NEW!!! Add an ESL License to your Professional Portfolio

NEW!!! Add an ESL (and Bilingual) License to your portfolio

Please click on the link above to fill out a form requesting additional information.

Linguistically talented students learning English is a growing population in Waukesha. Are you ready to meet these scholars needs? Perhaps preparing yourself with an additional ESL License from UW-Whitewater (Cohort held in Delavan) could be part of your professional portfolio. The cohort model starts Summer 2018 and continues through 2019. The license requires 16 credits (with 6 additional and a language proficiency requirement if you wish to add the bilingual certification).
SDW is striving to reach the needs of these scholars so that we can ensure they are college and career ready. YOU are our best hope and possibility of this dream. If you are interested in more information, please share your personal details here.

25 years after Yale

"People don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it " (Simon Synek)

We are approaching a home stretch between winter and spring break.  Maybe you are feeling tested or working with and for others who are feeling this way.  This tiny bridge weekend might allow us all to slow down, reposition and reflect on our Life's Purpose.

They say the happiest people take two for themselves and give three to others.  A mindset develops from thinking and behaving this way because it forces the mind to focus outward rather than inward-and this outward focus has a reciprocal effect of serving "the other" which later serves "the self" as well.

This short video by Adam Leipzig following the post offers us all to take a few needed moments of restorative reflection around our roles and our goals by answering 5 short questions.   The answer to these questions might support you to create a vital elevator mission statement that sustains during times of fatigue and refocuses in times of distraction. After viewing, post your mission statement at #sdwmywhy

Blog on Self Care in times of change and Self Care and Leadership 

Visible Practices of a Strong Adult Professional Culture

From his deep well of research and work in schools across our nation, Jon Saphier outlines 12 visible practices of a strong adult professional culture. Below are a few to highlight. How many of these attributes would describe your school right now?

* Frequent teaching in the presence of other adults
* Joint responsibility for student results
* Non-defensive self-examination of teaching practice in relation to student results
* Constant use of data to re-focus teaching
* Human environment of caring, appreciation and recognition
* Honest, open communication and the ability to have difficult conversations

emsworld.com

Start From Within

A foundational component of leadership is the idea that leadership starts from within.  The attached blog, written by Anthony Howard, outlines the importance of knowing yourself and the dimensions associated with this understanding.

Why good leadership starts with leading yourself-Anthony Howard

Theory of Action and the PLC

Have you found that your experience in a PLC may be different from a colleague's experience?  That is because PLCs go through different stages.  When first starting in a Professional Learning Community, the focus is often on the adult practice.  Educators may begin by sharing teaching strategies or practices with colleagues.  "This is what/how I teach."  As the PLC evolves, the conversation shifts to student learning.  "I taught it this way, and here is how students achieved."  Sometimes, this conversation leads to questions such as "does my assessment really match my instruction?" or "am I assessing what I really want the students to know and be able to do?"  These questions take PLCs further on their journey.  Ultimately, PLCs begin analyzing valid student data to improve teaching practice and student achievement, reflecting each step of the way.

I have linked an article by Parry Graham and Bill Ferriter that was published by the National Staff Professional Development Council.  They write about the "7 Stages" of PLCs.  Some schools are using this framework to collect data on the evolution of their PLCs.  If you feel like your PLC is not gaining any momentum, this article might provide ideas for moving forward by reading about the other stages.  I have also linked a flier on "All Things PLC" that gives a short overview of highly effective  PLCs based on the work of DuFour, DuFour, and Eaker.

PLCs are a powerful way for educators to collaborate around high leverage practices linked to the school's Theory of Action.  Have you PLCed today? 

SDW Energized by Positive Growth

As the energy increases around Waukesha ONE next week, so has our district's overall organizational health!

We are celebrating an 85% response rate from our survey, which is almost 20% higher than the benchmark response rate from organizations our size. Thank you for your feedback as we continue to engage all staff around input in order to help increase employee performance, engagement and productivity. We know that an increase in adult self-efficacy and performance leads directly to an increase in student success!

Our district saw strong gains in five highlighted areas. This means specifically that we saw a 5% or higher increase in the rating from the following areas:

* Employees feel well informed about decisions
* We encourage different points of view
* Employees feel genuinely appreciated
* Our district is going in the right direction
* Senior managers understand what is happening

These are strengths that show some of our noteworthy successes over the last year. As we compile the data, our Director team will be sharing school specific feedback with Principals the first week of February. We expect that our culture of collaboration will continue as Principals use their school specific data to cultivate positive factors that help drive engagement in each of their schools.

An energized and productive workplace make all the difference for us and for our students. THANK YOU!

High Road versus Low Road

Recently, I had the opportunity to have a great discussion about teaching for transfer with a group of colleagues. We read The Problem of Teaching for Transfer: Taking the Low Road or the High Road by Jeffrey Wilhelm. The article discusses two types of transfer; the high road and the low road. The," road is when learning becomes "semi-automatic", or the rises to the level of recall. Following this road, students are able to learn and memorized steps to a process and simply apply these steps to situations that are identical or similar to what is taught. This type of transfer of learning can be asses through standardized assessments. On the other hand, transfer of learning that follows the high road focuses on the application of prior learning in new and creative ways. Students engaged in activities that follow the high road, cannot solely rely on procedures learned from prior examples instead students must "dig out" new understanding and create meaning to answer questions. Because the high road can include multiple outcomes, assessing this type of understanding requires more complex models such as rubrics and written feedback.

So does this mean that we need to choose one road over the other? No.

Good instruction must allow students to travel both roads. Students need to build background knowledge and routines when learning new concepts. Students  getting their "reps" in will help to create a base of understanding of a concept. Additionally, students need opportunities to productively struggle in creating new knowledge through higher-level tasks and activities.

Developing understanding includes both the learning of facts and skills as well as applying those facts, skills, and other background knowledge to create new meaning and solve new problems. As we move into second half of the year I leave you with this question; how are you creating opportunities for students to travel both roads?