When I had the honor of moving into my district position this year, I had to strike a balance with finding more than purple for my wardrobe and to not talk about North HS incessantly. I think I have managed both well, except I have to write my blog this week about three North teachers.
I was invited to an INSPIRE Advisory Committee meeting Thursday night and we have three teacher leaders in Chris Delponte, Eric Hill and Greta Voit who have single-handedly taken a vision for personalized learning and put it into action!
INSPIRE will have 50 freshman next year and these teachers should be commended for thinking about high school differently, purposefully planning competencies for each level of interdisciplinary courses and for committing to personalizing the learning experience for each unique student. This honestly is insane to think about taking our traditional construct of a comprehensive high school and leading the way to match the needs of our learners coming through our SDW system from STEM, FLIGHT, and QUEST.
The leadership lessons here are INSPIRE-ational.
Every crazy dream should be pursued.
Leaders should feel supported to take risks.
Learning will happen right alongside students at times and these leaders need to feel prepared for that. All the preparation and best laid plans will be driven by the students once things start. This is exactly what you want.
Always think about why we can't do things differently, rather than saying we can't do something.
Fuel your passion, no matter what it is.
Love what you do and do what you love.
I have no doubt there is a success story like this in each one of our schools.
Teacher leaders who are rockstars in one of the hardest yet most rewarding professions there is.
