1) Sign up for the event by clicking the sign up link and register as an "Educator." This will register you as a NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program teacher (and a participant) and will create a basic author profile and account for you on our site.
2) Log on. Click on "My NaNoWriMo" and edit your profile by selecting the "Edit" options on the left-side menu bar. Teachers are encouraged to write novels alongside their students, but it is certainly not required—just know that writing your own novel is a great motivator for your students. As a young writer, there is nothing more triumphant than surpassing your teacher’s word count with your own!
3) Visit our new and improved Teacher’s Lounge by logging in and clicking on the bright orange button that will appear in the upper, right-hand corner of the site. There you will find noveling curricula for elementary, middle school, and high school classrooms; a forum for your eyes only where you can ask for, and share, advice with other teachers who are facilitating NaNoWriMo; certificates for your kids; information about our AlphaSmart Lending Library Program, and more.
4) Order your YWP Noveling Kit in the Teacher's Lounge. Each classroom will receive a beautiful NaNoWriMo poster, a Triumphant Chart of Noveling Progress, up to 35 “I Eat Novels for Breakfast” buttons, and up to 35 NaNoWriMo progress stickers. If you have more than 35 kids in your classroom, you can order extra kits through our online store!
5) Near October 31, host a Kick-off Party! If your students have internet access, you want to make sure they have signed up through our website as well. Note: Students do not need access to computers in order to participate in NaNoWriMo. Writing novels with pens, pencils, and paper is just as valid. We recently found out that’s the way prolific author Tom Robbins writes all of his novels!
6) On November 1, begin noveling as a class! The goal is to write a novel by midnight, local time, on November 30. Starting November 1, we’ll add some new items to everyone’s author profile: a space for you to enter your cumulative word count for the month (done on the honor system or by cutting and pasting your novel), and a place for you to post an excerpt from your novel-in-progress (totally optional, totally encouraged).
8) Write like crazy for thirty days. If you reach your word-count goal by midnight, local time, November 30, you will be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page, and receive a handsome winner’s certificate and web icon. The adding of your name to the Honor Roll of Winners requires that you send in a version of your novel in text format to our site to be counted. This is not as scary as it sounds! Step-by-step instructions on how to validate your novel can be found here.
9) On December 1, throw a “Thank Goodness It’s Over Party” for your class! Print out certificates, host a reading, hand out buttons, eat cake—whatever you do, make sure that your students know that they may have been ordinary kids when November began, but now they’re novelists!
And that’s it! If you have any questions, just check out our General FAQs, and for more ideas on how to facilitate NaNoWriMo in your classroom or library make sure to sign-up and take advantage of our Teacher's Lounge.
