San Francisco Here I Come

Although I am currently a Superintendent in New York, I spent the preceding 21 years of my career as an educator in California. So, you can imagine my excitement at attending the AASA Conference in San Francisco. I do admit that I am dreaming about having clam chowder and fresh sourdough bread at Bistro Boudin, Dim Sum at Yang Sing and a great Italian meal at the North Beach Restaurant!

In spite of my fascination with the culinary attractions in San Francisco, I have also been thinking about what I want to gain from this opportunity. In some respects, I feel like I am coming home to a family reunion by reconnecting with my friends and colleagues, from both southern and northern California, and being able to catch up both personally and professionally. I am also looking forward to allowing time for myself to learn and grow by listening to our well informed and experienced speakers, participating in meaningful presentations or just networking with colleagues and sharing ideas and experiences.

As an entrée to this time, I would like to share an experience I had today which made me reflect on why I love being an educator. Like all of you, I am trying to make our District a thriving learning organization for students, faculty, staff and administrators. Today, I observed an elementary fourth grade teacher who is a tenure candidate this year. During our pre-observation conference, she shared with me that she was going to be teaching a lesson on fractions to her 4th graders and was going to try using some new strategies that she learned, while participating on our District Math Committee. Bravo! She was willingly taking a risk and trying out new strategies that would deepen students’ understanding of fractions. I entered her classroom a few minutes early, and she explained that she recently gave her students a formative math assessment and developed a new template to engage them in self-reflection, so that they could identify their strengths and the areas in which they needed to improve. I was delighted as one of our District’s goals, this year, is to begin to use formative assessments to better inform our instruction and improve student outcomes. She understood that self-assessment is a necessary part of the learning process. This new teacher was opening herself up to new learning through participation on a District committee, as well as, in-service training. This new learning was having a direct impact on student achievement.

Afterwards, I stopped in the principal’s office and found Doug, our Principal and Lisa, the Assistant Principal, debriefing after completing a joint walk-through of third grade classrooms. Our administrative cabinet’s learning goal this year is to investigate how walk-throughs can be used to improve instructional practice and impact student achievement. We have been reading articles, sharing strategies and templates and trying to find ways of making this practice part of our daily work. I was so encouraged to see these two professionals engaged in an in-depth discussion on what they observed and valued in each classroom and how to provide constructive feedback to each teacher that would promote meaningful dialogue and reflection. Doug and Lisa were doing it! They were opening themselves up to new learning and putting it into practice! I felt validated that our administrative cabinet was indeed a learning community.


As I left the elementary school, I thought of Jane Pollock’s books; Improving Student Learning One Teacher at a Time and Improving Student Learning One Principal at a Time. So, what do I want to get out of this conference? I too want the opportunity to open myself up to new learning. Now it is my turn, one Superintendent at a time!