The Road Less Traveled

The Kid President video titled "A Pep Talk" sums up my ADL journey quite well. After choosing the path less traveled he exclaims, "And it hurt, man! There were rocks, and thorns..."  From the get-go, Dr. H. warned us that this journey would not be easy, as we were going to be learning about COVA + CSLE while experiencing COVA + CSLE.  No reading chapters here! Quizzes? Unheard of!  While I embraced the freedom that this learning style offered, I struggled to reconcile my desire to please the instructor with the lack of clear expectations.  As we moved through the Growth Mindset modules, I became more comfortable with self-directed learning and gained confidence in the process of learning through feed-forward rather than traditional assessment methods.  At the moment, I'm trying to convince my campus leadership to implement some in-depth Growth Mindset training for the staff, as I think most negative attitudes and resistance to change stems from our Fixed Mindsets. I know mine did! 
The biggest transformation for me was learning about organizational change strategies.  I find myself consulting my Six Sources of Influence, 4DX, and Crucial Conversations on a weekly basis to help plan PLC meetings and coaching conversations. This course helped me find and use my voice as a campus leader.  This year my campus added a Friday afternoon club block from 2-2:45.  While this club program isn't as robust as the 4-H program,  I think that involving more teachers and students is very exciting! If I hadn't gone through the ADL program, I would not be prepared at all to guide the staff through the added responsibility of club leadership and facing the challenges of working out the kinks.  As is often the case, this change was made without adequate planning upfront, but doing it this way has helped the staff see how the students respond to authentic learning and get them more excited about COVA + CSLE themselves! 
I'm so grateful to have been a part of this program.  At times I was wishing for something easy, like some chapters to read or a quiz to take, but I know that that type of learning would not have been nearly as transformative or given me the confidence to move forward in my career. As Kid President says when faced with two paths: "I want to be on the [path] that leads to awesome."
A Pep Talk from Kid President: https://youtu.be/l-gQLqv9f4o