There's a substitue teacher today!!!!

I recently was performing my duty as department chair for special education and used my planning periods to conduct some walk-thru's on co-teaching.  I attempted to observe three 8th grade team taught classes, two 7th grade and two 6th grade classrooms.  Out of all of these classes, I was able to observe one 6th grade co-taught social studies class with both the special and general education teachers present.  The instruction in this class was very good, but not all of the students were engaged.  In all of the other classrooms, the general education teacher was absent with substitute teachers (seriously) and the special education decided to pull their children out into a small group.  Now, what's wrong with this picture????  One, the students are out of placement based on their IEP and two, what about the general education students?  I was so frustrated with the behavior of the special education teachers.  It's enough for the general education teacher to be absent, but for the special education teacher to leave the assigned classroom to me is despicable.  In my opinion, this is the perfect opportunity for the special education teacher to build a rapport, help keep order in the class and simply teach the class.  Does anyone else experience this at their school?  How do we change the culture of there's a substitute?  How and when does administration hold all teachers accountable for performing their duties?  Please help!!!

My eyes are bigger than my stomach...

This is one of my mom’s go-to catchphrases from my childhood; I can still hear the knowing way in which she’d say it.

I guess I still have an issue with loading my figurative plate up.

We can walk into our schools with one plan in mind, and by the end of the day we have done about twenty laps around both floors of the building, but still not accomplished that one task that we set out to do. I read this piece about the importance of mindfulness in leadership, and I know that mindfulness is necessary for everyone, but I believe a principal must be mindful about how he or she leads or the school will go nowhere because it will be very difficult for his or her faculty to be mindful. 

There are a lot of areas in the realm of a school’s leadership that interest me. My interests cover the gamut of LKES standards. If I had to identify my strengths, they would probably be in instructional planning, planning and assessment, and professionalism. My immediate interests, outside of my strengths, would focus on school climate.

From my vantage point, that of someone with his foot still in the realm of the classroom, there are so many things that I want to work on: authentic assessment, blended learning, collaboration, standards-based grading and instruction…the list goes on. I know that it is in my own best interest to choose one or two areas and focus on just them, but how does one determine which is the top priority? Do I need to know the school vision before I can choose an area of focus? What happens if my school does not yet have a vision?

I know that this is different depending on my role. As an AP, I will need to make determine my areas of focus base off of how they align with the school’s vision. As a principal, I will need to make sure that the school’s vision and mission are relevant to the school’s current context in order for others to approach their respective duties and responsibilities in a mindful manner.

My Major Project

When I set my goals for the major project over the summer, they seemed so important and game-changing for our organization.  I read the Data Wise textbook, and my eyes were opened to the magical world of data.  I just knew it would make a huge positive impact for our students and staff.  I couldn't wait to implement my major project!

Then the school year happened.

It turns out I had no idea what my job would actually be like on a regular basis.  I was completely green when I set those goals.  I didn't foresee our school weathering a serious behavior crisis in which staff spent more time intervening than teaching.  I didn't know the renovation of our new space would quadruple in price when the county inspected it, then get drawn out into the new year.  I couldn't have anticipated a staff member quitting mere days before pre-planning, leaving us understaffed for 10 weeks.  I was unaware that the director who came before me had made severe financial errors that would demand my full attention in order to get the school back on track.

So... as it happened, the scope of my major project was more than a little ambitious and idealistic.  I feel like a total newb.  An amateur.  A rookie.  Sigh.  This has been a hard lesson learned in realistic goal-setting.  Being a first-year school leader is no picnic.

The Acronym Challenge!

Ok group! So I have a challenge for us this week. It is in fact the same challenge I put myself through anytime I am bored in a training or PD. I call it the acronym challenge. The way it works is that you have to write a complete sentence using only acronyms from education. Here is an example. "EIP students don't have IEPs because they are still in SST." Got it? Okay, so not entirely acronyms minus some verbage, but you get the idea. Here are some more example I pulled out of my PD notebook...

"How do the F&P and MAP scores compare to SLO and CAAS data?"
"Does the SABO binder have the FLP and FOCUS budgets in it?"
"Do students with ADHD or ADD need to have an OHI/504?"
"I have no idea which reading score to take a DIBELS, DRA, STAR, AR, or LEXILE?"

To guide you on your quest for domination, here is some resources with frequently used acronyms. Do your worst!

http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/acronyms-in-education/

http://www.nwaea.k12.ia.us/documents/filelibrary/pdf/alphabet_soup.pdf

A Room with a View!

This week my post is more of a reflection than anything else. Five years ago, if you had asked me where would be today, I NEVER would have told you leadership. A funny thing happened. After getting a new principal a few years ago, I decided that I was tired of us “spinning our wheels” year after year. I suggested we do a Read-a-thon as a fundraiser. I agreed to head it up, figure it out, get it rolling, and see what happened. What happened was $18,000! The most money we had ever raised in a fundraiser. That year I was awarded “teacher of the year.” Those two events alone gave me enough confidence and courage to believe in myself and think that I could make a positive change at my school. I then went on to become our instructional coach and was able to really see a change in myself and the way I looked at education. All that to say….the past two years have really taught me how to see the “bigger picture”; to see the school as a whole instead of a grade-level “part.” My eyes have been opened to so many things that I never realized as a teacher. There are days when I sit in my office and wish that a teacher could trade places with me; if just for a few days. What a perspective! As I read over the blog posts from the past few months, it seems as though we all have the same issues, problems, people, and challenges at our school. I didn’t think that was possible, but relieved to know that I’m not in this alone. I think that teaching has become such a challenging endeavor that we seriously need to look at creating opportunities for teachers to see the “bigger picture.” Leadership Quality is an excellent article about not just seeing the bigger picture, but ensuring that others see it as well. There is a story in this article called “The Three Stonecutters” (well worth the time to read). The story begs the question: are we just in this for our own individual purpose or is there a greater reason why we do the work we do? This article was very encouraging to me and reminded me why I am in my current position and how I should desire to share and take our work to the next level!

