Wednesday, July 2, 2008

A new approach to planning

It doesn't seem possible, but we are only one month from the board retreat followed the next day by the administrator retreat with teachers right behind. It seems like the kids just left.


I always enjoy the retreats because they provide me with an opportunity to continue to tell my leadership story, to share what I believe are the important components of our work, and to observe committed people planning for another year of learning. This year is a particularly important year as we plan to focus more closely on the instructional practices embedded in our Classroom 10 journey.


Our principals have wanted to make this shift from a focus on why we need to move to Classroom 10 for quite some time, so it is exciting to be planning knowing of their desire. I shared some of our planned leadership journey for next year during my end of year feedback conferences with the principals. The feedback was good and it energized me to already begin planning my opening presentation. From some of my recent blog posts you know that early planning is not my norm.


Yet, as of today my powerpoint story is almost complete and I started just yesterday. It began with a vision of a great Presentation Zen slide that I couldn't get out of my mind so I just started. For the first time I also followed the author's advice and did my planning with sticky notes on a white board that Dawn gave to me. Using the notes and the board made it easy to move the notes around and try out different sequences and ideas. To my surprise, this process saved me time and I believe assisted me in condensing ideas and having a story that will actually fit the allotted time. It feels great!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mike,
Good luck. I always looked at the opportunity to meet with the Board as a chance to create a narrative that would help our kids. I know you are coming from the right place.

in gratitude,
pete