From Rochester to Connecticut to Terra Firma

So much to write and so little time!!!  These past two weeks had me in Rochester, Connecticut, and terra firma.  I will tell you about it all.  But last post I let you know that I would most likely be skipping a week and that I would report on the NYSSBA Conference in Rochester so I will start there.  I will have to leave out the details of my personal battle with revolving doors, airplanes, escalators, and walkways and basically give you the list of workshops and speakers that I attended.  There are so many that I don’t even think I will be able to tell you all about them here…but I will summarize by saying that the trip was well worth having to face my personal demons.  There were many workshops to choose from and we all tried to spread out in order to bring back to each other as much useful information as possible and we all hit the ground running.  Thursday was different as it was the first day but on the other days the workshops began at 8:45 AM and ran about an hour and fifteen minutes each and then there were also keynote speakers too…here are the ones I attended:

Thursday:  First was a 3 hour special Pre-convention Communications Workshop and then some time on the Expo floor before the official 2 hour opening session with Steve Pemberton who is a child advocate, motivational speaker, and author of “A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home.”  He spoke about his life story and moved the audience to tears…it was truly inspirational!

Friday:  “Fire Up Your Base: The Why and How of Citizen Advocacy”, “BYOD: What Does It Mean For District Policy”, “To Serve is Human to Lead is Divine”.  Somewhere in there the Commissioner spoke.  Holding back here…I truly want to comment…but I will refrain…I still have a lot to tell you about…In the evening there was another Key Note Speaker, Dr. Bill Daggett, who spoke about “Leading Change During Challenging Times”.   He is the Founder and Chairman of the International Center for Leadership in Education, Inc.  I believe he took the same bus as Commissioner King…just saying.

Saturday:  “Governance: Are You a Visionary or a Micromanager?” “Integration Isn’t Enough: Redefining the Innovation Classroom” and “Building a Stronger Governance Team Through Board Member Orientation”.   I would have liked to squeeze in one more but the airplane was calling! 

Essentially, I went to workshops on Board Governance, Community Relations and School Improvement, and Technology.   There was much food for thought and I personally feel like I got a lot out of it.  As I said, there were many other topics as well but only so many hours in the day!  I was happy to go and happy as well to get back Saturday evening all in one piece and able to make it to the garden call on Sunday.  There won’t be too many more opportunities to go to the garden before winter so be sure to come down tomorrow at 11AM!!!

I have spoken before about the hearings that Senator Flanagan is conducting around the State and on Tuesday he was in the city.  I didn’t go in because I had other things going on but I watched it online being livestreamed for about two hours.  The city education system is actually somewhat different than ours and is an entity to itself but still…from what I saw, they were saying the same things that were said on Long Island.  I never did have a chance to watch the Buffalo one I missed but I still am sure that it was the same there too.  This time Regent Tisch spoke instead of Dr. King or his deputy…they seem to be rotating…but still say the same things as the other as if it is either a recording or maybe even a mantra…it is annoying.  Did I say that out loud?

Anyway, one of the reasons I only watched two of the 5 and a half hours is because some of us went over to the library to hear Donald X. Clavin speak about taxes.  Just to be clear…he is the RECEIVER of taxes…he does not set the tax rate or the assessment rate…he RECEIVES the taxes.  Yet he always seems to have a lot of opinions of those that do assess and set the tax rates and levy the taxes…and he did once again.  Still, he gave some very useful information in navigating the system but in my personal opinion, it was good that we were on hand to hear what was said and even to have a good conversation with one of the attendees afterward about school taxes.  Just so you know, I was in attendance at the local debate at the library last Monday as a voter to educate myself on the people who are running for election this Tuesday (stressing here that I was not there as a Board Member and although this blog is about my activities as a Board Member I am still mentioning it because of the way it fits in here…).  I am one of those people affected by the legislative redistricting and on top of it, because I live in North Woodmere I am not a part of any incorporated village and my closest local government is Town of Hempstead, I felt that I needed to get a better handle on things as an individual.  I know that I am interjecting too much here and although I try to refrain from commenting and telling you what I think about things I feel the need to say that it is amazing and upsetting to me how education has become a pawn at every level of politics…nuff said.  Moving on!

So on Wednesday, I went to Connecticut for the Tri-State Consortium Meeting to hear David Rock speak about insight.  As a PTA leader  I had been invited to these in the past and attended and was happy that I was still welcome.  No matter your position…be it a teacher, administrator, parent, board member…there was a lot of insight to be gained to hear him speak about how to develop insight.  See what I did there?  A little punny, no?  Anyway, I got back in time to go to the Girl’s Varsity Team Playoff.  I have mentioned before that I have learned so much about sports as a Board Member but I actually have no problem following volleyball...I wanted to stay for the boy’s playoff game but had some personal plans…it happens.

The end of the week…Friday.  I had said that I was sad this year because I didn’t make it to a lot of the sports games but our kids have done so well and the boy’s varsity football team also made the playoffs and I was able to go!  WHAT A GAME!!!  They played New Hyde Park and won…off to the next game!  I hope I can go to that too!  Personal interjection here…my husband loves it when I go to the sports things because he joins me and it becomes a date…and well…he gets to watch sports…and then he doesn’t mind so much that I am talking to my fellow board members and ignoring him…sort of… it happens.

Anyway, in honor of Board Appreciation Week next week all of us are going to be at various events and classroom activities around the district so I will probably report to you on my whereabouts with that.  I am not going to make it to everything…none of us will…but we will all be out and about, I am sure!  Stay tuned and follow!