Over 10 months of planning, coordinating between venues, securing and planning food arrangements, managing RSVP’s, planning with the photographer….no I am not talking about planning a wedding, I am describing Kane County Institute Day 2019, #ID2019!!
With 3,000+ participants, the educators across Kane County were busy last Friday on their day of professional learning. Sessions varied from hands on experiences at Fineline, Fona, and Waterstreet, field trips about hydroponics and aquaponics in Geneva, and all days sessions with Dr. Cohen & Dr. Steven Layne. Educators were also able to experience the Starlab in Kaneland, attend sessions presented by librarians, for librarians or attend a whole day of workshops geared toward social emotional learning in Batavia. We had breakout sessions on everything from restorative yoga to young adult literature at Central, not to mention the Unaccompanied Youth, VALEES & TEACH CTE Conferences, I could go on and on all day with over 300 breakout sessions there was something for everyone to enjoy!
If you haven’t checked out #ID2019 on Twitter be sure to do so, it really is incredible to see the collaboration and learning taking place across the county. With feedback being overwhelmingly positive I would be dismissed if I didn’t thank the COUNTLESS partnerships, presenters, districts and ROE staff members who came together to make this event possible. – THANK YOU
As a reflective educator, I spent time Friday night reflecting on the events of the day, listing off the positives and taking note of what I would tweak or do differently for next year. I also decided to check out the evaluations that had come in from participants thus far to get their perspective. I must admit, I wasn’t surprised with theamount of positive feedback that we had collected – we had amazing partnerships and working collaboratively to make the day run smoothly and ensure a great experience for all. But why was it then that the handful of negative comments resonated and stuck out to me more than the hundreds of positive comments??
I know I am not alone here, as educators aren’t we always striving for better of ourselves and of our students? I think that is the main thing that I am taking way from last Friday’s Kane County Institute Day….we have AMAZING educators across Kane County who work tirelessly to do what is best for kids every day. Even when we feel we fall short of reaching of our goals or our expectations aren’t 100% met. It is easy to feel burnt out and overwhelmed, we need to focus on the positives and learn from our failures to continue to show up every day for our students giving them our all.
Thank you Kane County for an amazing day of professional learning, for reminding how awesome our profession is and how lucky we are to work with our talented Kane County Students every day!
Katie Algrim – Director of Innovative Professional Learning
(t):630-444-3044
(c):630-675-4447
(e):kalgrim@kaneroe.org