PD Day 2

Today was different because all of KIPP: NJ's (TEAM Schools') new elementary school employees met together.  In the morning, we had a presentation by Ryan Hill, our CEO. As an introduction, he gave us 6 minutes to make a poster with our name, where we worked before, where we will be working this year, and a picture about ourselves.  What he didn't tell us was that he would call on each of us and have our picture (whichever one he was able to find on social media) pop up on a slide show when it was our turn. Most of the pictures were fine, but he did mention that when he did this project another year, he searched for the most embarrassing picture he could find, which would probably be way funnier.  It was awesome to be introduced to everyone (must have been 100+ people in the room) and I've never had a boss put that kind of pre-work in before.  After everyone participated, he told us a little about his story and how we will help TEAM Schools will live up to its mission: "One day, our nation will know Newark, New Jersey, as a city of world-class public education."

Today's PD was based off of the book Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov.  Uncommon Schools runs Teach Like a Champion workshops, but our school leaders presented the material today. We worked on giving specific directions, chunking directions together, providing positive narration, and correcting when necessary.

End of summer... Beginning of a new year at THRIVE!

So summer is officially over. I got to do a lot of really fun, relaxing things like go on vacation, read books for pleasure, and go to concerts. I got plenty of time to simply relax, which is great because I will have no time for that this school year!

We had our first day of PD as an entire staff today. We heard Teryn's life river, studied our DISC analysis among grade-level teams, created "sticky" logos for each of our 9 focus areas this year, and began taking about professionalism and goal setting for this upcoming year. As a team, first grade discovered that many of us tend to be controlled when making decisions and prefer a stable environment with rules and systems in place for efficient work. We seem to have a lot of process oriented people versus a lot of action oriented people. One of the things I hope to work on more this year is taking action rather than talking about it. That goes for both inside and outside the classroom.

We will continue having PD (including 5 days of KSS (KIPP School Summit) in Houston, TX) until August 18th when our scholars start summer school. I know that this position will help me grow as a professional and I can't wait to see my kids grow as well. #thisisstillfounding #thirdtimesacharm