I think I actually have a good idea this time!

I realized while doing my literature review paper that the subject of my project may have hit on an untapped market in special education. It’s kind of exciting, so I wanted to share!

While doing the research for my paper, no matter what search criteria I put into ERIC, journals, blogs, Google, anywhere, I could not find many articles on my topic (using online tools for measuring progress for IEP goals and objectives). Which seems so odd to me since it’s 2015 and technology is such a huge focus in schools, and in education in general.

Funny thing is that one of the articles I found on ERIC also mentioned my exact same frustration, and those authors could not find many helpful articles either (Woodward & Rieth, 1997). Since they were searching 18 years ago, I find it highly ironic (and fairly disturbing) that in 2015 I’m having the same problem! It’s also pretty awful that this has been a frustrating part of a special ed teacher’s job for at least that long (although I’m sure this problem has been around even longer than that). Woodward and Rieth also frustratedly mention that online tools were not being utilized for monitoring goals and objectives progress, way back in 1997! And I’m sure that the tools they had available at that time pale in comparison to the ones we have at our disposal now. Certainly, in 18 years technology has advanced and a myriad of other tools are available for this particular use! However, it doesn’t seem that many people are using them for this purpose. Which, again, seems ironic.

All of this makes me excited, though! With all of the tumult and stressors I’ve been dealing with throughout this semester at work, it’s a nice cap on things to finish out this semester with something positive. Plus, I like the idea of being a trailblazer! Whether or not I actually am is kind of irrelevant to me. If schools are practicing a similar purpose to what I’m aiming to accomplish, there certainly is not much research being conducted along these lines. Or maybe it’s just not being published (since apparently it takes years to get something published). Still, it’s exciting to think that I could actually be doing something that will help thousands of special ed teachers and hundreds of districts. Let me dream!

Sssshhh!

I read an incredible article on Facebook a few months ago about introverts. Suddenly, the frustrations I have felt my entire life were clearly articulated and could be understood by all. Unfortunately, I could not locate the article but this one comes pretty close 11 things introverts want you to know. No I am not cold, aloof, a snob or sneaky, I'm just an introvert. I love people, having fun and am pretty adventurous (have you canoed the everglades, gone whitewater rafting, rock climbed or eaten alligator?) See what I mean?  Now what does this have to do with school leadership?

I find myself at work avoiding certain people and places (including the front office where my office is located). In some conversations I feel like I am being talked AT not talked to.  Some people go on and on about what I feel are menial things and it absolutely drains all of my energy. I find it rude to cut people off so I have a hard time ending conversations that have gone on too long. In some instances I start moving away or do my best to politely end the conversation. Sometimes, saying too much starts to distort the point and I leave the conversation with more questions than answers.

In terms of my leadership I guess this is two fold. First, I am having a hard time being "visible" when some people make me want to hide. I know that small talk is important to develop rapport and I really like talking to people. However, I want to be able to get work done and talk with a lot of different people throughout the day without having my time monopolized by a few individuals. Second, how can I be "heard" when I have difficulty "lecturing" people or demanding air time from more vocal people. Even when I was a teacher I never talked for more than 15 minutes at a time and saw myself more as a facilitator of learning allowing the students to work together, ask questions and move around the room. Doesn't the average person have a 7 minute attention span anyway?  

Okay thanks for your insight as always. I hope you enjoyed a much needed vacation. I am slowly emerging from solitary confinement (not really, I spent time with family) and looking forward to a fresh start.

Balancing Act

The latest difference I've noticed between leading a private school rather than a public school is the constant balancing act between my internal and external roles.  That is by no means to say that either (public school or private school leadership) is easier or harder than the other, just different.  I'm sure all leaders have their own balancing acts going on!  This is just mine.

By "internal" I mean the inner-workings of the school: operational management, instructional leadership for teachers, climate-building, classroom observations, facility maintenance, and keeping up any school-wide initiatives we've started.  

By "external" I mean the community and outside stakeholder aspects: fundraising, networking, getting our school's name on other people's radars, letting the world know we exist and are currently enrolling, finding school fairs to present at, diversifying our revenue streams, securing long-term funding, and cultivating community partnerships.

There's also a gray area in between the internal and external, where I also have to keep our school board informed, engaged, and activated.  I'm the connecting thread between the board and the school, so I have to make sure information flows freely between the two.  Getting the board engaged is a whole other struggle I will probably write about soon. :)

I am starting to understand why so many of the more established private schools that I've visited lately have so many administrators.  I used to think, "wow, those schools are so top-heavy," whereas I now see that running a private school is a lot like running a business, so there are more necessary administrative positions: development directors, operations directors, finance directors, community directors, general administrative directors... the list goes on.  Given the demands I'm learning that my position entails, and the many hats I'm attempting to wear, I wish there were about 4 more of me to share the load.

How do you all strike a balance?  How do you maintain sanity while wearing way too many hats?

Cross your fingers!

