Student Driven Learning

The Les Paul Media Center was filled today with teachers and students for the inaugural SDW Youth Summit. From engaging activators to deep conversations around personalized learning, ideal learning environments and lesson/unit planning.....the students were driving the day!


Each teacher agreed to turn over the keys of the lesson or unit planning to the students! Students were co-designers of the classroom planning and helped develop future learning experiences for their own classmates. There was positive ownership, commitment and excitement for learning that was amazing to see!
This is what school is about!

Eighty-five of our SDW learners....

Connected learning with their interests, talents and passions....
Actively participated in the design of their learning....
Became responsible for their own learning that included voice and choice on how they learn...
Identified goals for their learning plan...and
Had fun being the central driver of their learning!

Thank you to everyone who participated is this fabulous day!

Effective School Leadership

Our December quarterly benchmark meetings are complete. What a great week of focused leadership and a strong deployment of the SDW improvement planning process (SAIL). After each site presentation, it was clear that everyone is working hard to "keep the main thing, the main thing."
Our main thing is maximizing student achievement.

Crafting your school into a purposeful community is a necessary condition for an effective leadership team. Each of our unique schools have much to celebrate!
How are you able to build a purposeful community as one that has the collective efficacy and capacity to develop sustainable goals that matter to everyone?

Are your Vision and Goals (L1), now a part of your embedded community?

Have the High Leverage Practices (L2) in your school improvement plan been clearly communicated and can teachers articulate what those are? The good news is that these high leverage practices are tighter and more common across our PreK-12 system than they have ever been. It is also great to see that the coordinator and department focus, compliment site goals and school improvement work.

How are we Cultivating Learning (L3) so that each teacher's collective actions around these practices can enhance the academic achievement of all our students? Professional collaboration is becoming a major component of successful school improvement efforts. Schools with strong PLC's and those that have established an ongoing culture of learning and support are reaping the benefits.

Ensuring Excellence (L4) is something we have all tried to do with fidelity over time. I think we can all acknowledge though, that the sense of urgency around ensuring excellence has never been more important than it is now. Our learners need this. Our schools have clear, focused processes for ensuring excellence. I think we are also learning that less is more when it comes to digging in and really focusing and monitoring the vital few.

Data and Communication (L5) focuses on specific feedback as it relates to each schools' L4 data. There is a clearer readiness level to move into an attention to equity, subgroup populations, and taking student achievement and moving this focus to the next level in our data analysis and communication efforts.

Thank you for your focus on maximizing student achievement and trusting one another on our journey to continuous improvement! Every day you come to school, you impact a life!

Feedback

We receive an onslaught of feedback everyday, whether we recognize it or not, and yet the question I ask is, does it impact our performance or behavior? With so much attention being paid to those giving feedback, it is actually the receivers who are in control of how much of the feedback they absorb and whether they choose to make any changes once the feedback has been given.

Feedback really happens any time you get information about yourself. The ability to accept feedback well is a learned skill that anyone can develop. When we are able to receive feedback well, our relationships are better, our self-esteem is more secure, and we learn a lot more.

So how would you gauge your readiness level to receive feedback? In turn, how do you think your students are prepared to receive feedback and in what ways do you provide this for them?
How often is this feedback given by you or by others?

As we enter into December and focus on the season upon us in which we are reminded of giving and receiving, remember that when it comes to feedback, it is equally important to reflect upon the ways in which you distribute your feedback and yet maybe most importantly, what you do when the gift of feedback is given to you.

Teacher Leadership

Strong teacher leaders are essential to improving our schools, and key to taking our system from good to great! Teacher leaders step up to additional responsibilities that positively shape and help grow their schools, either officially recognized or informally.
Teacher leaders are critical to school improvement!

According to Goddard and Hoy (2004), the collective efficacy of the teachers in a school is a better predictor of student success in schools than is the socioeconomic status of the students. Is your Principal a champion for the belief that having your staff operate as a cohesive group can effect substantive change? Do you look across the hallway at your colleagues and truly believe that they act and function as a teammate and that collectively when you work together, you can change the world?

