Tired but grateful

A day of sharpened blue pencils, hundreds of post-it notes, and a collection of excellent adult texts: 

* an excerpt from Dr. King's powerful and famous missive, Letter from Birmingham Jail

* Emma Watson interviews Tavi Gevinson about life, work and being a woman

* Dan Coyle explains what makes teams work in The Culture Code (Dan Coyle)

* Ta-Nehisi Coates builds a strong narrative voice in the essay Acting French

A letter, an interview, a business book, a personal essay.

These 4 texts were the "choices" during our adult reading workshop that led to our adult book clubs in professional learning today. It was a thrill to see participants excited for choices that they could connect with, and it was lovely pay-off after planning, planning and more planning for a day with over 160 participants across many roles -- teachers, teaching assistants, interventionists, language arts specialists, principals, coaches, even a few district folks.

But most of all, I am grateful to my co-presenters. To Rachel ,who brought brownies for all of us. To Kristine & Kate, who gracefully picked up a complicated session to co-plan, then flexed in the afternoon as we responded to real-time feedback. To Clare, who definitely had "the hard group" for over two hours and navigated with a growth mindset for adults.

I am stronger because of this team. They bring humor to the work of a long day, and incredible smarts about workshop. They willingly share every resource. There is no competition -- just asking ourselves "What can we do better for teachers so they can do better for students?"

I'm tired -- my toes are tired! But grateful for great texts (thank you, Martin, Dan, Emma & Tavi and Ta-Nehisi) and to Rachel, Kristine, Kate & Clare, too. It absolutely took a village today!