Becoming an eTeacher

We do a lot of talking about becoming 21st Century School Communities, and breaking the mold of the 19th Century factory model of instruction, advocated by our politicians. Instead of a long blog post, this morning, I am sharing the following link with you. I came across it this morning and I believe it is an excellent site for teachers to develop an "eTeacher" mentality in approaching 21st Century instruction.

I highly recommend it as a tool for faculty, interested in learning and pushing back against outdated learning methods.

https://sites.google.com/site/becominganeteacher/home

NASCAR and Professional Learning Networks

I had a great day on Saturday, January 14, 2012. I took advantage of the Florida sunshine and spent the day at the Daytona International Speedway observing the NASCAR Pre-season Thunder; the warm-up trials for the teams and drivers preparing for the upcoming Daytona 500 on February 26. After being allowed to pull into the infield and wandering over to the fan observation deck over the various team garages I had a first row vantage point to watch the heart and soul of NASCAR racing from the pit areas.

All the big names in racing were there: Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Danica Patrick, Dale Jr, and all the other drivers that race these cars to unbelievable limits. But, there were hundreds of other people as well, furiously working on cars, adjusting, measuring, adapting, analyzing, conferring, re-adjusting and trying again. These people are the heart and soul of the teams that make the cars and drivers do all of those unbelievable things, like drive in tandem at 200+ mph., win races, and earn more points for the competition.

Spending a day watching this activity has reinforced my belief that we as educators and school leaders can learn much from NASCAR. Here is what I think we can take with us when we confront our schools and seek to improve student achievement.

1. Team work makes it happen. Many people need to be involved in the educational planning for a student's achievement. Planning and conferring, adjusting, adapting and scheduling for needs, must take place for all students, and not just the special ed child for problem student.
2. Teams use data analysis to assess performance and make a formative decision for a student's needs. In NASCAR, each car is a veritable integrated computer system that has every system, component, and part monitored by team members to determine where more efficient adjustments will be necessary. The same mode of learning should occur in schools, for every child.
3. While the teacher of record is important, supervisors and administrators must oversee the team to ensure oversight and planning is optimal for the student's needs. NASCAR uses a system of a crew chief that oversees the team, and the driver of record implements the work direction, but is responsible for the outcome.
4. Finally, when the race is over, teams are not punishing themselves for losing the race, they go back to the drawing board and redesign the effort for the next race. In schools, we cannot allow a student to keep a failing grade as the final outcome on their record. We need to go back to square one and figure it out again and ensure the student has all the resources necessary to win the race.

For those people that have been following my previous blog posts, you understand my passion for NASCAR. There is so much we could admire and use from this experience but the truth is still the same. Our students are running a race and we need to be the pit crew for each and every child to run that race well.

Great teachers make a difference

Recently, I have become quite reflective of my life and experiences in education. I made a list of all the teachers I had as a student, and began a simple exercise in remembering as much as I could about each one, and the significant contributions they made, if any, to my life, and where I ended up as a school superintendent (now retired).

After spending a significant part of my day listing and jotting down something about each person, it became apparent that a pattern was emerging among teachers that made a significant contribution in changing my life at key times. For instance, there was a music teacher in high school that had a special way at taking a group of city kids and turning them into a remarkable musical ensemble. His perseverance and dedication were key in my decision to become a teacher.

There was also a math teacher that recognized my struggles in learning geometry and trigonometry. His focus and commitment pushed me to pass and accomplish myself to graduate from the course. And, there are a slew of other teachers that never gave up, and worked to see students succeed. Their dedication and commitment were instrumental in achieving ultimate satisfaction in a career, the success of their students.

There can be no mistaking the fact that a good teacher makes all the difference in the lives of students. Most recently, a research study was revealed that indicated this very fact.

From an article appearing in the NY Times: "It turns out that the effects of high value-added teachers in grade school continued to reverberate into adulthood,". Students who spent even one year in grade school in the classroom of a teacher in the top 25 percent of the district were more likely to attend college (and a better college), less likely to be a teenage mother and ultimately earned a higher income as an adult.

The research study involved over a million students from specific areas around the country and using testing scores from standardized assessments as well as evaluation of teacher criteria and instructional strengths, the significance of the study was outstanding. Great teachers create great value – perhaps several times their annual salaries – and that test score impacts are helpful in identifying such teachers.

