Friday marked the final day of our summer Studio sessions, and I am still basking in the glow of two great weeks with incredible kids, teachers, administrators, and parents! Ironically, it’s when I have little time for blogging that I seem to have the most to share, and while I haven’t been able to capture many of our experiences here over the last few weeks, I plan to do so in the weeks ahead. Deciding…
Identifying and nurturing future teachers of writing is one of the greater pursuits of the WNY Young Writers’ Studio. To that end, we’ve created internship opportunities for veteran fellows who are in high school and interested in pursuing a career in education or writing. We’ve also opened assistantships to veteran fellows who are in middle school and interested in doing the same. Today was their first day facilitating sessions, and I could not have been…
We’ve been exploring the ways in which writers draw upon the Dispositions of Practice to improve their process and their craft in Studio this week. This morning’s crew participated in a collaborative writing activity that led to some meaningful discoveries about what can happen when we step back and let kids think, write, and problem solve together rather than taking over this work ourselves. So often, students enter classrooms and position themselves as empty pitchers…
So…….as I was chatting with Alyssa and Sarah last weekend, they spoke to what many of us call authentic learning. Of course, they didn’t use that phraseology–they spoke in their native tongue, describing how some of what kids are asked to do in school is “boring” or “rushed” or “just for a grade”. They weren’t exactly giving their work with me great props either (just in case you thought I was getting off easy), and…
Lately, quite a few of the teachers and administrators that I work with have been chatting about different ways to maximize classroom wall space. This might seem like a trivial topic, but I don’t think it is. In fact, I know that when teachers are purposeful about using classroom wall space, kids can benefit tremendously. I also know that glancing around a classroom provides a bit of perspective about what teachers may value and how…
Some of the teachers that I am working with are excited by the quality of work emerging from their newly launched cooperative learning and literature circles groups. Most of them began by defining specific roles and guiding group discussion, but some are eager to begin supporting students in their creation of own quality questions. The role cards and job assignments that are sometimes used early in this work are only intended as a temporary scaffold. Some teachers prefer…
A whole lot of money is often spent on district-wide professional development days. Often, these events occur two or three times a year, feature an inspiring speaker (or one that was supposed to be), and supply teachers with a fistful of great ideas that evaporate upon contact with the realities of the classroom…particularly when little follow-up support is provided in the aftermath. This year, schools are facing an even larger challenge: cuts in funding. Last…
I spent Monday exploring the concept of nonlinguistic representation with a group of middle school teachers I’ve known for years. We began the day discussing whether or not schools were killing creativity, and then we tore into piles of Legos, Play-Doh, and magazines in an effort to share out our greatest hopes for our students. I’ll admit: I was nervous about asking secondary-level teachers to use these materials, but I shouldn’t…
I have a deep appreciation for the sort of struggle that sometimes ensues when teachers are asked to construct essential questions. In fact, I still remember my first experience with this. I was fresh out of college and grappling with the uncertainty that arrived upon discovering that the really cool Hamlet “unit” I strung together for my student teaching experience wasn’t going to see me through the next thirty or forty years of practice. My…
It’s easy to find yourself overwhelmed in this field that we’ve chosen. There is tremendous work to be done, and whether we’re standing in front of a classroom or leading a professional development initiative, the fact remains: it’s difficult to define all that must be accomplished, let alone find the resources to pull it off. But some people manage to do exactly that, and sometimes, the solutions are incredibly simple. When Niagara Academy took the…