Lead. Learn. Grow.

I had the opportunity to attend my  first ASCD conference this year and to say the least, I was blown away.  There were so many dynamic sessions to choose from that I honestly had difficulty selecting just one session each time slot.  Needless to say, I will be at ASCD 2016!

Here are 3 Big Ideas that I will be using when I return to my school.

1. Set the expectation, make it clear,  and hold myself and my teachers to the expectation. Todd Whitaker spoke about treating all teachers like they are the best teachers. I want to embrace that idea more fully. Treating all teachers like my best teachers enables me by default to do the things that good teachers appreciate but which happen to be the things that make lesser teachers uncomfortable. This discomfort will hopefully inspire opportunities for growth while my great teachers will feel appreciated and empowered.

2. Using Twitter to rebrand my school. Twitter and social media are powerful tools that can be used to tell our story. I attended as session by Leigh Jones, Nakia Hardy, and Charlotte Holmes. They discussed the power of social media for administrators.  I will be adding reminders to my calendar that alert me to tweet the positives about my school. I will also be creating a school hash tag for my stakeholders to follow.

3. Observations are futile without providing feedback. Feedback is one of the greatest tools at our disposal. I attended a session where Joe Mazza and others discussed how to DIY your professional development. Out of that session came several things I wanted to try with our staff. However indirectly, I began to think about how I currently use Voxer and how it could be used. I will be experimenting with two ways to provide my teachers with timely and more targeted feedback using Google Forms and Voxer.

Stayed tuned for updates and more ideas. If you recently attended a conference or PD that impacted your practice, please chime in and share those great ideas! I look forward to hearing from.

Lead. Learn. Grow.