The Power of Conversation

This year, I came to the Illinois Reading Council annual conference with three colleagues, all science teachers.  It's been very interesting to attend sessions with them, both because they are first-time attendees to this conference and because they are science teachers in reading-teacher land.  We attended several sessions that discussed close reading and the common core, both subjects that apply to ELA and the content areas.

This is good learning.  But it is not the BEST part of this trip.

The best part is having TIME to spend with these three, talking about our families, our pets, our lives outside of school.  We talk about the challenges we are facing, both in and out of school, and supporting each other as we come up with ideas for how to handle the situations that might be less than ideal.  We CELEBRATE the good things that are happening and that our kids (our personal children and our students) are achieving.

In the hustle and bustle of the school year, the time for these kinds of conversations is often lost, and that's really a shame.  All of us need these connections in our lives - they enrich our days and help us to feel less alone.

I'm looking forward to more great conversation tomorrow.