Thursday, September 29, 2016

What's Next?

Our ECET2-MA2016 Twitter buttons are in!
Today's DESE Teachers' Cabinet Meeting made me realize once again that alining yourself with positive people who utilize good process with uplifting, promising goals and vision is the way to go. One has to steer clear of those that continuously bring us down, make us invisible, and frown on new ideas.

So, with that in mind, what's next on the agenda?

There was great enthusiasm for ECET2-MA2016 at today's meeting. Two members of the planning team, Kevin Cormier and Lisa Simon, were there with me and another, Audrey Jackson, was conferring via Twitter as she traveled to another professional event. We're really looking forward to a terrific day of Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teaching and Teachers. When positive, forward people get together the energy in the room is awesome. That was palpable today and I'm sure it will be evident at ECET2-MA2016.

In the room today there was lots of talk about edcamps, the Teacher Leadership Initiative (TLI), National Board for Professional Teaching (NPBTS), MTA's Summer Conference, Hosting Conversations, and TeachPlus's Policy Online course. There's certainly a lot of opportunity out there to get involved in the profession and develop your craft. Abby Dick as there today and she's leading #edcampmalden on October 15th. It's a morning only #edcamp and a terrific opportunity to learn with colleagues outside of your school. I plan to go.

We also exchanged many stories about school life. Those stories will serve me well in the days to come as I invest in lots of great math teaching and learning with our wonderful fifth grade students. Our TeamFive collegial and student team is off to a great start. Soon my colleagues and I will present at MassCUE. We've planned a presentation to demonstrate the many ways we use technology to boost collaboration, communication, and learning with shared learning community of students, colleagues, family members, administrators and other interested individuals.
If you go to MassCUE, join us at our presentation Wednesday!

I suspect our next few weeks of teaching will focus on solidifying routines, targeting and elevating learning experiences, and continuing to build a strong grade level community.