Lincoln and Guion Creek Middle Schools–Indianapolis

Spent two days in Indianapolis visiting the teachers and some students in Lincoln and Guion Creek Middle Schools. This was our second time to Guion at the behest of curriculum specialist extraordinaire Jennifer H. – over at Lincoln we were introduced to her equally capable colleague Tiffany C. We so enjoy our visits to these schools that we often cite their model as a stellar example for providing professional development for teaching writing  across the curriculum.

Each morning started with a session for all the teachers in the school and then we met in small groups of two to four with content area teacher. As session with science teachers, a session with math and then with social studies. At Guion we also went into the classroom and modeled one of the lessons we presented with real live students.

This was the perfect opportunity for us to test drive a couple of the lessons we will be having come out in a new publication with Corwin in the Fall. We work often with the language Arts departments of school – but getting the chance to work with other content area teachers really stretches us as instructors and consultants, giving us a different lens to project our lessons through. I even whipped out some root cause analysis exercises from my days as a quality engineer.

An added bonus to this trip was that our friend and partner in rhyme – Rebecca Kai Dotlidge – a resident Hoosier – was able to join us at Guion Creek and sit in on (and participate and add to) our lessons with the staff.

Thanks to Tiffany, Jennifer and the principles of both schools, Kurt and Dan for letting us work with their dedicated staff.