The Northern California Writing Project announces a grant in partnership with Quartz Valley Indian Reservation the awarding of a grant through the National Writing Project’s Building a More Perfect Union, a grant program for humanities organizations across the United States to assist in recovering from interruptions to operations due to the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grantmaking for Organizations at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Building a More Perfect Union program funds organizations to develop programming in anticipation of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Working with the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation in designing and developing an online presence that captures and reflects the essence of their tribal community has been a real honor for OBSIDIAN to be a part of. We are truly humbled by the depth of cultural knowledge that they share and to witness how it fosters an environment of mutual respect among community members has been a real treat to experience. All to say we have enjoyed the mutual working relationship we have garnered as we’ve come to establish a productive collaborative process with the QVIR youth and leadership. We’re very excited and hopeful for what’s to come!
Rocky Tano, President/CEO, OBSIDIAN, Inc.
This year our project Rebuilding the Humanities at the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation is working to increase the visibility and accessibility of the reservation’s history, culture, and language. To do so, we seek to engage tribal members, community members, and high school and community college students in creating a comprehensive history of the reservation, an online resource for teaching, a renewal of the reservation’s Culture Camp, and an enhanced website for the public.
The awarded projects, selected through a competitive, peer-reviewed application process, are located at local, regional, or cross-regional organizations such as nonprofits, museums, libraries and archives, historic sites, and public-facing humanities centers at colleges and universities across the country. This funding will help such entities restore post-pandemic programming and engage or deepen collaborations with stakeholders and communities that will expand their reach.
“Each project contributes to a shared national conversation in important ways,” said Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Executive Director of the National Writing Project. “Building a More Perfect Union recognizes the unique role that local, regional, and cross-regional humanities organizations play in understanding and making visible fuller stories of our national experience.”
Awardees plan to “build a more perfect union” through expanding access and raising the visibility of lesser-known stories and histories in regions and communities, engaging communities through participatory public humanities events and opportunities, and developing institutes and curricula with teachers and students to support K12 classrooms.
“The National Endowment for the Humanities is grateful to the National Writing Project for administering American Rescue Plan funding to help local and regional humanities organizations recover from the pandemic,” said NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo). “These ARP awards will allow archives, libraries, museums, historic sites, and other institutions around the country to restore and expand public programs that preserve and share the stories of the communities they serve.”
To learn more about Rebuilding The Humanities at the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation’s Building a More Perfect Union grant, please visit the National Writing Project website.
NCWP in the News: “Rebuilding the Humanities at the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation”
It’s the first step in a larger project called “Rebuilding the Humanities at the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation.” Future plans include annual culture camps at the Siskiyou County reservation, and an educational website open to everyone, said Project Coordinator Jasmine Corona Alcazar and the Northern California Writing Project, a network of teachers, researchers and writers based in Chico.
Jessica Skropnanic, Redding Record Searchlight
We are thrilled to announce that the Northern California Writing Project was recently featured in the Redding Record Searchlight. Jessica Skropnanic’s article, “Tribes in Shasta, Siskiyou teach students about culture, history of ‘resiliency and hope’,” highlights the NCWP’s educational partnership with the Quartz Valley Reservation.
Keep up to date with project announcements by following our Instagram.
This summer, Northern California Writing Project (NCWP) is offering our Invitational Design Institute, formerly known as the Invitational Summer Institute (ISI), in a new, extended format to allow for deeper engagement and community support as we navigate exciting and challenging ideas together. This extended institute experience is open to educators across grade levels (from kindergarten to college) and disciplines. Invited fellows will attend a program orientation on April 29, 2023 (via Zoom). The orientation will be followed by an Intensive Retreat that takes place in-person July 24-27 at California State University, Chico (lodging provided). The retreat will set the stage for classroom inquiry with two fall debrief meetings on October 14, 2023 (in-person) and November 4, 2023 (via Zoom). We will conclude our work together with an in-person celebration on December 2, 2023. Fellows will receive a $1000 stipend for their participation in the summer intensive, and another $1000 upon completing the follow-up sessions. Teachers can also purchase 1-3 professional development units.
Who should apply?
Any teacher (k-college) who wants to think about the teaching of writing with other educators in our service area. Educators who are ready to engage in conversations about equity, anti racist approaches to course design, and ways to create dynamic communities in education. Teachers should come representing learners of every age and from a variety of disciplines–math to social studies–as we believe that language is a part of every area of study. Our goal is to connect rural teachers in our network at the beginning of what we hope is a long career in education by offering ongoing support, resources, and meaningful professional inquiry.
What will we do?
At the center of our beliefs about professional development is that teachers are the best teachers of other teachers. For this reason, teachers in our Invitational Design Institute read new professional texts, write together, share problems of practice, and create the kinds of support they want as educators.
