The trouble with an empty nest in 2017 (which was not the case last year when Chitunga and Edem were on Mt. Pleasant) is that Glamis the Wonder Dog needs companionship and a house-sitter. Spending the last three days in my office arranging materials for our CWP-Fairfield presentations, also sparked the need that my house will need items for Glamis's dog sitters: more biscuits, candy, chips, drinks, and easy to fix meals.
On my way home from the University last night, I swung by Big Y to get house items to make my dog-watchers feel at home. It's always odd to stay in a stranger's house, especially when the stranger won't be at home to entertain. I am grateful to Omar and Abonga for stepping up and helping me out.
Phew.
This is a throw back to my teaching days when I traveled to Japan, Denmark, and even Vermont while working in other locations (had to have Jon, Lacey, and Quartez watch the dogs at that time).
While in Syracuse, Mimi Sue and Papa Butch were always willing to take Baby and so departing from time to time wasn't a stressor. Baby was family. This year, I've had to try something new. And I am also thinking of all the times I was a dog sitter for Sue and Dave in Kentucky. Then, I was the one that moved into another's home to make for the smoothest trips possible.
This was on my checklist for NWPAM and NCTE '17 preparation. Now I have to get my Monday and Tuesday class work complete so I can work like a dog before leaving on my jet plane to St. Louis. I can't wait, but travel is something else. Of course, I return to more classes at the University and Thanksgiving. If I didn't love it all, it'd be maddening.
Here's to all my colleagues around the world who are in similar anticipatory mode: cats, ferrets, and gold fish.
At least the yard doesn't need to be watered at this time of year (at least in Connecticut).
Well, lawn. You're mowed. And I must say that the lawn care I paid for did its work. Usually, there are dried out patches of dirt after the summer months, but the spray and reseeding has filled out the property nicely. I can't complain.
I know, post-hernia, that I should put my Superman cape away and wait for help, but I got a bug in my head to get the tables and chairs into the shed (and to bring out the shovels and snowblower - hmmmm, can I nurse that machine one more winter?) and I manned up and carried everything myself. The umbrellas are in. The chairs. The hoses. The lawnmower. We're packed for the snowfalls to come and because we've had a frost, I don't anticipate that the grass will go crazy with growth.
I also entertained Abonga and Omar, who will be watching Glamis while I'm in St. Louis and who, as Ubuntu graduates, proven themselves to be remarkable kids. Abonga has a car and the two of them are at Housatonic now. They
know where everything is and are excited about walking the dog every day (and brushing off all the dog hair - "I wouldn't wear black clothes if I was you.")
Then, I entertained William and Jessica, who will be presenting with me several times at NCTE and who are always fantastic company. It's hard to believe that they were my graduate students and now are colleagues who make magic happen in the classroom.
The crockpot did it's magic and we had curried chicken, green beans and cranberries, and a made-up black and red bean dish. We got our protein.
Today will be a day in the office printing out more handouts for the week to come and prepping the back to back classes that will arrive Tuesday night. I also need to stock the house with youth-friendly foods (e.g., Doritoes and lemonade - that was the request). Of course, upon return, I will be hosting another Thanksgiving dinner for whoever wants to stop by.
The back patio always looks baron when I prep for winter. I love my backyard - live back there - but in the winter it becomes vacant space for snow pileups and dog poop. Now, if only I can find a truck to get rid of my ol' furniture that is taking over the garage. I need that space and it is next on my home to-do list. Might have to wait for Tunga though. I can't load that furniture in a truck by myself.
Here's to Sunday, which will bring Monday and the busy agenda ahead.
I spent the last day of the work week, Friday (as if that is the last day of the work week), putting together folders for varying sessions at the National Writing Project Annual Meeting and National Council of Teachers of English conference in St. Louis, Missouri. I depart next Wednesday and go non-stop while there. It's always a fantastic time with CT teachers, but also a reconnection of friends from all over the world and nation. We're excited to share some of the work we've been up to.
Reading Landscapes: Writing Nature in the 21st Century will be presented by Richard Novack during the NWP AM, as will Project Citizen: Flying Lessons from the Prose with Sean Mitchell, Kim Herzog, and Dave Wooley (I am emceeing). Meanwhile, Kristin Veneema will be representing our C3WP grant throughout the meeting.
In addition, we'll be very active on Friday and Saturday at NCTE, too, with several presentations.