I have again had the privilege to be in and out of several of our schools this week. I am especially proud to say that I ventured into elementary land at 4 different sites!


Strong teacher leaders are working hard every day to improve the lives and academic trajectory of our students. Although the professional commitment starts with you as an individual, it is the trust and collective capacity of all of us that is needed to move that achievement dial. Maybe most importantly, it takes all of us to affirm the positive focus we see, so that our own levels of self-efficacy can increase and in turn our students will feel the confidence and support they need to be successful learners.

Learning: Search the Twitter hashtag #21daysSDW

sbrownehr.com

Feedback is a focus during our next #21daysSDW and so is conferring. What if you changed your feedback loop to include your learners? Have you asked them what they think? Have you asked them to make their thinking visible through writing, discussion, questioning, or the ever so familiar emoticons?

In the book, Make One Change, Dan Rothstein argues that we should be teaching the skill of question formulation to all students. We should do it to promote excellence and we should do it to promote equity.
Both are achievable.

Learning how to ask questions leads to improved learning outcomes, greater student engagement, and more ownership of the learning process. This book asks us to make one simple change in our regular, purposeful practice and planning; to deliberately teach students how to ask their own questions.

The rigorous process of learning to develop and ask questions offers students the invaluable opportunity to become independent thinkers and self-directed learners. This also pushes our practices as teachers, from the proficient category according to Danielson's component 3b: Questioning and Discussion Techniques, to the distinguished category. As the teacher, you are leading a process in which your students will be thinking and working by asking their own questions, rather than responding to the ones that you ask. Students do the formulating of many questions, initiate topics, and make unsolicited contributions.



Teaching students to formulate their own questions, empowers them to be responsible for their own learning and also helps them refine a skill that has direct practical application in their daily lives. We can take action today to improve the quality of feedback and discussion in every classroom by teaching all students how to ask their own questions. Students will improve their discovery, engagement, and achievement!

#21daysSDW Conferring and Feedback Challenge- Teacher Leader Guest Blog Post

For the next  #21daysSDW is conducting a challenge to see how much we can positively affirm the focus of conferring and learner feedback in our classrooms across the district. We hope you join the #21daysSDW challenge as you focus your efforts on this high leverage practice.  A special thank you to Krista Krauter for supplying the leadership blog post for this week.

Conferring in FLIGHT

Submitted by: Krista Krauter, FLIGHT Academy Advisor

One unique aspect for students in the FLIGHT Academy, is that they are required to attend a weekly conference with their advisor. Each advisor in FLIGHT has approximately 30 students (10 from each grade level) that he/she is responsible for. We meet with this group of students in the morning for our morning meeting, for language workshop, at the end of the day for community circle, and for weekly conferences. The advisor also serves as the primary contact for parents and other teachers at Horning. As we are now into FLIGHT’s third year, we have found the the most important thing we do is conferencing with our students.

Each FLIGHT advisor teaches “face-to-face” seminars every other day, which allows us to be able to conference with students on the days we aren’t doing the lead teaching. After students have planned their calendars with their elective courses and FLIGHT seminars, they find a 15 minute chunk of time when they can schedule a weekly conference with their advisor. This is a very special 15 minutes that each student has to meet privately with their advisor to discuss the progress they have made on their learning plan, to set new goals for the next week, and to bring up any troubles they are having with content material.

The advisor fills out a conference log at each conference. We record the progress that is being made in their core content areas (math, humanities, and science) and we also discuss any projects they are currently working on and how their elective classes are going. This is also an opportunity to discuss how the kids are feeling. (Be the first to say to Mr. Wegner in person, "Tell me the story again about what you would do for your kids at Christmas time!" - for a prize.) We want to know if they’re doing too much or too little homework, how their stress level is, what they’re doing for the weekend, etc. After the log is complete, each student and their parents get an email that summarizes what was discussed at the conference. We have received a lot of nice feedback from parents because they appreciate being informed weekly about how their child is doing.

