Home from the beach on Thursday night and by Saturday morning it was safe to be back driving my route to New Paltz, NY to touch base with our newest cohort of HVWP teacher consultants.  Tom and Christine and the leadership team have been working hard at a new year-long institute model and I loved being there to watch,  participate and share one of my documentary pieces that offered this new group a taste of HVWP work after their institute.

It was warm in that circle of appreciative teachers who felt free to leave behind the heavy burdens of their school environments for a day of authentic professional development.  No one refused me when I moved around the room tapping candidates to share some of their thoughts about their HVWP work  as I turned the camera on to include them in my upcoming video project.

It was good to be there, in that comfortable space watching teachers work together, explore our past- from the HVWP vault and prep to work on their own PD project.

As I watched my video with them I cringed a bit, ready to grab for a virtual razor blade, cutting a revision .  But no, instead I watched the faces in the group absorbing the teachers, the students, the administrators at Highland Falls, sharing their work with pride and passion.  Year 1 at HF and that was just the start of something great.

It will be exciting to return to this circle and capture their early drafts of PD projects they create from the gems they create back in their classrooms.  Maybe I’ll be out in the field actually capturing their projects in the moment.

Exciting to watch the creation of a new institute model with all the ingredients that we care about in a new creation.

Still proud to be a teacher of the Hudson Valley Writing Project!

BRAVO!