Nurtured Thinking

The first TLC workshop is officially in the books and it was a success! We collected the faculty's preferences for workshop topics for the year through a Google Survey. The TLC provided five choices: Project Based Learning (continuing from last year)  Communication Skills (inspired by students' perceived need) Content Area Literacy Differentiation Strategies Instilling Grit and Growth Mindset The TLC came to these choices by simply throwing out ideas on what we thought would have a large impact on student achievement-we came up with 11 choices, which was clearly too much.  Then, the TLC narrowed it down by voting for our top five, which was rolled out to the faculty.  It was important for us to provide the faculty with choice, but not just an open ended vote.  We wanted to it to be concrete and clear, so there would be a majority, but many voices of our faculty would feel they were heard.  The survey was simple-teachers voted for their first and second choices.  And

The second day of our Teacher Leadership Cadre Summer Retreat was at Papahana Kuaola in Kaneohe.  We were blessed to have a TLC member who works there in the summers and led us through sacred work in sacred land. The goal of this day was to move from understanding each other on a personal level to understanding each others' working styles and personalities.  We began by finishing the 2 minute speeches from the first day of the retreat and each of the three final speeches were deeply personal and revealed moments of profound impact on each of the speakers.  Through sharing with the team, these people showed that they trust in the group and believe in the process.  This trust and belief set the tone for a powerful day. After the speeches, we each shared our full names, place of birth, where we currently live, and a person we would like to bring to work with us today-this person could be living or passed, but someone who's spirit we would like in the work.  Such a simple s