The Round Up

Okay - so I've been home a week and have had time to recover from jet lag and airport delays and general things that go with travel when you are 7 time zones away. 

I can honestly say that this trip has been a surprise in almost every sense.   The teachers were wonderful and we consistently had 35 of them.  Others came and went as their schedules allowed.  We had to keep reminding ourselves that they weren't being given any course release time to do this - they were coming on their breaks or getting teachers to fill in for them when they could.

We had a great deal of success I think using The Giver.  One teacher told me on the first day that she wasn't going to like it.  She said, "I just want you to know I'm not liking this."  I said, "Well, fair enough, just do one thing.  Read the chapters tonight and then let's talk."  The next day she came in and said, "I have to change my mind.  I don't like it, but I like it."  She ended up reading it twice and she started it with her class as a read aloud, using the KWL and other strategies we had introduced them to.  It was so rewarding. 

At the conclusion on Saturday each group did a "Response to the Text" - a poster session of some kind  and they were unbelievable especially considering they had only a day and a 1/2 to prepare and get it loaded on a powerpoint, prezi, glogster or animoto.  I wish you could see them. 

They were used to the model we have been railing against for some time now - you know the one - some
"expert" hired by the district, comes in and tells us what we should be doing in our classrooms (even though they haven't been in a classroom, or very little at any rate).  We go off and try these "wonderful" suggestions, and when they don't work we won't to shoot them - what I call the "shotgun approach".  It's not that the strategy may or may not be effective - it's just that we haven't seen it "work" in our classrooms.  Our approach is to show you not tell you - preferably we want to get in that classroom to work with the students, but failing that, to use the course time as the class - teachers become the students.  Thus, our using The Giver as if we were teaching it to 9th graders. 

At any rate, it was a moving experience for me - one I would do again (just not right away).  It was great watching teachers who were not used to interacting with each other actually request more time to work together in groups, more time to discuss and time to get "to know" other teachers.  Maybe that was the best part for me.  I don't know - there were so many memorable experiences. There are a few times in your teaching career that you should be able to say "I'm so proud of what I've accomplished - job well done!"  I don't have to wait for Superman.