2015-16 Kenan Fellows

To say “my week at NCCAT-Cullowhee was the best Professional Development that I have ever received as an educator” would be a HUGE understatement. These past few days were the perfect combination of team-building, reflection, growth, and FUN (plus there was some pretty tasty food)! It’s really something special about being around so many teachers from around the state who are just as passionate as you are about their craft and can push you to be an even better version of yourself. I feel that is what the other fellows and presenters did for me this week.

Most PDs tend to be quite monotonous where the presenter talks for hours, which leads to very minimal time for collaboration and discussion to make the presented information relevant to your specific classroom. In SHARP contrast, the PD that we received at NCCAT was structured in a way that encouraged us to discuss how we will incorporate presented materials in our classrooms and gave us time to bounce ideas off of each other. If I was forced to choose a professional development session that made the most impact on me, it would HAVE to be #edcamp. I hadn’t heard of this style of PD prior to this week but as soon as it was introduced I was intrigued. It was powerful to see us come up with the various topics to discuss and then have no specific plan or actual presenter in the session in order to promote free flowing, organic conversations among educators. It was very odd at first and took some time to get used to the lack of structure but some very interesting discussions were able to arise that don’t typically occur in the PD setting. I will be looking into an #edcamp session in my area this fall and them possibly helping plan one in the near future. I would also like to see how this style of choice and discussion would work within the classroom setting. I can visualize having my students come up with a list of various topics that correlate to the unit we are covering and then having them freely rotate around the room in groups without any specific requirements from me. I feel it is a very loose concept at the moment, but I was definitely inspired by this #edcamp process and would love to see how students would interact in that setting.

Aside from #edcamp, many other concepts and resources were shared throughout the week. One that sticks out to me as something that I definitely plan on implementing in the fall was a result of conversation during our Keynote presentation by Leading to Change. While openly discussing how we hold students accountable the idea of Student Led Conferences came up. I have been toying around with this idea for this past year but was given a few resources by another Fellow that clearly outlines expectations for students and would make the process easier for teachers in my grade level to explain from Day 1. I immediately text my grade level administrator and we are both excited to have our sixth graders take more responsibility for their learning by being able to acknowledge assignments that they worked well on, poorly on, and things they can improve on in each of their core subjects. I can’t wait to see our students grow through that process!

#teamdirt plus one!

While all of this learning was going on throughout week, I believe that THE BEST part of this first Kenan PD experience was the fact that relationships were built so quickly among all of the Fellows. I feel that I met and got to know so many of the amazing teachers this week and began to form friendships and relationships that will not only be amazing for me but also for my students. We have bounced so many ideas and stories (even some horror) around about our classrooms that it would be CRAZY if any of us left Cullowhee without a few things we were excited about doing for the upcoming school year. I never would have thought that rafting the Nantahala would bring people together the way it did. I am so happy to be a part of this cohort of Kenan Fellows and cannot wait to see what this year has in store for us! This was a “summer camp” experience that I will likely never forget 🙂

Rafting the Nantahala Falls…before half the boat fell out