I remember going to conferences and I would fill up pages and pages and pages of notes and then say, what am I supposed to do with this though? Like, I've gotten so much great theory.
There are so many great ideas, but there's no action plan.
And I'm feeling paralyzed because I have no plan forward.
Hey there, and welcome back to the Smarter Intervention podcast.
I'm Corey, and today's episode is really special.
We're pulling back the curtain to share the story of how the smarter intervention summit came to be and why it matters so much to us.
If you've ever felt like professional development often misses the mark, either overwhelming you, burning you out, or not giving you what you actually need, You are absolutely not alone.
In fact, that feeling was a huge part of why we created summit in the first place, but I don't want to be the only one telling this story because the summit was truly a dream built alongside my amazing teammate, Mikaela, She's here in the office with us this week.
So we thought, what better way to use her time than to have her share this story with you? And we also wanted to share Lindsay's origin story with Assend.
So today, you'll hear from both of them as they share what makes Summit different, why it matters, and why we believe this kind of support is essential for educators today.
So let's dive in.
Awesome.
And, Mikaela, we are so happy and excited that you're here in the office with us this week.
Thank you.
I'm so excited to be back in Denver for a few days.
I was fortunate enough to come out to present at a conference this weekend and decided to stay for a few extra days to be here in the office with everyone and get to work with everyone here again, which is such a treat for us.
And So actually on the topic of conferences, Mikaela, should we talk about the importance of professional development, especially in the light of the recent data that's kinda coming out? Absolutely.
So something that is not a secret is that the NAEP scores are down again.
And so we've been talking a lot in our office and in our community of educators about why we're continuing to see these scores decline even with more access to PD and more access to curriculum and programs.
And what we're noticing is that the problem isn't effort, it's not curriculum, or even funding alone, but it's the kind of support educators actually need, but rarely get.
It's not that we don't have professional development.
It's just that so much of it doesn't meet us where we really are.
I have to agree.
I, you know, was attending the same conference as you this weekend, and it was a great conference.
Lots of great information taken away.
But in the past, it was a lot of people didn't really know about the science of reading, lots of people were learning about that.
And at this particular conference, the presenters did ask how many of you know about the science of reading or just kinda getting that, and everyone in the audience did know about the science of reading.
So it wasn't like that anymore.
And it was still a bunch of educators, though, still looking for that special development.
So it's like, okay.
So it again, but what you said, it's not that we we don't have the knowledge.
It's not that that's not theirs, but teachers are still looking for something.
And so I guess that kinda brings us to What are some maybe, you know, with traditional pre professional development? What are some of the pain points that we kinda take away? I know for me, I've been through so much professional development as a teacher and just as professional.
And A lot of times I will leave a session or just a conference, and I will just feel so overwhelmed almost to the point of over stimulation to the point where I'm like, great.
That was a lot of great information.
What do I do now? Absolutely.
I remember going to conferences and I would fill up pages and pages and pages of notes and then say, what am I supposed to do with this though? Like, I've gotten so much great theory.
There are so many great ideas, but there's no action plan.
And I'm feeling paralyzed because I have no plan forward, even with all of this incredible information that the presenters and these very knowledgeable researchers and people would provide.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I never left without notes and and handouts.
I was it was I was pumped, but I also was, like you said, paralyzed.
I think that's the perfect word for it.
And then I there were some times though that I would be going to these sessions and sometimes, you know, you'd have a presenter who who was a professional, and said, you know, you don't do this way.
You do this way.
And there's only this way.
And all of a sudden, I started to feel very criticized and not supported and just being like, oh my gosh, everything I've done to this point is wrong.
I'm a bad educator.
And that fed into the overwhelm and the overstimulation and the that paralyzing feeling and just being like, do I even try anymore? What do I do? Absolutely.
And knowing that it comes from a place of this is what we wanna be doing to help kids and we wanna be moving forward, So these are the strategies that we should be putting in place now without recognizing that the kids are changing over time or that the education space is changing.
And that doesn't mean that anything you've done in the past was wrong or was bad.
Right.
But the way that some of the new strategies are delivered don't honor those past experiences.