The team of facilitators cover a range of grade levels and contexts: Anthony Miranda is an Instructional Coach for Multilingual Learners and a former 7th grade English teacher; Kyra Mello, co-director of the NCWP, teaches at Yuba Community College District and is the former Coordinator of Distance Education; Sarah Pape teaches creative writing at Chico State and is the managing editor for Watershed Review. The team will be joined throughout the institute by other veteran teachers who will facilitate a variety of workshops related to the teaching of writing.
Deadlines, dates and location?
Applications are due on Wednesday March 1, 2023; please APPLY HERE!
Applications will be screened between March 20 and April 1; invited fellows will be announced the first week of April via email.
Pre Institute Orientation: Saturday, April 29, 2023, 9-12:00 via Zoom
Summer Institute Intensive Retreat:
July 24-27 at CSUC (lodging provided, details TBA)
Fall meeting days:
Saturday, October 14, 2023, 9:00-12:00 at CSUC
Saturday, November 4, 2023, 9:00-12:00 via Zoom
Saturday, December 2, 2023, 9:00-3:00 pm at CSUC (details TBA)
Are there other details I should know?
Participants will receive a total of $2000 for participating—$1000 for the summer work and and another $1000 in December for the continued work in the fall
Professional development units can be purchased (1-3 CSU credits for $60 per unit).
All materials, including current professional books for participants, are covered by NCWP and will be mailed to teachers’ preferred address.
We will follow the evolving state-recommended COVID protocols throughout our in-person programming.
Applications are due March 1st! We hope you will join us!
NCWP is excited to be partnering with Pedal Press to bring NCWP teachers (and friends) a series of screen printing workshops. Pedal Press is a mobile community-based art project in Chico, Ca. Pedal Press believes in the social and creative power of printing as a tool for change. Young people have been the driving force of all social movements and have used printing as a tool in some really powerful ways. Pedal Press likes to share this history and make screen printing accessible to teachers and youth to express their own messages, art, and etc. In these workshops, we will consider what role screen printing (and art) can play in your classroom.
Pedal Press will host these workshops at their studio space in Chico, so space is limited. If you just want to learn a little something about screen printing, you’ll probably want to attend one of the two Intro Workshops. If you think you want to learn more than a little about screen printing, you’ll want to sign-up for the Intro and Intermediate Workshop combo. Check out the Workshop Descriptions and the Scheduling Options below.
Workshop Descriptions
I. Intro to Screen Printing Workshop: In this workshop, you’ll learn about screen printing history and usage, and look at both DIY and more technical screen printing modes. You’ll also make your own limited-edition DIY screen print. No materials fee is required.
II. Intermediate Screen Printing Workshop: The Intro class is required for participation in the second workshop. You’ll learn how to do multiple color tabletop prints with acetate, create a limited edition DIY screen print, anda $50 materials fee buys you a tabletop screen printing setup to keep.
Scheduling Options
10/15, 9-12 pm: I. Intro to Screen Printing
10/29, 9-12 pm: II. Intermediate Screen Printing, $50 materials fee collected at workshop
11/12, 9-12 pm: I. Intro to Screen Printing
12/3, 9-12 pm: II. Intermediate Screen Printing, $50 materials fee collected at workshop
How to Sign-up
Space is limited, so a reservation is necessary to secure your spot. Please use the sign-up form, so we know you are interested. We’ll follow up in the next week or so to confirm your spot and provide location information and details.
We are excited to introduce the invited fellows for the NCWP Summer Institute! This summer, we are offering our Summer Institute in a new, extended format to allow for deeper engagement and community support as we navigate exciting and challenging ideas together. Please welcome the new cohort to the network of National Writing Project teachers! We are so excited to bring this group together to think about the teaching of writing through conversations about equity, anti-racist approaches to course design, and ways to create dynamic communities in education.
Grace Adcock has been teaching for over a decade. She is currently an English teacher and instructional coach at Shasta High School in Redding, CA. After being raised in the north state and attending Shasta College she completed a B.A. in Human Communication with a minor in Outdoor Recreation and Education at CSU Monterey Bay. She then traveled the world for a year and went back to school to obtain her Masters Degree in Education along with her Single Subject English, Multiple Subject, and Mild/Moderate Special Education credentials from CSU Chico. She taught Special Education in Juvenile Detention Facilities and E.D. programs in the Bay Area at the start of her career before moving back to Redding where she lives with her daughter and husband. Teaching is her major passion in life and she hopes to instill a love for seeking adventure, learning, and being a member of a compassionate community in her students. When not in the classroom, she fills her time with traveling, outdoor recreation, and baseball. She has lofty goals to visit all 7 contents (6 down, 1 to go!), attend a game at all 30 MLB parks (one-third complete), and visit a new national park every year.
