Reini: first blogpost

After three days in New York, we arrived at Sunday evening in Providence, tired but also excited about what is coming.

After a warm welcome Chantel took me to her place where I will stay for three weeks.

On Monday I arrived at  the Met. I felt a little bit as coming home. It was nice to see familiar faces.

For the next three weeks I will be in the Unity building. After the pick me up I was brought to the advisory of Ailen, a 10th grade group.

After a day I can say it feels familiar to be here, I see a lot of things we already doing at our school. On the other hand, I've seen a lot of new things too.

Reinie van Schaijk

Practikon, Doetinchem

Dieuwertje: Mondays will be Mondays

Mondays will be Mondays…but some of them make a difference... like this morning.

I attended the pick me up at Equality. The teachers didn’t know what was happening... they had to wait in a separate room. When they got in they were surprised to discover that all students had prepared a ‘teachers-appreciation-day’. They prepared it like a top secret mission and put a lot of time and effort in it.

All teachers were seated to a long table. There was a great breakfast with fresh fruits, coffee en more. While the teachers were enjoying their surprise breakfast everyone was called to the front.  A few students gave them a certificate and told them why they’re appreciated. They also got a little present.

But it wasn’t really about the breakfast, the present and it even wasn’t about the great performances by students that we watched…

It was the atmosphere and the fact that these students arranged this, on their own to let their teachers know how they feel about them.

You can’t push these things or expect or force it…it’s the feeling of these students and their initiative and that makes it special…at least I got goose bumps!

Dieuwertje Greuter

Practikon, Doetinchem

First days at The Met

So, this is the first blog from the US!

After a nice few days in New York, and a long drive up to Providence on Sunday, we finally got to The Met on Monday.

The big group of Dutch educators from KPC Groep, that are staying for three days, are there too. We participated with some of their program. We heard Dennis and Elliot give great speeches, saw some very good LTI's, and tomorrow join them in the workshops.

Reini, Dieuwertje and Willem met their host families and advisors and started their training. So far they're doing great and their first blogposts will come up after this one.
They will write a couple of times a week so everybody can share in their adventures at The Met.

We are learning and unlearning and the adventure is just beginning... Stay tuned!

De allereerste Big Picture docententraining op The Met

Nog 4 dagen, en dan vertrekken we!

Met 3 docenten ga ik naar The Met, in Providence, voor drie weken intensieve training.
Willem van Haaften (docent Big Picture klas op het CSG Prins Maurits in Middelharnis), Dieuwertje Greuter (docent 2e fase op het Prakticon in Doetinchem) en Reini van Schaijk (coördinator en docent op het Prakticon in Doetinchem) zullen drie weken meelopen met een advisor op de scholen en ik ga ze begeleiden daarin.

Twee jaar geleden, toen ik een half jaar in de VS gewoond en gereisd heb, en een traineeship heb gelopen op The Met, had ik al het idee om een training voor docenten te organiseren. Met mijn eigen bedrijf, Visionele, als basis, heb ik de stap genomen om het te gaan realiseren. En nu staan we op het punt van vertrek.

Vrijdag, 29 april, gaan we vanuit Brussel naar New York. Daar gaan we eerst een paar dagen de toerist uithangen, waarna we op zondag 1 mei naar Providence verkassen. Dan volgen drie weken van meelopen, meemaken en meedoen.

Deze blog zal dienst doen als reisverslag. De drie docenten zullen als gastbloggers elke week een paar stukjes schrijven over wat ze meemaken, leren, zien en horen.

Binnenkort meer!