“You Gotta Write! A’ight?” – Young Adult Literacy Labs at Fairfield University:As local, state, and national support for programs lessened, Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University thought outside of the box. Few writing opportunities existed for young people in the summer, so they asked themselves, “What can we do to change this?” Young Adult Literacy Labs resulted. The labs now partner with the National Writing Project summer institute for teaching writing.
The Intersection of Literacy, Sport, Culture, and Society - Literacy4Life
This roundtable session invites attendees to explore contemporary literacies and diverse teaching practices through the use of sports content and an examination of sports culture, including this year’s keynote talk about the education programming and exhibitions from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Of Wishes and Walls—Reclaiming Voices of Refugee and Immigrant Youth
In 2016, teachers and youth attending Connecticut Writing Project-Fairfield summer programs collaborated with artist Rick Shaefer and Fairfield University Art Museum to debut Refugee Trilogy, three large charcoal drawings: land-crossing, water-crossing, and border-crossing. Inspired by the work, they wrote and recorded podcasts that became part of the artist’s exhibition.
NWP Promising Practices in Urban Spaces: Learning Together while Teaching, Engaging, and Involving Student Voices in Their World: Connecting students, teachers, schools, and communities impacts student learning. Becoming active participants together in this learning process and applying the learning to the world engages students as involved global citizens. National Writing Project (NWP) sites from various urban areas discuss civically-engaged writing practices in schools and communities, giving voice and building agency for students.
The Little Lab for Big Imaginations: A 3rd-6th Grade Summer Writing Institute:This presentation will highlight The Little Lab for Big Imaginations, a weeklong summer writing institute designed to help students in grades 3–6 compose like authors. The Little Lab is a community writing space, where young students write, read, speak, listen, perform, and most important, have fun during the summer.
Urban Literacies in Middle School: Giving Students Voice and Agency inside and outside of the Classroom:Urban middle school students see the world/words through their own literacy practices—literacy practices of reading, writing, and beyond—practices that uplift, connect, illuminate what they bring to school and/or use out of school. Understanding these literacy practices allows us to teach our students more effectively and gives them (and ourselves) voice and agency. This session will showcase sports, music, digital, community, and poetic literacies.
Here's to flossing, Colgate, and persistent perseverance. I made it through another dental appointment with no cavities (which in Crandall land is a good thing - since I was a little boy, the dentists and me do not have such a great history).
But mom! Why do I get all the cavities while Casey and Cynde don't have any? I brush more than them and I try as hard as I can not to eat sugar.
Genetics.
Seriously. I have spend my entire life in a dentist chair and I have said for many years, "My mouth is worth more than I am?" My crowns, alone, are a house payment. Bring me back to Louisville, and my days in a dental chair were plentiful. The University of Louisville dental school, nitrous oxide, contestant visits, wisdom teeth removed. I've been through the ringer.
My dentist in Connecticut, however, is in a transitional phase. He is handing over the his office to a new woman with new tools, new technology, and another way of doing things (I had my teeth power washed today. Power! Washed!). I always fear the result, but this time, I had positive results: X-rays, bit-screens, flossing, and dental rubs. I'm good to go for another six months.
Then, too, I got to leave with gift bag of new products. I'll take it. It isn't a root canal, cavities, or crowns. I simply get to smile (which is so different from my total dental history). Phew! That is a profession. I couldn't do it, but I will happy dance that I'm in the clear until May.
The left hand is a representation of the time I tried to relax by playing Football with Chitunga in upstate New York and the sun, glimmering through the trees, blinded me and my pinky finger was cracked to the side. This is how it healed. That's as straight as it gets and I love it. It is perfect and I love it.
Nope. Last night, I finally got around to changing the 40 watt bulb in the refrigerator and when I screwed it in, it didn't light up. I though, "Hmmm, maybe there's something blocking the socket," so I stupidly stuck my finger into the space to do a check for obstacles.
Zzzzz. ssss ttttt. Sssss. Zzzzzztttt.
Oif. I felt that and flew across the kitchen. When I retried the bulb, well, it went on. All was well, but I thought maybe I was in the afterlife and the light was actual Peter's gates.
Then, I had this vision that like Spiderman getting bit in a lab by an arachnid, perhaps the shock turned me into a superhero of my own. Captain Fridge Boy! Or Dr. Fridgedaire! I tried to summon really good good to cook itself and make a feast.
Nope. Nothing heroic about the idiotic zapping. I remained a moron. Crazy the way this goes. I can't catch a break from my stupidity.
