December Reflections
The past five months of our administration have passed in the “blink of an eye”. The leadership transition here to DPS109 has gone very well. At this time of year, I often reflect on the past as I prepare for the future. In DPS we have continued great work from those here prior to our arrival, and we started new work as we endeavor to create a new reality of excellence in the District and community.

The Big 5: Always In Focus

As you know, we are focusing on action in “The Big 5”:

1. Common Core State Standards

2. The Charlotte Danielson frameworks/STEP evaluation

3. Technology

4. Organizational culture

5. Superintendent’s Task Force for Middle Level Education

While 2013 comes to an end, we prepare for an exciting 2014! As I look back, for the past 20 years I have had the good fortune of teaching children and adults in many capacities and roles. I have held the titles of teacher, coordinator, consultant, associate principal, principal, director, assistant superintendent, professor, and currently, superintendent of schools. In all of these roles I have been motivated by service to others and belief in the ability of others to succeed. In essence, my educational philosophy has always been:

Our complex society presents many challenges to people as they pass from childhood to adulthood. It is my firm belief that a strong educational \foundation will support a person’s quest for success and prosperity. Young people are our windows to the future. Working with them has helped me see and consider their views as guideposts in decision making and planning. I am committed to preparing and to supporting our young citizens and their teachers for their future – and ours.

The aim of this blog is service through communication. My “stage” has been and continues to be public education, but leadership is leadership, I hope that these words and messages help and inspire people in all walks of life and industry!

Relationships
Leaders are effective when people listen to them. Many writers and researchers have written a lot about leadership. Many studies identify scientifically what leadership is and what traits, behaviors, and responsibilities are “research-based” and proven to have “effects” and impacts on certain behaviors (like student achievement). What makes a leader effective is not answered or described in one post, one log, one blog, one answer.
Unless the writer suggests that RELATIONSHIPS – two-way, respectful, nurturing, responsible, appropriate, mutually beneficial, and based upon common beliefs and vision – can help support an assertion that leaders are effective when they build relationships and when their leadership is built upon the foundation that ‘people-centeredness’ is at least a hugely impactful starting point for effective leadership.

Research on leadership essentially indicates that the most important attributes of a leader involves relationships. Listening to others, involving others, building capacity in others based upon their interests and skills, all of this is essential for a leader to be successful. Building professional relationships is foundational for all leaders who hope to find success in education, management, organizations, any industry where people are involved.

The best advice I could give to an aspiring leader is to LISTEN to people involved; build RELATIONSHIPS with those around you; show RESPECT to all, and value the honor, dignity, and worth of all individuals!

I have recently learned about the Big History Project and I have registered to learn more about this in an effort to support increased student learning and growth in the school district. From their materials:

What is Big History?

A social studies course covering 13.7B years of shared history.

Big history looks at the history of the Universe, from the Big Bang to modernity, and explores common themes and patterns that can help us better understand people, civilizations and the world we live in.

A collaborative effort to create a big history course for teachers everywhere.

•Complete, free curriculum including assessments, lesson plans and all content.

•A website that provides easy access to course materials for educators and students.

•Training and professional development opportunities.

•Active community of “big historians” to keep the course fresh, impactful, and connected.

•Advocacy organization to support schools and districts seeking to deploy the course.

Teachers should feel free to explore, experiment, supplement, enrich – use the content to “spice up” your instruction and experiment with technology and content.

Parents should feel free to check this out and see how you can support learning at home

Please note I have not fully “vetted” this – it looks very interesting and high level … it’s one of a number of “open source” curricular material offerings from leaders and philanthropists from around the world. It looks too good to simply review, bookmark and visit again – I want to share with you – please take some time to check it out and make the decision to use or not based upon your needs and your students’ needs!

(https://course.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive)

The Big History Project has completed its pilot phase and is now available to any educator, worldwide.

The Big History Project started with a simple mission–create a free, open, online, Common Core-aligned social studies course to ignite a passion for learning, and help students develop the skills and knowledge they need to thrive. And now, we have a rapidly growing community of schools globally with over 10,000 students.

