“If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose.”
– Bishop T.D. Jakes
Innovation is one theme that supports our District vision of Engage/Inspire/Empower! This year we have innovations upon innovations – it’s awesome, amazing, rewarding, fulfilling, and a little bit overwhelming. Through effective leadership, our District leadership team will help “whelm” our people so as not to over or under “whelm” them! Our school principals are site based “CEO’s” leading in an environment of defined autonomy. It’s a new day in DPS109!
So what is leadership? – this is a question found in literature, magazines, board rooms, conferences, etc! I’m sharing some definitions from Forbes Magazine, retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/04/09/what-is-leadership/
Peter Drucker: “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.”
Warren Bennis: “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”
Bill Gates: “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”
John Maxwell: “Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.”
This year much of our shared leadership is shown through implementation of innovative supports for learning. In this blog I have shared an abundance of specific information that is worth a review in terms of that which we have implemented to support student learning and growth as well as teacher efficacy and development. I’m so proud of our Board of Education for supportive and visionary leadership “from the balcony” as well as our teachers who lead every single day “in the trenches”. In between the Board and the teachers, I’m blessed and empowered to lead with amazing leaders at the District and School levels in every corner of our District.
In our effort to stretch and push and lead and grow, we are equipping our teachers and our students with the most innovative and evidence based supports for learning. By taking the lid off of expectations for all students (and staff) and “shooting for the moon” like JFK did for our country many years ago, the possibilities are limitless. The future is now for the world in which our students live.
The future is bright because of what our students will accomplish and experience! I’m proud to continue to push and stretch and learn and grow with an among excellence. In DPS109 we are all about our vision: Engage, Inspire, Empower! It’s fun, rewarding, and humbling to share our messages in multiple formats throughout the experiences. Like many before us, we are envisioning a future that requires new thinking and new methods to make the differences we have a calling to make!
As I have shared in the past, we want input and feedback and we use it! PLEASE contact us via Let’s Talk – it’s communication for all -employees, students, community members, blog readers, anyone and everyone with commentary about our District.