Everyone Needs Mentoring

I had an interesting week. Our state school improvement team brought author and presenter, holcomb_old_smallEdie Holcomb, to work with regional service agency staff to enhance and expand our understanding of the change process and assist schools with developing more effective school improvement plans. The training reaffirmed many things, namely the importance of providing tools for schools to monitor their plan implementation, but Edie managed to layer in additional activities and thinking to more clearly focus our efforts.

shordThen today, I received a phone call from Shirely Hord, a long story as to how we connected, but WOW!!!!! For those of you that do not know Shirley, her work is legendary in the area of staff development and the change process. She has authored and co-authored numerous books on Change, Professional Learning Communities, etc..

She has a rich southern accent and each word she says practically drips with wisdom. Needless to say, I wrote down  everything she said and can’t wait until this week is over so I can really think about the implications of her teaching.

Let me give you a taste of Shirley’s wisdom.

Shirley: “We invest in professional development. Why do we use the word invest?

Me: Lack luster response

Shirley: Because we expect results! We expect a dividend from our efforts!

So how lucky am I? To practically sit at the feet of two knowledgeable and accomplished women – I only wish it could have been longer. Sigh……..

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