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It was a full house at the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City last month during
the 2015 Summer Leadership Academy. |
The Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City was packed with nearly
265 administrators and teacher
leaders from around the state for the 2015
Summer Leadership Academy in June, presented by the Consortium of Mid-Michigan
Instructional Teams (C.O.M.M.I.T).The three-day conference is an annual event
made possible by the collaboration of the five intermediate school districts that
form C.O.M.M.I.T. including Clare-Gladwin RESD, Clinton County RESA,
Gratiot-Isabella RESD, Ionia County ISD, and Montcalm Area ISD.
For more than 10 years, the Summer Leadership Academy has
offered educators from small, rural communities the opportunity to learn from
nationally- and internationally-renowned speakers. This year’s featured
presenter was Dr. Eric Jensen, a leading authority on the science and
applications of brain research in education. The former middle school teacher
and author of 26 brain-based books facilitated his interactive session around
the theme “Teaching and Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind.”
Dr. Jensen set the stage with statistics depicting the
ever-increasing poverty rates, the subsequent stress factors on families, and
the impact these stressors have on physical brain function. “There is an
element that the education community is powerless to control – poverty,” he
said. “In the past two years, the rate of poverty has grown at an alarming rate
and now even traditional middle-class schools are feeling the pressure that
comes with the stress of poverty.”
Dr. Jensen went on to explain that despite poverty’s
presence, there are practices that schools can put in place that can reverse its
detrimental impact such as developing strong relationships and family
connections, actively pointing out how students’ daily actions connect to their
long-term goals, and building academic optimism so kids hear and believe every
day they can and will succeed.
Following each full-day session, school teams spent up to
four additional hours reflecting on the presentations and discussing how to
incorporate the strategies and ideas explored into their school’s improvement
plan.
“Too often, in
the midst of the daily operations of schools and classrooms, local
superintendents, principals, and teacher leaders don’t have time for an
extended collaborative inquiry into these topics to the depth that is
facilitated by the Academy’s presenters and ISD committee members,” said Deb
Snyder, Clare-Gladwin RESD Assistant Superintendent for General Education.
“Local district leaders value this time and professional learning to plan for
their continued work in the district for the following school year.”
According to
Snyder, each year’s theme builds on the focus areas of the previous Academy.
“The
conference planning committee members always consider districts’ needs when
selecting topics and speakers for the Academy,” she said, referencing past
Academy presenters such as Charlotte Danielson, Jim Knight, Anthony Muhammad,
and Randy Sprick. “The Academy has gained a reputation of high quality in all
aspects of the conference.”
