This is Just To Note That While You Were Doing Whatever You Were Doing Yesterday, We Were Designing Marshmallow People

During the summer months, when we do National Writing Project work with kids and teachers (and we hear from parents and colleagues that each and every day the work is inspiring and joyful), I can't help but think, "this should always be the way." When great teachers share great ideas with great teachers, and professional development comes within the happiness for learning  simply explodes. It is absolute bliss and we operate with what is possible.

I was thinking about this yesterday as I was departing work with the teacher institute after crying tears of joy with Jessica Baldizon about our shared NWP work (check out the lates interview here: https://youtu.be/hTeQ44Ldfc0) and listening to two of our literacy youth leaders, Isaiah and Mateo, share their experiences with writing from 3rd grade to college (which awed the teachers). I was then sent a series of photographs of what Little Lab for Big Imaginations was doing downstairs as the teachers were exploring voice on the 2nd floor.

Of course the little labbers were creating and writing about the marshmallow creatures they designed as part of their camp-away theme this week. First they designed their sugar-puffed creatures, then they filled their writer's notebooks with knowledge about them. I cannot wait to read what they wrote.

Nor can I wait to hear what the teacher's wrote. It's personal story week and in the first hour of doodling together, the talent exploded from the page. We attract the most gorgeous souls in the universe.

I was saying in a workshop yesterday that I suppose the influence of 9 to 5, the movie, was greater on me than I realized. Someone asked how this all came to be and I said, "Well, I write grants. I invest in what teachers say they want and what young people report is missing in schools. I create programs, but these programs aren't just directed by me. The vision is shared and comes from many...the very teachers and young people who love writing, wish our schools were more creative spaces, and imagine the impossible."

It's only day two, but I drove home thinking about a compliment one teacher gave me after her first day. "You're like Katniss Everdeen," she said. "You see flaws in the system, you call out the $##@, and you do what is right for learning...you empower us, the ones that are never listened to."

At first I was like, "huh?" and I ranted to her about Women Warriors, the need for championing heroines like Katniss and not idiots like me, but then I started thinking about the gendered nature of leadership in Western society. I'm in a woman-dominated career. I know who gets work done. I know what fixes the souls of young people. Males at the top squeaking this or that for bigger and better pay checks often don't know what is needed or who actually gets the work done on the floor. The top can't manage excellence because they can't imagine excellence. 

You want excellence? Listen to the teachers. I mean, REALLY listen to them. And if you want even more superb advice. Listen to young people. They are the experts. Be caution of anything or anyone claiming authority. There's always a hegemonic pay scale that may or may not be congruent to the real work needing to be done.

In the land of marshmallow people....the mini-mallows (like those in our hot chocolate) know most. 

It's National Writing Project work. Always has been....always will be.

Effective instruction for the win.