Awards and Accolades

By: NWP Staff
Publication: The Voice, Vol. 10, No. 1
Date: 2005

Alabama
Jacksonville State University Writing Project
Barbara Eubanks, 1989 fellow, published Humorous Happenings in Holy Places (Tate Publishing, 2004).

California
Bay Area Writing Project
Bob Tierney, 1980 fellow, published the second edition of How to Write to Learn Science (National Science Teachers Association, 2004). This edition includes a section on portfolios by John Dorroh, a 1988 fellow of the Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project.

District of Columbia
District of Columbia Area Writing Project
Theresa Antoine, 2000 fellow, received the 2004 Masonic Scottish Rites Public Educator Excellence Award.

Azalie B. Hightower, 1995 fellow, was selected as a participant on the National Advisory Council. She was also a featured high school teacher-presenter for the eight-part television series Developing Writers, on the Annenberg CPB Channel.

Patricia C. LaPorte, 2002 fellow, received the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in October. LaPorte received the award at a surprise assembly held at her school on October 13, 2004.

Florida
National Writing Project at Florida Gulf Coast University
Kathy Himes, co-director, was awarded 2004 English Teacher of the Year by the Florida Council of Teachers of English. Himes teaches at Fort Myers High School in Fort Myers.

Kym Sheehan, 2001 fellow of the Tampa Bay Area Writing Project, had “An Expedition Across the Curriculum” published in the winter 2003 issue of English Journal 93 (2).

Patricia Wachholz, director, and Lois Christensen, co-director, had “Constructing Knowledge Together: Implications of Teacher Research as a Professional Development Model” published in the International Journal of Learning, volume 10.

Georgia
Coastal Georgia Writing Project
Wilhelmenia Manning, 2000 fellow, was awarded Teacher of the Year 2004–2005 at Mercer Middle School in Savannah.

Georgia Southern Writing Project
Bill Albertson, 2003 fellow, was named Teacher of the Year at Portal High School in Portal.

Gigi Mills, 2004 fellow, received a Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) Scholarship. This award supports teachers who are continuing their education. Mills teaches fifth grade and is working on her Education Specialist degree at Georgia Southern University.

JoAnn Steffen, 1992 fellow, was awarded Teacher of the Year. Steffen is the Youth Project Teacher at the Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts and Technology in Statesboro.

Red Clay Writing Project
Bob Fecho, one of the site’s directors, received the 2004 James N. Britton Award for his book “Is This English?”: Race, Language, and Culture in the Classroom, at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference in November 2004. Fecho’s book also won Honorable Mention for the 2004 Myers Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights of Simmons College in Boston.

Kentucky
Bluegrass Writing Project
Emily Dugar, 2003 fellow, is one of 20 recipients of the 2005 Ashland Incorporated Teacher Achievement Awards. Representatives of the Kentucky Department of Education, the governor’s office, and Ashland Incorporated honored Dugar and the 19 other teachers at a ceremony in Frankfort in November 2004.

Maryland
Maryland Writing Project
Anne Agee, 1982 fellow, had “Justify Our Love: Information Literacy, Student Learning, and the Role of Assessment in Higher Education,” coauthored with Craig Gibson, published in Information Literacy and the Technological Transformation of Higher Education: Papers and Documents of the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) Instruction Section Think Tank III (Pierien Press, 2004). Agee also had “Technology Across the Curriculum,” coauthored with Dee Ann Holisky, published in Education & Technology: An Encyclopedia, edited by Ann Kovalchick and Kara Dawson (ABC-Clio, 2003). Agee also had “Crossing the Great Divide: Implementing Change by Creating Collaborative Relationships between Academics and IT Professionals,” also coauthored with Dee Ann Holisky, published in Higher Education in the Information Age: New Era, New Leadership (Neal-Schman, 2003). Lastly, Agee had “Faculty Development: The Hammer in Search of a Nail,” coauthored with Dee Ann Holisky and Star Muir, published in the September-October 2003 issue of The Technology Source.

