First CTEPS

First of all, my first CTEPS experience was more than I can ever describe.  Make sure you do visit www.kycteps.org to learn more about their message and plans for us.  Second of all, to say that I left our first face to face meeting "inspired" would be an understatement, but I'm not sure of another word!  When we, teachers, are invited to three days worth of training (and yes, that's three full days with a 30 minute lunch at our table each day) we can sometimes look forward to the city we will be visiting, the people we will meet, the hotel, the nights without our normal responsibilities, and maybe some extra sleep!  This, however, turned out to be the BEST event I've attended...something that I only wanted to leave so that I process all that I'd learned.  I cannot express my gratitude for the time and effort placed into making this experience special, inspiring, informative, and something that will make a difference for kids.  It has literally taken me an entire week to digest all the information because I can't help but immediately (try to) apply what I had learned.

During our weekend together, we worked on identifying our project, what are "why" is, and pinpointing the actual problem.  To me this is all still very blurry, but I'm moving in a direction that is focused on making two year's growth in our young readers.  This involves trying to determine why we need so much growth, what are our barriers, what are the systems that are working/not working, and why are those systems successful/not successful, and how to make changes one classroom at a time until we make school wide gains.    When I get to work in a school and school system that is full of administrative support and THE BEST teachers, I know the problem is a system or something that we can pinpoint and fix to make the gains we need; because ultimately, a good teacher makes all the difference and we already have that.  

This is such an exciting and important process.  My "why" is that the kids I work with deserve this attention and 100% of them deserve to leave our school reading on grade level...no matter what.  The rest of this blog will be my messy reflections hopefully full of pictures and videos and my organized chaotic thinking on these questions and my experience throughout the CTEPS process.  As I share information, ask questions, look at research, or sound completely lost.... I would love to hear any ideas.  Your time is greatly appreciated.

So, here we go!  This is the beginning!