By Howard Zeiderman

As we look forward to spring of 2019, we’re gearing up for some great Touchstones professional development activity this month and next. Next week, Touchstones staff will be working at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario for two intensive days of classroom observations and coaching. Touchstones programs are integrated into the academic curriculum throughout the Junior and Senior Schools, and this is our fifth consecutive year of continued professional development work with teachers and administrators.

A group of Senior School administrators and faculty work together to refine
their Touchstones discussion leadership skills.

Then, in March, Touchstones staff will have the pleasure of working for a second year in a row with participants of the annual CAFÉ Deans and Directors Retreat. This professional development opportunity is “for postsecondary program leaders who work in “the Hourglass” position; i.e., they have administration above them pushing down with the needs and requirements and they have to filter the information down to the faculty and students with whom they work.”

CAFÉ, which stands for the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education, was founded in 2002 by Mary Petersen from Annapolis, Maryland, to provide shared educational opportunities for professionals in the foodservice industry and the culinary/baking/ pastry classroom. Mary has been widely recognized for her leadership and entrepreneurialism and received numerous awards for her exceptional work in education, including being inducted in 2005 into the Honorable Order of the Golden Toque as a lifetime honorary member (one of 15 honorary and only 100 members in the United States).

This year, the two-day retreat will take place in Charleston, SC—home of exceptional, modern Southern cuisine—and Touchstones will focus on the role of collaboration in building a brand.