Away I go! Down to the first floor of Towers and across the campus to Corbly Hall. Wow! The cool breeze is so refreshing this morning. Up the elevator, down the hall, and I see that Amy and Hildegard have an early meeting. Someone (Beth maybe) has managed to get a window open and it is so nice in the room. Our ethnographer from yesterday (Jennifer M.) is taking a last look at her copy of the ethnography that she will read later on. A VCR is needed for a demo and some of the coaches are discussing the odds of securing one. Peggy informs the group that she’s pretty sure we can locate a VCR for that day. Other fellows wander into the room commenting both positively and negatively about the circulating breeze in the room.
As others filter into the room, it quickly fills with the sound of conversation and laughter. You just know that these people are having a good time. This program is such a great idea. It makes me think of those social experiments that they did in the 1960’s where people who knew how to act could spend time together and love it. There comes an announcement of Amish Bread being sighted in the “hogtrough” down the hall. Someone questions Eliot about the whereabouts of Ron. Eliot has not heard from him and neither has anyone else. We are a little concerned about him. It seems that missing class is out of character for him. Everyone is so alive and sharing. I am glad to be here.
Peggy is leafing through her notebook, organizing for the day. Someone says, “This may sound silly,” but I don’t think that she will hear that from anyone in this group. It looks like everyone is here so Peggy gives us the prompt for sacred writing. Describe the place and/or time that you are the happiest. The room becomes still except for the faint sounds of pen to paper. Our embedded librarian enters the room ever so quietly and takes a seat in the back. After a few minutes Peggy asks for us to tie up the loose ends and begin sharing. She goes first. I hear……grandma’s kitchen is my favorite place because it was her who was in it, providing an escape and refuge for me ….the time right before you go to bed, when you have all-day Camden Park legs, and you know the bed will feel so good and a quiet laughter lulls you to sleep….Aloha! from a sunset beach in Maui with the perfect man…during my childhood in an old farmhouse playing with kids and puppies on summer days….when the children were young and had pretend careers each day, working part-time, moving into a new home by Christmas and the whole series of the Matchgirl….spending time with my children, who are wondrous, growing miracles from God, truly a gift….Christmas again! and MY bed, I love my bed, my new bed, it comforts me….worry-free time of elementary school and camping out at Carter Caves with my whole family and my best friend’s family….the ocean calls me, I feel very close to God as the water laps over my feet and I taste the salty breeze on my lips, I am peace with the world….there’s just too much happiness to be able to pick one place, but I do love mornings where I spend time doing nothing except, just being….it’s being where I am, when I’m supposed to be there, like now, in this place, for 10 years of Writing Project….I guess it’s Nannie’s, country, back yard, where new treasures could be found each time I visited….it’s when my child is nestled beside me with a book between us, all warm and close, so much for the advice of child psychologists….my moss-covered boulder, up on the hill at Poppaw’s place, that has always accepted me, my tributes, laughter and my tears, someday I may have to move it….Ah! It’s morning again, I like the morning routine, it’s mine. Get the paper, glance at the headline, relections from yesterday, then today’s possibilities begin to make their way into my peaceful time….then, My Happy Place? I’m not telling you-OK it’s in our home, in the loving arms of my wonderful man….and then we are back to Peggy who announces that we must do a little paperwork. She passes out menu choices for Friday’s lunch, a W-9 form, an Invoice for our stipend and the first part of a Writing Project Eval. I think. We got those checked and signed and turned back in. It is time for the reading of yesterday’s ethnography, from Jennifer M. Everyone listens so quietly. Applause follows her pleasing reccollection of yesterday’s events.
Mel used a great writing folder with her students last year and she passed one around so that we could see what it is like. Peggy talks to us about meeting the requirements for the stipend and full credit for the Writing Project classes. Someone ask if there were alternative ways of meeting your committment for the fall and Peggy offered some suggestions.
After this we were cut loose to do whatever we needed to do, until 12:45, when we would report to writing group. Some of the fellows scatter immediately while others hang around and browse through the reference books. Still others find themselves involved in meaningful conversations throughout the room. After browsing for a while I moved to the lab, where the worker bees were at it again. Some werre working on research for their demos, some were blogging and others were conferencing with this coach or that one.
Rumble! GRowl! Err! Oh, that means it’s time for lunch. Judy bravely turns from her computer to be the first one to the “trough”, followed closely by the rest of us. Everyone enjoyed the lunch of chili, salad, cheese, crackers and brownies. Thank you,———–. Forgive me, I didn’t pay attention to “who” provided the lunch.
As usual, it is difficult for us to leave our lively luncheon conversations and head toward our writing groups, but go we must. Our time today is spent sharing pieces of writing that we want to revise. We also talk about some different ways of responding to the writing. Some people just want to share. Some want the critique. Some just want to be blessed. My coach revisited items that were to be included in the e-portfolio, especially the cover letter. She gave us that teacher eye and said that we had better do a really good one. Before we know it, our time is up for group and we must go on to phase three (someone said). So, back into the lab we go to listen to more clues about how to access some different databases. Our embedded librarian has empowered us to go where we need to go to find books, articles, magazines and newspapers (among other things). You can tell that she just has a lot of fun with her job, can’t you? We work feverishly to keep up with her skillful mousing and hit all the right spots for the day. She directs us to complete our exit slip before we leave. After completing this task we gather up their belongings, one-by-one, and make our way out into the afternoon sun.
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