Firing Positive Neurons: Gratitude at BCS

Throughout this school year, the BCS Faculty has been studying Teaching Kids to Thrive: Essential Skills for Success by Debbie Thompson Silver and Dedra A. Stafford as part of our work on improving the social-emotional skills of our students. At a faculty learning time meeting a couple of weeks ago, we discussed the chapter on Gratitude. After a debate about whether gratitude was in fact something that can be taught, we decided to heed the words from page 221, “When we purposefully practice gratitude, we are firing positive neurons.” We agreed that a couple of days later, at DENS (our weekly k-8 advisory groups) we would complete a simple gratitude activity mentioned in the chapter. Each student would write down something at school for which she is grateful. Then, we would post all the papers on a gratitude board in the hall.

Well, I’d forgotten that I was not going to be at school that Friday. Also, I forgot to prepare the activity (oops, too busy for my own good sometimes). Turns out, there were a number of other staff absences so we canceled DENS altogether that day. So, with this reprieve in hand, I put off creating the activity for a few more days. The following Friday, I was saved once again by the huge amount of staff absences this time of year; we canceled DENS again.

Finally, this past week, I remembered to create the papers, clear the bulletin board, and make a sign. The papers are simple: 1/3 of a page with lines, the BCS logo, and the words “At BCS, I am grateful for…” Since I had time before a Board meeting, I wrote a memo with the very simple instructions. Friday morning, I handed out the memo and the papers to all of the DENS staff (all teachers, most paras). They handed the papers back to me later in the day. I hung them in a brick-like pattern at the suggestion of Chloe.

All afternoon, students and staff stopped to look at the gratitude wall. No surprises, but I think the cook got the most mentions.

The kicker to all of this is that this week had been one of the toughest all year in terms of student behavior. The gratitude that we started the day with helped us end this hard week on a high note. I guess that all that positive-neuron-firing really works.

Presentation of Impact: Generating a User's Manual

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

The Presentation of Impact caught me by surprise; I totally forgot about it until I arrived at the October session. I remember sitting there thinking that I was screwed – although, I would score very high on the Fliegelman Procrastination Scale. I have often put things off until the deadline only to produce some of my best work. In the hour or two before dinner, I remember thinking that I will find a way to put this all together in time for the next day. Since I know that not preparing at all was a bad idea, I spent part of that evening going through the documents I’d collected at the various MWLI sessions. I decided to put my money where mouth is and tell a story (so many workshops over the last few years have emphasized using stories as a vehicle for delivering the message). I told the story a couple of months earlier when I presented my Owner’s Manual to my staff (much more about that later). When the time came, my group chose to sit in the small game room in the basement of the resort. The comfy chairs and relaxed atmosphere was just what we needed. Each of presented our impact statements. I went last and knocked it out of the park. My small group even clapped for me. Here, to the best of my recollection is most of my story:

When we moved into our 200 year old farmhouse, we bought a big chest freezer. Then we decided we needed a generator. I figured it would be no problem to get this thing started. So I put some oil in, and I put some gas in. Then I pulled the cord, and then I pulled the cord again. Then I pulled the cord again and nothing happened. Growing frustrated I wondered if the thing were broken. My wife handed me the owner's manual for the generator. Interesting idea; read the owner’s manual. Well, I used the owner's manual to follow the directions. I put the choke in the right place and turned on the switch. Then I pulled the cord and the generator started right up.

After the July Waddington session, I knew that I had to share what I’d learned about my leadership with my staff. I struggled throughout August to figure out the best way to share all this information during in-service. A couple days before in-service began, I came across a Blog about writing your own user’s manual. It was clear to me right away what I had to do. So I took the Waddington instruments, took notes on each item, and created the first draft of my user's manual. This first draft of the manual was long and very detailed. I realized that there were things missing that weren't covered in Waddington and things from Waddington that I didn't need to share in detail. Then it hit me, Mel, my mentor, had mentioned that I over-communicate, use too many words, and don't keep it simple enough. So, I pared down the user's manual, leaving it much shorter. I did keep the original work at the end in case anybody wanted to read it.

I went on after that to describe the process I went through of setting and revising my key leadership challenge. I also spoke about how I was already using that work to improve my school and my leadership (much of that is detailed further in this paper).

Key Leadership Challenge

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

A major component of the MWLI is the Key Leadership Challenge. The KLC is meant to give each principal a focus for the work in the program.

My Key Leadership Challenge has taken a few different forms during my time in the program. When I enrolled and listened to the webinar, I was thinking about student behavior and staff culture. We were having a pretty rough year in terms of discipline in the middle school. I was spending huge amounts of time supervising a new, struggling teacher. I wasn’t sure of the language, but I was pretty clear that my KLC would focus there.

By the end of February, it was clear that things had begun to change. A look at our discipline data shows that we were entering a quiet phase. My work with the struggling teacher had shifted completely from a combination of suggestion and building on reflection to a strategy of direction. I had to tell the teacher how to relate to students and how to handle discipline. With some new approaches in place, the behavior problems settled down. I realized that it was easy to direct a struggling teacher. My struggle was with the veteran teachers.

