Monthly Archives: August 2015

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Institute Day 2015 – Superintendent Opening Messages

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
–Albert Einstein

Today is our “kick off day” – we hold an institute day for all staff with the foundation of community and “back to school” spirit and to calibrate and recalibrate our messages and our hopes for the new year and beyond. We gather as an entire school district community in the gymnasium of one of our downloadschools, there are about 500 of us gathered together for fellowship, friendship, energy, and focus. This year following my welcome, the welcome from our Assistant Superintendent for Teaching & Learning, we have a special guest, Tom Murray, for our keynote.

This year my message is one of reflection, refinement, recalibration and recognition. Reflection and recognition of the amazing work of the teachers, staff, administrators, board members, students, and community in two short years. Recalibration and refinement of the “why” – why are we in business? Why are we 1:1? Why are we transforming education? Why are we moving away from just differentiation to innovationdifferentiation, individualization, and personalization? Why are we shedding our good to get to our GREAT!

The slides I used to start off our day are shared below and I welcome questions, comments, or thoughts. Follow our blogs for our work as our stories unfold this year – our 168th year educating students in our communities.

The paradigm slides (slides 10, 11, and 12) come from: http://zhaolearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/WorldClass.pdf

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Community Engagement and Communication #Engage109

“If we have a big enough ‘why,’ we will always discover the ‘how.’”
– Tara Semisch

In our school district we take our community approach and communications approaches very seriously! Last year we implemented a 1:1 Transformative Learning Environment, and we held parent information nights, parent training workshops, and we shared multiple communications.

This year is our second year as a 1:1 Transformative Learning environment district. In support of our communication and community education initiatives we held parent information nights, and we shared a engagementlink to a presentation used at those sessions via a direct e-mail. We take pride in clear, frequent and transparent communication through multiple channels.

I want to share public praise and acknowledgement of the great work of our teams and our leaders, notably Marcie Faust, the Director for Innovative Learning, as she is the primary author of the presentation and she is the district’s “go to” for instructional technology and innovation.

We start school next week and we are spending the next few days finishing construction projects, cleaning the schools and preparing our classrooms. Please see the presentation we shared during our parent information nights and please contact us with any questions!

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District Leaders: Focus on Content First, Tech Second

“True teams are made when you put aside individual wants for collective good.”
– Chiney Ogwumike

Today I’m attending a professional conference hosted in our district and jointly organized by local school districts – North Shore School District 112, Township High School District 113, and our District, the Deerfield Public Schools – District 109; we also welcome our friends from the Bannockburn School District 106. At #TechCampNS, Tech Camp North Shore, we have an impressive collection of workshops, presentations, tools, messages, and professional camaraderie that strengthens our community and our communities as we educate all children PK-12th grades.

One of the main messages about our innovative future focus is that at the heart of all of our purpose is, has been, and will remain STUDENT LEARNING! We are fortunate to have an abundance of high quality devices and resources and it’s important to keep the human factor in content curation and it’s essential to keep the teacher-student relationship at the heart of our work!

I published the following information, related to the TechCampNS focus at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2015/08/20/district-leaders-focus-on-content-first-tech-second/

Much has been written about districts and schools “going 1:1,” issuing tablets, computers, or other electronic devices to every student. As the quantity of devices in the hands of students grows, many leaders like me believe these changes cannot succeed without supporting transformative change in student learning experiences. Namely, I’d like to see a focus on content first, tech second. It is far more important to enhance learning via high quality content and instructional transformation than it is to simply replace a pencil with a tablet and hope for the best.

There are numerous recent blog posts in the wake of #pencilchat on Twitter, where educators and others discussed the popular “pencil analogy” regarding technology in the classroom. The points made (no pun intended) in this discussion are varied, but an important theme emerged that I feel warrants attention: simply putting a pencil in a child’s hand won’t make them a great writer. However, if you give a student a pencil coupled with powerful, meaningful content and exceptional instruction from an energized and committed educator—a great writer may just emerge. When that occurs, is it the pencil or the content that deserves the credit?

