I Geek Out Over Meeting Lucy Calkins!

For those of you who don’t know who Lucy Calkins is, let me enlighten you—she is the go to person for reading and writing workshop or anything literacy related. Calkins is the director of The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) at Columbia University, as well as the author of multiple literacy titles. If I could be her mentee, I would do it in a heartbeat (too bad TC doesn’t have a doctoral program in reading).

TCRWP holds workshops throughout the school year dedicated to guiding educators through a year of the Units of Study for writing and more recently, reading. I was lucky enough to be able to attend two workshops, one presented by Calkins herself--my (controlled) giddiness alone when I saw her could rival some teens--and the other by Project leaders. I was thrilled to be able to make a connection to the classroom again. I like being able to refresh knowledge about best practices for students in a full time classroom--especially since that’s the clientele I’m trying to help through my job.

Calkins is an incredible person—she really knows how to present to a crowd. She is very passionate about her work and really holds educators that are part of the Project in high esteem. She was kind enough to give a coworker and myself a tour of the offices for the Project (we got to sit in her office—OMG!) as well as have a lunch meeting with us (my company is creating a catalog of book collections from the lists provided—that we collaborated on--in her Units of Study for Reading, grades 3-5).

The Teachers College Reading And Writing Project Columbia University Home Page. (2010). Retrieved Sept. 12, 2010, from The Teachers College Reading And Writing Project Columbia University: http://rwproject.tc.columbia.edu/