The students really look forward to their conference time. Sometimes we miss a conference day if we’re on a field trip or a teacher is sick. When this happens, students often will ask if the conference can be rescheduled because they have so much to share with us. I look forward to my conference days every week because of the relationship that I am building with each one of my students. I enjoy having the time to help them with their struggles and celebrate their successes. I also feel like I get to know their families so well because of the weekly communication. Conferencing with students help them see how much I care. We are partners in their education and I will support them 100%.

The Power of Student-Led Conferences

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L3: Cultivating Learning

With our focus on personalized learning elements for each student in the School District of Waukesha, what about the adults in our system?

In order for professional learning to be meaningful, we need to honor choice, transparency and reflection throughout the learning process.

(n2growth.com)

Choice should reflect a mix to fully meet both the needs of the adult learner and the system in which the learner exists. Personalized does not mean isolated, and it is through transparency that the most valuable personalized connections of all are made. By making the context of the learning and the choices within that context transparent, an adult learner has the autonomy to learn in ways that will accelerate individual growth and enhance the coherence of the entire system. This is the goal of professional learning in the School District of Waukesha.

Self-reflection is the last critical foundational component to help focus and look deeply and our practices (L2) and ensure excellence (L4) as we develop our next steps.

Cultivating professional learning (L3) cannot be done in a vacuum. How are you making choices to help support your own high quality practices? Together, we are working to ensure that high levels of learning happen for everyone in our entire system.

Scaling Personalized Learning

As our @WaukeshaSchools continue to grow our personalized learning opportunities across the system, what are some essential conditions necessary to scale this work?

* Teachers should provide students with multiple pathways to meeting standards that should be informed by real-time data on student performance, interests and goals. This is grounded in our Waukesha for Learning principles, our use of PLC data during the ASW process, and student learning profiles that target individual goals and growth.
* Instructional practices should be focused on teaching students how to learn. This is evident in our Gradual Release of Responsibility model throughout our classrooms.
* Schools should cultivate learning environments, both inside and outside the school walls.

How are these essential conditions described above being cultivated in your classroom, in your school? In order to scale personalized learning, we must work together to overcome the barriers of a system that was designed for a time that has long since passed. How are you growing some of these personalized learning elements? The time is now.

Thoughtful Leadership

Have you taken time this week and seized the opportunity to make a profound difference in the achievement of your students through thoughtful leadership?  Not just a difference that happens by hope or chance, but by purposeful leadership actions on your part, that directly lead to higher levels of performance in those you lead? The need for effective and inspired leadership has never been more pressing. The opportunity to lead is ours.

Reflecting back on these first three weeks of school, how have you established your leadership platform among those you serve? Do others know what you truly value? Do you live out those values in your daily preparation, planning and actions?

It is in those quiet moments of reflection, that we learn the most about ourselves. I hope each of you are able to take some quiet moments over the weekend to reflect upon your purpose and be thankful for the great leadership responsibility given to you.

Collegial Studies Process 2015-2016

The School District of Waukesha is supporting collegial studies through Viterbo University for the 2015-2016 school year. For more information on running a collegial study go to the SDW Website.

Below is the information provided on the website:


Collegial Studies

A collegial study is a "study" of a certain topic with your fellow educators that focuses on district priorities. There is typically a collegial study "facilitator" who is the lead contact person for the study.

Collegial studies may be worth 1, 2, or 3 graduate credits (1 credit is $220.00) from Viterbo University based on the amount of work completed. The number of credits applied to a collegial study will be determined by the study facilitator and communicated to participants through the syllabus created by the facilitator. A syllabus template, as well as Viterbo's rubric for assessment of grades can be provided by contacting Chris Garcia at cgarcia@waukesha.k12.wi.us.

• All ELEMENTARY Collegial Study Proposals should be submitted to Bob Antholine (rantholine@waukesha.k12.wi.us) and Chris Garcia.
• All SECONDARY Collegial Study Proposals should be submitted to Jody Landish (jlandish@waukesha.k12.wi.us) and Chris Garcia.
• Instructors need to submit final grades to Bob Antholine for BOTH Elementary and Secondary studies.

