This has been a busy summer for me. I tutored students across the country in math, trained teachers and administrators in my district on how to use their new Google accounts, refined my skills as a teacher through the use of professional development, completed my training to become an appraiser of teachers, and I got to hang out with my family. Whew! Yeah it's been busy, but good. Actually better than good, GREAT!
As school was letting out for the summer, I was recruited by a non-profit organization to tutor students in California and Texas in the area of Math. All of this was to happen over the internet via a live feed, and be completely interactive. I had never done anything like that before, but it was something that I had thought about doing for a long time. It was tough adjusting to the schedule, but as with any new position, I quickly found my groove, and was able to help to grow these students in the area of Math.
The week after we let out of school, I met with the Instructional Technology team of my district to plan how I would be presenting all of the Google tools to the teachers and administrators of our district. We sat in a round table discussion, developing the presentations, and making sure that everything would run fluidly. What was amazing, was that as the classes were posted, they were filling up. The head of the staff development for technology added classes to my load, knowing that I would be able to handle it. In all I grew 761 educators in four weeks time.
The week following my last class, I immediately jumped into taking my personal professional development. I had targeted that I wanted to grow in the areas of our Interactive Math Notebooks, and small groups, as well as have a better understanding of what a 2nd grade student in Cy-Fair needs to know, and how best to teach it to them. I am so fortunate to be in Cy-Fair, where we offer all of these professional development classes free of charge, and are led by amazing lead learners. I was able to pick up some great tips from more experienced teachers and grow as a professional.
The very next week I was fortunate enough to be able to sit with a group of leaders and complete the process of becoming certified in CFPDAS, our locally adopted teacher appraisal system. This training was led by a woman who had a wealth of experience. She led us through exercises that really stretched our thinking and grew us into becoming Growth Agents. In fact, she kept reminding us, and had us repeat that moniker. "We are Growth Agents." In this 2 day training, I was reminded that no matter what my title is, what position I have in the district, my job, my passion, is to grow those around me. It doesn't matter if they are students or adults, my passion is growing them to their full potential.
Between all of this, I have had to opportunity to hang out with my family. I have held my wife's hand while she takes tests to grow in her education, I have held my oldest daughter's hand while she grew up and got her first job, and first time driving on her own (I held my wife's hand through that as well). I watched my middle daughter grow out of her shell and show her inner rocker. And I have watched my youngest daughter simply grow. I am a growth agent, and I love being a part of the growth of those around me.
