Media

  • Austin ISD 8th Grade Dual Language Celebration

Summary: Katie served as the event organizer for the 2023 AISD 8th Grade Dual Language Milestone event where more than 400 8th grade Dual Language students visited UT Austin for a program of bilingual speakers, student panelists, and ballet folklorico dancers and toured the campus. Students celebrated the K-8 milestone of Dual Language and were encouraged to continue with Dual Language through high school and continue their language study beyond.

Summary: Katie engaged Dual Language seniors to co-design the requirements for the Austin ISD Dual Language Seal of Biliteracy. Katie facilitated a committee of district leaders to approve rubrics and materials that outline the seal’s components and requirements. Katie co-led the Muestra de Proyectos events in 2022 and 2023 where Dual Language seniors presented their K-12 Dual Language portfolios to an audience of their panelists, families, and peers at the Mexican American Cultural Center (2022) and Austin ISD’s Headquarters (2023).

Summary: Click on the link above and scroll down to watch this conversation between children’s book authors and illustrators Shanda McCloskey, K-Fai Steele, Mika Song, and Ana Aranda along with Texas educator and NWP teacher-leader Katie McKay. Together, our guests will examine works-in-progress and talk about how they can support young writers in understanding authors’ craft.

Summary: Katie McKay is a member of the Zinn Education Project and had the opportunity to participate in “The Birth of the Mexican Border” Workshop with Zinn Education Project’s co-director, Bill Bigelow.

Summary: A team of Bastrop teachers and Katie McKay, co-director of the Heart of Texas Writing Project, were awarded a $20,000 grant to fund their project: Choice and Voice: Agency and Audience in a Resilient Rural Texas Community.

Summary: The buncee.edu blog featured the Digital Compositions and Authentic Audiences Digital Course that Katie McKay co-authored and was published by Microsoft.

Summary: Think Bilingual Austin interviewed Katie McKay for their podcast about her experience working with multilingual students and families in Austin area schools.

Summary:  The United States Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology highlighted Katie McKay’s work on their National Ed Tech Plan page.”Technology can transform learning when used by teachers who know how to create engaging and effective learning experiences for their students. In 2014, a group of educators collaborated on a report entitled, Teaching in the Connected Learning Classroom. Not a how-to guide or a set of discrete tools, it draws together narratives from a group of educators within the National Writing Project who are working to implement and refine practices around technology-enabled learning. The goal was to rethink, iterate on, and assess how education can be made more relevant to today’s youth.”

Summary: This article describes how Katie McKay, a teacher-consultant with the Heart of Texas Writing Project, exemplifies teacher leadership in action: an inquiring mind, a focus on creative classroom strategies, and the desire and skill to work with other teachers and her community.

Summary: When Becker Elementary was under-enrolled in 2009, Katie McKay worked together with the school’s music teacher, JP Ahmad, to put on a music concert at Freddies, a local restaurant, in order to promote the school and showcase students’ and teacher’s talents and work.

Summary: Published by the Education for Liberation Network, this Planning to Change the World Plan Book for teachers highlights Katie McKay’s work bringing her 4th grade students into the community to publish their writing.

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