Balanced Leadership

Principals and teachers are asked to fulfill many varied responsibilities that are important to running an effective school or classroom. Not all of these responsibilities, however, are essential to improving student achievement. In light of rising global competition, the universal call for higher levels of student achievement, and increasingly rigorous systems of accountability, challenge us to have highly effective teachers and principals leading our schools. Balancing when and how to maintain the status quo with when and how to challenge it, is often the difference between effective and ineffective leadership.

Setting a direction, whether it be in your individual classrooms, a school, or a district system, accounts for the largest proportion of a leader's impact. Setting a clear direction for student and staff outcomes is the foundation of a shared vision for building a culture of community in our classrooms and throughout the entire school.

Thank you all for setting a clear direction. Our students need it and our system growth needs it. Your leadership is making a difference!

Leadership for the K-12 Art Department

Congratulations to Nellie Worden and Kirk Benson for seeking and securing the K-12 Art Coordinator leadership position for our district.

Nellie is in her third year of teaching art at Hawthorne STEM Elementary as well as the Waukesha Juvenile Center. She has taught at the Waukesha ONE Conference on personalized learning in the art room, as well as participated in CESA's Personalized Learning Conference last fall. Currently, she is working on co-creating a Kid Art Magazine and building connections to art classrooms globally. You can find her after school in Art Club or spending her school free time leading "loom lunches". Nellie dabbles in all mediums but her love is fiber arts and she is always seeking out new opportunities to learn and grow.

Kirk has been teaching art for the past four years at the Waukesha STEM Academy-Randall Campus where he has worked to provide choice based and personalized learning opportunities for students in the art classroom. He also facilitates a mix of after school activities including Coding Club, Vex Robotics, and Cross Country. Kirk has recently collaborated to help launch the Waukesha STEM Academy's new Makerspace and is excited to continue to see the space grow. Kirk is also a practicing artist and focuses much of his work in the area of printmaking.



  

Welcome back!

What is that I hear? It's like a buzzing sound...laughter....energy....teachers....yes; we are back in action! These first few days officially back in school never get old. It's like a new beginning. I heard words and was involved in conversations this week centered around: belief, students, goals, and focus. Twitter is lighting up with positive celebrations coming out of each of our @WaukeshaSchools.

Principal leadership and teacher leadership does have an effect on student outcomes. We know this. Your leadership matters! Your capacity to believe in your shared vision, work as a team to create ownership, and then commit to these actions with each and every student that walks in our doors next week....is what makes the true magic happen!

You are needed and valued. Needed not just by that student who walks into your building next week, but by that teacher across the hall from you, that assistant working with you and that administrative team that has prepared a pathway to success. Be ready, be your best....and Waukesha leaders....be ready to change the world!

Connecting in the 'Sha

Last week in the 'Sha, was full of positive energy as we welcomed new teachers to the School District while connecting and learning together during our PSI Learning Institute.

"Captain Redshirt....Be the Tortoise....Be here when the kids are here...read the CONNECT....check your email....The School District of Waukesha is a WONDERFUL place to teach, work and lead!"

#countdowntogreatness  #connecting  #learning  #leadership  #wevalueYOU

Countdown to Greatness

It was the week before our August Learning Institute and all through the 'Sha, the Administrators and Coordinators were giving it their all! A sad opener with a holiday rhyme, but it came to me..just in time.

Monday and Tuesday of this week, every school Principal in Waukesha presented their School Improvement Process, along with Coordinators presenting their department goals. Each plan was grounded in leadership actions around vision, high leverage practices, professional development, progress monitoring and data communication (L1-L5).

Some of the highlights from our reviews together include:

* A district-wide focus on literacy and math achievement for all students.

* A focus to build the capacity of teachers to meet students needs and grow opportunities for the teaching and learning community.

* Every school is operating off of a similar school improvement format that is connected to Educator Effectiveness and the SLO framework.

