Monday, November 23, 2009

NCCAT: Looking Back and Looking Forward

LOOKING BACK

Before we left our week at NCCAT, participants shared what they learned and Henry Wong, the NCCAT Center Fellow, led the group in song and dance. During the week several teachers wrote ABC books. Reflecting their work and honoring everyone's efforts, several teachers wrote the following ABC book and read it that morning. (Inside jokes are explained below.) If you're a North Carolina teacher who has always wanted to learn more about writing and publishing for children, I hope this poem and the movie which follows, will whet your appetite. Maybe you'll decide to apply and join us next year!

The ABC's of NCCAT

A is for AUTHORS that's what we want to be.
B is for BELLY-LAUGHS coming from you and me.
C is for CAKES and COOKIES that made us nice and fat.
D is for DIET which we'll start when we get back.
E is for EVERYONE working together.
F is for FRIENDSHIPS that will last forever.
G is for GIRLS and one token boy.
H is for HENRY who brought us metamorphic joy.
I is IMAGERY to make our writing flow.
J is for JOYCE and Carol the dynamic duo.
K is for KNOWLEDGE which we gained throughout the week.
L is for LINDA who never missed a beat.
M is for MORE DETAILS but all we heard was "MEH."*
N is for NCCAT a week of pure bliss.
O is for OUR trips which you didn't want to miss.
P is for PASSION each one of us discovered.
Q is for QUERY which Nina** uncovered.
R is for REVIVE, REJUVENATE, RESTORE.
S is for SUNDAY when we came to learn more.
T is for TEACHERS from all over the state.
U is for UNDISCOVERED stores we have yet to create.
V is for VARIETY which each of us displayed.
W is for WEATHER, it rained night and day.
X is for eXtreme work we did as a team.
Y is for YEARNING. We all have a dream.
And Z is for .....ZEBRA.***

* One teacher wrote a funny story about a cat whose thoughts were consistently heard as, "Meh."
**Nina Bagley led the group in creating altered books.
*** What else could "Z" be for?



LOOKING FORWARD
As we leave NCCAT, Joyce Hostetter (my fellow presenter), and I are already brainstorming how we would improve the workshop. She just posted a video on her blog which we will most likely show next year. This book trailer from Invisible Lines truly demonstrates the writing/revising cycle which is inherent in the writing process. Take a minute to view it. It is instructive for writers, teachers, and students.



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2 comments:

Nichole said...

Wonderful post!! Does this mean I am officially published?! ;-)

Carol Baldwin said...

I guess so! I would have put all of the authors names on there...but I didn't find out all of the folks responsible for writing it. If you know, I'll gladly add it.

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