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Back to School – 2016 – #Engage109 Update

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“Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.”
– Malcolm Forbes

downloadIt’s back to school time across the USA and Illinois! In the Deerfield Public Schools our teachers have been hard at work all summer and they are eager to return to their classrooms. The 25 new teachers have been engaged in New Teacher Orientation since August 11, and all staff return to the Welcome Back Kick Off Institute on August 18. Finally, our 3000 students will return starting on August 22. We in education get “do overs” every year! While we have but one opportunity to create the best and most impactful experience for each of our learners, we as educators get each year to refine our craft, hone our skills, and improve.

downloadThe Deerfield Public Schools are Future Ready! From innovative curriculum & instruction resources and practices to devices and engaging learning spaces, we are constantly improving and changing and learning how to get better at education. This year’s summer construction has been extensive.

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One of the major frameworks upon which my beliefs are based is the Education Reimagined framework (the five core components are listed above). We’re seeking educational offerings that enhance and support the 4C’s (communication, collaboration, creative thinking, creativity). We are reading and learning all that we can in an effort to improve and refine our craft.

Workers have been quite busy renovating the four elementary school libraries, installing four SMART labs for STEAM learning, renovating the middle school art and music spaces, and re-cabling the entire school district!

This year marks the current executive leadership team’s fourth year in the district. Our aim is to Engage, Inspire, Empower each and every member of our organization – students, staff, leadership team, parents, community, everyone! We’ll continue to measure success and input and feedback with surveys and outreach. This year we’ll also start the strategic planning process where we’ll seek the input in focus groups, surveys, and interviews to ensure we’re representing the community values, norms, and visions for education.

The key to our student success is and will continue to be creating learning environments that support learning, growth, success, the 4C’s, innovation, creativity, and JOY!! We want to bring back and sustain joy and happiness in our school system.

ittakesavillageThank you for reading, commenting, helping sustain our success as a premier public school district. We Engage, Inspire, Empower as a matter of practice, vision, and course. This year the district proudly offers Innovation Grant II where a number of the teachers will push the limits and explore additional ways to facilitate learning in new, creative, and innovative ways. Through the blog and other communication venues we’ll share our story. We’re on a journey.

 

Our Leadership Journey in DPS109 – #engage109

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“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
– John Wooden

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

For the past three years we have moved from the past to the present in support of the future! Guided by our Big 5, the Board, leadership team, teachers, staff, parents, community, and students have worked collaboratively to create engaging, inspiring, and empowering learning opportunities! The short slide show below depicts in graphics, images, and text a look at our last three years and a look into the next 100 years!

In May we’ll report our State of the District to the Board of Education and Community, we’ll also post here on the blog! Comments are always welcome.

Garbage Trucks and Innovation

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“Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.”
– Stephen Covey

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Today when I was walking my dog in the neighborhood I stopped and took a few minutes to watch the waste management truck pick up the garbage and recycling. I watched the driver of the truck pull up to the recycling bin at the curb. He did not get out of the truck to empty the contents into the receptacle in the truck. He had a robotic arm attached to the truck pick up the recycling bin and empty the contents into a dumpster connected to the truck. This process was repeated at every house. This automation fascinated me as I contemplated garbage truck crews of my youth and how different they were. When I was a boy the garbage truck had a crew of three men, a driver, and two people who rode on the back of the truck and who emptied the trash into the truck and who operated the trash compactor.

My elementary school in Des Plaines, IL where I spent K-6 grades.
My elementary school in Des Plaines, IL where I spent K-6 grades.

When I was in 2nd and 3rd grade and there were three employees per garbage truck I wonder if my teachers were charged with the task of preparing me for the jobs of tomorrow. I wonder if my teachers in 2nd or 3rd grade thought about the depth of knowledge of my learning experiences or activities. I wonder if my teachers four decades ago would have, could have, or did, contemplate a future where garbage trucks today do not have three humans, they have one human and a truck with the sophistication of the space shuttle. I wonder if STEM or STEAM concepts were driving instructional decisions in the 1970s when I was in grade school.

In considering what happened in forty years to the waste management industry, one could draw a conclusion that technology has cost two jobs per truck. While that’s one way to look at this situation; forty years ago there were three people per truck, today there is one person per truck. Another way to look at this is that education forty years ago (or over the past forty years) has changed to allow people to learn new ways to implement waste management. Perhaps the new ways the trucks operate have added two or more jobs. While the people are no longer garbage truck operators, they are now trained to use robotics, natural gas engines, etc. Jobs created by and for engineering people, other jobs – not yet imagined forty years ago – are filled with people skilled and prepared for jobs of our present.

As a superintendent am I supporting and leading an organization preparing students for jobs of the future not yet imagined? I hope so!

So as I’m putting the final touches on the slides I’m using with a presentation at a local conference this Friday at the Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL I am thinking about my experiences today with the garbage truck processes.

