School Visits

This weekend I'll be presenting at an educators' conference in Wichita.  As a district nominee for Teacher of the Year, I was able to travel and visit other school districts throughout the state, with fellow nominees as hosts.  Each regional team member shared her district, school, and even personal learning space as we toured.

I was the first to host our year's worth of visits, and worked my way through the process of creating an itinerary and set of standard operating procedures: fitting since I'm a military spouse!  I communicated with my colleagues, inviting those interested to present or share with the KTOY team, determined what our schedule would look like, created name badges and information packets, made restaurant reservations and accommodated for dietary needs, made transportation arrangements, and prepared gifts and thank you cards.  

It was a lot of work, but I was able to relax once the big day arrived.  Making introductions and keeping us as on-schedule as possible were my main responsibilities as my colleagues and their students were well prepared for our visit.  For the remainder of the year, I greatly enjoyed visiting other districts and schools with my KTOY team members as hosts.  We shared a lot, networked, commiserated, and learned so much from one another and the other exemplary educators, administrators, education para-professionals, students and PTA/SITE members we met.

Have you had the opportunity to visit another school or district?  What did you notice?

****UPDATE****

KTOY Nominees: If you didn't receive a copy of my sample email, invitation, and itinerary, email me and I'll be glad to attach them to my response.  It was wonderful sharing my how-to tips for planning school visits with you today.  Congratulations, and enjoy your banquet this evening!