Most of the veteran teachers at BCS last year were pretty solid teachers. They each faced challenges, but those were pretty subtle. I found that I was having a hard time approaching those teachers with concrete suggestions for improvement. I was also not getting to the good conversations where teachers identify areas of growth.

When I got to North Carolina, I framed my KLC as:

How might I improve the practice of good teachers to increase student engagement in learning and to meet the needs of students through social emotional learning.

I tried too hard to connect this to my school vision (the ideas of engagement in learning and social-emotional learning). Feedback from colleagues was as muddled as my statement. Most of the comments were focused on how to improve the social climate of the school. I left North Carolina a little bit dubious of the benefits of the program; I didn’t feel like I had a good direction. While I wanted to blame others, I knew the reason was that I didn’t focus enough on my key leadership challenge.

In July, I had the opportunity to work on my KLC again. I learned from the assessments that “I would benefit from listening to those who are better at clarifying the problem to solve.” So, without meaning to, I worked in a small group of principals with somewhat similar challenges. Through our work together, we wrote a new KLC that we all decided to use. It was broader and more focused than my original.

Create systems to expand or enhance teachers’ capacity to engage all students.

These systems would include:

• Having teachers act as accountability partners for each other
• Creating an inventory of teacher strengths
• Setting and meeting a goal of 2-hours each day in classrooms
• Creating my own coaching model to use with teachers

I left the July session charged and ready to implement these new systems.

As reality and planning for in-service in August began to seep into my consciousness, I realized that I had some other systems work to implement first. I took a step back from accountability partners to strengthening the teams in the building. First, I agreed to rearrange the Faculty Learning Time and merge it with our building PLCs. For this to work, we spent a bunch of time in the fall on team building activities. I introduced my User’s Manual as a device for the PLCs to work on norm setting. The idea was for each person to think about how they operate, then for each team to write norms that might honor those needs. The feedback from teachers was positive and the work showed it. Throughout the fall, we devoted time to learning and problem solving in our PLCs.

Now that the Waddington program is over, I have reviewed my KLC a few times without changing it again. I still seek to build systems for teachers to expand or enhance their capacity to engage all students. I have altered some of the particulars to match reality, but my focus has not changed.

For a CCL book on the topic see this page.

SBI for Feedback

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

I really like the simple, straightforward approach to feedback that is SBI. Tell the person the Situation about which I want to comment, tell them the Behavior I noticed, and then tell them the Impact the behavior had. I struggle with how to put the impact onto students instead of on me for feedback that is not about interpersonal behavior. CCL teaches that the impact can be about me or others present. Since it can include “work outcomes” I guess that I can use it with teachers. 
Here is an imaginary example (I have been using this with real teachers and worry that I would break confidentiality and trust with a real example):

Mrs. Jones, earlier during 6th grade social studies, when you told the students that they can choose the way they would be assessed, they got excited about this project in a way I haven't seen from them.

While this example seems a little stilted, the lesson learned is to be specific about the situation, the behavior and the impact when giving feedback.




Related Article
Feedback You Can Fathom

They Should Know Better...

They should know better than to:

Talk out of turn,

Argue with each other,

Ignore the rules,

Disrespect adults,

Give up quickly,

Choose so poorly,

(insert your least favorite student behavior here)...

... but they don't. 

They don't know better. Many students struggle to accept authority, think for themselves, or manage their own emotions. Students affected by poverty or the opioid epidemic are not getting many of the basic social-emotional skills they need. They don't arrive at our schools with the Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-making that we believe they need to be successful students and members of society (see CASEL, https://casel.org, for loads of info).

They need us, the adults at school, to teach them. Whether we teach them through a formal curriculum (such as Second Step), a classroom approach (such as Responsive Classroom), school wide expectations and celebrations (as included in PBIS), or in the "hidden curriculum" so many of us have always been sure to focus on, it is now a necessary part of many public schools to teach students how to get by in a community. Kindergarten teachers are chuckling now that the rest of us have caught up to them; they've been teaching the "hidden curriculum" for ever. The problem is that kids are starting school with so few of these skills mastered that it takes far more than one year to catch up. We have to teach social-emotional skills through the grades.

Many teachers start their career thinking that they will focus mostly on academic skills. People dream of teaching kids to read in first grade, divide fractions in sixth grade, or recite Shakespeare with high school juniors. When they hit reality and realize that teaching involves tons beyond the content, some teachers run with it. Other teachers start complaining that the students should know better. Well, they don't; it is our job to teach them. When we put in the time to teach Social-Emotional skills, fractions and Shakespeare are not far behind

cross-posted to Connected Principals

The Three Questions

No, this is not a discount Passover story (ask a Jewish person about the FOUR Questions). This post is about the Three Questions that I asked staff at the very first faculty meeting of the year.

I've been collecting feedback in a variety of ways from the staff since I began as an administrator. Last year, I happened upon a set of questions that many families use during weekly family meetings (my family started this process at the same time). I decided that these questions can work very well for the school family. So, in August, I asked every staff member to write answers to these three questions:

1. What things went well in our school last year?
2. What things could we improve in our school?
3. What things will you commit to working on this year?