As Andrew Marcinek writes in his book, The 1:1 Roadmap Setting the Course for Innovation in Education: “Technology is more than just ‘Computer Class;’ it is a literacy that must be threaded throughout the fabric of a school. In a 1:1 environment, you’re preparing students to be responsible citizens of the physical and digital worlds. But it’s easy to get overwhelmed with devices; you have to have a plan for technology that keeps learning at center stage.”

Marcinek’s point regarding keeping the focus on learning cannot be lost in the rush to embrace ed tech as a panacea. Though I am a strong advocate for instructional change as the catalyst for a substantive change in student outcomes, content is as important as instruction in the classroom. Content is curriculum, content is resources that support curriculum, content is the “what” being taught in our classrooms.

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In the recent era of No Child Left Behind, accountability has been “king.” Many who advocate for the Common Core State Standards or other Learning Standards believe content is “king.” I believe that transformative instruction combined with exceptional content is “king.”

In the 1:1 Transformative Learning Environment era, it is incumbent upon leaders to insist on a new instructional focus. One that is student-centered with supportive, rich, and dynamic content. We must also be certain we are teaching actual digital content, rather than merely digitized content. Simply taking a standard textbook and making it available as a PDF is not digital content—it will not transform our schools or help students achieve.

True digital content is accessible on the myriad device options in classrooms and supports progressive instructional practices that focus on the student as the driver. Digital content changes, updates, and links to real people and current events as they are happening. Textbooks are decades old in many places, making content outdated and stale. Tech books and truly digital content is updated, revised, refreshed, and real. This allows for and supports a concept of content rich and instructionally fresh approaches to learning.

These devices are often revolutionary. But a device does not magically create innovation, nor does a device magically increase student engagement. What we need are devices deployed in an environment rich with dynamic content and full of engaging instruction. Only then will we produce outstanding results. I see it every day and my aim is to support every classroom’s transformation into an engaging, motivating, challenging learning space for our nation’s most precious assets – our children!

lubelfeld_4About Mike Lubelfeld (on the Discovery Blog site)

Mike is a public school superintendent who believes in the writings and messages of Michael Fullan, Thomas Sergiovanni, John Maxwell, and others in the field of leadership. They give clear guidance in areas of leadership like culture building, relationship building, servant leadership and effective change agency. Mike finds great value in both the boardroom and in the classroom as all decisions for his superintendency are based upon what’s best for students. Conscious of the impact on staff as well, his aim is to cause enough disruption as needed to move the “organization’s needle to the right” on its transition and transformation into becoming a highly disciplined school system whose focus is on excellence at all levels. The motto Engage, Inspire, Empower is alive and well in this superintendent.

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#ASuperDay Archive – Tweets about Superintendent’s Day

“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”
– Ray Kroc

 
A day in the life of a superintendent on Twitter is shared from time to time with the Hashtag #ASuperDay! As I have shared before,

Twitter is quite possibly the best source of professional learning for educators and educational leaders – it’s free, it breaks barriers of time and space and it’s full of thought leaders who show innovation and leadership in real time and in real settings. School leaders are finding more and more connections with like minded – and unlike minded – folks who affirm that which works and who challenge that which can work better! In DPS109 we celebrate and showcase innovation and learning via the #engage109.

As a Twitter fan and supporter, it is empowering to learn from so many around the country and world on a regular basis. Twitter chats, like #suptchat for superintendents allow idea sharing, professional learning and overall growth and support for students at all levels (P-20).

The main goal for superintendents and all school leaders, educators, teachers, school service personnel, etc. is for STUDENT LEARNING and GROWTH. The eyes on the prize as shared before is on student support, student learning and community engagement and teacher training and development and learning!

