Writing is fun. Writing is playful. However, this is not the case in most classrooms. Re-energize your writing practice with the course text Joy Write: Cultivating High-Impact, Low Stakes Writing by Ralph Fletcher. This course will give you the tools, strategies, and the confidence to teach writing in a fun, engaging, playful way. Show your students that writing is joyful.

This course will support teachers in:

• Evaluating  current practice

• Understanding and implementing informal writing

• Understanding and establishing "greenbelt" writing in their classroom

• Creating an action plan

• Analyzing and understanding the impact of writing instruction formats and restrictions on student creativity and enjoyment

• Understanding that "a central goal of school should be to engender a love of writing and reading." Fletcher page 89

For K-8 Teachers

This class is offered for 2 or 3 Quarter Credits

For 2 Credits you will complete 5 assignments

For 3 Credits you will complete 7 assignments

Required Textbook:

Joy Write: Cultivating High-Impact, Low Stakes Writing by Ralph Fletcher

Register Anytime!  You can start your course TODAY!

1. Click "Registration" below.  Our site will redirect you to an SPU registration page where you will pay both the TINT and SPU fee with a credit card. 

2. You will receive an email from SPU with your receipt and a link to the coursework. 

3. You have a year to complete the work at your own pace.  Your grade will be posted on your transcript within a few weeks (and often sooner) of you finishing!

Fees:

Option 1:  Non-Credit/Audit TINT Tuition Fee (10 PDUs): $295

Option 2:  2 Quarter Credit (40 PDUs) = TINT Tuition Fee: $415

+ $110 SPU Credit Fee (Click here for SPU Info) = $525

Option 3:   3 Quarter Credit (60 PDUs) = TINT Tuition Fee: $525

+ $165 SPU Credit Fee (Click here for SPU Info) = $690

Click Here For Coursework Preview

Student Testimonials:

I loved everything about this class from the textbook, to the professor, to the assignments. I found everything to be so beneficial in my own growth and development as a writer. I took the ideas from this class and created fun new greenbelt writing opportunities for my students to try, next year. I absolutely met my goal to gather ideas and set some intentions for myself as a writing educator. I am excited to take this thinking to my third grade teaching team for collaboration. I especially loved writing in my own Writer’s Notebook. Being a student always helps me prepare to teach! 

—TINT Student

This has been such a great course! It has improved my writing instruction in the classroom and has helped me become better at keeping my own writer’s notebook.

The reason why I took this class was the title! I needed to find joy in teaching writing and my students sure needed to find joy in their writing. I felt like we were all in a stupor and just stuck. The text was chock full of ideas to implement and helped remind me of some great resources that I already had. It helped me find ways to take subject matter that I’m already teaching in class and create little ways to add fun and playful writing into the day.

This class definitely met my expectations! I’m so glad I took it. I feel like it got me back in the groove of teaching writing in a fun way. My students have been enjoying it more these few weeks more than ever.

—TINT Student

I enjoyed reading through the literature for this course...I liked when the reading got to sharing different ideas on how to teach writing in your classroom and make it fun! I think it will help to create a stronger classroom community as well as helping children who struggle with writing.

—TINT Student

I believe that the most beneficial part of the class was getting to practice greenbelt writing strategies with my students. I liked how the class was so applicable to my teaching. I had to use the strategies with my students and observe the results. It got me out of my comfort zone and my students really benefited from that. I think that this class exceeded my expectations. I think that my expectation at the beginning was that I would learn a few new techniques to improve my writing instruction. I am coming away from this class with a refreshed mindset and attitude towards writing. I thought that I needed to teach students how to write well for fourth grade and certain genres of writing. Students do need to learn to write paragraphs and different genres of writing but they also need to learn how to enjoy writing. I have rediscovered the joy of writing that I had when I was a child. I believe that joy is rubbing off on my students.

—TINT Student