So I got spit on. #vted #edchat

It was a tough day. From the minute I walked into the building, I was inundated with challenging discipline events.

To start, three boys were in the office because of some excessive rough-housing right after they got off the bus. All three were regulars to the office; each with a variety of needs and challenges. While I was working with them, I told yesterday's toughest case that he had to wait to speak with me. The parent of yet another very challenging student waited to speak with me, but ended up leaving.

This was all before 9:00 am.

I squeezed in a difficult conversation just before one of the three rough-housers from the morning had escalated and was out of control. Just before I got to him, he left the building and threw a rock at a staff member. I spent the next forty minutes alternating between assisting the Behavioral Interventionist in a variety of holds, taking notes, keeping my office from getting wrecked, and getting spit on. I got spit on a lot this morning.

There was a short lull after that. I spoke with yesterday's challenge, returned a phone call about pushing on a bus, filled in Rule 4500 paperwork (restraint report), and wrote a memo about the difficult conversation from earlier.

Then, another very challenging student lost his #*%^. He calmed down with some help, but at noon, went out to recess. He resisted all calm efforts to come inside like he was supposed to. Fortunately, raising my voice was all I needed to do - no holds or escorts needed.

By 1:00 things seemed to be getting better. With only 7 of 17 sixth graders in school (the rest on a field trip), I scrapped my social studies lesson and let the students play on computers. Then, I made the big mistake of checking my email.

My wife and the commissioner of education both sent me news of the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Twenty children and six school staff were killed in Connecticut.

Suddenly, my incredible tough day seemed pretty easy. Everyone of my students and staff went home today. I hugged my own children tonight and tucked them in to bed.

So I got spit on.

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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.

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Technology Gardening #leadershipday12 #summerblog12

Leadership Day from Scott McLeod holds a special place in my blogging heart. It was Leadership Day 2009 when I posted to this, or any, blog for the first time. I was working on becoming a connected leader. I had opened a twitter account, @fliegs, a few month earlier, and I was reading education blogs (my blog bundle). Starting my own blog was the next step.

Over the next few years I blogged about the goings on at school, my opinion an all sorts of education topics, and summaries of education books. I wrote for Leadership Day 2010, but missed it last year.

So, here I am in August 2012 and the question is: What should a principal do to increase the amount of technology integration in school?

A principal needs to nurture the integration of technology. Nurturing means to provide the right environment for technology integration to grow. Teachers need to feel comfortable taking risks, the students need access to decent (or, dare I say, the best) equipment, the network needs to be robust, and the internet needs to be fast and stable. In other words, we need to prepare the soil.

Once things start to grow, we need to tend to them carefully. Of course tomatoes need different care than potatoes; lettuce is handled very differently than peas; squash and onions need totally different amounts of fertilizer (says my wife). Now, if I were far more ambitious (and did not have a board meeting earlier tonight), I would take this analogy way too far by describing what kind of adult learner compares to each of the aforementioned vegetables. Instead, I will point out that some teachers need only play around with technology to learn it well. Others want some direct instruction then off they go. Still others need step-by-step handholding until they are comfortable. Principals need to differentiate the professional training just like a gardener differentiates the care of the plants.

It is at this point that my garden analogy totally falls apart. Principals need to choose the right moment to shift from nurturing to expecting. While the peas on the faculty have already been integrating tech, often for years, the beets finished some PD and got started. On the other hand carrots take a long time to germinate and then grow (not sure how carrots play into this, told you the analogy fell apart). Anyway, two-thirds or more of the teachers are integrating technology. One way to get some of the remaining third growing, I mean using tech, is for the principal to set the expectation. Sometimes we have to quit nurturing and start expecting. Try telling a row of corn that you expect it to grow without fertilizer this year - this analogy is busted.

Another technique that principals often use to encourage technology integration is to model its use. I and many other principals integrate technology into our practice daily. We demonstrate classroom integration ideas into faculty meetings. I have been trying to convince my wife that the best way to get peaches to grow in Vermont is for her to show the peach trees how to grow here. I'm not yet sure that modeling is going to work in this case (in addition, I'm not yet sure that my wife has ever listened to a single word of my gardening advice).

In all good gardens, harvesting the fruits of our labors is the best part. Watching the cucumbers working on a dynamic lesson using all sorts of innovative technology designed by their teachers is as good as serving a salad of only locally grown students. Or something like that.



P.S. No vegetables were harmed in the writing of this blog.

P.P.S. Future blog post: how to avoid getting blight

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Time to Put My Money Where My Standards Are #Summerblog12 #SBG

#9 in the Summer 2012 Blogging Challenge, #Summerblog12

Traditional Gradebook

So, I've mentioned that I will be teaching sixth grade social studies this coming school year (Read about it here, here, and here). While I am still preparing to unveil the topics and structure of the class, I am ready to talk briefly about grading.

In the past, I mean the distant past, when I last taught seventh grade social studies, I used a pretty traditional point system for grading. Every assignment was worth points, and students could earn points by getting work in on time, by completing it at all, by following a scoring guide or rubric. Wrapped up in all this was the idea that the grade could show both learning and all sorts of habits (completion, participation, effort, etc.) While I made a big deal about everyone starting off with 100% to encourage a positive start, I took points off for late papers and gave zeros for missed assingments. I rationalized that I gave the students every opportunity to get a good grade.




Now, I've got to practice what I've been preaching since I've left the classroom (I wrote about grading here and here). First to go, the zero. Gone. Not going to give one. Next out is points for every assignment.




Here's how it will work, a new system that I just created. I will call it Standards Based Grading (Full disclosure: I did not create this at all). For this year, I will be using the Vermont Grade Expectations for 5/6 Social Studies and the Common Core State Standards for Reading in Social Studies. I will identify one or more of the standards for every assignment. Then, the PowerTeacher gradebook will allow me to assign a score for each standard used in that assignment. I will report much more about PowerTeacher grade book after I've used it for a while.




Some questions that I still have to answer.

1. Should the term grade be based on an average of standards, the last assessment of that standard or the last three?
2. What do I do about missing work (more about a school wide initiative later)?
3. How will I account for compliance reporting (homework, participation, etc.)?
4. What are the other pitfalls?

So, I plan to go whole hog into Standards Based Grading; putting my money where my mouth is.

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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.

 

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