Here’s a fresh memoir, from just a few days ago.  It was a wonderful day that I wanted to freeze. I hope I did  justice to the experience.

It’s good to be sharing with Two Writing Teachers on the first Memoir Monday in April.

First time for me at the annual NWP spring conference always held in DC in early April, as the legislators vote on the upcoming budget that impacts on the future of the federally funded, National Writing Project.

So far, for 35 years we have been renewed and there’s no reason to believe that that won’t happen again, especially with  breath of  fresh air in the White House. But where is he when we arrive? Off representing us in the world? Well,okay.

Our role here is to make sure our senators and congressmen join us or  stay committed to our work, so on Thursday,  we were charged to meet with staff aides to share what we know and love about the work of our local sites

. Of course, our backdrop is the city of Washington and I am in the love with the city and feeling freer to enjoy it with Obama at the helm.

So here’s my glorious day…

We are up early, too early, for a hotel breakfast and  then the race was on  to the NWPs opening session at the  Cannon House Office Building. We are addressed by congressmen who have supported us for many years. Their legislation that has kept us alive and thriving and this year, unlike others, the mood was Obama positive, even with the economy still in a danger zone.

Sharon Washington, NWP Director

And we were off to meet with our new senator, Kristen Gillibrand’s aide with our New York Delegation

But on the way to her office we got to soak up the Washington all around us, even without sunshine.

Inside the Congressional Office Building,  we huddle together waiting outside Kristen’s office and surprise, surprise, a photo op as she suddenly  appears and Tom is in just the right place

But her rep is our line of communication and we step up to share our writing project experiences even if it’s in the hallway, in front of the elevators.

Then.with a chance for some fresh air, as this large group splits up for visits to local representatives. we are  now the lean and mean, Hudson Valley Writing Project and off to visit Maurice Hinchey and John Hall.

But first some lunch, some planning

and some people watching

Maurice Hinchey is up first. A positive staple in our area, I remember when I lived in Ellenville and a  loyal voting fan.. But now as an HVWP lobbyist, I have the chance to shake his hand warmly, knowing he has already signed on to support us.

Terri is filled with spirit as she offers him her hand just before we move on to our next meeting.

Feeling the rush of success, we are on a roll, 2 for 2,  and off to share more HVWP  with  John Hall’s new aide.

We are in luck to run into an expert who can move gracefully  from building to building with speed, as we follow up escalators and across indoor parking lots, door-to-door in minutes.

We meet at another table inside the Hall office,  just outside his office. His young aide Rachel  like Megan and Judy earlier,seems very excited about what we share,  but we don’t get to see John in the flesh.

Who knows, maybe he will make an appearance at Dover Day in May.

Three meetings down and I leave Tom, Mary and Terri for a session with Patti and Joseph, directors at the Maryland U, Writing Project. I am ready to get immersed in the digital storytelling document I’m creating for them.  I can’t wait to get their conference reflections on tape before I begin.

Tom patiently directs me to the Washington Court Hotel but at the first intersection, surrounded by empty cabs, I am itching to bag the walk for a ride in the one just waiting for me.

In 5 minutes I am in the lobby waving wildly at Patti and Joseph and soon, with a energy boost from Starbucks, we get crackin’ and  I revive from their excitement.

As we finish up and I get ready to grab another cab for the last visit of the day at Chuck  Shumer’s  offices, I wonder how I have manged to stay awake.  I don’t dare to even blink in this cab; who knows where I might wake up.

The Heart building is the most impressive, but it’s 4:30 and we are back with the larger  New York delegation and as we are finally led into a real conference room I am just happy to sit and listen and hope we can get out into the fresh air, ASAP.

Megan must be reading my mind, because we share some, leave her with lots of reading material, and I breathe.  I didn’t fall asleep at her table.

Finally we are back outside and ready to relax. Meetings are done!

Hey. Mary’s been using her new Flip to do a bit of her own documenting, YES!

We are off as a trio,leaving Tom on his own.

The NWP is hosting us at the National Postal Museum and we opt to walk and I need it.

Once we are down and socializing, I meet up with Ruth and my travelin’ raisins. She just isn’t ready to part with them and how can I say no?

