WriterCoach Connection

Picture yourself here

Are you thinking about becoming a writer coach? Your first stop is coach training, as it was for these volunteers last week at Oakland School for the Arts.

For the first time, we are training high-achieving 12th graders as writer coaches. Above, Domine Ezechukwu (l.) and Alex Harris hope to be working with 9th graders when coaching at OSA begins in January.

Husband and wife team Jean Rains and Steve Zimmerman try their hand at practice writer coaching.

Mia DeBono (l.) and Teresa Godfrey are into it!

Jennifer Duff in active discussion with two trainee colleagues.

There's still time to register for coach training sessions in December and January!

 

Bob Menzimer

 

Lining up for writer-coach training

We train community volunteers as writer coaches only twice a year, and now is one of those times!

At the Oakland Volunteer Fair on Sept. 10, eight people expressed interest in becoming coaches. The next day at the Solano Stroll, a whopping 44 people affixed a John Hancock to our volunteer signup sheet. Here are some interested parties, fully engaged in conversation about writer coaching at our Stroll booth with Community Alliance for Learning (CAFL) board member Amy Resner (foreground) and CAFL Associate Director Lynn Mueller (back). 

Training sessions fill the calendar in September and October, on various days, afternoon or evening. To volunteer as a coach, start by registering for training on our website. Before you know it, you'll be sitting side-by-side in a classroom at the school site you choose, helping guide students to clear writing and effective critical thinking.

Many thanks to the coaching veterans who helped Oakland Volunteer Coordinator Karen Larson engage coach prospects at the Oakland Volunteer Fair on Sept. 10. Those coaches are Ruby Bernstein, Sidney Glass, Pete Holland, and Iris Winogrond. And thanks also to these generous souls who helped Volunteer Manager Lynn Mueller at our Solano Stroll booth the next day: Caitlin Carnes, Denis Clifford, Maureen Dixon, Todd Groves, Sahib-Amar Khalsa, Katie Koelle, Karen Larson, Amy Resner, Annie Stine, and Jayne Walker.

We're about to launch our eleventh year of writing support in East Bay schools, and we're really excited!

 

Bob Menzimer

 

Writer coaching 2010-11: off and running!

When WCC coaches convene at King Middle School in Berkeley this week, WriterCoach Connection will be off and running at seven of our nine school sites for 2010-11. (We begin at Media and Mandela high schools in Oakland in the next two weeks.) One more training sequence remains, Tuesdays at noon on Nov. 2 and 9, so there's still time to register--but do it soon!

Here's coach Kay Lunine, working with a student at King last fall. Join Kay and her fellow coaches for what one coach called "the most satisfying school volunteer activity I've ever had."

Bob Menzimer

Freshening up coaching skills for the new school year

An energetic group of 45 writer coaches filled the teacher lounge at King Middle School in Berkeley last evening and today (Sept. 28) for this year's fall Coach Workshops in Berkeley. The coaches met to share ideas--describing the joys and challenges of writer coaching and offering each other suggestions and support.

For the first time, this year's fall Workshops included not only experienced coaches but volunteers who have just completed their training, or are in the middle of it. Body language and facial expressions suggested that the new volunteers were giving rapt attention to the classroom coaching yarns spun by their veteran colleagues.

King Middle School site coordinator Kathleen Hallam (top right, red shirt) leads a lively discussion of what writer coaching is really like in the King teacher lounge on the morning of Sept. 28.

Additional Coach Workshops are scheduled for this fall in Oakland, organized by Oakland site coordinator Karen Larson. 

Facing busy schedules, WCC volunteers often have to race off to other calendar items when they finish a coaching session, so the Coach Workshops are a welcome opportunity to talk with fellow volunteers about their coaching adventures!

Bob Menzimer

El Cerrito kicks off coach training for 2010-11!

On Sept. 8, El Cerrito High School hosted simultaneous milestones for WriterCoach Connection: completion of both the first WCC coach training sequence for 2010-11 and the first-ever coach training for the program in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. Trainer Laura Marlin (standing, above) led 18 new WCC volunteers into their new coaching experiences. Most will work with students at El Cerrito High School, some will serve students in other schools in Albany, Berkeley, or Oakland.

Veteran WCC site coordinator Kathleen Hallam will head the program at ECHS, working in conjunction with community-organizer supreme Todd Groves, whose tireless efforts to bring the program to El Cerrito will pay off on September 24, when the first writer coaches gather at ECHS in the morning to begin working with the English Language Development students who are the focus of the program this year at the school.

We're pleased beyond words to have made it to West County at last!

Bob Menzimer

Welcoming the new school year!

As classrooms spring to life for the new school year, WCC site coordinators are working with teachers to formulate the coaching schedule for 2009-10. At most sites, coaching will begin in mid-October. Meantime, coach training sessions are on the near horizon. The first of nine training sequences begins Tuesday, September 15 and the final fall training sequence concludes on Tuesday, November 10. To register for training, click this link.

Volunteers pour into WriterCoach Connection

Maybe it's President Obama's call to citizen service, maybe it's the budget crises at all of our schools, maybe it's the water. For whatever reason, community volunteers have been flooding into our coach training sessions this spring. As we head into our final training sessions of the school year, we're projecting 88 new coaches, a whopping 28% increase over spring of last year!

These new coaches have responded to outreach from volunteer coordinators Lynn Mueller, Eliza Clark, and Karen Larson, with support from WCC site coordinators Teresa Barnett, Peg Healy, Nancy Whitney, Sahib-Amar Khalsa, Kathleen Hallam, Annie Stine, Mark Pasley, Jeanine Brown, Lisa Awrey, and Clara Sneed. And once they've gotten into their training sessions, they stay, thanks to the expert guidance of trainers Marilyn Alberts, Kathleen Hallam, Laura Marlin, and Jayne Walker.

We welcome these new WCC coach volunteers with deep appreciation for their commitment. Whether they know it our not, and they may have an inkling, they're in for one of the unique experiences of their lifetimes, and surely one of the most rewarding.

Bob Menzimer

Spring coach training sessions under way!

Our spring 2009 coach training sequences begin Wednesday, Jan. 14, with the first of two three-hour evening sessions in the library at Albany High School. Choose training sessions in Albany, Berkeley, or Oakland, evenings or afternoons. Our sequences of six-hour training sessions continue through February, but the later sessions tend to fill up, so jump in early! Click here to register for the training sequence of your choice, and we'll see you in class, working with students at the school of your choice!