Hoping It Is A Good Sign For All Still To Come - @CWPFairfield Goes Online Today

As we worked Sunday night on last-minute tweaks for the first day of Game On! Sports Writing and Little Lab for Big Imaginations I, a storm flew in overhead. For most of the hour it was thunder and rain, but as we finished the last tiny bits the sky cleared outside my window and a rainbow appeared.

Okay, I'll take that. We'll take that.

We debated whether or not to have the 7th year of Young Adult Literacy Labs at all, given the national situation, but we followed our friends in Arizona's lead (LOVE JESSICA EARLY) and said, "Let's try this online thing." With 4-weeks of a successful summer course, and 8 weeks with two courses moved online in the Spring, I saw the potential of what could be done. We moved to two hours because who wants to be on ZOOM for 6 hours, except those who create department retreats, and we lowered the cost. The result? We have just as many kids as if in person, but our kids are coming from all over the country.

We gotta write! A'ight? Bring on 6 weeks of literacy labs!

The tricky part for me has been modeling what is possible with the teachers who are running the camps, so that they can see the multiple ways to mix things up  to make the learning fun (online) as if we are in person. We are bringing guests, interviewing athletes, singing songs, writing, and learning: 120-minutes  we hope flies by because they are so engaging.

Elementary and middle school kids! We hope we are engaging, because we feel we earned that rainbow. High School kids...you're up next.

Day one of this pilot! It's all about to go down. I can't wait. Fingers crossed it all works.