Welcome to our blog!

As an Expeditionary Learning School, teachers are often brought into Professional Development situations in which they become active participants, and are introduced to new concepts, ideas and protocols as students. We are asked to experience what we demand of our students. Teachers live what our students learn. We take the same journey they take. And this has never been truer to me than the process I went through in writing this grant that will take Stephanie and myself to Ireland to research.

I wrote the first draft of this grant in the fall of 2004 during nap times. I had taken a year off from work to be a mom. And while my young children napped, I would write. Needless to say, it took months to write the first draft. After months of writing, Stephanie and I spent months revising the grant. We sought various advice. Finally we submitted the grant in the winter of 2007. We held our breaths...we didn't get the grant that first year. No matter, we thought, we'll apply again. Spring and Summer and early Fall passed. Again, the grant was taken out for revisions. We used examples of grants from winners from the previous year to make changes, we sought advice from other people, and revised until we could practically recite the entire 4 pages from memory. In the winter of 2008, we submitted the grant again. We held our breaths....a little more cautiously this time. We didn't get the grant. This time, it was a little harder to pick ourselves up and say, "no matter, we'll apply again." But we did say it. We wanted this badly.

Spring and Summer and early Fall passed. Again, the grant was taken out in November of 2009 to begin the process of revising. Again, we used examples of grants from the winners of the previous year to revise our grant. We sought advice, and truly, this time, after hours, weeks, months, years....we could recite the entire 4 pages by memory. We submitted the grant in January 2010. We held our breaths....cautiously... in the back of my mind, I wasn't sure if I could take another rejection and turn around and revise again. BUT, this week...we found out we got our grant! Years of emotions flooded in, and I can't tell you how proud I am of what we accomplished.

One Expeditionary Learning School Design Principle is "Success and Failure: All students need to be successful if they are to build the confidence and capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important for students to learn from their failures, to persevere when things are hard, and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities." As teachers in an EL school, we experience what our students experience. What I learned about myself during the process of writing, submitting, re-writing, and re-submitting, and re-writing and re-submitting, is that I know what it means to persevere...and that I CAN persevere, and I CAN achieve what I put my mind to. So, here we are. Welcome to the blog that will chronicle the journey we have taken and the journey we will take to research in Ireland. WE MADE IT!!!
Noel