Summer Institute

Today is a new day.  Today, we are almost finished.  The Marshall University Summer Institute of 2009 is quickly coming  to an end.  The fellows look different today.   It’s time for a math lesson.

 They are wearing:

4 pairs of flip flops

7 pairs of tennis shoes

4 pairs of sandals

1 pair of birkenstocks=   a writing and sharing classroom of learners.

Some dressed for winter while others are ready to spring from excitement as  they have finished all required writing and have posted to their blogs.

9 a.m.  Peggy calls the group together not in the comfort of our sacred writing room but in the classroom.   The room  temperature is very cold this morning.  She is quick to explain our morning task of completing a survey to help evaluate Summer Institute.  This survey helps to prepare reports going to the NWP.  I’m sure that money is  involved.  With no questions being asked, the leadership team went into another room to write and complete the same survey.  

10a.m.  The survey continues with grumbles from the crowd.  Why did they have to use pen and paper?  Why could they not just turn in one survey?   All grumbles faded with the written result in hand for the leadership team to review.  How can we keep everyone connected  with NWP?   How can we create jobs?  How about an advanced institute?   Other options include returning fellows, youth camps, technology teams.   Most everyone wants to go to the national meeting in Philadelphia.  Time flies and the fellows quickly scramble back to their  computers to finish their work.  I can tell it is getting close to lunch time for the fellows are having a snack attack for quick munchies to eat.

12 noon lunch

Today is left over day but a big thank you  goes to Peggy for the meat tray.  We survived with sandwiches, potato chips and chocolate chip cookies.  The noise level is quite loud at lunch time.  Many laughs and stories told around our big family table. 

1p.m.  Peggy gives instructions for the fellows to help each other and look over  their blogs.    Check  your E-Portfolio requirement sheet and make sure you have included all writings.   Everyone continues to finish their E-Portfolio.  Some use laughter, ear bugs and other sit quietly and type.

It has been a pleasure being the mother of the group.  But before I go I have journal ed my thoughts to what I have not said to everyone. Here it goes.

  Looking down the sacred writing table seeing minds and pens at work, I see a more relaxed confident and family of writers.  We bring many ideas  and stories to the table of teaching.  Experiences so very different yet now we are becoming the same.  We have learned  to “trust the process”.  Participation reaps the rewards of writing.  Writing we did not know was waiting in our soul for its birth.  Summer institute is much like having a baby. Don’t faint Bethany and Mandy.  You take care of yourself for several weeks and the writing grows within you.   Coffee,Tea and pop get our minds moving in the morning.  You start thinking about “prompts”.  Prompts are the baby waiting inside of you for that big push and fresh air of pen and paper.  Ok! that’s enough about having a baby.  These past few weeks have flow by not without a labor of love.  Now there is another baby word.  Labor.

In the weeks and months to come you will again be asked to trust the process.  How will you take lessons back to your school?  How will you apply this new knowledge? I know this writing family will meet the challenge.  Writing requires surrender. Writing is an art.      

Don’t forget tomorrow is our picnic.  Wear your red shirts.

With love,

momma Beth

What are the top five lessons you will take back to your classroom or lifestyle after summer institute?

A reflective learner is a lifelong learner.

Reflect on your story of Summer Institute. 

What have you enjoyed the most?

What have you enjoyed the least?

In what ways have you seen your work and yourself differently since the beginning of Si?

How have you grown with writing?

What ways can you continue to grow beyond SI?

Think back to our field trip to The Huntington Museum of Art.

What inspires you to teach?

Why is teaching important to you?

What inspires you to write?

Why is writing important to you ?

Now that each writing group has had time with our writer in residence Laura Bentley, reflect back about  editing your writing.  What did you forget to ask Laura?

Think about your approach to your  E-Portfolio

1.  What remaining questions do you have?

2.  Discuss what writings your E-Portfolio will demonstrate. 

ex. From your sacred writing, technology  or presentations how many writings do you have a beginning?

Think back  about the  discussions and activities in your writing group.

What did you learn today in your writing group that you will take back to your classroom? 

 Be specific ex. ideas, techniques,

What a great first day we have had with Summer Institute!

Question:

What are your upcoming feelings about your demonstration?

What strategies or techniques do you use in your classroom that may be the focal point for your demonstration?

Is there a particular assignment that you would like to develop and build upon for your students?  Or an assignment that is just “not working”?

If you could title your demonstration at this time, what would the title be?

Good Morning and happy Wednesday July 5, 2006 to everyone at the Marshall University National Writing Project summer institute. We have been off the last two days for the July 4^th holiday; therefore, I will try to add a little American pride and patriotic facts about our great county called America.

Patriotic Fact: Independence Day July 4^th, is the most important holiday in the United States. It celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

After a long extended weekend it was difficult to redirect my mind to the task at hand and reconnect with the sacred space of the National Writing Project. When I awoke this morning to the sound of thunder and rain I knew it was writing time, for it seems the last two weeks we have had an abundance of storm clouds. For me I spent a weekend working on my journals, nutshells and demonstration. Others enjoyed family picnics, catching up on sleep, cleaning out the family attic, going to a late-night movie, a quick trip to Ohio Amish country or a long distance run. All these activities kept us busy on our days off. Maybe someone will write a journal entry about their long weekend.

Patriotic Fact: The Liberty Bell is a pre-Revolutionary War relic that was first hung in 1753 in the newly finished Pennsylvania State House, the building that would eventually become Independence Hall.

Our day began at 10 am at the Marshall Student Center, in the basement at Marco’s. Today, we were excused from Sacred Writing time. Upon arrival at Marco’s we were greeted with the sound of soft music playing and the frigid temperature in the room. It was a tropical downpour outside and several fellows were running late. Our wet bodies did not help with the temperature control. Other fellows absent for the day were: Kathy, Kara, Shannon, Michael and Karen M.

We settled into the morning routine as Diane greeted us after our long weekend. Amy McElory visited us again today and introduced her two sisters Laura Finley and Molly Daniels. Both have worked with the Huntington Dance Company. Both shared quotes about dance to inspire us all. We were then invited to participate in several exercises with movement and dance. This seemed uncomfortable and awkward for most but we fellows held together for the dance task at hand. We were provided with a writing prompt, and I was never so happy to see a writing prompt. We wrote about “first dance.” Laura listened and recorded a poem from our responses.
First Dance
By Laura Finley

In her red velvet dress and
Patent leather Mary Janes
Fresh from her bed on favorite sheets
With a giggle and a twist,
For conquest,
Acting like grown-ups;
But a point of contention
She meets
With girls on right side, guys on left.
And no one laughing
What stress relief
This First Dance
And no first kiss.

Thank you Laura, for I couldn’t have said it better myself. Visit us again anytime. Have you gone through the Writing Project? I know people who would share an application for the 2007 summer institute. We continued on with many grunts and groans, stretches and bends from the center of our body called the spine in 4/4 time. Remembering that writing is like movement and dance within ourselves.