It's Tuesday, World, and This Means @CWPFairfield Teachers Begin A Summer of Making Today #CLMOOC @writingproject

The good news! Our Invitational Summer Institute begins today with 15 teachers from all across southern Connecticut. They are extraordinary educators who will spend five weeks penning personal, creative, and real-world writing as they put together a workshop for literacy conferences and PD at their school. In short, the making begins today!

The bad news? I slept on my neck wrong, drove 4.5 hours from Syracuse to Connecticut, and now can't move my head because everything is pinched. I will look like Max Headroom when welcoming teachers to campus this morning. I can move my mouth and legs, but am having a terrible time turning left to right.

But this isn't bad news, really, because a year of planning, applying for the Teacher Leadership SEED Grant, recruiting and interviewing has paid off. For the next five weeks I get to help the National Writing Project celebrate its 40th Anniversary (it's our 29th) by being a coach/mentor/cheerleaders/consultant/friend /instructor and student all summer long as we make and create together.

It's the most wonderful time of the yearrrrrrrrrrr!

And the writer pails are filled with candy, pens, highlighters, paperclips, sticky notes, stickers, markers and colored pencils. The room is arranged and a giant WELCOME sign has been hung. The Krups coffee maker is ready to crank out the caffeine and the CWP-Fairfield book cart is fully stocked. The first day is always the hardest because it's nearly impossible to contain all the excitement of new professional friends and the possibilities of collaborating together.

Yes, this is the POWER OF MAKING and the MAKING begins today. It's JULY!