More Great News for OHS!

Fall in a high school is full of traditions.  Nervous freshmen on the first day of school, excited fans at the first home football game (which is this Friday night at 7:00pm in case you haven't heard!), and the annual release of ACT Data from the year before. 

The ACT is a test of college readiness.  Usually between 1/2 and 2/3 of our graduating seniors choose to take the test as a part of their post secondary plans.  As anyone who knows me is aware, I do not put all of my faith in any test or standardized tests as a whole as a way of measuring the progress of a student or a school.  That being said, each test has its place and when viewed in its proper context, it does give us a piece of the picture of the system we are trying to create and the students we are trying to prepare. 

We get A LOT of data back from ACT and it takes a while to digest.  One of the pieces I appreciate the most though is the one that shows what percentage of our students achieved a score on each test, and overall, that ACT says predicts college success. This cut score is 20.  If it has been awhile since you took the ACT, the score range is 0-36.  Looking at eventual success or failure at college, ACT has determined that scoring 20 or better on the subtests and the composite as a whole, are positively correlated with success in college. 

Here at Okoboji we are used to getting good results on this measure.  This year is no different.  Below is the chart that was included in the report:

 

LOCAL represents Okoboji High School.  The chart compares our % of students who scored 20 or higher with the state and national data.  As you can see our students were considerably higher in all categories than national and even state percentages.  Overall 78% of our students scored 20 or higher on composite (which is an average of the four subtests).  This is 8% higher than the state average and almost 20% higher than the nation!  These are outstanding numbers.  As you can see we were strong across the board this year with a particularly high number of 20+ scores in reading and science.  

Sometimes we get used to success and forget to celebrate it.  This is something to celebrate.  It is another piece of data that shows how well we are doing on accomplishing our school district mission "[To] prepare each learner with the knowledge and skills necessary for a productive life in a changing world."

We should be proud of this data.  Parents, students, faculty, and community members alike should take great pride in the great thing our students are doing every day.  As I said above, this is just one small piece of the puzzle but it is one we should share and celebrate.  Another reason to be Proud to Be ONE!

More Great News for OHS!

What OHS is Doing Right in Teacher Leadership

"We have the absolute best teachers anywhere.  That is what makes our school great and we should never forget it."


As leaders we are used to hearing about what we are doing wrong. It is human nature to be more forthcoming with our complaints than our compliments. Recently another Iowa school district decided to waive all school fees for the upcoming year. When the local news reported on it, someone complained about what the school was doing!  Sometimes you just can't win in this old world.  :-)

So it is nice to once in a while be reminded of what you are doing right.  Yesterday a team from each of our district's buildings attended the Iowa Teacher and Principal Leadership Symposium in Des Moines. The symposium was put together by the Governor and featured a rich discussion of the need to empower teachers to be leaders in their buildings and ways in which some districts are doing so.

The research on the power of, and need for, strong teacher leadership in developing and sustaining a school culture, designing and leading professional development, and sharing in the authority and responsibility for leading schools forward is strong.  Research shows the most motivating things for employees are to feel their work is appreciated and to feel like they have a say in the direction of their organization.

As I sat with educators from around the state (around 700 in all) I reflected on how our school is doing in this area. I am very proud to say we have taken some significant steps to empower teachers and put them in positions to lead.

Among our most significant successes has been a refocusing of our Building Leadership Team, or BLT.  BLT's are common in schools but what they actually do varies widely. Often times BLT's become nothing more than principal advisory committees signing off on the top down directives coming from the lone administrator. Some spend the majority of their time discussing management issues such as when the next assembly should be or whether we should allow pop in classrooms. While decisions like these certainly need to be made, they are not exactly the kind of vital professional leadership the research shows we need from teachers.

Last spring we began a process of planning and visioning for what we saw as the changing role of our leadership team.  Through a series of important discussions both as a leadership team and with the larger faculty, we are now on a course of shared leadership that will move our professional development, our teachers, our culture, and our entire school, forward.   Our BLT is doing some amazing things but the best part of all is they are only one piece of our teacher leadership puzzle.  We are blessed with an outstanding group of teachers who are not only content experts but are also dedicated to finding, developing, and employing the best instructional strategies and most importantly, working as colleagues to improve the practice of every teacher.   I have said it before but it bears repeating - we have the absolute best teachers anywhere. That is what makes our school great and we should never forget it.

Last year we took steps to individualize our professional development and will be furthering that effort this year. The days of large group "sit-and-get" style in service our over. We are on a journey from "just in case" to "just in time" learning. This means we target learning based on needs and personalize it so each teacher can see a measurable change and improvement in their classroom as a result of implementing what they are learning.

We certainly have plenty more to do. We are closer to the beginning of this journey than the end (if there even is a real end at all), but it gives us a feeling of confirmation to know that we are headed in the right direction for our staff and students.  There will be many new ideas coming from the state in the coming months and years. Changing roles for teachers with multiple career paths including mentor and master teachers, instructional coaches, and changing the way we do professional development are just a few of the big ideas we will see moving throughout our state.  We at Okoboji High School are excited for the future. We have the right people in the right positions and we are working to empower them with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to lead our school forward. It is sure to be an extremely important and rewarding journey for our entire school.

What OHS is Doing Right in Teacher Leadership

We've Taught You How To Think

"All schools for miles and miles around

Must take a special test,

To see who's learning such and such -

To see which school's the best.

If our small school does not do well,

Then it will be torn down,

And you will have to go to school in dreary Flobbertown."

"Not Flobbertown!" we shouted

And we shuddered at the name,

For everyone in Flobbertown

Does everything the same.

Miss Bonkers rose "Don't fret!" she said.

"You've learned the things you need

To pass that test and many more -

I'm certain you'll succeed.

We've taught you that the earth is round,

That red and white make pink,

And something else that matters more -

We've taught you how to think."

-excerpt from "Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!" by Dr. Seuss

I read this book for the first time tonight. Actually to be honest my seven year old read it to me. As I listened I once again had to smile at the sheer honest genius of Dr. Seuss. Plain and simple, he got it. In this little book he hits the nail on the head. The most important knowledge we can impart on our young people is the ability to think. It is a beautifully simple but enormously difficult thing to do. In an era where many schools follow a curriculum a mile wide and an inch deep, it takes teachers and a school with the resolve to say "No." We will not simply spend our time filling our kids heads with facts, figures, names, and dates. We will not allow them to earn a diploma that signifies their graduation from our school without having forced them to analyze, to evaluate, to synthesize, to manipulate, to start from scratch, build it up, flip it over, tear it back apart, and start all over again. In short, they will not leave these halls without having to think.

