Food for Thought

The morning session centered around the non-fiction teaching points the group had created.

In the afternoon session we discussed prompts for determining main ideas, reading notebook ideas, and committing to try new strategies.

Lucy closed out the week by urging teachers to ask more of their students, to raise the bar. She also fueled the fire for educators to be part of the conversation about the common core standards. There is some concern that the common core standards may lead to common core assessments, which may lead to a lock-step, common core curriculum - further eliminating teachers' ability to determine strategies that are creative, appropriate, and captivating for their students.

And then it was time to head to the airport.

A couple years ago, when I met some teachers who said that they go back to Teachers College, year after year for training, (on their own dime), I was perplexed. Why would they keep going to the same institute? Now I understand. I have been bitten by the bug.

TC has broken down reading, (and writing) into infintessinal little teaching points. Thanks to their ongoing research I've packed my larder full of new tricks and treats to engage the young readers in my charge. What a thrill, honor, and inspiration to be here amongst the cream of the crop again.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

It's Thursday and I've graduated from the small iced coffee to the large. Mind you, I don't drink coffee. It's one of my nyc behaviors that goes along with not allocating sleep time. As soon as I slam that beverage down I can take my 20 minute lunch hour power nap and perk back up for the p.m. Oh, and look! The nice man put a piece of baklava in the bag too!

At the morning keynote Stephanie Harvey lead the charge to bring fun, wondering, and investigation back

into the classroom. She talke

d about how since No Child Left Behind, (or as she called it, No Child Left Untested),

we have drained curiosity out of our curriculum with the focus on teaching students how to determine correct answers, rather than ASK questions. Try to project each of those differing paths out into the future and ask which one will support innovation and problem solving in the future... Stephanie encouraged establishing "Wondering Notebooks" and modeling wondering about and researching about an issue or curiosity.

In the morning session we worked in small groups dissecting and developing Teaching Points for a non-fiction unit of study.

In the afternoon we examined the progression of patterns and content elements that students need to understand in each level of the primary leveled books.

K and I took an evening, sunset saunter through Central Park with S.M. and C - colleagues from another Santa Cruz County school.

Then settled in to dine at a Peruvian restaurant where the sangria flowed like water at my end of the table. Most of that food on the table belongs to S.M. and me. We were splitting the Matador Combo, which turned out to be enough platters of roasted chicken, fried plantains, fries, sausages, beans, rice, avo and tomato salad for a matafor and an entire flock of bulls. We were joined by a friend of S.M., who is a producer/writer/director for 30 Rock, the only show that the hub and I are 100% in agreement on as a hot tamale on television. More

academic genius.

Footloose and Fancy

The keynote speaker this morning was my girl, Kathy Collins. Yes, she is that good. She spun a highly entertaining yarn about the different lenses we need to view our students.

Quote of the Day: The opposite of play is not work, it is depression.

Morning session, with Kathy again, continued

the

discussion about how readers respond to non-fiction text and different avenues of questioning to lift the level of students responses.

At lunch I made the mistake of resampling the baklava at my secret-no-long-line iced coffee dispensary. My recollection was that it was on the dry side. No, this was not the baklava of yesteryear. My

sweet fang perked right up. Ahh... Now you see it, now you don't.

I DO SEE a new Wednesday, Thursday, Friday lunch tradition approaching...

Afternoon session centered around "Stop and Jot" cueing for accountable talk read alouds to further engage students in their understanding of

the text, rather than just getting them to reiterate something that was obvious or that they already knew. Also looked at the general progression of decoding and comprehension skills in leveled books.

In the evening we cashed in on Monday's "seize the moment" ticket purchase and saw Fela. It was an amazing, utterly unique show filled with afrobeat music and dance from start to finish.

Later, in Times Square K, (in background), attempted to deflect Spiderman's wrist web away from innocent, small children.

Writing Disclaimer: I ofishlee apaulojeyes for the ferocious number of typos that I am catching post posting. I'm not making excuses or complaining but I've been doing most of the writing between 12:00 a.m. and 1:00 a.m., long after my editor-self has closed up shop and hit the hay. But hey, whaddya gonna do, postpone the post or let it fly and have H-E double hockey sticks to pay in the morning? Let it fly!

