I leave for a conference tomorrow down in Washington, DC. I’ll be working with ASCD leaders at the Leader 2 Leader conference. This conference is meant to help educators connect their work with that of ASCD and vice versa, and it has been a conference that has been incredibly helpful for me over the last five years.
Through it, I’ve connected with a number of excellent educators, and I’ve also been able to leverage my relationship with the organization to help the agency that employs me, and to grow in my own leadership capabilities in a number of key ways.
As I type this at 10 PM (I’ve really got to get to bed soon), I’m thinking of the loose ends that I need to tie up before leaving. I’ve packed, I’m putting together all the documents I need for a short learning session I’ll be facilitating, and I’m mentally counting off the remaining items that need to be taken care of, both at home, and for work.
Tying up loose ends is never easy business, as we (and more precisely I) tend to often forget key items unless there are methods in place to appropriately remember (I tend to like to write things down). But, when we do remember, and all loose ends are tied, it can be an amazing experience to know that we’ve done all that was necessary in order to transition to a conference, leave on vacation, or what have you.
I think all loose ends are tied (I’ll find out for sure tomorrow), and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn from colleagues around the world!