The answers were very instructive. Some answers will seem obvious to anyone who has ever worked in a public school. Others are quite particular to Wolcott Elementary. Still other answers are actually highly personal.

Right away I noticed that the responses are filled with contradictions. For example, there were four comments about how staff interactions went well last year and seven comments about how we need to improve staff community. Six comments about improved behavior/PBIS last year and eight saying we need to improve those areas.

I was particularly pleased that one of the main areas indicated as needing improvement (behavior/PBIS), was an area that we spent a lot of time on over the summer. I spent four days with a team of staff in July and another day in August preparing a whole set of changes to our behavior and celebration systems.

And, of course, there are the perennial areas such as communication. Please see my previous post for ways that I am working on improving communication for staff.


And now for the responses themselves:

I left out the personal commitment answers from question three because many were too easy to identify the author.
Within each question, I loosely grouped responses together. Blanks equal personally identifying information.


What Went Well Last Year?

• Celebrating children
• Children seemed happy and valued
• School spirit

• PBIS
• Having _____ available for behavior interventions and guidance
• Extreme behavior challenges seemed to be under better control with use of interventionists and _____

• Last year I was with an amazing teacher that taught me so much
• Collaboration among faculty and staff went well last year
• Working with the people I get to work with
• People seemed to get along better children and adults

• We designed some changes that will bring us to the next stage
• Decisions to change thing up and head out on a path to improvement

• LLI now in k - 3
• Math interventions and planning

• Music
• Art collaboration with classroom teachers
• Spring/ winter concerts with Kristin’s leadership and talent
• Art integration / art shows and music performances

• 1st grade parent involvement and k - 2 evening events
• ASP! More tech integrations
• I didn’t hurt myself!!!

What We Can Improve?

• PBIS / expectations and procedures
• RC and PBIS
• PBIS
• Consistent discipline
• Behavior / school climate
• Consistency in student behaviors/ expectations

• Authentic celebrations of success [academic, behaviorally, social]



Our focus on academic excellence celebrating academic achievement

• Community building between faculty and students



Our community feeling among staff [more parties, get togethers, camaraderie]




We need to find new ways to respect each other
We need to improve on gossip among staff
Negative energy
To make all staff [not just faculty] feel equal
Kindness

• Communication with all staff
• Communication
• Communication
• We could improve our communication with each other
• Communication between coworkers is something that could improve
• Better communications

• Lunch choices
• Becoming more organized
• Noise control from hallways/ classrooms that student’s complain about as distracting
• More planning time
• Quieter ______ classes for more focused work
• Curriculum - vertical align, dynamic inst., celebration

I conducted a follow-up staff survey in early November and got lots of good feedback about the new behavior/PBIS initiatives. There were also a few comments about how good the climate was among staff. I will return to this sort of practice again and again as we continue our work.

How is your year going? What needs to improve? What will you commit to improving in your practice? Please leave comments below.




Cross posted to Connected Principals.

Posted with Blogsy

Feedback and Communication: 2 Top Things, Part 2

In my last post, I came to the brilliant conclusion that Feedback and Communication are the Top 2 Things that Teachers want from the Principal. Nothing really new here. In fact, if you've been reading education blogs during the last five years, you will see these two themes, or variations thereof, come up nearly every day. In any case, I promised in my last post that I would follow up with a post that describes some of the ways that I communicate and provide feedback. So here it goes.

But first, a stipulation...
I hereby stipulate that I have lots of room for improvement both in how (and how much) I communicate and in the frequency and quality of feedback I give. However, I think that I can honestly say that have made some progress on this front.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog post...
I have been working on improving and increasing feedback and communication for a while in a few ways. As you read through my list of ways I communicate or provide feedback, you will undoubtedly notice that many of the specifics items could easily fit in the other category. You will just have to accept that categorizing is a wildly imperfect act.

Feedback

1. Goal setting/Summative
1. Goals with every professional staff in the fall; every support staff in the winter. Every year.
2. Formal Evaluation/Observation
3. Walkthroughs/Mini-observation
1. I visit classrooms on a regular basis. Even at this small school, it is quite tough to get to each teacher to ask and share about what I saw. Instead, I email: What I noticed... Students were... A question to consider...
2. Through November, I've completed 97 documented mini visits
4. Weekly Teacher Meetings/[insert something here to have a slash like in the previous three items]
1. Every full-time teacher, every week. Sometimes we talk about questions front the walkthroughs, sometimes we talk about specific students, sometimes we talk about fluency progress monitoring data, and sometimes we talk about our pilot of implementing the EngageNY math units. Oh, we also sometimes just talk about life and parenting.

Communication

1. Monday Memo. I send out a simple email, usually on Sunday evening. I send very few other announcement-like emails. The staff learned quickly that the Monday Memo is their one stop shop.
1. Great Things I Noticed Last Week
2. New Items
3. Reminders
4. EST (an update about the most recent Education Support Team Meeting)
5. Events This Week
6. Tech Tips
7. Our Values
2. Auto-forward school Facebook postings to the staff email group
1. I want to make sure that staff see what parents do.
3. See Nos. 3 and 4 under Feedback above
4. Attend weekly team meeting for each team in the building.
5. Hang around the office and staff lounge and just chat.
6. Keep my door open most of the time.
7. Walk the halls, lots. Especially after school.

