Indiana Writing Project at Ball State University.

Throughout the fall, check the annual meeting page at the NWP website for continuing updates about the meeting. From this webpage, you can also link to archives of past annual meetings to learn more about what to expect.