The Strategic Framework for Saline Area Schools will be presented to the Board of Education this Tuesday.  As you look at Goal #2, “All students will acquire and apply essential skills to be continuous learners and productive citizens in an ever-changing 21st Century global society.” – and the action steps to achieve this goal you will see a theme around the desire for our students exhibit their creativity.  One of the struggles around the issue of student creativity is – how do you assess it?

In the February issue of Educational Leadership,  author Susan Brookhart looks at the issue of assessing creativity.  She notes,

“Myriad opportunities for fostering creativity are right under our noses in school because learning is a generative act. However, what’s missing in many classrooms is deliberately noticing and naming opportunities for creativity when they occur, giving feedback on the creative process, and teaching students that creativity is a valued quality.”

Ms. Brookhart presents a rubric for creativity based on students’ use of these key characteristics:

• Variety of ideas and contexts – Recognizing the importance of deep knowledge and continually working to learn new things; open to new ideas and actively seeking them out.

• Variety of sources – Looking for material from a wide range of media, people, and events.

• Combining ideas – Organizing and reorganizing ideas into different categories or combinations and then evaluating whether the results are interesting, new, or helpful.

• Communicating something new – Making an original contribution.

In addition, it’s important to be flexible and adaptive, using trial and error when unsure how to proceed, and viewing failure as an opportunity to learn.

Moving forward, we need to look at the mindset and assessment structure needed that allow us highlight and embrace the creativity in our students.

In an effort to be fully prepared as the Strategic Framework revision process comes to a close, our Central Office team has begun reading The Four Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling.  The book talks about how the ability of organizations to execute is the difference between mediocre and excellent.  I have talked about the importance of execution before – here.

We are early in the process of reading and discussing the book. In the beginning of the book it talks about the real enemy of execution – the whirlwind.

The real enemy of execution is your day job. We call it the whirlwind.  It’s the massive amount of energy that’s necessary just to keep your operation going on a day-to-day basis; and, ironically, it’s also the thing that makes it so hard to execute anything new.  The whirlwind robs from you the focus required to move your team forward.

I am looking forward to learning about strategies that can help manage the whirlwind.

Over the past 6+ months a group of 50 community members have been working to revise our Strategic Framework.  This important work has focused on the “action steps” associated with our 5 Strategic Framework goals. The goals are broad:

• All students will meet or exceed the Common Core State Standards in reading, writing, and mathematics by the end of grade 3 in order to acquire the essential skills necessary to apply their knowledge.
• All students will acquire and apply essential skills to be continuous learners and productive citizens in an ever-changing 21st Century global society.
• Strengthen family-school relationships and continue to expand civic, business, higher education, and community partnerships that support improved student achievement.
• Enhance a positive school environment that promotes student and staff well-being, satisfaction, and positive morale.
• District shall establish short-term financial stability and long-term solvency.

They require more definition and this is where the goal area groups have spent time exploring and developing the action steps necessary for us to achieve our goals. As the process has moved along I have had several conversations with committee members about the idea of “alignment” as it relates to how our goals fit together. The definition of alignment is, “the act of adjusting or aligning the parts of a device in relation to each other.” Basically, our plan needed a “front end” alignment.  In our case, this has meant looking at each goal and how it relates to the other goals, as well as, our overall mission and vision.

This has led to important discussions about the priorities of the district and the challenges we face. The process cannot be overlooked if we want to achieve our goals. It is exciting to think about the future with a well defined plan in place for all of us to follow.

Saline Area Schools Strategic Framework Forum from SCTN on Vimeo.

Please view the video and then provide us with your feedback in the form below. Thank you for taking the time learn about our Strategic Framework and provide input!

Over the last week I have been in a variety of settings with educators and other superintendents from across the country.  Everyone was using a mobile/wireless device as part of their learning, sharing and communicating.  There is little doubt that society has hit the tipping point.  There will soon be more mobile devices than desktops and laptops combined.  Ironically, at a couple of the meetings where we were all on our own devices we discussed school policies that prohibited their use by students.  One school leader boasted that they “solved” their cell phone issue by taking them away over a weekend, and no “kid” would risk being without their phone over a weekend.

I am not saying there are easy answers to the policy and infrastructure issues that are presented when everyone (students & adults) is using their mobile device in school.  What I am saying is that trying to find ways to keep them out is just not worth the time and effort – and in my mind in most cases it is counterproductive to learning too.

Now, there is a time and place for use and as educators it is up to us to thoughtfully determine when and how we should be using these tools for learning.  Instead of putting them away, we need to continue to find ways to leverage them to our advantage.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the 68th Annual ASCD Conference in Chicago.  The conference attracted over 10,000 attendees with over 400 sessions on just about every topic related to education you can imagine.  I was struck by the number of passionate and engaged educators from across the country that are working hard everyday to help their students and their communities.

One of the keynote speakers was Freeman A. Hrabowski.  He is president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which has made a name for itself educating students of all types in the area of science, math and engineering.  He paraphrased a quote that I had heard before, but it reminded me that as educators and leaders we need to stay focused on how our our thoughts can impact our ability to help our students.

He stated,

“Watch your thoughts, as they become your words.  Watch your words, as they become your actions.  Watch you actions, as they become your habits.  Watch your habits, as they become your character.  Watch your character, as that becomes your destiny.”

2013 Division I State Champions

We have had State Championships in Saline before… and we will have more in the future.  However,  the 2013 Division I Boy’s Swim & Dive State Championship is one for the ages.  Congratulations to the coaches, team and families!  Below is a post by Athletic Director Mr. Rob White:

The Saline Boys Swim and Dive Team won its 4th straight MHSAA Div 1 State Championship on Saturday.  The Hornets dominated the day, but had to truly battle to defeat Brother Rice.  It came down to the last race and the Hornets finished strong enough to bring home the title.

This senior group has set a new standard for swim teams in the state that may never be matched.

Here are a few of their accomplishments that were published yesterday:

The Hornets hold the D-1 record in the 200 free relay.

The Hornets hold the all class record in the 200IM and the 100 breast.

The Hornets hold the D-1 record in the 100 back and 100 fly to go along with the four other records.

The Hornets hold SIX Division-1 records out of 11swimming events.

This state championship meet alone generated another -21 All American Awards.

Saline won 9 events this year. Out of 12 events, 1 which was diving.  Including setting the National Record in the the 200 Medley Relay at a pace of 1:30.01.

In the past four years, there have been 48 events. Saline has won 27 of the 48.

It was a true team effort as our divers came up big for many needed points.  All three divers moved up from Friday’s positions and Saline’s Dive Coach, Gretchen Palmondon was named Dive Coach of the Year.

Saline Senior, Josh Erhman was named Swimmer of the Year.

It was a great day for a incredible team.  Congratulations to all of our Hornets and Coaches.

Recently we had a presentation to the Board of Education about Social and Emotional Health within Saline Area Schools.  In many ways, the issue revolves around building positive relationships.  Students, staff, parents, and community members – we all need to work together to support each other.  We all have a role in developing norms of trust, respect and inclusiveness.  Reaching out to families and connecting students with our community are keys for a school district like Saline Area Schools to make sure we are meeting their needs.  It takes all of working together and supporting each other.

I would like to thank Mr. Bezeau, Ms. Melcher, Ms. Porter, Mr. Raft, Ms. Sartori, and Ms. Schluter for sharing the work they do with our students and staff with the Board of Education.