I am proud to be a part of such a school. With the hard work our teachers are doing in measuring student engagement, pushing their instruction into more and more higher order thinking tasks for students, providing students with real world technology tools to create, collaborate, communicate, and contribute, and drastically shifting the learning paradigm through Project Based Learning, we are and will continue to be like the great Diffendoofer school described by Dr. Seuss.

We've Taught You How To Think

1:1 at OHS Present and Future

Okoboji High School is about to complete it's first semester as a 1:1 school. We have learned a lot in the first half a year. Teachers have progressed in their level of comfort and knowledge, and have increased the quantity and quality of tech integration into their classrooms. Google Apps have become second nature to staff and students alike. The phrase "turning it in" has become almost extinct as the vernacular has shifted to "dropping it." We have had our share of wins (new tools, new ways of finding, processing, and creating information) and faced our share of obstacles (distractions, distractions, distractions :-)). All along the way our amazing teachers have eagerly pursued the former and found creative ways to deal with the latter.

As we celebrate our first half-birthday as a 1:1 school, it is time to refocus on the question of where to go from here. One thing that has always, and will always be true is IT'S NOT ABOUT THE COMPUTER. We have not set goals focusing on quantity. Our goals have been focused on the QUALITY of tech integration and the beneficial impact it can have on learning in the classroom. In that vein, as we have begun meeting with department teams to talk about the 2012-2013 school year and set goals, I have created two school-wide goals related to tech integration. In the 2012-2013 school year, EVERY OHS student will have AT LEAST one opportunity to use technology to:

1. Connect with an expert in the real world who uses knowledge or skills related to those they are learning in the classroom
AND
2. Work collaboratively with other students across time and space.

These goals will help keep our focus on the reason we adopted our 1:1 program and further unleash the potential of universal access to technology. 1:1 is about empowering students to do things they could not do before. Both of these goals are focused on exactly that. These goals have been, and are being shared with our teachers as we hold departmental meetings and over the next few weeks and months, teachers will begin to identify areas in their curriculum where that will lend themselves to these opportunities. By the start of the 2012-2013 school year we will have a map of where and when these opportunities will occur so that we can insure we will meet our goals.

We are also busy creating opportunities for these connections with schools around the state, nation and world. Accomplishing these goals will not be easy but it is sure to be exciting and will hopefully lead to many new opportunities to not only "do things differently" but "do different things."

An exciting time indeed for Okoboji High School!

Make the day great!
-BD

1:1 at OHS Present and Future

We are asking the wrong question...

I am a big fan of Sir Ken Robinson. Robinson has penned two books, "The Element - How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything" and "Out of Our Minds - Learning to be Creative"




In these books, Robinson discusses the immense power of and need for creativity. He discusses the nature of creativity and his belief that creativity and the ability to think divergently (seeing many possible solutions to problems) is an ability we all have and that it decreases over time. This last claim is supported through research on problem solving in which people were asked questions like how many different uses they could come up with for a paper clip. The same subjects were asked in a longitudinal study that lasted 10 years. They asked them every 5 years (age 5, 10, and 15) and the number of possibilities they came up with decreased as they got older. They got worse! Robinson's claim is that by age the children had become "educated" into the idea that there is one answer and it is in the back of the book.

One of the central claims in the "Out of our Minds" book is that we often think of and measure intelligence wrong.



A great example of this theory is the question we often ask of ourselves and others "How intelligent are you?" The implied assumption behind this question is that intelligence is a singular and finite characteristic. Much like "How tall are you?" It implies that intelligence can be measured and defined as a specific trait or set of traits. Robinson argues the question we should be asking is "How are you intelligent?" Amazing what a difference the placement of one word; intelligent, makes. Moving that word changes those two questions entirely. Instead of intelligence as a singular, quantifiable trait, the second question portrays intelligence as a multitude of different abilities in a number of different areas. It assumes the intelligence of every individual. Rather than intelligence being something you either have or don't, it becomes something everyone has in varying amounts in many different areas.

I am convinced that the nature and culture of schools would change if we would stop asking the first question and started asking the second. What a great thing to ask kids whether they be in kindergarten, 12th grade, or anywhere in between.

On a related note, if you have not ever watched Ken Robinson speak, you really should. Two of his most popular talks have are "Is School Killing Creativity?" and "Bring on the Learning Revolution!" Those two talks are a "Cliff's Notes" of sorts for his books and are embedded below.

Make the day great!
-BD

We are asking the wrong question...

Stop Filling the Pail and Start Lighting the Fire

I recently returned from the 2011 TIES Conference in Minneapolis. TIES is an organization made up of a large number of Minnesota school districts that exists to advocate, enable, and empower teachers to increase student engagement through the integration of technology. This is the second year I have been able to attend the conference. I love the learning that happens at TIES because there is a great mix of hands on, applicable tools and tips that can be immediately used in a variety of classrooms, and challenging discussions of broader topics relating to student engagement and the very meaning of what education should look like and consist of in the 21st century. I always come away invigorated, challenged, and with a major headache!

One of the most interesting sessions I attended this year was called I-Imagine: Waking a Generation to Their Own Greatness. The content of the session was great but what really struck me was a statistic. It said that of all of the knowledge in the world, in a 13 year academic career (kindergarten through 12th grade) a teacher could only ever cover .0000001% of it. Whoa. Now, before you call the statistics police, I am fully aware that such a statistic is very difficult to believe, impossible to verify, and in all likelihood, completely made up. But don't get hung up on the number. There is a fundamental truth in there. There is so much knowledge and information in the world, there is no way we could ever hope to cover all of it in 13 years. Not. Even. Close.

One of my favorite educational quotes is: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." It is attributed to the poet W.B. Yeats. That quote immediately came to mind when I heard the previously mentioned statistic. If our goal in education is to pour as much knowledge as possible into the heads of our young people as we can before their 18th birthday, we are doing it wrong and we are doing them a disservice. We could pour facts and figures into them all day, every day, and not even cover one iota of the available knowledge in the world. So why do we try? In the meantime national statistics show a majority of students say school is boring, uninteresting, and irrelevant and we live in a world where anything you can memorize can also be Googled in .05 seconds on any computer, ipad, or cell phone.