Joseph Hill teaches English and Video Games as Literature at the Inspire School of Arts and Sciences. Before taking the plunge into teaching, Joseph worked for 6 years as a bartender in both Davis and Chico. In Chico, he worked at both The Handlebar and The Winchester Goose (which is now sadly defunct). Originally from a one stoplight town in East Texas, he spent some time in Austin before moving to Davis, California with his partner. In Davis, he received a masters degree in English Literature with a creative writing focus. After his partner received a job offer at Chico State, Joseph came to Chico. He has taught at Inspire for the last three years, and began his teaching career in the middle of the pandemic. He is particularly interested in the gamification of education and using video games as another(alternate) mode of literacy. He is excited to learn and grow as an educator. At Inspire, he serves as the Advisory coordinator and is also a member of the Equity team. He also advises the Gay/Straight Alliance and the Film Appreciation Club.
Jania Johnson graduated from Chico State with a Bachelors in English in 2017 where she was named the Outstanding Bachelors of English for her graduating year. In 2018, she completed her residency in the 12-month RiSE program where she also earned her Masters in Education. She has been at Oroville High School for five years: one year as a student teacher and four years independently in the classroom. Jania teaches English 10, English 10 Honors, and AP Language and Composition. For the upcoming school year she will also begin teaching ELD. She has a passion for rhetoric and composition and loves to unpack the power of language with her students. When not in the classroom, she enjoys reading (duh!), hiking, and folding pajamas with humans still inside (a.k.a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu).
Cristy Kidd is a Bay Area native, now living and teaching in Redding, CA. She teaches Communication Studies at Shasta College and, starting in the fall, will be teaching at SCOE’s Independent Study program. She has an inherent inability to grasp the concept of “finishing” school, herself, and, as a result, has a B.A. in Communication, a M.A. in Mass Communication and Public Relations — both from University of the Pacific–and a M.Ed. with an emphasis in ELL Education from National University. Cristy spent two years as part of a cohort exploring effective teaching practices through the Association of University and College Educators, has been certified in ERWC curriculum and, now, is absolutely delighted to be a part of the Northern California Writing Project’s Summer Institute for the second time. Prior to teaching, Cristy worked in marketing and public relations, which she was successful at, but also miserable doing. Enter: education. Outside of school-life, Cristy is an avid reader, has been dancing since she was two, loves to bake, plays Dungeons & Dragons at least once a week, and lives for live music. She is married and the “mom” to two fur-babies. (And, yes, she does sleep, but she also lives for coffee).
Ashley Martinez is from the Los Angeles area and graduated from Chico State with a B.A. in English Education, minor in Organizational Communication, and a teaching credential. Currently, she teaches 8th grade Language (Writing) in Marysville Joint Unified. She has taught for 10 years, all in middle school and wouldn’t have it any other way. She started a Drama program and Literacy Committee at her school, in addition to being a new teacher mentor. When not working, she enjoys watching t.v., eating good food, and spending time with her husband and two sons. Ashley strives to provide her students with opportunities to think and write critically, while providing the best practices for instruction.
Zack O’Neill has a BA in English from UC Santa Barbara (2000), a Master’s in English from Sacramento State University (2008), and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of South Carolina (2011). He has writing fellowships from the University of South Carolina (2008) and the University of Houston (2012), and has published a short story collection and novella at a small press in New York City (2017 and 2019). His website comphaunt.com has regular updates with stories about education, blog posts, and teaching materials instructors can use.
Dana Paz received her BA in Social Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. She lived and worked in her native Guatemala as a grant writer for international development projects for 12 years, writing grants in Spanish and English for large-scale projects in rural communities. She relocated back to California with her family and received her Masters in Education at Chico State in 2019. She is in her third year of teaching English Language Arts to 7th and 8th graders at CK Price Intermediate School in Orland, CA. As an immigrant from Guatemala who found academic success relatively late in life, Dana strives to build her students’ confidence in listening to their own voice and writing their own truths, sharing mentor texts from all walks of the wide world we live in. When she’s not teaching, writing or reading, Dana enjoys long bike rides, hiking, yoga and running. She’s also learning piano so she can jam with her 15 year-old son and her husband, who play the drums and guitar (respectively).
Hillary Pierce teaches sixth grade at Chico Country Day Charter School. She is a recent transplant to Chico due to her spouse’s work in agriculture. Hillary grew up in Santa Cruz, went to high school in Italy, and after graduating from UC Berkeley in 2005, spent most of her adult life in New Mexico following a fateful long-distance bike tour to the area. Hillary enjoys the sense of community and endless variety of life in the classroom, and also seeks learning opportunities in a broader context. She has taught in kitchens, science and history museums, gardens, and wildlands. She is currently busy amassing and muddling through more books than are possible to read in a single human lifetime and/or poking around in the forest hoping to identify wild culinary mushrooms.
