MORE ABOUT ME, MURIEL THOMPSON...

I am a former director of the Minnesota Writing Project (MWP), a National Writing Project site, which I helped to establish at the University of Minnesota in 1990.  At the university I also co-coordinated the College in the Schools Composition program for several years.  In addition, to teaching language arts at Burnsville High School, I served several years as the department chair and  was actively involved with the district’s curriculum work and staff development programs.  Throughout my career I have been actively involved in several educational organizations and continue to be extremely interested in encouraging effective literacy instruction.

Early in my academic career, I was fortunate to be selected to participate in a summer writing program in the Twin Cities. This experience fueled my passion for teaching writing since I had little or no previous instruction on how to meet the needs of my students.  From that experience I continue to seek out additional programs that would strengthen this area of education.  When the opportunity to create a site at the University of Minnesota for the National Writing Project, I was excited to be asked to participate.  Since that time, I have been actively involved in providing staff development through MWP summer workshops and school inservice programs.