Classroom teachers all over Western New York are heading home this afternoon to catch their collective breath for the first time in many days. I’ve been out of the classroom for several years now, but September still feels like the true beginning of the new year to me. I’m still filled with the same sense of excited anticipation, and I’m still looking forward to trying new things and seeing what can be learned in the…
Last night, I joined the rest of our nation in watching an African American accept a presedential nomination. This was remarkable in several thousand different ways, and I can leave it to those who are more eloquent and informed than I am to count them all today. Here’s something cool that happened in the middle of it: Laura came downstairs, unable to sleep. This was not cool in so much as I prefer my children to…
Blogs are just the coolest things, are they not? Each time I think I have my head wrapped around exactly how they might be used best, I stumble upon a diffferent approach…a different use of the tool…that opens up all sorts of new opportunities. I’ve recently assumed a literacy and technology coaching position, and I’ve spent much of the summer learning all that I can about how to help the teachers I will be working…
Over the last several years, I’ve developed a keen interest in the sort of role reversal that places kids at the helm of professional development experiences. Fifteen years ago, I don’t know that I would have been comfortable accepting my students as my teachers. Of course, this was prior to parenting two kids of my own. Now, I find it profoundly humorous that I ever thought I had a choice. Today, I watched my own 8 year old…
This was fun: When they came in this morning, we used Lookybook to study how writers use word choice with intention. I know that Theresa recommended it sometime back, and when Mike Fisher recommended it on Twitter yesterday, I decided to poke around in their archives and see what I could find. This interpretation of Jabberwocky had my morning group chatting up a storm. The word “infer” was tossed around without any heavy-handed direction from me whatsoever…..and…
An interesting conversation ensued at this morning’s studio session, and although there have been many memorable moments over the last two short days, it’s this discussion that is lingering with me tonight. “What makes someone a good writer?” I asked (leading with the “what”, naturally). “Great ideas!” “Knowing who your audience is!” “Writing fluently, and with good spelling and grammar!” All good responses, of course. All of them informed by some of the work that…
This morning, we kicked off the first week of the WNY Young Writers’ Summer Studio, a new writing camp for middle school students, which I’m holding on the grounds of Daemen College in Amherst. I’ve been eager to write with kids again, and today’s session was a whole lot of fun. It was also unique in that I found myself in the position of being observed for the first time in many years. Teachers have been…
Tomorrow we’ll be kicking off the first session of the WNY Young Writers’ Summer Studio, and I can’t wait! Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with the teachers who will be joining our community, and the idea of engaging adults and kids around common goals as writers and learners is really exciting. I think that we are all very comfortable in our roles as teachers at the front of the room. This collaborative model will…
Within moments of our arrival, the pace became something of an adjustment for me. Seriously. “This place feels so far removed from the rest of the world,” Wanda mentioned, and she was right. I imagine that we all had the opportunity to live a bit differently last week. I know that I worked differently as well. Far removed from the frenzy of our daily lives, we found time enough to wonder and plan and revise and share what…
Teaching can be such an alienating experience. I remember leaving the shelter of my undergraduate program and entering my very first teaching position. Suddenly, the expert voices that I had come to rely upon were gone. The friends that I shared my apartment and my student-teaching placement with had moved across the state. That first classroom full of students and my fabulous mentor-teacher? They became pages in a scrapbook……farewell cards tucked into a box that lives on…