Today’s collection of tweets is shared in the Storify Archive below:

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Welcome to our 24 new teachers! #Engage109

“An organization’s values are its life’s blood.”
– Max DePree

Each year we welcome new teachers into our school family. We share our mission, vision, values, we take them on a tour of the District and the communities we serve and we welcome them into our hearts and 20150129-215415.jpgminds. In DPS109 we have been welcoming quite a few teachers over the past few years, nearly 60 in three years! This year we open our Little Red Schoolhouse and implement a refined and reinvigorated mentor and induction program.

New teachers in DPS109 are selected as part of a rigorous and evidenced based system. I’ve written about this in greater detail before, and here is an excerpt:

Our search for excellence is a regular part of our work. Our high expectations for and of excellence permeate all of our work. Our structured selection instruments/interviews allow us to manage the thousands of active applications in our job application database roias we screen in the applicants with the highest predictive validity metrics. While we search for excellence, we have science to back up the work. With fidelity to our process, with structured selection as well as resume review, essay review and fit interviews with input teams, we can predict, with up to 88% (.88) certainty that our chosen candidate will be excellent in the particular role.

The structured interview helps increase this validity by between .23 and .50 … without scientifically based interview instruments, traditional unstructured selection yields about a 30% (.30) predictive validity.

The slides below were shared with our new teachers today and they represent the hopes and desires we have for our talented new teachers – as well as all teachers and staff.


Welcome new teachers! DPS109 – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

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Getting Ready for New Teacher Week – #Engage109

“Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.”
– Mia Hamm

It’s back to school time! This week we prepare for our New Teacher Orientation and Induction Programming. In addition to the bus tour (new this year) and the workshops and the meetings and the time to set up classrooms and work spaces, we are also going to share messages, philosophies, writings, readings, and ideas about who we are in DPS109. We will share how our motto: Engage, Inspire, Empower guides our work and reflections, we will share our initiatives, successes, curriculum resources, instructional expectations, and we’ll help get ready for the first day with students the following week.

There are many wonderful messages about the power and impact of teachers on students’ lives. It never gets boring or old or stale for me to read new and previous posts, articles, quotes, ideas, and musings about the power and value of education and the educators who work tirelessly and selflessly to make the lives of students better and more informed! There is a great deal to be said about the first few days and weeks of school. These essential relationship and culture foundation building days and weeks can make or break a school year – it is essential to get off on the right foot so to speak on behalf of our students.

For many yearjourneys in another district and in another position of leadership we distributed Harry Wong’s book The First Days of School to all new teachers. In the district where I currently serve, we distribute another excellent book Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion. While we focus on all teachers and all employees and all learners, annually we pay special attention to our new teachers through new teacher orientation, induction, mentoring, professional learning, etc. As we prepare to go back to school, our aim and emphasis includes helping folks mentally prepare for the first days of school! It’s an adventure and it’s a journey and it’s quite rewarding to start the school year fresh each year!

One of the articles I read each year was originally published by the AASA in 2011 (click the links for the original article) by Tom Guskey – a leader and educator who I respect and whose writings and messages I follow. Guskey was a keynote and a presenter in our District.

 The School Administrator August 2011 Number 7, Vol. 68 – Guest Column – Starting the School Year Right

by THOMAS R. GUSKEY

We soon will experience the most important time in the school year for all children — the first two weeks. What happens during this critical period pretty much determines how the rest of the year will go.
 
When children return to school after the summer break, their perceptions about school and about themselves as learners are mostly uncertain. It’s a new year with new teachers, new books, new classes, new schedules and new friends. All of these novelties come with the hope this year could be different and better than all previous years.
 
That uncertainittakesavillagety in their perceptions continues only until teachers administer the first quizzes and assessments around the end of the second week of school. When teachers assign grades to those first quizzes, the grades put students into categories. Getting out of a category is really difficult.
 
Students who receive a C on that first math quiz begin to see themselves as C students. Their uncertainty suddenly becomes fixed, and they begin to accept the idea they are likely to earn C’s in math for the rest of the school year.
 
When the second quiz or assessment occurs, they expect to receive another C. When they do, it reinforces their perception. Similarly, if they receive a failing grade on that first quiz, they think all ensuing grades will be the same. But if they succeed on that first quiz and receive a high grade, that too is their perception of all that might follow.
 
