Roaming through my understandings of the summer, I’m thinking about the ways that people have participated in creating my Summer Institute experience. A few months ago I listened to Anne Wysocki speak about the location of memory. I’m imagining myself literally roaming around in my memory spaces. It’s a populated place.
Jackson’s Java
And I seem to know
that the woman sitting at the third table must be Renatta
Maybe she was looking
at the door searchingly.
Then, listening to her
I breathe out
Ah.
Now we have our group.
I write my criticisms
On the American Dream
So well
So solid
Until Mary’s
Story
Makes me wobble.
This is the third time
Tony and I
Have come to SI together
Haiku, Jackson’s Java before Fretwell, Mixing teaching and
theory
#feelslikeitssupposedto
Jessie looks at me across the open space
Of SI
Speaks her words
Considered and Curious.
And I want to steep my thoughts too
A story about doctors visits
How a woman is positioned
Sally’s story
Around the table from me
At Amelie’s
So many
windows
Tabs
Sticky notes
Daybook pages
Swirling all over me.
Until Melissa
Calm, invites me to write.
Her ease seeps into me,
And I do
I am cautionless
Asking for movie
Meredith
Presses this,
And devotes to making it
Happen anyway
Cindy and I crisscross our ideas
Flowing them
Throwing them
Through Jackson’s Java
To a Google Doc
Riffing from shared experience and
New possibility
This SI
My unquestioned
Theory on silent lunch
Moves, skids around
Reynelda’s unapologetic
Real story of school
Forces, makes me name
The complexity
I slide behind
Her computer screen
Slip on her headphones
Listen to her voice
I blink
Surprised, enthralled, engaged
Laura sings.
I write a little list
Of my mismatched inquiries
Fulfilling Christin’s task
Until squiggles and connecting lines arrive
And her request becomes
Just what I needed
This reminds me of…
Most likely Peter Elbow
Steve
Weaves texts
Into the day
A mentor for the kinds
Of literature review that requires no heading
Teena gifts me
With stories
Of her Narnia
And two little girls are still sitting whittling on a
hillside
In the corner of my mind
I’m waiting outside swimming lessons reading
And I’m not
I’m still at SI
Debbie blogs about my demo
Winding her reflections into my practice
Revisioning my understandings
Tricia’s flutter
Of Twitter
7 Posts
Ever
Reserved
Considered
Makes space for me
To wobble
Jennifer’s voice echoes
With smart thinking
Around my brain and living room
Seeping ideas about leadership
Shared
Messy
Moving
Into my own thinking
As I splice her lines in video
Lil skypes me from across the room,
from home,
from her infusion
Using conversation and the best placed muscle arm and
dancing person emoticons
To push me, question me and narrate with us the story of
this
Summer Institute.
It is interesting to read this from a perspective of a fellow participant. Some of my memories the same, others very different.
ReplyDeleteI love this! I can see how you weave SI into your life....you are the ultimate teacher/learner. You put together a program that informed up and made us think and inspired! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading this poem and seeing people in the work. Thank u for being such a gentle leader. It made me want to come out and play!
ReplyDeleteLike Mary, my first thought was how different my memories are. And here we were, experiencing the SAME thing, but not. While I was reading your poem I felt like a spy...like I was reading something I shouldn't. Why? What is it about a perspective of a shared experience that feels a little out of body? I appreciate the feeling.
ReplyDeleteWow!! As i read this all I could think was this is learning; this is writing; this is reading; this is teacher a leader, as inquirer, as writer. This is SI!
ReplyDeleteI am loving your venture into poetry. This one is awesome and just sends all the vibes of SI rushing over me.
ReplyDeleteLacy you are amazing! This is well put about a class experience. I am so happy to have been welcome to your world. You brought a sense of energy on my sleepy days and I enjoyed every single impromptu and lessons you led... You helped cleared up many of my confusions and I feel comfortable asking you for your tips and ideas. Please keep me informed on upcoming writing/fun events. You will be seeing more of me.
ReplyDeleteLACY, You made my eyes water.:) This was a beautiful way to sum up SI. You have been such an incredible leader, and I have learned so much from you and everyone. This has been a special time of growth for me. The leaders and class have been such an inspiration. I even wrote a poem because of your sticky note activity.
ReplyDeleteI love how you take the time to land, gently, on everyone here... such a lovely community
ReplyDeleteOk, I've never told you this, but whenever I read/hear your poetry I get totally jealous. The amount of ideas that you manage to cram into so few words blows my mind. It'd take me a book to explain how the pieces of everyone's thinking fit in with my own to create an image of the present state of my understanding. I love how you attached names to the contributions, doing so brought out out the human element that underlies all of the learning and creates a dynamic that's totally unique to this time and space we shared. Thank you for sharing this poem.
ReplyDelete