Connections

Did you know my husband, Marc, and I met on JDate when we lived in New York City back in 2004? One of the many questions in the JDate profile was: Are you willing to relocate. I declared I wasn’t.

Three years later, I moved from Manhattan to Providence where Marc had moved for a fellowship. Two years later, we didn’t move back to New York. We moved to Central Pennsylvania. We’ve been living there ever since.

So much for not being willing to relocate!

Turns out I was willing to relocate for the right person. But that doesn’t mean I don’t miss my life in Manhattan. Even after 11 years away from this City, I still love everything about it. Truly.

This week is one of my favorite weeks of the year since I get to spend it in Manhattan studying at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project’s Summer Writing Institute. (This is my 14th summer institute!) While many people spend the week going to shows and museums, I spend the week doing what matters most to me: reconnecting with friends, former students, and former colleagues.

So far, I’ve seen:

Christina was a student teacher in my fifth-grade classroom in 2006. She was dynamic! We’ve been friends ever since she finished student teaching ended. Here we are enjoying dinner at Toloache 50 last night.

Kristi has been part of the Slice of Life Community since 2012. She and my cousin taught together internationally a few years ago, which was a neat connection! We sat together for Lucy Calkins’ Keynote Address in Riverside Church, had lunch together, and then landed up in the same closing session.

Kelsey, one of the TWT co-authors, and I met up for dinner in Midtown this evening. When Kelsey realized I was gluten-free, she found a fantastic article about gluten-free restaurants. We checked out one of the places, Friedmans, on the list. Here we are eating gluten-free chicken and waffles, which I had never tried until tonight.

Besides the folks above, I found myself sitting at the same table as Marilyn, a fellow Slicer, in my afternoon session. Also, I’m seeing people all over TC I’ve studied with through the years. It’s only Monday and it’s already been a tremendous week. The rest of the week will bring college friends, former students, and former colleagues!

I miss my Marc, Isabelle, and Ari. Wherever they are is home.

But… home will (also) always be New York City… no matter how many years I’ve been away.

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Embedded Text Structures

Text structures help you pay attention to books in a different way. Natalie Louis, one of my section leaders at the TCRWP Reading Institute, spent a lot of time teaching us that understanding nonfiction text structures can help kids to organize their thinking about their reading.

The seven text structures that entire books, chapters, or sections of books can have are:
1). Question/Answer
2). Lists
3). Categories
4). Problem/Solution
5). Process
6). Cause & Effect
7). Compare & Contrast

As a result of today’s session, I’m going to start paying greater attention to the text structures of the nonfiction books I buy and read aloud to Isabelle. I know that many of the nonfiction board books we have in our home are question/answer and list types of books. I’m now going to be more intentional about looking for a greater variety of text structures when I seek out nonfiction books for our home.