The Windy City

Over the past three days I was near Chicago. I went with my principal and some colleagues to an educational conference on Professional Learning Communities. It was well put together and I learned a lot. In a nutshell, we were discussing ways to improve student achievement using collaboration and intervention. Okay, I know that probably sounds very NOT exciting to most of you, but that's okay. The gurus of this movement, Richard and Rebecca DuFour, led the institute-as they called it- and it was held at the high school where Richard DuFour implemented these strategies and brought student achievement up tremendously. This high school has since been awarded the Blue Ribbon Award 4 times, the only high school in the nation to have done so. (As you may recall, my school OGE won this award for the first time last year). Anyway, we have a start in my school at PLCs (for short), but after this convention we realize how much MORE we have to do. So those of us who went are going to be the committee that spearheads this at school this year with the goal of raising student achievement and learning. Whew! Okay, on to the fun stuff, pictures. My friend Toni came down from WI one night, and we went with two of my coworkers on the train to Navy Pier. We had a really great time. We followed up the evening with Karaoke in the hotel bar. We arrived there after Navy Pier at 11 to find the majority of the teachers three sheets to the wind on the dance floor. Sorry, no pictures there. But here are some Chicago pics.

Navy Pier Entrance

The Ferris Wheel we rode

Toni and Me on the Train 

Sears Tower

Skyline

Navy Pier