Day One and we are off!

Day One TCRWP

Seeing Lucy Calkins for the first time in the doorway was definitely a "Rock Star" moment. Being jet-lagged and overwhelmed by the number of teachers who already had their canvas bags in hand did not take away from the moment. After wending my way to the beautiful Riverside Church, sitting in pews that have witnessed many historic events, listening to her keynote speech I was even more impressed by the depth of this woman's knowledge and the generosity with which she shares it. 

My first session was Whole Group 3-5 and also led by Lucy- YAHOO- how did I get so lucky? We wrote, learned and laughed for nearly two hours. I won't try to summarize all that I heard and learned here, but I will link my notes after I have transcribed them. One image that stands out was her description of something that Katherine Patterson refers to as "pearling"> "cupping your hands around a moment and building a story around it" or "growing meaning around the grit", that it is this building significance from moments, lives, and texts that makes a writer. Lucy impressed upon us the importance of getting kids to write a volume of work, to have them writing fast and furious in order to for them to learn how to write with fluency, to write with an oral quality. Not only do I feel confident that I will leave this week a better teacher, I am sure of becoming a better writer. 

One key take-away for me yesterday was the importance of "staying inside a point of view" when writing narrative. Lucy told two versions of the same story of a young boy riding his bike down a huge hill, hitting a gravel patch and crashing: in the first telling the writer stayed inside the point of view and the other, after crashing the writer describes what other people, not the injured boy, are seeing. It was the first time I had so clearly understood why some student's story felt like they went off the road. As I continued to write for "homework", I was very conscious of each time I slipped out of my own point of view, and as a result the piece is more powerful and more personal. Thank you Lucy!

SO much more to share about the day- the small group session with Gerrit Jones-Rooy and the closing workshop, "Eight Books that can become CO-Teachers..." with Grace Chough, but it is Day Two and there is more to come.

TCRWP Summer Intensive Here I Come.

I leave for New York tomorrow. I have been excited for months, looking forward to the learning and the change of scene. Now I am nervous. I don't know why. I am not afraid to fly, I love being in school, and I love New York. Whatever is causing this feeling of anxiety in my chest and stomach has to do with my expectations of myself in a learning environment; I hate being the least informed and I dread being a know it all. Somehow these are the only two ways I see myself.

In writing the proposal for the Fund For Teachers grant through the SF Ed Fund that would allow us this two week summer intensive at the Teacher's College Reading and Writing Program,

we were asked to explain why we wanted to go, why we were good candidates, and what we would bring back to our classrooms and school site. I both love and hate the exercise of articulating my thoughts and hopes about myself as a teacher and the importance of reading and writing well. I reread my reflections and thought they sounded trite and too universal. But I was sincere and earnest in trying to put into words what I hope to bring to the students I have the opportunity to teach.

SO, enough of the angst. We got the grant and tomorrow I leave for a two week adventure of learning at the source of much of what I have been reading and trying to absorb for the last three years. Wow!

Once we began the application process it became clear that if we were awarded the grant, we had better secure some affordable accommodations before everything was booked. Since the grant would only allow each of us $3300.00 for tuition, room, board and our flight, and I wanted to use SOME of that money for books while I was there, I knew we had to find VERY inexpensive housing. Fortunately, the New York Hostel, which is a one mile walk down Amsterdam Ave. from Columbia Teacher College, still had rooms for the full two weeks, and at $60 a night I wasn't going to find a cheaper bed at a place where I wanted to sleep. So I secured my lodging, taking my chances on losing a $50 deposit if worse came to worse. I was not as willing to book airfare in advance with tickets being non-refundable and non-transferable, so I waited to hear and watched airfares skyrocket as summer approached.

The day I got the good news about the grant, I booked my flight. Nonstop would have been wonderful, but the flights left too early in the morning or flew through the night, neither of which appealed to me for the higher cost. Virgin had the best fares, and the times weren't horrible even with a brief layover in LA; so I will get in late (10 pm), but I will have a few more dollars in my book allowance. According to the hostel's website there is an on demand shuttle with an 800 number that I call, and it will pick me up at JFK and take me to the door of the hostel. I will write in a couple of days to report how that goes.

TCRWP has been communicative, sending us emails about what to expect and what to bring. Now, if I can just wake up in time with the time difference, but that is another angst and I don't want to feed it.

now that i am actually teaching i have less time for thinking about it!

The year is off and running.  As I prep for next week, and make note that we are already on the 4th week of school, I have to look at my map out of the year to see if I am anywhere near target. I know where I need to get the students by the end of the year, and I had a terrific plan all paced out to get us there, and now I see how the scheduling of "enrichment" classes, holidays, field trips, and kids at different levels of comprehension and ability wrecks havoc with the best laid plan. I teach Language Arts and Social Studies core curriculum to fifth graders, trying to prepare them for the rigors of middle school by the time they walk through our portals at the end of the year. Some kids are already there, ready for the challenge academically and socially mature enough to stay focused on their studies while navigating the hormonal landmine that is middle school. Heck a couple of these girls seem ready for high school. But just as there are 10 kids already there, 10 kids working to get there, and 3-4 that will not be ready no matter how I map out the year, that leaves 10 for whom it could go either way. Maybe with the right services and support the majority of these kids will be ready and do fine, but without the services, and counseling, and one on one work they desperately need, they will get discouraged and angry and bitter, and they will stop trying. That scares me and wakes me up at night. What can I do to keep more of those students from following that tide out to sea? I know, rather poetic , but true.
Teaching the material, finding a captivating and engaging way to teach the material, and an effective way to evaluate whether the message has been received is only part of the task at hand. I used to think that was the job, and challenging enough in its own right. But the meetings with Special Ed, the hopes and demands of parents, and the realities of a ridiculously tight schedule all while trying to navigate 33 students from one class and 33 from another through 2 subjects  seems a tad Sysifusian. I think whoever decided to split the core curriculum between two teachers was a genius, I cannot imagine that science or social studies would ever get their due if it was up to one classroom teacher to plann out the week and meet the math and language arts standards. The beautiful think is we can meet our language arts standards through writing about our social studies curriculum...to be continued.