But I have my football finger. That, I truly love. It's not an Aquaman toe, but it's a part of who I am.
I learned last semester with my service-learning courses that having K-12 youth with us in a Fairfield University, campus setting, makes all the instruction, conversations, activities, learning, reading, and writing much more robust. That is why, this semester, I opened up my graduate courses for a similar experience. Why not have young people, who everyone has on the radar for literacy achievement, in class to see if the methods and practices we're reading about actually work?
In each of the classes, I hovered the graduate course readings on the screen so that all activities were labeled, known, and relevant to the preparation for the in-practice instruction.
After the exercises, we have opportunity to talk to the young people about whether or not the instruction worked. In addition, the graduate students can reflect on what they saw, learned, experienced, and recognized.
I was interested by the response of one student when I asked, "How often do you see these practices implemented at your school?" The response, "We don't see this." They then share what they have class to class at their schools and why it doesn't work and could be more effective.
Youth are the experts. That's been my point all along.
I could write about the content we covered today: several articles, charts, visuals, poems, and learning mapping, but that would give away all the secrets we're discovering.
In short, I'm thrilled. I can only accomplish so much as an instructor. The young people, in collaboration with the learning of the teachers-in-training (and in practice), make all the knowledge more pertinent.
Of course, it exhausts me, too. That is a love for the field!
Very proud to applaud, celebrate, and congratulate my colleagues, Drs. Alyson Martin and Emily Shamash, Co-Directors of Special Education at Fairfield University, and their promotion of Lara Stolman's documentary Swim Team. Last night, the movie was screened on our campus at the Quick Center. When I arrived, I talked with many individuals on the GSEAP Advisory Board stating, "I sadly can't stay long. I will only be able to catch the first 20 minutes."
Well, that changed quickly.
I stayed for the entire film and Q & A with Lara Stolman. Her storytelling, the cinematography, and the pure emotion of families featured in the film had me mesmerized - it was the fastest two hours I've spent in a long time. For years, I've shown another POV film, Lost Boys of Sudan, to graduate students, teachers, and high school students and I know that the work they feature is outstanding. Lara Stolman's film, however, was inspirational, emotional, thought-provoking, touching and educational. In short, it was remarkable.
Lara Stolman is an award-winning television news and documentary producer whose work has appeared on NBC, MSNBC, TOLC, AMC, VH-1, and the New York Time's Website. For Swim Team, her first feature documentary film, she was named an IFP Documentary Lab Fellow, awarded the New York Women in Film and Television Arbus Disability Awareness grant, and was provided funding from the Aetna Foundation, Easterseals, and the Karma Foundation. Swim Team has been screened at over 30 international film festivals and won 10 awards.
If I could give out an award, I would offer it to Ms. Stolman, too. Before I was English educator, I put myself through graduate school by working with adults with dis/abilities, including several who were autistic. This background brought me to seek a school that was fully inclusive and that held high standards for all students - the J. Graham Brown School. For over a decade I enjoyed promoting the personal excellence of my students, including those who were on the autism spectrum and had tourette syndrome. At Syracuse University, too, I cherished my courses in Dis/Ability studies and grew fond of the socio-cultural perspectives and questioning institutions that followed medical models of labeling, inhibiting, and doubting. That is partly why Swim Team held my attention.
The larger hook for me, however, was the authentic storytelling of Lara Stolman. In such a short space of time, her mesmerizing cinematography, interview-skills, and narrative pace did a phenomenal job of helping me, as a viewer, connect to the young men she featured and the families that supported them. Here, she tells the story of out-of-school success that occurred from competitive swimming - another example that every student is more robust than the ways our schools calculate, label, and grade them. If you visit the website, many of the accolades and awards can be read, all of them deserved.
As I watched the film, I also thought about my work with Hoops4Hope, and the promotion of life skills needed on and off the court and field, and in this case in and out of a pool. Lara Stolman demonstrated Ubuntu with her film, one can be who they are because of all of us together, highlighting the importance of focus, integrity, self-esteem, self-awareness, sense of humor, respect, and responsibility that young people need to have to be successful. Here, too, I recognized that these life skills are family skills, especially in promotion of the young men (and women) to be their best.
I wish to thank my colleagues, the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions, and our advisory board for making this film a possibility for our campus. It was truly remarkable and I will be thinking about it for some time. Our students were introduced to a phenomenon and I was very impressed to see so many members of the Fairfield University swim and diving teams in the audience. I hope they were touched as much as I was.
