Lorang+PCTI+Training

Once upon a time there was a teacher/librarian who had spent her entire teaching career (26 - one year) in the same small school district. She occasionally caught glimpses of what education was like outside of the four walls of her school. Most of the exposure was fleeting and dealt with new curriculum or methodology. Then one day her superintendent called her into his office and gave her the "you can say no" but implied (//you better say yes//) request. To quote the superintendent - "I would like you to sign up to become the peer coach for our school. No big deal. You just go to a a workshop for a few days and do some stuff online. Then you could be a mentor for our new English teacher this next year. Our school gets paid for monitoring this grant and we need someone involved."
 * Allow me to tell a story**........It is ultimately my personal story but one that would probably be similar to others.

So, being of the generation of " young at heart" adults who have lived their lives on the premis that you treat your boss with respect and you do what you have been asked to do, the teacher/ librarian agreed to go to the training to become a peer coach.

Little did she realize that this one "yes" would make such a difference in her (//trying to think of a word here//) of what dynamic teaching should look like and how a peer coaching program is a way to expose more folks to that "aha" moment. **Editorial comment:** If all teachers were on board, I don't think there would be room for government to discuss the failure of public education in the US.

The peer coaching program offered that teacher so many new tools and ideas. It seems to be such a well organized, well developed program. The teacher completed her workshop with 5 other super, highly motivated folks and a super presenter. She finds herself looking forward to getting back to her school to talk to her administration about her experience. Her mind is full of thoughts and she is carefully guarding her resource materials lest they get out of her sight. Her first step is a committment to take the time to reflect on what she has learned that she could apply to the lessons she teaches in the library. Her second step will be to use some of her newly acquired coaching skills when she talks to her principal in the hopes that together they can develop a professional development plan that will assist the staff to become "the best they can be".

Of course this story does not have an ending - and probably never will (hopefully) but there will be additional chapters.