Teachers College and My friend Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld- Sam Kegley

Day One… The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project 16th Annual July Institute on the Teaching of Reading: Teach Me in the Key of Life July 6, 2009

Filed under: Calkins,TCRWP,independent booksellers,professional development,professional learning community,reading,reading workshop,reading-writing connection,school — bestbookihavenotread @ 8:13 pm

Tags: Lucy Calkins, TCRWP, Maurice Sykes, Mary Ehrenworth, literate culture, Mimi Chenfeld, Reading Institute



Whew! What a great day! I am now sitting in my very dorm-y dorm room. Two major differences from when I was last living in an dorm room: A-it’s much nicer with AC and my own bathroom (although the mattress had me wishing for a hotel last night), and B-I’m drinking a beer while doing my homework (or avoiding it I guess by typing this).



This is the largest TC Institute with people from 24 countries including Sweden, China (Shanghai, specifically), Iceland, India, and Kuwait; 38 states; and includes 90 principals, 6 superintendents and a total of 1374 participants! Wow!



The day started with a Keynote by Maurice Sykes (Executive Director of Early Childhood Leadership Institute titled “The Courage to Teach the Joy of Teaching”. He was a FANTASTIC speaker and started with a poem by Mimi Chenfeld (from Columbus, OH!)



Teach Me in the Key of Life

by Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld



I am waiting for you

I have been waiting all my life

to spend this time

with you.



I am full of questions, adventures, wonder, curiousity,

imagination.

I am full of fears, doubts, confusions, nightmares, dreams.

I am the Cowardly Lion. I need a badge for courage.

So do you.

I am the Tin Man. So tight. I forgot about my heart.

How’s your heart?

I am the Scarecrow. Hangin’ so loose my brain feels unhinged.

Does yours?

Sometimes I’m

GrumpySleepyDopeyBashfulDocSneezyHappy.

Sometimes I’m seven new dwarfs as yet unnamed.



I love to sing.

I know the words to 2,437 songs.

Teach me through songs.

Let me paint, doodle, scribble, draw, carve, fix, sketch – DO.

I can’t keep still.

I’m a spaced-out, far-out, Star Wars, Superman IV, rock ‘n’ roll, disco,

punk, psychedelic, tuned-out, right-on, cool age,

electronic, stereo, video games, computerized, technicolor, ten-speed kid!

I need action!

Keep it moving!



I love to read baseball cards, album covers, TV schedules, movie ads,

license plates, T-shirts, buttons, posters, cartoons, cereal boxes,

recipes, highway signs, historical markers, magazines, picture books,

sad stories, weird poems, animal histories, lost-and-found boards…



Let me ask my questions – even if you don’t know the answers.

Dumb questions, like who started numbers?

Do caterpillars know they’re going to turn into butterflies?

Where does the white go when the snow melts?

Why does time fly?

How do we see?

What do you see?



It’s not my birthday, but every day can’t we celebrate SOMETHING?

Colors, seasons, Tuesdays, Mexico, circles, houses, maps, our names, numbers, one seed, our journals, favorite books, inventions, rivers, peace!

Can we celebrate our country on the fourth of October or the twelfth of May?

We don’t have school on the fourth of July!

Every day let’s celebrate SOMETHING!

Life – the wonder and power and miracle of Life – of being here, learning together, with all our fantastic powers.



Surprise me.

Amaze me.

Startle me.

Challenge me.

Try me.

Laugh with me.

Love me.

Teach me

in “the key of life,”

and I promise I’ll

surprise, amaze, startle, challenge, try, enjoy and love YOU!