After 30 years in education, I have never felt more dedicated to student success and the adults that support that success. The education world talks a lot about how students learn. Is it just as important to consider how educators learn? I think so.

Windshields are larger than rearview mirrors so that we may focus on the road ahead while occasionally looking behind for perspective and course corrections. My resolution for 2015 is to learn more about six topics that will help us make sense of the continuously shifting educational landscape so that we can focus on next steps for student success.

As an elementary teacher in Elyria, Ohio, a small urban district about 30 miles west of Cleveland, I looked forward to asking my students the question all my teachers had asked me that first day of school: “What did you do this summer?”

Learning Forward and Corwin announce the K-1st vertical dual language learning team at Tombaugh Elementary School in Las Cruces, New Mexico, as the winner of the 2014 Shirley Hord Learning Team Award. This award is given annually to a team of teachers that demonstrates the highest quality of collaborative professional learning, as described in Learning Forward’s definition of professional learning in action.

Impacting the Future Now is renamed the Learning Forward Foundation.

Learning Forward releases revised Standards for Professional Learning.

NSDC changes its name to Learning Forward.

The Lynne Chidley Foundation changes its name to Impacting the Future Now.

Stephanie Hirsh becomes NSDC’s Executive Director on July 1, 2007.

NSDC launches its summer conference for teacher leaders in Chicago.