Sometimes, it’s good to simply be together with those who understand you.
Educators from Madison and other nearby counties pointed to a shared sense of common triumphs and burdens as they gathered for an end-of-school-year conference designed in part to showcase strategies to help accelerate learning recovery.
“Small steps move you forward,” said Laura Miller, assistant superintendent at South Madison Community School Corp., as she described some encouragement she received. “You won’t be perfect, but as you keep making small incremental steps, things get better — for you, for kids, for everybody.”
With graduation season in full swing and teachers taking stock of an academic year marked by continued challenges in catching students up following two years of uneven learning connected to the pandemic, those gathered at Highland Middle School for the two-day conference were grateful for an opportunity to share ideas on what’s working and what needs work.
The conference’s keynote speaker, Gerry Brooks, said that, even before the recent spate of mass shootings that have rocked the U.S. — including the killings of 19 elementary schoolchildren on May 24 in Uvalde, Texas — educators across the country were experiencing tensions in more parts of their jobs than ever before.
“In times of stress, the best thing that you can do is to hang close to people that understand what you’re going through and the stress that you’re going through,” said Brooks, an author, speaker and educator from Lexington, Kentucky. “A conference like this is an excellent opportunity for teachers to gather together not only to learn and grow, but also be there and support each other and have conversations about what they’re dealing with.”
Leaders from Alexandria Community Schools, Anderson Community Schools, Elwood Community Schools, Frankton-Lapel Community Schools and South Madison Community Schools received a grant from the Indiana Department of Education’s Office of Digital Learning to hold the conference. An estimated 630 educators, mostly from Madison County, attended.
“There are so many teachers and other people here who are presenting on different topics that will help us to accelerate student learning in the areas of literacy and numeracy,” said Eric Davis, assistant superintendent at Anderson Community Schools. “We are very excited to be able to take back what we learn to the various schools and corporations so we can help our students.”
Breakout sessions featuring discussions of teaching strategies in math, graphic design and other areas, as well as community partner booths and other vendors, gave teachers chances to browse, network and exchange ideas on a variety of topics.
“I think everyone can benefit from this conference,” said Sterling Boles, assistant superintendent at Frankton-Lapel Community Schools. “Hopefully it’ll help the students and their learning loss because COVID was difficult on everyone — parents included.”
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin on June 3, 2022.