Student Persistence
For school leaders, this means doing everything possible to help teachers ensure students’ success during the first two weeks. At every level and in every class, they must press teachers to do whatever is necessary to help students experience successful learning during this critical period — and not fake success, but an accomplishment on something meaningful and challenging. leadimageIt should be something that makes students feel good about what they have achieved and confident in their abilities as learners.
The key to motivating students rests with that success. Students persist in activities at which they experience success, and they avoid activities at which they are not successful or believe they cannot be successful.
 
This is the reason truancy and attendance problems rarely occur during the first two weeks of the school year. They begin to occur after the first graded quizzes, papers or assessments. In students’ minds, the grades they receive on these first quizzes and assessments establish their likelihood of future success. And why come to school if there is so little chance of doing well?
 
Parent Understanding
School leaders also must help parents understand the importance of this time and how essential it is for them to be genuinely involved in their children’s education during these first two weeks. Routines established at home in this critical period profoundly affect the likelihood of students’ success.
 
Daily conversations about school activities help children recognize that their parents value success in school. Providing a quiet place for children to work on school assignments and limiting the time they spend watching television or playing computer games further increase the chances for success. Checking with the teacher to ensure children are well-prepared and ready to succeed also can help.
 
Successful experiences during these first two weeks of school do not guarantee success for the entire year. But they are a powerful and perhaps essential step in that direction. School leaders, teachers and parents alike need to take advantage of this critical time and use it well. It can make all the difference.
Thomas Guskey is professor of educational psychology at University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.

Another great writer, and one who is closer to home, Dr. Jeff Zoul, recently pdownloadosted a back-to-school article on his blog and it is also a great read and a powerful reminder to us all about the impact we have as educators and about the power of relationships!

 

 

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

 

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Sharing a post from another blogger – Dear Teacher,

I had to share this inspiring post as we prepare to go back to school!

News and Notes from Oklahoma Educator Rob Miller

Dear Teacher . . .

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Dear Teacher,

Hi, you don’t know me yet, but I will be a student in your class this year.

For the next nine months, you will be one of the more important people in my life, though I will never say this to you or anyone else.

On some days, you will be the MOST important person.

Thank you for being my teacher.

Thank you for giving me and other children enough hope to continue struggling against the poverty, prejudice, abuse, alcoholism, hunger, and apathy that are a daily part of so many of our young lives.

Many of my fellow students, who come from homes where they are loved, will come to school ready to learn.

Others, like me, will come to school first to be loved.

I know you went into teaching to make a difference. I am here to tell you, I am that difference. I am a child who needs you. I promise, if you reach me, you will change my life. You might not see the difference today or tomorrow, but if you stick with me, you will make a difference in my life that no test can ever measure.

I must warn you. It will not be easy.

I will sometimes be hard to handle and I may take every ounce of patience you have. I have learned to push buttons well in order to get attention from adults. There will be times that I challenge you in ways that make you second guess what you are doing. But I need you. I need you to keep pushing me. I need you to set limits and help me understand them.

I will also pretend like I don’t like school to avoid admitting that I am not as book smart as some other kids. Yet school is the most stable part of my life. I don’t know how I would survive without it.

I know you don’t know me. If you did, we would get along a lot better. I look and sound like many of the other kids, but I am different in so many ways. To survive in my world, I will always portray myself as tough on the outside. It will take work to discover the softness inside me. I hope you can do it.

You might be the only one who can get to the real me. It will take time and patience. It might even take learning about something you know nothing about. But, teacher, I need you. I need you to give it your all to see me—the real me.

I will be bringing a lot of baggage to your classroom everyday. I am dealing with things someone my age should not be expected to handle. Yet, I will fight to keep my personal life a mystery to you because I have to learn to trust you first. I have to know that you won’t use this information to judge or embarrass me. I have made this mistake before.

