First Week 2016-2017 - Bethke Elementary

We entered week 1 with the best resource FINALLY stepping foot in our brand new building – our scholars! Learners arrived at Bethke Elementary on Monday from many locations in and out of our district. Our school opened our doors with 613 students ready to embrace learning! It was such a beautiful sight. When a new school opens, there are so many possibilities for all the new ideas that will flood into a building from ALL learners!

The excitement on our campus is just amazing! All of our resources haven’t quite arrived and you would never know from the activities happening in classrooms. Teachers creatively provided open-ended opportunities for our scientists, mathematicians, and readers. It has been fun to enter learning studios this week to see all our learners engaged and collaborating with others on projects. Thank you Bethke educators for making sure our students loved learning this week. I can't wait to see what this school year brings as we Build our Bethke Legacy! Follow the action on Twitter #BethkeLegacy.

Check out some of the sights…

Smiling families greeted our educators on Monday!	Bus driver gave high fives to ALL learners. What a way to start the day!	Flexible/Choice seating took over our campus. Thanks #desklesstribe.
Collaboration during fifth grade science experiment. “How/Why” was topic of conversation!	Yes, reading workshop happened on Week 1 in fourth grade. Thank you, Mrs. McKiernan.	I love hanging out in the cafeteria and engage in conversations with our learners. They teach me so much daily!

Journey

The last couple of days have truly changed me as a mom and educator. My husband and I traveled to Michigan to get our son, Austin, set up for his first semester in college. A stream of emotions have accompanied me on this journey. I am so proud of what this young man has accomplished in his eighteen years of life. His dream of playing baseball in college has come true and he secured an amazing scholarship (87%) to make it happen! Austin knows the power of sticking with something that you love through all the ups and downs. He knows how to make choices, learn from mistakes, and handle conflict on his own. There has been such a delicate balance of leading him and allowing him to walk forward alone. We have worked hard to give him the opportunity to navigate through life’s twists and turns. The game of baseball has taught him so much and most importantly how to persevere; that will carry him far in life.

Watching Austin take the next steps on his educational journey makes me want to thank some special educators who touched him with wisdom, but more importantly spoke to his heart. Thank you to Julie Cruser, Deedria Bourgeois, Vicki Armentor, Rafael Villarreal, and Mark Fobian. I want each of you to know that your planted seeds in Austin have taken root and have made a difference in his life. A little piece of each of you is now ready to shine in Michigan for the next four years. Thank you for pouring your heart into our son.

Educators, please know that you play such a big part in our learners’ lives. When we focus on building our learning spaces with love, everything else is secondary. You will never know just how far your reach will influence a student. Many of you won’t see the fruits of your labor for many years to come…just know that it will happen. My hope is that someone remembers to say thank YOU many years later. 

Austin and mom after dorm room was assembled. Success!	Mason (roommate) and Austin with Dr. Ditzler (Albion President) while taking a tour of this beautiful home.	Faculty creating a “clap in” to welcome all incoming freshman. This was one of those heart moments this weekend – pure love!

TEPSA 2016 - Learning and Growing

It has been shared by several passionate leaders that powerful ideas happen through reflection. I’ve heard that the first 48 hours after an event one must take time to reflect and capture thoughts for real change. That means that it must be time for me to reflect on my #TEPSA16 adventure. I believe I began attending the summer TEPSA conferences in 2011 and this summer’s event was one of my favorites by far due to the topics, presenters, and collaboration.

One hundred and twenty-six sessions were offered over a course of three days. I chose ten sessions hoping to push my thinking. I attended several sessions with topics focused on how to ensure we have high-quality educators in every classroom in our buildings. Each of these sessions reminded leaders about the power of positivity, accountability, and transparency.

I actually think of myself as a positive person who believes it’s important to see the silver lining. Hearing presenters such as @christinacole03, @TechNinjaTodd, and @Teach_aLa_Carte talk about how accentuating the positive is actually necessary to build strong school team…well, it just made me smile. I know that positive ideas drown out the negative and try walk that talk daily. It was suggested that we talk about the problems, but must focus on the solutions. Small problems stay small when we focus on quickly addressing and working together to find solutions. When educators make time to put their heads together, amazing things happen for all learners!

Ms. Christina Cole shared that educators can take accountability to the next level by helping their students set their own learning goals. We must find ways to propel student’s learning forward by focusing on what goals they have for themselves! I’ll be serving 3^rd – 5^th graders as a lead learner at Bethke Elementary in the fall. I want to help our educators improve learning for our students by helping our learners build their own learning goals for the 2016-2017 school year. Let’s do this! It was stated that part of accountability is finding ways to involve the community in the process. We want our schools to be known as places where all community members are welcomed on a daily basis. Mr. Todd Nesloney not only invites the business leaders into his school weeks prior to the opening of school with a Business Open House, but he also shared how the educators in their school take the school to students’ homes with a hot dog event! I am determined to chat with the Bethke educators on finding a way to make this happen in our learning community.

Ms. Frances Gonzalez shared ideas on ways schools can invite teachers to be viewed as change agents by encouraging groups to have open and honest talk – Think Tanks. Our educators need to be positioned with other learners to grow in their thoughts. Networking inside and outside of our four walls is not only helpful, but it is crucial to the development of our teams. I will make sure I’m a leader who works side-by-side with all educators in our building and I want to make sure I am a person who is learning from educators outside of Bethke community, too. I believe that all learners need to view their leader as someone who talks about his/her own successes and failures. I want to be an educator who is trying things and growing from those experiences. 

To say that I love collaboration would be an understatement. I truly believe that ideas grow when passionate educators join forces and collaborate about our work. During #TEPSA16, it was a thrill to collaborate with many people in my PLN. Participating in sessions at TEPSA planted topics for evening dinner conversations and hotel room meetings. Connecting with other educators and discussing “what ifs” puts control in our hands, but it also helps push the entire field of education forward. Thank you to many educators who reflected and pushed my thinking this week. There is something special about professional learning communities! Thank you #TEPSA16.