Great teachers make a difference. As school leaders we need to seek them out, encourage them, support them and reward them for a job well done.

Chetty, R., Friedman, J. & Rockoff, J. (December, 2011). THE LONG-TERM IMPACTS OF TEACHERS:
TEACHER VALUE-ADDED AND STUDENT OUTCOMES IN ADULTHOOD. Executive Summary of National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 17699, December 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2012 at http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/va_exec_summ.pdf

Lowrey, A. (January 6, 2012). Big study links good teachers to lasting gain. New York Times. Retrieved January 11, 2012 at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/education/big-study-links-good-teachers-to-lasting-gain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

Marostica, L. (January 10, 2012). New study confirms great teachers change lives. Deseret News. Retrieved January 11, 2012 at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700214018/New-study-confirms-great-teachers-change-lives.html

Lectures at night, “homework” during the day.

I will never forget the story of a high school student in the district I just retired from, being bored with a lecture from a professorial teacher, and quite sure he was making errors in his data on the topic at hand, used her smart phone to disprove the teacher's lecture. She snuck her phone out of her back pack and researched the data that proved her contention, the teacher was making up data. 

Another time, as a supervising superintendent, I was walking down the hallway of our middle school and saw two boys reacting to something they were looking at on their smart phone. Seeking to find out what the gist of their discussion was about, I crept up closely behind their backs to discover they were actually discussing the Roger Clemons deposition they were reading off the NY Times. 

Both examples demonstrate the insanity of continuing to assume that kids are clueless about information, and they should be viewed as a sponge, ready to absorb information only provided via a "master lecturer"/teacher.

This week, I read an interesting editorial in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, that demonstrates my opinion about this kind of a teacher. It caused me to fall back on my never-ending appeal to move our 19th Century instructional models into a 21st Century mindset, once again. 

"Just months after the National Center for Education Statistics released its devastating portrait of a nation where less than one-third of public school children have proficiency in geography, a college professor lamented to me that his recent teacher graduates were convinced that such knowledge [geography] was unnecessary because GPS systems and Google Earth programs are easily accessible on smartphones." (Cepeda, 2012).

The image of that excerpt, once again presents the ludicrous idea that we should continue teaching children who are being prepared for a 21 st Century future using the tools of 19th Century instruction, namely, lecture, lecture, test, quiz, lecture, homework. This also brings me to remind people that the 21st Century instructional model is needed now, more than ever.

                                                                                                                 (Sheninger, 2011)

Flipping the instructional model is necessary, and school leaders need to begin pressing the model more and more. According to Bergman and Sams (2011),  "One of the greatest benefits of flipping is that overall interaction increases: Teacher to student and student to student.  Since the role of the teacher has changed from presenter of content to learning coach, we spend our time talking to kids.  We are answering questions, working with small groups, and guiding the learning of each student individually."

The idea that teachers become mentors and facilitators, and students become the center of their own learning is not unique, but a model hardly used in public schools, mainly out of ignorance and fear.  "The role of the teacher has changed, to more of a tutor than a deliverer of content, we have the privilege of observing students interact with each other.  As we roam around the class, we notice the students developing their own collaborative groups.  Students are helping each other learn instead of relying on the teacher as the sole disseminator of knowledge." (Bergman & Sams, 2011)

Bennett & Kern (2011) outline what a typical flipped classroom looks like:

• Discussions are led by the students where outside content is brought in and expanded. 
• These discussions typically reach higher orders ofcritical thinking.
• Collaborative work is fluid with students shifting between various simultaneous discussions depending on their needs and interests.
• Content is given context as it relates to real-world scenarios.
• Students challenge one another during class on content.
• Student-led tutoring and collaborative learning forms spontaneously.  
• Students take ownership of the material and use their knowledge to lead one another without prompting from the teacher.
• Students ask exploratory questions and have the freedom to delve beyond core curriculum.
• Students are actively engaged in problem solving and critical thinking that reaches beyond the traditional scope of the course.
• Students are transforming from passive listeners to active learner.

Noted author and futurist, Daniel Pink describes the idea even further, where "instead of lecturing about polynomials and exponents during class time – and then giving his young charges 30 problems to work on at home – the teacher has flipped the sequence. He’s recorded his lectures on video and uploaded them to YouTube for his 28 students to watch at home. Then, in class, he works with students as they solve problems and experiment with the concepts."

