WriterCoach Connection

The eloquence of a writer coach

Highly skilled veteran WCC coach Thomas Tramble is a published author, so maybe we shouldn't be surprised at his eloquence when he said recently about writer coaching, "The experience so far has been a blessing for me and my desire has always been to benefit the staff and students the program serves. The great power of this project lies in the fundamental thought; take the student one step further along than they were when you sat down with them. I really like the feeling that thought leaves with me. As a coach, I'm reminded that 'a teacher affects eternity.'"

Look below for a photo of Thomas at work with a student in the library at Albany High.

Bob Menzimer

WriterCoach Connection on the air

Here's the link to the interview about WriterCoach Connection today on KPFA's Education Today program:

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/49144

WCC coach Tim Kingston was especially eloquent about the experience of being a writer coach.

Bob Menzimer

Survey says: WriterCoach Connection works!

We're in the midst of our annual assessment of WriterCoach Connection, and Albany Middle School site co-coordinators Karen Larson and Nancy Whitney give us an advance peek at some of the evaluation results.

Says Karen, "Overall, 80% of the students find WriterCoach Connection to be 'helpful' or 'very helpful.' That's a pretty good result in my book! In case you're wondering if your coaching is making a difference, you can rest assured that it is! In the words of the students, 'Coaches rock!' 'They are cooooool--in fact, too cool for school!'"

Adds Nancy, "(Teacher) Mr. Heans made a special point of coming up to me today to tell me almost all of his students had received scores of 85% and higher on their book review papers. He attributes this to our coaches and said, 'This is documented proof the coaches are making a difference in the writing scores of our students.'"

These rave reviews reflect superlative work by Karen, Nancy, and all the AMS coaches, who deserve our unending gratitude and deep appreciation. Effective results for our students and teachers--it's why we're doing this!

Do her students know their coach is a noted author?

The Berkeley High students sitting with and getting guidance from their WCC coach may have no idea that she is an author in the literary spotlight. But they'd realize who they were interacting with if they'd look over the front page of the Books section of the Sunday, March 1 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. That's where Veronica Chater's new book generated high praise. Of Waiting for the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Faith and Family, reviewer Don Lattin notes, "What's different about this story is the way Chater remembers the journey and writes it all down, so masterfully, for the rest of us." See the complete review here, and check out Veronica's website here.

Ronnie, as she is known, began coaching at King Middle School in Berkeley several years ago and then followed her sons to continue coaching at Berkeley High. She's as delighted to be a writer coach as we are to have her!

Bob Menzimer

The faces behind the artistry

A few items down, we described the bright new WriterCoach Connection volunteer recruiting flyer designed by a couple of Media Academy students working under the guidance of teacher Howard Ruffner. The students are Elizabeth Rodriguez, who fashioned the graphics and layout of the flyer, and Ronald Johnson, who shot the photos. We thought it would be nice to show these talented students to you, so here they are, below.

Bob Menzimer

First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley: a true friend of WCC

First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley has reached out to WriterCoach Connection in multiple ways over the past several years. The church has made writer-coach volunteering a focus of its ministerial outreach and has poured coaches, including Associate Pastor Mary Ellen Azada, into the program. For the past two years, the church has donated the use of a wondrously sun-splashed hall for WCC's annual spring volunteer appreciation party. And now the latest: First Presbyterian has donated the proceeds from its annual book sale to WriterCoach Connection.

It's difficult to overstate the significance of this generosity for the students and teachers we serve, for our coaches, and for our program coordinators and the Community Alliance for Learning staff and board. It comes at a time when funding challenges confront our program, as they do virtually all nonprofit organizations. Every dollar counts, and the support of donors in a time of shrinking education budgets to support programs like WCC simply means everything to us.

Our deep appreciation goes to First Presbyterian library volunteer Kathie Johnson, the aforementioned Mary Ellen Azada, church administrator Julie Sept, and to every one of "The Librarians," in addition to Kathie, at First Pres. Their spirit is precisely what has made WCC such a success over the years!

Bob Menzimer