Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
What Great educators do differently
Today I had the good fortune to learn more about effective leadership and service at the inaugural What Great Educators Do Differently professional conference. Together with educators from 19 US states and Canada gathered for an invigorating set 
of inspiring experiences centered around greatness and education. The legendary Todd Whitaker was the kick off keynote speaker. The lessons Todd has been sharing for years in the multiple published books and articles about what great educators do differently make sense each and every time I learn from and with him. Great educators love their job, love their work, love the students and love the impact and legacy they make on families and communities.
I am lucky.
I work with hundreds of great educators every day! I lead with great leaders every day! I serve with great educators who do their craft and our work differently every day.
I am lucky.
I have a Board of Education that supports vision, strategy, fiscal responsibility and student learning. I am a connected educator, a progressive thinker, a constructivist, an advocate for technology in support of learning, a maker advocate, a relationship builder, an organizational culture believer, etc. I aim each and every day to be different and make a difference.
The work of a superintendent is bizarre at times. It is mired in complex interpersonal relations and organizational psychology. It is also incredibly rewarding to take an immensely diverse and different group of teachers and unite 
them in a shared vision on behalf of kids every day. It is incredibly challenging to blend varied experiences, varied interests, varied abilities, etc. I am a student of the Big 5 Personality Theory that (briefly) suggests that people will act and live somewhere on the continuum of the following:
Introversion – Extraversion
Disagreeableness – Agreeableness
Neuroticism – Emotional Stability
Close-mindedness – Openness To Experience
Low Conscientiousness – High Conscientiousness
Ideally we seek and support and multiply more people on the right side of the continuum above. We seek those most likely to support the future. We select one more like our best and we support and equip for excellence!
Over the past twenty years I have been privileged to serve community growth and development as a teacher and as a leader. Nothing is more noble in my opinion (my biased opinion) as teaching and facilitating growth and development of children and communities. I have served communities in three counties with students from 9 villages and towns and from every economic and social group.
Great educators serve all students with respect and honor and dignity. Great educators listen and seek to learn and work within student interest areas to impact education. Great educators welcome parent involvement. Great educators incorporate the most effective techniques, old, new, and not yet imagined. Great educators accept and embrace change.
In the Deerfield Public Schools District 109 in Lake County, Illinois, we have nearly 3000 students in grades PK-8 in six schools with nearly 400 staff members. Each of us brings a wealth of experiences and hopes and dreams to work every day. Each of us tries his or her hardest every day to do better than their best every day because our students deserve excellence.
We have been “moving the cheese” so to speak for the past 30 months as a leadership team. We are aware that our staff have been asked to work harder than in the past. We are aware that our staff are asked to do differently that which they have been doing because our world has changed. Our staff will always be valued for impacting student learning and for leaving a legacy of love, care, high expectations, and great experiences. I hope all of our staff members can move to the right on the Open to Experience continuum as we introduce effective techniques for learning and teaching. We hope that together we can honor the past, celebrate what is universal, and open our hearts and minds to what we may not yet understand. The variety of experiences make us stronger as an organization.
It is incumbent upon us to prepare our students for their future. That means we are open to experience and we are agreeable and willing to try new learning experiences and new techniques in a continual effort to make student learning better today than it was yesterday and better tomorrow than it is today!
Rob, may I share this with the other teachers at my school? This is SUCH a good reminder for August…and September…and October…and every day of the school year.
I have those students who remind me of the Herdman’s. Remember those kids from _The Best Christmas Pageant, Ever?_ Every year I meet a new cast of Herdman’s kids…eager, but bossy and awkward, unaware of certain morays or traditions or what not. These kids are wise beyond their years, but no test can EVER score their intelligences.
And as the mom of a kiddo with learning differences, I feel it is so very important to reveal each kid’s gifts to them — to show them and their classmates what geniuses they all truly are! This is how I see maker spaces enter into a system driven by testing data. As librarian, I can offer a place where students can come and create and problem solve…and perhaps even open up to me in the process.
So, thank you, again, for this incredibly moving blog entry. ((Sniff. Sniff. Please pass me a tissue!))
Of course you can share, Cathy. I love your example. The maker space movement is one of the best things to come to media centers since the dewey decimal system!
Rob, I read this before I realized this was from you. It resonated with me so much with the work I do at KIPP every day. I hope it is ok to print n share with my peers. Thank u for the mrssage and I hope you have a great year.
Good to hear from you, Madonna. You’re certainly welcome to share.