After a Mexican dinner at the Banana Cafe, we take a short, invigorating stroll back to our hotel and as we collapse in our beds, I realize that I need it. It’s been a day out in DC from 8am-10 pm

I did all that?

There was a time when I knew exactly how many digital pieces I had created, but not N any more, especially after our ABC movie collaboration last year. Thank God Kevin and I were able to expand the community for the project but we still took on a large number of letters each… A is for…, B…, C… Last year at this time we were wrapping it up. Remember, Kevin?

For this piece, I was commissioned by the NWP ELL network to document their TESOL pre-conference workshop focused on ELL writers in the digital age.

Judy Rance-Roney, a member of the ELL network of the NWP and a buddy at SUNY and our writing project, invited me to participate in this conference day when the group was in its earliest planning stages.

At first I was asked to collaborate on a digital storytelling workshop and document the day as well. As I sat with the group for an initial planning session last November at the NWP conference in NYC, I realized that I could not do both and everyone seemed to agree that wearing both hats would be just impossible to do justice to either work. So I moved to observer role happily.

This pre-conference day kicked off the TESOL conference and what was I thinking? Tuvia and I returned from Israel the day before and of course, I was just beginning to suffer from Jet Lag. As I rode up 6th Avenue in a taxi cab I was kicking myself for not planning differently. Oh well, next time, I have to remember, more down time to adjust.

But the group was a great one to work with,very sympathetic as I dragged myself up to the hotel room where the last minute details were being shared. The conference would be held in typical conference rooms just two floors away from us and even though the lighting was terrible the number of participants,30, made the setup perfect for documenting . I spontaneously abandoned my still camera for the video recorder and the inner lighting worked better than the odd external flash on my advanced point and shot, which has been put on the shelf when I moved to my Nikon D60 SLR with an external flash.

I knew I was taking a risk and walking around with the camera, not always resting on my tri-pod caused some shake but these days, with You Tube, it’s not as much of a problem. So I left the conference not filming everything but with almost a full hour of video and some photos. Given the comfort with presenters and a good group of 30 participants, and an clear plan to document their movement throughout the day with this hands-on experience with technology and its power for ELL’s, I had a challenge that could be achieved and thinking about what I have almost finished,

So here’s my request. Just below this post is my video draft. If you have a few minutes, 7 minutes, 15 seconds to be exact, I’d love some feedback. My goal was to move with the participants from start to finish and to see what they left with, so comment away.

I’m going to include some of the comments I already received via email.

Here’s the You Tube link if you can’t access it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0HROCVB05k

Bonnie

There’s a lot to remember about this National Writing Project Conference in New York City. For the first time I had more presentations than I could really enjoy. Actually, I enjoyed the moments of each workshop presentation but the preparations took their toll on my sleep, my peace of mind and add to that, the tech conference just the week before, made it essential to place the events in their place in relation to life after: the day after, the week after, Thanksgiving…

On Wednesday night Tuvia dropped me off at the Hoboken train station and with just one relatively small suitcase, my computer and shoulder bag, I joined the commuters returning to NYC from a hard day of work in Hoboken. It was easy, amazingly easy and fast getting into the city and riding to 23rd St. and sure I could have hailed a cab. I tried actually, but the air was fresh and my bags were manageable for walking with the natives. I walked a bit more than I had to, but I arrived as Tom, Mary, Kathy and Jackie were milling in the lobby tired from a very long bus ride in from New Paltz. They had hit very slow traffic coming in and felt the frustration and exhaustion that I escaped from my end. We shared a small elevator up to our respective floors and as I entered my room, I wondered how I would be feeling about it on Saturday morning when I would be leaving this very sparse space.

For that first night we were fresh and off for a nice dinner together. I was too lazy to get my camera. Damn, now. It was a great meal,but I was distracted, wondering about our first workshop with Mary, Rebecca, and Kerri, who had been meeting without me and I wondered how I would fit in. They were confident about my role. I hoped so. It was great to be with this group as we shared lots of wonderful foods that I had moved away from in my efforts to drop an excess of pounds milling around the center of my body. I had had some early success, but judging from this first dinner off the plan, it didn’t look good that I would hold my initial reduction. Oh well.