I know you have 25 other kids in class. All of them will need you sometimes too. I will need you every day. I need you to find my good qualities because those other kids won’t see them. My teacher last year didn’t see them, and most days, if not all, I don’t even see them.

But, please, teacher, I need you to fight to get to know me. I can’t tell you with my words what I need you to know, so I might act out instead. Take that as my sign that I need you. You might be all I have.

I know I throw fits. I’ll talk when I am not supposed to. I will fidget because I cannot sit still for very long. I know I will occasionally disrupt your class and the lesson you had planned for that day. But teacher, I need you to believe in me. I need you to believe that my actions are a cry for help, not an act against you. Please don’t take it personally. I need you to believe that I want to fit in, but just don’t know how.

Finally, I want to thank you for consistently giving respect to children like me who don’t know what to do with it and don’t realize what a valuable gift you are offering.

And for caring about children whose own families don’t care — or don’t know how to show that they do.

Thank you for spending your own money on pens and pencils, erasers and chalk, paper, tissues, bandages, birthday gifts, treats, clothing, shoes, eyeglasses — and a hundred other things that your students need and don’t have.

Thank you for raiding your own children’s closets to find a pair of shoes or a sweater for a child who has none.

For spending sleepless nights worrying about children like me, wondering what else you might do to help overcome the obstacles that life has placed in our paths.

For putting your own family on hold while you meet with my family or that of another struggling student.

For believing in the life-changing power of education.

For maintaining your belief that I can learn if you are patient and learn how to teach me.

For risking your job to give me a much-needed hug instead of just a high-five.

For taking on one of the most difficult, challenging, frustrating, emotionally exhausting, mentally draining, satisfying, wonderful, important and precious jobs in the world.

Thank you for being YOU and for loving ME!

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  3. Rob, may I share this with the other teachers at my school? This is SUCH a good reminder for August…and September…and October…and every day of the school year.

    I have those students who remind me of the Herdman’s. Remember those kids from _The Best Christmas Pageant, Ever?_ Every year I meet a new cast of Herdman’s kids…eager, but bossy and awkward, unaware of certain morays or traditions or what not. These kids are wise beyond their years, but no test can EVER score their intelligences.

    And as the mom of a kiddo with learning differences, I feel it is so very important to reveal each kid’s gifts to them — to show them and their classmates what geniuses they all truly are! This is how I see maker spaces enter into a system driven by testing data. As librarian, I can offer a place where students can come and create and problem solve…and perhaps even open up to me in the process.

    So, thank you, again, for this incredibly moving blog entry. ((Sniff. Sniff. Please pass me a tissue!))

    Reply

    • Of course you can share, Cathy. I love your example. The maker space movement is one of the best things to come to media centers since the dewey decimal system!

  7. Rob, I read this before I realized this was from you. It resonated with me so much with the work I do at KIPP every day. I hope it is ok to print n share with my peers. Thank u for the mrssage and I hope you have a great year.

    Reply
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Leadership is Key – Leading for ALL Learners – #Engage109

 

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
– Henri Bergson

This year in Illinois there are 70 new superintendents and 28 superintendents new to their school districts. This reflects a reality that more than 1 in 10 Illinois school districts are experiencing a change in leadership at the CEO level this year. In Deerfield Public Schools District 109 I am proud to report that

20130815_104540I’m only the fifth superintendent of schools since the consolidation in 1978 (Drs. Caruso, McGee, Pekoe, Goier and me). I am starting my third year at the helm of this district. I enjoy a positive professional relationship with the seven non-partisan elected school board members and I consider myself quite fortunate to serve this school district. This community has benefitted from the leadership stability over the past 37 years since the two historic school districts consolidated in the area.

Often I am asked about my job, my role, and my functions as a superintendent. I am most proud of the fact that this role allows me to support leadership growth and development at the student, staff, teacher, administrator, board, community, local, state and national government levels. I am an advocate for ILlearning for ALL – this means students with labels, without labels, students in small groups and students in large groups. I support ALL programs and initiatives and special programming for ALL learners.

