Gold or Curmudgeon?
What is your mindset for a full day of professional development?
When the day is a FREE day at Teachers College with the most brilliant minds in the field of literacy, it’s so easy to look for the GOLD! Lucy Calkins’ Closing was titled: Straight Talk where do we go from here? and it was PURE GOLD!
As always, Lucy was passionate about her topic!
The future of our students is in our hands – the teachers. What we believe about our students is what they will accomplish. If we think, “oh, that’s too hard for them!”, it will be too hard. Our expectations set the ceiling for students! We MUST dream impossible dreams. We must work towards challenging goals. If not, our students will continue to be stuck in their current reality.
Is that what we really want?
As a writer, I appreciated hearing that a younger Lucy writer was asked to try 25 different beginnings for a piece. When we are challenged to do better, we can and do accomplish bigger and better things!
Takeaways:
Study student work.
Give ambitious feedback.
Teach, teach, teach – and yes, this is not the way we were taught.
Work collaboratively – find/make a group that can and does work together!
To review the learning, the chapters in my blog posts for #TCRWP 89th Saturday Reunion (in order):
NYC Bound . . . Anticipation
From Riverside to Riverside . . . The Learning Continues
Begin at the Beginning: #TCRWP 89th Saturday Reunion and Mo Willems
#TCRWP 89th Reunion: Mo Willem’s Keynote
#TCRWP 89th Saturday Reunion: Laughter and Learning Session #1
#TCRWP 89th Reunion: A Reprise
#89th TCRWP Saturday Reunion and a Bit of Grammar
#TCRWP 89th Saturday Reunion and FUN Vocabulary Learning!
Additional Posts about the 89th Saturday Reunion include:
- Sally’s post – TCRWP Oct. 17, 2015 Saturday Reunion – from a 3rd grade teacher’s view
- Jenn – What does teaching for transfer look like? (Mary Ehrenworth)
- Jenn – Mo Willems: The opportunity to learn more about Pigeon, Elephant, Piggie, and Knuffle Bunny among others – A Q & A Session
- Jenn – Using video and film to teach narrative craft (Maggie Roberts)
- Jenn – Yes, you can teach grammar in workshop (Mary Ehrenworth)
- Jenn – Recruiting engagement and establishing expectations so that kids actually read even when classrooms brim with resistance (Cornelius Minor)
- Liberty Central School District Attendees
[…] Gold or Curmudgeon? What is your mindset for a full day of professional development? When the day is a FREE day at Teachers College with the most brilliant minds in the field of literacy, it's so easy to look for the GOLD! Lucy Calkins' Closing was titled: Straight Talk where do we go from here?… […]