Announcing a new network for education changemakers! Learn more about a district improving their team habits to better personalize learning
SEPTEMBER 2019
FEATURED FOR YOU
Join LIFTEd: a K-12 Education Network For You!
Join LIFTEd: Leadership Insights For Transforming Education, a Facebook community dedicated to changemakers like you in K-12 education. Exchange resources, get the latest in best practices and connect with other education professionals. Join the network and #GetLIFTEd
ON OUR MINDS
Putnam County School’s VITAL Google Summit Promotes the Innovative Leadership Competency “Cultivate Curiosity”
The Putnam County Future Ready VITAL program hosted its 4th annual Google Personalized Learning Summit in Cookeville this past month. The conference this year had over 750 district, school, and classroom leaders from across the states of Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi. The full-day experience allowed leaders the opportunity to collaborate and reflect on their own structures and the summit’s impact on the ability to scale instructional initiatives. Participants had access to numerous sessions that helped them build their knowledge as a practitioner in the field and allowed them processes and tools to lead innovative change management. Through group dialogue and individual exploration, participants received a personalized learning experience. Our team was able to host three sessions and work alongside leaders as they reflected on what structures allow them to take risks and ensure that innovation does not stagnate. In an effort to continue to build momentum around innovation, Putnam County Schools and Education Elements will be hosting a free event on September 27, 2019, where district and school leaders will have the chance to reflect on how Putnam County Schools is creating collaborative professional learning structures. All participants will get the morning to engage in learning and the chance to see the implementation in action with school tours. Learn more about the event and sign up today!
Corcoran Unified School District’s Journey to Building Effective Team Habits: Part 1 - Broadening Our Focus
Proudly positioned in the central valley of California, Corcoran Unified School District kicked off their fourth school year working with Education Elements in bringing personalized learning best practices to their classrooms. Learning walks last spring demonstrated that all participating sites had seen a demonstrable change in the habits and behaviors of adults and students, which built excitement and energy around progressing the work this upcoming school year. In exploring opportunities to increase district capacity and school support structures, we found that our current training structure resulted in implementation that was occurring most effectively at the individual teacher level. We realized we would need to broaden our focus to establishing strong team habits and practices to ensure the dissemination of expectations and resources happened at the school level.
The Corcoran Unified team identified new teacher support and aligning instructional coaches to PL practices as important levers to solidify a team's ability to develop more effective habits and experience greater coherence together. Dedicating time to introduce new teachers to PL has provided them a “fast track” to understand their team’s functions, while also presenting a safe space to address concerns and answer questions that will ultimately make them better teammates. Fully looping instructional coaches into their PL work has led to the construction of goal-setting, observation, and reflection cycles that coaches will embed as the foundation of their direct to teacher touchpoints.
To build strong team habits, Corcoran Unified has recognized the importance of investing in those on the team who may need support, as well as those who provide it - follow their journey through the Education Elements newsletter, as we’ll continue to share lessons learned and success stories along the way!
DESIGN SPOTLIGHT
From: The Principal's Journey to Personalized Learning By Christina French and Krista Heidenreich
"...We put so much of our time and energy into training and empowering these teachers to support buildings, that we may have somewhat lost sight of the group that TRULY drives the culture and practice of our buildings...our principals! ... if we empower teacher leaders, then the teacher leaders can support the principals, right? Wrong.
Not wrong in that these teachers can't or won't support their building leaders, but wrong in that support isn't enough. Buildings need to be LED by principals, and principalswantto lead because theyarethe instructional leaders.
The struggle is real when it comes to balancing instructional leadership and managing a building, but leaving principals out of these important personalized learning experiences because they have to be present to manage buildings is not an option. Time to pivot."
RESOURCES
How to Create Strategic Planning Teams
WHO you engage and HOW you engage people says more about your values than your plan ever will. Check out this infographic for best practices for selecting teams to develop your strategic plans. .
Strategic Planning Stakeholder Engagement
As you begin a new initiative or initiate your strategic planning process it is essential to engage your community intentionally to glean their priorities, pain points and questions. Check out this guide for PreK-12 district leaders who are beginning a new initiative or initiating their strategic planning process
FEATURED NEWS
New Classrooms Presents: The Iceberg Problem
Join New Classrooms on Tuesday, Sept. 24 in Washington, DC for a provocative conversation about the hidden truths of students' unfinished learning in middle school mathematics. In this lively panel at Georgetown University, leading experts will discuss and debate the takeaways from The Iceberg Problem, New Classrooms' forthcoming report examining how education policies can unintentionally force educators to measure just a small portion of students’ knowledge.
Apply To The Personalized Learning Toolkit Cohort!
Google for Education is teaming up with Education Elements to offer a Personalized Learning Toolkitto leaders at select participating districts. Apply to be a part of this year's cohort and receive a customizable roadmap that includes all of the materials needed to train your staff and to design, launch, and improve personalized learning within your district. Applications are due September 12th at 8pm EST.
How can we develop the competencies to lead a culture of innovation?
September 25-26, 2019
Warwick Hotel, Downtown Denver
WE'RE HIRING!
A career at Education Elements is unlike any other. It’s not just what we do, it’s who we are and how we do it that makes this place so unique. We come to work every day because we love what we do. You can love your job too.
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The Putnam County Future Ready VITAL program hosted its 4th annual Google Personalized Learning Summit in Cookeville this past month. The conference this year had over 750 district, school, and classroom leaders from across the states of Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi. The full-day experience allowed leaders the opportunity to collaborate and reflect on their own structures and the summit’s impact on the ability to scale instructional initiatives. Participants had access to numerous sessions that helped them build their knowledge as a practitioner in the field and allowed them processes and tools to lead innovative change management. Through group dialogue and individual exploration, participants received a personalized learning experience. Our team was able to host three sessions and work alongside leaders as they reflected on what structures allow them to take risks and ensure that innovation does not stagnate. In an effort to continue to build momentum around innovation, Putnam County Schools and Education Elements will be hosting a free event on September 27, 2019, where district and school leaders will have the chance to reflect on how Putnam County Schools is creating collaborative professional learning structures. All participants will get the morning to engage in learning and the chance to see the implementation in action with school tours. Learn more about the event and 
The Corcoran Unified team identified new teacher support and aligning instructional coaches to PL practices as important levers to solidify a team's ability to develop more effective habits and experience greater coherence together. Dedicating time to introduce new teachers to PL has provided them a “fast track” to understand their team’s functions, while also presenting a safe space to address concerns and answer questions that will ultimately make them better teammates. Fully looping instructional coaches into their PL work has led to the construction of goal-setting, observation, and reflection cycles that coaches will embed as the foundation of their direct to teacher touchpoints. 
