No—the title of my post is not a rebel yell; it’s a status report on yesterday morning’s meet-up organized by Stacey Shubitz and Amy Ellerman at Two Writing Teachers. Among the many thanks due them, this is certainly one to add.
Lots of faces fill the gallery on this Sunday, times varied depending on where people live, but the smiles and openness eclipsed the geography. And it was wonderful.
Breakout rooms, even with tech challenges they sometimes invite, are wonderful, too. The addition of them often makes or breaks a Zoom meeting. (Last week I attended a four-hour professional development event with Gholdy Muhammed. If you ever get an opportunity to work with her grab it. But after three hours on Zoom, built-in “recess” included, Zoom fatigue threatened. The last 45-minutes was dedicated to break out sessions with other attendees to put into practice what we had been learning. Oh, the wonder of DOING with engaged colleagues—game-changer.)
Stacey and Amy created break out rooms for us, and we scattered. I found myself with Debra, another West Coast-er but from California, and a first-time Slice challenge participant. It was lovely to chat with someone, a bond already in place: we write—and worry a bit about it, truth be told. She admitted that her blog has been a professional one, established primarily to address the many, and often similar, questions that come her way as head of a school district’s library.
I learned about her journey back home to California via Norway, that her husband, like mine, was impetus to return to the west. We talked a bit about retirement and being a librarian (my dream job, if I got a do-over). We shared our understanding about how poverty impacts teacher effectiveness, the error of discounting socioeconomic stability, school resources, and parental support as factors in evaluating one’s ability to teach every child. When the “return to main room” warning appeared, I felt like I’d made a new friend.
Debra has been writing each of these March days, but she has yet to publish her #SOLC pieces. I hope what she typed in the chat is true:
I will gladly read one more blog post whenever Debra is ready!
Jump off; Find Wings 
This sounded like a great opportunity for slicers to meet. It is always nice to be able to put a face with a name. I can imagine that the conversations were interesting. I also imagine it was hard to say good-bye when it was over.
Yes, but now I have a bunch of blogs to check out, so…off to do some reading.
Thanks for sharing about this meet up; I was sad to miss it. This line really summarizes a great ‘Zoom’ experience, I think – “When the “return to main room” warning appeared, I felt like I’d made a new friend.”
They are scheduling another this Thursday. See if you can make that one. Thanks for reading.