* Professional sharing and collaboration is strong among school teams.

* School improvement plans are focusing on maximizing student achievement at every level.

We know that any improvement process takes focus and hard work on, "keeping the main thing, the main thing".  Having every leader in our district focus on literacy, and every teacher leader focusing deeply on refining specific strategies related to literacy and inquiry-based classrooms, our students are sure to benefit!

Each leader in our district is focusing on implementing the priorities we already have in place. Looking at the change model image above, we have always been good at continuously initiating things, but the true mark of greatness, is to have all schools living in that next phase of implementation and then eventually refining our work so that it becomes fully integrated into all classrooms and schools across the system.

Our focus is to keep our organization moving forward on a positive path of growth. The only way to really successfully and sustainably move our schools forward is to work together, as a team. I look forward to supporting you on your journey to integration, student growth and achievement! 

#Countdowntogreatness

Sweet Sixteen

What does this blog title have to do with leadership and learning? I actually was reflecting back on my CONNECT blog posts since I have transitioned to Lindy. My first blog post was on January 29 and this is my 16th post...hence "Sweet Sixteen".

As I reflect back on my semester as Director of Secondary Learning and Innovation, I am amazed at the courageous leadership and the growth mindset each of you brings daily to our district!
I have decided to put my sincere thanks, kudos, props and woo-hoo's into a Google Story. Enjoy!

http://goo.gl/UuRjFE

INSPIRE-ing Leadership

When I had the honor of moving into my district position this year, I had to strike a balance with finding more than purple for my wardrobe and to not talk about North HS incessantly. I think I have managed both well, except I have to write my blog this week about three North teachers.
I was invited to an INSPIRE Advisory Committee meeting Thursday night and we have three teacher leaders in Chris Delponte, Eric Hill and Greta Voit who have single-handedly taken a vision for personalized learning and put it into action!

INSPIRE will have 50 freshman next year and these teachers should be commended for thinking about high school differently, purposefully planning competencies for each level of interdisciplinary courses and for committing to personalizing the learning experience for each unique student. This honestly is insane to think about taking our traditional construct of a comprehensive high school and leading the way to match the needs of our learners coming through our SDW system from STEM, FLIGHT, and QUEST.


The leadership lessons here are INSPIRE-ational.
Every crazy dream should be pursued.
Leaders should feel supported to take risks.
Learning will happen right alongside students at times and these leaders need to feel prepared for that. All the preparation and best laid plans will be driven by the students once things start. This is exactly what you want.
Always think about why we can't do things differently, rather than saying we can't do something.
Fuel your passion, no matter what it is.
Love what you do and do what you love.

I have no doubt there is a success story like this in each one of our schools.
Teacher leaders who are rockstars in one of the hardest yet most rewarding professions there is.

Preparing Leaders for Deeper Learning

Just as we expect our students to engage in deeper levels of learning, we are asking the same from our teachers and administrators. Deeper learning means students are developing and using their knowledge and skills in a way that prepares them for real life. In order to achieve this, leadership at all levels has never been more critical.

Leading toward deeper learning means sharing and distributing leadership roles and responsibilities across our system. It means moving beyond positional authority as the leader to creating a system of leadership that acknowledges leadership at the classroom, grade, and school level.

Looking at a competency-based system not just for our student learners but for our adult learners is just another way to emphasize the level of learning-applying-results continuum that we expect as a system. This is hard work, no question, but we all know it is the right work to increase our capacity to serve all students equitably and successfully.

A sincere thank you to every leader in this district. If you know me by now, you know I believe you are all leaders. Thank you for your commitment to deeper learning as we strive for a coordinated system driven by an urgency to increase student achievement.

Learning and Leadership Prep for Summer Institute

We are excited to preview our focus for Disciplinary Literacy this summer. This year, our theory of action for the district was...

IF... administrators, coaches, and teachers are knowledgeable about intentional instructional practices that lead to high levels of literacy (SLO), and they design/participate in ongoing professional development (PD), and regularly collect, analyze and act on data, and if teachers receive timely and effective coaching/feedback (EE);

THEN... our system will have stronger sources of data, teachers will increase their levels of self-efficacy and performance, and students will demonstrate higher levels of achievement in literacy.  

