“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word–excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”
– Pearl S. Buck

Today I had the opportunity to view school through the lenses of Mrs. Johnson’s 4th grade class at Walden School in our District. Mrs. Johnson facilitates learning for 22 wonderful students. As part of our administrative commitment to leading through learning, I “shadowed” or spent the entire day (lunch, art, recess too) with my new friends at Walden School. The focus of today’s shadowing was to learn what it’s like to learn in a typical classroom in Deerfield Public Schools – District 109. Each year our holiday presents as a leadership team is a holiday “presence” where we administrators substitute teach for a full day – that experience is wonderful and over the past two years I have taught self-contained special education, 7th grade math, and after the new year in 2016 I will teach 1st grade!

Today’s leadership focus was learning about our work and our leadership through the experience of the students we serve. I’m drafting this post during writing time; it’s the first time today I’m doing my own work; I was doing the actual 4th grade student coursework all day. I participated as a student in number corner, language arts whole group and small group, art,lunch/recess, match, science and around the world!

With the help and support of the awesome students I learned the routines, rules, procedures, expectations, essentially “how” to be a 4th grader at Walden School. The students were really busy all day and the day flew by. The students and I were busy pursuing authentic learning tasks. We analyzed complex text, we reviewed multiple sources of informational text. The conversations were high level, complex, meaningful and quite impressive. Mrs. Johnson runs an active classroom and she clearly puts in tons of time planning, preparing, reviewing, teaching, helping, listening – she is an excellent teacher! In

math class we followed the Illinois New Learning Standards and we worked collaboratively and with multiple methods of discovery and presentation. Mrs. Johnson respects the individual needs and abilities and interests of her students.

Our teacher, Mrs. Johnson is amazing! She is kind, considerate, well planned, organized, authoritative, focused, diligent – truly excellent in every sense of the word and per all criteria I have studied, read, and implemented over the years about effective instruction. As a student I participated in guided learning,

independent practice, individualized activities and personalized opportunities. I had clear expectations and clear outcomes to produce yet often I was able to select the way in which I could produce the learning.

Through deliberate conversation and teaching I was reminded naturally of the Illinois New Learning Standards as a normal part of the vocabulary and discussion. It’s as natural for Mrs. Johnson’s students to speak the language of Standard NF.3d as it is for them to use the “real” vocabulary of mathematics. The students are learning to become fluent in math vocabulary, concepts, practice, and mastery of standards based learning. In art class I learned about Wassily Kandinsky, the color wheel, and how to make colors out of paint using the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. My one hour as a fourth grade art student was fun, engaging, informative, and active. I completed the primary and secondary color abstract painting with the help of my fellow students and wonderful teacher Ms. Summers.

 

Today, in “real life” I saw examples of learning on the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. The students routinely performed thinking tasks, considered the feelings of other and they were moving around all day long. This was a classroom preparing students for today and tomorrow! This was a modern, contemporary, relevant learning environment for some wonderful students.

I saw and I experienced the 4C’s: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking. The natural integration of multiple processes, routines, actions, and learning make me quite proud. Mrs. Johnson spoke in the language of high expectations and kindness and courtesy and focus. The students were normal, typical kids – a little rambunctious, funny, fun, interactive, and to a person – ENGAGED in the learning. Mrs. Johnson is teaching students and they are learning. They learn how to work with one another, they focus on social emotional learning (they use the Botvin Life Skills program as do all 4th and 5th grade students in the district). The students with whom I learned today truly were engaged in their tasks, learning, content, subject, one another, and school in general. They inspired me as their superintendent and their performance all day – bell to bell – truly was inspired. They were empowered to select from a variety of resources and tools both technological/digital and in print throughout the school day.

The students were learning and engaged in authentic learning tasks aligned with best practices from the minute they walked in to the minute the bell rang at 3:25pm. Mrs. Johnson is an outstanding representative of an outstanding faculty! What a great experience! I am fortunate to work, lead, and serve in the Deerfield Public Schools.