When we think of education in these terms, it seems to me that we need to spend less time trying to fill the pails and more time trying to light the fires. Teach skills in context. Identify student passions and connect them to their learning. Light the fire of curiosity and rekindle a love of learning. Stop filling pails. Light the fires instead.

Make the day GREAT!

-BD

Stop Filling the Pail and Start Lighting the Fire

SAI Regional Workshop - Linda Fandel and the Iowa Blueprint

On October 19th I had the opportunity to attend a session sponsored by the School Administrators of Iowa that featured a discussion with Linda Fandel, Governor Branstad's Special Assistant on Education. Her discussion focused on the recently released blueprint for education in Iowa titled "One Unshakable Vision; World Class Schools for Iowa."

It was great to hear from Fandel and I was impressed that the goal of the conversation, and others like it that have been held around the state, seemed to be as much about getting input on the plan to use as it is edited and revised, as it was explaining and selling the plan. Fandel was clearly seeking input and it was clear that the plan has been and continues to be shaped by input from educators and stakeholders from around the state. As Fandel reported, approximately 58% of the state budget goes to education with 42% of it going specifically to PreK-12th grade education. This is an important and timely topic and needs to be addressed. We began with the conversation by watching the video you can see HERE.

Some interesting discussion took place with Fandel sharing the following points among others:

• Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and Iowa Tests of Educational Development are being replaced with assessments from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to which Iowa belongs. The Smarter Balanced Assessment is computer based and individually adapting. It takes students through an ever increasing level of difficulty until students begin to miss questions. It then backs down and elevates again to find the student's level of proficiency. You can read more about the Smarter Balanced Consortium and Assessment HERE.
• The original proposal for a high school graduation exit examination has been replaced with end of course assessments, most likely in Algebra I, Biology, English, and History/Government.
• Other assessments include a third grade literacy assessment that could result in retention for students that are not able to read at a pre-determined level of proficiency. This is one of the most controversial parts of the plan. Fandel described how it was based on a plan that has been used in Florida. According to her it has shown to increase literacy significantly. She described how Florida third graders are now scoring above Iowa third graders on the reading portion of the NAEP test.

There certainly is a lot more to learn and discuss when it comes to the plan. For additional information there is a good FAQ page HERE. It was nice to feel that the document is still a living work in progress and it is great that the architects of the plan, like Fandel, Dr. Glass, Lt. Governor Reynolds, and others are seeking honest input and willing to amend the plan according to that input. I encourage everyone to read the plan, stay up to date as it changes, and be aware as it moves through the legislature this spring. It certainly will have a significant impact on education in our great state.

SAI Regional Workshop - Linda Fandel and the Iowa Blueprint

Fed Ex Day - We Delivered!

At our most recent professional development day, Okoboji High and Middle Schools tried something new. It is called a "Fed Ex" Day. It is modeled after the motivational theories of authors and psychologists like Daniel Pink (Author of Drive: the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us). It is also an idea that has been built on blog posts and experiences gained from Chris Wejr and Lyn Hilt. You can read Chris's blog post HERE. and Lyn's HERE.

The instructions we gave our staff were simple. One week ahead of time we sent out the following agenda:

___________________________________________________________________________

12:30-3:30 Fed Ex Time-- (Meet back in the Media Center of your building at 3:00 for delivery)

In preparation for Fed Ex Time, please watch the following 10-minute video on motivation. About half-way through the video Daniel Pink speaks of a company, Atlassian, who implemented Fed Ex time for their employees. Below the video are some guidelines for how we will structure our Fed Ex Time. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Brian or Ryan.

So this afternoon, your task is to be self-directed in your learning. Be productive. Ask, am I better today than yesterday? Seek mastery in your role. Remember our ultimate purpose. The only rule? You must deliver. A product…a project…ideas…action.

Pink calls providing this autonomous time for innovation a Fed Ex Day- employees choose what to work on, with whom, and however they’d like. The expectation is that you must deliver something: a new idea, a better internal process, a refined lesson plan or project, or any other idea that will benefit student learning.

As you work today, consider the following:

• Task – Choose tasks that will benefit and impact student learning. Think differently!
• Technique – Design your activities and project work in your own way, so long as the end result is a benefit to students.
• Team – Work with anyone you want to work with today- you do not need to work with your grade or content level teams. Consult with the many knowledgeable people in our school! Individuals that choose not to collaborate will still be responsible for “delivering.” Consider the importance of the collaborative efforts! If you are considering working on something tech related, please consider working with one of our integrationists.
• Time – Use your time as you see fit. You will asked to deliver a product or status update at 3:00 that includes:
• What your project/idea is
• How it will impact students/learning
• What you completed today
• Who you worked with (if anyone)--Groups can deliver as a team
• Any next steps which need to be taken

3:00-3:30 Fed Ex Delivery in your building's Media Center

_____________________________________________________________________________________

In order for Fed Ex time to be effective, a few assumptions must be made:

1. Teachers are professionals who have a strong desire to improve
2. Teachers are creative and innovative problem solvers
3. Teachers will use these skills if given access to the two most valuable resources in education: time and access to each other.

I am proud to say the Okoboji faculty absolutely knocked this one out of the ballpark. The time from 12:30-3:00 saw people in pairs, small groups, and individually working hard on a variety of different projects. When it came time to "deliver" at 3:00 the things people had done, and the projects they had begun, blew me away. A short list of just a few of the amazing things they worked on includes:

• Collaborative exploration of Desmos.com for use as online graphing calculator and interactive whiteboard
• Creation of video lessons to "flip" social studies classroom
• Cross curricular unit creation that could be implemented school wide
• Creation of sharing system for music teachers and students using Smart Music/Finale and Google Docs to create and share practice pieces for students
• Creation of a blog for College Composition class
• Collaborative work to create student feedback system
• Work with MagCloud as possible portfolio creation for art students - also beginning of collaborative project between journalism and graphic design to create online magazine.
• Implementation plan for ChooseMyPlate.org for diet/exercise tracking for health students
• Special Education teachers working with Language Arts teachers to rethink how we do writing goals for IEP students.
• and more and more!

