Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/unfolding-the-power-of-water/5019754/
After many days of planning and preparation, our 2010 Teachers’ Retreat arrived, with the theme of “Unfolding the Power of Water.” Our retreat location was a historic hotel on Galveston Island overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. Living in a part of the United States where hurricanes have wreaked havoc with pounding wind and water, we looked forward to this opportunity to show our teachers how much we appreciate their hard work and dedication. We felt strongly that hosting a retreat that was both meaningful and offered the benefits of professional development was the right thing to do.United Way Bright Beginnings (UWBB), founded by ExxonMobil and United Way in 2002, is an early childhood initiative in Houston that is changing traditional child care, especially for centers serving and staffed by some of the low-income communities in our area. Part of our professional development work has been to form teacher cohorts around children’s ages as a method of supporting teachers and facilitating their growth as leaders. Each cohort meets with their UWBB consultant to share their experiences and to adopt a new focus for their work. They, in turn, take this new information back to their centers and co-teachers.
Our mentoring framework is ...