Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Meet and Greet Time

Last night I hurried from the building I had facilitated in that day. It had been a full day of read alouds, All About books and comprehension talk. I had a full evening planned. But first I needed to make the stop at Haley Elementary. They were having their first "Meet and Greet" time and I was invited. I couldn't miss it. You never know what that group will come up with at any time. I wasn't disappointed. The teachers all piled into a first grade room that was ready for us with wonderful snacks. I saw Kindergarten teachers, first grade teachers, second grade teachers, third grade teachers, fourth grade and fifth grade. AND two principals! How awesome. They were all there to share and learn. How could they be disappointed? The air was full of comprehension lessons, writers notebooks ideas, new professional books as well as picture books. I even shared an All Write conference coming up soon. As I headed out to drive my 35 minutes home, I had a smile on my face. I was so proud of these teachers taking the risk to open themselves up to who knows what from their peers. But what I saw was a true school community: sharing and learning from each other. Isn't that what it is all about! Great job Haley Elementary. ALL of you are doing amazing things. I am so blessed to be part of you.

5 comments:

Sarah Amick said...

Thanks Kathy, it was a great experience. I hope we will have more. Like Jen said, they have been trying to accomplish something like this for years. It's time. We talked about perhaps inviting others from the Snider area. Perhaps that is for later but we are making plans and goals. We will be sure to let you know when the next one come up.

Sarah Amick said...

I want you to know that I collected all of these words about the meet and greet and sent them to Nate in an email so that he too could see how proud we are of each other. He loved them and forwarded them on to the head honcho. He deserves to brag too I guess. ;)

Kirsten said...

I am so excited that someone took the iniative to start this. We have been talking about it for years. That Sarah....I tell ya! He I am back with avengence....check me out!

Lou Ann Homan said...

Wanted to let you all know that we have a couple of slots left for our adult writer's circle. We met this week for the first time with everyone bringing something to the table..manuscripts, etc.

We are going to call it Second Tuesday Writers Circle. Lots of great ideas floated around as well as promises of work to do!

Oh, cider and cookies made the event a bit more festive!

Lou Ann

Ingrid said...

There have been back room discussions of this type of thing. I know of a specific teacher at Indian Village who would love to have a larger arena in which to share ideas. So...I think it's time for someone to take this to, yes, you guessed it Professional Development...not that people need to get paid to get together, but that perhaps there can start being grade level, cross-district collaborations. HOW can we make this happen? We've got so many HUNGRY (for knowledge, not just cider and cookies, wink, wink)people in this district. Imagine the possiblities of thinking outside our own walls. We've got sooooooooooooooooooooo much to learn from one another. O.k., Kathy, the torch is in YOUR hands. ;) ;) ;) MISS YOU!!!