I suspect that when I am an old, grizzled, soon-to-retire principal, I will still be working on communicating more often and more clearly (hopefully my dentures won't come undone every time I try to communicate). Even at that advanced age, I will still be perfecting ways to give helpful feedback to teachers.

Please add a comment with ways that you give feedback or improve communication.



Cross posted to Connected Principals.

Posted with Blogsy

2 Top Things Teachers Want from Their Principal

In early 2012, I wrote a blog post called "7 Top Things Teachers Want From Their Principal (published on Principal’s POV http://principalspov.blogspot.com/2012/01/7-top-things-teachers-want-from-their.html and on Connected Principals http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/5262).

At the first faculty meeting in August 2011, I asked every staff member to answer, on a notecard, the question, "What do you need from your principal?" I grouped the responses into seven categories:

• Practical support
• Technology
• Special Education
• Teacher Support
• Feedback/Availability
• Communication
• Miscellaneous Leadership Qualities

I have repeated the notecard activity with the full staff each year since. In subsequent years, I altered the question slightly to "What do you need from the principal improve student learning?" This was a subtle change away from some very practical needs and toward our primary mission of ensuring student learning. The answers changed with the changing question and the changing years. However, as you read this list of the major categories from the last several years, the pattern will be apparent.

2012

• behavior
• communication
• teamwork
• visibility
• scheduling

2013

• Clarity
• feedback

2014

• feedback
• consistency
• communication (2-way)

Whoa! Did you see that? Over the years, the staff at my school have narrowed their annual feedback to me from seven categories to three. Furthermore, the combo of communication and feedback appears every year (in the years when the exact words did not show up, it is an easy argument that communication and feedback are intimately linked to the ideas that were featured).

Now, you have to understand that I am a little slow. I mean, you'd think that with all of the books on leadership and several years on the job, I would already know that two-way communication/feedback is vital to a smooth running, high performing school. Then again, if it were that easy there wouldn't be so many books (and workshops, seminars, blog posts, webinars, mentoring sessions, and more devoted to the topic).

So, here I am, with incontrovertible proof that what teachers really want from their principal is feedback and good communication.

In my next post, I will explain communicate about the ways I give feedback and the ways I try to improve communication. I may even throw in something about clarity and consistency.

Tech Help #edchat #vted

When I last wrote, I mentioned the lessons I learned way back in 1997 (i.e. Always have a Plan B). This time, I write about another lesson from SummerCore: when you need help, ask someone younger. The idea is that kids are "digital natives" or something like that. Really, it may just be that kids aren't afraid to try things, but more on that in a future post. The advice is sound whatever the rationale behind it. Our students can be quite adept at helping us through our work with technology.

There is a great example of this at my school. I have one teacher who appoints a student to be "Tech Help" for the class. When the SmartBoard stops working correctly or some other problem, the teacher (who is tech competent) just calls for Tech Help, please. The student then comes up and attempts a solution. Most of the time the student is totally able to solve the problem. Surely the teacher has done some prior training; what matters is that works.

In fact, "Tech Help" is a great way to show that this teacher has mastered a piece of the ISTE Standards for Students (NETS-S).

6. Technology operations and concepts Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.   

a. Understand and use technology systems 

b. Select and use applications effectively and productively 

c. Troubleshoot systems and applications 

d. Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

The teacher could try to solve the problems herself and move on with the lesson (and sometimes she does), but, instead, she lets the students show what they can do.

So, whether she asks for "Tech Help" because the youngsters know more than she or because she wants to give them opportunities does not really matter. What matters is that the teacher is asking the only people younger than her that really matter, the students.

What's Your Plan B? #vted #edchat

While watching an observation training video, I noticed the teacher accidentally turned off the projector and then did not get it going again for a while. The technology failed (sort of), and the teacher kept on teaching with little disruption to the lesson.

While this shows a fairly strong set of classroom/lesson management skills, it also shows that the tech was not particularly important. As I watched the rest of the lesson, I hoped to see something more than failed Substitution (learn more about Substitution and SAMR).

Setting my critique of the level of technology integration aside, I was reminded of my first edtech lesson from the week-long SummerCore in 1997: always have a plan B. In other words, be prepared in case the technology fails. At the time (and still, unfortunately) tech failed pretty often.

In other other words, if the lesson is only about the tech, it might not be a great lesson.

As for having a plan B, in the fall after that summer course, I was trying an Interactive Slide Lecture (from History Alive). I'd planned to show a slide (not a powerpoint slide, a real slide) and then switch to a graphic organizer on the overhead to model note-taking. In the course of the first 10 minutes, I blew the bulb in the slide projector and then in the overhead. Forget plan B, I needed plan C.

Have you ever needed a plan B during a tech filled lesson? Let's hear about it.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Promoting Critical Conversations #SVAMP

Conversation (Photo credit: Search Engine People Blog)

Recently, George posed the following questions as part of the SAVMP.

How do you create a culture where  “pushback” is encouraged?

How do you create a team that will give you honest feedback?

