SANTA FE, N.M.

Michael Thompson, a member of the Mvskogee Creek tribe, received the Gold EXCEL Award for "Feature Article- Magazine" from the Society of National Association Publications (SNAP)., the New Mexico Department of Public Education announced.

Thompson is English Department chairperson and instructor at Bloomfield High School in the Four Corners, and also serves on the NM English Language Arts Advisory Council and the English Language Learners Network Leadership team for the National Writing Project (NWP).

“Instructors like him who also write for national publications help to communicate what works in education which in turn contributes to our vision of improving all student achievement in our schools,” said Dr. Veronica C. Garcia, NM Secretary of Education.

Thompson's article, "Honoring the Word: Classroom Instructors Find That Students Respond Best to Oral Tradition," was published in the Winter 2007 issue of the TCJ, a national quarterly magazine based in Mancos, CO. Published by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, TCJ chronicles the challenges and successes of the tribal colleges and Native Americans in higher education. 

 The 28th Annual EXCEL Awards program judged a record-breaking number of entries, with over 1,000 magazines, newsletters, scholarly journals, electronic publications, and websites, the society said. 

Rachael Marchbanks, publisher of the Tribal College Journal (TCJ), said, "This award reflects the high quality writing in our magazine. Since many American Indian instructors who work with American Indian students were quoted in the winning article, it is an award for Indian education, too."

Thompson’s article can be read at www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/nwp_au/1222 and www.tribalcollegejournal.org

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