I am paid out of Title One, thus one of my yearly goals is to try and recover some if not all of my salary through grant writing. Sometimes I can, but usually I can't. The Governor's Office of Student Achievement is sponsoring Innovation in Mathematics grants (here it is for all parties https://gosa.georgia.gov/innovation-fund) for up to $150,000 - that would be about three Kolt Bloxsons. After reviewing the criteria, I knew exactly what I wanted to do but am saddened because I have only won a couple of grants and this is kind of a biggie.

My overall goal is to equip at least one teacher on every grade level at every school in my cluster with a Mathematics and Science endorsement. This strategy would not only increase the pedagogical content knowledge of each grade level at each school but it would also equip grade level teams with a persons capable of designing rigorous, standards-based matheamtics. This could be huge for us, and we kind of need it. By sponoring both a Mathematics and Science endorsement for my local cluster of schools (APS is operating on a charter system, cluster model with the clusters basically being high school feeders), my ultimate goal is to increase teacher retention by formally training them with endorsement classes, and improve student growth and achievement. Get it?

The problem I faced was that no one, not a single person wanted to help me write this grant :( so I feel a bit like David and Goliath and I am hoping that I did a decent job with my detailing of budgets (thanks  School Operations team for your support!) and long term action plans. If anyone would like to help or even give me feedback, I would truly apprecaite it. If not, well, cross your fingers! :)

Tired of Trying

Greetings colleagues,

Let me get straight to the point: What do you do when you are extremely frustrated with a passive-aggressive, slightly rude and curt administrator?

I know, I know.  I have done many of the things you will suggest:  Build Positive relationships,  request a meeting etc.  I originally felt this was a personal issue with me.  However, I am starting to realize that this is the way this administrator is.

Teachers walk on egg-shells just to keep his or her sanity.  However, I am big on respect and no matter what position I am in or what you position you are in, I believe in a working relationships and mutual respect.

I am to the point, I much rather you not speak to me (although this isn't possible) or I should seek other employment options.  

As a newbie to the building, I spend some time actually trying to build relationships with the faculty and staff.  In doing this, I know who I can depend on, or who needs more encouragement, but one thing I cant do is be disrespected because you feel you are superior.

Tell me your thoughts.

Non-Negotiables

Three years ago when we first began this journey at McClarin with the School Improvement Grant, the admin team set up certain non-negotiables for teachers' classrooms. There were items like:

• Word walls
• Data Boards with results of diagnostic and mid-term along with goals for each class
• Standards Board with standard, EQ, opening, work session, closing, etc.

The coaching team (ELA coach, math coach, grad coach, IRR teacher, and School Inprovement Specialist) created a "non-negotiable" walk through template which was used to monitor teacher compliance. As the grant has progressed, we have moved into rigor and relevance and personalized learning. Through this process we stopped monitoring the non-negotiables and starting monitoring other things.

What has happened as a result? What gets monitored gets done! Suddenly teachers' classrooms are more rigorous and relevant, but the non-negotiables have fallen to the wayside. How do you balance monitoring what you need done with the time you have to get it done? I don't want to create a focus walk document that asks me to check off all the non-negotiables and look for rigor and rtelevance and look for personalized learning and everything else we need to see.

When do teachers internalize the need for the non-negotiables making them an everyday happening? We talked about their importance and reviewed the research and yet, they don't get done. We even built in an extra planning time for teachers this year after hearing them say they needed more time. It is just frustrating when teachers give up on the things that the school has decided are important.

Vantage Point

We don’t always agree. I get that. I have arrived at a point in life where I understand and appreciate agreeing to disagree with another person and it not negatively impacting our relationship - especially those relationship in the context of the profession.

Once we have come to some sort of agreement, regardless of how much each of us agreed or disagreed, every person involved in coming to the decision should abide by it. At the start of the school year, this was something that the leadership team agreed upon.

Unfortunately, it’s not what’s happening.

The question that I ask myself is: when I’m the principal, will I want someone to come to me when he/she is made aware that a group decision is not being abided by everyone?

Of course, I ask this because this is my predicament now, but it’s not an isolated incident so much as it is a recurring pattern. I am the one who is aware that the manner in which information is being disseminated to a specific department is not conducive to where the principal wants our school to go. Up until this point, I have made indirect comments to the principal regarding my observations; however, I have not explicitly stated that this person/group of people are not abiding by the leadership team’s decisions.

Perhaps if I was an AP I’d feel differently about sharing this information with the principal - or an AP - but as someone who is trying to move into administration, I have felt it best to just keep my mouth shut. When I am in a situation in which someone seems to be working counter to what was agreed upon, I do attempt to present to that individual a more positive spin on whatever's being discussed, but this does not always work to my advantage.

In regards to my question, I would want to know. I’m that type of person. I like to know as much as possible about every situation. Also, as a situation like the one mentioned deals with the culture of the school, especially one in which the principal is attempting to move the culture from toxic to healthy, I would want that information; in fact, Kaplan and Owings (2013) characterize a toxic school culture one in which “[a]dministrators and faculty are unwilling to change[,  and i]nterpersonal tone is oppositional and prickly” (p.14). I want to know what I’m working up against, not to even the score, but to know what I need to put into place in order to address concerns and/or diffuse situations. On the flip side, I also understand that sometimes those who readily share information, not necessarily in an attempt to stir the figurative pot, are perceived as tattletales. 

That being said, what would you want? 

Fun Factor

I'm keeping it simple this week and I'm posting about having FUN! Amid all the standards, evaluations, lesson plans, curriculum maps, budget restraints, discipline problems, parent complaints, standardized testing, student growth assessments, safety concerns, time and organization constraints, collaboration challenges, and a multitude of meetings there must be some fun added somewhere, right?

