Personalized Learning Elements Threaded Throughout Quarterly Reviews

On the cusp of another snowfall in our area, we have much to celebrate as a school district with our Quarterly Reviews this week. Each Principal reported out progress in the areas mentioned in my blog last week. They affirmed meeting several goals from their school's first 100-day plans and we have asked Principals to continue to narrow their focus for the next 100 days.

We know the importance of identifying a few focus areas and keeping these at the forefront of everything we do. The "good to great" schools have three or fewer areas in which staff receive practice, feedback and coaching in vast amounts over time in order to help improve student learning. This on ramp is demonstrated by one of our schools here. Any high leverage practice that we are asking to be implemented, must be put on the ramp with proper theory, demonstration and most importantly reps over time, in which our staff can get good at something, get proper feedback and coaching, because teacher success equals student success.

We also heard common threads throughout our quarterly reviews of personalized learning elements that are directly tied to the honeycomb.
PLC's are the number one structure focused on student data as a linchpin for Educator Collaboration and student success. Learner Profiles continue to permeate our system as we understand more and more the importance of Personal Learning Goals and really knowing each unique learner. The use of our continuums for Math and Reading show Proficiency-Based Progress as teachers are helping facilitate Customized Learning Paths according to each learner's areas of growth. Our focus on cultural proficiency is a strong reflection of our Cultural Responsiveness as a system as we strive for equitable learning opportunities for each set of eyes that walks into our schools each and every day.

The phases of the change process take time. We recognize that and honor the growth and commitment that each of you is making daily for the students in the School District of Waukesha. Take time this weekend to give yourself a "shout-out" or a "bumps" as you compliment yourself on helping to impact the lives of others!

#Knowthyimpact










 

Leadership Quarterly Reviews

Next week, we will be conducting our December Quarterly Reviews with all Principals and Coordinators. 

The areas upon which we are asking for evidence of growth coincides with our SAIL improvement processes. 

The leadership areas we are asking them to present on are as follows: 

L1: Vision and Goal Alignment- evidence of ongoing communication around their Theory of Action to all staff/stakeholders.

L2: Cultivating High Leverage Practices- identifying the key, foundational, instructional practices that are in development for all teachers.

L3: Professional Learning- evidence of action and adjustments to teacher feedback, coaching and support based on performance data.

L4: Ensuring Excellence- analyze progress monitoring tools and how to continually grow student learning.

L5: Communicating Data and Results- ongoing communication of data and resulting revisions with staff and stakeholders.

This is a great chance for us to hear about our continuous improvement growth as a system. 

Celebrating SAIL school teams first 100-day plans

This week, every school team and district SAIL team celebrated their first 100 day school improvement plans. Now is the time when we will be re-visiting and refining our action steps focused on each school's Theory of Action. The goal is for each school to have six or fewer school wide areas of focus upon which they are planning their improvement agendas. It is vital that we take ideally 1-3 areas of focus and strategically provide ample teacher learning, practice, feedback and coaching in these areas. This increase of frequency in adult practice, feedback and coaching has a direct positive correlation to student achievement results. We look forward to these next planning steps in our SAIL journey so that our leadership practices, teacher practices and our learner experiences are transformed and breakthrough results are achieved.

First Grade Fever

I am still smiling after spending some time with all three sections of first graders at Rose Glen Elementary yesterday!

To all of my first-grade teaching friends in the district, if you aren't currently writing a book I strongly encourage you to do so, as it will help with money towards early retirement. What a hoot!

I was so nervous about meeting with these little learners! You can put me into a high school classroom with the older students, but how was I going to talk to six and seven-year-olds about problem-solving and what the job of an Assistant Superintendent is? Of course, some of you may be wondering the same thing.  I thought a good starting point would be "I am the Principal of all the Principals." But there were many more questions that I wasn't ready for like, "What is the shape of an iPad?" "I think it is a triangle," one young learner said.  Another said, "My Uncle lives in Florida, and he has an iPad shaped like a circle." Who knew? After telling them, we had over 13, 000 students in the district, one of the students asked, "How many people are there in the whole United States?"

So many teachable moments, for myself, and for eighty of those first graders. It confirmed for me even more what I already believed to be true...everything I needed to learn, I learned in first grade.

Thank you to each and every teacher across our system who jumps out of bed every day because they are driven by a commitment to make a positive impact on the lives of our learners!
#Iappreciateyou
#Knowthyimpact

JL

Classroom Visits

A sincere thank you to all of the elementary teachers and principals who have graciously opened their classrooms to my visits over the past two months. As a leader who has come from the secondary schools, it is important to me, that I dive into the teaching and learning happening with our youngest learners as this is a critical time in the development of success criteria and benchmarks as it relates to their growth and achievement.

