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Mississippi Teacher Receives 2009 Pat Mitchell Award

Betty Collum

MISSISSIPPI STATE, MS-- Betty Collum, Eupora elementary teacher, is the 2009 recipient of the Patricia B. Mitchell Memorial Service to the Profession Award. The award is given each year to one exceptional teacher-consultant of the Mississippi Writing/Thinking Institute (MWTI), the state network of seven university sites of the National Writing Project. Presented at the MWTI annual Visioning Retreat, the Pat Mitchell Award honors an educator who continuously gives his or her energy to the work of MWTI or local writing project site by designing and/or leading professional development, leading work groups or research teams, or initiating new ideas to enhance the service capacity of MWTI. The award honors the work of the late Pat Mitchell, a Forest High School teacher and an exemplary teacher-consultant who contributed much to MWTI and its work. The teacher-consultant chosen for this award must be an exceptional classroom teacher who shows leadership at the local school level, must have developed and shared outstanding instructional practices, and must be dedicated to the art and craft of writing.

Collum, a National Board Certified teacher, has also served on the National Technology Liaison Team for the National Writing Project since 2005. She became a teacher-consultant through Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project's Summer Institute in 2001.

"Writing opens so many doors for my students," says Betty Collum, fifth grade teacher at Eupora Elementary School. "Writing is part of everything we do and learn."