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 schools, 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 differentiation, 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