AURORA – The Colorado High School Activites Association hosted their Adviser University Conference at Elevation High School in Centennial on Monday, in an effort to provide a space and an opportunity for educational advisers to collaborate and share ideas with eachother.
50 different educational professionals attended the event, representing 30 schools from all around the state of Colorado.
The day began with a networking breakfast and teambuilding exercises that introduced the advisers to one another and began the conversations surrounding themes of inclusion, leadership and the current educational landscape.
“The conference was absolutely great,” Assistant Commissioner and event organizer Rashaan Davis shared. “The opportunity to bring together small schools and big schools from different parts of the state to have conversations about what really matters in how we’re processing leadership with our kids is important. So, to talk about how discipline and data effect student leadership, as much as how important ‘play’ is to student leadership, and the newness of the topics we’re talking about is timely.”
Following those activites, speakers from Limon High School, Heritage High School, Greeley West High School, Abraham Lincoln High School, Air Academy High School and the Colorado Department of Education shared initiatives and changes they’ve spearheaded, and how it has helped their educational environments.
Shirelle Bandy, a counselor from Limon High School, gave the first presentation of the event, as she discussed the Badger Leaders initiative that Limon has recently installed. Bandy shared how Limon is working with kids, starting in kindergarten, to help grow leaders, through the use of social-emotional learning and mindset-based learning, and how that has empowered their school’s community.
Heritage High School’s Kristi Brethauer then shared information about the HumanKIND initiative she has helped launch at her school. She .
During the event’s lunch break, representatives from Make A Wish talked about the importance of their program and the value of granting wishes for children facing critical illnesses. CHSAA Commissioner Mike Krueger then thanked the advisers for attending the event and making the day such a tremendous event, before Special Olympics Colorado’s Rick Brady discussed
After lunch, Greeley West’s Amanda Jones discussed discipline in her school and the disciplinary issues currently facing the educational ecosystem. Jones talked about the importance of these issues, as well as some of the ways Greeley West is managing these novel concerns.
Then, Heather Grantham, from the Colorado Department of Education, highlighted a lot of the misunderstandings that exist about teachers, how educators are compensated for their remarkable work, and how clarifying those misconceptions can help revitalize the teaching profession.
Abraham Lincoln’s Cassandra Tafoya closed the presentation part of the conference by speaking on some of the nuts and bolts of educational advising and counseling, and how one can set a strong foundation for themselves in the profession.
The day then ended with a call for action, asking that all the attendees take today’s lessons on leadership and education, and bring it with them to their own schools.