Mrs. Chris Thompson Presents at CUWP Seminar

Submitted by david.thacker on

Mrs. Thompson, a seventh-grade English teacher at SFJHS, attended a professional development program called the Central Utah Writing Project (CUWP) this summer. CUWP is a program to encourage everyone to write more; students and teachers alike. The course she attended was for four weeks at the Alpine School District Professional Development Center in American Fork.

She was chosen to participate in a Saturday Seminar based on an essay she wrote followed by an interview. “I believe they were looking for teachers who were open minded, willing to learn from others, would contribute to the project, and who liked to laugh,” stated Mrs. Thompson.

The workshop consisted of a series of demo lessons followed by group feedback about its effectiveness. The workshops also included about two hours of actual writing each day. Mrs. Thompson recalled, “It was what I call a game changer for me. It helped me to see myself as a writer as well as a teacher. I also learned to see my students as writers and to give them the latitude that they need to write things that are inspiring them, rather than writing just to get an assignment finished.”

“I became a teacher of English because I love to write and this class helped me to remember that. As teachers we often get so busy planning that we forget our passion and those things that motivated us to teach in the first place.”

Our school is very fortunate to have such a great teacher like Mrs. Thompson. She is very passionate about writing and brings something unique to our school.

 

Attributions
By Madeline Stocks—Events Editor