Welcome to CCE Summer Workshop for New Hires

Back in the day, we had large numbers of colleagues added to our faculty each year as our learning community grew from 600 to 1,400 students. Each summer, we would offer a three day Welcome to CCE Workshop to acquaint new teachers. The first day always focused on building relationships, and learning about our vision, mission, learner expectations, and school's history. The second and third days would focus on our Communication and Core Workshops. We always felt like the three days gave the new hires a head start and made them less anxious about joining our large staff. 

In the last five years, our student population has remained stable and our staff has been less mobile, therefore the Welcome to CCE Workshops have disappeared. This year, that's changed, again, with the district's support of more resources and a few faculty relocations and babies. We have, for the first time in years, added 11 new faculty colleagues, and have turned again to our Welcome to CCE. 


The difference now is that the new hires don't need a three day session. Two of them are home grown meaning they did their internships with us and then stayed connected as they taught in other schools for a while. A few others have Chets Creek colleague roots and have collaborated with our staff as they've served in other schools as mentors, lead teachers, and coaches. Others, that are new to teaching, have been added as co-teachers in experienced teacher's classrooms. Therefore, our Welcome to CCE this year was a one day workshop that focused on building relationships, sharing our vision, mission, learner expectations, history, and taking a scavenger hunt through our building. Each teacher was gifted our foundational book, Building a Community of Learners and Leaders, and was treated to lunch. We think that by giving new hires a preview, their school year will start off on a great foot and they'll feel comfortable asking questions. Stay tuned as their journey on the wild side begins...