Whole to Part or Part to Whole?

From Jan: Putting the Pieces Together

I often hear the lament, “Oh no, it’s one more thing….  Another new initiative….  Another new expectation.” 

Do you ever feel this way?

What I have come to realize is that, as educators, we often get and give pieces without understanding how it connects to the whole.  I liken this to giving someone 1,000 pieces to a jigsaw puzzle without the picture of what happens when those pieces come together.

There is no way to know what this puzzle
will look like when completed by looking
at the individual pieces.

We do it in the classroom when we teach students isolated skills without helping them with conceptual understanding and application.  We do it as leaders when we roll out “initiatives” without helping everyone understand the whole—what it is that we are becoming and how those “initiatives” help get us there.

The “whole” for our district is HSE²¹, classrooms that are learning labs filled with creativity, inquiry, real-world applications, and student voice—driven by the use of research-based instructional best-practices. 

This is the "Big Picture" for Hamilton Southeastern!

Challenge Us!

When we start with the whole, the individual parts make more sense. 

Our professional development should support teachers in that transformational journey toward leading a HSE²¹ classroom.  All of the individual pieces of professional development should be united and moving us closer to our vision of preparing students for life in a global society.

If you do not see the connection in your professional development to HSE²¹, challenge us!  

Help us put the pieces together.  Help us get better!

Have a great week, HSE.

Your HSE Teaching and Learning Team

• Jan Combs, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning
• Stephanie Loane, Director of Elementary Education
• Tom Bell, Director of Special Education
• Jeff Harrison, Director of Educational Technology
• Phil Lederach, Director of Secondary Education

Respond to Jan: jcombs@hse.k12.in.us

A few closing thoughts:

• “To be a champion, I think you have to see the big picture. It's not about winning and losing; it's about every day hard work and about thriving on a challenge. It's about embracing the pain that you'll experience at the end of a race and not being afraid.”  --Summer Sanders
• “Children astound me with their inquisitive minds.  The world is wide and mysterious to them, and as they piece together the puzzle of life, they ask ‘Why?’ ceaselessly.”  --John C. Maxwell
• There is no end to education.  It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education.  The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.”  --Jiddu Krishnamurti