Last week I was invited to AP Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School in Raleigh, NC. A phenomenal school run by a team of educators whose passion would be tough to surpass, lead by Dr. Muriel Summers.
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My first contact with Combs was when I met Kendra Fisher on a flight to Indianapolis. When we were leaving the plane she recognized me from one of our events, a conversation about education broke out, and a friendship formed. An extremely impressive young woman who invited me to visit Combs on my next trip to NC. When I found an opportunity and told her I would love to meet the staff, little did I know that I was going to be ‘Leader Of The Week’ for a 5th Grade Assembly.
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Combs is implementing PLCs and has a culture that is built around Steven Covey’s 7 Habits in a extrodinary way. This is shirt they gave me, and I saw at least four staff wearing the same shirt that day.
The students at the Assembly were a diverse population, extremely polite, well briefed on the event, and prepared for the occasion. The panel of 7 students, professionally dressed, GRILLED me on each of the 7 Habits and they related to my life and Solution Tree. This group was as impressive as a PLC Institute Panel of Educators at the PLC Summit. I then fielded questions from the remaining students, had pictures taken, and was even invited by one young man to his house the next day for a pancake breakfast.
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AP Combs is a model school of efficiency and professionalism. They are a true Professional Learning Community, living out the 7 Habits each and every day, and know what it takes to develop young educators.
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It was an honor to be a ‘Leader Of The Week’ and my new e-pen pal and I are planning my next visit…with pancakes on the agenda.