Unpacking #AMLE 2019

What an AMAZING experience. Anyone interested in being inspired about what's possible in the middle grades needs to go to this conference. It's exhausting, amazing, fun all in one.

5,000 teachers, administrators and other educational leaders converged on the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN over 3 days. With an 80 foot Christmas tree, indoor boat rides and everything else you could imagine inside a 9-acre hotel/convention center as a backdrop the space was as overwhelming as the conference itself.

The two keynotes were amazing! Principal Baruti Kafele and Jessica Lahey (NY Times Bestseller) set the tone each of the weekday keynotes. Their message was similar- every student can succeed, we all have the ability to be the champion for one kid that can change the trajectory of that students' life, and helping students grow as learners- make mistakes, let them learn for themselves (DON'T KEEP TYING THEIR SHOES!). All aspects of these keynotes speaks volumes to what is at the heart of Middle School learning- relationships. It takes time to make connections and know students as humans and for them to see the human aspects in us as their teachers too. Even the workshops spoke to how important this is. Kim Campbell said in her Restorative Justice session- the first 6 weeks of school, 60% of the time should be spent on Social Emotional connections, 40% on curriculum; and the rest of the year flip it- we should still be spending 40% of our school day just building relationships and connecting with our students. And guess what- it IMPROVES test scores, lowers behavior incidents, and increases attendance! As Rick Wormeli said, get them moving (when the butt goes numb, the brain goes dumb!), have fun with them, make them look forward to coming into your class everyday!

What's great about an off-campus conference is making connections with other educators from around the world (Australia, Canada educators were in attendance) and time to debrief the overload of information you take in each day. Also taking time to facetime back home helps keep a smile on your face too:

My daughter Sophie

When debriefing, it helps to have an awesome team supporting you. My whole academic team was fortunate enough to go. Simply put, they rock. I work with the best people- Joy, Amy and Michael are amazing educators! I'm not sure how the universe put us all on the same team but it did and our students are lucky to have those 3. We strive everyday to improve the lives of our students and we work at putting those relationships first. We all went to different workshops and reflected on ways to self-improve as educators and as a team. Our most immediate shift is implementing a new schedule starting in trimester 2. Guess what? We've added advisory to be 3 days a week (up from 1), added time in the 2 other days to talk with kids first thing in the morning, a weekly survey of our homeroom kids to give them a low threat way to tell us what is happening outside of Sterling and at home, and specific times to sit 1:1 with kids to just talk. I'm amazed at how willing Sterling is to make adjustments quickly when we know we can do something better for our students. We are so lucky to be supported by our admin team, Jackie Parks and Greg Marino, all the way up to central office (our district sent at least 17 people to Nashville)!

While digging into content-specific topics to much larger ones like trauma informed teaching, making advisory work, social-emotional learning and restorative justice each of us left with a to-do list of next steps. I know that we can't wait to get back to our school and district and share our learning and be change makers. It also gave us time to pause and appreciate our reality though. Vermont (shout out #VTED) is at the forefront of much of this work. #VTED educators were presenters throughout the conference, I'd estimate that at least 15 different #VTEDucators presented over the 2.5 day conference.

My conference ended with my presentation- literally the last time slot on the last day. I was honored to present with Scott Thompson of the Tarrant Institute about how schools and teams can adjust schedules to provide better opportunities for kids to learn the way we know they learn best.

While Scott and I had some initial hesitation about how many would attend the final workshop, our room filled quickly with 50 attendees (including my awesome teammates!). Scott and I even received gift bags from 2 new friends from Hawaii that came to our presentation. 

                                                          

What a thrill to present at the national conference, and end the week of memories with one I certainly won't forget. As tired as I am, I can't wait for #AMLE2020 in Washington, DC. Consider joining me! More coffee please!