This week a colleague and I took on the challenge to "shake it up" at our school. We are on a mission to boost morale, build relationships, and just have fun every once in a while. We put together a staff Christmas party, a school wide door decorating challenge, and a family story night where students and staff come in their pjs, drink hot cocoa, eat cookies, and listen to holiday stories. Our principal has even agreed to be a reader! Hoping we don't crash and burn, but excited nonetheless!

Our goal: to show our students, parents, and staff that we care, that we want to be positive, and that in times of stress we want to be able to depend on each other to help stay afloat! I felt a little defeated this week, but I'm focusing my energy on creating some fun at work!

What events or things at your school make your job fun? What things do your coworkers look forward to every year? What really lights your fire at work? Please share ideas that have been successful at your school. I'm looking to keep this going all year.

The following link is pretty basic, yet I think the basics are what's important in  Creating a Joyful School Staff!

Time Management Suggestion

A friend of mine challenged me a few weeks ago to do something in reference to time management, so I thought I’d pass it along to see if it can help anyone else. After explaining (okay…MAYBE I was complaining…but who’s counting! J), that I consistently feel like I don’t have enough time in the day or week to get the important things done, he suggested I take a little time to tally my daily and weekly activities from my calendar, and rank them by percentage of time spent to see where my time is going. At first, I balked at the idea, because, in my head, I know exactly how I spend my time. But, I did it anyway. Mainly thinking I would prove him wrong!

Well, I’m almost embarrassed to explain the results, but, I will definitely say this one thing: it’s not what I expected! It’s SO easy to get caught up in everything day-to-day, and think you’re focusing on what’s important that you also lose sight of the big picture. I broke my calendar down into these categories of tasks: administrative (discipline, admin meetings, etc.), special ed (IEP meetings, parent meetings, referral meetings, etc.), instructional (anything having to do with helping teachers or students), county stuff (county meetings/trainings, etc.), and miscellaneous (anything else). Special ed and county were the two biggest categories that ranked in my calendar for the two weeks I calculated. That’s where the vast majority of my time went for those two weeks. And after flipping through the previous months in my calendar, I’m sure the results would be similar if I would go back and calculate other weeks.

So I’m issuing an open challenge to everyone who reads this to do the same, calculate your calendar!

Dr. Kafele tried to tell me this in our first Twitter chat; however, it didn’t make as much sense to me then as it does now. He talks on pages 4-5 of The Principal 50 about being an “intentional” leader; one that is not “random, reactive, or haphazard.” This simple task of calculating my calendar really made it clear to me, in black and white (so I can’t argue with it), that I need to do a better job of intentionally organizing my time to NOT be random, reactive, and haphazard and to be more instructionally-minded. I organize my days/weeks with many meetings, and my time is always productive, whether it be meeting with a parent or scheduling time to debrief with a teacher. However, I need to think of how I can better use my time. It’s not that I’ve been wasting time or scheduling things that don’t matter in the overall scheme of the school; however, I need to get better at intentional scheduling. I can see that this will be a journey for me. After all, it took me almost two months to only partially grasp what Dr. Kafele meant. Maybe I’ll fully get it in the near future. So…until then…to be continued at a later date…

The 9th Leadership Standard

One major difference I've noticed between leading a private school vs. leading a public school is the necessity of fundraising for the organization's survival.  Fundraising is what I've come to refer to as the "9th Leadership Standard" that I have to keep in mind, in addition to the 8 LKES.  While Standard 4 (Organizational Management) emphasizes the importance of financial management, and Standard 8 (Communication & Community Relations) covers community involvement, fundraising seems to take both of those to a whole new level.  

As someone with an education background and not a business or public administration background, fundraising does NOT come naturally to me.  I feel pretty out of my element and in over my head.  Especially daunting is our 2015-16 fundraising goal of $300,000: the highest fundraising target in Cloverleaf history by five times.  This year we have to cover our usual operations deficit, plus an extensive unexpected renovation project on our new space.

It seems there's a common misconception out there that private schools are rolling in money since they collect tuition.  I am here to testify that that is not the case for all private schools!  Money is tight, and we have to scrape by.  Tuition does not cover the full cost of operating, so fundraising has to make up the rest.  We also want to lower tuition so that a high-quality special education can be available to even more students with disabilities, regardless of financial circumstances.

As I've been visiting other schools on a weekly basis this year and meeting with other school leaders, I received the helpful advice to "use my resources."  The school leader told me I don't have to know everything or be good at everything, because I can reach out to others in my circles that can help with the things I lack.  Fundraising is one of those things, so I was lucky enough to find out that one of our Cloverleaf parents has pretty extensive fundraising experience, so she agreed to chair our Annual Fund Committee.  A friend of a friend of our business coordinator is a professional fundraising specialist, so she volunteered 2 hours of her time to give us direction at our campaign kick-off meeting.  Thank goodness for the variety of skills in our extended community!  Wish us luck-- we have 2 months to raise $50,000 of our $300,000 goal-- it's going to be one whirlwind of an annual fund campaign!

Hamster Wheel

My school has run successfully since being established 14 years ago. Very little needs to be changed or invented to keep the school running smoothly. With the HUGE exception of testing coordinator, my job responsibilities have been fairly simple to learn. I handle testing, discipline, community/university partnerships, new teachers, teacher observations and staff duties. I also handle other programs and responsibilities as they arise. We have very few discipline issues, and most of our teachers are experienced and effective. Some faculty members have been in education longer than I have been alive and many people have been a part of the school community much longer than I have. All this to say my school is doing just fine but therein lies the problem.