After dinner, Mary was ready to work. Rebecca and Kerri were waiting back at the hotel for us but the rest of us were tired. We met down in the lobby. Kathy and Jackie and Tom went their own ways. Mary had worked on the power-point and I just uploaded it to my computer. My role was to play my SI ’07 DVD, Michelle’s piece to introduce her to the group but I wondered how I would fit into the larger fabric of our hour. I left the group wondering and returned to my room and played with my NFA powerpoint just a bit more. I had more control there. Of course I didn’t expect to sleep much and at least I did have a tv to help me get something, but as usual not much.

The next morning the rain held off and we walked with Jackie over to the Javits Center. As we entered the NWP space below, there were very few people there with us. Karen McComas was my first TM’06 connection and let me know that she was looking forward to our session. NO PRESSURE! Bob was already in our space with his equipment set up. He announced that he had 15 minutes to share that he could expand into 30 and wondered what would fill the rest of our three hours. Our team was speechless and more than prepared with our third of the workshop. Every minute was accounted for and we had called the starting slot. I just needed to make sure that the tech all worked. Bob was good about moving his computer off the platform and I did a check with his equipment. The room was large, the lights were bright, glaring and we were informed that there would be no way to control the lights and our session was filled, 70?

I was torn, hoping that I could present with my team and then disappear to slip into Kevin’s digital workshop that he was sharing with some of our TM’06 network. He was planning to present my ABC Seeds movie and our collaboration work. Two places at the same time? And Kevin’s room was way down the hall.

The tables in our empty space filled quickly. Ellen Brinkley from the 3rd coast site arrived to start and end the session and as the introductions finished we began. I had everyone move to writing and sharing and we moved to Michelle. Of course what’s tech without a glitch and Bob did pull me out of my hole by switching our his speakers for mine and my piece played with all its elements. As I got my voice and rhythm and began through the early slides to explain our evolution from demo the inquiry the group moved with us. Our team showed that their preparations were effective as Kerri and Rebecca and Mary documented our Michelle case study with powerful language and Rebecca’s metaphoric theater concept.It was clear that the other two presenters were not thinking about their presentation with the same sense of collaboration.

I was able to sneak out and find my way into Kevin’s room, during a break and enjoy the experience of being in the audience and watching his large group watch my DS piece. I was sitting next to one of our unknown ABC collaborators. Rodney. I would know that voice anywhere. L is for Lying. I was flying as Kevin shared his moment with me. I left on a cloud flying back to our session to share the wrap up with our team. What a way to usher in this NYC conference! Outside in the  hallway, familiar faces passed by and stopped to share a hug and warm reconnection.  How rich it felt.

Outside it was raining with a vengeance and I didn’t want to ruin my new shoes and all I really needed was a snack and found it downstairs, a small bag of pretzels and a diet coke and just some time to sit quietly before the afternoon session.

In the afternoon session I joined Tom and Martha and stayed focused with the Janet Malink from California who I remembered from our road trip to the New England weekend. Connecting high stakes tests with what our project offered, was the elephant in the room and for the first two hours I was involved in the session but lost a bit of energy for the last group. Oh well, it was good enough and we had nice handouts to take with us.

It would have been nice to travel back to a hotel closer to the first NWP afternoon social for the and connect with some Chico friends, but instead, I joined my HVWP colleagues and walked back to our hotel on 27th St, The Gershwin ( a la George?) and that was great too. I walked with Karen and talked politics. Just a bit of time to continue playing with the power point for workshop 2 My powerpoint obsession was coming together. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from a team I had left behind and now that workshop one was done, I could spend more time worrying about workshop 2.

It was a fun dinner at Blue Smoke with the Vermont WP although without Julia it was a drag. I did connect with Tish and Nancy and those who sat near by: Kathy, Jackie, Trace etc. By 11 I was full and exhausted and ready to spend more time working my powerpoint, just cleaning it up and thinking about what I would have to do to make it clear that this was a successful collaboration in its creation, even if as history I was pretty sure it was rewritten without me.

