by Brooke Powers
My uncle was a Kentuckian who became famous for two reasons 1) his love and management of the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team for 48 years and 2) his uncanny ability to build relationships with people.
He believed strongly that the legacy he built by connecting with others would continue on long after he was gone. In fact, he even left instructions for his epitaph to read “To Be Continued” which is exactly what it says today.
Younger me didn’t understand how his work would be continued after he was gone until I became a teacher. I began to see early on how “To Be Continued” really was the teacher’s creed. That the work I was doing, the relationships I was building, and the seeds I was planting would continue on long after I was gone in the work my students did beyond my 7th grade math class.
I was satisfied with that definition until I had the opportunity to facilitate and interact with 80 dynamic mathematics educators at Open Up Resources first-ever national conference, HIVE. Meeting these teachers—who are using the same curriculum, dealing with the same issues, and sharing the same passion for math education as I am—was a life-changing experience. It hit me then: this is the true meaning of “To Be Continued.” We can’t let the work and collaborative spirit of this Professional Learning Community go away. We have to continue to nurture and invest in it so that we can help as many students and teachers as possible. The closing session of HIVE was really just the kick-off for an amazing year in all of our PLCs.
For those of you who weren’t at HIVE, we missed your presence, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be a part of our work moving forward. We have big plans for so much of the amazingness that happened there, from live videos of the keynotes to resources from the sessions so that you keep your own learning moving forward. Stay tuned for more on that!
On our end, we are looking for more ways to make our PLCs have an even greater impact for the 2019–2020 school year. We saw and recognized that we caught magic in a bottle for three days in our Community Pathway at HIVE, and we’re committed to finding more ways of making professional learning for teachers, by teachers, even more accessible.
On your end, I challenge you to take a new risk in the next few weeks.
- Make sure you are connected to our communities
- Join our summer book study
- Try a Twitter chat for the first time
- Create and submit a community-created resource
- Post a question in one of our groups
- Better yet, answer someone else’s question
The bottom line is: get more involved and more connected within our national network.
I saw firsthand at HIVE the power that this national PLC brings to all of us, and I am more dedicated than ever to keeping the spirit, collaboration, and community alive in order to make sure every teacher using an Open Up Resources curriculum feels supported, connected, and most importantly, never alone.
HIVE 2019 – To Be Continued…
