Who needs A Fountain of Youth? All you need is the NVWP ISI!

Who needs A Fountain of Youth? All you need is the NVWP ISI!

Enthusiasm, passion, and fun are all words that come to mind when thinking about the first week of the NVWP Summer Institute.  It started out with so many new ideas to explore and people to talk to and it just kept on getting better.  I have not written so much, so quickly in different genres in years.

 I did not know what I would write about during Morning Pages but that blank page is not attractive and, after some tentative scribbling, I quickly filled it up. Writing during Morning Pages made me feel like I was a boy again, just writing for the fun of it. I had forgotten the experience of just writing, of what it was like to write about what I wanted to write and not for someone else, whether they are student, fellow teacher or administrator.  Morning Pages was like a Fountain of Youth, taking me back to the days when I was just a little kid with a big yellow note pad, a pencil and all morning to fill it up. 

Then there were the demonstration lessons. I learned new ways of brainstorming from Maggie and writing descriptions from Janice Jewell. With a nod to Stanley Kubrick and Dr. Strangelove, I learned to stop worrying and love illustration during April Sommers’ presentation.  Gabbie showed me how I could use some of the techniques she employs with her ESOL students with my struggling 11^th graders. Amy’s lesson even helped me understand better the struggles of my wife, who moved frequently during her childhood.  Last but not least, Sarah’s lesson not only gave me plenty of ideas to use as I teach process but the idea for a yearlong study of the effectiveness of teaching strategy and process in improving the writing of  adolescents. 

What a week!  I even started writing something I had wanted to for years.  And, where else do you have a chance to read the first draft of a short story by Mark Farrington?