Right.
And so I think it's easy for people to feel criticized and not seen or valued when we're hearing, like, this must be the way to move forward.
Yes.
Because it doesn't account for all of the beautiful things we've done in the past.
Even though maybe there are new things we should be implementing or trying moving forward.
Right.
And kind of giving us, you know, everyone the grace of being like, no, what you haven't done is necessarily wrong.
We're just we're evolving.
We're changing.
Absolutely.
The world is changing.
We're seeing new needs pop up all the time.
Yes.
And then I think another thing that I've noticed at conferences or at PDs are some of the just logistical struggles and some of the things like we'll go to these full days of conferences and there's no food.
Or there's no water fountains and we're filling up our water bottles in the bathroom and we're like, oh my gosh.
I'm just exhausted because we're going through all of these sessions and learning so much, but I've got no snacks.
Right.
You've got nothing.
No coffee or nothing to drink while we're here.
And every educator knows you need coffee.
It is it's the fuel of educators.
Yeah.
I I completely agree, Mikaela.
I actually there was a conference that my school would send me to, and it was a type of conference where it was jam packed with sessions and you wanted to attend sessions, but they actually did not create a break for lunch.
Mhmm.
So if you wanted to have lunch, you had to miss a session.
And that was kind of overwhelming because I'm like, well, my district has paid for me to come here.
I should be getting as much information as I can.
But I'm also super hungry and I need to go get food.
And like you said, there was no food available there.
So I had to leave to find food and come back.
And I just it was a full day kind of thing.
Like, there's no way that I could have gone without food.
It just is not.
And you feel like you're not getting the value for the investment you've made both in time and that the school is paying to send you to the conference because you're missing sessions to then having to take care of yourself.
Yes.
And so nobody wants to do that and feel like they're missing out on that value either.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So, Mikaela, let's talk a little bit about Asen's conference summit.
And, uh, last year was the first year for it.
Correct? Yeah.
So we held our first summit last summer.
And really, we've been dreaming about doing a literacy retreat style conference or a summit for years.
We had posted about it in our intervention insider's community.
Years ago saying if we had some kind of in person retreat or experience here in Denver who would be interested and we had a lot of people raise their hand, but we knew we weren't totally in this space yet to be able to bring it to life.
And so, really, that dream started to evolve in 2019 when Corey and I went to a business conference together.
And we noticed that while we were there, just the experience was so vastly different from the educational conferences we had attended where we were conversing with other people, even educators that were also at this business conference.
And we were leaving sessions empowered with an action plan, and we were excited.
And I remember there was one night Cory and I were up until 2AM in the hotel room just furiously writing down ideas and getting so excited to come back and implement this action plan.
Wow.
And so we really wanted to take that spirit where we left everything empowered and excited and had built this community up of people at this conference and morphed that into an education conference.
Yeah.
So we would take all of the things we learned there and that we appreciated about the environment they built.
And create that for educators so that we could still deliver all of this important PD and all of the important research that people were giving at conferences and talking about the topics that people were bringing up but really develop an action plan.
Yeah.
But also a community and building this environment where people had a space for laughter and connection and learning that they were getting real materials to use and not just theory and research.
But really had more of that retreat experience where they came in.
Their experience was valued.
We talked about all of the strategies.
We created a clear action plan and that they left feeling empowered and with a sense of community and a renewed excitement for education.
Oh my gosh.
I I love that personally because I was attending last year's summit.
So hearing that that's where the dream of summit came from is so great because I can tell you you 100% manage that.
I, I mean, I was already super excited about attending the summit.
I had been using these sub materials in my classroom, and I had fallen in love with ascend and just everything you guys have put out.
So so excited.
I attended with two other of my colleagues And, I mean, immediately upon arriving, it was you could tell it was gonna be different.
You guys were there, you were smiling, you were greeting us.
We you were handing us bags, and people were talking and chatting, and, you know, we were grabbing the breakfast that you had set out for us, and everyone had smiles on their face.
And it was just I mean, we even got here a day early just because we were so excited, and we stayed a day later because we're, like, we're we're in Denver.
We get to see all this.