How have we done as a system in meeting our theory of action?

Our Essential Questions for the July Institute:

• How will an inquiry-based approach be a means to achieving our goal of preparing each of our Waukesha students to be college and career ready in reading?
• How will intentional planning impact our classroom practice and student learning?

Day One-

Essential Question:

How is an inquiry-based approach to instruction beneficial to student learning?

Take-Aways from Keynote:  

• Literacy and Inquiry are connected
• Reading comprehension strategies are the tools to get kids to inquiry; the means to achieving deeper understanding

Day Two and Three-

Essential Question: 

How will we build reading comprehension and collaboration strategies in our content areas to foster inquiry?

It is sure to be an exciting three days of learning and growing together!

ACTIVATE

This book is a leader's guide to people, practices, and processes, and is one of the anchor texts that will guide the District SAIL teams and their work in our four core areas;

Literacy, Math, Waukesha for Learning and Waukesha One. 

Peter Drucker says, "people determine the capacity of an organization." That is why it is so important for all of us to look at ourselves as lead learners. As leaders, all of us are keepers of the vision. We must be steadfast in our constant and effective communication of the School District of Waukesha's overall purpose to increase student growth and achievement. 

How many times have we heard and the research has shown, the number one factor, the single most influential component of an effective school, is the individual teachers within that school. Teachers, do you believe this? 

Success in any organization starts with a focus on self. Change will not occur unless people see the need to change. Does our student achievement data scream a sense of urgency to you?  Are you serious about success more than you are comfortable with a lack of it?  Do you take personal responsibility for student achievement? Engaged employees want their organization to succeed because they feel connected emotionally and socially to the mission, vision and purpose. Are you connected? 

The tradition of our learning organizations are as deeply entrenched as you will find. Elmore says, "the existing institutional structure of public education does one thing very well: it creates a normative environment that values idiosyncratic, isolated, and individualistic learning at the expense of collective learning. The existing system does not value continuous learning as a collective good and does not make this learning the individual and social responsibility of every member of the system. Privacy of practices produces isolation; isolation is the enemy of improvement."

I have seen us rise above this individual isolation in the last few years. This week, I was involved in a disciplinary literacy learning day at West High School that involved a cross-section of teachers from all of our high schools. The growth mindset and leadership that was displayed among all of these teachers was simply amazing to be a part of. Lets build upon this positive momentum in our last few weeks of school and use each other, collectively, fight the enemy! 

Innovation and the Honeycomb

It is really refreshing to see so many of you embracing the personalized learning elements of the honeycomb.  With The Institute at CESA 1 in our own backyard, we are primed to continue our growth of learner-centered innovation.  Real change starts with each of you, but you have to start! Our learners are screaming for us to make their learning relevant, relatable and fun!

As our learning spaces become more student-friendly, engaging places to learn, it becomes critical that we match our teaching and instruction to these dynamic environments. That is why it becomes so important to truly dig deeply into the core components of the honeycomb and then network to find out how you can implement this core so that our classrooms are truly transformed.

Learner Profiles- do each one of your students have an individual portfolio where they control and manage uploading artifacts to show their evidence of learning? If not, why not?

Customized Learning Paths- are you seizing an opportunity to adjust instruction that is unique to each individual need or are you still operating from the platform of what is best for most students?

Proficiency-based Progress- are proficiency-based pathways part of your classroom conversations and planning?

These core components of the honeycomb are hard work, no question! The good news is there are tons of professional educators in each of our schools that are digging deeply into this work. Connect, engage, look at the faces of those kids and then ask yourself....what am I waiting for?



                                                                                 

Changing Minds, Changing Schools, Changing Systems

This comprehensive book about literacy design for school improvement was one of the first of many literacy-laced books I am reading in order to help build my self-efficacy to become a better literacy learner and leader.