This list is only for the high school. The middle school had just as many amazing products delivered at the end of their Fed Ex time. When we set out to try our Fed Ex Day, our goal was to be able to do it for 1/2 day, twice a year. With the success and productivity we have seen, we are rethinking that strategy. Is Fed Ex Day the dawn of a new era of self-directed, personalized, collaborative professional development in Okoboji? Throughout our Fed Ex day our teachers have shown that when we give them the most valuable resources possible; time and access to each other, they can do amazing things. If what we saw on Friday is indicative of what it could become, we may be on the verge of a very powerful new way of making good teachers even better!

Fed Ex Day - We Delivered!

Its That Time of Year!

Hello All,
Yes indeed, it is that time of year. Before you know it the halls of OHS will once again buzz with the energy of teaching and learning. Please take a moment to view this video that discusses some important events coming up in the next two weeks.

Its That Time of Year!

This is Our Time...

It has been a great year at OHS. I love the opportunity to work with some of the absolute best teachers, support staff, and students in the world. That being said, everything can't be perfect. We have had our share of struggles this year. Many of those have come on the athletic field.

It is no secret that our numbers have been down. The decrease in participation in interscholastic sports is a trend that has not just affected our school. Across our conference and even throughout the state, participation numbers have been stagnant or shrinking in a number of sports. We have played with dignity, determination, and honor in all of our endeavors. Unfortunately that effort has not turned into a significant number of victories. As great as our school is, and as proud as we are of it, it is tough absorbing losses. We want to achieve excellence in all areas and, even though we know that goal is lofty, it is still hard to swallow when we go through tough seasons with fewer wins than we would like. I applaud our kids and coaches for keeping their heads up and forging on through the tough times.

All year it seems we have been waiting for "our time" - the time when our kids can shine for the stars we know them to be. As I reflected on the last few weeks in student activities, I realized, we have hit "our time."

This is our time......

• The OHS Jazz Band, the reigning state champions for class 2A, received a wild card bid to the Iowa Jazz Championships. This means they will have the opportunity to defend their title in Des Moines on April 12th.

This is our time......

• The OHS Art Department recently took part in the all Dickinson County Schools Art Show. Our students won several honorable mention and judges choice awards and Senior Taylor Pirie won Best in Show for her sculpture.

This is our time.....

• In January the O-SL Debate Team captured a record 5th straight state championship and senior Maggie Rohlk became a two time state champion

This is our time.....

• Okoboji Individual Speech sent 32 events to state this past weekend. Of those 32, 26 came home with I ratings (the highest rating you can get). Of those, 19 earned straight I's (which means all three judges rated them a I.) 5 of those students (Caitlin Rolfes, Risty Stamoulis, Jen VanOort, Jack Ave, and Jordan Hanson) have earned trips to perform at the All State Festival.

And the list goes on and on...I haven't even mentioned our DECA students and the great job they did at districts and state or that two of them have qualified for nationals!

I also haven't mentioned our large group speech and the great performances they gave at district and state competition or our choir and the amazing concerts they have performed, or the fact that nineteen new members were inducted into the Okoboji Chapter of the National Honor Society just last night.

I know we haven't had the year we would like in some of our extracurriculars. At times we haven't seen the success we want to on the field or the court. We all want to see Okoboji be victorious in all of our endeavors, and we will. I know we will.

In the meantime lets celebrate the amazing things our students are doing and the incredible awards they have received. As our freshman hear on their first day each year - they truly are an important part of an extraordinary school.

This is Our Time...

Are We Focusing Too Much on Leadership?

I have recently been spending a lot of my limited free time watching various TED Talks.  According to Wikipedia, TED (an acronym that stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a global set of conferences curated by the American private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading."  TED Conferences have been occurring since 1990 and until recently the speeches and disucussions led by leading thinkers have been limited to the exclusive group of attendees.  Since 2006 the talks have been made available to view for free online.  There are currently over 700 TED Talks available online from speakers spanning all walks of life including Malcolm Gladwell, Robert Ballard, the founders of Google, Bill Clinton, Billy Graham, and hundreds more.  You can access the TED Talks website HERE.


The TED Talk I watched this morning was only 3 minutes long.  It was about the process of starting a movement by a man named Derek Sivers.  Before reading on, please take three minutes to watch the video:





I found the video and Mr. Sivers analysis to be fascinating.  I have always been interested in human behavior. As a sociology major at Iowa State I loved to study the way people act and interact and the reasons behind these actions.  


There are a few key observations that I took away from this video.  


Leadership (at least as it is often defined) may be over glorified.  Yes, all great change starts with a leader.  Someone has to have the courage to stand up and say "lets try something new."  It takes insight, knowledge, and bravery to lead.  But what would leadership be without any followers?  Mr. Sivers describes the importance of what he calls the "first follower."



"The first follower is what turns a lone nut into a leader." 


Mr Sivers goes on to describe the importance of being a "first follower" and how being the first follower is an under-appreciated type of leadership.  It is the first follower that makes it okay for others to join in the movement.  Consider this - have you ever seen a single person stand up and give a standing ovation?  I know I have.  Have you ever seen only 2 or 3 in the crowd stand up?  In all of my experience I have never seen such a thing.  Either only one stands up, or eventually, the entire audience joins in.  The first follower is what makes all the difference.  


Leadership has long been a buzzword in education.  We profess to want everyone to be leaders.  I have long claimed to want to cultivate leadership in both teachers and students.  We all want our children to grow up to be leaders.  Books on leadership dominate the Amazon best seller list.  

When is the last time you read a book on "followership?"  In our society we look down on the idea of being a follower.  But if we truly were a school, community, or nation full of nothing but leaders - how inefficient would that be?  One cannot lead without followers.  


According to Mr. Sivers, follower is not a bad word.  It takes a lot of courage to lead, but it takes nearly as much courage to be a first follower.  Casting your lot and joining in a movement before it becomes the "accepted" thing to do is not easy.  I would even argue in some ways it is easier to be the "shirtless dancing guy" rather than the first one to say - yeah, I am with the shirtless dancing guy and you should join us too! 


The "first follower" is extremely important for a number of reasons and leaders need to ensure they are welcoming those first followers and embracing them as equals.  As he says, future followers will emulate the first followers more than the original leader.  


Maybe we need to reexamine our definitions of leading and following.  Maybe we need to become better at, as Mr. Sivers puts it "finding the lone nut that is doing something great, and having the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in."  

Are We Focusing Too Much on Leadership?

