“One of the marks of successful people is that they are action-oriented. One of the marks of average people is that they are talk-oriented.”
– Brian Tracy
From time to time I share “tweets” from superintendents and school leaders around the world on “ASuperDay” – a super day is designed to give school leaders the chance to tell the stories of what education is … using pictures, audio, video, and text superintendents share “real life” views of meetings, classroom visits, etc. The superintendent position is no longer lonely – or at least it should not be lonely – when we band together as a “PLN” (Personal/Professional learning network) and we take a few minutes to share what it is that we do and what it is that we share.
In the Deerfield Public Schools District 109 our motto is Engage, Inspire, Empower,
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
through venues like #ASuperDay on Twitter, we’re able to join so many others in so many places doing just that – engaging, inspiring and empowering.
The narrative of education is in the hands of the leaders … please take some time to check out #ASuperDay on Twitter – November 16, 2016
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”
– Mark Twain
Today while I was driving my car I noticed it felt different, it was not the normal smooth ride I typically enjoy. My wife thought the wheels sounded different, sort of a thumping sound as opposed to the relative quiet of a regular ride. As I reflected on the quality of my driving and the quality of the ride over the past few days I noticed it felt odd, a little off, I still was able to drive from point a to point b, but something was off. Something was out of alignment.
I then began to reflect on the first week of school that we just completed in our district and I wondered how the week felt for everyone … Did it feel good, smooth, and normal, or did it feel strange, and possibly out of alignment? In our district just about 3000 students started a new school year with a new teacher, new classmates, new curricula, new expectations, and new opportunities for joy and innovation. Are we aligned with what the students need? Are we aligned with what the teacher need?
Did the students and teachers get off to a smooth start? Did they have alignment of expectations, of hopes and dreams, of feelings and results? Or was the first week bumpy, with odd sounds and perhaps an uncomfortable feel? With respect to my car, the right rear tire was flat … That I guess is why the orange tire light stayed on even though I filled the air to the manufacturer’s specifications. Even though I did what I always do, drive … And I responded to the warning light (I thought) by filling the air … I still had a warning light, initially I did not change my approaches, and it turns out my wife was right (of course all husbands know that their wife is always right – but that’s for another blog).
My wife asked “did you check the tires before you left today?” I said, “no, I filled the tires the other day – clearly the yellow warning light is wrong.” You see, my approaches were the same – I filled the air, I ignored the light, and I kept driving. Clearly I was not aligned with what my car needed … A new tire and a wheel alignment, and a balance. I actually needed two new tires for balance and alignment.
So how does this relate to alignment in the first week of school? Well perhaps some of us have returned to work mis-aligned, some of us are not noticing that the signals are right but our responses might not be. Some of us are repeating the ways we have always done it and not getting new results. Perhaps the signs are right and our reactions are not. Perhaps doing what we have always done does not yield the proper results anymore. Perhaps we need to innovate and change our approaches. I want to enjoy a good, safe, meaningful ride in my car. In order to do this I need to listen to Continue reading →
“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” – Dalai Lama
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
Today, August 18, 2016, was the first official day back for DPS109 staff. As we have done for the past four years we gathered as a whole school family at Alan B. Shepard Middle School for the opening institute day. This year our themes are Joy and Innovation.
Earlier in the week I sent out a note to the entire community, I’m sharing excerpts of that letter below:
Dear District 109 Parents, Staff and Community Members,
On Thursday, we welcome our teachers and staff back to work with a full day inservice that includes a keynote speech by Rich Sheridan, author of Joy, Inc., as well as collaborative learning time to prepare all of us to welcome our students back to school on Monday, August 22. …Nearly 50 staff members attended a three-day intensive workshop led by a faculty member of the Buck Institute to bring project-based learning to our classrooms. In addition, teachers and staff set up classrooms, collaborated on curriculum, researched innovative methods, and mentored new teachers and staff, whom we welcomed to the District 109 family last week.
Both middle schools also have innovative and redesigned learning spaces; the art and music spaces have been completely transformed into areas that will inspire creativity, innovation, and future focused arts instruction.
Last year, the Department of Teaching & Learning awarded our second phase of innovation grants. Ten teachers across every building in the District won grants to have a classroom set of iPads, and two other teachers earned special grants for their exceptionally innovative projects. In addition, 100 teachers received individual iPads to begin exploring the potential of tablet technology to our already robust 1:1 transformative learning environments…
As part of my welcome remarks, I shared the following slide deck (I’ll also be sharing notes for clarity). The notes reflect my thinking and preparation and they are very close to the commentary I delivered in person at the assembly. As always, your comments are encouraged and welcomed!
Notes for slide 3: Our mission, our motto, our statements as to WHY we exist – Engage, Inspire, Empower our students, each other, and our community. You continue to do an amazing job of engaging, inspiring, empowering each and every day. I remain quite proud to serve you as the superintendent of schools!
Notes for slide 4: How do we engage, inspire and empower? One major way is through innovation. We innovate to increase student learning … We facilitate learning for our students as well as one another. Innovate means trying new and better ways of doing things. We started with Innovation grants three years ago and we keep on demonstrating new and better ways to inspire learning and to support a culture of excellence.
