Round 1

• We can learn and share and make the journey easier for others
• Be resources with ideas as a source of strength for others
• Share our successes – don’t recreate the wheel
• It needs new courage and conversation to be honest about the bumps in the road – we don’t want a dog and pony show
• Need to build trust and connection for new players – we brought the teachers and asked the principal to stay home
• Develop trust in the process
• 1st experiment to see if schools can get by without principals ?
• Expect ideas about structuring learning and how it happens
• Instructional practices will improve and learning will increase
• Start something we can share that is BIGGER than we are
• Our partnerships don’t hold all the answers
• How do you scale a change?
• Great teacher >> Great Grade >> Great School
• Open up the classrooms – see/learn/share
• Intentional learning in the classroom with intentional capture of the learning
• Do walkthroughs
• Steal others ideas!
• There are a lot of imposters in education – "I always pretended that I knew but I really didn’t and I want to!"
• Must build honesty and trust to move forward
• "You’re not a good teacher unless you feel inadequate."
• Why aren’t we learners ourselves?
• Students know more that we do with technology/ media – they’re exposed to a lot more than we are.
• We must model learning
• Teach you how to find your own answers
• Help people take more risks
• "Get the right people on the bus and in the right seat" – Jim Collins
• …and feel like we’re on the bus together
• These are our children!
• It all belongs to everyone along the way
• We don’t own the writing scores
• What do we need to do vs. taking the initiative to do what’s right based on your core beliefs
• If you fail – you own it
• We won’t move forward doing what we’re told to do
• There is 1 person in this room I can call – the time commitment
• Leave here and not make this a one shot meeting
• Wish we could take the whole staff to these meetings
• The closer you are to the dialogue the more exciting it is
• The further away, it becomes more mundane

• We can learn and share and make the journey easier for others
• The importance of reflection – sharing your Promising Practice makes you reflect on your own PP and gives the opportunity to refine it
• Everybody's voice is heard – get input from all staff members
• Use overlaying structure of how you talk about it – share the processes – the Café process
• Challenge to go back and get thoughts to staff
• Networking brings up more questions but there’s no one to go to for the answers
• Develop relationships to have people to call
• Educators aren’t used to this kind of forum
• It’s scary not to know what exactly we’re supposed to say/bring/do
• Easiest to speak from your own experience and you can’t capture that in a narrative
• I can’t bring the conversation back
• How to capture the “real story” and share it – a narrative doesn’t do it
• I took the Passion Café back from the last PLN
• We talked in a Passion Café about how to rewrite our eulogy. The students and parents talk about you at the end of the year. Every single year you’re writing your eulogy. What do you want it to say? It was very powerful.
• We talked about why did you get into this?
• What drives you as a teacher?
• Made personal connections that helped the relationships
• It’s all about relationships!
• 2 days of gathering seeds. Like Johnny Appleseed I don’t know where they will sprout and grow
• There are so many teachers here – outweighs district administrators
• The change is going to happen in the classroom
• Teachers take back the passion
• I saw renewal and inspiration from the people who came back last year – I’m hoping to bring that back
• Training in the work – building relationships is the key to success
• I’d like emails groups for teacher groups/ literacy coaches /principals – do it before we leave

Round 3

• We’re sharing our professional hearts
• We’re resources – the likes and the differences
• Serves the children well to build a schema
• Both deeper and higher understanding
• The inquiry process is accountable talk with respectful disagreement
• Honor learning – take the time out to love learning
• We are a community of learners
• Everyone is inclusive and communicates with openness and trust
• We must create meaning for ourselves
• The New Lens – look at ourselves differently and take comfort knowing that we are more alike than we are different
• Share our challenges
• Coming together gives us reference points
• We are writing the page together vs. getting on the same page
• The teacher voice is validated and integrates the knowledge back at home
• Be bold enough to use the model in our home settings
• The opportunities are boundless
• How do teachers develop an understanding if they haven’t gone through this process?
• Asking the teachers to do one more thing – another swing on the rope
• Want to learn how to use the time to make these things work in the schools
• We created 2 hours/month for conversation at grade level – it’s in our contract – to share practices, ideas and plans
• Building relationships with the union is key

• We can learn and share and make the journey easier for others
• Relationship – How will we use each other and our districts to help the kids
• The expertise and capacity in the room is awesome and almost overwhelming
• We’re all researchers in our field sharing Promising Practices
• We are the system
• It’s getting so good I can’t retire!
• How do we get these discussions going at site level.
• It’s a paradigm shift.
• Empowering the staff – the fire must be lit underneath
• The district must be moving the agenda with you
• As a leader I can set the foundation with teachers and create a stable group
• In clear terms – say what you believe
• Who you hire is the first job.