What an amazing Professional Development session! It all came together when I completed the survey of our PD! Wow, we were exposed to so much! Outstanding topics, outstanding speakers, and most of all the common goal of becoming Teacher Leaders as Kenan Fellows!

Will Cross did an amazing job breaking down the specifics of copyright and fair use.  I’ve never understood the specifics of the guidelines and have always relied upon my media specialist for the advice.  Now, I’m much more confident and can refer to the clearly outlined criteria from the power point posted on our wiki site!

I want to go back to school, full time, at NC State! I was in awe of the amazing settings provided at the Hunt Library but now I want to try out every room!  The tour

was excellent! The amount of time, the various locations, the knowledgeable guides, right down to the connectivity in each of the rooms!  I would love to collaborate with my Kenan Fellows in one of the rooms in the future!

I’ve had many opportunities to find out about my learning style, my leadership style, whether I’m a North, South, East or West thinker, but at this PD I learned about being an Originator.  There is power in knowing more about yourself! I use that knowledge to temper my enthusiasm if needed and to monitor the specifics I may have overlooked when suggesting a grand idea! Fortunately, I am surrounded by enough Pragmatists to keep me encouraged and yet grounded.  I noticed that the majority of our creative group of Kenan Fellows, to include our program directors, were Pragmatist! Those are the members of my collaboration team that I rely on to guide our next steps to the new idea! I’m wondering if my current role as a math instructional coach has caused me to think more like a Originator because I found a lot of my leadership traits aligned with the Pragmatist…of course leaning always towards the Originator.

My biggest take away from this professional development session was hearing about Education Policy from the perspective of Eric Guckian and J.B. Buxton. Eric presented a vision for teacher salary that hasn’t been articulated to the public in an understandable formula so teachers could actually buy into the possibilities of being paid on a different scale.  I would be in favor of developing teacher pathways that would provide additional salary for leadership roles.  Currently, the department chair or lead grade level teacher get a very small stipend for the additional time and responsibility they manage. These roles don’t necessarily promote increasing student achievement. The teacher pathways that Mr. Guckian described could provide greater opportunities for teachers who wish to stay in the classroom and accept a Teacher Leader role.

The opportunity to discuss and help implement positive change on the topic of teacher salary was articulated by J.B. Buxton in such a concrete way, it almost felt as if we could do something about it as an underpaid educator.  I shared my story and Kimberly video taped me on her smart phone so she could share it with her advocacy group in her school. Without that opportunity to share, positive steps may not have been taken.  J.B. offered his ongoing support and resources. I’m hoping to need them in the near future.

Lastly, I loved hearing about the experiences of Rebecca  and Sam as Einstein Fellows! Once I complete my Kenan Fellowship and my graduate degree at Meredith, I’m going to apply.  In the meantime, Rebecca offered some connections and I intend to follow up with her.

All in all, every moment was well spent. I learned more than I ever  expected and I gained greater insight as an educator and Teacher Leader.  I appreciate all the time, effort, planning, and arrangements that were made for these fabulous two days of professional growth!