BUILDING FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

 by Superintendent Robert "Bob" Lewandowski 

At the January 31, 2014 *PIR Day, Ken Williams from Solution Tree brought in a moral imperative and echoed the district's need to adopt, implement, and practice the Five Essential Elements of Learning (FEEL). FEEL, as we call it,  is the framework he presented for assuring student success. His presentation stems from professional development that the administrative team received in Seattle, WA last August 2013. It also aligns with Learning by Doing (a handbook for professional learning communities at work) by DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many that was purchased and distributed to each faculty member at the first faculty inservice in August. Ken provided an essential follow up to the professional development and direction set by the district at the beginning of the school year.

Ken William (MISSION POSSIBLE)

THE FIVE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS of LEARNING
1. Focus on Learning
2. Collaborative Culture
3. Clearly Define What Every Student Needs To Learn
4. Constantly Measure Our Effectiveness
5. Systematically Respond When Students Don't/Do Learn

These FIVE essential elements of learning will become a staple in our educational delivery here at Mission. It is the administrative team's goal to make these five elements a common understanding with all stakeholders (teachers, parents, students, staff and community). We will learn them, we will develop them and we will practice them.

At the PIR, our staff focused on our current reality (where we are now) and began to identify their desired reality (where we want to be) in relationship to the FIVE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF LEARNING.

For example, our staff examined five different types of schools:

• "A" School - Where learning is based upon student ability.
• "B" School - Where learning takes place only if the student takes advantage of the opportunities to learn within the school.
• "C" School - Where all students can learn something, and we will create a warm pleasant environment to learn.
• "D" School - Where all students can learn and we will do whatever it takes to help students learn and achieve the agreed upon curriculum/standards.

After examining these 4 types of schools, each staff member was asked to anonymously identify schools in the following scenarios:

1. Most of the instructional staff said they attended schools like "A" and "B."

2. The staff identified our current reality (the school we have now) as a school that is most like "B", "C", and "D" (There was an equal distribution of votes between these three schools).

3. The staff said the they most wanted to work in a "D" type of school (where we want to be).

4. Most importantly, our staff said that they would most want their own children to attend a "D" type of school (where we should be).

This staff development opportunity confirmed district direction and provided additional stability in our foundations of learning.   

NOTES: *A pupil instruction-related day (PIR) is a day of teacher activities devoted to improving the quality of instruction. Districts may receive funding for up to a total of 7 PIR days or a maximum of 42 hours. A minimum of 3 days of professional development (6 hours of contact time per day in no less than 2-hour increments for a total of 18 hours)must be scheduled for all professional staff. PIR time must NOT include any time also counted as pupil instruction time. Professional development is defined in the Mo ntana School Accreditation Standards (ARM 10.55.714 and ARM10.65.101).