Invitational Summer and Fall Institute -- 2016: Saturday, September 10, 2016

Susan opened the morning with some book talks featuring picture books that are perfect for launching Writer's Workshop. They included Mr. Zinger's Hat by Cary Fagan, One Day. The End.:Short, Very Short, Shorter Than Ever Stories by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and My Pen by Christopher Myers .

Patricia and Brigid reviewed the portfolio expectations for the fall session. They reminded us that we don't have to create an whole portfolio but can add the fall requirements to the portfolio we created this summer. You can access all of the course requirements here.

Brigid led us in a team building activity that included pairing up with a partner, playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors". The loser then became the cheerleader for their partner, who moved on to a new partner. In the end it came down to a dual between Bobby and Patricia! The cheering was boisterous! The competition intense...requiring several rounds. In the end Patricia came out victorious and we all had a great laugh! Together we created a document of ideas that can be used in our classrooms to offer students (and ourselves) brain and body breaks. You can access the document here.

After some time for independent writing, we broke up into book groups to discuss our professional reading related to "Rethinking Teaching Practice". Small groups shared out central ideas from their texts, along with a 3-5 minutes lesson idea.

A working lunch allowed us time to meet with our mentors to talk out (and hopefully firm up) our plans our upcoming workshops or action research projects. Time was provided to writing a blurb for the presentations and a schedule was created. You can access the blurbs here and the remaining Saturday schedule here.

Tim Lynch, USM Research Librarian, came to teach us how to use the USM Databases to search for peer reviewed articles. His interactive presentation included how to navigate the new USM website, find the Library Databases, tips for narrowing searches by topic to find peer reviewed articles, and how to create a bibliography. The time was very helpful!

After meeting with our Writing Groups, Susan shared several websites that are helpful resources for teaching in general. Both The Nerdy Book Club blog and The Educator Collaborative blog are also great places to publish work related to teaching and learning.