For my first Innovative Corner, I would like to highlight someone we all know very well, and is a crucial part to our EW Community, Ms. Jenna Johnson. As we all know, Fee Pay and Infinite Campus were all brand new data management systems for PLSAS this school year. Being that CoF and ECFE registration was moving completely to these two systems provided quite a learning curve for all involved, especially for Jenna’s work responsibilities. Jenna attended trainings, tried new techniques, adapted systems and processes she had grown accustomed to, asked a lot of questions, and was resilient. Ask her first hand – this process and change was not easy, as it came with a few obstacles and frustrations. However, she persevered, and now FeePay and Infinite Campus are an essential in our daily operations here at EW. A quote from Jenna sums it all up: “I could not imagine my work even being possible without FeePay. It makes things so much easier and effective!”
I attended an all-day inservice last Thursday facilitated by Dr. Scott McLeod (@mcleod is his Twitter handle) with Jillian Sullivan (our EW rep) and all other PLSAS administrators and technology team. The focus of our day was spent on innovative 21st Century Schools, and really doing things to push the regimented structures of fossilized teaching and learning practices. Dr. McLeod will be our main keynote speaker for the Welcome Week in the fall. The main question many districts face, he shared with us, is how do we begin to create schools of innovation? One thing he suggested was that we begin by sharing the innovative work already happening in our own schools and district. One of the things I was really encouraged to do was begin an Innovation Corner in my weekly newsletter. In this weekly mention, I will do my best to focus on the innovative and creative work that is ALREADY happening here at Edgewood.
For my first Innovative Corner, I would like to highlight someone we all know very well, and is a crucial part to our EW Community, Ms. Jenna Johnson. As we all know, Fee Pay and Infinite Campus were all brand new data management systems for PLSAS this school year. Being that CoF and ECFE registration was moving completely to these two systems provided quite a learning curve for all involved, especially for Jenna’s work responsibilities. Jenna attended trainings, tried new techniques, adapted systems and processes she had grown accustomed to, asked a lot of questions, and was resilient. Ask her first hand – this process and change was not easy, as it came with a few obstacles and frustrations. However, she persevered, and now FeePay and Infinite Campus are an essential in our daily operations here at EW. A quote from Jenna sums it all up: “I could not imagine my work even being possible without FeePay. It makes things so much easier and effective!”
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I hope everyone had a beautiful weekend – it’s really hard to beat this weather. I have a simple story to share about the power of positivity, and hopefully it can help us pay it forward into the lives of our students and families.
Early this morning, around 6:10AM, I was running a loop around Cleary Lake Park. For those of you who have been to Cleary Lake, you know how beautiful it is. Just as the sun was rising, I was seeing and hearing the birds, ducks, etc. getting ready for the day. Quite peaceful. I would say I was in a pretty good mood, but I was tired. After all, it is Monday morning, and running is always just plain hard work. About halfway through my loop, I saw an elderly man walking towards me on the trail. He looked to be probably in his mid 70s. As he approached me, he stopped, looked at me with the biggest smile, vivaciously shook my hand, and said “I really hope you have a great day! Today is going to be something special.” And just like that, he continued walking, and I continued running. It kind of caught me a bit off guard, because I was listening to my music, mentally preparing for the work week, as well as simply trying to focus on running itself! But it really made a difference. Just a simple smile. A simple greeting. A simple moment of sharing a positive thought. It made me wonder, as we think about things through the eyes of a child, what an incredible difference we as educators can make. What an opportunity! |
Richie KucinskiPublic education is an extremely complex system. When unpacked, powerful and unique possibilities for our students to influence and change society are discovered. Join me in my learning journey to better understand, frame, and clearly articulate the systems of modern day public education. Archives
November 2015
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