ADE, Class of 2015

Last summer was jam packed with attending conferences, getting 1:1 ready for the new school year, and going to Greece for our honeymoon! Often times when we attend a conference, we come home completely exhausted and forget to reflect on the experience, or more specifically share out with our colleagues. Sure, we tweet and share pictures and short recaps on Instagram and Facebook during the conference, but what do we do when we get home? A few colleagues asked when I returned home, how was ADE? I said, "it was amazing." Without accurate time and probing from the person asking the question, the conversation didn't really go much further.

So, as we kick off our second Institute Day, I wanted to practice having coaching conversations with our instructional coach team. As a team we also wanted to hear about each other's summer experiences. So, we paired up with our Cognitive Coaching Seminars Foundation Training Guides and held a planning conversation and a reflecting conversation. (Thanks for our training in Berwyn Michele Tissiere!) My reflecting conversation brought me back to the institute, what was my experience like? What did I learn?

The institute was a bit overwhelming, because of the caliber of people in attendance. Every hour I met a new educator and was amazed at what they were doing to change and enhance teaching and learning across the world. I kept thinking, why am I here? It forced me to think about my ADE video I created to share my story. In my video I focused on the 4 areas of what it means to be an ADE: Advisor, Advocate, Ambassador, and Author. I realized, yes I do belong in this amazing group of educators. We all focus on those same four A's, but in different contexts based on our passions and experiences.

ADE Class of 2015 Application Video

Throughout the Institute we heard from a variety of corporate speakers, photographer Bill Frakes, Jason Hall, Slow Roll Detroit founder, and several ADE's present 1 in 3's (sharing 1 inspiring story in 3 minutes). We participated in hands-on workshops were we got to explore maker spaces and attend sessions on our interests/needs. We also were given time to collaborate with smaller teams to help each other begin our ADE projects. Luckily we had some down time too, where I was able to collaborate over dinner with ADE's from various classes. 

My biggest takeaway from ADE Institute 2015 was the people and the time to collaborate with them. I've made long lasting friendships and I will forever be a part of this ever distinguished group of people. Finally, ADE pushed me to put what I'm most passionate about (SAMR) into practice by creating my One Best Thing iBook. It should be published in the near future, please search for Applying the SAMR Model, under Shannon Soger in iTunes along with numerous other amazing projects created by ADE's this year and previous classes. 

It's good to take some time away from our busy schedules and have reflecting conversations with peers... you just never know what it might lead to!

Shannon Soger
ADE Class of 2015