School has started. Routines have been established. (Most) beginning of the year disruptions are over. Now that the hard work of getting the year started is over, the harder work of staying true to your goals begins. The summer is a time when teachers reflect and plan, and if you just completed the ISI, you no doubt spent July anxiously waiting for the chance to put all you learned into practice. When school starts, however, it is easy to become overwhelmed by Writer’s Workshop, to run into challenges you didn’t anticipate, to question the effectiveness of mini lessons.
DON’T GIVE UP!
Though time is certainly at a premium, this is the time to lean on your like-minded colleagues more than ever. An easy way to do this is through MTWP’s new Professional Chat Series. On the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8pm, teachers interested in using the space of Writer’s Workshop can join in a discussion on a different topic related to Workshop. It’s a place to ask questions, learn from each other, share your successes and commiserate on the challenges.
Joining in is easy. Simply enter the chat room, type your name in the box at the bottom of the screen, and start chatting. You don’t even have to register for the site if you prefer to skip this step–no login or password to remember! Stay as long as you can, and duck out when you need to. After the chat session is over, continue the conversation over at TC-Connect. We hope this will be a powerful tool to connect teachers in professional conversation without the challenges of time and distance. And of course, invite every teacher you know to join us. We hope to see you there!
