Congratulations to our “morning beverage” winners from last week’s blog: Monika Stevens and Liz Jaeger!!  We will be delivering you your favorite cup of “joe” next week.

It was wonderful to connect with everyone this week in our travels between Randall and Hawthorne.  We learned so much from listening in on your PLC discussions and we were quite excited to be a part of your teams.  We know...we’re big geeks...and we’re OK with that!   We hope to spend more time in classrooms throughout next week.  Please know that when any of us, including Joe and Chris, visit your classrooms in these first weeks it is not with an “evaluative” purpose.  We are just wanting to lay eyes, hands and hearts on you and your students.  As we lay the groundwork for our development for the year, we want to ensure everyone has the supports in place for continuing our paths to personalization.  The walkthroughs and your input help us determine what supports are most crucial right now and as we move forward with the planning and preparation of Waukesha One.

We wanted to introduce the Danielson Framework to everyone this week.  

“The Framework for Teaching is a research-based set of components of instruction, aligned to the INTASC standards, and grounded in a constructivist view of learning and teaching.  The complex activity of teaching is divided into 22 components clustered into four domains of teaching responsibility:

1. Planning and Preparation

2. Classroom Environment

3. Instruction

4. Professional Responsibilities

Each component defines a distinct aspect of a domain; two to five elements describe a specific feature of a component.  Levels of teaching performance describe each component and provide a roadmap for improvement of teaching.”

-The Danielson Group

At the heart of the framework is the belief that teacher growth occurs within conversations and reflections around the components in this rubric.  Whether you are reflecting on your own, with a colleague, or with a coach about your practice, feedback connected to the specifics in the components moves us forward.  This process is meant to be collaborative; built on the relationships and trust of the learning community.

Over the next few weeks we will focus our energy on Domain 2: Classroom Environment.  We will be sharing information on each of the components in domain 2 and connecting you to resources to enhance your practice in that area.  We hope to capture examples of evidence from domain 2 to share across both buildings as we build a common understanding of what practices support the classroom environment.

Finally, we want to thank you, again, for your willingness to open your doors and your classrooms to us and to each other as we continue on this journey of leading and growing with each other.

Comment Question for the Week:

What is the hardest thing you have ever had to learn how to do?

Leave your answer in the comment section below to be entered into a drawing for a morning beverage!

Emily & Faith