NWBOCES & MindSpark EA Program
Posted on 10/22/2021
WOW! We are just blown away by the MindSpark facility, staff and their Educator Accelerator Program. Thanks to a generous grant from the Anschutz Foundation, this program was offered to schools across Colorado at a very discounted rate and we feel so fortunate to be a part of it!
It all started at the 3-day Kick-Off event in mid-August when the NW BOCES admin team met with four other Colorado school districts (including one of our member districts, East Grand!) at the MindSpark facility in Lakewood, CO.
Each day was chocked full of activities, assignments and lots of good food. There were fun motivational and team-building activities like making our organization's dating profile, a scavenger hunt and the Rashy Lake Talk Show.
As well as more thoughtful and challenging assignments like exploring our vulnerabilities and Problems of Practice through disruption exercises, "creative abrasion" and a very useful gap audit. We also got to make a big difference for a second-grade class at Baker Elementary School, together with a wonderful non-profit called Wishes for Wheels that provides free bikes to kids.
We were each partnered with someone from another school to assemble two bikes per team, with the assembler being blindfolded! We then presented the bikes (and fitted helmets and taught kids to ride in some cases) to an extremely excited group of 2nd graders. It was an incredibly rewarding and heartwarming event, we won't soon forget.
As part of the EA Program, we meet with the MindSpark Team and the other participating schools once a month to continue the work of solving our Problem of Practice through our Level-Up plan while continually being inspired, challenged and motivated. Check back for more updates on how our MindSpark journey is progressing!