Our 5 Favorite Moments with the Rodel Teacher Council
By Jermaine Williams, Culinary Arts Instructor, St. Georges Technical High School; and Melissa Grunewald, Dual Certified Elementary Teacher, Phillip C. Showell Elementary School
Applications are now live for the 2016-17 cohort of the Rodel Teacher Council.
Being on the RTC offers a tremendous professional development opportunity, and a venue to weigh in on important policy issues—but above that, it provided us with some of the most memorable moments of our careers.
Without further ado, here are our five favorite experiences from the Rodel Teacher Council.
- The Annual Personalized Learning Workshop
Rodel CEO Paul Herdman gets hands-on learning with Michele Johnson at the 2016 Personalized Learning Workshop.
In February, we spent a rainy Saturday morning at St. Georges Technical High School with more than 100 of our fellow Delaware teachers—the people who do what we do every day—and shared our experiences, tactics, and knowledge about personalized learning. It was real, relevant information that teachers could take straight to their classrooms. RTC members developed and led the sessions from start to finish, and attendees were treated to a dynamic keynote speaker.
As teachers, we rarely get the opportunity to meet with the high-level decision-makers. In March, we had the awesome privilege of spending a day at Legislative Hall in Dover, where we sat down with some of the state’s top policymakers. They listened, they asked questions, they shared in our discussion. Most importantly—we felt like our words had meaning. We felt valued.
RTC members with state legislators during 2016’s Legislative Day in Dover.
3. The Connections
For two newbies like us, the time spent informally with colleagues was a big-time ice breaker. We had a fun adventure at Escape Rehoboth, formed bonds with our new colleagues over dinners together, and even attended conferences. At the same time we got to know fellow educators from up and down the state and from a variety of backgrounds—while we brainstormed new ideas together about how to best reach our students.
- Digging in with our Working groups
Early on in the school year, we split off into four working groups to focus our attention on specific policy areas. The process left us in awe of the people we worked with. There were dozens of those little moments while working with our groups, as we conversed and dreamed about what education could look like for students and practitioners in Delaware. It was a lot of work turning our ideas into briefs that could someday become policy. But it was worth it to collaborate with other teachers of all different stripes.
- “The Spark”
RTC members Michele Johnson and Melissa Tracy.
Whether it was during an evening meeting, at a conference, or gathered around a table—we all felt it at some point in time. That spark—the feeling of passion for your craft reigniting as we worked alongside our peers. We both will come out of our first Rodel Teacher Council experience feeling more knowledgeable, more excited, and more prepared for our futures in education.
So often we get caught up in the day-to-day grind of our job, and focusing on what we’re being told to do. With the Rodel Teacher Council, we remembered why we got into teaching in the first place: Our voices matter.