By Kalan Gott

One of our goals this year is to model the importance of letting the students talk to each other. As people we know that when we brainstorm with others we come up with more and better ideas. The saying goes five heads are better than one. Last year when Mal and I were here we spent all day in the same classroom getting to know one group of students. We strengthened our relationship with the students, staff, and school. However, this year there are five in our group. With five women working together here is some of what we have accomplished this year: modeling reflection, professional discussion, incorporation of reading, writing and speaking into lessons, questioning to guide deeper comprehension, collaboration among teachers and library staff leading to more deliberate instruction, incorporating a system of checks and balances, and planting the seeds to grow a professional learning community. Week one afforded us the opportunity to work with eleven inspiring educators. I look forward to seeing what week two brings!