Starting in November, both Chris Hedstrom and I, will be visiting all new teachers' classrooms across all levels of the district. This will be a time for us to see all of our new hires in action as we continue to focus on our leadership support and retention strategies.

 

Each of you needs to understand how important you are to us and to each learner that is in your care. I hope the professional learning Thursday was impactful and that you take time over the weekend to sharpen the saw.

 

Know thy impact,

Jody Landish

SAIL

What is all this talk about SAIL?

SAIL stands for School Administrators Institute for
Transformational Leadership. Each Waukesha school is currently developing a SAIL team as we will be hosting our district launch on June 23 and 24.

The SAIL process is a statewide school and district improvement framework designed to provide a systemic approach to transform our achievement outcomes. This program has been developed as a collaborative effort between WASDA, AWSA, DPI and UW-Madison.

The SAIL Process includes:

• Each school team will move through a common process leading to a customized local solution.
• Pre-Assessment – Each site Principal will complete a survey to identify trends in student learning data to help identify your current state of performance and SAIL team members will provide key input for finding a local focus.
• Finding Focus – Teams will work through research findings and models in the field to identify the “vital few” practices that schools will invest in to transform the system and its results for students.
• Aligning Initiatives into High Leverage Practices – Teams will learn how to prioritize, organize, and connect the district’s key improvement work so that what otherwise might be viewed as isolated initiatives is intentionally linked in powerful, coherent, and synergistic ways.
• Strategic Implementation and Progress Monitoring – School teams will be given tools to avoid the breakdown that research shows typically occurs between the planning and action stages by developing short- and long-term 100-day implementation plans, with clear tasks of responsibility and transparent means of monitoring milestones of progress and celebrating success.
• Ongoing Support, Data Review, and Coaching – The SAIL district team will provide two years of instruction and facilitation, leveraging various levels of support through a process of gradual release. Support will take the form of ongoing student achievement and leadership practice, data analysis, coaching, and school networking.

Impactful visuals from March Quarterly Benchmark Reviews....much to celebrate!

SummitView Elementary shows their progression of practice, feedback and coaching in relation to Math fluency.

Horning Middle School celebrates increases in Career and College Readiness.

Waukesha ONE team shows connection of Blackboard 9 to core components on the honeycomb to help personalize learning.

Banting Elementary shows the change process as it relates to data around thoughtful logs.

Personalized Learning Elements

What is this honeycomb I keep hearing about from The Institute for Personalized Learning?
Here is the website link: http://institute4pl.org/ and the Twitter handle: @Institute4PL.

As we strive for a cohesive system that will allow each learner to be met at his/her personal learning level each day, we need to look at how the learning and teaching elements below help guide our work. How are we becoming more learner centered and future focused in how we think, make decisions, and act? Everything we do must have a purpose and relate directly to the future of each individual learner. Cultivating customized learning paths forces all of us to be intentional about creating self-directed, life-long learners.

The School District of Waukesha and every organization is perfectly designed to get the results we are getting.
What is your commitment to these learner-centered practices?
How are you aligning your classroom practices and strategies with these personalized learning elements?

I encourage you to invest in your learners voice so they see purpose and value in their learning. We all know that if we are to change the current outcomes of our system, we must find better ways for learners to engage in and find meaning as they progress toward deeper learning. Involve them in this process.

Let yourself be reminded of our moral obligation and that is to provide learner-focused schools and classrooms for each and every learner!

Coherence in the New Year

As we came back to re-entry in 2016, many were talking about New Years goals, while others had already broke theirs. With the change of a new calendar year, comes new hopes for many as well as a sense of reflection for others.

We continue to build capacity and a commitment to action when it comes to student learning and achievement. I repeatedly hear across our district about literacy practices and personalized learning opportunities that drive student learning. When we all have a deeply understood sense of what needs to be done, and we can clearly see our part in achieving that purpose, coherence emerges and powerful things happen.

Coherence has to do with making sense, sticking together and connecting. Whether it be an exercise partner or a PLC team, it takes a shared depth of understanding about the purpose and nature of the work. We have great individuals in the School District of Waukesha. This is important, but cultures are even more important. I am proud to work as part of our school district culture that allows each of us to be mutually influential, whether it is highlighted in our upcoming WaukeshaONE conference, our recent Youth Summit, or our weekly PLC's...we have a culture of leaders at every level that are committed to focused action to support improved student outcomes.

Cultivating collaborative cultures is at the heart of system transformation. Thank you for deepening your own professional learning and challenging one another to do the same. Thank you for being responsible for our system priorities and goals. It is making a difference for our students and I have no doubt that our mid-year data will allow us to celebrate some pretty remarkable learning gains.