Full Court Press

​I love basketball.  Every March I'm like a kid in a candy store. My favorite player is Michael Jordan.  My dog is named MJ, I have about 20+ pairs of Air Jordans, and my basement is covered with posters dating back to the 90s.  My favorite commercial of all time, you guessed it: (not the original, but I like this one better)

​An offensive force, he was capable of aggressively driving to the basket, signature tongue hanging out, dunking or spinning fade away, many times drawing fouls from his opponents at a high rate; his 8,772 free throw attempts are the ninth-highest total of all time. Jordan wasn't just an offensive player.  He was a nine-time all-defensive team, including defensive player of the year 1987-88. First player in NBA history to record 200 steals and 100 blocked shots in a season.  Then there is just winning, six NBA Finals.  I remember being in Chicago the night Micheal was inducted in the Hall of Fame.  ESPN Sportzone was packed, everyone was in awe. 

​This time of year always reminds me of basketball.  We set up so many "plays" which I call systems that incorporate the best game "student experience" to generate high engaging learning environments. It never turns out exactly the way you vision for it to; every leader knows that. This year we have an incredible amount of initiatives being deployed, those include:

• a major Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) upgrade that incorporates a reimplementation of human resources and inventory
• bring Future Ready coaching to our principals and teachers
• a much needed student/staff blog and portfolio solution
• new professional development system
• Verizon Innovative Schools Initiative at Norris and Marrs Magnet Middle Schools
• finish out device deployments at secondary schools and begin focus on elementary schools
• Expand our Omaha Virtual School offerings
• a new web filtering solution
• a new learning management solution 
• a new website and mass communications solution

​All of these initiatives require incredible planning, professional development, and effort.  It is like a full court press.  Yesterday we welcomed nearly 400 new teachers to Omaha Public Schools in our New Teachers Institute and today was our Leadership Kickoff all held at Baxter Arena.  Incredible messages were shared, and a twinkle of new vision for what the future holds from our new Superintendent, Dr. Cheryl Logan.  Is it busy?  You betcha.  But I love it, just like I love basketball.