Welcome to the Oxbow Writing Project website! We are excited to move to an official University of Nebraska at Omaha webpage. Please visit cas.unomaha.edu/oxbow for the most current and accurate information.
Now accepting applications for Oxbow Youth Writing Project. Please visit youth writing page for more information.
2014 Teacher Leader Group
The Oxbow Institute helped me become more passionate about writing and teaching writing. I now talk about how writing is meaningful and personal with my students, instead of pontificating about the NeSA-Writing test. I am a much more engaged teacher of writing because of my time with the Oxbow Institute.
Elisabeth: 4th-grade teacher
Besides creating bonds with my classmates by getting to know each other on such personal levels which were revealed through our writings, I learned so many new and interesting strategies of how to teach writing. We were provided with and were expected to contribute to hours of Professional Development Drafts (PDD) that taught us innovative and effective ways to work with students in our classrooms that will increase their ability to write, lessen the inhibitions that some students exhibit towards writing and develop a natural love of writing. The fact that we wrote in this class every day, five days a week for a month, helped me to be more spontaneous with my own writing. This spontaneity will be an asset for me as I work with students who struggle to read and write. It is essential that teachers model and then share what they are reading and writing with their students as they are allowed time in class for these activities. I already had my seventeen year-old daughter use some of the writing strategies I have learned, especially since she is taking a Creative Writing class in high school this year.
Arretta: UNO graduate student
Before Oxbow I never viewed myself as a writer, which effected how I felt about teaching writing to my students. During Oxbow, I learned and saw how we are all writers, even me! I am much more confident teaching my students this year as we write together!
Carol: 3rd-grade teacher
2013 Teacher Leader Group
Oxbow Writing Project helped me discover and learn best practices for teaching using a writer's workshop format in my classroom. After taking the time to hear from others and research best practices during Oxbow, I have seen tremendous growth in my student writers year after year. Just last year, I had a student come into my room and his first piece he turned in was only pictures with the labels "my dog" and "me" throughout. His final piece was a researched-based informational writing, and he was incorporating things I had taught in my mini-lessons. I began my Masters program with Oxbow intending to learn more about reading instruction. After Oxbow I found myself wanting to focus more and more on learning about writing instruction.
Elizabeth: 2nd-grade teacher
1. Oxbow created an advanced consciousness in my mind that writing is essential to any teaching lesson, strategy, or life skill.
2. Oxbow instilled in me that writing is more than an academic subject. My students discover, on a daily basis, that writing is a vessel to a calmer mind.
3. Oxbow reinforces best practices that go beyond state or district writing standards. Being part of Oxbow helped me learn methods to reach each and every student, students who represent the gamut of writing abilities.
4. Oxbow enhanced my personal growth as a writer and assisted my professional development while pursuing my Masters degree in English.
Rosie: Special program – pre-college
Oxbow has taught me to always model writing to my students. As a young teacher I learned that writing is not caught, it must be taught. For all teachers of writing, we cannot assume our students just "get" it. We must be writing with them, not just telling them about the process, but demonstrating the process to them. Oxbow has taught me this lesson and how to share my writing, thus making me a much more effective instructor of writing.
Beth: High School Language Arts
2012 Teacher Leader Group
Oxbow Writing Project was one of the best experiences both professionally and personally. Not only have I become a better writing teacher but also a better writer. I have grown with my students, and they are always eager to see what I have planned for the day. I created lasting professional relationships, and I am proud to call myself an Oxbowian!
Pamela: 5th-6th language arts
The Oxbow Writing project has helped me to become a better teacher of writing across the curriculum. The dedicated time spent collaborating with colleagues was especially helpful. I have changed the way I approach writing with my students and they are stronger writers because of what I learned during the Oxbow Writing Project.
Deb: Sixth-grade teacher
Oxbow has convinced me that in order to be a good writing teacher I must be a writer myself. Through Oxbow I have discovered the power that writing has to clarify ideas and connect me to my own insights, and then I have been able to pass along these concepts to my students. Being a part of the Summer Institute added excellence to my collection of "teaching tools." The NWP Oxbow has been the most valuable thing I have done to make me a better teacher!
Pam: High school Language Arts
2011 Teacher Leader Group
I have learned a lot about myself and students as writers. The Oxbow summer institute has given me many tools to help my students become writers. By teaching genre features, my students have a more concise idea of the craft of writing. I enjoy the process of writing and the community it has helped establish within my classroom. My students and I are incorporating writing throughout the curriculum. I now incorporate free writing in writer’s workshop and enjoy our group share time. Oxbow is very beneficial to current and future teachers, it gives an audience and "situation" in which to test, explore and learn new ideas and best practices. By allowing teachers to "mentor" each other we form a lasting and enduring network of support.
Lori: First-grade teacher
The Oxbow Writing Project has helped me develop a writer's environment in my classroom. I, along with my students, write, share, and expand ideas, which has not only improved my student's writing but has increased our desire to write. Additionally, the Writing Project has helped me develop a writing community, assisting me with instruction. By collaborating with other teachers of writers, I've broaden my own expertise and thus teach in better more exciting ways. I am grateful for this program for what it has done for not only my students but myself as well.
Michelle: High School creative writing
My time with Oxbow shaped me as both a teacher and a writer. I have implemented so much of what I learned into my writing instruction and have witnessed students react positively to these changes. Students have more freedom, more fun, and more feeling in their writing, thanks to all I learned at Oxbow.
Deb: Fourth grade teacher
2010 Teacher Leader Group
Participating in the Oxbow Writing Institute has truly raised the bar of achievement for both my students and myself in writing. Oxbow offered a once-in-a-life-time environment rich in writing instruction, information, materials, and opportunities to write that have transformed the way I approach writing instruction for my students. In the first four weeks of school this year I have students writing above and beyond where we were at the end of the first quarter last year. Dr. Kuhlman and the Oxbow Writing Institute taught me to believe in myself as a writer in order to share my love of, and passion for, teaching writing to others!
Jacqui – Fourth-grade teacher
Participating in the Oxbow Writing Institute has truly raised the bar of achievement for both my students and myself in writing. Oxbow offered a once-in-a-life-time environment rich in writing instruction, information, materials, and opportunities to write that have transformed the way I approach writing instruction for my students. In the first four weeks of school this year I have students writing above and beyond where we were at the end of the first quarter last year. Dr. Kuhlman and the Oxbow Writing Institute taught me to believe in myself as a writer in order to share my love of, and passion for, teaching writing to others!
Anne: Third-grade teacher
Oxbow Writing Project helped me discover and learn best practices for teaching using a writer's workshop format in my classroom. After taking the time to hear from others and research best practices during Oxbow, I have seen tremendous growth in my student writers year after year. Just last year, I had a student come into my room and his first piece he turned in was only pictures with the labels "my dog" and "me" throughout. His final piece was researched based informational writing and he was incorporating things I had taught in my mini-lessons. I began my Masters program with Oxbow intending to learn more about reading instruction. After Oxbow I found myself wanting to focus more and more on learning about writing instruction.
Jennifer – Third-grade teacher
The National Writing Project, a federally sponsored initiative for teachers of young writers, has partnered with the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) to form the Oxbow Writing Project. Director Wilma Kuhlman invites you to seriously consider applying to be a participant in a summer institute at UNO.
The Oxbow Writing Project will hold its annual Invitational Summer Institute July 7 - August 1. Three to five graduate credit hours will be earned at the completion of the institute. Stipends from the National Writing Project will be applied towards those hours.