The following teacher-consultants contributed chapters to Traditions, Standards and Transformations: A Model for Professional Development School Networks, edited by Jane Neapolitan (Peter Lang Publications, 2004). Maggie Madden, former director, contributed “Transforming Faculty Roles by Waving the Magic Wand,” coauthored with Gregory Bryant, Nechie Rochel King, Jane E. Neapolitan, and Lauren Rifkin. Pamela Morgan, 1988 fellow, contributed “Connecting Teacher Preparation and Continuing Professional Development: The Boundary Spanner’s Role,” co-authored with Ann M. Eustis. Gloria Neubert, 1981 fellow, contributed “‘You Want Us to Do What?’: The Story of the Conversion of a Secondary Education Faculty to the Professional Development School Movement,” coauthored with James B. Binko and Sally J. McNelis.

Minnesota
Minnesota Writing Project
Ann Mershon, 1999 fellow, published Britta’s Journey: An Emigration Saga (Singing River, 2004). Based on a true tale of a Finnish family’s emigration to North America in 1904, this novel illustrates the difficulties of leaving home and starting a new life from the point of view of a 12-year-old girl. Mershon teaches English at Cook County High School and writes a column for The Cook County News Herald in Grand Marais.

Mississippi
Delta Area Writing Project
Norita Dittberner-Jax, past staff coordinator, published her poem “Regret for Things Lost” in Hamline University’s Water-Stone Literary Annual and another poem, “Meditation on the Body,” in The Dos Passos Review. Dittberner-Jax is the high school language arts coordinator for St. Paul Public Schools in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project
John Dorroh, 1988 fellow, had a section on portfolios published in the new edition of How to Write to Learn Science (National Science Teachers Association, 2004), edited by Bob Tierney, a 1980 fellow of Bay Area Writing Project, California.

New York
Capital District Writing Project
Alicia Wein, 2004 fellow, received an Educator of Excellence Award from New York State United Teachers at the New York State English Council Annual Conference in October 2004. The award is given to teachers who show innovation in lesson plans that promote literacy.

Ohio
National Writing Project at Kent State University
David Bruce, 1997 fellow and co-director; Laurel Chehayl, 2004 fellow; and Anna Ragghanti-Crowe, 2003 fellow, presented their publication, “Opening Literacy Boundaries: More Than Words,” at the Annual Curriculum and Pedagogy Conference in Oxford, Ohio, in October 2004.

Deb DeBenedictis, 1997 fellow, serves as a member of the editorial staff for the new Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, which is cosponsored by Kent State University and Texas A&M University.

Anthony Manna, co-director, had “The Practice of Theory in American Children’s Literature,” co-authored with J. Hill, published in Keimena, a Greek e-journal.

Pennsylvania
Capital Area Writing Project
Linda B. Hunter, 1997 fellow, had “Lost and Found” published in the September/October 2004 issue of Cumberland County Woman.

Philadelphia Writing Project
AnnMarie Marranzini, 2000 fellow, was included in the eighth edition of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (Educational Communications).

Leslie Morris, 2003 fellow, was asked to read her poem “I Know, But I Can Imagine” at the Reading Institute at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, in the summer of 2004. This work was generated from the Carnegie Protocol facilitated by Leadership Inquiry Seminar during the 2003–04 school year. Morris is an adjunct professor in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Immaculata University.

José-Manuel Navarro, 2002 fellow, was appointed to a three-year term as Trustee of the Research Foundation of the National Council of Teachers of English, effective November 2004. Navarro also published two book reviews in the spring 2004 issue of Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas: one on From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican Workers and Postwar Economies, by Carmen Teresa Whalen; and the other on Fishers at Work, Workers at Sea, by David Griffith and Manuel Valdés Pizzini. In addition, Navarro presented his paper “FWELL and Me: Reflections From an Advisory Board Member,” on the project FWELL (Fall Writing with English Language Learners), at the Urban Sites Conference of the National Writing Project, held at the University of Pennsylvania. And on February 28, he presented a paper detailing the results of his teacher-research project “Spanish Language Literacy and Social Studies” to participants in the Twenty-Fifth Annual Urban Ethnography Conference, at the University of Pennsylvania.

South Dakota
Dakota Writing Project
Nancy Kampfe, 1998 fellow, contributed a piece to the “What Advice Would You Offer to New Teachers Considering Taking a Position in a Rural School?” column in the “Teacher to Teacher” section of the July 2004 issue of English Journal 93 (6).