I see myself as a solutionist, an innovator, a creative genius (I know that's pushing it) but have found myself just spinning the hamster wheel. Some days faster, some days slower and some days with the help of my school leaders but everyday spinning the hamster wheel. Is this the plight of all administrators or is this just specific to my school? I find it very difficult to do the same things over and over. I change my recipes, my route home and my "favorites" quite often. I find the treadmill offensive, addictions absurd and repetition a complete bore. Is this the plight of all administrators or is this just specific to my school? Maybe my early teaching career tricked me into thinking everyday in education was a new adventure. I taught chemistry, biology, AP Biology, forensic science and scientific research (my principal and I made that up) in my first 4 years of teaching and then switched to 5th grade and 7th grade over the next few years. I assume most people prefer to have one prep and teach the same thing every year but I absolutely LOVED teaching different subjects and students and starting over!!

This year, the GSU program allowed me the opportunity to develop a new teacher support program to address an issue I noticed at my school. Maybe this is my chance to jump off the hamster wheel and dig my own trail in the sand. I can push this new teacher program as far as I am willing to take it (or until my leaders shut me down). Maybe I am the change I wish to see! The more I reflect, the more confident I am in my ability to stop waiting for fires to break out and start creating my own sparks. Maybe this situation isn't so bad after all. Just get off the hamster wheel and chart a new path!

I know this was just a rant but suggestions and feedback greatly appreciated!

What's the purpose???

Twice a month, the Leadership Team at my school have leadership meetings.  It comes up all the time that all content teachers are not on the same page with giving common assessments.  There are certain contents that give common assessment every 4 to 6 weeks as expected, those contents that give them once a year, and those that don't give them at all.  This is very frustrating to me, but I blame admin for not making everyone accountable.  If there are no checks and balances,  why would teachers do what is expected?  I know that valuable information can be gained from these assessment, but why is it that some teachers don't care.  I have to admit that I have been on a team that did not consistently give common assessments, and I always go feedback from my IST (Instructional Support Teacher) about not having common assessment in my data notebook.  I could do my own common assessment, but that would defeat the purpose of knowing how my students perform against other students.  How do we change this mindset of teachers that data like this drives instruction?  

Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

It seems every year, school districts seemingly change practices that leave school administration with their hands tied.  In addition, school administrators require some many demands of teachers that eventually leave them burned out and just trying to stay afloat.

As the new RTI/SST Specialist,  I have had my work cut out for me learning the everyday logistics of the position.  Not only that, I have also had the joy of trying to clean up the SST Process at the school, as well as support teachers in completing the Progress Monitoring Data.

In the same breath, I understand how overwhelmed, frustrated and bogged down they feel, however, I can not give anyone a pass because, I too, am trying to keep a job.  

I have exhausted my options to ensure this task is met.  I have given suggestions on how and when to collect the data, how small group time is a great time to collect data, as well as how to enter the data and be done with it.  I have sent personal emails and had face to face conversations with teachers about any support they may need or remind them to enter the data.    I have even sent my AP an email to send the teachers an email to remind them of their duties and responsibilities.   All was pointless.

Now I am stuck between a Rock and a Hard place... What to do?

Ms. Kolt "Are you seriously asking me about data right now?" Bloxson

Let me make one thing clear - I really love data. I mean I just like that it can reveal trends or findings that you might possibly overlook. I am also not the type of person who makes decisions based off of data alone, because I like to be well informed before any decision needs to be made. With that being said, we recevied our GA Milestones data back... No beuno. Here is a tidbit for you: in one grade leel, only 10% of our students were proficient in mathematics. 10% of the ENTIRE grade! That means 1 out of 10 kids is operating on grade level. The reasons why this bothers me so much is that my teachers are WORKING, they are tirelessly asking how can they improve, how can students be challenged, how can they get prepared?  And, I just want to pick their heads up today but the data makes that a little harder to do. So, I suppose I have to go back to the drawing board with our data. What standards did we miss? What domains were the lowest? How can I provide more professional learning opportunities? My mind is spinning looking for things to do and uncover but I think I know my next steps...

1. We have to start using common assessments.
Only in certain pockets are our teachers really collabroating, other than that they sort of work on their own islands. We have to get them to talk across the grade level and maybe even see what the others are doing. This will allow for standardization before standardization. It can also help produce a richer more reliable data set on our students. This brings me to step 2...

2. I can't be the only one who loves reads data.
They hate it. They see my charts and just look away. But, I think that has to do with how data has been used in the past. I suppose I have to be very upfront, clear, and obejctive with HOW I am using that data, invite them along to do it with me, and then support them as they do it alone. This being my second year at my school, I think that they feel more comfortable with me than they did previously. I think that this is my opportunity to strike!

3. Review my data and my observations together...
What trends across both the quant. and qual. do I see? How might they compliment or differ from one another? As a coach, I really get a chance to get in rooms and do some nitty gritty work. I just have to make sure that the teachers UNDERSTAND my findings to the depth that I do (a lot of times I think they think I am just that nerdy math chick).

4. Have an agenda and push it.
This is my work to own. I have to really find one thing, one area to focus on and push it for a while. I think I might be too scattered in my steps and things I want them to try and do. But, if I focus on one type of instruction, one task, one area and get them on board, I should be in better shape.

Thoughts folks?

Fish!

Who wouldn't want to work under the Fish! philosophy?! It's all about having a good time while at work, but have you worked in a high school recently? So many teachers can't step out of the box they are in and aren't willing to wear a different hat. We should all have a good time at work, but how do you balance the "party" atmosphere with the "professional" one?