Short Takes: Standards Based Assessment and Reporting

Hello All,

I have neglected this blog in recent weeks. Almost a month has passed since my last blog post. (Why do I suddenly feel like I am in a confessional?) February is a month that can get away from you in a hurry! Between snow days, ITED's, and the changing sports seasons; if you blink, you miss it!

I wanted to touch on a topic that has been in the news quite a bit recently - the idea of Standards Based Assessment and Reporting (SBAR), sometimes called Standards Based Grading (SBG).

SBAR represents a shift in the way students are assessed. Rather than resulting in a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F; SBAR refers all learning back to a predetermined group of standards that are developed for each course. These standards often correlate with state and national standards like the Iowa Core Curriculum. Parents and students are aware of the standards ahead of time and teachers use multiple points of evidence to determine how fully each student has progressed toward mastery of each standard. Progress toward mastery is usually reported as a number (from 1-4) or a descriptor (like Beginning, Developing, Secure, or Exceeds). In some ways it is similar to the use of a rubric in assessing a student project. The standards are laid out ahead of time as well as descriptive information that guides students in understanding what a 1, 2, 3, or 4 "looks like." In a true standards based environment, at the end of the reporting period (ex. quarter or semester) there is no letter grade issued - The report that parents receive contains a list of the standards as well as information as to which level of mastery the student has attained. In most SBAR systems, behavior and learning are assessed separately. The idea being that by the end of the course, we expect all students to be at a Secure level in these 10 (or whatever the number is) standards. Some may reach that level much sooner, some may take longer, but the amount of time they take to get there is secondary - the goal is to get all students there.

SBAR has been in the news in Iowa recently because of the Waukee School District's decision to move toward this type of assessment and reporting in both of their middle schools. The decision has not been readily supported by many. Many parents are concerned about what they see as a significant shift in the way their kids are assessed and in the way their progress is reported.

Common parent concerns have been that this represents a dumbing down or easing of academic rigor. There have also been concerns that the "real world" often uses letter grades to assess and schools should as well.

Let me be clear - I am certainly not an expert in Standards Based Grading. I have only begun to truly learn about the practice this year. However, the more I learn about it the more sense it seems to make.

Most of us have jobs in which we are evaluated. How many of those evaluations are boiled down to one simple letter? We have an evaluation process that we use in the Okoboji School District to evaluate teacher effectiveness. It is based on the Iowa Teaching Standards. You can find those eight standards and their benchmarks HERE. Every three years (for continuing teachers on a professional license) a teacher is observed several times, and their performance is compared with these Standards. The goal is for teachers to reach mastery level of all eight standards. A summative evaluation is written which describes their progress toward mastery of these eight standards. If a teacher is deficient in one or more of these areas, an assistance plan is developed that targets improvement in the identified areas of need. Progress is measured and noted and future decisions are based on the results of the plan. Most teachers interviewing for a job will reference the standards and during their first two years of teaching they are required to create a portfolio of evidence that they have met the standards.

Does this sound familiar to you? It seems to me we are already doing SBAR in the evaluation of teachers. I know if I tried to issue a single letter of A-F and call it my "summative evaluation" of a teacher, it would never be allowed. It would be decried as subjective, incomplete, and vague...and they would be absolutely right. If Standards Based Assessment and Reporting is good enough for a decision that affects the future of someones employment, their livelihood, and the security of their family...shouldn't it also be good enough for sophomore biology?

Just a thought...

(Bloggers note - SBAR is taking hold mainly at the middle school because of the absence of concern about the idea of "credits" and college admissions that is a very real issue at the high school level. There have been NO talks of moving to a SBAR system at Okoboji High School. The thoughts and ideas in this entry are just to stimulate thought and conversation and are NOT indicative of an imminent shift in assessment and reporting procedures at Okoboji High School....just some good things to think about.)

I leave you with this final note about standards based assessment: I once heard someone talk about how in most classrooms you could get a poor grade on the tests but do great on homework and still pass. The speaker related that they were glad flight school did not work that way. They said if someone could get an A on takeoff and flying but a D on landing, they should not get a C+ in flight school. I, like the speaker, am glad that flight school has always used Standards Based Assessment and Reporting. :-)

Have a GREAT week!

Short Takes: Standards Based Assessment and Reporting

Proud to be One

On Thursday afternoon all Okoboji Middle and High School students along with faculty, staff, and around 100 members of the community got some great reminders of what it means to be an Okoboji Pioneer and what they can do to reach their potential.

The theme of our pep rally was "Proud to be One"  The official logo, which was also printed on T-shirts that were given to every 5-12 grade student, looks like this:

The pep rally started off with the school song followed by the basketball and wrestling cheerleaders leading the entire crowd of around 900 people in the "marching cheer."  After that we showed a "Proud to be One" video that listed reasons why Okoboji is a great school and community and featured testimonials from students, staff, alumni, and community members.  You can see the video HERE

Following the video we heard some great words from our new Dean of Students and alumnus Justin Bouse about the importance of getting connected with school through academics and activities and the work he will be doing to help get kids plugged in at school.  John Adams spoke about his experiences as a student, alumnus, and community member of Okoboji.  He also shared, in his view, what it means to be One.  You can find the list he shared HERE

The final speaker of the day was Hawkeye great and NFL veteran Bruce Nelson.  Bruce was born and raised in Emmetsburg and now lives and farms in the area.  He shared an OUTSTANDING message about hard work, persevering, the power of good choices, and taking advantage of your opportunities.  Bruce's message was powerful and had a real impact on everyone there.  In addition to the 900 in attendance on Thursday we also streamed the video live on our Okoboji Events Channel on UStream.  We also recorded the live stream and it can be watched HERE.  

We will also be using the Okoboji Events Channel to broadcast live some sporting events.  Our first was the wrestling double dual we hosted on Thursday and our next live event will be the wrestling dual vs Spirit Lake next Thursday.  

It truly was a great day and a great event!  Now it is time to roll up our sleeves as a school and community and get to the hard work of keeping our kids energized about being a Pioneer and being part of something great!  Thank you for your support in this and all our endeavors.  Every great school is a part of a great community and Okoboji is no exception.  

Are you Proud to be One?  I know I am!

Proud to be One

Competition and Cooperation in Public Schools

I love competition. In high school I competed in cross country and track. I loved lining up next to guys with all different colored jerseys on and letting the course decide who was the best. During my time as a classroom teacher I also coached both of these sports. My two favorite coaching events each year were the state cross country and state track meets. Seeing all of those different schools represented and watching all of those kids line up with nothing but a stopwatch and the next 100 or 400 or 3000 meters to separate them. Competition brings out some great characteristics and teaches some important lessons.

