I (along with 39 others) was asked to contribute 500-1000
words summing up what NWP means to me. I’m not sure I could do it in a book
length piece, though maybe I could do it in a haiku:
Young struggling teacher
Lifted by Summer Institute
Retired Director
No, doesn’t come close. Okay, who is my audience? Is it
young teachers entering the profession, floundering as I once did? Feeling
overwhelmed, small, under a microscope, everyone expecting that college and
student teaching has created a professional who knows the answers, but finding
that it’s not as easy as it looks, and that these eager or bored or angry or
sad or hurting or confused faces cannot be fooled; they know when you are
confident and when you are uncertain, and they crave your certainty, your
control, they want you to have all the answers, to make it easy for them, and
ultimately you learn you’re all in the same boat, learning together, but the
lessons are painful and lead to sleepless nights.
What can I tell the young teacher attending a summer
institute for the first time—that it’s never completely under control? To have
ideals, but not hold yourself to them? To understand that if you’re doing the
best you can, that’s good enough? To try to create community? To listen to
students, especially the ones who are the most difficult? To give everyone a
voice? To write, write, write, and share, share, share? To understand that
there will always be far too many demands and expectations, objectives, and
content standards, and that schoolwide, districtwide, nationwide goals will
come and go and ultimately you should strive to make your classroom a place
where learning takes place most of the time? It sounds somewhat defeatist; but
it was my Truth. And every student I have met years later has smiled when she
asked, Do you remember me? Yes, even the young man last week who was picking up
the garbage can from my driveway.
Or am I speaking to the NWP veteran? The Director who has
spent a career in the university setting and was asked to take on this extra
project and found it taking over his life and career, guiding his research,
pushing him toward leadership, management, budgeting, administrative roles he
never envisioned. Or am I speaking to the classroom teacher who found a home in
her local writing project with like minded teachers who supported each other as
writers, who listened to and responded to each other’s stories of divorce,
deaths, and illnesses, of births and embarrassing moments, of likes, dislikes,
travel stories, fantasy, or poetry. Who got asked and answered, Yes, and found,
as I did, it was not like at school where you learned that saying yes could
lead you to doing other people’s jobs, to jealousies or politics, to
uncomfortable positions making presentations of new strategies or curriculum
that someone else decided was best for your school or district or was purchased
from a textbook company and you were to follow the script and tell others to be
true to the Program. Somehow the writing project was different; the teachers
were working together, supporting each other, asking questions, exploring new
methods that they truly believed in, and….what is it, what’s so different about
this? Oh! They’re listening to ME! They think I have ideas worth listening to!
These amazing teachers who have so much to teach me think I have value? I’ve
never heard that before! Yes! I will present my classroom demonstration at that
workshop; I will help write that grant; I will attend that national meeting. Oh
my goodness, here are these amazingly smart people from all over the country,
and they all listen to each other, they all work together, they all write, they
all ask questions, none of them claims to have all the answers! Yes, I’ll serve
on a national committee; are you kidding? You want me, an elementary school
teacher to co-direct the Rural Sites Network? Yes, I’ll write an article,
participate in a study. Just say yes became my rule of thumb when it came to
NWP.
Only when I saw my local writing project in danger did I say
no to NWP. No, I can’t right now, I have to lead at the local level. And that
was truly the hardest work, at least for me. How can anyone ask busy teachers
to do more? And how can an outsider really operate in a university? But those
are simply questions, the answers are, in the end simple: It’s never completely
under control. Have ideals, but don’t
hold yourself to them. Understand that if you’re doing the best you can, that’s
good enough. Try to create community. Listen to the teachers, especially the ones
who are the most difficult. Give everyone a voice. Write, write, write, and
share, share, share. Understand that there will always be far too many demands
and expectations. Oh, I left out one important ingredient…celebrate success! Congratulations
on 40 years of changing the lives of teachers through holding Summer Institutes
and improving teaching and learning throughout the world, NWP!