Denai Rubio is a Fourth grade teacher in Chico CA at a K-8 school. She got her multi-subject teaching credential at Chico State in 2020, 15 years after she first graduated from Chico State with a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography. She went back to school to get her teaching credential after spending time helping in her children’s classroom and realizing that she loved teaching. When she is not in the classroom you can find her spending time outdoors with her family. She loves camping, backpacking and traveling. She hopes to pass along her love of reading and writing to her students and is excited to be a part of The Northern California Writing Project.
Marta Shaffer is a third-year English teacher at Oroville High School. She graduated from Chico State University with her BA in 2015, and her MA in English – Creative Writing in 2018. She worked as a first-year composition instructor at Chico State during and after her grad program. She quickly realized her strengths as a teacher lied (lay?) in celebrating students’ birthdays and giving them band-aids, rather than knowing how to properly use “lie” and “lay,” so she decided to pursue her single-subject teaching credential in the fall of 2018. She strives to create an antiracist, decolonized classroom where each student can see themself represented in the curriculum. At home, she enjoys watching Rick and Morty with her partner and their dog, cross-stitching, gardening, and laying (lying?) in her hammock.
Kendall M. Smith is a high school English teacher at Willows High School. She was awarded Teacher of the Year in April 2022. She serves as the Varsity Girls Tennis coach, faculty support for the GEAR UP Program, an advisor for the Interact Club, co-advisor for the Junior Class, and is currently writing the curriculum pathway for Ethnic Studies. She completed her Master’s in Education with an option in Curriculum and Instruction through the Residency in Secondary Education (RiSE) Program at Chico State in 2017. Prior to that, she was an English tutor for Burmese refugees in Chiang Mai while studying abroad in Thailand as a Gilman International Scholarship recipient. The travel bug has since then inspired her adventures throughout Southeast Asia and Australia. During the summer she teaches for the Upward Bound Program at California State University, Chico where she helps students write personal statements for college admission. In her spare time, she enjoys plotting her next adventure, trail running, paddle boarding with her husband, kickboxing with friends, and studying Vedic meditation with some yoga in between.
Jera Verboom teaches English and ELD at Orland High School. She is the GATE advisor and a member of the EL Task Force and SEL Team. She is finishing her third year teaching in the U.S. and has also taught abroad in Tanzania, Egypt, and India. Jera holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology with a focus in international relations from California State University, Chico, and earned her single subject teaching credential and a master’s degree in education through Chico State’s RiSE program in 2019. She is a proponent of culturally relevant classroom libraries and the purposeful allocation of time for independent reading and journaling. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family and animals (dogs and horses), reading, and traveling.
This summer (2022), we are offering our Summer Institute (SI) in a new, extended format to allow for deeper engagement and community support as we navigate exciting and challenging ideas together. This extended institute experience is open to educators across grade levels (from kindergarten to college) and disciplines. First, we’ll host a Summer Institute Intensive that takes place in person July 25-27 in Sacramento (lodging provided). Monthly follow-up meetings via Zoom through December will give us time to work with the ideas and texts introduced over the summer. Educators receive a $1000 stipend for their participation in the summer intensive, and another $1000 upon completing the follow-up sessions. Teachers can also purchase 1-3 professional development units.
Who should apply?
Any teacher (k-college) who wants to think about the teaching of writing with other educators in our service area. Educators who are ready to engage in conversations about equity, anti racist approaches to course design, and ways to create dynamic communities in education. Teachers should come from a variety of disciplines–math to social studies–as we believe that language is a part of every area of study. Our goal is to connect rural teachers in our network at the beginning of what we hope is a long career in education by offering ongoing support, resources, and meaningful professional inquiry.
What will we do?
At the center of our beliefs about professional development is that teachers are the best teachers of other teachers. For this reason, teachers in our Summer Institute Intensive and follow-up sessions read new professional texts, write together, share problems of practice, and create the kinds of support they want as educators.
The team of facilitators cover a range of grade levels and contexts: Anthony Miranda is a 7th grade English teacher at Sierra Vista K-8 in Vacaville; Kyra Mello, co-director of the NCWP, teaches at Yuba Community College and is the former Chair of Distance Education; Sarah Pape teaches creative writing at Chico State and is the managing editor for Watershed Review. The team will be joined throughout the institute by other veteran teachers who will facilitate a variety of workshops related to the teaching of writing.