The next morning Martha and I met and traveled up to the Marriot for an early morning meeting with Judy’s ELL group, planning for an April tech conference. I loved the challenge that Judy offered me to digitally document the event. As we began I wondered why some of the workshop leaders were asked to lead workshops in areas they had very little or no experience, but I focused on my own issue of leading both a  digital storytelling workshop with Martha  and document the event. From my own experience, I know that’s impossible. I spoke up and everyone agreed. It was an interesting group. Judy, Martha, Paul Oh, Joe Bellino, others I didn’t know. Elyse from the NWP joined us and I was even more interested. We continued to plan out the day. I offered a focus on reading and crafting that work in the tech presentation. It was interesting and with that we were moving on to the general session and a farewell to Richard Sterling.

Lunch plans with my HVWP people and surprise, it would be a John’s Pizzeria where I would be at the end of night, meeting with Kevin and TL’s. Okay, I wanted to be sure where it was and I was wishing it was already the end of the day, but lots more had to happen before I would be back at 9 pm.  It was actualy a pleasure, even though I was ALWAYS distracted. I spent lunch talking with Eric about supporting his inservice work at Fallsburgh.

When I arrived back at Marriott and found our small presentation room  the whole NFA team already there: Nelson and Carmen had arrived and the equipment was up and running. Would there be room for the pp I had worked on so hard? Sure, Nelson was prepared for my computer and helped me set up. What a pleasure it was to be working with him again. A shame, I didn’t see a way to recreate my collaboration with him.  Our group was around 20. We had Kevin and Joe and Juan and very interested NWP participants. It was a challenge. I presented the structure of partnership, the role of our site in this collaboration and my slides reflected that. As Martha began to talk about her work in the classroom, I realized that it was my mission to turn I recollections to we I began to take advantage of my moderator position and gently documented our collaboration even  with Carmen when she shared   the district budget for the project equipment but left out  left out the  contract with our site and my role as consultant. It was a good presentation. We ran out of time.   As the session ended Carmen invited both Judy and me to join the NFA team for a Cuban lunch and I could not say no. Judy did. I felt bad about not being around to attend the workshop Kevin was presenting with my bud, Lynne, but I couldn’t say no to Carmen and Nelson and Martha, and I didn’t want to. I needed closure for this project and got it in a very authentic way with comfortable conversations, especially with Nelson.  This could be the authentic end to this chapter.

From lunch it was off to the Path train on 33rd and Tuvia in Hoboken at the synagogue. And there I came back out of conference mode and tried hard to give Tuvia my attention. I was not good at being present. I watched the hands on my watch move and tried hard to prevent my eyes from closing for more than a few seconds at a time.

By 8:30 Tuvia made sure we were back in the car and off to John’s pizza for the dinner I was looking forward to and by 9:05 I was entering the pizzeria again and warmly welcomed by our TM06 group. I reconnected with Jason, Kevin, Lynne, Cynthia, Tonya, Chris etc. We shared pizza and a salad and I held out until 11 and then everyone faded well, Lynne did lead a group to the Empire State Building and I joined in for as a long as I could. I hugged and waved them on and I got a cab back to the hotel and started breathing. Just one more night, just one more session to prepare for and I didn’ t have much to do.

I was back in that dismal room by 11:45 and with the TV on, I couldn’t even find the energy to open my computer. I WAS TIRED! I slept the best. But by 5:30 AM I couldn’t sleep anymore . Still more to do with one last power point. I moved well through the remaining slides and Mary was up and calling and ready for coffee and a bagel. Trace was on her way back from Columbia with her car. We were on our way to the final workshop planning. YES!

I showed, packed and caught an elevator to the lobby and we were off to breakfast and a final prep. It was my job now, as tech team coordinator to support Trace and Tracey and Julie. With hotel ends finished, I was out of that room, never to return to it AGAIN!

