I have to admit, I don’t love a mid-week conference. And yet, I spent yesterday evening and all day today at LeadLearn 2020. It’s a conference for the California Subject Matter Projects put on by the California Subject Matter Projects. This year’s theme was developing teacher leadership…and lucky for me, the conference was right here in San Diego!
And in spite of its mid-week-ness, I did enjoy the conference. A couple of our local UCSD professors provided the keynotes: Alan Daly talked about networks and the essential role of social capital in making change–including metaphors the the super chicken and murmurations of starlings and Mica Pollock reminded us all of the importance of language–especially the language choices we make in talking about and to students and how our talk impacts their school and future success. (If you want a great resource, take a look at her book Schooltalk.)
After lunch I was part of a presentation on recruiting, developing, and sustaining teacher leaders along with colleagues from the science project, math project, and reading and literature project. It was a lively session that offered a variety of perspectives…including those of teacher leaders from our sites. I was surprised at the energy of this after-lunch session–and it was so much fun presenting with my CREATE team.
All in all, I left today feeling full. I had some interesting conversations, enjoyed meeting new people with similar views on teaching and learning, and have some new ideas to think about.
Thinking Through My Lens 
Mid-week anything is tough! lol Your conference sounds interesting and energizing. I find that PD tends to both motivate and depress me. I leave excited by the thinking and the possibilities and then struggle with the reality of inflexible schedules, rigid curricular demands, and not enough time to prep/plan well. Ew…sorry, I slipped into a little negativity there. Mostly, I wanted to say I admire your enthusiasm and I’m glad you had a good mid-week experience 🙂
Gathering with other teachers — sharing, learning, connecting — is the power of conferences, but I hear you — the lead-up to any conference that requires sub plans/presentation prep/ etc can be tricky. Glad it was great for you.
Kevin