Flash forward to that persistent friend not giving up on me and me finally taking the plunge and applying to the Summer Institute. It was very exciting to meet with 2 of the Writing Project teachers and a few other applicants back in February at the coffee shop. I was excited to hear what the other teachers wanted to work on and learn about writing at the high school level; but I also left the initial meeting wondering how I would fit into the mix as a 3-6 year old Montessori teacher.
Jump forward, again, to our orientation last week; the whole group of teachers getting together to meet for the first time. I was thrilled going into the orientation to see where I fit in all of this, who I would be able to connect with as a pre-school teacher. I was pretty excited during the initital introductions that the 6th person was a kindergarten teacher. But as we completed the introductions, it remained just 3 of us out of 20 as early childhood teachers. The thought creeping into my head... how do I fit into this group of teachers?
We were bombarded with information. It was exciting to be writing, sharing thoughts, learning what we would be doing...my head was swirling with all of the ideas and information. As I learned more about the demo that we would be responsible for presenting to the other teachers, I really began to question to myself if I really fit here. What could I help these high school teachers with as a Montessori pre-school teacher? What could I present to them that they could use in their class? How was I going to take what they do in their class and use it in my own? These questions kept repeating themselves over and over and I'll admit, I tuned out for a little bit. Fortuntatley, we ended the orientation with a creative and powerful part of poetry. So as I walked to my car, I was a bundle of thoughts...excited, confused, doubtful, enthused...all at the same time.
I got home, set my bag to the side, didn't look at it again or pull out my day book for the rest of the evening. Occasionally throughout the evening I'd think about some part of the orientation...an exercise we did, some writing that I put in the daybook, which would then lead to what I could do for my demo...then leading back to those questions of how I fit with 5th grade teachers, high school teachers, and college teachers.
The next morning, with a fresh perspective, I began to process all of the information. In opening up my day book, I looked back over the notes I had taken at orientation, in particular the demo. I started to get excited about sharing what the 3-6 year olds can write in my class and how I help them to do that. I started to think about helping them be more creative writers. I started to think about their writing process and spelling. Ideas started coming to me how I can illustrate what I do with my kids naturally every day.
I am good at what I do in a classroom full of 3-6 year olds and I'm going to share that with a classroom of teachers. I accepted that if I can give just one of those teachers a fresh perspective in what I do and in some small way she can adapt that into her classroom, then I've added to her repitoire. So, I realized I will make myself fit here and I do fit here!
