YMCA + teachers= LPS proffesional development

I cannot tell if this feeling I have right now is one of extreme excitement, or just intense anxiety. Today was the first day of our LPS (Leadership Public School) Network retreat at CSU Easy Bay in a large lecture hall for about 100 people. It started off with each of the 4 LPS schools (College Park, Hayward, Richmond, San Jose) had a team cheer. Lets just say ours involved a strobe light, fog machine, and the song, "Too legit, too legit to quit" (MC Hammer Dance moves and everything). Then came along the large group YMCA dance off with disco lights. Lets just say this is not how I thought the professional development was going to start off. In the end the dance party was successful in getting the blood pumping and thourally embarrassing every teacher in the room. It was awesome.

Then the lectures began. We went over financial data from the previous year (things could be worse), student progress data (things need to be much better), and basic information about the current state of education in California (flat line....). I got a chance to meet and greet with people from other networks and got plenty of offers for free lesson plan ideas (yippeeee). Overall, everyone is so helpful and friendly.

Some thoughts and feelings from the day:

I am so lucky to be at a school that even has the time/money to have a retreat. It helps the new kids like me to get a jump start on the year. The LPS teachers are so young. Charter schools are broke too. LPS College Park teachers are too cool for team cheers. College Park was the lowest performing LPS school last year (Black sheep of the family). LPS has potential; its the results that it lacks. Teachers are strange creatures. Toulmin is my best friend (Toulmin is a step by step guide on how to write a paper). Experienced teachers love sharing their knowledge. I love those same teachers who want to give me their lesson plans.

Tomorrow is another day of training. Lets just hope the YMCA is a regular 8am dance party.

<3
Ms. Quane