About the Experienced Pro Seminar
If You Are Thinking of Attending...
We recommend that you talk with your school and register for The Experienced Pro as early as possible so that we can determine whether there is enough interest to hold the seminar as scheduled. In these difficult economic times, many schools have cut back on enrichment programs like this seminar. This makes it difficult for us to plan. Early registration will help us and help to assure that the seminar will take place as scheduled.
If there are too few registrations to justify holding the seminar, we will cancel it. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to register, and keep in touch as we make our plans.
The history over the years of these is one of extraordinary spirit, a program of thousands of remarkable teachers. It has been clear that both the seminar and the schools join in their vision of what we mean by Experienced Pro: people whose talent, commitment, spirit is flowering, people whose gifts enrich their schools and matter to our profession, people with practices, discoveries questions to share with their fellow Pros, with new teachers, with students, with the society itself.
Thus this gathering is for the school's stars, a treat for them, a chance to come together with fellow Experienced Pro's from all over the U.S. to reflect, explore, share news, give and get some perspective, generate some new ideas and plans, and savor and confirm some long-held, valuable ones.
Photo courtesy of John Kendall, Rutgers Preparatory School
(Over the years, we have had people say there needs to be a seminar for burned-out, negative, gone-dead teachers who need peaking up. Maybe there is that need, but that will have to be another seminar and led by someone else! This gathering is for Aces, coming together with fellow Aces, finding good company, being good company.)
This will be an active three days (noon Wednesday through noon Friday), people in all kinds of conversations, solo times, planning sessions with two, three, four others, or sometimes gathered together as the whole group to see how things are going, to reflect together, then to split into the next partnership activity or project.
The Seminar will be led by David Mallery, and there will be a key session led by Dr. Robert Evans, psychologist, and the Director of The Human Relations Service in Wellesley, MA. A former high school and pre-school teacher, he consults to schools nationwide. His area of special interest is the implementation of school change and resistance to it. His book on this topic, The Human Side of School Change (1996). His new book, Family Matters: How Schools Can Cope with the Crisis in Childrearing, was published by Jossey-Bass in 2004. Dr. Evans is a graduate of the Germantown Friends School and received his A.B. from Princeton University and his doctorate from Harvard University.
Important Note: Only those should apply for this seminar who can arrange to arrive on time and stay the full span of the seminar. We build this seminar together and develop it together, start to finish. Thus there should be no question of someone not being there to start the process, or leaving early, as each person's active part in creating the seminar's content and tone is crucial. That is really the point and meaning of the seminar.
