1.  For bringing remarkable teacher-leaders (through the NYCWP) to Morris High School in the South Bronx back in 1982 to help a brand-new teacher learn not only how to teach, but many ways to think about teaching.

2. For providing context, theory and support for the young teacher's beliefs about teaching writing; perhaps most importantly, that young writers were still writers like herself, only less experienced, and so needed what she needed as a writer: the chance to write about things that mattered to her, time to write and revise, thoughtful feedback, a safe place to try out ideas.

3.  For giving the young teacher--getting older with every number here!--access to a community of smart, talented colleagues--some of the best in the country--to grow with.

4.  For reminding a more experienced teacher that there is always something new to try, fresh ideas to test (oops, I said a dirty word) in the classroom, that good teachers can always become better, that learning to teach well is a lifelong exploration, and for providing places--local writing projects, annual meetings, list serves--to keep reaching for different strategies to try with different learners. 

5.  For giving teachers across the country access to a summer month of intensive work with area colleagues, where they have time to really consider pedagogy and local conditions and context, and, yes, actually develop and refine best practices for their classrooms.

6.  For encouraging teachers to write themselves, including this one, now with about 12 published stories and essays here and there, and a prize or two.

7. For giving children and teenagers in classrooms across the country the chance to work with teachers who understand that reading and writing are about making meaning in the world, not just about the next test.

8. For helping us develop connections among the statewide network of Writing Project sites.  Yes, the majority of students in New York State go to school in districts where a teacher has access to a local NWP site.  And we talk to each other.

9.  For keeping social justice as a tenet.  We do not teach in a vacuum; all school districts do not have access to the same resources; the impact of high-stakes testing and other recent business-model trends do not fall evenly across all the children that we teach.

10.  For thirty rich years of teaching.  Without the NWP, I still would have had career, but it wouldn't have been as good for me, or, more importantly, my students.

Melanie Hammer
Long Island Writing Project
Empire State Writing Project Network