Sabbatical is Almost Over

This week I had much to celebrate: my birthday, my most recent bill of clean health, and the fact that my hair has been growing and finally regained its curly structure. These were all signs that my body and mind had time to heal, reflect, and renew.

I began my self-imposed sabbatical with the idea that I would take six months to heal and plan for what would come next. During this time, I would also work, but only on projects that I was truly interested in and would help me grow as a professional. I was so grateful for the opportunities I was given by colleagues who invited me to help them facilitate and coach their teams. I have also begun to teach a class on school law for a cohort of teachers who are obtaining their administrator credentials. I have loved every one of these opportunities!

During my sabbatical, I reflected a lot on professional development. I read research on what makes professional development effective and how one of the best investments in the education sector is investing in our own staff by providing them with excellent professional development opportunities. The executive world invests an average of 10-15% of their revenue on professional development opportunities for their employees. I doubt that the education sector invests as much in professional development or provides as much individualized support, such as 1:1 coaching to improve teacher and school leader practice. In my doctoral program, I read Putting the "Development" in Professional Development: Understanding and Overturning Educational Leaders' Immunity to Change, and it gave me much to think about how much of our professional development lives in the technical component and is aimed at building skills. It is rare to attend a professional development opportunity in which we engage in the adult development component and reflect on our values, biases, assumptions, and how these impact our performance at work. The education sector will not transform until we, as the adults, engage in the developmental aspect of our learning and practice.

As my sabbatical reached the six-month mark, I also thought about a trip I took to visit schools in Japan a couple of years ago. A Japanese education leader explained that during the last five years of an educator's profession, they focus on coaching the next generation of teachers and school principals. That is exactly what I want to do. I have so much experience and so much love for education that I want to make sure I contribute in whatever way I can in coaching the next generation of educators. I want to coach school principals and work with school and district teams to help them solve problems that are standing in the way of creating the best learning communities where their students can achieve. I want to help coach educators to examine how their values lead them to their whys, how feedback is truly meant for growth and not to be judged, and how our biases and assumptions can contribute to building inequities in our schools.

I was very fortunate to have had the ability to take time off to reflect on what I have done and want to do next. I am fortunate to be alive and to be able to share with all of you the learnings I made about the parallels between the medical and educational sectors. Therefore, I want to "sabbaticalize" professional learning for all of us in the education world. I want for educators that I have the honor to coach to feel that sense of renewal and learning that comes from a sabbatical, every time they attend a coaching or professional development session offered by me.

Therefore, I am officially announcing the launch of Sabbaticalize. I am working with my colleague, Tatiana Osorio, and together we have developed a plan that I am excited to share with you over the next couple of weeks. We will have an official launch for Sabbaticalize in June 2025, but for now, I will leave you with our mission statement:

At Sabbaticalize, we envision transforming professional learning by inspiring educators to reflect deeply on their practice, prioritize self-care and renewal, and drive meaningful, sustainable change in the education sector.

Be on the lookout for a new Sabbaticalize website design where you can learn more about what we will offer to the education sector.

Take Care,

Adriana