The launch party

Hi everyone,

Writing partner Laurie Edmondson and I enjoyed the launch party on Thursday of our new kit, LET’S WRITE THIS WEEK WITH DAVID HARRISON. Here are a few pics from the party. Lots of people came so we had plenty of opportunities to show off the new DVDs, teacher guide, student writing journal, and three trade books used as examples for some of the lessons. We go national on the 19th at IRA in San Antonio but I bet it won’t be any more fun than we had at Drury on Thursday.

I’m grateful to Drury University, especially President Todd Parnell and former Director of the School of Education and Child Development Chris Craig for their encouragement and support throughout the project. The university provided the studio and financed the production of the DVDs and Brian Shipman used his considerable talents to produce and direct them.

This is a project I began as Drury’s Poet Laureate and I’m pleased to say that it reflects a true collaboration involving the university, co-author and interim Director of the School of Education and Child Development Laurie Edmondson, and me. There’s even an online graduate course offered to those who wish to take LET’S WRITE for credit. One teacher has already written about LET’S WRITE as part of her master’s program.

Many others gave valuable assistance along the way, particularly technology expert Damon Hargraves who developed the prototype for the DVD format we eventually selected.

Now comes the hard part: getting out the word to elementary schools across the country that we have a unique teaching tool to help students develop their writing skills. We’re ready when everyone else is! Here’s the contact information for anyone who wants to learn more and/or place an order.

Stourbridge Distributors
812 Court Street
Honesdale, PA 18431
http://www.stourbridgedist.com

David

This Week with David Harrison

BULLETIN: I enjoyed my week in Florida and look forward to catching up on all these posts and comments that came in while I was away. Please be patient with me for a few days while I work away at the back list.Thanks!

Hi Everyone,

I’m working with Drury University to creat a regular, online show for The School of Education and Child Development. It’s to be called This Week with David Harrison.

Our initial effort was recorded on September 15. As the first show gains focus and polish, our creative team is coming together. Technical director is Damon Hargraves. Dr. Laurie Edmondson is in charge of professioinal development. I do content and presentation. Our fourth member, the show’s director, should be named soon. Dr. Chris Craig, Director of Drury’s School of Education and Child Development, also sings, plays guitar, and writes music. Chris is creating an original theme song for the program. If all goes well, we’ll shoot the second show on November 15. Once we get the framework perfected, we’ll pick up the pace considerably.

The goal is to air a new show weekly or at least on a regular basis. Each episode will last 8-12 minutes, be suitable for sharing in the classroom, and will feature a theme that supports literacy. These will include How to Find Ideas, Getting Started, Keeping Journals, Rewriting and Revising, Writing Stories, Writing Poetry, Writing Nonfiction, Choosing What to Read, and numerous others.

Over time each theme may accrue more than one show on the subject. Laurie and I are working on professional development for teachers so this can also be made available as a course for credit. Although the program is geared toward students and teachers in the classroom, we’re keeping a much broader audience in mind. Thanks to the magic of technology, it will be available everywhere.

Sometime this fall I’ll start linking these shows to the Drury site to make it easier for readers of my blog to follow the program. For now I just wanted to let you know what’s in store. Please share this with those others who might be interested. Thanks.