WriterCoach Connection

Writer coaches know how to have fun!

There's more to writer coaching than poring over essays! The relationships that develop between coaches and students are reflected in the year-end classroom celebrations that often cap our coaching year. Here is the El Cerrito High Block 3 team, throwing a party for their students and their teacher, Jennifer Dreyfus, at El Cerrito High on May 31.

Coach Donna DeCamp holds the thank-you note written to her by student Juan Mejia.

And more thanks to Coach Donna from a student.

And here's the whole Block 3 coaching team (with teacher Jennifer Dreyfus, second from left), led by Site Coordinator Maureen Dixon (fourth from right). You can see the satisfaction of a coaching job well done this year reflected in their faces!

Bob Menzimer

Finding volunteers in Richmond

The annual Masquers Playhouse benefit garage sale in Pt. Richmond, a community-wide confluence on Memorial Day, was a good opportunity for us to recruit coaches for our program this fall at Richmond High.

(L. to r.) WCC Longfellow site coordinator Annie Stine, CAFL board member and Richmond volunteer coordinator Shelli Fried, and coach and CAFL board member Kent Wright are on the scene to tell the WCC story.

Shelli Fried is indefatiguable, spreading the word about coaching to come at Richmond High.

The banner tells the story, and Annie Stine adds a personal exclamation point.

Sold!

Yes - I WILL be a writer coach!

Many thanks to the WCC volunteers who joined Shelli and your correspondent at the WCC Memorial Day booth in Pt. Richmond : Lisa Awrey, Mary Lee Cole, Marty Makower, Annie Stine, and Kent Wright. 

Bob Menzimer

WCC helps move English learners up the ladder

More than 1,100 Richmond students were awarded their English language certification this week. Learn how WriterCoach Connection will be helping more ELD students achieve this challenging goal!

Ring that bell - play Literary Jeopardy at the Read-and-Write-a-thon this Saturday!

Our biggest annual fundraiser is coming up on Saturday (May 19), the Read-and-Write-a-thon 2012! We'll gather in the library at King Middle School in Berkeley and start reading at 8:00 a.m. And we won't stop until 6:00 p.m. The fun will include a brand new edition of last year's fun-filled Literary Jeopardy. Here's RWAT co-organizer Annie (Vanna) Stine, welcoming you to the game!

You're invited to come and be a reader for our Read-and-Write-a-thon. Pick your favorite written work and read from it aloud for fifteen minutes. (To sign up for a reading shift, contact Annie at astine@igc.org.) Most importantly, ask your friends, family members, and associates to sponsor you with a donation to the Read-and-Write-a-thon, online at this link or by sending a check payable to CAFL at PO Box 6098, Albany, CA  94706. 

If you're a friend of WriterCoach Connection from afar, your donation means even more to us, because you are recognizing the value for students and teachers of our one-on-one classroom support of student writing and critical thinking.

Furthermore, you can double the impact of your donation, because every dollar donated to the Read-and-Write-a-thon between now and Saturday will be matched from a fund donated by the Community Alliance for Learning board (CAFL is the WCC parent organization) and their associates and friends.

Thank you for supporting us!

Bob Menzimer

 

Coaches fill the classroom

If you've never been a WriterCoach Connection volunteer, you may wonder exactly how our coaching works. One aspect of it is the session pre-briefing. Before the coaches file into a classroom to meet their students, they gather with the site coordinator to review the students' writing assignment for the day and to get last-minute instructions or requests from the teachers as passed through the site coordinators. At Portola Middle School in El Cerrito, there are so many volunteer coaches that just this pre-coach briefing session fills the room!

Here are the coaches at Portola Middle School on the morning of May 11, getting a briefing from site coordinator Kathleen Hallam (standing, center left). There are 30 coaches on this team, so many that when they enter the classroom to meet their students, the coaches form a line that extends out the door!

Bob Menzimer

WCC superstar Todd Groves honored by the Ed. Fund

We are so very pleased to report that Todd Groves of El Cerrito has been selected to receive the West Contra Costa Public Education Fund (The Ed. Fund) "Distinguished Citizen Award" for his "countless hours" as a volunteer on behalf of students at El Cerrito High School and Portola Middle School. Among other notable contributions to the students, school and community, Todd was instrumental in bringing WriterCoach Connection to the two El Cerrito schools, mobilizing the community to fund and find volunteers for our first program in West Contra Costa County.

Todd will be honored at the Ed Fund Gala on Friday May 18th. Read all about it and/or obtain tickets in the El Cerrito Patch.

Meantime, here's Todd, at our first coach training session in West County, in the library at El Cerrito High School back in 2010. See if you can spot him, in his trademark baseball cap!

Maureen Dixon

 

Help get us to our Read-and-Write-a-thon goal!

Our biggest fundraiser of the year is coming, the Read-and-Write-a-thon, on Saturday, May 19. You can come help us read! (Choose your favorite piece.) 

You can donate to help push us to our goal! 

And most importantly, you can ask your friends, family members, and associates, to donate and support us. Don't be shy! Asking friends and family for just a $10 donation (a couple of Starbucks hits, or maybe just one) will get us there, if enough of us reach out.

We're 27% of the way to our goal already. Check it out, donate here.

To sign up for a fifteen-minute reading shift at the event, contact Annie Stine at astine@igc.org

Bob Menzimer

 

Berkeley Association of Realtors builds a funding roof over WriterCoach Connection

On April 25, the Berkeley Association of Realtors granted us $2,000 to help support expansion of WCC at Berkeley High's Green Academy next year. This generous gift comes from the BAR's Youth Arts and Education Fund, supported by individual member realtors who contribute a portion of their commissions to support youth in the communities served by the Association's members. 

This funding will enable us to widen our horizon at Berkeley High's Green Academy, where we are serving the 12th grade this year and where, with a boost from the Berkeley Association of Realtors, we plan to expand to serve the school's 9th graders next year.

The BAR website includes a video of grant recipients, expressing their thanks. At the 4:20 mark of the 5:04 video, you'll spot your correspondent voicing gratitude on behalf of everyone associated with WCC, particularly in Berkeley, and most especially at Green Academy.

Bob Menzimer

Posting up for the Read-and-Write-a-thon!

WriterCoach Connection volunteer Olivier Compange (El Cerrito High School) has posted an appeal on his Facebook page, describing his experience as a writer coach and asking his friends to support the program with a donation to our Read-and-Write-a-thon on May 19. 

Please consider doing the same. If each of our 530 coaches asks ten friends and family members to give only $10 and if each of those friends and family members does it, we will exceed our $35,000 campaign goal by a wide margin. Every dollar helps!

Bob Menzimer

April showers bring...a new WCC newsletter

WriterCoach Connection is full of good news these days—our expansion to Richmond, our upcoming events, and our ever-growing opportunities to coach. We want to share all that news with you!

The first enewsletter has just been sent to all our WCC fans. We plan to send it four to six times a year: just enough to keep you on top of the most interesting WCC news without cluttering your inbox. We hope you'll continue to stay subscribed even if you're no longer a coach—so that you can stay tapped into your community and the program that you've helped to grow!  

If you'd like to be on our mailing list but didn't get the newsletter, view the newsletter, and please sign up so that you receive the next one. 

Christine McGuinness