I knew how the Dream Team worked because I had once been an honorary member of the group when we took our TVDSB show on the road to Denmark and shared our work in literacy and leadership with educators there! I knew it would be INTENSE and the bar would be high. I also knew the countless hours and attention to detail that they put into every second of planning and organizing. These ladies were professionals and I did NOT want to disappoint! I had to bring my “A” game to match theirs!

These ladies gave up their March Break to spread the joy of literacy. It could not be all work and no play for the week so I worked to develop an itinerary that would allow us to work by day and have some fun at night.

Sunday: Trip to the Mutianyu area of the Great Wall. The climb was steep. The scenery breath taking and the ride down a blast! I have been to the Wall three times now and each part has distinctive features and sights that never disappoint. Sunday late afternoon we did a tour of the school and the ladies were able to get a feel for the classrooms and the teaching in them by walking the halls and walls. We talked a lot about our context. Our areas of strength and identified areas for growth.

Sunday night we headed for dumplings at the “Cave” as we call it and then early to bed to prepare for the next day. I know the ladies probably worked until late in the night to have everything ready for the first day.

Monday: We had decided in our planning that we would follow the Kath Murdoch Cycle of Inquiry and began with the “Tuning in”

Teachers were asked to tune in to a time that they had to learn something new and how it made them feel. “Terrified, proud, anxious, satisfied,frustrated…” They were shown the “Learn” video and we discussed how we learn: “experience, with support, doing, with encouragement, through demonstration etc.” Teachers were able to see their role in supporting the learning of their students and also to make the link to their learning throughout the week.

Finding out on day 1 was about the power in the read aloud. Jane, Anne and Mary provided background knowledge about the rationale and components of an effective read aloud. They modelled their process for preparing for the read aloud and then demonstrated what an effective read aloud looked like, sounded like and felt like. Teachers were the audience and were asked to reflect on the intentional moves that the teachers made during the modelled lesson.

At the end of the day we spent some time on reflection as facilitators. A couple of things we noticed:

1. Teachers were more engaged when an administrator was at the table.
2. Not everyone was buying what we were selling.
3. Trust is crucial in moving teachers forward and these ladies had not earned it yet.
4. As a staff we felt we had a breadth of practitioner knowledge but we lacked public knowledge.

We were all exhausted and the ladies wanted to do some more work so we grabbed a quick bite and walked them home.

Tuesday Tuning in to Shared Reading

Jane, Anne and Mary returned to some of the key elements from the previous day and presented, modelled and pointed out the intentional teaching moves associated with Shared Reading. Same format…..different element of balanced literacy.

Anne had some time to work with our Teacher Librarian to share best practices she had been using in her role as TL. I told her to “Unleash the Beast!” If you know Bonnie our librarian you would know that she is a quiet introvert and could not be further from a beast. I did want her to see the power she had and for her to know that I wanted our library/learning commons to be the hub of the school. I wanted her to be the reading/literacy ambassador for our school or as Anne calls herself “The Book Pusher.” If we want students to be passionate about reading then we all need to show our passion. We must expose them to books and to our lives as readers!

Afterschool we offered 2 optional sessions for teachers:

Cultivating Readers: which was based on the book written by Mary and Anne

Literacy and the Maker Space: based on a STEAM session by Jane and Anne

What we discovered upon reflection:

1. Teachers still needed more information between the difference between Shared Reading and Read Alouds. They still struggled to see the explicit purpose of each.
2. Trust was being build.
3. Teachers were more engaged and enjoyed the learning.
4. A spark had been lit and the Dream Team began to fan the flames.
5. Teachers saw the power in sharing their reading lives with their students and the realization that they must read what their students are reading.

We took the reflections from the day and headed out for dinner. The AQI was really bad so we put on our masks and headed to the Korean BBQ for a night of laughs, cocktails and great food and of course as all educators do……more talk about education!

Side note…..we discovered that Anne has “Korean BBQ master” that she can add to her dating profile!

Stay tuned for Part 3…….find out our tipping point.