I love being an Okoboji Pioneer. I love watching the maroon and white square off against area schools on the field, the court, the track, and more. I also love watching our debaters go toe-to-toe with some of the best schools in the state and the nation.

As much as I love competition, today I want to talk about the need for more cooperation in public education. By cooperating, schools can provide their students with more learning opportunities, as measured both by number and quality. As we have discussed in past posts, I firmly believe that we are preparing our students for a brave new world. We are sending our kids into a world that will expect them to compete for jobs with people not only from around the state and nation, but from around the world. I also believe we need to offer a wide variety of learning experiences as a way to help students identify and build skills and knowledge in their various areas of interest and talent.

Small schools have a difficult time doing this because of limits on number of staff, size and availability of space and supplies, etc. Despite these limitations, if you drove to any one of the several school districts within a 20 mile radius, you would see basically the same programs and offerings repeated at each school. You would, unfortunately, also see very little sharing or cooperation among districts. Small schools have a unique challenge that needs to be addressed with unique solutions.

If you were to stop by a certain classroom in the small Central Iowa school of Van Meter (certified enrollment of 623) you would see, on a daily basis, a classroom filled with around 20 students and being led by two teachers. Doesn't sound very unique you say? What I didn't tell you is that only half of the students and one of the teachers is located in Van Meter Iowa. The other half, and the other teacher, are in Philadelphia, PA. This class is a great example of how, using technology, we can do something we could not before. Each of these sets of students work together with their classmates thousands of miles away to complete class projects and assignments. They learn together, just as they would if they were in the same room. This is cooperation. This is two schools working together to provide a better learning experience than either one could offer alone.

Technology advances and 1:1 computing create the fertile soil in which progressive educators can grow new opportunities for collaboration and expanded learning opportunities. Next week our Okoboji administrative team will join the administrative team from Spirit Lake to begin some very exciting discussions on how our two schools can work together to expand and enrich learning opportunities for students of both districts. Such collaboration, in my humble opinion, is essential to equipping students in small schools with learning opportunities that are just as deep and wide as the ones they could experience in a larger school, with the huge advantage of the individual attention and family climate you can only get in a small community. We don't yet know what direction these opportunities will take. By working together, both schools may be able to offer courses that would never be financially viable to offer alone. I envision a future in which Okoboji students are working collaboratively in classroom settings with students from around Dickinson County, Iowa, and beyond.

This is an exciting time for education.  For the first time we have the technology and tools available to truly expand learning outside our own four walls.  Technology and the ability to connect over time and space are changing at a very rapid pace.  Our job is to make sure the human capital - which will always be the most important part of the equation, is ready to keep pace.

Competition and Cooperation in Public Schools

You say you want a resolution?

Here we stand on the precipice of another new year. Not only a new year but a brand new decade. No worries about a Y2K bug this time around. A lot of folks use this as a time to make resolutions about things they want to do, not do, or change about themselves in the new year. It is a time of promise and possibilities. For all of you that have made such resolutions I wish you the best in making them a reality.

I have always struggled with resolutions. The root of resolution is resolve. It is hard for me to tell myself I am going to resolve to do something. It seems to me the only group that should be resolving things should be constitutional conventions but I guess that's just me. I do, however, have some things in my professional life that I would like to pledge to myself (and somewhat publicly obviously) to do over the next 365 days that I believe will make me a more effective educational leader and thereby improve the educational environment for all employees, students, and stakeholders of OHS. Here are a few:

1. I pledge to read more. Reading the works of great educational minds and staying current on educational research is a great way to sharpen my own saw. I heard a story about a lumberjack competition in which two men were racing to cut down large trees. One started in feverishly cutting away while the other spent the first several minutes sharpening his saw. Although the first man got out to an early lead, the second man, the one who took the time to make sure he was cutting with a very sharp saw, soon overtook him and won the race. It is a reminder to me as a leader that I must take the time to sharpen my own saw by studying the voices of people like Sir Ken Robinson, Alfie Kohn, and countless others. We have so many great minds discussing such important aspects of educational reform these days. With a growing family making time for professional reading can be a struggle. For me it will mean a few less reruns of The Office and a bit more quality time spent with my Kindle.

2. I pledge to work with each teacher to assist them in their journey toward continual improvement. This will take many forms. It starts with having a good foundation in what is happening in each and every classroom. The administrative team in our district has made this a commitment. My goal is to do brief (10-15 minute) Walkthroughs of every classroom once every two weeks. I have set up an observation feedback system through Google Docs through which I can provide immediate feedback to each teacher as soon as the observation is complete. It also enables them to give input and thereby create an ongoing conversation between us that encourages reflection and collaboration and focuses on continual improvement.

3. I pledge to do all I can to ensure that student failure at OHS is not an option. We are currently working on a system of academic tutoring within the school day for struggling students. Students will be identified through grade reports and those students who are in need of assistance will receive it in a small group guided environment with assistance from a staff member as well as student volunteer tutors. In this environment students will receive extra focus on subjects in which they are struggling as well as the opportunity to learn and develop strong academic skills that will help them achieve success in all areas.

4. I pledge to celebrate our successes. We have a top-notch school. We have outstanding teachers, dedicated and skilled support and maintenance staffs, outstanding students, involved parents, and a supportive community. The Okoboji School District takes a backseat to no one and we need to celebrate all the great things happening in our schools. Is there room for improvement? Heck yes there is. My entire goal as a principal is to find ways to make our school and district better and I love working toward that goal every day. It is also true, however that we have so many amazing people doing so many amazing things with and for our kids. We need to celebrate those successes as we work to multiply them even more.

5. I pledge to be a voice of unity and collaboration. Every school has its "hot button" issues that seem to cause division and discord. As anyone associated with our school knows, right now athletic participation is one of ours. Numbers in many of our programs are down. This concerns us all. We all know that involvement in extracurricular activities is shown to increase positive indicators of success (school attendance, homework completion, a feeling of belonging to a team) and decrease negative indicators (apathy, drug use, disengagement with school). There are many different views on what we need to do in order to turn this recent trend in a positive direction. This is an issue we all feel passionately about. We all know the great lessons our kids learn from being a part of a team and we all want to ensure a thriving extracurricular program in all areas including music, fine arts, and sports. Sometimes our passion can turn to words and actions that can become divisive. I want to be a voice of unity and use my words and actions to bring all of our various stakeholder groups together to create and realize a common vision for the sustained success of our extracurricular programs. Together Everyone Achieves More is not just a cute acronym for TEAM, it is true and we can make it happen.