Lectures at night, “homework” during the day.

What a unique and refreshing way to get students to be the initiator of learning, motivated to create their future with creativity and innovation.

________

Bennett,B. & , J. Kern, A. Gudenrath, P. McIntosh. (October 11, 2011). The flipped classroom: What does one look like? The Daily Riff. Retrieved January 3, 2012 at http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-what-does-a-good-one-look-like-692.php.

Bergman, J. & A. Sams. (November 8, 2011). How the flipped classroom was born. The Daily Riff.  Retrieved January 3, 2011 at http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/how-the-flipped-classroom-is-radically-transforming-learning-536.php.

Cepeda, E. J. (January 3, 2012). Behind the wheel, under the knife- mobile devices are here to stay. The News-Journal. Daytona Beach, FL. Retrieved January 3, 2012 at www.news-journalonline.com.

Pink, D. (September 10, 2010). Think Tank: Fliip-thinking- the new buzz word sweeping the US.  The Telegraph. Retrieved January 3, 2012 at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/7996379/Daniel-Pinks-Think-Tank-Flip-thinking-the-new-buzz-word-sweeping-the-US.html

Sheninger, E. (August 8, 2011). An open letter to principals: Five leadership strategies for the new year. Edutopia.  Retrieved January 3, 2012 at http://www.edutopia.org/blog/principals-leadership-eric-sheninger?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=5leadershipstratgiesforthenewyear

The Flipped Classroom [infographic]. Retrieved on January 3, 2012 at http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/

BE

Well, we are now over the hump of a new calendar year. 2012 has begun, and we have hopefully completed the long and draining holiday hype that began November 1, 2011 ushering in a new calendar year of hopeful success and challenges. 


This morning I caught this tweet from Tony Robbins that seemed inspirational in forming a renewed outlook for 2012:  

"BE CURIOUS, BE BOLD, BE FAITH FILLED, BE DECISIVE, BE COURAGEOUS, BE STRONG, BE AUTHENTIC, BE PLAYFUL, BE GRATEFUL, BE?1"

What an exciting way to perceive the start for a hopeful start as 21st Century School Leaders. 

Be curious:  start asking questions and inquire what your teachers are thinking, doing and reflecting.

Be bold:  try something new, daring, and different. If you have never experimented with Twitter as a feedback tool for families, students, community members, make it something you do as a new resolution for 2012.

Be faith-filled:  anyone who leads people in organizations must have a faith-based model of inspiration and values. Whether the model comes from the Bible, Koran, Dharma, Stephen Covey, John Wayne, Regis Philbin or from an inspirational movie, prioritize your values; live by a statement of belief and reflect this model in your decision-making and the care you offer your teachers, students, and parents.

Be decisive: nothing frustrates an organization more than a lack of decisiveness; a lack of commitment and movement. Yes, a bad decision may tarnish the emotional bank account from faculty and parents, but at least you will reflect a commitment to a plan of action. And, if it was a bad decision, admit it, show your humanity, learn from it and move on. Your organization will admire you for that.

Be courageous, strong, authentic: as a leader you are a unique individual that needs to work with people, not against them. A courageous leader has the strength to admit failure when a mistake is made. An authentic leader has the strength to listen to people in order to learn, reflect, and understand their concerns, ideas, and feedback.

Be playful: be humorous often and in as many ways as you can find. People love to laugh. They want to smile and have fun in their workplace or learning environment. Create a humorous weekly newsletter. Be bold enough to make a funny remark at a serious moment, and be willing to look ridiculous in order for your organization to discover your humanity and be inspired by you.

Be grateful:  learn to say thank you, often and at every possible opportunity. A favorite phrase I used often in many of my communications with the faculty became a catch phrase that others adapted, as well:

"Thank you for all you do for the children of this community." 

And, the last component of this resolution "Be". Live life to the fullest, and incorporate your actions and beliefs into a commitment for an inspired model of learning for your school community.

Have a great 2012.

________________

1. tonyrobbins. (2011, January 1). In 2012 resolve to: BE CURIOUS, BE BOLD, BE FAITH FILLED, BE DECISIVE, BE COURAGEOUS, BE STRONG, BE AUTHENTIC, BE PLAYFUL, BE GRATEFUL, BE? [Twitter post]. Retrieved January 2, 2011 from http://twitter.com/tonyrobbins

Building Shared Vision

 

School Leaders are constantly challenged to confront the reality of dictates and mandates from a variety of external forces, all in the name of political expediency. But the challenge to the true learning organization is to meet the vision that best affects the learning and achievement of our students.

