Summer workshops are fun.  You do them on your own time, connect with other teachers and learn in a stress free environment.  Over the past week and a half, I was able to participate in a couple workshops, both presenting and participating.

This past weekend, I traveled down to Philly to participate in the first #ntcamp. It was fun. Not only was I able to feel like a 20 year old again as I started the road trip from New Hampshire at midnight arriving in Philly by 7 am, I was able to connect face to face with many people in my Twitter PLN and make new friends as well.

While at #ntcamp, I led a session to integrate active listening strategies into poetry writing with @butwait @kylepace @aleaness @debschi and @cybraryman1.

First we listened actively to a short Fantasy on a Hungarian National Melody by Franz Liszt and brainstormed words we thought of as we listened.  These words were added in a collaborative brainstorm to a Wallwisher made on the spot by @butwait.

After some time, we started to put the words in an order that made sense and came up with a poem. The final poem can be found at http://typewith.me
Introductory Presidential Marching

Firm Regal Handshakes

Dashingly Dramatic Dance

Powerful Brass Procession

Culminating Celebration

Then @kylepace volunteered to narrate the poem into his iphone and uploaded it in audioboo.fm

Finally, I took our audio voice over and the piece itself and mixed them using audio editing software, Audacity. With this I was able to spread @kylepace’s narration through the duration of the piece. I uploaded it to share in soundcloud.com

And here is our final product.
Click here if Soundcloud player does not work: AL poem ntcamp

AL poem ntcamp by eliza_peterson

It was so great to collaborate with these people and come up with an audio memory of our mini collaborative project.

Here’s the Glog I made as a “handout” for the session.