My Weekend at RCA

You guys.

I just don’t even know if I can put this weekend in to words. I am floored by my experience yet again at Ron Clark Academy. The energy and excitement and RIGOR (like 5th graders doing math that I was doing in high school) is beyond my realm of comprehension. I feel like I can do a pretty good job of painting a picture with my words, but I don’t know if I can give full justice to my experience this weekend. I will try 🙂

First off, I loved going with this group.

It is really incredible to watch someone (all of the RCA educators) do something that you love doing so phenomenally well surrounded by other superb educators. The wealth of knowledge and inspiration was overwhelming.

We woke up bright and early Friday morning and joined in the library to dance and jump on the trampoline. Here is a picture but Erica also took a video. It makes you feel like you are right there 🙂

The energy is so contagious and tangible you could almost grab it out of the air and put it in your pocket.

Then, we got to spend the day in the classrooms of the most phenomenal teachers that I have ever witnessed. Of course, Ron is an experience all on its own. I can’t even put that in to words. It’s just a buzz of rigorous teaching, high expectations, and plain fun. I love watching Kim speak and teach because I feel like I relate to her and I find myself trying to be more like her every day. Not just as a teacher, but as a human being.

I am so proud to call Hope King my friend because, good grief, that girl can teach it! Her room is absolutely amazing. You will have to go visit to see if for yourself 🙂 Here is a little sneak peak in to her room. My favorite part is the rock wall reading nook.

We had the opportunity to tour the new wing of the school.

Holy moly.

It is a sight to see.

Here are a few pictures…but I don’t want to give away too much because (like I said) you have to see it for yourself!

This is the entrance to the gym.

These paintings have the kid’s faces on them.

Why wouldn’t they have a ginormous dragon?

We finished our day of professional development feeling so inspired and charged. It is kind of like Disney for teachers.

The best part of the entire day for me was when I talked to Ron at the end of the day. I told him how he has changed the dynamic in my classroom and how his influence on me as a teacher has inspired not just me…but my students as well. We read chapters and excerpts from his book and keep our own “Essential 55” chart that is Kindergarten friendly. At the end of the day after he has been running around like a chicken with his head cut off (I’m not even exaggerating) he grabs my hand and says, “Come with me, I have an idea!”. He them proceeds to send my kids a message that I showed them today.

And that, my friends, made me cry my eyes out. Ha. It was so special and meant so much to me and my students. You should have seen them light up today when I showed it to them. I think I’m going to keep that tucked away for a rainy day 🙂

We also went to the basketball game that night in the new gym where we all wore our matching dragon RCA shirts.

After our very exhausting, amazing, exhilarating, and emotional day…we went back to the hotel and got some much needed zzz’s. We got to spend Saturday going to breakfast, shopping, and having dinner with Kim.

If you can’t get yourself to RCA this year, I highly (like more than anything) recommend that you grab a few of their books so you can feel the RCA fuel. It really does breathe a new life in to your classroom and in your teacher bones. Here are my favorites:

If you want to read about the last experience that I had at RCA, you can click here. There were also lots of other bloggers that went on Friday and you can read about their different experiences and what they took away from it.

Have a wonderful inspired week!