There can be times in your life, or work, or career that go down as really special. Last week was one of those weeks for me in my career that really stood out. (Three weeks ago it would have been my new granddaughter, Olive, but not this week).
We had a faculty meeting with so many new folks that we revisited Who the World of Learning Institute IS, and how we want to be when we get into our classrooms with students. We have some Virtual Learning Facilitators (VLFs)who have been teaching for some version of the WOL Institute for more than 15 years. We have been at IU8 now - 7, heading into our 8th school year.
My strong belief that Who teaches is so important, comes from my mentor and friend Dr. Sally Z. Hare. She was an early Fellow of the work of Parker Palmer and The Courage to Teach, in addition to so many other things! She helped me to see that no content, no learning, no connection will happen in a classroom, a faculty room, or a community if we don’t acknowledge WHO is in the room. That includes each teacher, parent, child, and administrator. We learn, teach, lead, and parent who we are. So starting off acknowledging this is an important factor - seeing the light in the eyes of our people as we spoke about the value of connection was, priceless. It made my week.
And as we dove into who we are - I felt the power of hope, the power of belonging, the power of trust, respect, competence, and integrity.
Seeing the interactions all week long between our seasoned and less seasoned people - supporting one another and sharing experiences was thrilling. Seeing the TEAMS chats with activities for the first live sessions, suggestions for how to set up homerooms, and just general good wishes felt so hopeful. It’s important to see each other as people. Some of our team were parents who were sending off children to college, others had first days of school, and some of us were just making our way through the beginning of another school year - excited and encouraged.
It has not been without struggle either, we moved to a new version of our SIS, Class+ from Genius, and it seems to be more than a little bit buggy. (Get out the nets and spray)! If you are a student or admin you may experience some of these bugs, too! AND, we are muddling through with fixes from the Genius Team and workarounds from ours. We huddled in Zoom, we called, we text, and we sent coffee and ice cream. Even virtually we can cheer each other up.
I am proud of our team, I am proud of the work we do. I am excited that we accept challenges. I am excited about the new people we have met on the way of this new adventure of hosting Extended Campus at the World of Learning. I am grateful for Jeff Malispino, who is leading the way for us. And, our WOL Institute team has also grown. The excitement and anticipation of learning and growing together is in the air.
I hope you are feeling as filled with abundance as we are!
Have a great start to your new school year!
Pat
PS - As always, if you need support for your learners’ we are here to help!
Best First Day, Ever!