Over the course of the past two years our District has completed initiative after initiative and project after project in order to be leaders in innovation. Our teachers are outstanding and incredibly hard working. They have been quite flexible and supportive and accepting of the many changes that have changed their work. This year, we will “catch our breath”as we

The major findings - distilling from millions of studies on what works.

The major findings – distilling from millions of studies on what works.

implement, monitor, adjust, amend, and review. We will enjoy the benefits of the changes as we Engage, Inspire, Empower ALL children every day. We have communicated quite a bit about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We also share a lot of information about the 1:1 transformative learning environments. Those and the other initiatives are of the utmost significance and we also provide quite a few supports in support of Social Emotional Learning (SEL). We realize that our students have but one time and one opportunity to experience their particular grade level and their particular years’ worth of educational experiences. We take very seriously our charge to act in loco parentis and take care of the emotional, social, academic, and “other” educational experiences for our students. Beyond standardized accountability measures, it is incumbent upon us to serve the “whole child.”

Examples of Social Emotional Programming in DPS109

The following “laundry list” shows the many SEL initiatives across the District:

  • Botvin Life Skills 5th grade pilot at South Park (4th & 5th grade planned for 2015-16)
  • Text-A-Tip – anonymous tip line 224HELP (community partnership)
  • Community the Anti-Drug community coalition
  • The Leader in Me at Kipling
  • Check in/Check out
  • Second Step curriculum
  • Implement school wide SEL/Behavior program
    • Includes 4 PAWS assemblies
    • Includes a parent/student PAWS contract
    • Includes daily announcements by 5th graders who share the weekly PAWS principle
    • Includes incentive programs for students
  • Implement school wide SEL/Behavior program
    • Penguin Principles
    • Held several “behavior boosters” throughout the year to reinforce the program
    • Used daily announcement to reinforce behavior expectations and Penguin Principles
  • Provide ongoing and as needed social work/counseling to individual students and groups of students
  • Students completed a social/emotional survey
    • Staff responded to student needs by addressing group and individual concerns
  • Principal held several Town Hall meetings with 4th/5th grade students to address social concerns innovationwith topics ranging from bullying, to cyber safety, use and misuse of social media and general friendship issues
  • All elementary schools held an assembly on sexual abuse
  • Assemblies on bullying
  • Create opportunities for student leadership – e.g student council, student mentors, student ambassadors who introduce assemblies and special events and who meet and greet parents and guests for various programs
  • Buddy programs to support the social needs of students with disabilities and opportunities for teaching about diversity and empathy for peers
  • Dev Heitner programming for 5th graders
  • Develop individualized behavior plans based on assessed student needs
  • Health curriculum in middle school P.E. courses
  • SEL RTI programming 
  • Cultural/World studies in 7th grade social studies
  • Peer mediation group at MS
  • Student Council, Student Advisory Committee, and Philanthropy Club
  • Digital citizenship/sexting presentation led by principal
  • Mentor/Problem Solving teams of teachers to connect with students for either Check in/Check out and/or further problem solving students needs
  • Positive Behavior presentation to address the definition of bullying and how we address/prevent bullying at Caruso (we also addressed how we investigate bullying)
  • A positive behavior matrix for the entire school with specific behavior expectations for all areas of the school (classroom, hallway, lunchroom etc.) and will pilot a positive behavior incentive program for the 6th grade class in the fall
  • Social/emotional team comprised of teachers, student support staff and admin to discuss how to create a system of social/emotional growth that includes Tier 1 data collection, Tier 1 interventions as well as a school-wide approach to support positive student behavior
  • We created the Bluejay way handbook that highlights expected behaviors and presented these expectations to each grade level.
  • Middle School Facilitation Committee recommends that the 6th grade MS teachers address specificleadquote social emotional needs the first few weeks of school and 8th grade MS teachers address specific social emotional needs the second semester of their 8th grade year
  • Deerfield Vertical Alignment committee recommends that 8th grade students complete a pre and post survey that addresses social emotional topics such as stress. In addition, the committee presented to the board the 9th grade survey regarding not only social emotional topics, but also academic preparation for Deerfield High School
  • PBIS-like system of encouraging and supporting positive behaviors and supports with a special emphasis on being helpful, responsible, respectful, and safe.

