My Best Collaborations Are When I Introduce People & Then They Make The Magic

Earlier this year, librarian Colin Neenan of Staples High School reached out with an idea to partner English educators at his school with English educators at another. The teachers wanted to read Angie Thoma's The Hate U Give and they had funding to invest in the project. I suggested two English teachers that worked with CWP on the College Ready Writers Program and their Principal, Kathy Silver, as possible partners.

Emails were exchanged and I simply guided and made suggestions where I could. I shared a few chapters I've written with Colin, and encouraged him to think about dialogue and democracy that could exists between the two schools.

The first met at Harding in Bridgeport, and for the 2nd meeting I suggested a workshop at Fairfield University. The Harding kids voted no. They wanted to attend another high school in the state for the date. They attended Staples in Westport.

I was amazed by how quickly the kids got into their discussion groups and how every book they brought had sticky notes annotation. As I walked around the room, everyone was discussing the story and working with one another through the plot and where they lost clarity. The collaborators then challenged the kids to do body biographies and to draw from the text to justify their choices. They all had a lot of fun tracing the body of someone in their group and working through the text to made decisions.

I am, because we are. Ubuntu. For this one, I simply named phenomenal people to collaborate with phenomenal people and then came to observe the wonder of it all. It made Thursday magical, especially in anticipation of this frantic Friday.