One of the key components of 21^st Century School Leaders is the concept of ““shared vision””; the ability to create consensus around a plan to implement change and movement toward an impactful objective.

Peter Senge, in his book The Fifth Discipline describes a “shared vision” as "... a force in people's hearts, a force of impressive power....At its simplest level, a “shared vision” is the answer to the question, "What do we want to create?" " A “shared vision” is a picture that everyone in the company carries in their heads and hearts.[1] The “shared vision” serves as a collective objective to move towards in re-creating a school organization.

So what does a “shared vision” do for your school? It converts the school into 'our school'. It creates a sense of commonality and gives coherence to diverse activities. It creates excitement and makes an extraordinary school. It allows everyone to work together. It creates a common identity and a sense of purpose. It encourages new ways of thinking and acting. It gives courage and fosters risk taking and experimentation. Basically without a “shared vision”, that vision you spent time creating is pointless and meaningless. And without a “shared vision” the learning organization/school cannot exist.

The “shared vision” serves several key purposes:

·         It clarifies the general direction for a change and in doing so simplifies the direction of the decisions that must follow

·         It motivates people to move out of their comfort zone, to take the time to develop new skills and work with different levels of resources

·         It coordinates the hundreds of decisions and actions involved in change

 

So, how does a 21^st Century Leader create a “shared vision”? Where does one start?

Step #1: Get the right people on the bus

School organizations are made up of a diverse group of people, and if you had no role in hiring these people, you will be most certainly challenged by the group. But, begin looking through your faculty and staff, and start asking the right questions.

·         Can I work with this person?

·         Will they be adaptable to and collaborative in developing a new vision for the school?

·         How resistant will they be to change?

After you have taken the time to consider the potential each person in your school can offer to the enterprise, start creating a team to work on the vision statement. For the others, start finding a way to get them off the bus- moved out of your building- or developing a plan to reinvigorate their outlook. This may sound heartless, but there is nothing worse than to have an uncooperative, tenured teacher/administrator on your staff.

Step #2: Preparation

Schedule a workday for creating the vision. An off-site location is best, if possible. You want to minimize interruptions, and get people away from their day-to-day environment in order to stimulate creativity.

Consider the use of a neutral "facilitator". That is, someone trained in group process that has no biases or stake in the game. That way, as a leader, you are able sit back and focus on being a participant, and not have to worry about the mechanics of the meeting. Removing yourself as the focal point also helps open up the free flow of open dialog.

Step #3:  Determine appropriate "input" to the vision.

Schedule the meeting far enough ahead of time to allow for preparation. Send out documents to review ahead of time, i.e., relevant research, student achievement data, survey results, or any other information needed to prepare the participants. Establish the expectation that preparation is a must in order to participate, and follow-up to make sure people have done their pre-work. Following up may sound like baby-sitting, but it's also a good excuse to get a feel for where each participant is coming from, plant some seeds, and create a little pre-meeting buzz.

Step #4:  Set the stage.

At the start of the meeting, review the desired outcomes, agenda, process and ground rules. Take extra time here to check for understanding and agreement. Doing this sets the stage for how the rest of the day will flow - you are modeling collaboration and consensus. Going slow here will allow you to go fast for the rest of the day.

Step #5: Create and use a process that ensures full participation, openness, creativity, and efficiency.

A trained facilitator can help you with this, or you can design it yourself. The key is to have a plan and process - you can't just go in and "wing it" like you may be used to doing in a regular meeting. Here's a process that I've used:

- Explain to the team what a vision statement is and why they are important. You might show a few examples.

- Ask the group to imagine what this team, organization, or project could look like 3-5 years from now. What would success look like? What could you achieve? What would they love to achieve? If they were to pick up a newspaper 3-5 years from now, what would the headline say about what this group has accomplished?

- Either individually, in pairs, or in groups of 3-4, have people create those headlines on flip charts. Tell them to include pictures, phrases, or anything else to describe that desired future. Give them about 30 minutes.

