A delightful time

I'm having a delightful time facilitating AKOM at a school with a receptive staff. Great conversation and interactive activities have all worked well. I suspect the afternoon will pass by more swiftly than the morning, The school is on a high because of their first ever Exemplary rating.
I like facilitation so much more than training--the rich conversation that occurs has such wonderful implication for further dialogue once I'm gone. It also puts the onus on the participants and reduces the " I'm it" role.
Although I'll be dead tired at the end of the day--physically and mentally-because facilitation does require 'nudging' responses and thinking ahead. I like that challenge--the mental leaps the mind makes when active, engaging dialogue is taking place. A wicked schedule is on the horizon after the PD wave is over--and I'm sure I will probably long for a few days intellectually kicking it with a group of nice educators.

I don't need to be training

It's funny--I am swamped with pending contracts, another potential presentation to a customer, personnel issues, e-TRAIN snafu's, marketing needs, my back is whack-- and basically, I don't need to be training, but it's 11:00 p.m., my presentation is spread all over the floor and I'm actually pumped about facilitating All Kinds Of Mind on tomorrow. First of all, because I'm a special educator at heart and I truly believe that focusing on children's affinities can transform teaching. Second, it has phenomenal implications for RTI. By merely understanding how children are wired, real solutions can be implemented. From the truly gifted to the truly learning disabled, we bring their passions and interests to the table and help them soar. So although I really don't need to be training--I REALLY NEED TO BE TRAINING!!

Hope and a good attitude

My beliefs and values are grounded in my faith and my faith is built on hope. So when I was not my typical optimistic hopeful self last week, I was pretty hard to live with. I didn't realize it at the time, but seeing progress and forward movement made me dread returning to an entrenched bureacracy. And I failed to bury it to get the work done. I spoke words out of turn, worried a few people and walked around angry with myself. I was simmering all week.

And then, this morning I went to my church and Daniel with his beautiful voice sang, LLM "Love Lifted Me", a song I grew up with. It touched me to my core and filled me with hope and a good attitude. Got some disturbing news-twice-and didn't get shaken. Re-occuring backpain is back--but got some brief therapy and I'm set for the week.

So when folks look at me sideways this week, and fires start to pop up all over, I'll replace the negative thoughts with positives and quietly hum that sweet old hymn.

Success

After the Senior Staff presentation on Friday I have a new respect for the group that leads our division. My team members came correct and all brought their A-game. Thank God, the technology worked and the transitions were seamless. Although we used three tools, they were extremely well received--a sometimes wordy group(except for our mist in our sist) we were all masters of Marzano's top strategy "Summarization" It was a good feeling to be the perfect tag team on a day when we only got one shot.

Wild Ride

I hope we have a wild ride this year with lots of new learning and finally a true new way of doing things. I'm hoping our speak will match our action. I'm hoping we we will all become creative innovators who are technologically savvy using web 2.0 tools in relevant ways. I hope we won't be afraid to ask the difficult questions. I hope we will stretch ourselves in ways that are uncomfortable but rewarding. I hope that we will be the first choice of many as we become so off the chain, they will label us 'fascinating'. I hope.....