Blogging with Summer Institute 2008

Welcome to Thursday

Hope you enjoyed Visitors’ Day and you are starting to think about life with us, beyond this SI…

Writing into the Day

For now, let’s enjoy our moments together and I’m wondering, any prompts to share?

If not, I always carry backup for everything.

On the table you will find lots of photographs of people. Come up and select one that calls out to you.

And you are going to write a monologue from that person’s point of view, either in the present, past or maybe even his/her future…

Enjoy

Digital Documenter: Lilah

Logger: Mike

A Visitor’s Story

I’ve heard so much about this project so I decided to pay it a visit to see what all the fuss was about. Mike tried to explain it to me, but he still can’t find his way there, so I’ll have to find out for myself.

The day started off with Tom providing an introduction and my neighbor commenting that the Terrace Restaurant was packed with HVWP legends including Ann Hovey, Eric Salverson, Kathy Yeager, and Denise Maltese.

After Tom’s introduction, some lady was explaining that she was ready for her techno- tools to malfunction, but was happy they didn’t. At the end of her brief story she remembered something important; “and, also my name is Bonnie Kaplan.”

The group was given a writing prompt to write a letter to a colleague, friend, or politician to explain something they cared deeply about. Why are they passing me a pen and paper? A lady named Paulette shared something about being placed in a garden and another named Katelin was convincing Jenn that her mask project was proof that she should sacrifice half of her summer next year. These people are starting to confuse me. The one who made the most sense was Mary when she said;  “I realized I had to get a job, so I joined.”

Terri then presented her digital document showing Kathy and Gina thanking them for taking us back to kindergarten and first grade…I still don’t get it. Next, Sara and Steve acted out Sara’s skit about test hating, granola eating subversives. Someone should send them for a mental adjustment.

Next came the headline act they promised: Nancy McCracken. Now she was making sense; first telling us we should take a retreat to Santa Fe, then saying we’re smarter than we know and know more than we say. Then she made even more sense when she said ”You can’t teach students something until you know what their question is.”

Then it got crazy again. Nancy told everyone to make his or her writing piece worse. What the…?  “C’mon” she said, “the stakes are low.” We listed what makes our writing better while Tom wrote some of it down on newsprint. “I’m slow” he said when questioned about his pace. So am I, because these people confuse me.

After opening the blinds to avoid seasonal adjustment syndrome, the whole presentation made sense. You get the students to improve their work, decide what they think they did best, and then you can figure out how to help them…Excellent.
On to lunch, where we could talk about different programs the HVWP offers, then they were going to meet with their writing groups before some of them got up the nerve to share their work during their “Author’s Chair” activity. What a Day! Thanks for inviting me.