I thought you might like a glimpse into the land of Frost. The first photo is the barn, where we hold the Conference on Poetry and Teaching. This is no dandified ex-barn-turned-conference-center: it's got mice and squirrels and the scent of old tools and mosquitoes and dampness and no heat . . . and the "no heat" bit was pretty hard this year, given a week of 55-degree rain. Nonetheless, when I polled the participants about the possibility of moving to a warmer place, not one person wanted to spend the week anywhere else.
The second photo is the front porch of Frost's house, where we ate lunch and huddled in the evening and stared across the valley at the mists of Lafayette Mountain. As you can see from my flipflops, the temperature did manage to moderate on the last day of the conference. For most of the week I was wearing winter boots and a turtleneck.
As far as I'm concerned, this was one of our best conferences yet. The participants were varied and engaged and heartfelt and brilliant and modest and hilarious and idealistic and pragmatic, and they loved loved loved loved words with all their hearts. It was such an honor to sit among them as a colleague.
3 comments:
And colleagues we are all are. I wanted to be in each and every person's classroom and to learn from them as a student. I know that coulda, woulda, shoulda will cause me to bleed to death; however, I am am such a better person from meeting everyone; not only this year, but in previous years too
I agree with Ruth and Dawn. I deeply enjoyed listening to everyone's ideas, best practices and poetry. Now, I am inspired to create new activities and lessons. Ah,the power of poetry and communication!
Lori and Ruth, it was a wonderful week for me as well. I always leave the conference feeling as if my love for poetry and teaching have been reborn.
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