Reflections from the 2014 VASCD Conference

I took 18 members of the Princess Anne MS leadership with me to the 2014 VASCD Conference in Williamsburg, VA, on December 4-5, 2014. The conference theme was "School is for Innovators," and after five years of working to establish ourselves as a leader in innovation in Virginia Beach, we were ripe for the messages of the conference, as well as the opportunities to bring ideas and innovations back to PAMS. After the conference, I asked members of the leadership team who attended to write a tweet, 140 characters, to capture an idea, concept, inspiration, ah-ha moment, or another takeaway from the conference. Here's what they wrote:

• "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

• "Be willing to give up some control to allow students more ownership in their learning."

• "I want to try to be less controlling of how I assess my students and give them more freedom on how to show me their knowledge."

• "We can't be afraid to fail, just like our students; instead, we must fail to be afraid. #Inflateknowledgenotgrades"

• "Students will reach the limits you set for them, so set them sky high"

• "Leaders need to be positive every single minute of every single day."

• "I want to set up situation with Adora [Svitak] and my students to explore possibilities."

• "If we are going to affect change in education, we have to be ALL in, and remember it's for our kids."

• "The challenge is keeping the main thing the main thing."

• "Do what it takes to make your classroom a place that students want to come to and don't want to leave."

• "How do you reach the blind spot students?"

• "Engage students by letting them out of the box!"

There are some really powerful ideas and questions here. Now that I am venturing into the blogging world, which I see as a wonderful way to control, catalog, explore, and share my own ideas about how we can all evolve as educators, I plan to use the tweets as my starting point for what I expect will be a long journey. I hope you will enjoy following along, and hopefully you will be inspired to engage me with comments and questions that will foster new topics to explore.

In the meantime, and in the spirit of the season, as our students work hard to embrace giving and service, enjoy this video from a Thai commercial. The message is powerful, even if it is for an insurance company.