Ted Lasso Season 3 came back this week! Kyle LeMieux, our West Associate Principal/Athletic Director hosted the 11th annual West Leadership Conference with over 250 student-athletes participating in the conference named Starts with You, Ends with Us.
Like Ted Lasso, and like Kyle, I challenge all of us to lead with contagious affection and positive optimism. Starts with you, ends with us. Go 'Sha!
We had CESA 1 come in today to work with our Administrators on providing actionable feedback for educator growth. We practiced growth-focused conversations as well as using critical-attribute informed feedback. One of the videos shared with us was from a Ted-Talk and includes a 4 part formula that I believe is so beneficial for all of us.
(1) The Micro-Yes
(2) Data Point
(3) Show Impact
(4) End on a Question
Remember, clear is kind! Whether it be in our professional work setting or with your family members and friends, this 4 part formula should welcome feedback as the gift it is truly meant to be!
Are you looking to make some extra cash this summer? If so, then look no further! The School District of Waukesha is now hiring summer school teachers K-12. Summer school runs June 19th-July 14th, with no school on July 3rd and 4th. Competitive pay as compared to our surrounding school districts. If you are interested and would like more information please contact our summer school principals directly all listed below.
Elementary Summer School Sites & Principal
Secondary Summer School Sites & Principal
As we know, there is no more important goal, than making sure all students in the School District of Waukesha are proficient readers! We are excited to be partnering with the CESA 6 Literacy Center on our journey to create and implement strategic plans and decision making designed to build knowledge and systems that bolster the science and balance of early literacy instruction in our schools. This two year partnership will engage us in continuous literacy learning, help us to develop an initial district literacy implementation plan, not just in the early grades but as an entire 4K-12 system.
Waukesha teams will be joining the Early Literacy Academy that they offer as well as their Leading Literacy for Impact to improve literacy instruction and student achievement K-12. One of the academies begins in August so once I have our team membership solidified, I will let you know who that will be and I will make sure to continue to bring you updates along the way. Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly.
March Madness is here! Enjoy the weekend ahead!
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.
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.
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......
The School District of Waukesha strives to provide all professional staff with meaningful, engaging, and purposeful professional development opportunities that align with our district goals and priorities. This year’s Winter Institute is scheduled for Monday, January 16, 2023, and will be hosted at multiple school sites across the district. With the continued onboarding of new curriculum and resources K-12; this year’s Winter Institute will focus on content area/role-specific professional learning, curriculum development, and intentional instructional planning across our system. Therefore, we opted not to use Sched as we’ve done in the past and share the information via our Winter Institute 2023 website. The Winter Institute website is linked here. For more information on your department’s professional development plan for Winter Institute please refer to the Teacher Pathway link on the website and select the appropriate pathway that best fits your position. If you have any questions please contact the district administrator, coach or coordinator that oversees your department. Have a great day of learning, growing, and building a better SDW for 2023!
