“If we don’t stand for something, we may fall for anything.”
– Unknown

I have often written about the power and value of professional associations. I am grateful to the coaching, guidance, mentorship, feedback, and opportunities that these associations afford me and other leaders in the field. As a member of the AASA Digital Consortium Advisory Board, I had the meaningful opportunity to co-host a recent gathering of this group in the Chicago area.

My friend and colleague Nick Polyak from the Leyden Township High Schools in Franklin Park and Northlake, IL and I engaged with a team of superintendents and school leaders from around the United States for two days of intense leading, learning, fellowship, and calls to action. Essential to school and community leadership, partnerships with business leaders, service providers, thought leaders, and coalitions serve to strengthen and amplify the value and reach of the leadership experiences. Key to the influence and success of the Digital Consortium are friends like Horace Mann, Discovery Education, Google, Google Chicago, Education Reimagined, and others.

During part of our learning experiences we visited incredible spaces for learning (also known as classrooms) at Leyden and in Deerfield. From modern advanced manufacturing programming at Leyden to modern Next Generation Science labs in Deerfield, we shared with the group HOPE and POSSIBILITY in progressive, future focused school systems.

We engaged with the Leyden Summer Symposium (a gathering of hundreds of teachers, administrators and students) from around the country. We engaged with Google Chicago – seriously the coolest work environment in which I have ever worked!

We worked through design thinking exercises and planning under the powerful new framework found in Education Reimagined.

Like the amazing view of Chicago (and beyond) from the rooftop of Google Chicago (seen in the image) our view for the future is endless. The framework described in Education Reimagined (I encourage you to read the 12 page document) is organized into five parts (see image below):

As leaders, our work at this summit involved diving deeply into the meaning and possibility within each of the parts (competency-based, learner agency, etc.). We leaders worked in groups with one another, student representatives and our partners. Through Google led design thinking exercises and deep thinking, we ultimately produced IGNITE style presentations as part of our call to action and commitment to doing and leading with this information and guidance.

For a image and text view of our experiences, learning, and feelings, I encourage you to peruse the  tweets we shared under the #AASA_DigitalConsortium. Our challenge and charge as a group is to continue to lead with passion, energy, focus, and partnership. As critical friends we affirm that which is good and best and we constructively critique that which can be made better.

Together with our local Boards of Education, staff and communities, we commit to follow the North Star set forth in the framework for leadership as we reimagine education!