I treated myself to a walk on the beach today after a writing project meeting at the university. So instead of walking on the beach near where I live, I walked on the beach down the hill from the university. It was foggy and cool, a perfect day for thinking and reflecting.
As I was walking I was thinking about the meeting…a follow up to the Invitational Summer Institute (a 4-week intensive leadership institute in the teaching of writing)…and the structures that we need as learners to move along the continuum from novice to expert (with the endpoint constantly moving) and from follower to leader.
The structure of the Summer Institute (SI) is designed to immerse teachers in writing, researching, reflecting on their practice, and critical conversations about teaching and learning. The structure is strong and well built, based on the 40-year-old model developed by National Writing Project founder, Jim Gray.
This pier is also a carefully designed, well built structure made to withstand the battering waves of the Pacific Ocean and the relentless wind and sun. I love the way when you look through the pier it narrows and provides a window through the corridor of surf out to sea just like the SI helps teachers look carefully at policy and practice and then focus on instruction that best supports the students in front of them.
And some of the structures we depend on are organic like these cliffs.
They are shaped by the natural environment. I watched our SI participants create their own structures as well. They gathered this morning, organically, catching up with each other as we, as facilitators, finalized our last minute plans.
And then there are structures that are light and flexible, like this feather on the beach.
It makes me think of our Twitter Fellow of the Week. This playful use of social media supports more weight than you might imagine. While we originally saw this program as a way to connect to one another within our project by giving each other a glimpse into a week in the life of an SDAWP educator, it has proven to do more. When teachers use Twitter as a professional learning network, their interactions begin to impact their practice. Suddenly they are reading more professional articles about education, “listening in” to debates about policy and practice, getting and sharing ideas from others (within our site and beyond our site), and making their own classroom practice more visible.
Today we asked our SI 2013 cohort to sign up as Twitter Fellows…and starting tomorrow we will begin to get a glimpse into their lives. (You can follow @SDAWP_Fellow on Twitter) Those who are more confident on Twitter signed up first…but others are willing to dip a toe into this unfamiliar world of tweets and hashtags and mentions. And they have the rest of the SDAWP community who are happy to help…and the others in their cohort will also be “listening” on Twitter, ready to respond and retweet and favorite…so they won’t be hollering into the dark.
My beach walk today was quiet and introspective as I thought about all the structures I noticed…and those we use to support learners. Structures can help us stretch and reach and connect as we learn and grow. What structures support you? What structures support your students?
Related articles
- I Am a Connected Educator! (writetheworld.me)
- SDAWP Reunion (judymko.wordpress.com)
Thinking Through My Lens 
Reblogged this on the harsh light of day….
I love your blog entries, Kim. I read them all. I love the way you use photos of nature and everyday objects as metaphors for what we do as teachers. Even though I’m not a school teacher anymore, I am a yoga teacher. The type of yoga I do is Iyengar Yoga, and the teaching of poses definitely has a specific structure. I demonstrate the pose so that students get an imprint in their minds of the correct pose, then the students do the pose. I observe and think about how we can make the pose better in some particular way and demonstrate that, and then students do the pose again. If my teaching was good, the second time doing the pose should be much better, due to a shift in the focus of attention. Often the students will comment on the improvement they notice as they do the pose a second time, which means they are paying more attention to their bodies, and hopefully also to their minds. Paying attention, focusing, calms the “fluctuations in the mind” and is a big part of the discipline of yoga, as it is of teaching.
Lovely photographs !!!
Great piece today. Just want to say that I’m proud of you. Your blog started off as a 30-day writing challenge and you have surpassed 100 days. Pretty impressive, Kim! I want to be like you when I grow up!
Thanks Cynthia! I will admit it’s not easy to write every day, but there is something satisfying about doing it. And thanks for taking the time to respond!
I just read your post and loved it. It’s good to have some structure. I am also reminded of the people who are part of that structure. . . holding us up while we try to move forward, giving us a gentle nudge when things seem difficult. Thanks for being that kind of person. . . always suggesting and thinking of ways to do better. 🙂