These questions shape much of the work that I do as principal. There are so many factors to consider when trying to encourage these critical conversations. What was the culture in the past? How did the previous principals do things? Where are the centers of influence amoung the staff? Who will be honest and forthcoming with the principal?

I believe that things take 2-4 years to become clear to a new principal. During the first few months, there is so much to learn that a principal can only go shallow into the issues. Over time, personalities emerge and things start to become clear. Some staff really do seem to put the needs of the kids above all else - sometimes to their own detriment. The scale slides from there all the way down to those rare staff members who seem to have lost most interest in doing right by kids (I am lucky to have no one like that at my current school).

Much like good teaching, good leadership requires a firm set of principles and a fair amount of differentiation. For example, there are some staff who need little encouragement to come tell me what they think. For others, I may schedule a regular meeting just get them to tell me anything at all. Knowing which strategy to use for which staff member is the key. For some a scheduled meeting is just a setup to miss things; they might need me to come find them on an unscheduled basis if we are going to talk. Again, like a good teacher, I have to solicit and accept feedback in different ways from different people.


A second key factor to promoting critical feedback is being clear about when it is welcome. For years, I have tried to get good at using a decision making matrix like this one that I got from a consultant years ago. There are many variations out there, but the idea is the same. Be explicit about what you want from staff when making decisions. I get better feedback, when I tell people what kind of feedback I am looking for. This even works with editing. I usually tell folks that I am looking for proofreading or content editing or both. Seems to me that most school staff want to know what the principal is looking for.

Decision making styles from the chart are as follows:
Type 1:  Leader announces decision to the team and seeks support but does not ask for any input.
Type 2:  Leader has formulated an opinion about the best alternative for the decision s/he is making, but is testing it with the team to see if s/he is persuaded to rethink it before implementation.
Type 3:   Leader has a decision to make, but does not have an opinion about the best alternative.  S/he is asking the team to provide input and directions to guide decision-making.
Type 4:   This will be the team’s decision.  Leader’s participation and input will be considered along with others, but will not override others’ input.
Type 5:   Leader believes that others are better able to make this decision.  Leader will be a resource and will guide the process, but let the team make the decision without his/her involvement (unless asked) and support their decision.  Leader will ensure that decisions are aligned with policies, strategic direction, legal issues, etc.
Type 6:  Leader acts as if s/he is an outside facilitator. The decision is the team’s.  Leader believes others are better suited to make the decision, but will lead and structure the team’s decision-making process.  Leader will defer to the team’s decision.

It takes time and practice to encourage a school staff to give honest feedback. It is worth it.

Related articles

• Promoting Critical Conversations #SAVMP (dwarchola.wordpress.com)
• Sound Decision Making (principalspov.blogspot.com)

The Innovation Fork - #SAVMP

For week six of the SAVMP program, we are asked to consider "Roads to Innovation."

One of the questions to consider is: How do you go about creating innovative practices in your schools?

I use a two prong approach to fostering innovation at my school.

Prong one is to share ideas and resources with the staff. In each week's Monday Memo, I share links to interesting sounding tech tips. I sometimes demonstrate a new tool or teaching strategy during staff meetings. Last year, I tried my hand at teaching a class using only new ideas (not particularly successful, but that happens with attempts at innovation). At District PD days, I usually introduce some cool thing that I have been learning about. This first prong is all about sharing information or spreading seeds.

The second prong is where the real action is, sort of. The second prong is to get out of the way. Really, just step aside. Let the teachers do their thing. When a teacher comes to me with a new idea, I listen and offer support. I ask questions when the idea is half-baked. I try to be clear with the teachers that I am asking in order to help them. For some teachers, I say little other than, "Why not?" I often ask the teacher what they want me to do to help. Often, the answer is that they want nothing other than permission. I almost always say yes to a new idea, to an experiment. I am not risk averse. This second prong for creating innovative practice requires that I trust my teachers to be professionals - no problem there.

So, this two-prong approach is not fast, but when it works, change happens - teachers innovate.

I wrote about similar ideas for Leadership Day 2012.

Cross-posted to Connected Principals.

 

Related articles

• School as Leadership Darkroom: Developing Leaders #Savmp
• Two Roads to Innovation
• Creating Time for Teachers to Meet and Tinker With Ideas #RSCON4

 

School as Leadership Darkroom: Developing Leaders #Savmp

So, for the SAVMP program, the weekly blogging topic (#5, but only my second), that George has assigned is as follows:

"For this week’s topic, I want you to think about how you develop leadership in your buildings/work. How do you promote others to lead? This is important to focus on whether we try to “control” our people, or “unleash” their talents. What are some of the things that you do that make this happen?"

This year, as I have been focusing a bit on growing teacher leadership, I have (re-)learned two lessons about developing leadership.

Lesson one started about more than one year ago. A teacher, we'll call her Gladys, asked me if she should apply for the newly vacated position of Director of Curriculum for the district. Wow! Sure. Gladys is a great teacher with a fairly wide-ranging teaching experience. She'd proved willing and able to take on some building and district leadership roles. Go for it. But, wait. If Gladys were to go to central office, then she wouldn't be here. Not sure I liked the sound of that. I kept my reservations to myself and encouraged her to apply. More qualified applicants came forward and Gladys did not get the job. We dodged that one - this time.

