November 03, 2021

Oregon Writing Project at the 14th Annual Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference

Oregon Writing Project teachers anchored many workshops at this year’s 14th Annual Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference, where close to 2,000 educators and activists attended.

Oregon Writing Project teachers anchored many workshops at this year’s 14th Annual Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference on October 23rd, where close to 2,000 educators and activists attended.

Without the year-long work of OWP coaches Elizabeth Barbian, Heather Barcan, Kevin Marshall, Evan and Mariela Tyler, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca (and a collective of teachers from Portland to Seattle) the October conference likely would not have happened. Together, they recruited workshops, read proposals, coached potential workshops, set up the program, and provided tech support.

In the Oregon Writing Project, we talk about lifting the bones. When we lift the bones of this conference, we discover the heart of the NWP philosophy: Teachers teaching teachers. Their commitment to creating a space for teachers, without expectation of reward or limelight, demonstrates the kind of love for education and teaching that animates our work,” said OWP Director, Linda Christensen.

For full descriptions and more about the conference, click here

  • Katy Alexander, Living in the Borderlands
  • Chloé Avila and Elyse Newport: Humans of My Community: Honoring Stories of the Everyday Forgotten Humans
  • Heather Barcan, Stolen Land: The Cycle of Hawaiian Land Theft
  • Jack Carpenter, Teaching This Is My America with Kim Johnson
  • Jayme Causey, The Miseducation of the Educated
  • Rachel Hanes, We Are Water Protectors: Climate Justice for Elementary Students
  • Mark Hansen, We Are the Evidence: Writing Essays for Change with Young Students
  • Katharine Johnson, Love Letters to Home
  • Amy Lindahl, What We Don’t’ Know Can Hurt Us: A New Unit on Cancer Inequities; and The Air We Breathe: Investigating Air Quality Data
  • Alejandra Nava, Building Units from Quality Texts for Spanish Immersion Classes
  • Matt Reed, From the New Deal to the Green New Deal: Stories of Crisis and Possibility
  • Tim Swinehart, The Environmental Justice Tour of the Willamette River: Reimagining Portland’s Fossil Fuel Sacrifice Zone
  • Marcelle Valladare, Decolonizing Our Minds and Amplifying BIPOC Cultures to Inspire Responsible Action
  • Moé Yonamine, “We Will Not Drown, We Will Fight”: Climate Change, Island Solidarity, and Indigenous Rights