A Simple Reason Why I Love the Teachers Teaching Teachers Style of Professional Development. Life Long Learning & Picking Up New Tricks

The request was to get rubbing alcohol, baking powder, and turmeric. I was told by a teacher she wanted to try to make invisible ink with the little kids. We also needed Q-tips and those tiny plastic paintbrushes. The rest was in her instruction. Sure enough. The kids practiced in their notebooks what they wanted to share with others with invisible ink. Then the Tumeric was added and, lo and behold, the messages came through. I told the creator of this message that she mastered a portrait of me, because this is how I was feeling after day two of week two. The kids had so much fun with this.

I say it every year, too. It's amazing how much writing the teachers get out of kids in such a short time. The Novel Writing lab simply wants the adults to get out of the way. They seriously would write for six hours straight with no instruction if they were allowed to. The little labbers are getting that way. Any sense of chipmunk or squirrel behavior dissipates in the afternoon of Day One, and suddenly they all want to compose (it does help that outside play in the heat makes them enjoy inside writing time more). It's hard to believe it is already Wednesday, though.

The summer work also makes me realize how much I appreciate school principals and vice principals. In any given day there is a tremendous amount of learning going on in all the spaces and it would be nearly impossible to keep up with all the bodies, ideas, projects, instruction, and artwork going on. Managing an entire school must be impossible (and no one did it better that Ron Freeman in Louisville - he always told me to stay out of administration and I listened to him...it's a calling like teaching, especially if you do it right...I couldn't do it because I have no patience for the majority in K-12 teaching who do it all wrong and don't see anything wrong with how they do it. I couldn't live with myself if I had to oversee and tolerate that...my expectations are too high for fellow teachers).

It is midweek, and we're visiting the Engineering Annex again so the college kids who are working with the high school kids can work with our little kids with BIG IMAGINATIONS. It's a first for us, but we did receive funding for the partnership, and this is a pilot year. 

I'm also looking forward to the afternoon when the older kids share their writing with me in one-on-one conferences.