What’s new with the Big History Project?
→New website: updated easy and intuitive design
→Lesson plans: ready-made and complete with student activities
→Multimedia content: custom-designed videos, informational texts, comics, and animations
→Assessments: unit quizzes, concept assessments, text-based assessments, and projects
→Community: teachers-to-teacher sharing of plans, activities, and advice

Get started today! (https://course.bighistoryproject.com/pages/signin)
Use the whole program or just some of the content that works for you.
And, share the great news on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/bighistoryproject) and Twitter. (https://twitter.com/BigHistoryPro)

As part of my official work as superintendent of schools, I have the opportunity to evaluate the job performance and effectiveness of school principals. As a former school principal, I enjoy supporting the complex and meaningful work of the school principals in our district! The evaluation process is directed by the state and it has formal and informal observations, student growth, and evidenced-bases processes in support of school leadership and principal development.

One of the formal observation activities where I get to collect evidence in support of effective leadership is the teacher evaluation process. Today I had the good fortune of being invited into a middle school classroom where I observed far more than the impact of leadership from the formal evaluation perspective. I was able to spend quality time observing and interacting with student learning at a high and engaging level.

What I saw involved students working together with teacher guidance and self-guidance to accomplish meaningful tasks. What I saw was students sitting in unique “seats” that included a combination of exercise ball seats (allowing for movement and bouncing and “focus”), couches, office type seats and the traditional school seats. What I saw was a teacher in constant motion guiding, questioning, supporting, and helping student groups and individual students engage in the lesson. What I saw was an environment that transitioned from quiet to loud with individual and small and large group communication. What I saw was the result of highly professional pre-planning (Domain 1 in the Danielson Frameworks) and highly professional investment in learning and high expectations for success for ALL students. I saw a LOT more than my defined purpose for being there.

While my official purpose was to formally evaluate one of our principals in their furtherance of principal duties, and while this was one part of the three part process of this “formal observation” of the principal (observe the principal and teacher in a pre-observation conference, an observation, and a post-observation/reflective conference). And while my formal purpose is to observe the principal’s effectiveness in observing instruction and engaging teachers in relationships, I learned a whole lot more!

I observed how a principal’s leadership can empower the teachers to use creative solutions to their needs (i.e. physical set up of the room – unique to the teacher and student needs); I also observed how a principal has established rapport with students as evidenced by the principal’s interaction with and communication with the students. I also observed how a Board of Education’s leadership and support of technology has empowered a teacher to use elements of a “flipped” lesson, Chromebooks (new technology), audio/visual elements, and shared/collaborative talking, listening, writing, and speaking in “real life”. I also learned how increasing time in academic class periods profoundly allows for greater learning and results. There was a natural transition in learning at the 40 minute mark, it was affirming to know there were 20 more minutes reserved for teaching and learning.

So … while I am in the process of principal evaluation, and while I am in the “field” gathering evidence in support of the principal’s practice in an effort to support excellence, I had the good fortune of observing Excellent Instruction and Excellent Learning as a result of the great opportunities my job offers! Each and every day I give thanks for having the chance to see theory and research in action with the finest students, teachers, leaders and community!

For a look at how Chromebooks are being used in our community, beyond DPS109, please view this video from the Township High School District 113 (Deerfield High School and Highland Park High School) http://www.dist113.org/Pages/VIDEO%20Technology-Enhances-District-113-Student-Learning-.aspx where a Chromebook pilot is ongoing. What you will see is an example of what I just saw in a classroom in DPS109. Learning IS being transformed in our community – one classroom at a time!

Today we held an institute day. Often people ask me what do we actually do on institute days. Institute days are a time for we educators to “recharge” our professional batteries. Lear about current research or practices, work together with colleagues on curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Today, in keeping with our “Big 5” focus areas:

• Common Core State Standards
• Charlotte Danielson Frameworks for Teaching/STEP Evaluation
• Technology
• Organizational Culture
• Superintendent’s Task Force for Middle Level Education

We focused on Common Core State Standards and Charlotte Danielson Frameworks for Teaching. In the “Prezi” I am sharing with this blog, readers can see a glimpse into “real” professional development content and process. We reviewed the examples of teaching with the rubric used by Danielson (my work was teaching about Domain 3 to 8 groups of teachers in 30 minute work sessions). As always, we welcome comments and we use internal feedback to guide and improve future professional development.