"Aren't you filled with trepidation out there with just so much professional expertise around you?"
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 think of the apple tree, they'd know too.
Like a leaf of an apple tree, I shine right along with many others, soaking up nutrients from the soil and sun;
Mentors and Facilitators soak up ideas from each other.
As each new day dawns, my leaf turns toward the sun, toward the ideas from those around me, fluttering in the wind and fluttering to new ideas to be shared--face to face or email to email or whining phone to whirring phone.
Each new day brings anxiety--which idea will blossom? Which idea will spread from one leaf to another; one cyber wave to another?
How will I guide those messages and ideas, keep the web flowing?
Sun or rain, the leaf stores or creates food for thought; my leaf reads the weather messages and passes the ideas on, adding new or varied thoughts to share to bring the blossoms into a bright bloom of classroom ideas because someone else shared and someone else added and someone else questioned and someone else cheered.
Late nights and early mornings, silence surrounds me, interrupted only by the clicking of the keys, the sound of ideas clicking together. Ink, incense, tea, and TasteTations (weather and fodder?) provided the punch to keep me growing and searching and studying to interconnect Internet interactions.
And out of the email and team meetings, the blossoms burst forth: writing plans K-12, EALR report cards, secondary study skills, kissed pigs, primary science writing, standardized five paragraph essay/expository format STEPS; collaboration; reading and writing continuums; determining criteria and assessments; great conversations (email and otherwise).
The fruit of this collaboration brought guidance to students to meet EALRs; the cycle of the tree is almost complete.
Next year, who's in charge? Again, it will be all those shining and sharing together, leaves lending nutrients to the next in need. We're all in charge and changing.
What if we'd missed it--our sharing and searching?
I think about those people asking me;
Yes, I laugh out loud. This Project Real Tree took root, blossomed, and spread its fruit well beyond its own shade.
In charge of Project Real are all the Professionals involved.
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