In the short video clip below the creator of the Rubik’s Cube offers thoughts on our mission in education and life:

Rubik’s Cube: A question, waiting to be answered

Innovation Has Many Forms – #ENGAGE109

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“Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself less.”
– C.S. Lewis

IL In our school district we take pride in the words and actions ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER. We aim to do this each and every day with and for each and every student, staff member, and the community! Since July 2013 our Big 5 have been driving our actions and initiatives:

Common Core State Standards (a/k/a Illinois New Learning Standards), Next Generation Science Standards
Teacher Evaluation – Charlotte Danielson Frameworks for Effective Teaching
Technology
Organizational Culture
Superintendent’s Task Force for Middle Level Education

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

We often write about innovation and we often share examples of the teacher’s innovative practices in blogs, Twitter, Facebook, principal newsletters, emails from the district, in person events, etc. Today I’m writing to celebrate an innovative project experience from 7th grade English Language Arts. In the 7th grade ELA class this year the students had to complete a project entitled:  Change the World. One of our students sent a letter to the Illinois Department of Homeland Security. The boy’s letter was so impressive to the staff that the Deputy Director, James Joseph, called principal, Dr. John Filippi, and he shared his delight at the letter. In addition he offered to come visit the student and his classmates!

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Today Mr. James Joseph, the Director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor came to Alan B. Shepard Middle School and visited with the student, his classmates and teachers.

In addition he made a brief presentation and answered questions from the students. In the pictures shown to the left we also show another special guest, retired Major General Robert G.F. “Bob” Lee. Gen. Lee was visiting the Governor’s office and it fit into his schedule to join Director Joseph. Gen. Lee shared information about his fascinating service to our country as well as to his home state of Hawaii. Security is a national concern and it’s nice to know we have such able, knowledgeable, talented and able leaders helping defend our nation and our state.

The power of a letter, the power of a communication, the power of an inquisitive student can lead to the highest levels of government, society, agencies, companies, etc. Our amazing teachers are taking learning to new levels with engagement, inspiring lessons and empowerment of students to reach out to “real people” in the world who do the work about which we are learning!

Check the podcast for a 5 minute excerpt of today’s visit:

In Deerfield we truly believe, and we teach our students, that, in the words of Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Our students, through agency and voice, are learning that they matter not only in school and at home, but as part of the larger world. It’s wonderful, especially as a public school leader, to show the power ofittakesavillage education and the value of our innovative public education in terms of meaning and relevance.

We are grateful to General Lee, Director Joseph, as well as other dignitaries who have visited our schools like Governor Bruce Rauner, U.S. Congressman Hon. Robert Dold, Illinois Senator Hon. Julie Morrison, Illinois Representative Hon. Scott Drury, Lake County Regional Superintendent of Schools Hon. Roycealee Wood, Deerfield Mayor Hon. Harriet Rosenthal, and many others who visit to engage with students, learn from our teachers, interact with our world class facilities, and in one way or another, show support for meaningful, effective public education!

Inspiring a Shared Vision in DPS109 – #ENGAGE109

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“There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.”
– Indira Gandhi

b8077f18-ce80-4257-b717-ea878b099ad9In this blog post I am highlighting the great work of the teachers, students, parents, support staff members, administrators, community members and the Board of Education of the Deerfield Public Schools District 109. Our leadership team has been following the research of Kouzes & Posner. In their book The Leadership Challenge they share decades of leadership research across industry and they proffer that the five practices of exemplary leadership are: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart (MICEE). The focus of this post rests with the Inspire a Shared Vision Practice, and at the end of the post I share a recently published journal article about our District’s shared vision and its direct connection to actions.

From an August 23, 2013 post:
Leaders build relationships. I believe that each person is a leader in one way or another. Some are leaders by nature and talent, some are leaders by situation or role. Leadership is both an art and a science, and there are many books, articles, research reports, and findings about what leadership is and leadquotewhat leadership can do. Two great books on school and district leadership are: School Leadership that works and District Leadership that works. One of the main charges that I have as the superintendent of schools is to support leadership so that leaders emerge in all parts of the organization to Engage, Inspire, and Empower. While I am visible in the schools, and while the classroom is the most important “place” in the school district, I also work very closely with the administrative team in an effort to support their work and their leadership.

This year [2013-14] as a leadership team (district center administrators, and building level administrators) we are working on a book study with The Leadership Challenge. The authors of this classic and highly regarded leadership book Kouzes and Posner detail and describe Five Main frameworks for leadership (Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart).

Our Leadership Challenge is to fulfill our district mission every day in every classroom and in every interaction. One tangible, observable way in which we can guide our leader’s work is found in the Five Main frameworks.

Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart (MICEE)

The Mission of the Deerfield Public Schools, DPS109:

Provide educational experiences of the highest quality that engage, inspire and empower each student to excel and contribute in a changing world.

Our Vision: District 109 students will excel and contribute when they have the knowledge and skills to be: • Lifelong, self-directed learners, • Critical and creative thinkers, • Effective communicators,
• Collaborative team members, • Respectful and responsible members of society

This month (March 2016) Deerfield Public Schools District 109 Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations, CSBO Greg Himebaugh & I published an article in the Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) Journal UPDATE (see below). This article is about how WE in DPS109 have been inspiring a SHARED vision that has lead, leads to, and will continue to lead to ACTION and LEADERSHIP on behalf of students, staff, and community!

DPSLOGO