“It was the best of
times, it was the worst of times…”
(but the best of time
blew the worst of times completely out of the water!)
This oft quoted line from Dickens
(with my additional bracket) summarized my last week on the road. The two
cities are Fontana and Smithfield. For those unfamiliar with these two great
places, they are in California and North Carolina respectively and are 4,072 km
and three time zones apart. Therein the adventure began…
I’ve been
working with curriculum design teams at each grade level in Fontana as we
create high quality units of study using Larry Ainsworth’s Rigorous Curriculum
Design process. We’ve met about a dozen times and are focused on ELA and
aligning with the new standards. I’m now sharing the work with all teachers and
we’re meeting by grade level. I really enjoyed the energy level of the grade
three teachers as we met all day on Monday. They asked good questions and were
appreciative of the work their colleagues had put in to create the first unit.
They made Monday feel like the best day of the week!
I hustled
out of Fontana to make the drive to LAX where I had a 10:30 pm red eye flight
to catch, with Raleigh, NC being my terminus and a 6:20 am arrival. Sounds like
fun, right? I slept a little on the flight and arrived early, grabbed the
rental car and set my GPS for the drive. Apparently, some rental car outlets
are so concerned about smoking in their vehicles that they disconnect the
lighters. This does not work well with keeping a GPS charged! Shortly after
crossing into Smithfield, the screen went blank. The hotel sign made that part
obvious but finding the presentation site was a different matter. I got
directions and then proceeded to loop around the site (not clearly identified,
in my support) numerous times before asking a friendly police officer about the
location (just behind me as it turned out). The next eight hours flew by as I
rode the energy of the group and didn’t have time to think about any latent
tiredness. A disclaimer here – I am not the energizer bunny! As my wife can
attest, I power down around 9 each night as my eye blinks get increasingly
longer. It doesn’t make sense that I could be awake at 6 am Monday morning,
work with the Fontana group all day, fly all night, and then work all day
Tuesday. It is clearly the power of educators who are so engaging and committed
that it causes me to be alert and focused on their work and how I might assist.
To be
clear, at the end of Tuesday I did get back to my hotel (after an early dinner
with my local colleague Keith) and just needed to rest for a few minutes before
tackling work for the next day. The minutes became hours and the work was
minimal after that! I did get up early the next morning for my run and then had
the pleasure of working with the group again before heading back to the airport
at 4:30 for the flight back to Fontana.
The weather
moved in and made for some interesting moments. It was a case of emotional
highs and lows as I arrived to RDU early enough to have a cold drink (high),
get to my gate on time and see no plane (low), hear that the plane was on the
way (high), but we ‘d be leaving late (low because I had a short transition
window in Houston to my next flight), it would still work out to board (high),
the weather had turned nasty with winds and rain (low), the incoming plane
arrived (high), we got to board before the storm hit (higher), we left the gate
(highest), we stopped after ten feet (low), the storm arrived (lower), we’d have
to wait it out for 40 minutes on the tarmac (lowest because now my window to
the next flight was lost), we took off (high but who cared now?), we landed in
Houston just as my next flight was scheduled to leave (maybe a high?), my next
flight was delayed by 15 minutes (now we’re talking!), I had to collect my gate
checked bag (low as it took forever), I decided to abandon my bag to catch my
flight (low), I was stopped by the agent and told I had to claim my bag (really
low), but then informed that this was the gate for my next flight (wow!, high),
and the plane was the one I just got off (high like winning the lottery!). I’m
sure of the entire plane of passengers, I was the only one now not bothered by
the late arrival and was clearly the only one who made his/her next connection.
We left the gate but then stopped. The captain informed us we had a weight
problem and it would take 15 minutes to burn off excess fuel (better than
asking passengers to leave or taking baggage off!). We finally departed and landed
at ONT close to midnight.
The next
morning was a little tough to roust myself and get to the site in advance of
the second cohort of grade three teachers. I had my doubts about how effective
I could be for them and really needed a cup of morning coffee to jolt me. I got
to the site and the magic happened again. Teachers filed in with great energy
and stories to swap even before we began. One of the participants from the
Monday session came by with a coffee for me. I was incredibly touched and tremendously
appreciative. She had listened to me sharing an anecdote about kids following
their passion and how this would lead to satisfaction when they made the
transition to life after high school. I shared about having coffee in the same
shop in my small town and how the person that works there knows my name and my
drink. This teacher remembered the drink and brought one to me! Awesome! The
day flew by and I left for the airport tremendously inspired by the
opportunities I am presented with each day to work with such magical
professionals.
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