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...