Colorado Writing Project is sad to announce the retirement of our dear friend and colleague, Karen Crawford.
Karen began working with CWP in 1987. For those 30 years, she has touched the lives of teachers throughout Colorado. Karen believes deeply in the power of writing and the importance of allowing students the freedom to write about what is important to them. Karen wrote for our website, “CWP fills my summer months in the company of teachers as students and teachers of writing, who often for the first time realize the power of the writer within and how that can transform their lives, their teaching lives, and the lives of their students.” Karen will be missed by all of her CWP colleagues and by the teachers she has worked with during her time as a CWP teacher/consultant.
Karen, I will especially miss your support, enthusiasm, and your positive vibes. You were always able to help me work through problems and keep me looking at the big picture. I know you will find lots of wonderful ways to fill up those summer months. Love you!
Karen Hartman
Karen Crawford was my mentor. We team-taught a CWP in Grand Junction one summer. Karen was up-beat, found the positive asepcts of each participant and their written work, and was unfailingly cheerful, even after staying up late to respond to papers! She was always thoughtful and deliberate in her written response to people’s writing and left the teachers with new energy for their work. During our annual retreats and attendance at state conferences, Karen provided encouragement and enthusiasm every day. Along with all these other qualities, Karen exemplified kindness and spread it around freely. She will be missed!!
Shari VanderVelde
Karen is a delightful, supportive colleague with a beautiful smile and a gentle wit. I loved teaching in Adams 12 with her one summer, and I marveled at her warm laughter, compassionate insights, and deep commitment to teaching writing as an authentic, relationship-based practice. When it comes to the best practices of writing instruction, she is a fierce defender of the true craft. I will miss seeing her at CWP retreats and at CLAS conferences, but I know she’ll be enjoying a joyful retirement life either traveling to beautiful places around the world or enjoying her lovely home in Colorado Springs with her beloved hummingbirds. I will miss you, Karen! Thanks for your amazing energy and caring, humane spirit!
Tim Hillmer
I first met Karen Crawford when I was new to the profession. We ended up on a team of 9th grade English teachers from across the state doing professional development, and I was immediately enamored of Karen’s sweetness and serene, earnest manner. She was a natural leader of our group, and she made us laugh with her at her funny observations, while also keeping us on track.
Years later, when I met Karen again, we were joined together by the Colorado Writing Project. Along with our amazing team of teacher consultants, Karen and I always shared a bunch of laughs as we planned our CWP workshops each spring. I also team taught one summer at Cherry Creek with Karen, staying at the same hotel and getting coffee every morning and dinner every evening. We reflected on our teaching and enjoyed planning and each other’s company. I know my teaching was enhanced that summer by all the conversation and collaboration I shared with Karen.
Karen’s legacy for me, among many other things, is that she reminds me of the importance of the soft skills and the special touches – in teaching and in life. From using pretty paper for responses to student writing to coffee mugs with special sayings to her tiny little home on her tiny little street, Karen Crawford has made a difference in my life.
Sheila Kaehny
I will miss Karen Crawford’s infectious energy. She leaves a considerable legacy through the Colorado Writing Project via all the teachers who were lucky to get to work with her. Her absence at the table during our annual CWP planning retreats will be palpable. She has been a source of encouragement and support for me in my work with teaching colleagues through CWP and in my own writing endeavors (thank you for the mug with the inspirational words that I put in front of me as I write). I’m sorry I never had the opportunity to co-teach a CWP workshop with Karen. I know it would have been memorable and that I would have learned so much from her.
Sarah M. Zerwin
It’s hard to imagine CWP without Karen Crawford. From the very start, she was by my side, first as a participant where we learned from the brilliance of Judy Gilbert and then as a teacher consultant. Her love of teaching, of the students and teachers she taught, and of powerful writing instruction was contagious and inspiring. A comment from a teacher this summer about Karen captures the impact she had on others. This teacher told me that Karen was her teacher consultant for CWP 1 and that each day was a love fest: for the community of writers, for the writing itself, for each individual. At the end of each day, this teacher hugged Karen as she left and since she wasn’t a hugger, she knew it was Karen’s care that created that need. So as Karen transitions to other endeavors in her life, she’s leaving behind many hugs and memories that matter for our kids.
Karen, here’s a hug from all of us to you.
Stevi Quate
Colorado Writing Project 