Superintendent Year 2 (Profesional Learning)
This year has been a great year of learning and growing for me as not only a superintendent but as a person. I believe leaders must be purposeful in their learning, and if they choose to stop learning they will stop serving and in the end fail at leading. I made a promise to myself years ago (and shared it with my accountability partners) that the day I stop learning I would leave the profession of education. I truly mean that and hold myself to that standard daily.
Last month, I failed to post. (SMH). I am not sure how I missed it but I did and I apologize. I have enjoyed sharing my experiences and challenging others to share their story also. I am a member of cohort 31 for the Dr. Bob Thompson Superintendent Executive Leadership Institute. This month will be our last session with the 31 superintendents from Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and Puerto Rico. (This has been an amazing group to learn from and grow with). We have learned so much from Dr. Thompson and his team, but I believe more importantly we have learned from one another. We have shared our dreams, failures, successes and flaws. I think it has stretched us as individuals but even more as superintendents in our respective districts. Last month we had a Visioning Conference with our cohort and our board members. The experience was great. I think it was a unique learning experience for us to see our board members and various superintendents in the same spaces and acknowledging that we are all having similar experiences. There was an appreciation for each other and a refreshing reminder of why we do this work. It was was also a powerful reminder of why we cannot afford to abandon this work for public education and our staff, students and communities.
During the visioning conference George Couros was our featured speaker. He challenged our mindsets and current realities. He forced us to think outside of the box about how to create a culture of innovation to grow curios learners. The learning was refreshing and applicable to the work we are leading as superintendents and also as board members, teachers, paraprofessionals and staff members. I share this because it is necessary for us to take part in professional learning. When you stop learning, you stop growing and then you die (I know that sounds morbid but I truly believe it to be true). We must be the lead learners in our leadership roles. We must model that expectation and we must apply the learning. At the same time we must provide professional and relevant learning for our staff so they are better equipped to educate and lead our students. We must be intentional in making it relevant and engaging as to model what we expect in the classrooms on a daily basis.
As we start to bring the academic school year to a close and prepare for our coming school year I challenge us to think about the profesional learning opportunities we provided and will provide in the future. Assess the landscape of your district/organization and meet the team where they are but stretch them to where they need to be for students. (Remember it ALWAYS has to go back to students). Our students deserve no less! Also, make sure to create an atmosphere of curiosity and excitement for faculty and staff that they can reciprocate in their academic learning spaces. One quote that resonated with me from the book (there were several gems) is shared below.
We forget that if students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them. - G. Couros The Innovator’s Mindset
My hope is that I challenged you to think about next steps in strengthening your schools and classrooms. We have the most humbling opportunity to change the world. I do not take this work lightly and know that our future and our hope depends on how we invest in our staff.
Continue to lead, grow and #InspireExcellence