That brings us to this past June. Upon the sudden departure of another district principal, the superintendent asked what I thought about Gladys becoming principal. Wow! Sure. Gladys is a great teacher with a great attitude and ability to see the big picture. Through the last year, she'd taken on even more of a leadership role in the building. But wait, if Gladys were to go be a principal, then she wouldn't be here. Not sure I liked the sound of that. This time, I shared my reservations. Gladys proved to be the most qualified candidate and got the job. No dodging this time.

A lesson from my old photography days (you know, with film), crept back into my mind. When you develop the negative (the film), it is in service of a positive (the print). Not exactly sure what that means, but the point is clear: when you actively work to develop a teacher into a teacher-leader, sometimes it works really well the teacher-leader wants to become a leader-leader.

The second lesson from the leadership darkroom, you can't always be certain of what will develop once you start processing. Hmm.

With these two lessons, back under my belt, I enter this school year right back at it. I am actively working with a teacher or two to develop their leadership. They may move on or develop into something I don't expect. I can handle that. Both lessons were part of why I loved developing photographs, and both lessons are why I love developing leaders.

Posted with Blogsy

Hire Ground in School Hiring #edchat #savmp

With the school year only a few weeks away, this administrator is finally about to wrap up the process of hiring all the staff I need for the year.

It all started this spring...

Due to changes in grant funding, a para-educator getting a teaching job, and one of my best teachers leaving to become a principal, I found myself finishing the school year in June with three unanticipated openings. Now, many hours later, many resumes later, many interviews later I am just about done. Two candidates have signed on and the last one has a little more work to do to make her final decision.

The process of hiring is time-consuming and one of the most important tasks for a principal.

It starts with creating the ad. In Vermont, most schools use schoolspring.com to post jobs and collect resumes.

Aspiring to be a connected principal, I use many of the built-in features of school spring instead of just printing resumes and going old-fashioned route. I let schoolspring manage the process for me wherever possible first by setting up evaluation rounds where, as resumes come in, I evaluate them based on their experience education and other factors.


Then, I select the best of the group (three to five candidates usually) and let SchoolSpring do the work of setting up interviews. I have to choose dates and times, but then SchoolSpring sends emails to the candidates. The day before the interview, I make sure that the team has seen the resumes and knows the schedule.

The team, what team? Well, I rarely interview alone. You see, I truly believe in collaborative decision-making. I have seen the power of the group in making better hiring decisions than I would have alone. So, I gather a tem to interview.

My interview process pretty typical. I usually add my favorite question, "What are you reading these days?" Or, "What is your favorite book?" I am fascinated by the range of answers. Some candidates think I am asking about professional reading. Others gush about the latest best seller. Last year, one candidate blushed, stammered, and said, "Fifty Shades of Grey." Two women on the team blushed too and admitted they were reading it too. I hired her.

The are many things to look for when hiring teachers and paraprofessionals, but I have one characteristic that outweighs everything else: attitude. I've written about attitude before (here and here.)

I am not willing to hire even the most brilliant skilled teacher if I detect a bad attitude. This is how I maintain the hire ground.

Related articles

• It Starts With Hiring (eduwonk.com)
• Read my blog, not my resume... (justintarte.com)
• 11 Resume & Interview Tips for New Graduates (freetech4teachers.com)

Posted with Blogsy

Wicked Cool Evidence Gathering. The Digital Principal, Part 2

In November, I gave a presentation (the presentation resources are to be found here) to a packed room row at Vermont Fest, the fall conference of Vita-Learn (Vermont Information Technology Association for the Advancement of Learning - VITA-Learn).

<snip>

(For the rest of the introduction and a summary of the first part of the presentation, please read part ONE.)

So, here is part TWO of my three part summary.

My presentation continued with an explanation of my system for teacher evaluation. This is always a hot topic with principals. We are forever evaluating teachers. There are pre-observation meetings, observations, and post-observation meetings. We give volumes of feedback, but does it usually actually improve learning? Maybe. So much of the feedback we give is our observation married to our knowledge of our evaluation model (my district uses Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching, there are so many good ones out there).

The real feedback that might be useful is the observations themselves, the direct evidence, the "proof." So, I have created borrowed stolen this method of writing feedback and combining it with photographic evidence. I learned of this at the first EdCamp Vermont in April, 2012, from Mike Berry (Mike actually gave this idea to a room full of us).

The way it works is simple. On my iPad, I write notes in Notability. Taking advantage of the iPad's camera, I shoot a few pictures of the scene. I try to take a photo of something I think worthy of comment. While I am writing, I am also thinking. Sometimes, I change the pen color and add a question or a highlight.
I end up with a page or two of hand-written notes with photos.

The secret to making this work for formal observations is the bottom of the page (not visible on the slide here. Instead, click here for the resources and find the sample observation pdf). The text from Danielson's domains 2 & 3 is there with room to make specific claims. Usually, as the observation goes on, I begin to take what I've seen and write about it in the Danielson section. At the end of the observation, I review those parts of Danielson that are blank to try to remember something seen that could fit well.

