Mr. Sonntag's Blog

Belief #4: Students receive effective feedback that fuels their natural desire to do better in a try, fail, and try again, growth mindset environment. Feedback.  Feedback is essential to supporting the growth and development of all people, including students in school.  We all receive feedback each and every day.  In fact, feedback comes to us in so many ways and often, we don't even realize we're receiving it.  Feedback can come in the form of praise, criticism, advice, a disapproving look, or a pat on the back.  The key to this belief in our district is the word "effective" placed before the feedback. When we think about effective feedback in a school setting, many people will immediately think about grades.  Grades are a form of feedback, but is it effective?  What does a letter A, B, C, D, or F really mean when you are talking about math?  Or science?  Is an A the same in 4th grade as it is in 8th grade?  My contention is that letter grades are not effective f

Belief #3: Students feel physically, socially, and emotionally safe, their sense of control is high and judgement from others is low.  Students are fearless with the right support. This belief corresponds very well to my own personal beliefs about the schools our children deserve. "All students must feel safe (physically, socially, and emotionally) before they can effectively learn in our schools."  These are our basic human needs and without these being met, moving to more advanced skills like learning will not occur easily. So what does this environment look like in our schools?  First and foremost, students need to have a "trusted adult" (or more than one) in their lives at school.  I use the term "trusted adult" because this can truly be any adult that interacts with kids at school.  This can be, and often times is, one of the student's teachers.  It makes sense since the child spends at least 44 minutes per day with each of his/her teachers.  

Belief 2: Students have voice/choice and work alongside peers and teachers in collaborative environments Providing students a voice promotes creating a community of inspired learners. Schools are really all about the students, and it is interesting when they don't have a voice in what is happening there. Yesterday, I spoke with all of the students in the cafeteria and I asked them one question. I asked them by showing me using a thumb up, thumb to the side, or thumb down to describe how the beginning of this school year has gone for them. After seeing many thumbs up, some thumbs to the side, and a few thumbs down in each grade level, I followed up with them by saying, "I f you didn't have your thumb straight up, please tell me something that could make the start of your year better." It was so empowering for the students to be able to share. It was enlightening for me, and the lunchroom supervisors, to hear what the students need and want, in their own voices.

As we continue to explore and better understand the mission of Pleasantdale School District 107 (remember it is "to create a community of inspired learners"), we must all share common beliefs about the children whom we've been charged to educate and develop.  The school district, from top to bottom and everywhere in between, must know these beliefs and keep them at the forefront of their minds when making decisions that affect our schools and ultimately students' learning.  Today, we're going to probe deeper into belief number one, as adopted in the Pleasantdale Strategic Blueprint and found here . Belief #1: Students are passionately engaged in topics that examine world issues, where they feel a sense of purpose and in which they make a difference. Many of us remember back to our schooling experiences and asked ourselves the questions, "When am I ever going to use this" and "Why do I need to learn about this?" Take a moment to think back

This week's blogpost is centered on District 107's Mission and the Strategic Blueprint that is guiding how we are making our great district even better for our students.  District 107's Mission is "to create a community of inspired learners" and I believe this truly is our mission.  Remember a mission is what an organization wants to do right now.  What better undertaking for a school than the creation of a community of inspired learners? Let's unpack this mission statement a little bit more (fully acknowledging that I am new to our district and wasn't a part of the conversations arriving at this mission statement) and learn what it means to me. "Creating" means producing, making, fostering, constructing.  To examine the raw materials that are present and building something out of them.  These materials are the people in our entire school community, students, parents, and staff members.  Everyone brings something to the table to support our m