As a Superintendent / CEO of a school district, I am a classic omnivore. My professional learning needs to reflect that. In my role, I am expected to know at least something about everything and everything (or at least a lot) about some things. I need to be an expert on learning, instruction, policy development, change theory, collective agreement management, leadership, assessment, harassment awareness, community and parent engagement…the list goes on. The Learning Forward Vancouver Conference is a perfect opportunity for us omnivores to feed all those learning needs.
Satisfy your inner geek!
The sheer diversity of sessions ensures that I can find any number of things that will interest me and challenge my thinking. I can find interesting, inspiring sessions targeted at the classroom level, at the system level and everything in between. (Here is a list of sessions in Vancouver that are especially relevant for superintendents.)
Embrace diversity!
Yong Zhao challenges us to embrace diversity. This is certainly true of the Learning Forward Conference. I always find it rewarding to attend some sessions that I might think don’t apply to me. It’s often from these outliers that I find interesting connections to my work that I wouldn’t otherwise have made. Steven Johnson, in his book, “Where Good Ideas Come From,” talks about the power of banging existing ideas together to get new ideas. This rarely happens unless you are connecting with other points of views and perspectives in meaningful ways.
Talk to strangers!
Contrary to what your grandmother may have told you, talking to people you don’t know is a good thing. The human connections I make at conferences is one of the best parts of attending. Otherwise I could stay home and look at TED. Discussing and sharing your learning with people from other settings is a wonderful way to process your thinking. It also builds bonds and relationships that carry on long after the conference ends.
Stare into the middle distance!
Large conferences can be overwhelming. The pace, noise, never ending inputs can overwhelm the system. Our desire not to miss anything can often drive us well past our ability to process. You need to be disciplined to stop this from happening. My daughter taught me this strategy; put your ear buds in and hold your phone and nod your head from time to time. This is the universal signal that you are on a conference call. This allows you some well-earned time for yourself to stare into the middle distance and process your learning from earlier sessions. And the best part of this strategy is that people will think you’re really important! Make time for your learning.
I hope to see you at Learning Forward Vancouver in December. The line up of speakers and sessions is outstanding.
I’ll be the one with ear buds.
