Laura's Model
Laura's Celebration Poem
Sometimes people ask me,
Don't you feel disconnected
with so much distance between you
and the Project Real teachers?
I can't help laughing
when they ask me that.
I'm always surprised. And I say,
"How could I be?"
"I know who's in charge."
If they could meet these teachers, they'd know too.
Back in October, we had our first
all group meeting.
Friend, I wish you'd been here.
But since you weren't
I'll tell you how it got to be
one of the first celebrations for me.
You can simply call them, rural, K-12
teacher if you want to.
Me, I think "teacher-leaders,"
"teacher-collaborators,"
"risk-takers" and
"reflective practitioners" have a
better sound.
Well, anyway,
it was amazing to be a part of
their planning conversations.
I realized almost immediately
that these teams didn't need me to facilitate
their deliberations about what their collective
objectives were for the year ahead.
Anyone could see
they were already making connections
between the EALRs, best practices, and their
content areas.
Throughout the day
we all shared our stories
we all shared our visions
we all shared our concerns
Important questions were asked
Important decisions were made.
And then the whole way home,
I thought about how lucky I was to be there.
Some of my best celebrations of Project REAL
are inspirational gatherings like that.
And I though about the Seattlites who would say
"Isn't that too far to drive?"
"What's out there that we don't have here?"
And I have to laugh outloud.
by Laura Jones
Celebrate Project Real 98 99
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