My principal just wants everyone to have fun and enjoy their work. Can they do that and still promote learning and mastery of standards? Of course they can! The challenge is in transforming the culture from a drudgery to one promoting fun, engagement, and excitement about learning. I sit in teachers' classrooms and watch with horror as they speak with their monotone and lecture to their students when it can be so much more exciting. I wonder what happened to their enthusiasm for learning? What have we done that has broken them down to this? Our students, even more so than most, need teachers who are enthusiastic and passionate about what they are doing.

I love the students at my school. I love interacting with them on a daily basis and have built some strong relationships with them. I did that through my energy and enthusiasm for what I do. How do I rekindle a spark in teachers who just seem to be burning out?!

Improve or remove?

For the last few weeks I have been working with a teacher new to the school, the district, and the state. She reached out following her first TKES walkthrough, after which her department chair told her: “It was just horrible. Horrible! So horrible that we’re not going to count it.” I made sure, several times, that those words were the ones that actually came out of the department chair’s mouth, & she assured me that they were.

I spoke with the assistant principal responsible for evaluating the teacher, & she mentioned some areas of instructional concern with the teacher. I later sat down with the teacher & we prepared a lesson for her second walkthrough.

The assistant principal indicated that the second walkthrough was better, but still lacked in rigor & instructional strategies - the teacher received two threes and two twos. This crushed her as she has started to feel that the TKES process will be used to document her out the door.

With that being said, and thinking back on when we discussed the cost of hiring new teachers, I began to seriously question whether or not evaluations are used as a means of truly helping teachers to improve versus creating a paper trail to send them on their merry ways. From the perspective of this particular teacher, the evaluation process is not being used to help her improve - there are no specific strategies or explanations as to what they are  looking for. I’m left to question why this is, but I’m not sure if it is my place. I suggested that the teacher ask for that information when she met with the assistant principal and department head.

 Is it just my school’s culture that treats evaluations as a means of cleaning house? Or is the prevailing opinion regarding evaluations one that depicts them as a means of tossing teachers a lifeline? If we are trying to make the most out of our tight budgets, shouldn’t be be using evaluations as tools to help teachers learn?

No TIME!!!!

Although I have two planning periods for my content and grade level and two planning periods as department chair, there is still no time for planning or completing task.  Being in an Achievement Zone is hard because of the demands of "getting it together."  Everyday, is planned for us as teachers with the following schedule:

Monday-Professional Learning (the whole planning period)
Tuesday-Content Collaboration (the whole planning period)
Wednesday- Parent Conferences
Thursday-Parent Conferences
Friday-Grade Level Planning/meeting (the whole planning period)

As you can see, there is clearly no time for real planning or even opportunity to plan or prepare for execution of the plans discussed.  Our parent conferences are actually taken place on both days given all of the behavior and failure issues we have at my school.  Also, there are times when admin plan things on those days because they think we are free.  The same holds true for my department chair planning periods.  Some feel as if I am free with nothing to do (which is far from the truth), and find things for me to do during this time.  Where are the days of letting teachers plan they way that they need to and allowing teacher to have their teacher work days to really be work days instead of meeting days?  As a Faculty, we have expressed our concerns and feelings of being overwhelmed and the following has been proposed by our principal: 

Monday-professional learning for 55 minutes and the remaining time for grade level meetings.
Tuesday-protected planning
Wednesday-parent conferences
Thursday-content collaboration
Friday-personal planning (not protected)

I'm curious to know how your week looks in terms of planning etc.  I know we are in different positions, but I'm also certain others are overwhelmed with not having enough time!

New app Nearpod

Nearpod is an app that can be used in the classroom with your students on any device.  This app is good for interactive lessons and real time assessments.  I really like this app for engaging my special education students. This app allows me to see each students' response and check for comprehension.  The down side is that Nearpod sometimes buffers a lot.  Are there any other apps that you would recommend for student engagement and assessment? 

Check out this article on Nearpod

http://www.learninginspired.com/10-ways-of-using-nearpod-in-the-classroom

Co-teaching is like an arranged marriage!

As I do my observations of the co-teaching classrooms, you can tell there is a disconnect between the teachers.  I have conferenced with the teams, gave feedback and suggestions, and suggested peer observations.  The teachers are supposed to plan together, but that is not happening either.  I have gone back to some of these same classrooms, and there is no change.  How do I get teachers to change their mindset?  Is there some good literature out there that compares marriage and co-teaching?  I truly believe a lot of the resistance is due to the teachers not being held accountable.  This is so frustrating and the students are getting the short end of the stick!

Asst. Principal Training Gaps

Hats off to APs and people who aspire to that particular position. Even more so, double hats off to those of you who want to be principals! My most sincere gratitude, appreciation, and respect go to you. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, it’s that the APs are truly the ones who are holding it down in the day-to-day operations of the building. A good principal is right there alongside the APs (or should be at least), but the main principal has a higher responsibility and cannot always get drug into the details of the daily grind.

Having said all of that, I am learning one thing very quickly (a costly lesson, though, in my opinion): some districts don’t have adequate training for APs. Nationwide, there seems to be a push for more training and mentorship-type of programs for aspiring principals, which is a great thing in my opinion! (See this article for an example of a good principal mentorship program.) However, I don’t see a lot of that training geared toward those who want to be assistant principals, i. e. classroom teacher to AP trajectory. By default, this means the learning curve is much steeper when one first becomes an AP versus a principal. While I acknowledge going through a program like this (an Ed. S. leadership program) is, in itself, training, the nuts and bolts of each district are different. THAT is the training I’m referring to, the “how do we do it here” question, the culture piece, as well as the “this job is going to be vastly different than anything you’ve done before” training!

