Minutes (Michael)

Lorie Johnson rolled in breakfast on a black computer chair. Her homemade cheese Danish—the closest thing to having cheesecake for breakfast—was quickly consumed by all of us. Thanks, Lorie, for such a decadent breakfast! After shuffling around the room, plates in hand, we took our seats. 

Alyson opened our morning writing with seven morning meditations. Before she started her reading, she issued some personal inspiration and instruction. She asked us to first think about the pieces that feel warm to us. We needed to find to those pieces of writing. Next, we were instructed to begin our writing when we felt compelled to. We were supposed to tune her out as soon as possible. Her goal was for us goal was to write, not simply listen.

The meditations came from a guidance book for lay and ordained ministers, a British teaching memoir, and a daily Buddhist living book. Each member started his or her writing at different moments. You could tell when a line from the morning meditations spoke to a T.C. because his or hers attention would turn away from Alyson to a pad of paper or a computer screen. As the institute wrote, classical music soothed the white noise of laptop keys and scratchy pens.

Personal study and reading time followed morning writing time. The transition to quiet reading and study was easy after morning writing. Although each T.C. worked alone, a sense of professional and personal collaboration existed throughout the morning sessions.

After lunch, Alyson bravely shared her Teacher Inquiry Workshop work-in-progress. The background and context for her TIW was an undergraduate writing course for English language arts majors. For many of her students, her class was the their first real teacher writing class of their professional lives. Many young people go into English education because they love literature. Alyson used this point to stress how important her class was in helping this to-be teachers develop writerly lives. Seeking collaboration and guidance, Alyson proposed a few her possible essential questions to the institute, and she ended up with something close to “How can I give constructive summative feedback on student papers?”

The meat of the T.I.W. discussion developed from an idea about scaffolding the writing process through teacher feedback. Unaware of the teacher chic term scaffolding, Yvonne bravely asked the institute what it meant by scaffolding. Many of the T.C.s offered some of their own definitions and understanding of the concept. Most of the voices were coming from the secondary teachers until

Following the discussion/workshop with Alyson, the institute engaged in its first reading workshop. John asked the institute to share any reactions or thoughts about yesterday’s choice readings. Robbie praised Jim Burkes book The English Teacher’s Companion, and other T.C.s shared their feelings about the scholarly articles and books read on Monday. The majority of the reading workshop was spent discussing the problems with final portfolio grades appearing inflated to administrators and other education professionals.

 John closed the day by opening the floor to sharing of all kinds. T.C.s shared their new writing area décor.