TRUST

We are two weeks into the school year @WaukeshaNorth1 and I walk in and out of classrooms at the Purple Palace with thoughts of sheer amazement. The levels of engagement from our students and the focus from our teachers and every adult in the building is simply something special.

As Principal, when people ask me how the start of the school year is going I have said, "I think my teachers feel sorry for me and the life tragedy I have faced...because no one is complaining and people are really dialed in with students." When I met with the Executive Team today at Lindholm, to go over the first of my quarterly reviews, I proudly reported out on our school SLO, our winning visual (which will be announced at the faculty meeting on Wednesday), our proficiency-based classrooms and our goal to have every student develop their own learner profile through their student E-portfolio.

What I also told them was how high functioning I felt our staff were, how impressive our collaborative practices have been and how visible our shared focus and commitment to high-impact literacy practices has been in all classrooms.

I am so proud of our Twitter learning community, your teamwork on supporting all of our students, and your shared focus on advancing excellence, high expectations, and equitable opportunities for all of our diverse learners.

You have put structures in place in your classrooms to support the shift of transformational learning paradigms for personalization that meet each unique student and their individual needs. You do this because you care, because you are smart, because you are a team, and because you trust one another.
You trust that if you take risks with students best interests in mind, that even if you fail at your first attempt, you will be supported. You trust that if you don't know how to do something, that your colleague next door will help you out. You trust that you will enforce high expectations for all students because your colleague down the hall is not backing down from that same expectation. I value the culture of learning that you have started to establish during these first two weeks of school and most importantly I value and trust each of you.

Thank you for supporting my leadership. Your focus and dedication to our students goes unmatched. During this life-changing transition for me, I am blessed to have Northstar Nation as my family.