Communal Reading
Are you picturing several people sitting cross-legged on big floor pillows, drinking herbal tea, and reading poetry aloud between gentle yoga stretches? While that sounds appealing (and before I had kids you might have hit the nail on the head with that image), that is not what I mean.
For the past few days I have spent a chunk of my evenings reading Reyna Grande’s memoir, The Distance Between Us, the story of her family’s emigration from Mexico to the U.S. The story is powerfully relevant as the U.S. attempts to deal with large numbers of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. When Reyna was 2, her father left her hometown of Iguala, Mexico, to find work in the United States. Her mother left Reyna, age 4, and her two siblings for the U.S. two years later, to return to them a single mother. When she was 9 Reyna and her siblings came to the U.S. and after several years the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act allowed them to become U.S. citizens. Continue reading “Communal Reading”
April 7-11, 2014, is 
This week I will ask my kids to tell me what they are thankful for. I will most likely get the usual responses – my dog, my video games, my doll, my Transformers. And when I ask them to reflect a little more I’ll get some answers I like better – my house, my family, my coat, healthy food. This year I decided that I will put a little thought into it before I sit down at the table. And as I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about how grateful I am for the compassion and empathy I have seen inside my children’s school this month. 
A few months ago, I wrote a blog titled 
On Monday, the West Wind Education Policy team – including our colleague who telecommutes from 2 hours away – gathered in the West Wind offices for a staff retreat. We do this twice yearly and spend one to two days working together side-by-side. During this retreat we spent the first part of our day focused on our social media strategy for ourselves and our clients and partners. During the afternoon we spent some time discussing how we physically work together and how we could best use our space and the tools we have to make our work stronger and grow our relationships. 
In education reform, technology increasingly allows us to work across classrooms, schools, districts, states, and often even international borders. Online dialogues via email are a way of life for most of us and we routinely connect through webinars, Google Plus, Discussion Forums, Twitter, Facebook, and many other platforms. Online communities of practice and collaboration sites allow ongoing working relationships that span time zones and geographical borders to promote continuous knowledge sharing. Many of you may have been part of a community of practice in the past or are currently a member of one or more of these types of communities – whether completely online, in-person, or a mixture of both. If you are not familiar with online communities of practice, visit the