 

 

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Shift Happens 2015 – Our Future is Now – #Engage109

“The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.”
– Alexandra Trenfor

Each year since 2008 I have watched the “DID YOU KNOW?” Shift Happens videos with interest and amazement. The power of our exponential times is almost impossible to grasp unless the video/music combo is presented with graphs and words.

As we prepare for the Class of 2028 it’s incumbent upon us to imagine THEIR future as we prepare for our present! We have one chance for each child to experience his/her grade – we don’t get “do overs” with our precious students! The following video puts some perspectives into place about the world and society we are preparing today’s students for:

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Excerpts from a note to staff #ENGAGE109

“New ideas are not born in a conforming environment.”
– Roger von Oech

Our staff return on August 24 and we’re getting the district ready for our grand re-opening! From a letter I recently sent to all staff highlighting our back to school plans and big picture ideas for the year:

” I am excited to welcome you back in two weeks to our third year together! We will again kick off the year as a whole District with our back-to-school Institute Day on Monday, August 24, 2015. It will be an energizing time to focus on how we will Engage, Inspire, Empower our students and each other. We are honored to have esteemed educator Tom Murray as our keynote speaker. You can see from his website that Tom’s expertise is in personalized, digital learning for educational professionals, and he will share that expertise with us as we get ready for greater professional learning opportunities for all District 109 educators. Please see the bottom of this email for a detailed schedule for the August institute days.

We are Future Ready!In the past two years, the “Big 5” have guided our work: Common Core State Standards, Teacher Evaluation, Technology, Organizational Culture, and the Superintendent’s Task Force for Middle Level Education. We will continue to focus on those Big 5, but through the lens of the “Big 3”: Innovation, Engagement, and Personalization.  For staff, a new model for the personalization of professional learning will be unveiled by the Department of Teaching & Learning.

What’s on our plates for 2015-2016 – our 168th year of public education?
As part of our continuous improvement, we have several new projects and initiatives ahead of us (or already in the works):

  • Full-day kindergarten: More than 250 kindergarteners will be in our buildings all day this year. Our elementary principals and kindergarten team worked hard all spring and summer planning the physical space, curriculum, and schedules to ensure that our youngest students start with the best educational experiences public school can offer.

  • Eight new science labs: There now are six “next generation” science labs at each middle school, and our middle school science teachers are ready to teach in their new spaces.

  • K-5 science curriculum: Elementary science teachers will use the Bring Science Alive! resources so that our students have hands-on, authentic experiences in science.

  • New website: Stay tuned for information about the launch of our new website later this month.

  • Library curriculum and focus on digital citizenship: Our library information specialists and Director for Innovative Learning Marcie Faust worked over the summer on a new K-5 library curriculum, and developed a continuum of library skills. In addition, you will be hearing – and using! – the District-wide motto for digital citizenship that they developed as part of their work: “Be TRUE” which stands for: Treat devices respectfully; Report uncomfortable situations to an adult; Use appropriately; Everyday.

  • New teacher mentoring program: We welcome almost 30 new staff members this year, and expect to continue to have big classes of “newbies” each year for the next few years. We have souped up our “welcome wagon” for new teachers, with more in-depth orientation activities and a more extensive and thorough mentoring program.

  • NSSED withdrawal process: District 109’s ability to serve all students attracts families to our community with our own internal programs, staff and resources.  This video highlights all that we do for families with students who have special needs – and the positive impact that those students have on our community. We continue the process to pull out of the NSSED cooperative.

We plan to monitor our progress this year, report on our progress, and aim higher for even greater progress as we Engage, Inspire, and Empower each and every learner and member of our community each and every day!

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER