Privileged to Be a Special Guest at a K-5 Publication Party Hosted by One Heck-of-a-School Administrator

In my first years at Fairfield University, I had a graduate student named Arlette Johnson who inhaled every lesson, every article, every book I assigned, and who also declared, "I'm going to be a bilingual elementary school teacher. I'm not sure about this secondary class."

She rocked the semester. While in there, she explored Digital-storytelling and the importance of visual literacy in early-writing development.

Forward a little. She was hired at Multicultural Magnet in Bridgeport and for several years she promoted her students to write Superhero stories and to put them into digital forms. She'd always invited me to their sharing party, where when I was lucky, I'd have Abu and Lossine with me to applaud her first graders. The writing was developed, original and amazing.

Forward some more. this year she worked as a vice principal in a new district and one of her goals was to raise money and to be sure that every student had an opportunity to publish their work. She invited me to be on a panel of experts and to offer feedback at the end of the ceremony.

This is how it went down. Every kid in the building arrived to the gymnasium with their published books. I read many of them and each kid was super proud. Mrs. Johnson then had a student panel represented from every grade who shared pieces of their stories: everything from fiction, to non-fiction, to celebrations of personal role models (including one older brother who attended so he could hear/read the story with his elementary-aged sibling - a college-bound baseball player who fought back the tears).

In the gymnasium/slashed auditorium were the teachers with their students. The celebration lasted 60 minutes and I couldn't help but be surprised when I was asked to take the Mic. I was honored to have the kids shout out (woot woot) their families, classmates and teachers. What struck me, however, is that hundreds of kids were still in a celebration of their writing. Without a doubt, Ms. Johnson and her incredible staff created a writing culture. They were a community of writers who were proud of their work.

After the hour ended, I was thrilled to have so many kids approach me because they wanted me to read (experience) their book. They were proud. I was also taken by a mother who came up to say she took off the day from work. Why? Well, she lost her husband two years ago and it's been hard. Ms. Johnson's promotion of writing processes, however, changed her daughter. In fact, she spent the entire year writing a biography of her dad and a love letter of appreciation. The mother cried and simply said, "I'm so thankful that my daughter is at this school. We worried about her when her father died, but then I read her book. My girlfriends and I cried together. This was her way towards healing."

Arlette, too, cried with the mother.

The teachers approached me, too, saying that they absolutely loved the writing community created by their school leader and that this assembly, her assembly, was unlike anything they've ever experienced as teachers.

That's the power of writing. That is the National Writing Project way. This is the evidence I rarely see, but recognize, when a teacher who gets it becomes a school leader.

So impressed and proud of everyone at their school.