WriterCoach Connection

In half a minute, you can help raise $25,000 for WriterCoach Connection

JP Morgan Chase has launched a $5 million community giving program and if you are up on Facebook, you can help put WriterCoach Connection in the running for some of this support.

Facebook users simply navigate to http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/ and type Community Alliance for Learning into the field that says, "Enter your charity." That's it!

The 100 organizations that receive the most votes by December 11 each gets $25,000 from Chase and advances to the second round, where they have the option of submitting a "Million Dollar Proposal" to Facebook users describing the difference they would make in their local community with the extra resources. The organization that receives the most votes in that round is awarded $1 million, with five runners-up receiving $100,000. In addition, a special advisory group including celebrities and Facebook and Chase exectives will award $1 million to the nominated charity of its choice.

Writer coaches all over Oakland! Writer coaches in Richmond and El Cerrito, all over West County! The spread of writer coaches to every grade at every middle school in Berkeley! The return of full writer coaching to both Albany High and Albany Middle School!

All it takes is thirty seconds of your time at http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/

Thanks for voting!

Bob Menzimer

Home cooking for WCC benefactors

On Sunday evening, October 25, the Community Alliance for Learning board of directors and staff were pleased to honor the WCC Gold Pen Sponsors, donors who have written checks in support of WCC in amounts of $500 or more, with a celebratory dinner. It was a warm, home-grown affair, hosted by WCC and CAFL founders Mary Lee and David Cole. CAFL board chair Kathy Kahn greeted guests at the door, wearing the apron that signified her role as chief architect of the dinner's main course. Other board members and staff prepared the site for the event; provided appetizers, additional entrees, side dishes, and desserts; served with aplomb as wait staff; and cleaned up afterward.

We were so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate the generosity of these donors, who have much such significant commitments to the success of WriterCoach Connection.

Writer coaches flood back into East Bay classrooms

The 2009-10 school year began with a familiar site in the hallways of five East Bay schools--WriterCoach Connection volunteers paired with their students, walking to and from their coaching locations, usually deep in conversation even before they actually sit down to begin focusing on the students' writing assignments.

WriterCoach Connection returns this year to King, Longfellow, and Willard middle schools in Berkeley, to Berkeley High's Community Partnerships Academy, and to Media Academy in Oakland. New this year at Media: writer coaching for the twelfth grade, as coaches work with students on their Senior Projects. This significant expansion of WCC at Media beyond the tenth grade means a great deal to the students and staff at our first Oakland school site. We've become firmly attached to the students, teachers, and administrators at this school!

In Albany, inadequate state education funding has put severe pressure on the district budget. As a result, the parcel-tax funding that has supported many worthwhile programs, including WriterCoach Connection, has been diverted to cover core school courses and staff. That means no writer coaching this year for students at Albany High. But the Albany Middle School PTA and Site Council combined to allocate enough funding for limited coaching there this spring, when WCC volunteers will return to AMS to work with all eighth-grade students on their I-Search projects. We are so grateful to the AMS PTA and Site Council for enabling us to maintain our writer-coach presence in Albany!

Bob Menzimer

Friendship Fund keeps WCC in 7th grade classrooms at Longfellow

Generous support from The Friendship Fund helped bring WriterCoach Connection to the seventh grade at Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley three years ago, and a recent Friendship Fund grant of $4,500 ensures that WCC volunteers will remain in seventh-grade classrooms at Longfellow for the 2009-10 school year, making Longfellow the only WCC middle-school site where both seventh and eighth graders are coached.

Coaching two grade levels at Longfellow has given us an important benchmark for program assessment as we compare writing achievement of seventh-graders at Longfellow with writing achievement among seventh-graders at middle schools where the seventh grade is not served by WCC. Berkeley Unified School District data clearly shows that writing proficiency improves at an accelerated rate among students coached by WCC volunteers, and we're deeply grateful to Friendship Fund for helping to make that happen.