Thoughtful teaching talk with classroom roots.
NWP Radio is a patient, practice-minded education show from the National Writing Project. Its conversations move from books and classroom stories into larger questions about writing, justice, technology, identity, and care.
PRESS PLAY
NWP Radio is a long-running education show from the National Writing Project, centered on conversations about writing, teaching, books, and the everyday choices that shape classroom life. It is not a tips-and-tricks program. The show gives teachers, authors, and educators time to think aloud about practice, and it often treats a single example as a doorway into a much larger question. A conversation about using AI in schools becomes a discussion of trust, student agency, future work, democracy, humanity, and the stories students write about themselves. A conversation about ethical teaching lingers on presence: what it means for a teacher to pause, notice fear or excitement in the room, and let students' concerns matter in real time. When the show turns to elementary writing, it frames writing as decision-making, identity, ownership, revision, and the slow development of a writer's sense of self. The Write Time episodes add a warmer literary strand, pairing authors with educators to talk about books, young readers, culture, family, faith, sports, graphic novels, oral tradition, and the classroom life of stories. Those episodes can be playful, especially when Brian Ripley-Crandall opens with personal oddities or seasonal classroom energy, but the play usually leads back to a serious respect for students. Across its episodes, the show is most interested in how teachers understand their responsibility. It welcomes scholarship, but it keeps returning to usable language and lived scenes. Guests are not rushed toward sound bites. They are invited to tell the story behind an idea, explain where a term comes from, or name the tension that makes a classroom decision difficult. That patience gives the show its value. It makes room for nuance without losing the working teacher. The conversations can also take on harder material, including traditional curriculum, subtle forms of educational harm, and protecting vulnerable students through language. Still, the dominant feeling is humane rather than combative. NWP Radio is for listeners who want education talk with memory, care, and a strong sense that writing is both craft and civic practice.
Made for: Best for teachers, writing project educators, literacy specialists, teacher educators, and author-educator communities who want reflective conversations grounded in classroom practice.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the way it connects concrete teaching moments to larger ethical questions without turning them into slogans. The show lets educators and writers think slowly, carefully, and practically in public.
NWP Radio is a podcast of the National Writing Project that features a wide array of guests discussing education-related topics like teaching writing, Connected Learning, Writing Project site development, out-of-school education, science and writing, maker ed, and more.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
NWP Radio connects authors' ideas to the daily judgments teachers make about writing, student agency, classroom attention, and emerging technology.
NWP Radio makes teaching practice visible through conversations with educators and authors, with writing as the recurring point of entry. Tanya Baker and other interviewers move from books into the decisions behind them, asking how ideas about writing, ethics, culture, and…
A falling tree makes you rethink what counts as listening to students.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded discussion of student agency with AI, framed by practical classroom choices and civic responsibility.
NWP Radio looks at classroom AI through the everyday decisions teachers make about student agency. Christina welcomes Minoo back to discuss A Teacher's Guide to Using AI from Heinemann, and the conversation stays close to the book's practical center: helping students prompt AI…
A reflective conversation about ethical teaching, presence, and paying attention.
NWP Radio slows into a more reflective conversation, bringing Tanya Baker together with Stephanie Jones and Kara Fuhrman to talk about teaching from an ethical center and the practical wisdom of daily instruction.
A patient, practical case for teaching writing as choice, identity, and revision.
Katie Woodray and Stella Vialba treat Wondrous Words as a practical argument for writing as a set of choices, not a worksheet to finish. The focus stays grounded in elementary classrooms, but the scope reaches identity, stance, revision, and the teacher's role in helping young…
A focused writing conversation about prayer, questions, and intention.
The episode brings Brian Ripley Crandall and Tanya Baker into a conversation that moves from basketball season and graphic novels to Coach Jess pausing at practice for prayer and asking girls about faith and background.
A measured conversation about how familiar English teaching can carry harms that only become visible over time.
NWP Radio frames resistance as a quiet, sustained act rather than a dramatic break from traditional English curriculum. Tanya Baker talks with Jessica Rubin about the kind of harm that can gather slowly in school settings, hard to catch in a single moment but more visible when…
A warm look at writing as something spoken, heard, and taught.
NWP Radio spends this hour with author Joseph Bruchac and educator Caitlin Johnson on writing that moves between voice, animals, and the page.
A grounded conversation about ethical teaching, classroom attention, and the moment a student spots danger first.
NWP Radio takes a steady look at ethical teaching, bringing Tanya Baker into conversation with Stephanie Jones, co-director of the Red Clay Writing Project, and Kara Fuhrman, author of Teaching from an Ethical Center, Practical Wisdom for Daily Instruction.
Careful conversations for better teaching.
Creative ELA ideas with classroom roots.
Classroom creativity, treated as real work.
Education conversations with a human pulse.
This episode of 'The Write Time' features a conversation between author Joseph Bruchac and educator Caitlin Johnson.
This episode celebrates the National Writing Project's 50th anniversary and features an interview with author Jennifer Baker and educator Lauren Donovan about writing and children's literature.
This episode features an interview with author Rachel Ignotofsky about her illustrated book 'The History of the Computer,' discussing its educational value for summer reading and classroom use.
Stephanie Jones interviews Kara Fuhrman about her book 'Teaching from an Ethical Center'.
This episode features an interview with Leticia Britos Cavagnaro about her book on using reflection to shape learning and the future, discussing her work at Stanford's D School.
Minoo speaks with NWP Radio about A Teacher's Guide to Using AI, a 118-page Heinemann book shaped by 10 years in Philadelphia classrooms, about 10 more years in big tech, and more than 100 interviews with experts, researchers, and teachers.
Tanya Baker opens NWP Radio with a warm welcome and a slightly different format, drawing on another NWP Radio podcast, The Right Time.
NWP Radio's October 24, 2025 conversation with Katie Woodray and Stella Vialba centers on the reimagined edition of Wondrous Words, first published in 1999 and revised after Frankie Siberson suggested a new version.
NWP Radio opens with Brian Ripley Crandall beside Tanya Baker.
This episode of The Write Time features an interview with author Tony Weaver Jr.
Tanya Baker interviews Jessica Rubin on NWP Radio about her article, "Embracing Gentle Resistance to the Slow Violence of Traditional English Curriculum," recorded on August 18 in St.
This episode features an interview with Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr., a Kentucky Teacher of the Year and activist, discussing his work and personal story related to protecting vulnerable students through writing and advocacy.