4th Annual Mentor Conference/Symposium and Workshop

CSTP and OSPI present:

Strong Teachers, Strong Learners
Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind

Workshop: November 2, 2010
Symposium: November 3-4, 2010

An interactive symposium for educators who provide teacher professional development.

We invited all educators who help their colleagues improve their professional practice to join this time of learning together. Mentors, coaches, other teacher leaders, and administrators benefited from participating in our 4th annual symposium.  The focus was on improving student learning through teacher growth and development.  This was an opportunity to

• Develop coaching skills
• Network and collaborate
• Apply Habits of Mind to practice
• Problem solve around current challenges
• Plan for the next steps

Workshop: Tuesday, November 2, 2010
8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Posters from this session

Image 1

Image 2

Building an Even More Thought-full Learning Community with Habits of Mind

by Art Costa

This workshop was available as an add-on with symposium registration.

A Habit of Mind means having a disposition toward behaving intelligently when confronted with problems, the answers to which are not immediately known: dichotomies, dilemmas, enigmas and uncertainties. It means getting into the habit of behaving intelligently when you DON'T know the answer.

For more on Habits of Mind see http://www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com/

What are Habits of Mind? Click here for a description.

Symposium: Wednesday and Thursday, November 3 and 4, 2010
8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day

Image from closing

Keynote Address: Mindful Mediation
Featured speaker: Art Costa

Dr. Costa will inspire and challenge us in our pursuit of the common goal of increasing student learning. In doing this, he will help us understand how we can use our skills to enhance others' cognitive capacity for high performance, both independently and as members of a community.

Symposium Strands

Focused on a variety of mentoring and coaching topics, strands provided participants the opportunity to think, problem solve, and apply concepts more deeply.

Participants selected one strand to attend Wednesday afternoon and continued through Thursday morning. Click here to view the different Strands handouts. 

New strand this year: Mentoring and coaching teachers in special education

Comments from 2009 symposium attendees:

• "Being able to connect with colleagues from around the state was valuable. Different perspectives and experiences always make for richer conversation."
• "I felt energized through my session work and the opportunity to network with people I do not regularly encounter."
• "It was amazing to work alongside coaches, mentors, and others with a variety of experiences and skills."
• "It was time well-spent."
• "Professional development opportunities for mentors are rare and this provides an avenue for growth."
• "Don't fix what isn't broken. I loved it."

Location:

The symposium took place at the Lynnwood Convention Center in Lynnwood, Washington.