Friday 21 June 2019

SCASA_Innovative Ideas Institute

My time at Myrtle Beach is nearly over and as I look out of the window of my hotel room 10 floors up I reflect on what I have learned.
Firstly my journey to reflect on me as a principal.
The main points I took from conference-

  • Reflective leaders are effective leaders
  • When making decisions about anything in our school ask, 'Who does this exclude?' rather than 'Who does it include?' This will ensure success for ALL
  • When dealing with surface relationships  take the e's out of PEEP-people, emotion, energy, performance so I can deal with the real things and give my TEA(Time Energy Attention) to the things that matter.
I met some inspiring leaders. Dedicated educationalists who teach and lead for one thing, the children.
Coming straight from NZ where teachers have been disgruntled with our education system it was refreshing to see and hear positive vibes I feel excited about my new learning and can't wait to share some information and skills I have learned.

As for Myrtle Beach-it's been a fun place to start my journey. Off to the very busy city of Philadelphia in the morning and instead of 1800 people at the conference I will be one of 20,000!

Monday 17 June 2019

My journey to Myrtle Beach

Happy Monday from Myrtle Beach!
I left home on Saturday morning. It was very sad saying goodbye to Ted so I didn't really because I thought I would cry.
We had lunch with Toby and Haidee and Lucy and then I went around to Lucy's house and had a snooze in front of her fire because it was bitterly cold Canterbury day. At 4 o'clock Pete told me to the airport where we discovered I was not only stopping in at LA I was also going to Chicago en route to Myrtle Beach. It would take me an awful long time but luckily Pete had bought me head cancelling headphones to help me sleep.
I watched two movies between Auckland and LA something I never time to do. I also slept for about 6 hours. The Bose headphones are amazing and shut out all the plane engine noise. When we arrives in LA it took me ages to get through immigration and I always know someone somewhere and ran into Eric Martini several times in the queue. The world is a village when you think of all the millions of people in the world and there is someone from Runanga!
I was able to go to a hotel room near the airport to have a shower and something to eat before setting off in a shuttle bus to get to Terminal 7 ( LAX was a bustling city itself even though it was midnight.) I  flew to Chicago and then I caught a smaller plane to Myrtle Beach.
Myrtle Beach is very pretty with lots of palm trees and condos but I am yet to see the beach!
I went to register this afternoon and went to a supermarket to buy food for breakfast and lunches. The fresh fruit is yummy! For dinner I had a fish platter and there was enough for at two others. Tucked up in bed now and looking forward to attending the Innovative Institute Conference tomorrow. You should see the wonderful Scholastic Book display Mrs Costello. Sadly I don't have any spare space in my suitcase.
I hope you are all well and showing 'The Grey Main Way'.
Mrs O x

Friday 14 June 2019

Packing!

Welcome to Mrs O'S Adventures!

I have been busy packing and have been able to squeeze in 14 dresses and six pair of shoes for 10 weeks. Tomorrow I fly to LA and stay one night before heading to Myrtle Beach.
Watch this space!