Back at the Javits Center we found the room, large and filled with empty chairs. Julie and Tracey were waiting for us and I worked to support their preparations. It was hard to get connected to the internet even with wireless payment. I watched Trace lose it for the first time, but I was focused to support her and the others. Participants from the NCTE now, joined us. Soon the room was filled, 50, 60 people. I began trying hard to warm up the crowd and get everyone comfortable and reflective with writing into the session and then a burst of sharing. The pump was primed and the team, with and without the internet made themselves relevant and grounded in their classroom work. Julie had no way to show her wikis and moved without the visual. She was really fantastic. Trace did get to show a visual of her Scarlet online blog and I was able to show a ds from my NFA work. The group applauded Lisbet and answered questions about the project. Tracey began with her professional packet for the group and ended us well. Wow what a wonderful group.

Mary offered professional readings and BRAVO  completed with a bang. I was DONE and feeling satisfied. Hopefully after a snack lunch with Mary and Trace, Tuvia would arrive soon to take me back to my life out of NYC. I was ready to visit New York as a visitor once again.

What’s next?

 I love creating titles.  They come to me just as the page appears and whatever comes to the front of my mind, is it!  So, for this post there’s lots to consider:

It’s amazing how far I’ve come since TM’06.

It’s amazing how far I’ve come since that first DS workshop in Baltimore 2001.

It’w amazing how far I’ve come since I became a Co-Director of the HVWP.

It’s amazing how far I’ve come since  I became a HVWP TC in 1999.

It’s amazing…

So where do I begin?  Not at the beginning…

  Where do  I begin to capture this past week?

On Tuesday night Tuvia and I traveled to Ellenville to support my brother, Jeff, in his run for his third and last term of office as mayor.  Last time he ran unopposed and wildly popular.  I was never far from a phone but it didn’t seem that a trip on election day was necessary.  I waited to hear the vote count and it was high and Jeff rode on his own record.  This time around he had some competition.  Not serious competition in itself, but Jeff is no longer the new guy on the block.  Ellenville has been hit hard by companies moving out of the area, jobs lost and taxes ever on the rise.  A new guy offers the opportunity to express frustration and maybe hope for something better.

I felt good calling in the morning offering my version of “break a leg and even better to arrive and join in around the campaign table reconnecting with old students now parents themselves and moms of old students. And of course my parents, and family grateful to have me with them.

Go know on the way home as we traveled on a very dark Route 209 as I scoured the roadside for deer, a wood chuck would be racing across and run into me.  And what a thump.  What damage to the center of my bumper.  $3,000.00 later I will be paying the $250 deductible and a local road cleaner is stuck clearing the remains of my very dead woodchuck.  Thank god it wasn’t a deer!

It so happens that while I was home supporting my brother, I was also able to pay my respects to a good friend, who after a long and horrible fight with cancer, finally reached her peace. I stopped in to see you kids sitting vigil at Ginny’s open coffin.  Tuvia walked over to inspect, I stayed with Ginny’s daughter.  The body in the box is not longer the friend I knew well during my teaching years in Ellenville.  I am holding on tight to my memories of Ginny.  There’s more to say, but not now…

I am so lucky to be a member of the HVWP and the network of the NWP and with that rich nework I am able to pass on the gifts. As I drove home from a fantastic set of Summer Institute ’07 interviews, I checked my phone messages and heard Steve Masson’s excited voice. “Call me back Bonnie, I have to share my Wiki workshop with you.”

I couldn’t call him back until I got home and of course, I couldn’t wait to hear about his experience. He was off the floor, in that wonderful place of feeling thrilled at his success. A wonderful wiki on Romeo and Juliet, inspired by our tech team sessions. His creation excited out tech team members. He was invited to present at a workshop today at BOCES.

Of course he credited the HVWP and everyone in his workshops created wikis and left him with their emails to continue to share the wealth… so the gifts are passed on. I remember this feeling when I was teaching kids and one in my class went ahhah…and I had something to do with that excitement. It was cool to listen to a teacher blast onto the presentation scene. I wish I had a photo of that group. What a great resource Steve is for us, for his kids.

He shared his reflections on our techteam06 blog and Julie Jee has already responded.

How about that??? What a day after…

And there was even time to just play guitar, now that the recital is under my belt and I have taken some time to breathe during that week after….If I could only stop enjoying food so much! But what’s life without it’s obstacles. I am still enjoying my work with the letter X!