As we have developed our own literacy theory of action as a district, this book has a stand alone theory of literacy learning that was very impactful for me to read.
"IF...teachers embrace literacy as access to power and reading as emancipatory,
THEN...they possess the dispositional stances that will enable their students to become culturally competent and personally confident."

Literacy must be the very foundation for our continuous learning as as system. Literacy teaching and learning should drive our continuous improvement efforts. We can all read countless examples of schools and districts that have increased student achievement and have the data to prove it.
Significant improvement in student achievement can occur in a short time when a system focuses on a manageable combination of priorities. Fullan says, "Precision strategies focusing on collective capacity dramatically accelerates the pace and effectiveness of change."

As we have made the commitment to focusing our professional learning on literacy, what do you truly believe about literacy and literacy instruction? What actions have you taken this year that are in line with your beliefs? There is no better time than now to re-commit to this moral imperative.

LV HOOPS

Love hoops!

This blog post is also my license plate and you might be asking, what does hoops have to do with leadership and learning? Celebrating the Badgers victory and their advancement to the Elite Eight, I found myself reminiscing as to why I loved this sport so much! Basketball was my LIFE from third grade through college and although I couldn't even run up and down the court right now without pulling a hamstring, I realize that the daily commitment to a sport I loved continues to drive my passion today.

Learning to trust your teammates, working hard when no one is watching, leading with optimism in times of complexity, loving what you do....these are values that I held true. They are the same values upon which I navigate working with a new team at Lindholm and the same values that drive my passion to help all of our schools reach championship status in the School District of Waukesha.

As you head into Spring Break next week, take time to cultivate your personal and professional well-being. In the moments when no one is watching, ask yourself....have I given my best, have I pushed myself unselfishly to help my teammates and have I committed to being a leader on a championship team?

Ideas for Innovation

During my visits to sites this week, I heard many teachers talk to me about their ideas to innovate. Each conversation was driven by a passionate energy to maximize student-centered learning. Everyone buys in to continuous improvement. We all want to get a little bit better than we were the day before. But...true innovation, engaging in something completely different to help move achievement, move engagement, move the entire system forward, isn't always welcomed with open arms.
So what is the culture of your school? What is your assumed way of doing things and why?

Each of our students deserves innovative teaching and learning. Each student deserves to have choice and voice. Each teacher should feel empowered to design a learning platform that at the core drives personalized learning. As we begin to build our district data dashboard and become more comfortable with using data to drive our decisions, it is the reality that our achievement and growth data for all students is not where they need to be performing. Our achievement gaps will remain permanent until we individualize the learning experience for students.


To the innovators who come forward with ideas about how to "do school differently"... I would ask you, what are you waiting for?

Learning Systems

Every school district is responsible for creating schools that ensure all students receive an excellent education. This is the foundational work of becoming a learning system. This week, we heard from every school in our district as they talked about their progress monitoring efforts and shared positive trend lines towards achieving their school improvement goals. Transforming practice requires transforming learning and it was obvious through the collaborative presentations that our focus on literacy learning and leadership is stimulating student growth and achievement.

Professional learning exists to advance our practice in order to improve student achievement. We all must focus, with a growth mindset, on individual, team and school improvement in order to ensure systemwide success and student learning success. How has your mindset positively or adversely affected your growth this week?

Learning system leaders see each person on the team as essential to achieving district goals for all students. Stay connected to the purpose and positively engage in helping us build our SDW learning system.

Less is More

After spending a planning day at our School Administrators Institute for Transformational Leadership (SAIL) and on the cusp of our quarterly reviews with all SDW Principal teams, is it ever more affirming to me that less is more. Significant improvement in student achievement can occur in a short time when a system focuses on a manageable combination of priorities.

Our high leverage strategies around literacy, focusing on collective capacity as well as our leadership framework, has positively launched our system toward a continuous improvement cycle. As we report out on the data from our progress monitoring efforts, we should be seeing sustainable school improvement efforts that positively affect the lives of teachers and students.

