A brand new year and a brand new program. In January, we launched the first in our Teacher Training series with experienced educators from Texas, Mike and Teri Rhodes. For the first two days of the event, the school leaders came together to discuss what a School of Excellence should look like, sound like, and act like. We discussed how we can each become excellent in the work we do at our schools. From administration to leading to teaching, we learned that excellence is always a choice. Together, we decided that this year we will all choose excellence!
At the end of this first event, one of our school leaders shared these thoughts. He said,
“We started our community schools because we saw a need in our community, but we didn’t know what we were doing. What you have given us in two days, we have been looking for for years.”
The leaders were all very excited to take the lessons they learned from Mike and Teri and begin implementing them in their schools this year.
After our leadership training, we held one day workshops for the teachers of all of our partner schools. During these sessions, Mike and Teri taught the importance of “Affirmations.” The teachers learned practical ways to praise their students and affirm their good work. They learned that it is important to recognise positive performance and positive behavior in their classrooms. We were challenged with the idea that what we recognise in the classroom is what we will get more of. The teachers are eager to test this theory by recognising the positives they find in their students this year.
This is just the beginning of an exciting year! We are looking forward to providing more training and mentoring opportunities for our partner schools to improve the quality of education they provide.