By Phip Ross
After I checked in at Columbia University this afternoon, I walked past my dorm room because the number on the door was covered. I came back though, realizing it had to be 309. The poster on the door of John Belushi making a slanted eyebrow glance with a letter jacket and t-shirt was covering it. At the bottom, it said “college.”
I’d arrived at my home for the next two weeks, greeted by my friend Corey’s designer touch.
I didn’t unpack and we were out the door with a Frisbee and down to the nearest park, Morningside, for a little toss.
To most, it probably looked like a couple of bums on vacation slinging the disk. But as the conversation spun back and forth about family and events of the summer, we were aware of the work that lay ahead. We were practicing what folks at the U call a heuristic, I suppose. It’s a getting to know each other activity, of course. But our curriculum is organic. The work takes shape in and around the social work.
After our reception at the Holocaust Library, we hit Times Square and met a high school friend of Corey’s for a drink, where eventually Corey and I shared some of our common work and fun we’ve had as part of the Rural Sites Network. Again, retracing steps we’ve taken, presentations we’ve given, collaborations in the classroom, and writing we’ve done together. It just happened, but I think it’s an important step in our next collaboration, taking note of the paths we’ve shared.
By the time the night was done, a couple subways and bus rides later, we’d sketched out a timeframe of curriculum we will plan to coordinate with our students and a rough approach for 2010 semester with our senior high school students.
I’m re-hashing this because I think it’s worthy to emphasize how playtime is productive and creative. This is what summertime professional development is to me. It’s creative, it’s playful, and it’s refreshing. How often do teachers during their plan time or break just get away, take a walk, go shoot some hoops, or play Frisbee to work out a solution, a new approach, an innovative idea?
Where I work, usually not so much. It’s just not the conventional approach. Although I could take a walk and even visit other teachers, I usually stick with the cubicle and hammer away. But it feels like work. So, as I work and socialize here and feel the energy of this city, its architectural grandeur and it’s frenzied pace, my batteries are getting juiced. I can tell. It’s all working after the first afternoon and evening, here among teachers who’ve left their homes, spouses, children, families to do this work for the next 12 days.
