We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Three of the certified teachers who travelled to Great Falls pose with the keynote speaker prior to the event's commencement: 7-12 Science Teacher, Mr. Aris Mejia; Keynote Speaker Adam Welcome; 7-12 Social Studies Teacher, Mr. Drake Neill; and First and Second Grade Teacher, Miss Hailey Mosbrucker.
On August 14-15, ten certified staff members and their superintendent travelled from Turner for the Golden Triangle Curriculum Cooperative's Fall In-Service held at the Heritage Inn in Great Falls. They arrived in the school district's newly purchased van imprinted with 'Turner Tornadoes.'
On Thursday, August 15, from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., the certified staff and administration from Turner Public Schools joined 312 other educators to attend the Golden Triangle Curriculum Cooperative's (GTCC) Fall In-Service at the Heritage Inn in Great Falls, Montana. Designed as an educational and inspirational in-service, the program featured Keynote Speaker, Adam Welcome from Lafayette, California.
As a former classroom Teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal, and Director of Innovation and Technology, Welcome has broad and comprehensive K-12 experience. Welcome discussed how his experience in education has led him to realize that young people deserve school personnel who are at their best. "They need us to believe in them, because too often, they don't believe in themselves. They need us to challenge them. To encourage them to grow. To say 'yes' more often," Welcome told those gathered. "Everybody needs a cheerleader."
However, as the saying goes, a person can't pour from an empty cup. Welcome went on to explain: "If you feel like your cup is empty, like you've given all you can, like you're at the end of your rope, I want to help. I'm here to give you everything you need, whether it's resources, motivation, or just a pat on the back so you can fill up your cup and become the best version of you. But remember, if we don't take care of ourselves, we're not going to be any good for our school team."
Many of the ideas shared during Thursday's in-service derive from Welcome's book, co-authored with Todd Nesloney: Kids Deserve It! The book pushes boundaries and challenges conventional thinking by asking questions like:
• What if learning were exciting?
• What if students felt important and empowered every time they walked into the building?
• What if parents looked forward to calls from their children's teachers and principals, instead of cringing when the school's number popped up on their phones?
• If schools didn't exist, how would we design them today?
Welcome invited everyone in the audience to rediscover the power of literacy and how it changes lives. He also shared strategies for designing content in partnership with students and for creating a culture and climate that the entire community wants to be a part of.
"Books are one of the best investments we can make in the life of a child," Welcome stated. "We should focus on people and relationships first, and then build relationships using books, hands-on innovation, critical thinking, or other experiences that kids will remember. Kids don't speak 'worksheet' or 'packet.' They deserve relevant content and an engaged classroom. There is no time for misbehavior when students are actively engaged by creating or coding or trying new things. Students feel empowered and confident when they have the encouragement to tackle a challenge."
Welcome added: "The world our kids are growing up in is so vastly different from what we experienced, and it's even different than it was five years ago. We have a new economy with new jobs that take an entirely new skill set in order for our children to be successful. We need to be ready to learn what's happening out in the world and then to develop some ways to get students ready for all the opportunities that are currently available."
Welcome called these contemporary jobs, "new collar" because they demand leaning in new and different ways. "In this dynamic and complex world, we need to make every lesson purposeful," he said. "We can't teach Wi-Fi kids with landline strategies. We don't want our schools to become irrelevant for students. Instead, we need to be in the business of opening doors for kids, creating pathways to these new collar jobs-jobs like data analysts, algorithm engineers, and economists, which pay six digit salaries."
During periodic think tank moments, school personnel conversed about ways for devising, implementing, and facilitating programs that meet these new challenges for living in a "jet ski versus a cruise ship world."
Teachers earned six Office of Public Instruction (OPI) Renewal Units for attending the workshop, and door prizes were awarded throughout the day.
