Lessons from the Limb #2: The Legend of the Wolf

     Once upon a time there were two teachers who ruled over two independent domains.  Both of these teachers believed in the same things and worked closely together.  Then came this amazing opportunity - work together, combine kingdoms, unite forces.  They thought they were prepared.  They talked it all through.  They agreed on everything.  "Reader's Workshop?" one would suggest.  "Absolutely!" the other would reply.  "Morning Meeting?" one would put forth.  "But, of course," the other laughed back.  When it came to the big picture, everything was fairy dust, rainbows, and unicorns.

      But every interesting story must have a conflict, a plot twist.  When it came time to sort out the details, to get to the real work, something changed.  Out came the moon and these charming closely-aligned, collaborative teachers were transformed into:

ALPHA WOLVES BENT ON DOMINANCE!!!

     How does it end for our fairy tale heroines?  Is their alpha nature to be the downfall of our tale?

      As the moon slid back behind the clouds, the alpha teachers reverted to their normal forms, their rational selves.  They talked it out and realized they had learned another FLY AWAY: 

     You have to keep your eye on the bigger picture and communicate.  In the end, it really doesn't matter what font size your use or what color paper is chosen.  In the end, what matters is communication and taking care of your partnership.  Sometimes you have to cede control over the little things so you achieve a big picture vision that you couldn't do alone.

Still, better be careful around the full moon. Awwwww-whoooooo!!!

From the limb,

Ladies and Gentleman, We Give You......A HOLE!

A few days after school got out, we check in on our new classroom and discovered....

It is clear that this picture shows how much work we have to do.  Try, if you can, to see past the hot mess and focus on the hole.....because it is glorious.

So, why the hole you ask?  A crucial aspect of our vision of collaborative teaching is the union of two classrooms into one.  We felt that we needed one continuous space so that students could move fluidly, but more importantly feel like one community.   We wanted to be in the space that allowed for the greatest openning and were placed into two adjecent portables.

At first, we were a little disappointed with the size of the hole, we were initially thinking that it was going to be bigger.  After we saw that we had 17 windows (17!!!!...ok, more like 7 - the key point here is that it's a lot of windows), we were thankful for the wall space that was left by what remains of the dividing wall.

In conclusion, this room is going to be amazing!  We would like to give a shout out to our AWESOME custodians who got everything moved, cut, and cleaned!  Thank you!

From the limb,