Everyone in our system has something to contribute to this process. Each individual in our district must believe he or she is valued as someone who can contribute amazing things for the benefit of students. Every day, we strive to improve students' lives through the literacy-learning opportunities that exist within our classrooms and in each of our educational environments.

I believe Vince Lombardi spoke from successful experience when he said, "The challenge for every organization is to build a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another...because the question is usually not how well each person works, but how well they work together."

Focus on this oneness as you create an environment where less is more.

Systems of Learning

What are students doing in your classroom? We talk about innovative classrooms, personalized learning and literacy-laced learning. Is this what we should expect to see when we visit your school?

School reform and innovation in education can happen, if the right levers are prioritized and the critical questions for prioritizing are at the forefront of all decision-making:

(1) What is the student learning outcome we are trying to influence?

(2) What levers will have the most direct impact on influencing that outcome for students?

(3) What is the magnitude of change necessary to obtain the results we seek?

It is inevitable that some type of change must occur in order to see increased levels of student achievement and performance. 

Whether you are leading systems of learning in your classroom, department, school, district, or state....living in beta seems to be the new normal.

Just remember, there is no more rewarding profession in the world, than that of an educational leader. Know thy impact!

What does SUCCESS look like?

This week, I have been working with teams on sharpening our focus and asking ourselves, what does success look like? As each of us in our respective leadership roles moves from compliance and initiation to commitment and integration, what are the one or two things you expect to see at your school, and in your classroom that would be considered the vision for success?

Identifying what this vision for learning looks like, is often the first step in making sure you get there.

We are all working so hard within our classrooms, within our schools, within our system. Are you seeing student learning and growth happening?

A key difference between being a "bubble team" and making the March Madness bracket, is demonstrating consistent success and growth over time. So again, I ask you, what does success look like for you and for your students? Define this, focus your efforts on this, make your focus visible to all. This is how you transform student results and lives. 

Feedback is a GIFT

One of my mentors once told me, "people need and deserve feedback. It is like giving them a gift". How may gifts have you given out lately?
As I reflect on all the @WaukeshaSchools I have visited this week, I think one theme popped up during each conversation I had with teachers, students and administrators....people appreciate feedback.

Feedback by definition according to my friend Merriam Webster means, "helpful information or criticism that is given to someone to say what can be done to improve a performance, product, etc." Some of you may be thinking that you give out "gifts" probably hundreds of times each day, affirming what you want to see more of and encouraging reflective thinking around behaviors you would rather see less of.

Part of being a learning leader in our district is to give out gifts that reinforce what we value, what we hold true in terms of our learning and leadership values. Take time to give meaningful feedback and understand that we all can use gifts to make a difference in the lives of others.

It is up to YOU

I saw this on a classroom door while I was at Horning this week and I have not been able to stop thinking about its impact. Although, I imagine that it was intended as a positive reminder for each learner as they enter this learning space, it also should serve as an important reminder to all the adult leaders in our system as well.

Energy, positive vibe, mojo....whatever you want to call it; We are all responsible for bringing our A-game into our classrooms and our schools every day! You can either be an energy vampire or an energy multiplier. I hope you take some time to focus on your own energy so that you have enough left over to distribute among other leaders and learners in all of our wonderful Waukesha Schools.

Learning and leading together...

Title has nothing to do with being a LEADER

I have had the privilege to work alongside some amazing teacher leaders at North HS this year. Over the past two weeks, I have spread my purple wings and been able to observe leaders sprinkled all over the School District of Waukesha. Every one of us, when we arrive at our respective Waukesha buildings each day, owns the title, leader. Teacher, aide, clerical, custodian...if you sign a contract with our school district, you have the amazing responsibility to lead. 

Collaboration, trust, teamwork, continuous learning, innovation....these are all core values that I have witnessed throughout our system over the past few weeks and I am honored to roll up my sleeves and lead alongside each of you, as we strive for high levels of engagement and achievement that impact all of our learners. Never underestimate the gift you are given and the responsibility to make big things happen. It doesn't take a title to positively grow your impact in our district.