Grow Dang It (please)

Summer is finally here!  Well, not quite – it officially starts this Friday but it’s still hot and will tip north of 90° today.  We made it through the school year, graduations, end of the year procedures, and beginning of the year planning.  And for teachers, as I’m learning first hand, summer presents lots of “growth” opportunities.  As I was doing some research for this post, I came across the following infographic (source cited in illustration):

I intentionally shaded out the salary because that’s a topic for a later day (or new biennium for those following this past legislative session).  What I wanted to highlight here is how school systems try to build capacity through professional learning.  And based on many factors, these efforts tend to load up during the summer months.

Tomorrow we kick off our district’s annual digital learning event now entering its fifth year – Converge. This summer showcase of best practices is the brainchild of our instructional technology team in efforts to create a unique conference vibe in our own backyard and has grown to be quite successful.  We invite teachers to share lessons learned with their peers, bring in leading experts on engagement and student learning with a particular emphasis on the technology intersection, open the doors to area school districts, and most importantly, make the learning fun for big kids along with the younger ones in some cases.  This year’s event will be held at one of our high schools and has a carnival theme.  Readers can watch a short video clip by clicking here.

So what have I learned observing this event and lending partial support in the planning after five years (as a disclaimer I missed year 1)?  Well, for starters, much like the garden sign below that my wife shared with me in introducing one of my summer projects, the difference in compliance and commitment can never be understated.

If you want to help teachers grow, it needs to be on their terms and presented after much thought.  I can attest to the hard work and attention to detail the three visionaries running our IT shop have put in to pulling off this event.  Oftentimes when we debriefed during planning sessions I would start relapsing into my “this is silly and stupid” bubble in response to some of the activities they were planning to which these ladies in sync would point out maybe I was the silly/stupid one.  We had several of these touché moments made possible because in general we have a strong enough circle of trust.  I’ve also come to accept Murphy’s Law and inevitably things happen.  The next lesson I’ve learned is it helps to know people, particularly the right people.  Just this morning I spent time in a conference call with our facilities boss in what started out as an SOS dispatch yet ended with a solution and additional support.  In any business, you need to know your solution providers.  And finally, when you compete for people’s time, be a winner.  We’re building capacity tomorrow with 750 leaders in education who are growing this profession (and we didn’t even have to say pretty please).