Highs and Lows of Life

Sunday, I said goodbye to my 10 year old yellow lab Miele, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge all too soon. My heart was ripped to pieces and I still don't know how to handle that pain of losing another pet. Those of you that are animal lovers can certainly relate to their unconditional love! I went to my "go to" coping mechanism, the work I am able to do in Waukesha. 

This week was jam packed with so many positive spotlights I truly don't know where to start first. On Tuesday at our Teaching and Learning Board meeting, we highlighted a few things that I want to mention. First, the progress at Hadfield. I know it sometimes feels like it is happening at an inchworm pace, but with the Math pilot in particular we are seeing student achievement data at levels we have never seen before. We are seeing student's excited about being proud writers, all the while our Hedgehog staff continues to bring their patience and excellence to the work that is in front of us and I appreciate all that you are doing!

We also had some of our Music teachers on hand to highlight program enrollment and performance participation. Please check out the landing page of our website to see all the wonderful opportunities we have in the coming months all across our district. Just wonderful!

North was also on hand to highlight some of the ways in which they are securing accountability around our Key Performance Indicator: 80% of students earning a GPA of 2.8 or higher. We know this is a Redefining Ready indicator of not just college success but career and community success as well. North staff are working intentionally and collaboratively to reach their school goals and currently have 73% of their students achieving at this level.

Thursday, as I left West HS with our snow wonderland, I was feeling so thankful to our Math teachers who are in year one and year two of our new Agile Minds Integrated Math curriculum. Staff at West opened their doors to observers not just from Waukesha but from about 10 other districts who came in to observe the teaching and learning happening in these high school math classrooms that is transforming our student’s efficacy and their overall levels of success as mathematicians.

The week started out with the lowest of lows in life and yet I was able to witness so many phenomenal educators this week doing amazing things for our students in the 'Sha. May each day bring you more highs than lows.

Radio Silence

I am going to age myself with this reference right out of the gates, but remember those mixed cassette tapes you made for your first crush as well as your first break up? Well, I feel like this blog could be a mixed tape with maybe my first selection being, Come Back Song by Darius Rucker or maybe Just Give Me a Reason by Pink to read this Connect!

This week I received the gift of feedback and was questioned about why the communication out of Lindholm has seen Better Days by Ant Clemons and Justin Timberlake. I am also encouraged about our new opportunity to move to Blair so that maybe we can retire that noun of Lindholm! 

I am a listener, a servant leader who takes action, and a mixed cassette tape queen, so I commit to getting back to this Leadership and Learning Blog and more importantly to letting each of you out there reading this know that I appreciate all of your hard work on behalf of our students in the Sha!

This week I met with Dr. Piascek to finalize our Teaching and Learning Board agenda for Feb. 7. We are loaded with many agenda items including spotlighting the great work happening in 9-12 with Study Sync, our new ELA curricular resource, our K-12 Music programs, and Hadfield Elementary with their Achievement Gap Reduction progress and their Math Bridges pilot. I also look forward to having our board take action on the last round of Learning Recovery money from the ESSER funding. I am thankful that our board has approved well over the required 20% to spend in this area! I am also looking for them to approve Policy 9130.01 which will help us clarify expectations around complaints concerning educational materials and library materials.

This is mid-year review time for all of us and I have enjoyed meeting with several Principals this week to reflect on their own SLO and PPG processes and school and student impact. I was able to visit Hawthorne, Hadfield and SummitView this week and my school visits are always the BEST part of my week!

Thank you for the feedback around The Sound of Silence. I think Simon Garfunkel summed up the song's meaning in 1966 in referencing the inability of people to communicate with each other. 

Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again......