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!