I have always felt that communications is a key to so much that we do.
People who are good at communication get people to do things they want done, win grants and most importantly influence people.

Since I have a unique position in School Library Land – this really comes up very often for me.

A good experiment – go to a large family event and talk to relatives you have not seen in awhile. Try to explain what you really do. And you can’t take the easy way out and say teach. Many of us can’t even explain in simple understandable terms what we do to our own family.

If you pass the family test – it would be a great start.

If we had better communication we would make much better connections that would lead to more success in education and the quality of life we want for all our students!

We met regularly at the college, each represented by a chairperson and teacher. We selected new books, and a college professor, in this instance the poet Marie Ponsot, offered writing techniques, and we all participated in the activities. There were no lectures. We worked in small groups as well as one body of readers & writers. Everything was hands on, not theoretical conversations. College personnel visited our school to meet and work with our students, Based on our findings, we set up a program in our school for more teachers to participate in, we hired tutors for group work, and the Queens College Reading & Writing Program prospered for several years. Actually, when it ended many of us continued using the techniques we had developed in this collaboration. Often, as the coordinator in our school, I was invited to conferences for teachers at other CUNY colleges where I presented the materials I wrote on several books, including African literature (Achebe), as well as Toni Morrison’s work. I soon learned that my lesson plans circulated among many NYC schools, for these books had not been taught before.

It was a constructive experience for all, because there was no hierarchy (when the college staff presumed they’d lecture us, I protested, because we were “foot soldiers” in the war on literacy), and those who had little contact with issues we high school teachers faced learned for the first time it was like to teach 5 periods of subject matter 5 days a week, plus cope with many other responsibilities.. Even today, our collaboration of college & high school could be duplicated everywhere.