I usually sit in the room for five minutes after the lesson ends to wrap this up. Then, I send the the whole thing as pdf to the teacher. Right then, on the spot. By the time we have a post-observation meeting, the teacher has already had a chance to read my notes and main points of feedback. We can spend the time talking.

The system is quick, easy, and techy. Using Notability and iPad along with Danielson, meets the contract and my need to an easy to use system. 

Wicked cool.

Related articles

• 5 ideas to make the most of teacher evaluation
• Lightening-Fast Teacher Feedback. The Digital Principal, Part 1 (#vted #edchat #cpchat)

Top Ten Benefits to Being A Teaching Principal #edchat #vted

During the summer, I described my plans to become a teaching principal here, here, here, and here. Back in July, I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I knew teaching again would be a good thing.

Boy, was I right.

Even though the principalship is an extraordinarily busy job, I love spending time each day with the sixth graders. It helps, of course, that they are a great group of kids who are willing to try out new ideas and usually laugh at my bad jokes.



Teaching this year has, so far, come with some benefits other than my spending time with students. Here is my top ten list of benefits to being a teaching principal:

10. Productive time with children.

9. I get to grade papers (no, really).

8. Gets me out of the office.

7. I get first hand knowledge/frustration with outdated report card system. (I've got to talk to the administrations about this).

6. Frees up a teacher for that hour so she can help some kids learn to read.

5. Forces me to practice what I preach (tech infused, SBG*, student choice, relevant, meaningful, etc).

4. It is not all about student discipline (most days).

3. I get to know just how good some paraprofessionals can be.

2. I am seen as more than just "administration."

And, the number one benefit to being a teaching principal...

1. I love to teach!

 

So, there you have it. The top ten benefits to being a teaching principal.

 

P.S. I could not find attribution for the image of the teacher at the top. However, I thought a few points to consider about that image were in order. First, as a teacher, I don't have a desk; I use someone else's classroom. Second, I use Standards Based Grading (*SBG), not letter grades, except on the report card itself, but that is another story. Third, I have five fingers on each hand. Fourth, I have not received an apple from any students this year. Fifth, I have a nose and, often, the same blank stare. Finally, I just recently bought a shirt the same purple, but mine is called French Lilac.

Posted with Blogsy

EdCamp Vermont Reflections #SummerBlog12 #VtEd

#8 in the Summer 2012 Blogging Challenge, #Summerblog12

 

In April, 2012, I led the Vermont ASCD's first effort at an "unconference." EdCamp Vermont had its roots in another place and another time.

In the fall of 2010, I was driving to some EdCamp with Dan Callahan, when he brought up the idea of EdCamp Boston. He had come up with a date and a venue with some other folks and was ready to add to the organizing committee. I jumped at the chance. Through the winter, I did my part working with an amazing committee to put together the first EdCamp Boston in April 2011.

Shortly before EdCamp Boston, I accepted the position as principal of Wolcott Elementary School in Vermont. I was thrilled to have the position in place before EdCamp. When I told Dan that I got the job and would be moving to Vermont, the first thing he said was, "When is EdCamp Vermont?" I laughed him off figuring that in my first year in a new state there was no way I'd be able to organize an EdCamp.

As I settled into my new house and job, I was asked to join the newly reconstituted board of the Vermont ASCD. The new president, Ned Kirsch, had been a twitter contact for a while. I accepted.

 

At one of the first meetings, I mentioned EdCamp. Ned and the board were intrigued, and we decided to make Vermont's first EdCamp part of the VTASCD revival. I was thrilled. Organizing an EdCamp as part of an existing organization is super easy. We didn't have to set up a bank account or search for sponsors. We kept our plans small. You see, Vermont is very rural and spread out.

 

So, on a Saturday morning wedged between the vacation weeks of various parts of the state, about 40 educators showed up for a classic-style EdCamp. We had participants from all over the state, from as far as Boston, and even over the border from Canada. Even with a small crowd, we filled the session board and even added a fourth room. As usual with an EdCamp, the conversations were wonderful.

 

Now that we've held one EdCamp, VTASCD will surely hold another. Stay tuned for more information.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Some People Will Do Anything for an iPad #summerblog12

I had a great experience earlier this school year. You see, Carol*, a veteran teacher who not too long ago swore off technology but had recently joined the district Tech Committee, agreed to go to a state edtech conference, in early November, with a more tech savvy colleague who had an iPad.

They had a great experience and returned to school jazzed about the possibilities. The day after the conference, November 7, Carol told me how cool some of the iPad apps were. I talked with her for a few minutes and added her to my mental list for iPads in the far future.


Little did I know that Carol had a plan, and I didn't stand a chance.

On November 8, Carol came to see me first thing in the morning. You see, she wanted to forgive me for being slow about getting her an iPad. For some reason, I apologized.

A couple of days later, Crol saw me in the morning and told me that she Dreams About Performance Indicators. What was she talking about? When she wrote it out for me, she underlined the first letters as I have done here and told me to look at it backwards. I-P-A-D. Oh, I see.



On the morning of November 14th, Carol left me this note...

I think that she may have enlisted the help of the parents! Maybe I'll move her a little higher on that mental list for iPads in the future.

