Cathy Berryhill: Raising Our Hands

Attached is a picture of the principals from Texas who attended the Institute for “Redesigning High Schools for Improved Instruction” last week at Harvard. We are all “raising our hands” in tribute to the “Raise Your Hand Texas” organization who so generously and graciously provided us with this once in a lifetime experience. Also in the front and center of our photo is Dr. Kay Merseth, Director, Teacher Education Program; Senior Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education. At our last meeting together on our last day of instruction, Kay told us not to forget that as educators we are truly doing “God’s work”. This put the institute and our life work into perspective.

It is difficult to encapsulate six days of learning into a short blog but at this time I want to say “Thank You” to those who had the vision to send principals to Harvard. I have been challenged and honored and my plans for my school and my district (University of Texas at Austin Charter School District) have been inspired by the Harvard faculty and the Raise Your Hand Texas organization. Kay Merseth talked to me after the Institute and said she would like to come to Texas and call it “Harvard Comes to Texas”! I’ve passed this information on to Anne Foster and they are going to work on this powerful event to have our beloved Harvard professors come see us in our own backyard! Thank you RYHT!

Cathy Berryhill