In the Element

Early Morning Celeb Sighting: While on my Tuesday morning run past Grant's Tomb, (see 2009 post), I passed a filming crew right in time to hear "Rolling!" I gazed over at the action as I was silently motioned back out of the monument area. It turned out to be the filming of "Gossip Girl", - a show I have never seen. Blake Lively was the blonde woman in the center of the production herd. I only know this because I asked a staffer at the edge of the shooting what it was and if I was watching anyone famous. When he told me I was a little embarrassed to have to ask if Blake was a man or woman, and what type of hairdo did he or she have.

BTW, the very same intense, black hooded ninja dude who does martial arts sparring with the lamp post at 114th and Riverside was still working out where I left him last year. Very consistent - my kinda celebrity hero.

Hilarious and heartfelt keynote by Lester Laminack who asked us to consider whether we were inviting readers to be Tourists, Adventurers, or Residents in the their reading.

Tourists look for a check list of items that have been predetermined, (usually by the teacher)

Adventurers have no expectations, open to anything, look for possibilities

Residents live in the experience, linger in the moment, hear the music in the background...

Morning session worked on the process of planning a unit of study.

My afternoon session is with Shanna Schwartz, who wrote, "Making Your Teaching Stick", a handy little book I've perused. The focus of this

section is comprehension and understanding the component skills of comprehension. We have been examining how the comprehension and coping skills we use in everyday life can be translated to reading comprehension, noticing our strengths and weaknesses, and when/how we succeed or struggle. Fascinating.

In the evening I joined forces with S, my

fellow Banana Slug turned Columbia local for

dinner at her house in Washington Heights, a locale far beyond the comfort of my usual turf, (she graciously drove me to her house AND cooked). Lovely visit and dinner outside at the picnic table veranda overlooking the Hudson River.

On the way back to my pad, my informative car service driver, told me that George Carlin grew up in the building right next to my digs on 121st ST. That would be the Miami building, with entry beyond the Jeep. My place is under the blue awning. Could be true - I googled and indeed he was from this block.

Speaking of my home away from home, I so loved my room last year with it's Gothic Willy Wonka-town rooftop view out the

window, (again, see 2009 entry), that when I applied for housing I requested my old room if it was available. Upon checking in I was let down to see that not only was I in a different room, it was a different tower, meaning totally different view too. However, as soon as I unlocked the door, I realized I had scored an upgrade. I have an unconventionally shaped, corner dorm room with a hallway and windows all along the back wall of the building, affording me an awesome view of the Harlem projects skyline, supplemented with a slice of the Hudson

River, a sliver of the Harlem River, and at night, the neon red A-P-O-L of the Apollo Theater sign in Harlem.

Coming Out of the Gate

Monday morning, we were back in the saddle at Teachers College and it was so excellent. Lucy Calkins kicked off the morning keynote with one of her engaging, inspiring, "rally cry" speeches that demonstrated how powerful it can be to weave everyday events in life, like births, deaths, blood tests, growing older... into the our lessons. Part of the idea being, "When you change your perspective, you change everything." So simple, so profound.

Quotes and summarizations:

Data from 300,000 control group studies show that academic achievement is supported when learners have a crystal clear view of their goals. As leaders of our organizations, our classrooms, how do we make goals crystal clear and come to life? One of the most powerful ways is through real life stories that hold together ideas together and make goals come alive.

Lucy also encouraged us to go out and seize the moment/day, since it's all we've got. Hence, later in the afternoon K and I purchased tickets to a show we were hoping to go to on Wednesday at FULL PRICE, guaranteeing ourselves that we'd actually go and get good seats. Our wallets were a little lighter after that.

After the morning keynote we have a morning session, then lunch, and then an afternoon session, followed by optional closing sessions. I am psyched with my session presenters. I got the people I was hoping for, and they are both experienced, knowledgeable, super competent, and have accomplished presentation skills.

In the morning I have Kathy Collins, who wrote the book "Growing Readers", that I used as one of my mentor texts in developing reading lessons all last year. We are working on

the principles of planning a unit through authoring a non-fiction unit of study.

