And Day One of Teacher-Leader Demonstrations at @CWPFairfield Kicked Off with Three Great Presentations Ready for a School Near You

One of the perks of being a teacher in a National Writing Project institute is the build-up of a demonstration/workshop that can be brought back to local schools and teaching communities. Each and every teacher adds their own flare, but always makes the conversation relevant to all in attendance. Yesterday, we had ChatGPT, followed by rhetorical analysis of poetry using ChatGPT, followed by multimodal instruction & techniques to support interdisciplinary learning. 

A+'s for everyone. It truly was fantastic. I said to July, "When did we do a workshop on highly effective workshops, because these teachers are killing it."

Actually, I think they love the investment in their expertise after so many years of being squashed by districts, administrators, parents, and society. These people are smart, engaged, passionate about their students, and totally dedicated to success (again...the counter-narrative to what we most often hear). 

Today begins Day 2 of demonstrations and I can't wait to see another round of PD in the process of becoming great. We all looked at one another at the end of the day and queried, "Why can't this be our careers? Why can't we sit here with one another learning, questioning, wondering, arguing, building, supporting, and moving the universe forward?"

Well, the answer is that leaders need to return to their homelands and spread the gospel of joy (thanks Gholdy Muhammad for the language that has been central to our summer).

I would be lying if I said I didn't need toothpicks to keep my eyelids open, but I'm doing my best to stay strong. There's work during the year and then there's SUMMER work. it is fulfilling, incredible, outrageous, and superb and we need to soak it all in before the bureaucracies return to ruin everything.

Here's to the 2023 cohort! Teacher leaders, indeed.