by Cathy Fleischer
In 1997 I taught an Advanced Summer Institute for Teacher Research, introducing teacher consultants (TCs) to the idea of conducting action research in their own classrooms and helping them start projects to pursue in the next school year. Teachers asked if they could continue meeting to share their research along the way and receive support from their colleagues—and thus, the Eastern Michigan Writing Project (EMWP) Teacher Research Group began. For 26 years we have gathered monthly in my family room for pizza and wine and talk about teaching and learning and creating good questions and gathering data—and about life.
Although the teacher participants have changed over time, the vibe has not: these teachers drive from all over southeast Michigan to gather together in community, to learn from each other, and to be supported as teachers willing to learn alongside students and improve their practice. Together we’ve weathered less-than-supportive administrators, job changes, births and deaths, and—of course–the pandemic. For those bleak months of school closings and then virtual teaching, we met over Zoom twice a month—once to talk about teaching and once to talk about life, in both cases offering the emotional support we all needed to get through. And when we could start meeting in person, we—strong Michiganders that we are—braved the elements to meet in my backyard in snowsuits and with heat lamps!
While the EMWP has offered me so much in the way of professional learning, this group has touched my soul in a way that is hard to put into words. They are courageous and caring and have shown me the power of long-term relationships as a part of what the NWP can offer. And even now in my retirement we still meet! I couldn’t give up this opportunity to be in community with these amazing teachers!
Cathy Fleischer is Professor Emerita at Eastern Michigan University. She continues to work with teachers in professional learning settings and through the work of Everyday Advocacy and its website, its new youtube channel, and Everyday Advocacy: Teachers Changing the Literacy Narrative (co-authored with Antero Garcia).
Writers Who Care 
I think this is why I’m drawn to literacy and writing even though I’m a high school science teacher. It’s the self-knowing, the community building, and the personal development that come from living the life of a writer (in whatever form we embrace it).