This Is What I Want To Build
Summer camp, but for educators.
Not in media centers or cafeterias,
but out in nature with sunlight
and breezes and sleeping in cabins.
With fires and stars.
And no outlined agendas or
PowerPoint presentations.
No sit and gets. No rows.
No learning in lines or inside boxes.
No Keynote Speakers,
full of expertise and fixes.
No maps. No demands and
nothing mandatory. No protocols
with Post-Its and chart paper.
But then, plenty of chart paper,
and Post-Its, and Sharpie markers,
and glue sticks and pencils,
scissors and stickers and LEGO bricks,
scrapbook paper and fabric scraps,
and cameras and iPads and scanners,
microphone stands, printers, paint,
power tools, robots, video games,
green screens and costumes,
and musical instruments.
All free to use, to make, to take,
and to get hands-on, design, create.
And space for activity and
space to escape, for self-selecting-
up early, up late.
Days of exploring what we want
to explore, and days to restore
what we need to restore: our
raison d'etre, our sense of play.
And opportunities for celebrating
what matters in our work, and seeing
ourselves in that mirror, and saying
out loud, You know what would be cool?
And chasing that. Taking the time
to chase that, and to sustain
our collective wonder, to find the joy
that's hiding in our shadows.
With time for talent shows and
hootenannies, and team sports,
and yoga and writing poems in the shade.
Time to both eat and digest,
to stretch and to rest.
To unpack the taped-up boxes,
and untie our balloons.
To walk our winding paths back,
and knowing what we know,
to return to learning happy,
and on our own terms.
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