Art Hike / NaNoWriMo Day 12 / Should Be Doing Nat'l Board Portfolio

Here I am at the TOB (the Transitional Office Building) which sounds like quite an uninspiring place to write, but in fact is filled with the history of dozens of SAWP writers buzzing away at their keyboards and notebooks; before that it was filled with hundreds of sorority girls for however many years blow-drying their hair and writing each other's mid-term essays.  We are not sure what it is transitioning from or to... but we are part of that mysterious transition.  It's been this way for years and years.

Yesterday, I took the kids for a hike to Pontatoc Ridge trail, I think my favorite trail with quick and easy access. It's closer than Sabino, with fewer people, and within a couple hundred yards you are pretty much in the lush desert, with lots of ups, downs, arroyos and, intermittently, gorgeous views all around town and beyond. I get tired of having to hike the road at Sabino. 

We took a)  the dog, and b) sketchpads for each of us.  Oh, and my daughter would not want me to leave out c) snacks. 

My son spent at least an hour going through my drawer of hiking equipment and packing his small frame pack so that he could carry the dog in back.  I took out many of the items he had included, such as hand-warmers and the knot-tying game.  But I enjoyed seeing him so focused and excited about the hike.  Both kids did great-- many of the rocky parts of the trail were a real challenge to my daughter, who is a tall five-year-old, but she loved scrambling up them and felt very accomplished.  Markey was patient, though a little anxious, in the backpack, and we didn't even receive any disapproving looks from ethical hikers who follow the rules (no dogs).  I don't think Markey would have run after a javelina or taken down a bighorn sheep.  He only weighs 4 1/2 pounds.  My daughter carried her own water in a reservoir-- yea!  That was (literally) a load off my shoulders. 

We had kind of a late start, and it's getting dark early, now.  We made it maybe 3/4 of the way up the switchbacks, and ran out of time, so we found a good spot and stopped to sketch. 

I am amazed at his drawing.  We only sat for about 30 minutes.  Wow.
My daughter drew this and that-- she would draw something and then have me guess whether it was something that she saw around her, or something that wasn't here.  First she drew part of the ridge across from us, which I recognized.  Then she drew vampire teeth.  Then a butterfly.

Good times!

Now I'm warmed up and should move onward toward my NaNoWriMo novel before my students out-wordcount me into oblivion.  Perhaps I will have a scene of artwork en plein air. 

Writing With Roger Shanley-- One Last Time.

Not that I won't be writing, or that he won't.  And we may write together in the future.

But today is the last day of the Southern Arizona Writing Project Invitational Summer Institute for the summer, and the second to last day with Roger Shanley as co-director.  If I remember correctly, Roger has been involved with the project since the late 70's or early 80's.

If you would like to join us for writing time today, the following are the prompts written on the board:

• shadows
• "the usawper"
• memory
• who does she think she is?
• sangria
• future
• coffee
• family camping
• special friends
• REMODEL
• writing groups
• publishing plans
• lovefest
• if $ is no object

As co-director, Roger has ushered dozens if not hundreds of teachers through the process of developing their voices as writers, developing a habit of writing, and developing teaching demonstrations which help them build research-based evidence to support what they know to be good teaching strategies.  These demonstrations help teachers to truly become teacher-leaders and broaden their vision of what it means to be a professional.

Roger is a wealth of information about the teaching of writing and the theories of teaching reading and writing.  Someone mentioned the other day that he should go to work for an encyclopedia company, and I can see that-- Roger Shanley, Education Editor at Wikipedia.  His ability to toss in the names of key theorists in the middle of a coaching session is not only useful, but really pushed me as an educator to work on my own professional reading, although I will never have the talent of authoritative name-dropping.

From my observations over the years, I gather that Roger has an incorrigible distrust of mandates, whether local, state or federal, especially when they contain built-in handicaps for teachers and students as they go about the business of teaching and learning. Roger continues to speak out and push against the top-down and anti-teacher and student "reforms" and bureaucratic moves that frustrate many teachers in their efforts to create authentic learning opportunities for all of their students, no matter what background or set of skills or resources they bring to the classroom.  He, with other teachers, years back led a PLC to explore the social injustices inherent with AIMS testing and other assessment requirements.   The conversations in the forums led by this group brought many teachers into dialogue about equity and diversity in the writing classroom.  So important. 

But of course, what we all love about the guy is his humanity, and the knowledge that he is as much a committed and often frustrated peer as he is an expert teacher of teachers. In writing and coaching groups, Roger is expert at helping folks clarify their thinking-- something that I often need.  Over the weeks, my teacher demo went from one with an overly broad focus on the research process to one that focused on a specific technique to help students incorporate their voice into research papers.  I also felt comfortable and confident sharing my personal writing in Roger's group-- it didn't feel overly competitive or judgmental, but rather respectful, helpful and supportive yet critical.

And coffee never hurt anything.  Roger will, of course, be remembered for making coffee for the summer institute on a daily basis, and keeping it brewing until the caffeine was practically flowing out of our fingers onto the page-- I sometimes wonder if folks' writing during the summer institute is at all more frenetic or anxious than on another day.

There is, as always, more to say.  But I'll sign off this morning to the image of 26 people silently thinking and writing, heads down, keyboards tapping, pens gliding on paper, men and women devoting time to their own thoughts and voices.  Pausing to sip coffee or eat a strawberry.  This core experience of the writing project will continue forward, but without Roger's generous and intelligent guidance or his coffee.  Thank you, Roger, for everything.