Reflections from the Model Schools Conference

I spent the last 3 days at the Model Schools Conference with a team of teachers from my school along with one of our district Instructional Program Specialists.  During the course of the three days we heard from visionary education leaders on topics such as school transformation, branding, storytelling, data and the importance of equity.  We were all impacted by the stories we heard and walked away with so many ideas and strategies that we were excited to implement back at school in the fall. 


One of the biggest takeaways I had though was the importance of creating a STRATEGIC action plan with short-term goals to help us stay on track through the implementation of our plans.  I know I am often guilty of beginning the school year with great ideas and plans, but then as the year progresses and we get into the weeds and begin putting out fires, I tend to (unintentionally) abandon those ideas and plans because I get so focused on the here and now.  Sometimes I see myself as a visionary in the summer but I become more reactionary during the school year.  I think some of that is normal, but one of my goals for the year is to take our ideas and dreams from this conference and take it one small step at a time.  As I often say in our PLC meetings, "Rome wasn't built in a day!" As we look forward and begin the process of creating our action plan, we discussed creating an action plan around two areas: 1) Culture and 2) Rigor, Relevance, Engagement and Relationships.  In the process of creating a long-term action plan, we plan to create shorter 30 day action steps to help us accomplish our greater goals.  We believe this will help us to remain focused, and to take our school transformation one step at a time, which we believe will hold us more accountable and ultimately be more successful in reaching our goals to take our school to the next level!