Programs for TCs

Programs for BAWP Teacher Consultants

Unique programs for ongoing learning and leadership development.

Image credit:
Photo credit: Josh Egel

Invest in your own professional learning!

Connect with other Teacher Consultants in the Bay Area Writing Project and National Writing Project networks who are exploring ideas, practices, and topics of interest and relevance. Deepen your practice and your community! 

Genre Studies Inquiry Group

Originally a collaboration between BAWP and the UC Berkeley History Social Science Project, this initiative has engaged a small group to explore cross-disciplinary questions about genre: How can we  expand opportunities for students to both work with and then demonstrate historical understanding in alternative genres? What does genre study look like in ELA classrooms?  

Participants explore genre through workshop content, develop and revise units of study, share dilemmas, try new content and writing tasks out in their classrooms, and share with the group what emerges. This group includes history and ELA educators, primarily at the secondary level.  

Contact: Jeannie Kohl - ljeanniek@gmail.com

Professional Collaborators Network (PCN)

BAWP Teacher Consultants meet to delve deeply into practice by sharing workshop drafts and posing instructional questions.  The PCN offers coaching and feedback for TCs who are "workshopping" presentations. Participating TCs think about and consider their own practice as they learn from their colleagues’ workshops, and collectively participants contribute to the ever-evolving criteria for excellent BAWP presentations.

Dates: Saturdays and Mondays, scheduled periodically.

Contact: Jeannie Kohl - ljeanniek@gmail.com; Grace Morizawa - gmorizawa@gmail.com

Multilingual Inquiry Collaborative (INC)

The Multilingual Inquiry Collaborative (INC) is a pilot initiative, grounded in the notion that true genius is a collective process. Through a partnership with BAWP and the National Writing Project (NWP), elementary educators experience an intellectual community in which to grow, lead, and innovate from the classroom Using the book Phenomenal Teaching and materials from Stanford’s Understanding Language initiative, the program is a synthesis of research and practice focused on sustaining the language, culture, and learning of all children, while centering those who are multilingual. The 2025 summer institute will be followed by three full-day lesson studies inspired by the Public Education and Business Coalition’s Learning Labs model, and three individual mentoring sessions across the 2025 - 2026 school year.

Contact: Jane Weiss jane.weiss@stanford.edu

American Creed: Photo Essay Study Group

Since 2018, the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) has partnered with the National Writing Project (NWP) and KQED to support student discussions of ideas and history in the powerful documentary film, American Creed.  This year, PBS LearningMedia will launch new films that use documentary photography and persuasive writing to explore American ideals. Funded by a National Writing Project grant, BAWP will support teachers as they explore what students see as the greatest challenges facing their communities and our democracy, and prospective solutions – as they develop their own photo essays.  KQED will offer a publishing platform for student work as part of their national Youth Media Challenge.  

In Summer 2025, a small cohort of secondary educators will learn together, trying out materials in their classrooms in the fall. 

Contact: Stan Pesick  - stan.pesick@berkeley.edu

Write Now Teacher Studio (NWP)

Write Now Teacher Studiois an exciting platform to share work and communicate across the National Writing Project network.  Learn about events, discourse communities, and opportunities for leadership and writing.  

Join at studio.nwp.org