Becoming an AP requires a lot more on-the-job-training than being a principal. Here’s why I make that statement. Going from classroom to AP is a huge step; the requirements and responsibilities are vastly different. Going from AP to principal is more of a natural flow, and you would have already had experience with things such as investigating fights or parents who want to sue the school or call the superintendent over their kid’s discipline tracker. 

Although I acknowledge that ANY job will require on-the-job-training, and there is NO possible way to train someone to know what to do in every scenario possible (especially in education, where each day is different and you couldn’t make up or fictionalize half the stuff you’ll deal with, even if you tried!). Still, I believe districts need to focus on training APs. It’s like telling high schoolers that we want them to have the skills to be a successful college student, but not training them to be so until they start freshman year of college and hoping it sticks. 

Lessons Learned in Letting Go

This week, our school staff had to make the difficult decision of advising alternate placement for one of our students.  We found ourselves unable to meet his needs (explosive behavior episodes) while also keeping all the other students safe.  Faced with the harsh reality that we were not the right fit for him, we let the parent know it was not going to work out for her child at our school.

As our director of admissions & counseling was relaying to me the details of her phone call with the student's mom, I became painfully aware of two lessons that I don't think we would have learned without this heartbreaking situation:

1.  We need to better communicate/advertise the "challenge" aspect of our program.  When we say we balance challenge with support, we mean we challenge students to grow by pushing them outside their comfort zones within a safe and supportive environment.  We believe there can be no progress without the discomfort that comes with pushing boundaries.  Our students come to us with social challenges.  Therefore we provide direct instruction in social skills, facilitate guided practice, encourage feedback exchange, and assess progress as students apply the skills we teach.  This is an uncomfortable process for students with social skill deficits, but without it, their progress would stagnate.  We believe in their capability enough to help them grow.  The mother on the phone insisted that if we kept her child "happy," he would not be as explosive.  However, we realize she must have misunderstood that we believe that just keeping kids "happy" is not conducive to their long-term success, and is therefore in conflict with our philosophy.

2.  We need to better communicate/advertise the school-parent partnership aspect of our program.  For some reason this year, several parents have hinted or outright stated some form of "we pay so much money in tuition, so why isn't the problem taken care of already?"  In other words, they seem to feel they are paying for a miraculous cure or instantaneous change.  They want our school to be a one-stop-shop that replaces any outside therapies or at-home efforts entirely.  I find this consumer mentality to be one of the most difficult aspects of the private school world.  I want to do a better job of emphasizing that what parents are paying for with their tuition is a specialized school environment designed to suit their child's needs, a team of educators who have expertise in special education, and a community of passionate advocates who are eager to team up and work together to accommodate and work through learning challenges.  We are in it together.  It takes a fluid school-home partnership to educate any student, let alone a student with special needs.

So, is it too late to get these messages to our current parents?  What would be the best way to communicate and clarify these points?

To Be or Not to Be.....Involved?!

November is Parent Engagement Month and I'm thinking of sending this video out to our parents. Parent Involvement Matters.  Parent involvement is one of the key components of our existence as a Title 1 school. As the Parent Involvement Coordinator (or PIC), I am constantly looking for ways to get parents into our school and to get them actively involved. I gave out surveys last spring where parents indicated that they would like more information on technology and how to help their child with math, among other things. So I set out this fall to give our parents what they had asked for. I set up a technology workshop where parents could come learn how to log on to Infinite Campus (access to their child’s grades) and some of the other technology sites that could be used at school or home. I have a database of over 450 parents who receive electronic messages and newsletters from me every week. I thought for sure that I would have a great turnout. I offered it in the morning and in the evening. We had 11 parents total in attendance! The second workshop, “How to Math with your Kids”, was set up through our local Mathnasium business partner. We really tried to hype it up with door prizes, childcare, flyers, and emails. The speaker was awesome and she gave some great tips for working with children in math. Total attendance….16 parents. Several people assured me that this was a good number for a weeknight and for Title 1, but I’m still challenging myself in this area. I want to do something that will really make our parents want to be there. We did a Mystery Math Night last year that was a huge success (over 400 people attended) and we plan to do that again this year. However, my question is how do you get parents involved for the input/feedback/stakeholder portion of a child’s education? Parents come out when their child is participating in something like a play, chorus, or a math night, but what if I really need their input and need to discuss aspects of our school with them? What is a PIC to do??

Walking a Fine Line

As some may know and I'm sure all have experienced, in Education, there is always one or two students you find yourself extremely attached to.  You find yourself showing them extra kindness, patience, love and support.  You find yourself constantly worried about his or her well-being or if he or she received a good nights rest.  With all that being said, how do you walk that line-- Especially when it has been asked if you could possibly foster and/or adopt the student(s).  

Are there are legal ramifications or boundaries for teachers taking students into custody and care?  

How does that impact your home-work relationship?  

Any advice?

All Aboard or Jump Ship

On Saturday, I was teaching the coaching endorsement class for Griffin RESA here in Fulton and an interesting question was posed. Can a principal be coached? Well the obvious answer to that is yes, but... I told the story of our recent World Cafe here at my school. The teachers were placed into four groups and each group was given a question to discuss. The questions were:

1. What qualities and attributes does the ideal McClarin principal possess?
2. What qualities and attributes do the ideal teachers at McClarin possess?
3. What qualities and attributes do the ideal students at McClarin possess?
4. What qualities and attributes does the ideal student support team at McClarin possess?

When the interim principal reviewed the presentation of the principal group, she made no apologies for her "soft on crime" approach to leadership. In essence she told everyone that she is who she is and to get on board or let her know how she can help you move on.

