Today was the first day of the 2018 Kenan Fellows Summer Institute, and boy, was it exciting! One of the main things the day did was to attempt to thoroughly prepare us for the week ahead…and quite a week it will be! It is so amazing to be surrounded by people who care so much about teaching…usually I have to be careful not to exhaust my welcome into the conversation by talking about teaching and how it can be used to change the world. Here, everyone wants to talk about it, and everyone has amazing ideas for how it can be made better! It has been a while since I attended a training and not a single person in the room was groaning, checked out, or goofing off from boredom. It is refreshing to be in a place where everyone is excited to be there learning together! Also, each time I expressed something that I was interested in learning more about, at least three people came up with an idea that was awesome for me to use! It was an awesome first day.
Based on the first day, I am looking forward to the rest of the week immensely. I am looking forward to the amazing educational ideas that will come out of conversations with the other fellows, as well as the ideas that they spur in my own mind. I am looking forward to the new friends that I will have leaving this place, and the memories that we will have together as we journey through this exciting learning experience together. My enthusiasm for teaching and learning is amplified in this environment, since every time I say something, I learn something new from someone else. I have been asking for something like this: an opportunity to just talk to other educators about their experiences as well as an opportunity to express my interests for which PD would help me grow as an educator, and on the first day, the Kenan Fellowship Program delivered. That could only mean that the rest of the week has more amazing learning to come.
When I was applying for the program, I read on someone’s blog that this program is a great way to make yourself better because it surrounds you with people who are better than you, and he couldn’t have been more correct. The leadership team that planned most of our PD is so great to talk with, and clearly brilliant when it comes to education, the other fellows are curious, highly qualified teachers who have amazing ideas, and the staff members are fabulous! I feel blessed and honored to be among this group of educators, and look forward to learning from all of the collected wisdom that is gathered here on this mountain this week.