Today I had the privilege of touring Dublin City Schools (DCS), the district in which I teach, with the members of the Leadership Dublin Class through the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. We toured the Dublin Technology House, the Transportation Department, three school buildings (Grizzell MS, Eli Pinney ES, and Dublin Scioto HS), ate lunch at Scioto HS where we learned about food services and then returned to Central Office to have some answer/question time with the superintendent and the school treasurer. Overall it was a great day of learning and sharing.
I learned that we have over 15,000 students and we use 143 buses to transport 9,000 of the 15,000 everyday through 700 different bus routes. The buses are used for over 3,000 field trips yearly, buses cost around $85,000 to purchase and they usually run them for about 15 years or 200,000 miles.
It was great to see the students at both Grizzell and Eli Pinney guide us through their buildings with such ease. They pointed out the highlights of their prospective buildings and allowed us to enter many classrooms to see the learning and teaching occurring. At the high school, the principal guided us through the building and also allowed us to enter classrooms to see learning. I enjoyed walking into the classrooms to see some different learning happening in DCS. Many classrooms aren’t your traditional desks in rows and students sitting in them kinds of classrooms…there is non-traditional teaching occurring in many classrooms which allows students to gain knowledge comfortably.
I am so used to seeing students and classrooms. It is not an unknown world to me…I take for granted what I see everyday as I walk the halls in my schools. The other Leadership Dublin participants (other than LaShell Dauterman) are not teachers therefore schools are not an everyday event in their lives. They were beyond impressed with the maturity of the students…beyond impressed with the tools and materials the students were able to use while at school…and many of them wanted to return to school so they could play with the tools and materials seen today. Many mentioned that if they had these resources when they were in school, they may have enjoyed it more and may have explored different fields after HS.
Today gave me a different perspective…It opened my eyes to what happens at different grade levels…I met teachers and classrooms I would love to visit again and talk with more to learn about the awesome things they are doing in their classrooms. I left today feeling more inspired to be the best leader and teacher I can be…