Eisenhower Elementary School teacher Marsha Kilgore is working outside her classroom this school year through a program called All Write!!!

She took a year sabbatical to go to other schools and complete the program.

All Write!!! is a professional development program and a collaboration of northeast Indiana educators and the Dekko Foundation, Kendallville.

Kilgore said Dr. Anthony Etienne, assistant superintendent at Warsaw Community Schools, and Chris Gensinger, principal at Eisenhower, "approached me with an application" for the program.

So she filled out the application and turned it in, along with a portfolio, and was then chosen as one of 20 mentors through the program in northern Indiana.

The program focuses on writing and ways to teach writing in the classrooms.

"Stressing the importance of written communication is so important in the jobs that are out in our world today," Kilgore said. "Children need to be able to communicate. It's an approach to teaching.

"Dekko offered training to us - a group of 20 teachers in northern Indiana," Kilgore said. "The training that Dekko is providing is absolutely phenomenal."

She said the program "started through a round-table discussion of administrators in northern Indiana. Dekko has a lot of money and wanted the money to go back into education.

"My job is to go into schools," she said. "I'm here to teach teachers how to teach writing. I'm demonstrating an approach to teaching writing.

"It's fun," she said of the program. "I teach teachers, not students. It's very much a learning experience for me - coming out of my classroom and seeing what others are doing."

Dekko has provided all the funding for the All Write!!! program, Kilgore said, including funds for a consultant to teach the program, Dr. JoAnn Portalupi.

"They pulled me out of my classroom for three days a month (for training)," Kilgore said, "and 18 days total."

On her own, Kilgore attended a writing workshop in Seattle, Wash.

"Out of 20 people trained, some of us became mentors/consultants," she said. Dekko chose eight mentors out of the group of 20, with Kilgore being one of them.

"Not everybody wanted that job - more personal responsibilities," she said.

"I started at Claypool school. I come in and set up writing workshops within the teachers' classrooms," Kilgore said. "I'm actually in charge with the classroom for that hour."

Teachers in the classrooms observe Kilgore as she teaches writing workshops.

"Right now I'm pulling those teachers in," she said. "They've watched me for several weeks."

Next, Kilgore said, "we kind of team-teach then I'll watch them teach."

Kilgore said the All Write!!! program has given her time away from her classroom. "It's a wonderful professional development program."

After teaching at Claypool, she began at Akron Elementary School and will next teach at Eisenhower Elementary School after the semester break in January - the school where she normally teaches.

"I give equal number of days to each school," Kilgore said. "Once I leave a school, I still have to keep in contact with them."

This is where the consultant part of her job comes into play, she said. "I may have to go back and help with something."

Once she finishes with each school, she said, she'll go back for a week at a time to answer questions and do more observing.

"It's kind of up to me and the needs of the teachers," she said. "I'll be in contact with the teachers the whole school year."

Although Kilgore is enjoying her new job as mentor/consultant for the program, she also said she's looking forward to getting back to work in her classroom at Eisenhower.

The future for the All Write!!! program will be on a yearly review, Kilgore said. "This is not something they're going to fund forever." Dekko started the program and "hopefully the school will take it over," she said.

For next year the program is "up in the air," she said. "I'm sure if you're a mentor you'll get the opportunity to do this again. It's fun. It's working with all the different people. I've learned a lot."

Kilgore said if she was given the opportunity to work with the All Write!!! program again, she would take it.

"I like teaching teachers," she said.

Other teachers participating in the All Write!!! program include Ann VanDuyne, Washington Elementary School, and Cindy Nash, Harrison Elementary School.

More information on the All Write!!! program can be found on the Web at: www.dekkofoundation.org [[In-content Ad]]