So there you have it. My professional resolutions pledges for 2011.  I ask you to hold me accountable to these ideals as we go through the year.  I look forward to December 31, 2011 when I can look back on a successful year and forward to an even brighter future for Okoboji High School. 

Happy New Year!

You say you want a resolution?

Gearing up for the Stretch Run...

I hope everyone associated with OHS had an enjoyable and restful Thanksgiving.  Our family was busy with dinner, traditions that include decorating for Christmas, watching the first Christmas movie of the season, and lighting the Christmas lights we hung outside the house back when the weather was still warm.  [In case you hadn't noticed, we are kind of into Christmas at our house.  :-)]  A trip to the Winter Wonderland at Falls Park and watching the Festival of Light Parade, both in Sioux Falls, were highlights for us as well.  If you have never been I highly recommend it! 

The break was enjoyable and restful. Transitioning back from a break is always a challenge for students and staff alike.  I like to call this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas "The Stretch Run."  It is easy to overlook this next 3 1/2 weeks.  They go very fast.  A wide variety of winter athletics and activities, coupled with Christmas concerts at all levels make these 18 days of school go by in a blink.  Many students would say that is just fine with them.  They got a little taste of break and it has whetted their appetite for the granddaddy of breaks - the coveted Christmas vacation. 

There is just one problem with trying to close your eyes, shut off your brain, and wish away the time between now and December 23rd - a lot of teaching, learning, and assessing happens in this short time.  We are in the heart of 2nd quarter.  In fact our midterm is coming up in just a few days.  Courses that have been building sequentially from the first unit are well into their curriculum and the work has become more and more rigorous.  Due to the small number of days in 1st semester after Christmas break, a lot of courses focus heavily on these next few weeks.  Most teachers are only able to complete one small unit and then begin preparing and administering semester exams in January. 

All of this means that the next 3 1/2 weeks are very important.  Students; do not attempt to disengage your brains between now and December 23rd!  Your grades and more importantly, your education, will suffer for it.  I promise Christmas Break will come...that is for certain.  What is up to you is how well you apply yourselves between now and then.  Parents, encourage your sons and daughters through this busy time.  Help keep them focused on the goal and try to keep healthy routines established. 

This is a great time of year with lots of school events and family traditions to keep us all busy.  Thank you for all you do to keep a focus on priorities so all of these wonderful events don't become a stumbling block on the road to academic success for all students.  

Gearing up for the Stretch Run...

We Can

Last night my oldest daughter and I attended "The Music Man" as performed by the Okoboji High School Drama Department.  It was a wonderful show and both of us enjoyed it very much.  From the great songs (sung by some amazing singers I might add), to the wacky antics of the mayor, his wife, and of course Professor Harold Hill, it was fun from beginning to end.  Any show that can hold the attention of a 6 year old for two hours has to be good! 

As we watched I was once again reminded why I love small schools.  My daughter only saw actors and actresses on the stage but I saw them as something more.  I watched the wrestler share the stage with the debate champion, the student council representative sing a duet with a fifth grade student, and some students who I have yet to hear say more than 10 words this year, make the audience roll with laughter.  At several points during the show there were over 30 students sharing the stage for some of the larger choral arrangements.  This number isn't even including all of the backstage and behind the scenes help needed to put on a show.  This is what is great about a small school.  At Okoboji High School anybody can be involved in anything they chose.  There are no cuts, no one needs to specialize in just one activity all year in order to make the team, and kids from all different backgrounds and interests can come together to make something great.  In fact, to take it a step farther, in a small school kids from all different backgrounds MUST come together in order to make something great.  We are not a 4A school, where students are split into different factions depending on their activity of interest and rarely get involved outside of their circle - nor do we want to be.  Students at Okoboji are encouraged to play sports, sing, participate in the band, debate, and get involved in clubs like FFA, DECA, and many more, all at the same time. 

Hopefully you are all aware of the community meeting being held on Thursday at 7:00pm in the OHS Auditorium to discuss the status and future of our football program.  In recent years our numbers have dwindled leaving us with a dangerously low number of players. We are meeting on Thursday night as a community to discuss the problem, the possible outcomes if the situation does not change, and then we will be breaking into smaller groups to brainstorm what we can do within our groups (parents, staff members, community members, students, etc) to turn this situation around. 

Some have asked why we are focusing on the football program.  To be honest we have seen numbers in many of our sports programs decline and we are concerned.  The reason we are meeting regarding football is that in football, unlike other sports, you cannot make up for a lack of upperclassmen by regularly playing freshmen at the varsity level.  In basketball if you start freshmen against seniors you will probably get beat.  In football if you repeatedly start freshmen against larger, more developed seniors, they are probably going to get hurt.  Also, it takes a large number of players to field a football team.  Frankly our participation rates have reached a level where we need to increase our numbers or our program won't survive. 

I haven't been here long but I can tell you this is a community that will not back down from a challenge.  We are proud to be Pioneers and together we can do things none of us can do alone.  I believe we can reverse this trend in football and all of our athletic programs.  I believe we can rebuild a team in which our biggest concern will be ordering enough uniforms for all of our players, rather than if we will have enough to field a team.  This meeting is about so much more than football.  It is about the pride of a school and our continued commitment to excellence in all areas.  Please join us on Thursday night as we meet together to listen, discuss, and tackle this issue head on as a school district and community.  With all of us working together, I know we can. 

We Can

Moving Beyond Textbooks...

Recently a challenge was issued to interested Iowa educators on the 1 to 1 Schools Blog sponsored by the CASTLE group we discussed last week.  The original challenge was issued by Scott McLeod and can be found HERE.  The basic idea was to spend at least one week teaching without a textbook as the source of information for students.  Two Okoboji teachers took the challenge and wrote blog posts on their experiences.  The teachers were Justin Bouse, 5th grade teacher, and Sue Hillsabeck who is in her first year of teaching 8th grade social studies.  Their reflections were published on the 1 to 1 Schools Blog and can be found HERE. (They are the first two posts at the top of the page) 

Please take a minute to read through their reflections and learn about the great things going on in their classrooms!