Two days later, I experienced the biggest regret of this fantastic first year at Wolcott Elementary School. Carol came to see mere morning. I was ready for anything, I thought. I told that she was on the list to get an iPad when I bought some. Instead of saying thank you and going back to class, Carol broke into a cheer -- like a high school cheerleader, yes that kind of cheer -- all about how great it would be to have an iPad. I didn't record it or even get her to write down the words for me; I will regret that omission forever.

The next day Carol came to me with a story about how having B+ blood really meant that she should have an iPad. Not sure what that meant, but I got the point.

On November 18, Carol appealed to my emotions by telling me that buying her an iPad would be a humanitarian effort because it help to stimulate the economy. By this point, I'd made up my mind that I would have to order an iPad soon.

The final straw that broke my back came on November 22. Carol brought me a dollar bill with this letter attached. It is not a bribe. If you can't read the note, she tells me to buy a lottery ticket and use the winnings to buy her and iPad. Fortunately, she trusted me to use the remaining winnings for the good of the school.

To make it easy for me and to sweeten the deal, Carol also handed me an ad from a tech store with the little gem seen below.

 

 

 

 

 

I was left with more questions than answers at this point. What is a guy supposed to do? How can one lowly principal resist the intense efforts of a very determined teacher? How fast could I get an iPad on Carol's desk? Would she prefer black or white?

So, you can probably guess what happened next. I called the tech guy and asked him to order an iPad for Carol. To my great surprise, he told me he had an extra one in his office. I would merely have to replace it when I ordered more in the future. I drove over to central office and picked up the iPad for Carol. on the Friday of Thanksgiving week, I came into the empty school and left the brand new iPad on Carol's desk.

To say she was happy would be the understatement of the year. I went to a meeting Monday morning so I missed her skipping down the hall singing.

 

Later that week, Kim* said to me, "If I do a cheer for you, do I get an iPad?" Uh-oh.

 

 

N.b. Before the teachers left for the summer, Kim and all the rest, got iPads to use in preparation for a wider deployment this fall.

 

 

*Carol and Kim are the same pseudonyms I used in this post.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Digital Learning Day (#14inFeb #3)

On February 1, my school and hundreds of others around the country celebrated Digital Learning Day, a nationwide celebration of…you guessed it…digital learning.

Here at Wolcott Elementary School, most of the teachers have only integrated technology to a small degree so far. Well that has begun to change with a new principal and a new technology integrationist. For a little background let me tell you about the equipment in the building. For about ten years, there have been three desktops in each classroom - all are still deployed; only a few work. There is also a cart of ancient Acer laptops - not one battery is any good; several of these laptops dont work at all. There is an old server with an even older backup server. Just last spring, the new machines were purchased with grant money. Every teacher has a laptop now. There is a new cart with twelve additional new laptops. Seven (of eight) classrooms now have installed projectors and an Elmo document camera. One classroom has a Smartboard (this was teacher choice). We just upgraded the wireless network. Our district made the leap to google apps just before the December break.

Anyway, I asked every teacher to do something new with technology on DLD. We'd previously set integrating technology into existing units as one of our goals, so this seemed the perfect push. I shared the DLD website and resources with the staff and offered support.

To a small degree of accountability, I told the teachers that they would be sharing a few words about their digital learning at that day's afterschool faculty meeting.

Here is the list of projects that they shared (with names and some details altered for anonymity):

Alice

• Math games from Investigations
• Pairs worked on the program
• Kids were able to extend due to overestimating
• Continuing to work this Friday.
• Signed up for regular computer use

Betty

• Use iPad every day
• Found YouTube video for mean, median, mode

Carol

• Mobile computer lab in class for whole group
• Started word processing
• Turned desks around so screens faced front
• 30 minutes to type spelling sentences, then hand write what is left.
• Students tend to write short sentences, taught to write longer sentences.
• Four kids will become peer coaches for the four students who were out for intervention
• Signed up for mobile lab every week

Doris

• Prezi presentations by the kids about Africa w/ Ethel
• Also glogster to create posters about a novel

Ethel

• Weekly reader article with videos from the digital edition
• Then Prezi with Doris.

Freida

• skits to video, story boards first
• PowerPoints on Egypt

Georgina

• New: from the DLD toolkit, jognog.com video game format, disappointing

Helen

• Signed up for the mobile lab for the first time this year
• Students to interactive biology websites
• SmartBoard lesson taught by older students

Irene

• No tech today
• Next will hook up to Elmo to have kids do stuff
• Took video of sliding
• Will present at Monday Morning Meeting

Julie

• Using iPad with math groups counting and identifying coins

Kim

• Laptops brought into class

Absolutely fantastic! While some of these efforts may seem minor, this was a sign of great growth for many of the teachers. I was especially excited about the two teachers who had, during the day, signed up to have the mobile lab every week.

I was totally impressed by the huge effort that the technology integrationist put into helping certain teachers in the days leading up to DLD.

Well, DLD was fun and invigorating (technologically speaking). Now the real challenge will be maintaining momentum. Here we go!

Related articles

• Digital Learning Day: The aftermath (dangerouslyirrelevant.org)
• Seven Digital Learning Tips for Students (edutopia.org)