As the Alabama Best Practices Center begins its 21st year, we’ve reached another milestone. Dr. Stoney Beavers, formerly the Assistant Superintendent of Blount County Schools, joins the ABPC as our first ever Assistant Director. Learn more about Stoney’s background as an award-winning teacher and education leader in this interview with ABPC Executive Vice President Cathy Gassenheimer.
Ron Berger’s comprehensive companion guide to his landmark 2014 book Leaders of Their Own Learning has been eagerly anticipated by educators in ABPC’s Powerful Conversations Networks. Cathy Gassenheimer highlights the impact of LOTOL on student-engaged assessment in Alabama and her own role in writing the Foreword to the just-released Leaders of Their Own Learning Companion.
In a time when the teacher workforce is rapidly evolving and schools are under great pressure to strengthen their systems for professional learning and collaboration, what better topics for a learning “retreat” than cross-generation communication and “hard conversations” about professional growth. Cathy Gassenheimer reports on ABPC’s two-day Hard Conversations Institute with expert Jennifer Abrams.
Over the summer, Cathy Gassenheimer had the chance to ask Greg Edge, principal of Attalla Elementary School, why he continues to be involved in ABPC’s professional learning opportunities. “I told him about the questions we often hear from potential funders, who want to know how ABPC programs differ from what Alabama educators might otherwise experience.” Here’s what Greg (and some other Key Leaders Network participants) told us.
Tables were turned when Cathy Gassenheimer introduced members of the A+ Education Partnership Board of Directors to a visioning protocol the Alabama Best Practices Center uses in our Key Leaders Networks. Our board members, accustomed to listening to reports and asking strategic questions, found themselves in the collaborative learning mode. And they liked it!
Without a doubt, this was the best “first meeting” with new Key Leaders Network members ever, writes A+ Education Partnership’s professional learning leader Cathy Gassenheimer. “These educators were really open to our process and they engaged deeply throughout the day, with support from our more veteran participants. School and system leaders are hungry to talk about their challenges and dreams with colleagues who really get it.”
The Alabama Best Practices Center is growing! We’ve heard from many schools eager to engage their educators in interactive, relevant professional learning and networking. To meet the increasing demand we’re adding more regional networks, more participating districts, and training new facilitators. ABPC Executive Vice President Cathy Gassenheimer shares highlights.
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week and who can better appreciate educators than their own students? We invited some Instructional Partners across our ABPC networks to gather testimonies from kids in their schools about their favorite teachers.
Educators participating in last week’s Key Leaders Network (South) at Pike Road Elementary took time to hear from fourth grade learners about their projects and real-world applications of learning. Cathy Gassenheimer, Executive VP of the A+ Alabama Best Practices Center, shares the story, pics and videos!
At the 2018 Learning Forward conference, leadership giant Meg Wheatley brought a mixed message to education leaders. American society faces difficult times in the years ahead as systems begin to collapse, Wheatley believes. Yet, by claiming our leadership, we can create islands of hope and work for transformation.
