Teacher AND Learner

Today, kids across Illinois had the day off of school to commemorate Casimir Pulaski.  Don't know who he is?  You can read about this Revolutionary War general here.  In my school district, the kids are off, but the teachers have an inservice day.  This year, we started the day with a whole-district presentation about supporting students with anxiety disorders in the classroom.  It was interesting and informative, but it certainly wasn't interactive.  The presenters left about two minutes for questions.

Following that presentation, the elementary teachers left and went to another building to have EdCamp D28.  I was on the committee that organized this day, and I was a bit nervous going in.  I don't know of many of my colleagues who have attended an EdCamp, and I wasn't sure how the day would go.  As a committee, we made the decision to pre-fill part of the schedule by asking teachers ahead of time for session ideas.  We had about 18 different options, which was great!

Our district places a high value on student voice and choice in our classrooms, and it was awesome to see that value reflected in our PD day.  As I moved through sessions, it seemed some teachers were more comfortable with the "unconference" aspect of EdCamp than others, which is to be expected for the first time.  I hope our district will do more days like this, so that teachers will feel empowered to make choices about their own professional learning.

I plan on wearing my "Team 28" tee shirt with pride throughout the rest of this school year.  I think it sends an important message about who I am.  I am a teacher AND a learner.  I think that is one of the things that keeps teaching fresh for me after 23 years.  I seek to learn something new every.single.day.  People who know me know I own almost every literacy-based book in both the Heinemann and Stenhouse catalogs (and I'm making a dent on the math ones).  I love going to conferences to learn from not only the big guns in the ed world but also everyday classroom teachers.  I love participating in Twitter chats to get new ideas and challenge my own thinking about what I do in my classroom every day. I love participating in labs that take me into colleagues classrooms.

Maybe that's part of the reason I became a teacher.  If I teach, I never have to leave school!  I can continue to be surrounded by books and pencils and markers and kids and other adults who are just as nerdy as I am.

I am a teacher and a learner.
And I hope that never changes.

Giving Back

This weekend I did two presentations at the Illinois Reading Council Conference.  One of them was on making documentary films in place of a research paper, and the other was on integrating the reading/writing workshop through genre studies.  While I've attended the IRC conference many times over the past seventeen years, this is the first time I've ever presented there.  I never really thought I had anything amazing to share that other teachers didn't already know.

However, my thinking about what I have to share with other teachers has changed since I began doing PD for my school district and since I began working with the Illinois Writing Project.  I've come to realize, that in my eighteen years in the classroom I've learned quite a bit through trial and error and through long hours of reading, thinking, and analyzing what works for me and my students.

Today I felt honored to give back to my profession, to provide teachers with something to think about the way countless others have done for me in the past.  Presenting at conferences isn't about stroking my ego, but rather helping a colleague on their own journey of learning.  Of course, just because I'm helping others does not mean my own journey is over!

Wednesday's Slice a Day Late

Yesterday, four colleagues and I drove from Northbrook, Illinois, to Springfield.  We're here for the Illinois Reading Council Conference, one of the highlights of my professional year.  As we drove through the flatness of the Illinois countryside, there was much talk and laughter in the van, and very little talk of school.

I'm so happy that I'm not attending this conference alone this year, as I have in years past.  I am a social person, and I find that in order to fully process information, I need to talk about what I've seen and heard.  After a day full of sessions, I like to talk to those who have traveled with me, dissecting bits and pieces of the various presentations, figuring out what will work for me in my classroom and what won't.  Those debriefing times are among my favorites.

Yet, how many times do I forget to offer my students that same opportunity to talk and debrief their own learning?

I Love to Learn

Today I spent my morning in a really good meeting.  It's not often I can say those three words together in a sentence, but this was one of those rare occasions.  The meeting was of my districts Lab Teachers, and we were meeting with Diane Sweeney, author of Learning Along the Way, who works with our school district on our coaching and lab programs.  We spent the morning discussing a chapter from her new book and talking about the evolving role of the district lab teachers.

The best part of the meeting was when Diane asked us what WE wanted to learn more about, a subject on which to engage in deep study so that when we felt ready we could open our classrooms or provide other professional development with others in our school district.  As a group, we brainstormed a list of five or six possible topics, and then we each had to choose ONE.  It was so difficult!  Even though I've been teaching for seventeen years, I am always seeking to learn more and to become a better teacher.  Ultimately, I decided to embark on a study of struggling readers (and consequently how to use our Fountas & Pinnell Assessement data to help them) with several of my junior high colleagues.  I'm excited to work with my group to explore this area that I feel is one of my weakest as a teacher. 

How lucky am I to work in a school district that values professional learning and encourages me to always push myself to learn more.  And my professional learning will end up helping my students.  What could be better?