Blog #4 – One PageSept. 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.