Looking at our present and future – what is going in in DPS109?

“What greater glory attends a man than what he wins with his racing feet and his striving hands?”
– Homer

This is an exciting time to work in public education! This is an even more exciting time to work in DPS109! As we formally start the new calendar year with our faculty, staff, and administrators in the 2nd annual Teaching & Learning Conference, we continue our journey in support of our mission: Engage, Inspire, Empower. This conference is sponsored by the District Teaching & Learning Department (Jeff Zoul and Marcie Faust) and is an offering of multiple courses throughout the school day – the schedule can be accessed here: dps2015.sched.org.

For many reasons I am proud to be the lead learner in this school system (including: teacher and administrator led courses – individualized professional learning, partnership with Downers Grove SD teamleader58, partnership with content managers with whom we contract like Discovery and Edmentum and Bill Bintz from LDC, support of our initiatives with sustained training efforts, and so many more reasons!).

For the past year and a half since the new leadership teams have been in place, we have been TRANSFORMING education for our 3000+ students in grades PK-8. Our transformation takes many forms including our transition to a 1:1 District and our replacement of exploratories with STEM and Communication Media Arts, and our re-design and construction of science classroom / laboratories via a 140+ member strong community engagement process. We have also enhanced our alignment efforts with the Common Core State Standards with teacher created curriculum “maps”; in addition we have enhanced our alignment efforts with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). There have been some leadership transitions and we are experiencing a five year retirement cycle of nearly 60 (out of 290) teachers. The District is in a significant time of change and growth and transition and transformation. Truly this is an exciting time to lead in DPS109! In addition, by April 2015, there will be five Board members who were not members of the Board of Education 18 months ago – change and transition is at every level of our organization. Like I said … this is an exciting time to work and lead in DPS109.

So … why is it so exciting? What do we have going on?

We are officially in the Fourth year of a five year Strategic Plan
Second year of the Big 5 focused operations

All of our efforts, initiatives, plans, programs, etc., are tied to the large scale vision and the large scale plans … this includes:

*1:1 transformation – teacher and staff training, review and experimentation with new materials, equipment, changed philosophy to learner centered, review of digital and print subscriptions – budget review and analysis – support roles/technician staffingwpid-social-media-a-history_51d5b9b694601.jpg

*Exploration of full day kindergarten – revisiting the District MASTER FACILITY PLAN

*Exploration of elementary CMA/STEM/Library of the future (K-5)

*Planning for the renovation and renewal of eight new science labs at both middle schools – continuation of the District STEM initiative

*TAP/REACH/GIFTED program review

*Follow ups from the Superintendent’s Task Force for Middle Level Education, the Middle School Facilitation Team – Middle School program review/band/orchestra – chorus

*Sustained training, training, training, training, training

* Restructuring of the Department of Buildings and Grounds due to retirement and personnel changes

Just to name and list a few highlights!

Please check back and learn about the many exciting opportunities to maximize learning for all children as we progress, learn, grow, and change!

2 thoughts on “Looking at our present and future – what is going in in DPS109?

  1. What specifically has been the focus of your 1:1 PD? Is there curriculum mapping ongoing?

    • Heidi,
      We are really proud of the change/shift in PD for our teachers – we have offered choices in the Institute Days, we have asked Teachers to teach one another, we have brought in partners (i.e. Discovery Ed.) to teach sessions at Institute Days as well as on teacher planning time and also in class with teachers.

      We are fortunate to have Dr. Jeff Zoul on staff with us – he is a nationally renowned expert (like you!) in personalized professional learning.

      We are grateful to have friends, partners, and thought leaders like yourself helping us on our journey.
      ML

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