Dinner with the Superintendent

One of my professional development goals this year was to conduct three dinners that with my fellow teachers to discuss educational issues.  In trying to get good guests to spur the discussion, I sent an e-mail to the Superintendent of my school district.  I was amazed within hours he replied back that one of his staff members would be in touch with me to set up the dinner.  Wow, I was impressed that he would take the time to sit down with us.


On Dec. 9th a group of us met with the Superintendent to discuss issues that were important to all of us.  We started the discussion with each teacher picking one thing that they would do if they were in charge of education.  When a teacher hesitated, becoming scared that they might offend our Superintendent, his quote was "bring it on".  There was no holding back just a truthful back and forth about what makes education work.  He did not want to duck questions but really wanted to hear our feedback.


When I asked him about some of the mandates that are being made on teachers his reply was " I do not care about hanging student work I care about what the student are working on"  He made me realize that   his only goal or edict was to make kids better each and everyday.  It was just a pleasure to watch him engage with my fellow teachers who you could tell were inspired in the same manner that I was.


At 7:00 I told him that he needed to leave for his next appointment, he looked at his watch, told me to remind him in another 10 minutes.  It was great to see how much he enjoyed the discussion sharing with us his vision for the next five years and the next ten years.  At 7:10 he told me that he had five more minutes to give us.


At the end one of our teachers asked him would he take a group picture.  When she snapped the picture a couple of teachers offered to take one so that she could be in it.  She told us that it did not matter.  He left the room in a hurry because we all knew he was late.  However, one minute later he appeared with a waiter to make sure that we could get everyone in the picture.  He was late but he realized that it was important to get us all in the picture.  In a field which can  not offer people money incentives he made a teachers night.


While I am sure that I will disagree with some of his decisions, it really lifted my spirits to realize that he understands the problems that our school system faces.  We still as a system need to execute our game plan better, but his inspiration gives us a chance to be successful.