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Oxbow Writing Project

Teachers As Writers, Learners, and Leaders

Participants in the Oxbow Writing Project join a passionate cohort of teachers empowered to improve their teaching of writing and the use of writing at all grade levels and across all content areas. Their desire to expand their personal writing life as well as their skills as a teacher of writing are supported through an intensive summer institute, monthly writing workshops, retreats, and conferences.

Participation in the Oxbow Writing Projects begins with a 3-week summer institute on UNO’s campus. Teachers and administrators (K to Post Secondary) come together to share teaching practices, read and discuss current research, and deepen understandings of the role of literacy as a powerful force for learning. Participants come away with new ideas for teaching writing, a better understanding of who they are as a writer, and a new community of like-minded passionate teachers to support them as they move into the school year. Stipends are available for those who do not need 3 hours of graduate degree credit.

You should consider applying to Oxbow if…

  • You have always wanted time set aside to write
  • You have a teaching question/problem you want to explore
  • You want to expand your skills in the classroom
  • You want to become a leader on your campus and in your community
  • You want to network with other teachers
  • You want to reinvigorate your teaching practice
  • You are in the process of getting your master's degree

Highlights from Previous Summer Institutes

Oxbow's Summer Institute is on hiatus for 2022. Most summers 1 to 10 teachers come together for the institute. They each share their best practices for teaching writing including lesson plans, assignments, and in-class exercises. They spend personal writing time journaling, writing poetry, novels, letters, and essays.

Teaching demonstrations include topics such as how to incorporate nature and nature writing in the classroom, how to teach grammar so that it sticks, and how to value different identities in the classroom.

Each Friday of the institute, participants spend the morning writing at various locations around Omaha. They explore the connection between place and writing as well as their personal writing goals.

Participants also work through chapters of Linda Christensen’s Teaching for Joy and Justice to deepen their understanding of the challenges of teaching and the power of literacy to change lives.

"Oxbow made me feel valued as a writer and as an educator. It empowered me to revamp my personal writing and my curriculum." — Jill Quandt, recent participant