Beautiful scenery, unbelievable swag, and good times were all in abundance at Mission: InstructureCon, but they all paled in comparison to a presentation I witnessed by three RCS teachers!
Hunter Lambright, Richard Green, and Melody Williams spoke passionately about the RCSNextGen Cadre process in their presentation, "Failing Is The New Black: Changing Mindsets By Taking Risks." Their authenticity was palpable, the audience was hooked, and the message was clear-taking chances for teaching and learning is worth the risk-even when it's more work to do so.
Of all of the sessions I attended during the week, no other had educators heading up the aisle to get screenshots of their valuable examples of the road map of Canvas implementation through the Cadre process. No other session had more people seek out the presenters afterwords or led to more hits on the RCSNextGen website and hashtag - the response was overwhelming and well deserved.
For me personally, this was a tangible example of the power of an idea. An idea, from a professional development conference, that stuck and was developed, tweaked and launched with the understanding that it takes many voices, across all subject areas, job titles and grade levels to grow, and continue to grow, our own.
It was also a reminder of the Growth Mindset and the "Power of Yet" in action. The twenty plus members of the first cadre were all examples of this and I thought of each and everyone of them as I heard Hunter, Richard, and Melody speak-because all of them were a part of the growth that led to this presentation. They all took the risk and they all failed forward!
At InstructureCon 2017 I got to celebrate RCS teachers who took the challenge, failed forward, and found new life in teaching that will benefit our students, our local community, and our world!
A mountain was climbed during the NextGen Cadre process. Please consider joining us for #RCSNextGen Round 2!
