Summer learning at leadership institute

Last week Penfield administrators met at St. John Fisher for our annual retreat. Teacher leaders were invited for two of these days so the group reached upwards of 100 people. While objectives were many, primary was to get leaders together to discuss what our mission is here in Penfield, to collaborate with other leaders facilitating new learning, and then to collaboratively develop an action plans for each building going into next year. While the action plan for BT was not completely finished, it did lead to solid discussion and a blueprint was created. Our group was focused and good conversation took place on improvement goals.

What I appreciated most was the modeling of 21st century skills and we collaborated extensively, asked many questions to refine our thinking, used technology as a tool to access documents used during the training, and enjoyed the company of each other in a less stressful environment than we experience for 10 months out of the year. Kudos to Winton Buddington and Gene Mancuso for the role they played in both leading the BT conversation and the district conversation. By leading I mean facilitating rather than directing or telling. By leading I also mean not just giving the answers but encouraging the learners to find their own answers by entering the conversation. We are all leaders in this field and need to all be willing to enter the conversation about student learning and our own professional learning.