Being a big fan, I cut my lunch break short so I could schmooze with Kathy after our session. I wasn't so sure I had made a good first impression in the morning since I spent at least the first five minutes of class digging through my overstuffed purse looking for a bandaid. Somehow I had acquired a deep cut on the back of my finger on my right hand, (my note-taking hand), while using the men's restroom - you know how long the line is for the ladies... (my mind reels when I ponder what I cut it on -eeeuww!), and I was bleeding profusely. Napkin, antibacterial wipe, piece of paper - all blotched with plenty 'o blood. Yvette, (who is also in luv with K.C.), watch out! I'm moving in on your territory. Not only did I patch things up in my after class chat, I put my arm around her, (photo evidence), which may even be considered "first base" in some states! All flirting aside, it's incredible to watch her mind work and catch any sparks flying from the process.

Celeb Sighting: We went to dinner at a Thai restaurant recommended by one of my "turn and talk" partners, (teacherese for discuss with your neighbor what your thoughts are). While there, K realized that we were dining a few feet from Matt Dillon. I had seen the guy come in and thought he looks a lot like that guy with the jaw... what's his name... and then turned back to our delicious veggie dumplings. It takes K's Eagle Eye to make the call...

And on Sunday morning we saw the young woman with the Marge Simpson topnot, poof-of-hair that auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance, ("A dancer like you only comes along once every hundred years" - dreamy Tyce quote. But she didn't make the top 11).

Bathroom in Thai restaurant where Matt Dillon and I MAY have shared germs.

Unfinished Business

There were a few items on last year's bucket list that we never got to, so we set out today to clear our dance card.

First of all we wanted to simply view the Statue of Liberty. As it turned out the World Trade Center site and Wall Street, were in the same neck of the woods, so we decided to make a couple pit stops along the route.

We found that the WTC construction site is something of a tourist destination though it has a solemn, eery vibe. As K said, it felt a little like rubber necking.

Further down the road things began to look up when K got the scoop on some insider trading info.

We also happened upon Trinity Church, which turns out to be the mothership landing site for our beloved Columbia University.

Eventually we got to catch up with Lady Liberty over a cup a joe while cruising along on the free Staten Island Ferry.

While boarding we were told that everyone had to get off at Staten Island, for security reasons, and then we could immediately reboard and return to Manhattan proper (we didn't want to hang out there, we just wanted a closer look at the SOL). What our helper didn't tell us was that we had about four minutes to disembark, then book it over to ANOTHER ferry, on an adjacent dock, to get the return voyage. When we realized the sitch, we poured on the coal to make it to the other ship just as the gate slammed shut behind us. Whew! Nobody likes to slosh their mid-morning coffee! That's our first ferry in the background.

Also on our to-do list was getting hand pulled noodles. We hit Chinatown just in time to find streets blockaded for the Transfiguration Progression parade (?! - affiliated with the Roman Catholic church). Quite a different scene from the Gay Pride parade we saw last year. We skirted around potential curbside baptisms and slurped down our noodles in peace.

After some refreshing gelato in Lil' Italy and some window shopping in Soho we boogied up to Times Square to check out the show ops. We were able to get tickets to Billy Elliot, which had been a top contender on our list of potential musicals last year. Great show - amazing young dancers and unique use of people of as "props."

As we were heading back to the subway, we came upon another road blockade. This time it was about 20-30 emergency vehicles outside the Lion King theater. K thought it might be important to document the fact that we were there, amongst the numerous haz mat trucks in Times Square. We never heard what had happened...

Back Spacer

Blurry eyed and bushy tailed from our red eye flight, we set out to begin our "refresher course" by eating our way from one end of this berg to the other at some of our favorite haunts.

First stop was the, now traditional, cannoli and cappuccino in Greenwich Village. Excellent wake up call... Note K's bracelet that

she bought at a street fair here last summer - it's a typewriter key - "back spacer." Some things are worth a return visit.

Next stop, back up the island to Dinosaur BBQ. We tried to break our way into this popular Q joint last year, and never quite made it past the lengthy wait to get a table. Finally the early birds got the worm! Ribs, chicken, deviled eggs, greens, cornbread, fried green tomatoes and more.

Stuffed to the gills, we moseyed on over to our fav market to stock up on breakfast and lunch provisions for the week. Alas, weak from our carnivorous consumption, we didn't don the giant, silver "cold room" jackets this go 'round.