The impact of the summer institute experience on me cannot be overestimated. Amongst all the professional learning experiences I’ve had over my brief career as a teacher, the Philadelphia Writing Project Summer Institute had the biggest impact on me.
At that time, I was working in a school (not my current school) where I did not feel like my growth as a young teacher was a huge priority for my administration. I did not have a mentor and I felt alone as I grappled with the difficulties I was facing in my practice. I was craving a connection to a community where there might be a safe space to explore my questions. I was very much in need of conversations that would foster inquiry, reflection, and ultimately change my classroom practice.
The memories I have from the days I spent during the summer institute are so vivid that I can still recall some of the sensory experiences.
As I walked through the door of the Philadelphia Writing Project site, the smell of freshly prepared eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes further intensified my morning hunger. A station for coffee and cartons of juice is set up already. My colleagues are milling about the table. Some have already started writing in their morning journals in the conference room.
What followed each morning varied from day to day during the summer institute, but each day helped me to gain a better understanding of the experience of my students when I asked them to write in my classes. During the summer institute, we as the participants, read mentor texts, we wrote frequently, and shared our writing in small and whole group settings. While this was a frightening experience for me, it was the first time, my experience as a writer and teacher of writing was honored in a professional setting. I learned about giving feedback without being judgmental, I learned that as writers, all of us need space and encouragement. Writing every day with my colleagues transformed my practice as a teacher of high school students. In my classroom, I intentionally start each day with writing and I often write in front of my students in a blank google doc projected for the whole class to see. Again, these experiences bring out my writing insecurities, but I think it is important for my students to see me grapple with decisions that a writer must make to improve her craft.
The institute challenged me to do many of the things we ask our students to do. It helped me to understand the sense of risk and fear that may accompany these activities. I was able to experience what it would feel like to be a student in my own classroom. It was a humbling experience, but it also gave me a lot of ideas for reaching students in my classroom, and raised some important questions: How do we use writing to build classroom communities? How do we form an inquiry community? How do we honor home literacies in a school setting?
I am not alone in my deep reverence and gratitude for the homecoming NWP summer institutes offer teachers. I asked teachers in the Philadelphia Writing Project network to share how the summer institute shaped their teaching lives and below are a few of the responses I received:
— Mary Silverstein
— Dina Portnoy
— Angelique Darcy-McGuire
— Leslie Kirshner-Morris
My deepest thanks to the organizers of this celebration for inviting me to share my thoughts and to the entire NWP community for letting me learn from you and with you.
Meenoo Rami (@meenoorami; meenoorami.org) teaches her students English at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA. She is the author of Thrive: 5 ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching from Heinemann. The founder of #engchat, Meenoo has become a mentor to teachers across the country and a sought-after speaker.
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