Like, we finally get to meet everybody, um, throughout the conference.
You guys did exactly what you set out to do.
I mean, yes.
I I learned more, but I also walked away those strategies.
Like, I was furiously writing down information.
The entire time.
I'm like, I'm gonna do this with this student.
I'm gonna do this with the strategy in my classroom.
I was like, I had all the ideas.
And I was teacher in New York and our school year ends in June.
So we were still technically at the end of our school year.
But I was already like, okay.
I'm gonna even start, you know, getting this ready.
So when school starts in September, I'll be ready to go.
I was so excited with the materials, the resources, the ideas, not just even from what you guys were presenting to us, but the way that you set up the conference, how I was able to collaborate with other educators at my own table, who were principals, who were speech language people who had their own private clinics, elementary school teachers.
I was a secondary literacy teacher.
Right? So we all got to talk through the presentation and through the conference and just collaborate.
And I was able to take ideas away from them, and I was also offering suggestions and ideas to them.
And we just we had a great collaboration at our table.
It was so much fun.
Even at lunch, you would sit with, like, the people you know, and maybe some people from your table, but also I just end up sitting with people who are way across the room that, like, I didn't see.
And we just all started talking and like about our backgrounds and and throughout it all, we were just smiling, having so much fun.
It was so nice being able to take breaks.
And there was sparkling water.
And I can't tell you how much I appreciated that.
I was like, oh my gosh.
Like, there's sparkling water, and there's all sorts of flavors.
I don't know.
There's snacks and coffee.
It was the best.
I was so happy.
And I I did.
I just felt so energized, and it must have come through because I even the principal that was at my table even offered me a job.
She's like, do you wanna come work in Arkansas? And I said, I don't think so.
She's like, yeah.
You do really have to be ready for tornadoes.
So I was like, okay.
Yeah.
No.
But it was just that's the kind of energy, you know, you walked away from.
And it was so great to feel the energy and to feel like I was ready for my next school year, which funny enough didn't happen because then I became a member of a sense Yes.
And our team finds it, which I'm so happy for.
I, you know, I as as much as I want to implement these strategies classroom and with the kids and how I had all planned.
I am so happy to be here and speak with you guys and with this team because I get to feel that energy every single day now.
Well, we are so excited to have you bringing that energy to the team and working with us as well.
So, yeah.
I mean, I guess, you know, as an attendee, I just really, you know, if you are thinking about joining the summit this year, it's I cannot recommend it enough.
It's you will meet, like minded people.
You will be energized, you will have fun.
Honestly, you have fun, and you will see yourself successful already while also being able to see how can I grow in the way that you wanna grow? And you are given actionable strategies, which I think is something that I can't really say about any other conference I walked away from.
That's not to say that the other conferences I went to were bad, but they left me wanting more.
Absolutely.
And I think something that we're really striving for both last year in the summit and this year is just to really reinforce that sense of community.
Mhmm.
Because even with all of the best knowledge and the best strategies and the best materials, that sense of community is where we're seeing the most massive changes happen and the biggest impact coming is when you can collaborate with those other people and have that renewed sense of energy, especially after such a tough year in education.
Yeah.
And so I think that's something that we really wanna drive home this year as well is building up a like minded community of empowered and inspiring educators.
Yeah.
And we all know, to teacher burnout.
Is definitely a thing.
And what's not going to renew teacher burnout is just kinda like good job, cat in the back.
It's gonna be like, no, you are supported.
You you do have collaboration.
And that there are other teachers all over the country who feel the same way that you do.
Right? Absolutely.
So if you are interested in learning more about the summit, we will be hosting it again in June this summer, and we'd really love for you to join us and be there in person with this community of educators, we do have more information on our website.
We will link that in the show notes, but you can visit it at www.
smarterintervention.
com/summit.
And you can register there and get more information And we'd really love for you to come join us in Denver and experience all of the things that Lindsey had last year as an attendee and that we are hoping to bring to educators this year.
Guys, we see you.
We appreciate you.
And, again, just like Mikaela said, we would definitely love to see you in Denver this June.
Thank you guys for being here, and thank you for the incredible work you do every single day.
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