How the Mastermind was born... 

Years ago, a school I worked in crushed some of our souls by adopting a scripted reading program. The small group of us literally cried over it. How could we deliver this canned curriculum and "stay on the right page" when we had students sitting in front of us who were bored, didn't define themselves as readers, and really didn't need what we were giving them? Cue the frustration. 

 

A few teachers and I, quickly  became rebels and for a VERY good cause. We knew better, we could do better, we had done better last year- we couldn't fit the needs of 19 students into this terrible anthology that was supposed to develop "lifelong learners" So we did what had to be done, we ventured off the script, started pulling mentor texts, and tried bending these boring lessons as far a we could. That held us over for a few months, but as good things started happening, we wanted more. We were told we couldn't meet or even talk about going off the script so we would creep into one of our classrooms a few afternoons a week, close the door, and share our great ideas for teaching literacy and the daring ways we were going to teach next week. We called ourselves the Dead Poet's Society (it seemed fitting in so many ways), and knew that these short underground meetings were far better than any spiral bound manual. We eventually overturned one of the worst decisions in our school's history, and moved on to greater things where students were reading, wait for it... REAL BOOKS. Imagine  that? 

 

And so, I suppose in these moments, locked in a classroom, with a few amazing brains, after hours- Ed Masterminds was born. We are an educational THINK TANK where many amazing ideas turned out to be more powerful than one, a group of like minded teachers who would do anything for our students, and we put them in the center of every decision we made. Our students deserved their teachers to do better, to advocate and to speak up. 

 

We have invited those of you who speak up.

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Education Masterminds is the educational underground for those who seek MEANINGFUL professional development, are solution oriented, and think outside the box, maybe you don't even view it as a box… we love that.

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If you have ideas, struggles, and the heart of an educator... if you are STUDENT driven, and innovation pumps you up, then we want YOU! All invited have inspired this event, and we will always be looking to grow this PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NETWORK, so bring a friend that you think is into the good stuff.

 

We can guarantee two things - (1) You will leave this meeting smarter than you entered, and (2) it will be what we make it.

 

Love,

Bryan and Kate