Creating a Successful School Community through Accountability and Kindness

I was fortunate enough to attend and present at the Association of Middle Level Education's (AMLE) Annual Conference October 9-12 with my amazing friend and colleague, Jon Treese. 

Krista Venza and Jon Treese

AMLE is the leading international organization advancing the education of all students ages 10 to 15, helping them succeed as learners and make positive contributions to their communities and to the world. AMLE is committed to helping middle grades educators reach every student, grow professionally, and create great schools.

The conference took place in Austin, Texas!  Wow!  I'm still pinching myself about the fact that we got to go to TEXAS and PRESENT at #AMLE2016!  Our topic was Creating a Successful School Community through Accountability and Kindness.  As an assistant principal and a dean of students, this topic is very near and dear to our hearts and what we have passionately thrown ourselves into creating over the past two years in our school.  Our hope is that if we are able to provide students with explicitly taught expectations, recognition of successes, and implement appropriate interventions timely and with fidelity we will set our students up to be successful academically, socially, and emotionally.  We do this through the teaching of our overarching theme of Being Kind Matters (#beingkindmatters) and three nonnegotiables:

*We treat others with respect and kindness. 
  Everyone. No exceptions.
*We take responsibility for our learning and set high expectations. 
  Everyone.  No exceptions.
*We show pride in ourselves and our school.
  Everyone. No exceptions.

We presented in two different presentation styles.  One is called Speed Learning which is a quick paced 75-minute session that is divided into three 20-minute segments, allowing attendees to get more personal attention from the experts and more information in a short amount of time. Several large round tables are set up in a learning lab and the attendees get to choose the three topics and presenters they want to learn from.  The second presentation is called Spark and Tell.  These sessions are intended to spark an idea and provide resources and connections to help attendees to dive deeper on their own as well as opportunity to ask questions and talk to each of the presenters at the end after each topic has been presented.

Please feel free to access our presentation and contact us with any questions, comments, or suggestions:  Creating a Successful School Community Through Accountability and Kindness by Jon Treese and Krista Venza

Presentation by Jon Treese and Krista Venza - #AMLE2016

The conference was an experience I will never forget.  The level of passion and inspiration that attendees left with is immeasurable.  It was top notch from the communication from organizers such as Dena Harrison, AMLE Program Coordinator, who began helping us months in advance to walk us through the steps we needed to take to prepare our presentations, with the easy registration and logistics once we arrived, and with accommodations for our actual presentation sessions. 

Dru Tomlin wearing our MMS #beingkindmatters wristband

There was such a high energy feeling everywhere you walked in the Austin Convention Center on these four days.  Dru Tomlin, the director of Middle Level Services for AMLE, gave an upbeat perfection of a kick-off that got everyone pumped and ready to engage in learning, collaboration, and bask in the sheer enjoyment of being a middle level educator! 

The Keynote Speakers were inspirational and had the whole ballroom excited for what was to come !  I will definitely be following Marlene Gross-Taylor and her #EduGladiators conquest toward meaningful collaboration among colleagues in the field of education!  Debbie Silver was a blast and couldn't have expressed the importance of connections and relationships any better- especially because she was so funny and had us laughing the whole time!  Jon Bernia and Derek McCoy lit up the room with their enthusiasm for the middle grades and what kid wouldn't LOVE to be in Lucas Dix's class?  I bet his kids have so much fun every day they don't even notice all of the hard work they are doing to learn!

I'm really anxious to order Rosalind Wiserman's book, Owning Up, which is about teaching young people to stop social cruelty.  Robert Balfanz's Early Warning Systems (EWS) help to identify students in need so that educators can provide them with the supports and interventions necessary for them to succeed.  This is definitely something I will be looking into much more in-depth.

The Thought Leader sessions we were able to attend were incredible and we walked away with strategies and ideas we can immediately use (some we already have in the two days we've been back from Austin!) as well as things we plan to research more and implement.  Rick Wormeli has been a mentor to me,

Rick Wormeli, Krista Venza, and Jon Treese

even if he didn't know it, for several years now.  I attended one of his conferences about eight years ago and I was hooked.  I read everything that he wrote, watched videos of him speaking, and "attended" every webinar I could.  His teachings on middle level education have guided me toward forming my personal philosophy and have helped me aspire to be the educational leader my students deserve.  His session on racism was eye-opening and thought-provoking and will certainly help us to serve the diverse population of students in our school. We also got to personally speak with Mr. Wormeli before the opening of the conference and took a picture with him!  Can you say star-struck?  I admit it.  I was.  He's amazing.  

Marcia Tate's presentation on Formative Assessment in a Brain-Compatible Classroom was very insightful and engaging.  She engaged the attendees and provided opportunities for us to collaborate and share ideas.  I love something she said, "The only people who should be more of an expert on the brain than teachers are brain surgeons."  Are there any truer words than these? 

I think the biggest "treasure" I walked away with was the honor of attending two sessions by Dave Burgess.  I've heard of Teach Like a Pirate from twitter but I had no idea what I was in store for when Jon suggested we attend one of his sessions.  I almost passed and told him that we should split up and go to different sessions.  Boy, am I glad I didn't.  His presentations were truly life changing.  I will never look at another lesson the same way after this experience.  There are too many amazing quotes, ideas, and strategies to mention here but before we left his second session I ordered us both copies of Teach Like A Pirate. We can't wait to dive in and begin creating amazing experiences for our students by asking ourselves the right questions to invoke creative ideas and ways to deliver meaningful instruction.

We can't say enough about all of the other presenters, like us, who were fortunate enough to be chosen to share our work at this amazing conference.  We met inspiring middle level educators (principals, coaches, supervisors, teachers, consultants) whom we will keep in touch with and continue to learn with. 

In my article, An End to the "Close Your Door and Do Your Own Thing" Era, I wrote, "Our success and our students' achievement are directly tied to our commitment to learn from, with, and on behalf of one another," - I have never believed that more than after the experience I had attending the 2016 AMLE Conference.  Can't wait until #AMLE2017 in Philly (which is in my back yard)!