Write Out 2019: Stories of people, place, perspective, and preservation

Sometimes, we plant seeds and wait for flowers to bloom. Write Out is a bit like that. Two weeks of Discovering and then Sharing Stories with the National Day on Writing right at the center of it all, can arrive like a stiff prairie wind, and then, before you know it, it’s over.

However, like those seeds, Write Out 2019 is not over. We’re merely in a moment of pause.

*Writing out in Michigan, Oakland Writing Project.*

What we hope is that Write Out activities and collaborations have sparked something for you and for your students and for your park, and that even if you were unable to participate over the last two weeks, there are seeds you can gather to plant at some later date.

This was the second year of Write Out, and we saw flowers blooming all over the place — from a multitude of live events, to single tweets using the #writeout hashtag, to sharing in video chats and Twitter chats, to photographs on Instagram and more. We collaborated in annotated documents, in poetry, in exploring our creativity, and beyond. This is what Write Out is all about, and we are grateful and thankful that you were along for the journey.

*Sharing writing at Turtle Mountain, Red River Valley Writing Project in North Dakota.*

And while our official ‘end date’ for Write Out 2019 is today, Write Out continues into the future. We invite you to continue to be inspired by stories created and shared, use the resources curated on the Write Out website, build upon the connections made during the past two weeks, and stay involved with the Write Out community through work with the National Writing Project and National Park Service.

Keep Planting Those Seeds!

Here are some of the youth creations/creating from this past week:

*Old House map from Poughkeepsie, New York.*

*Kids constructing stories at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey.*

*Doodle collages from students in western Massachusetts*

*Students in Providence Rhode Island interpreting stories of transportation, social life, environmental pollutions, and manufacturing in the Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park.*

*Students creating poetry at the library in Kansas City.*

More to inspire us all to #WriteOut:

*Connecticut Writing Project at the Weir Farm National Historic Site.*

Explore stories and stay connected via social media at Write Out Tumblr, Write Out Flipgrid, Write Out Padlet, Write Out Facebook Group, and #writeout

Find your nearest National Park or Writing Project site and get involved!

Help build a shared collaborative database of primary source sites for exploring stories and place and history for #writeout.

View a curation of the second week’s Twitter Chat and respond to any of the threads and questions

Participate in comment discussions related to the video chat about Global and Local places with author Amy Price Azano using Vialogues

Add a poem to the collaborative Write Out Small Poems/ Haiku Book

If you are attending NCTE, be sure to participate in the Writing Marathon at Fort McHenry National Monument on Saturday, November 23 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Register here!

Listen to a bit of the Collaborative Where We’re From (audio version) … Teachers and students from across the country contributed their words and/or their voices to this mix; check it out.

And finally, plan now for a National Day on Writing activity for next year, using Write Out 2019 resources as inspiration.

Good luck with your journeys and discoveries! We look forward to reconnecting with you via #writeout next October.

— The Write Out Team