September 19, 2018: One Page

Blog #4 – One Page

Sept. 19, 2018

Sheridan’s teachers are terrific.

Anyone who tours Sheridan schools will inevitably see classroom moments that demonstrate our teachers are working hard every day. Sheridan teachers go the extra mile. They are the heart and soul, in fact, of our district.

You might think the “heart and soul” statement is worthy of Captain Obvious.  But I think it’s worth declaring the importance of that statement and making sure we feel the truth of it on a visceral level. 

That is, teachers are everything.

Teachers create the classroom environments that make learning possible and they work tirelessly to bring students along, lesson by lesson.

This is not to overlook the work of school leadership or anyone in the central office or the support staff.  But all other jobs and work exist solely to support the central dynamic of what happens when a teacher gets to work with his or her students.

It bears repeating: teachers are the heart and soul of Sheridan School District 2.

I’ve been a principal in Denver. I’ve been a principal in Jeffco Schools, too. And I know Sheridan’s teachers are top notch.

I know what you’re thinking—there has to be a “but” coming, right?

Wrong. It’s an “and.”

Sheridan teachers are terrific and I’d like to encourage every single teacher to help us make sure we are working from the same playbook.

As a district, we need to pull together and work in the same direction. What I’d like to encourage is for all teachers to take a moment and reflect if they are open to suggestions and ideas. And, yes, coaching.

The only way to get better, as a group of professionals working together, is to improve our practice.

This year the district has deployed TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment) to provide that coaching and support. The idea is to provide more—and more useful—professional feedback and improve how we go about our work.

But in order for the feedback to be useful, we need to be open to change.  Believe me, I know it’s not easy. Believe me, I know it’s easy to keep following the same routines. 

But let’s put in this point in its proper context and that’s what we know from research. Friends, the conclusion on this is unequivocal. The most important factor in student learning is quality and caring teachers. Yes, instructional leadership ranks high as well. So does a viable curriculum. But the quality of the teachers and teaching matter the most. 

Unfortunately, we can’t afford stagnation. Recently we discovered that preliminary ratings from the state indicate Sheridan may drop a category in the state accountability system. That decline will put us back on a list of districts that potentially face state sanctions.

But even without that rating system in place, we all know that our overall district performance needs improvement.

Whether you are looking at districtwide math or scores on college entrance examinations, there is room for improvement.

We need to get better, classroom by classroom. We need to get better, working together.

We ask our students to be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. The only way we all became educators was by leading our first class of students into new information and new insights. We are better teachers than we were on our first day in the classroom, right?  And we got better by thinking about what went well, what didn’t, and listening to principals and others who brought constructive feedback for all the right reasons.

That process should never stop. 

Let’s keep learning and growing—together.