About Us

Our Mission

Our mission is to improve the writing and reading instruction of Mississippi teachers and to promote life-long learning.

Counties in Our Service Area

National Reading Initiative

Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project is one of the nine sites of the National Writing Project invited to participate in the National Reading Initiative. The NRI team members are Cheryl Foster, Emily Noble, Kim Payne, and Tanisha Westerfield. This work is funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation.

Rural Sites Network

MSUWTP is a member of the National Writing Project's Rural Sites Network (RSN). RSN is a national network that links teachers in rural areas together through the sites of the National Writing Project.

Goals

* To implement national programs to increase sites' capacity to carry out programs, strengthen professional development, facilitate cross-site communication, support research, and develop new ways of sharing rural teachers' work at local and national levels.

* To provide support for site leaders and teachers as they discover new ways to build on their strengths and address challenges.

* To support teacher-consultants and site directors in celebrating place, honoring diversity, conducting research, and designing community-based programs by offering minigrants, national meetings, spring conferences, resource development retreats, and links to other NWP programs.

Exploring Equity and Diversity - Rural Sites Minigrant

Our work for the Rural Sites Minigrant focuses on taking a closer look at the impact of access, relevancy, and diversity on the rural schools we serve. We have organized a small cadre of teachers to begin a dialogue about ways to support teachers of color in rural settings. The cadre engages in mini-retreats and study groups. This work is coordinated by Tanisha Westerfield.

Staff