- Ask each person or team report out to the larger group. If you are the leader, go last, so you don't bias the rest of the group. This also gives you the opportunity to incorporate other's ideas into your vision.

- The facilitator or leader should be listening for and recording on a flip chart key phrases that describe each vision. This is the time to listen and to ask clarifying questions, but not to evaluate.

- add up up the number of phrases (n), divide by 3, and give everyone that many stickers to "vote" with (n/3). Explain it's not really a decision making vote, it's simply a way to quickly take the temperature of the group and see how much agreement there is.

- Start with phrases that received a lot of vote, discuss, and check for agreement. Do the same thing for phases that received no or few votes, and ask if those items can be crossed off. Work your way to the middle items, using the same process - circle it or cross it off.

- If there are any issues where consensus can't be reached after everyone has had a chance to state their case, then the leader needs to make the final decision.

- You end the meeting with a list of phases that will form the vision statement.

Step # 6:  Do the "grunt-work" off line

Group time should not be wasted creating the vision statement and wordsmithing it to death. The leader can do this off-line, and/or ask for 1-2 volunteers to do it. I've even seen it done during lunch to present back to the team in the afternoon.

Step #7: Talk to the outliers

If there was anyone who disagreed with the output, or who's favorite idea was not incorporated, talk to them privately to make see how they are committed to the vision. Explore ways to make connection of the vision to their interests and needs.

Step #8:  Re-convene the group and review the draft vision statement. 


Step #10:  Review the draft with key extended stakeholders that were not at the meeting.

This is the time to review the vision with other. It's a chance to get input and make it better, and to begin to build a broader coalition of support.

Step #11:  Communicate the vision and begin to make it a reality.

This format is very basic, and there may be other ideas that people have experienced that are much better. But, the main concept is to pursue the development of working through a collaborative process to create that “shared vision”

Here’s hoping that 2012 will be the start of an exciting year to create that “shared vision” and the change you need to enhance learning for your students.

---

[1] Senge, P.M. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.

5 New Years Resolutions for 21stCentury School Leaders

I hate making New Years resolutions, probably because I never end up keeping them!! My all-time worst resolution to break a promise with is losing weight. Oh well, I will keep trying.

But, some resolutions are worth keeping, especially if you base your entire career working with children, in these perilous times. Keeping the faith and maintaining resolutions to guide us through these times makes sense. So here are some resolutions suggested for School Leaders:

1) Experiment with a new 21st Century Instructional concept each week and model it for your faculty, students and the community.
Ken Kay, founder of EdLeader 21 has created the 7 steps for creating a 21st Century school community. It's direct and applicable to any school community leader, and it forms a basis for outlining a step-by-step process for establishing a direction for all school leaders.

1. Adapt your vision of 21st Century vision, outcomes, expectations
2. Create community consensus
3. Align your system.
4. Build professional capacity.
5. Embed the 4 C's in the curriculum.
Critical Thinking
Communication
Collaboration
Creativity
6. Support teachers in the classroom.
7. Improve and innovate. (from EdLeader 21, http://www.edleader21.com/approach.html)

2) Assimilate a mobile device in your supervision and administration of your school/district, and model what you are doing for your building faculty and school community.

Smartphone and tablet technologies are wonderful tools for school leaders to use in leading their school community. Whether using it for observations, dictation, or student attendance and behavior management, mobile technologies have come a long way since the Palm Pilot. I use an iPhone and iPad in my daily work as a superintendent, and I model this for my school community, regularly.

3) Find ways to use social media in your leadership role, and model it for your school community.
Twitter and Facebook are synonymous with mainstream social media, and they become excellent tools for communicating and sharing all that is possible and exciting in our schools. Consider having a Twitter site for your blog, and school activities. Engage the community with Facebook and keep the positive things, and some of the challenging concerns, in front of the community regularly.

4) Write a weekly blog for your school community.
Writing a blog on your 21st Century School Community is a great way to advertise, share information, and live the model of leadership transparency for the community. It helps to know a school administrator has feelings, and ideas, and desires to nurture an open school community.

5) Model, model, model everything and anything for your school community.

Finally, be a model for everything you desire from the members of your school community. Whether it is using mobile technology, PowerPoint, social media, wiki's, portals or blogs. Model the vision, walk the talk.

Here is hoping 2012 will be an exciting your of 21st Century learning and inspiration for your school community.