Have a great week!
-BD

Moving Beyond Textbooks...

Did You Know?

It has been a very busy weekend around the Downing household.  With three little girls to get ready for trick-or-treating, Halloween can be a hectic time!  It was still a ton of fun and the girls had a marvelous time trick-or-treating in Milford.  Between the Sugar Shack house, the garage full of toys, and all of the other wonderful houses that so generously filled our little beggars buckets, our girls are set for quite some time!

This week I am going to keep my writing short and (hopefully) sweet - rather appropriate for the biggest candy night of the year. :-)

In the past two weeks we have discussed two different aspects of technology integration in schools.  First we discussed the idea of exponential change and what it has meant in terms of computing power.  Last week I shared a story that outlined the power of technology to be used as a tool to increase engagement.  Thank you to all of you who took the time to fill out Grace's survey by the way.  She sits at 112 responses right now and I can't tell you how many times we have reviewed her data.  This week I want to share with you two videos that really made an impression on me when I first saw them and I think they will with you as well.

They are two videos in a series called "Did You Know?"  They are produced by a team of researchers that includes a professor from Iowa State named Scott McLeod.  Scott is the leader of CASTLE (Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education)  Scott is also a well known speaker and blogger.  He often discusses the need to increase technology integration in education and you can find his blog HERE

The Did You Know videos are filled with facts about technology and the changing nature of our world.  There have been four official releases of the video series.  The two that I will share with you are Did You Know 2.0 which was produced in 2008 and Did You Know 4.0 which was released in 2009.

It is quite possible that you have already seen the videos since quite a few people have seen them on YouTube alone (11,631,097 for DYK 2.0 and 1,970,730 for DYK 4.0 or there abouts.)  Check the videos out and I encourage you to leave a comment about the facts or statistics that surprised you the most.  Some of the information is hard to believe but you can check the bibliographies at the end of each video to see where the research is coming from.  I think you will see that these videos really do present some startling information that makes you think and makes a strong case that we are truly living in exponential times.







Have a great week!
-BD

Did You Know?

Moving from Compliance to Engagement...

Note: This is the second in a series which, over the next few weeks, will hopefully help everyone understand the reasons behind the 1:1 learning initiative in the Okoboji School District.  Today we will talk about the power of student engagement...

Our oldest daughter entered kindergarten this year.  She loves school.  She loves her teacher and all of her classmates.  She loves sharing with us what she is doing each day in school.  She is very compliant by nature.  If the teacher says we are doing "X" today, she will do it with a smile on her face and she will enjoy doing it.  If for no other reason than that's what the teacher said we're doing.  I believe a lot of students are this way.  Even in high school I see a lot of students who will slug their way through hours of homework and have a smile on their faces when they turn it in.  Compliance is often a good thing in education.  It is the idea that the "teacher knows best" that keeps kids going even when they don't necessarily find the assignment intrinsically motivating or relevant.  I am glad we have compliant students. 

I have however, long believed there is something much more powerful than compliance.  The level of student-buy-in that is several steps beyond compliance is engagement.  A compliant student will work hard to please the teacher, an engaged student will work hard because they are intrinsically motivated to do so.  Student engagement can be an ambiguous concept until you see it.  I had a great chance to see it this week. 

Earlier this week my daughter mentioned that she had been learning about surveys and graphs in class.  I asked her if she would like to make a survey on the computer.  She was excited about the idea and wanted to start right away.  We used Google Apps (which many Okoboji teachers are already using and we are offering training on for all staff members) to make her survey.  It took about 3 minutes with her creating the questions and me typing.  The longest part was her picking the picture to go on the survey.  She thought that was great, then I asked her if she wanted some people to answer her survey.  She was very excited about that idea so I shared her survey on Twitter, included the link, and asked people to take a minute to fill it out.  As soon as I sent it out I filled out her survey.  By the time I hit "submit" and returned to the spreadsheet that is automatically created when you make a Google Survey, 4 other people had already responded.  That was the light bulb moment (or moment of engagement) for Grace.  Throughout the evening she watched as more and more people responded to her survey.  As the responses poured in we analyzed the bar and pie graphs that Google was creating for us out of the data.  She took pride in telling us which season most people were saying was their favorite and how many brothers and sisters her respondents had. 

One of the questions she had asked was where everyone was from.  One of the early responses was from Utah to which she asked "where is that?"  We opened a Google map, named it "Graces Survey" and began marking the locations of her responses.  Grace spent the rest of the evening eagerly checking her spreadsheet (the reading of which was another new skill she was eager to learn) to see if any new responses had come in.  We had to force her to finish her dinner and her dessert because all she wanted to do was check on her survey.  This young lady was engaged.  A fire had been lit.  In the glow of that fire she had eagerly discovered and learned about subjects ranging from surveys to spreadsheets to graphs to geography.  It was truly an amazing thing to watch.  She took pride in telling her teacher all about what she had done and that real people from all over the place and answered her questions.  At last count she is up to 94 responses from 18 states and 4 countries including England and Sweden.  At 6 years old she has interacted in a very real way with a global audience.  That is real world engagement. 

Please understand, I am not claiming we must use technology in order to engage students.  We have a high level of student engagement going on in our classrooms every day.  We have teachers engaging students in real world, authentic, relevant learning both with an without technology.  The amazing thing about technology is its power to connect.  We could have used made up data on a just for practice survey to analyze canned data and make charts and graphs.  Had we done that, Grace would have listened politely and worked hard to follow my instructions because she is compliant.  The magic of our activity was the fact that it was real.  We used the power of technology to connect in real time with a real world audience.  The fire that was lit in that little girl's mind last Wednesday night was real and intense and it has led to a much deeper understanding of surveys, graphs, and geography than I had at her age.

One of the goals of the Okoboji 1:1 computing initiative is to put these kinds of tools in the hands of every teacher and every student.  We want to empower teachers to engage every student.  Not all students are compliant, but all students can be engaged.  If we are to accomplish our school's mission, student engagement is key.  Using real world technology to enable students to make real world connections allows us to build on the strong tradition of teaching and learning in the Okoboji School District.

By the way, if you would like to take a minute to view and fill out Grace's survey, she would love to get your input.  You can access the survey here: http://tinyurl.com/26hfsyk 

Moving from Compliance to Engagement...