Welcoming 15 Phenomenal Educators to @CWPFairfield for the Invitational Leadership Institute

Today at Fairfield University, I am proud to welcome the 15 teachers, academics, and writers who were selected for the 31st summer cohort for the Invitational Leadership Institute. The campus was closed down for the weekend, so my little "Hulk" is loaded up with 400 Branch candies, 3.5 lbs. of Swedish Fish, 175 York Peppermint Patties, 50 bottled waters, and a 5 lb. back of Jolly Ranchers.

This year, a large percentage of campers in our Young Adult Literacy Labs have peanut allergies, so we need to have a nut-free zone (which is odd for chocolate-loving teachers who tend to love snacking on Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Almonds, and Crunch Bars. I went safe when filling up our writing pails, hoping that we still can get inspiration with hand goods that are easy to satiate our palettes as we meander through five weeks of writing together.

Up first on day one are back-to-back demonstrations on utilizing the writers' notebooks. We're also handing out the summer books and journals, as well as establishing the personal narrative as the first week's focus. In the writing pails are also pens, markers, pencils, stickers, sticky notes, scissors, and other materials that will come in handy when we're marking texts together and workshopping our own materials.

I envy those states whose schools get out earlier, so they can host their institutes during the cooler month of June. Yesterday, the 4th, was gorgeous, and I know we are heading towards the stickier months. It's all good, though, because we got a renovated room for our summer's actions and I'm sure the air conditioning will be humming and freezing us to frustration.

I'm looking forward to all that is still to come, but always have morning jitters before everyone arrives. Here's to the 31st class (my 6th at the University). As always, we welcome any and all who wish to join us for our 5-week celebration.