NWP Radio National Writing Project

Luma Mufleh (https://fugeesfamily.org/about/luma-mufleh/) is an activist, twice-published author, entrepreneur, coach, and thought leader in refugee and English Language Learner Education. As an asylee, as well as daughter and granddaughter of Syrian refugees, Luma continues to draw on her personal experiences to fuel her passion for empowering refugees and immigrant children through education. In 2006, she founded Fugees Family, the only network of schools in the U.S. dedicated to refugee and immigrant education. Luma’s work is not only changing the lives of children and families, but also shifting the narrative around refugees from one of fear to one of courage and resilience. Her TED Talk on educational justice has been viewed more than 1.8 million times and she is the author of two books, 2022's Learning America: One Woman's Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children and the recently released memoir From Here. Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield teacher-consultants William King and Jessica Baldizon conduct the interview.

In this NWP Radio episode we are joined by Troy Hicks and Jill Runstrom of the Chippewa River Writing Project as they discuss their new book Literacies Before Technologies: Making Digital Tools Matter for Middle Grades Learners. In this book, recently published by NCTE as part of their Principles in Practice series, Jill and Troy—alongside several other colleagues—share their classroom practices as they inquiry into the Beliefs for Integrating Technology into the English Language Arts Classroom. Their stories start during the 2020-21 school year and extend into the ways they continue to consider literacies alongside (but always before) technologies.Related Links* Beliefs Statement (BIT-ELA) (https://ncte.org/statement/beliefs-technology-preparation-english-teachers/)* https://hickstro.org/ncte-middle-grades-tech/ (https://hickstro.org/ncte-middle-grades-tech/)

Join us for a fascinating conversation with Aaron Pyne, creator of Inner Realms Journey (https://innerrealmsjourney.com/), a fantasy-themed adventure game in which  participants embark on a series of audio-guided meditative experiences. If you can imagine the place where role-playing games, meditation, and mindfulness meet for fun and learning, you might be close to Inner Realms Journey. Come hear all about it.

Janae Marks (https://www.janaemarks.com/) is the New York Times bestselling author of middle-grade novels, From the Desk of Zoe Washington, A Soft Place to Land, and On Air with Zoe Washington. She has an MFA in Writing for Children from The New School, and lives in Connecticut with her husband, daughter, and miniature schnauzer named Cookie.Terri Fredrick is a Professor of English and Writing Center Director at Eastern Illinois University. She is also the director of the Eastern Illinois Writing Project. She and her daughter have read three of Janae Marks's novels together.Tesla, Terri’s daughter, is a 7th-grade student in Champaign Illinois. She enjoys theater, basketball, dance, and track. She loves Janae Marks's books.

New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes (https://www.nikkigrimes.com/) is the recipient of the 2022 CSK Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the ALAN Award for significant contributions to young adult literature, the Children's Literature Legacy Medal, and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. The author of Coretta Scott King Award-winner Bronx Masquerade, her most recent titles include the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults title Between the Lines, companion to Bronx Masquerade. Ms. Grimes lives in Corona, California.After over a decade of facilitating student, teacher, and adult learning as a literacy teacher, adjunct professor, teacher coach, and diversity, equity, and inclusion specialist, Barrett Rosser (https://www.barrettrosser.com/) is currently a full-time doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is in the Reading, Writing, and Literacy program and has been the Philadelphia Writing Project Scholar for the last three years. Barrett leads communities of teachers, principals, parents, and out-of-school-time leaders to explore literacy, writing, teaching, and learning across all grade levels and disciplines. Further, Barrett is the founder of the Black Girls' Literacies Project, an out-of-school inquiry group for high-school-aged Black girls to use their literacies to build knowledge about and practice self-love. Barrett is also a dreamer, lover, and poet. She loves reading and giving back to the Philadelphia community.

In this episode, Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, talks about his experiences advocating for Black, brown, and LGBTQ students in often hostile education environments. Carver talks about the difficulties minoritized students and teachers are facing as well as some of the ways teachers and students can resist and attempt to protect their students in this atmosphere, drawing on his own experiences and those of other teachers. He will also share some works from his book of narrative poems about the experience of growing up queer and Appalachian, Gay Poems for Red States.