Counting Down to School Opening

It is August 12 already; the time has come when most teachers (and sometimes students) begin to get anxious to return to school. Days either become the "dog days of summer" or when we are really lucky, the days become crisp and cool - almost fall-like. That is what it has been the last few days here in Michigan. There is no need for air conditioning as we have our windows open to let in the cool, clean breeze. I'm sitting in my office, periodically looking outside at the scenery, trying to NOT procrastinate. We have a beautiful view of the lake that is relaxing just to look at. We often see deer, fox, and other small animals. We also have two Great Blue Herons that live on the perimeter of the lake as well as several pair of swans. There are always Canadian geese around, too. Did you know that geese honk all night long? I guess you could say I'm procrastinating now... It all depends on how you look at it. I have been wanting to start a blog, but never had the time. So today, as I was preparing for the next few weeks of intensive professional development, I decided to give it a whirl!


I've decided to document this year's journey with a blog. I will invite other SIM professional developers to tag along. I am involved in adolescent literacy projects around the country, and I am going to share my experiences. (At least some of them.) I would like to pose questions and get advice, and I would love to hear from other SIM professional developers and instructional coaches. It is sort of an experiment. We talk about about making our teaching public; let's make our professional development public, too! I also do a lot of instructional coaching, and I love the work of Jim Knight. You may want to check out his blog as well. You can find his blog linked to the Instructionalcoach.org website. Well, I better get back to work now. I have a full week beginning next week. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week, I am attending FUSION Professional Development to support many teachers in my three schools involved in the Midwest CLC Research Project. If you are not familiar with FUSION, it is a newer adolescent strategic reading program developed by Mike Hock, Ph.D., and Irma Brasseur, Ph.D. at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. Each of the schools in this project will have at least one teacher providing an intensive intervention for students reading 2 - 5 years below grade level. On Thursday and Friday I am having an initial professional development session with a small, rural district in Michigan. In my next post, I will share a little about FUSION and my thoughts about how we will roll this out with teachers. What are you doing to get ready for the upcoming school year? Please check back in on me periodically. OK?