Recent News
MSU Writing/Thinking Project Hosts Middle School Institute
Local Teachers Go Back to School at MSU
Evelyn Clay
Mississippi State, MS - Twenty-three Mississippi teachers are participating in the Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project program, Middle School Institute, which began this summer and continues throughout the 2009-10 school year.
Teachers and their school districts include: Renne Haynes, Kathleen Davenport, and Sandra Hunt, Choctaw County School District; Leah Rigney and Robin Lowe, Scott County School District; Shani Earnest and Michelle Palmertree, Pontotoc County School District; Amy Grady, Renee Smith, Jacqueline Mitchell, Mary Wilson, Amy Carter, Kim Kendrick, Furlinda Travis, Tina Melton, Maria Yates, Jonas Crenshaw, and Martha Walker, Meridian School District; Bryce Yelverton, Alfred Smith, Shajuana Rhodes, and Angela Buggs, Jackson Public School District; and Pam Pickle, Hinds County School District.
Mississippi Teacher Receives 2009 Pat Mitchell Award
Betty Collum
MISSISSIPPI STATE, MS-- Betty Collum, Eupora elementary teacher, is the 2009 recipient of the Patricia B. Mitchell Memorial Service to the Profession Award. The award is given each year to one exceptional teacher-consultant of the Mississippi Writing/Thinking Institute (MWTI), the state network of seven university sites of the National Writing Project. Presented at the MWTI annual Visioning Retreat, the Pat Mitchell Award honors an educator who continuously gives his or her energy to the work of MWTI or local writing project site by designing and/or leading professional development, leading work groups or research teams, or initiating new ideas to enhance the service capacity of MWTI. The award honors the work of the late Pat Mitchell, a Forest High School teacher and an exemplary teacher-consultant who contributed much to MWTI and its work. The teacher-consultant chosen for this award must be an exceptional classroom teacher who shows leadership at the local school level, must have developed and shared outstanding instructional practices, and must be dedicated to the art and craft of writing.
Collum, a National Board Certified teacher, has also served on the National Technology Liaison Team for the National Writing Project since 2005. She became a teacher-consultant through Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project's Summer Institute in 2001.
"Writing opens so many doors for my students," says Betty Collum, fifth grade teacher at Eupora Elementary School. "Writing is part of everything we do and learn."
Betty Collum's Classroom Practice Featured in The Reading Teacher
Betty Collum, MSUWTP's technology liaison, is featured in the March 2008 edition of The Reading Teacher. "Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects" written by Erica Boling, Jill Castek, Lisa Zawilinski, Karen Barton, and Theresa Nierlich describes Betty Collum's use of blogs and Google docs to motivate and engage her fourth-grade readers.
Congratulations, Betty!
Kris Winter
Kris Winter Receives 2008 Pat Mitchell Service Award
Kris Winter, a first grade teacher at South Pontotoc Schools, is this year's recipient of the Pat Mitchell Service Award. Kris Winter attended the Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project Summer Institute in 1997.
(from left) Rhett Mitchell and Kris Winter
The Pat Mitchell Service Award honors the work of the late Pat Mitchell and is given each year to one exceptional teacher consultant of the Mississippi Writing/Thinking Institute. The teacher consultant chosen for this award must be a practicing classroom teacher, must have developed and shared outstanding instructional practices, and must be dedicated to the art and craft of writing. This year Rhett Mitchell, husband of the late Pat Mitchell, and Tom and Norma Ruth Lee, friends of Pat Mitchell, were in attendance for the awards ceremony.
(from left) Marty Clark, Kris Winter, Rhett Mitchell,
Tom Lee, and Norma Ruth Lee
(from left) Marty Clark, Kris Winter, Kim Patterson,
Rhett Mitchell, Tom Lee, and Norma Ruth Lee