Notes for slide 5: One very public way we show innovation is through modern learning spaces. We have been designing and creating new and better learning spaces across the district for the past several years. With new lighting, better flooring, award winning classrooms and labs we demonstrate our commitment to excellent public education. We are proud to host visits from leaders all over the state and nation to our award winning middle school science labs. This year we cannot wait to open and unveil new middle school art and music spaces, PTO funded K-5 SMART labs, redesigned library spaces, student friendly furniture, and more. All of these physical changes are designed to support innovative learning and teaching practices. The spaces themselves do not reflect innovation though, it’s what you do with and in these spaces that truly creates new and better learning for ALL students. We provide the conditions for optimal learning and growing, the spaces provide opportunities for new and better experiences.
Notes for slide 6: We also innovate with new and better instructional tools and resources designed to support your work. With collaborative Google Apps for Education we have created opportunities for communication across boundaries of time and space. Other tools like the extensive suite of technology we offer support innovative learning and teaching practices. The tools themselves are not innovative; it’s what you do with these tools that creates new and better learning for our students. This year we’re proud to celebrate Innovation Grant Phase II with new and better ideas about how to leverage the power of technology. A focus area includes the 4Cs of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. These new tools allow for innovative practices supporting the 4Cs.
Notes for slide 7: We also innovate in DPS109 with professional learning opportunities. I am so proud of the hashtag #engage109 on Twitter where any day or time I can look and see what is happening in the classrooms around the district. #Engage109 is known far and wide as a space where DPS109 staff share and learn and communicate. Often our hashtag is trending due to the activity. Twitter is a space where anyone can learn and access virtually anything at any time. In addition, this year’s early release Wednesday structure is designed to create new and better ways for teacher learning. Through sustained job embedded learning opportunities we will create conditions for innovation. We are also proud of the Deerfield University an often replicated example of innovative professional learning and teacher support. The DU offers a voluntary personalized, learning platform where we can learn and grow any time any place at any speed or any pace, our motto is You can DU it! Finally, the upcoming EdCamp North Shore 16 to be held at Kipling on October 29 reflects yet another way we innovate in the professional learning space. I hope the folks from Kipling will tweet out the link to sign up via the #engage109 hashtag today!
Notes for slide 8: I consider myself to be an innovative superintendent. I learn from you and I learn with you. I truly enjoy learning alongside you and joining in classroom practices like Shark Tank shown in the photo above. I look forward to every visit to the classrooms. I learn new and better ways of doing education from you. Thank you for continuing to invite me and welcome me into your classrooms. In addition, I innovate through partnerships and professional memberships in forward thinking organizations like BrightBytes, Discovery Education, and the American Association for School Administrators, the AASA. This summer a group of 50 superintendents from around the USA came to learn our story – they came to visit our new and better learning spaces. Because of your great work I get to show off and share our stories of innovation. In addition, I learn from them and their expertise and I share that here in Deerfield. You give me great pride and so much to share! Finally I innovate by experimenting with gizmos and gadgets that support new and better learning, I am eager to see the innovative results of the 2nd phase of the Innovation Grant process.
Notes for slide 9: I seek out innovation in my personal life too. For the past 11 years my family has gone to the same resort in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. We love the vacation and the kids look forward to it each year. This summer we innovated – we experienced tubing for the first time. While it may seem simple or even silly for me to share this personal example, I wanted to share how we took an awesome family experience, our annual trip to Wisconsin – perfectly fine for 11 years; and with an innovation, the tubing, our first time as a family doing so, we innovated our vacation! We tried something new and better and created a new learning experience.
Notes for slide 10: I highly value being a connected educator and leader, I learn from others, I share our stories of innovation, and I become a better leader through collaboration. Please continue to reach out to me and welcome me into your learning spaces. You can contact me, and I encourage you to do so, through any number of addresses and social networks. Welcome back to another fantastic school year! Please give a warm welcome to Dr. Jeff Zoul who will continue our program this morning. Thank you.
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The world is changing” is a refrain I hear and I read in blogs, books, journals, articles, and at conferences. From time to time I post videos on the blog from aggregators who look at global data and share it in digestable chunks. The video below depicts the percentages of people in the world … see where you fit, see where so many others fit … our challenge is to know so we can do! Comments are always welcome!
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself less.”
– C.S. Lewis
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:
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!
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 of 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!
thought the wheels sounded different, sort of a thumping sound as opposed to the relative quiet of a regular ride. As I reflected on the quality of my driving and the quality of the ride over the past few days I noticed it felt odd, a little off, I still was able to drive from point a to point b, but something was off. Something was out of alignment.
the manufacturer’s specifications. Even though I did what I always do, drive … And I responded to the warning light (I thought) by filling the air … I still had a warning light, initially I did not change my approaches, and it turns out my wife was right (of course all husbands know that their wife is always right – but that’s for another blog).
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 
education and the value of our innovative public education in terms of meaning and relevance.