Minutes (Yvonne)

Moments from Sun Belt July 3, 2008

 

The morning began with a luscious breakfast of blueberry pizza, three-cheese quiche, sliced tomatoes, cheese cubes and pita chips. Individuals added their own beverages: coffee, juice, water.

 

Vicki and John patched things up and are now friends again.

 

Susan Piper is taking over in the morning absence of Alyson Whyte. Alyson returns in the afternoon.

 

Morning writing time was inspired by Lori Grubbs’s reading of a story from THANKS AND GIVING by Marlo Thomas. Our writing was “rudely” interrupted by a visit from the dean of the College of Education, Dean Fran Kochan. We introduced ourselves and she asked what had been most helpful to us during Sun Belt. Because we had a visiting principal, Mr. McDade, Jr., she wondered if we might start a one-week session for administrators.

 

Michael Sinnott presented his TIW entitled “what do you mean santa clause isn’t real? losing innocence.” He had us all laughing over our own childhood misconceptions after we looked at a website called  Iusedtobelieve.com, which contains postings about childhood beliefs which turned out not to be true. He showed us how to use such a notion with literature about growing up or losing innocence. His works are TO KILL A MOCKINJGBIRD, A SEPARATE PEACE, and LORD OF THE FLIES.

 

After lunch, Alyson Whyte returned from her other duties.

Jevette Page presented her TIW. We were relieved to see her because she was AWOL during the morning session and no one could contact her. It turned out that she had burned the midnight oil well past midnight and her body told her she needed sleep more than breakfast and writing. Jevette’s TIW was titled “Helping Children Connect Their Thinking, Talking, and Writing.” She explained how children don’t always think about things and how she got them to think. She tells them, “I want you to stop and think; just stop, stop and think.” We were like first graders in her hands as we worked through her lesson on thinking about various items and talking to partners then writing about the items.

 

Holly Robinson helped us close out the week before our social by sharing brief readings: a poem and several selections from Jerry Seinfeld’s book SEIN LANGUAGE.

 

The social at Carino’s was a success. We were all sociable.