One of the first things we study in the coaching endorsement are the 7 Norms for Collaboration with an emphasis on "Presuming Positive Intentions." Every principal has an agenda. We have to assume that his/her actions are based on what they believe to be the best for their student body. What happens with you disagree with the principal's direction? We have all been there either hired in a school under false pretenses or suffered through a regime change that turns the school in a different direction. What do you do?

When the question was posed in class, I told the gentleman that I saw three options:

1. Suck it up and ride the wave.
2. Provide new experiences for the administrator that might change the course of his/her plan. "You can't change what people believe, but you can give them new experiences (that change what they believe)." Unknown
3. Seek new employment.

As educators, we make difficult decisions every day. When trying to change the direction of a school without the support of the administration, what do you do? How do you re-educate an administrator to change the flow in a building? We have to be willing to make a few people uncomfortable in their position to start the change process.

Ode to Classroom Dojo

Oh Classroom DoJo, how I love thee…Let me count the ways…

First, I love that there is instant feedback to parents and family members – in a way that is most efficient. Parents no longer have to wait until the end of the day to receive a colored face calendar reporting behavior; instead, they receive minute to minute behavior reports on their student.

Second, I can report the good, the bad, and the ugly on just about EVERY STUDENT EVER! Want that positive note home, or just a quick reminder about how your student is doing during specials, then Dojo can provide it.

Third, it allows a team, administrator, or anyone to track the habits of any single team or the entire school. The only problem is that I haven’t had whole school buy in.

I honestly see a great potential with whole school management and Classroom Dojo. If students and families are exposed to it in Kindergarten, and they stick with it throughout their entire tenure at a school, then the buy in from families and students is immediate. Schools can really leverage a universal system to track not only behavior but provide intensive support where behavior is now trackable. Trends like issues in the cafeteria, on buses, or in bathrooms can be addressed and data can support administrative decisions. I am also hoping and believe that it is a way to progress monitor students with behavior issues because it allows any person to pull up longitudinal data on a student (i.e. they seem to always have issues during math. This may be indicative of a larger problem).

But not everyone likes it. The New York Times reported an article last year about privacy concerns regarding student information in the use of Classroom DoJo: (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/technology/privacy-concerns-for-classdojo-and-other-tracking-apps-for-schoolchildren.html?_r=0)

Another large pickle the article addresses is that parents have to request from the teacher or the company to have their student’s account taken down – ouch! That doesn’t bode well for buy in, but still I believe that the positives outweigh the negatives. I am a big fan of Dojo and I would love to hear from anyone else who is or who isn’t. But, I believe that a whole school management system like that one can truly be beneficial to families and the entire school community. Want to know more? Check it out: https://www.classdojo.com/ So for me, there is a vision in the use of Dojo and I am hoping that others in my school would fall in love with it just as I have. 

Sitting On My Hands

Since returning to the Atlanta area in the spring and being afforded the chance to once again pursue my interest in and passion for leadership, I have been chomping at the bit to obtain a position as an assistant principal, which I believe is my next step. I took my current job because it would facilitate my quest toward this goal by both allowing me to apply to the Ed.S. program and affording me new leadership opportunities.

At this moment, I feel that I’m in the midst of performing a very uncomfortable balancing act - doing my job - teaching - while looking for another job - assistant principal. My resolution to this has been to figuratively sit on my hands, and I’m really getting antsy.

I know that many school districts are beginning the process of looking to fill next year’s AP positions, and I would really like to put myself out there in the pools, but I just got hired in my school and district, and I can’t help but be hesitant to begin applying for positions outside of the school and district out of fear that it looks like I’m jumping ship.

From my vantage point, my school and district could use my experience as an instructional leader, but I’ve been told that there is a hidden list of characteristics that district leadership is looking for when it comes to their assistant principals. I understand that these unwritten qualities keep candidates from gaming the system by using all the right buzz words in an interview, but it also keeps  in the dark those candidates who would want to garner experience with and authentically develop those qualities.

The principal who hired me did so with the understanding that I was looking to move into an assistant principal role, and she even mentioned that she believed she would be lucky to keep me for a year before being snatched up by another school, but she’s gone and I feel that by looking for AP positions outside my school and district I look more like a ladder-climber rather than an instructional leader who wants to effect change.

Paradoxically, I do good work, but I’m my own worst critic. I would rather someone see what a great job I do rather than me tell them what a great job I do, but I feel that if I continue in that mindset that I will get nowhere.

My career is important to me, but I truly want to help do school better, and I have this intense desire to be in a position to have a wider impact outside of my classroom, and even my school building.

Crowd Control and Chaos

            We all know that lunch duty in the cafeteria is not a popular job, but I have it nonetheless! At my school, students come to lunch by grade level in 30 minute increments; usually 5 minutes in line to get food, 15 minutes of eating/talking (mostly talking), 5 minutes to buy ice cream, and then 5 minutes to dismiss and line up outside. Teachers have a duty free lunch and we don't do staggered lunch times. 

            So when you are working with 100-120 students at a time, lunch duty can be quite the challenge. Add a few visiting parents, a crying student who forgot his/her ice cream money, students who are commissioned to silent lunch, and the students who manage to get their food and drink everywhere but in their mouth, and you have a recipe for chaos. We have tried stop light monitors, music, lights out, whistles, and more. You just can’t keep the volume down in the cafeteria. How do you maintain order at your school during lunch time? Some parents have complained that they do not want a whistle blown at their child. Some parents think the stop light is too sensitive. Some parents frown on a few minutes of silent lunch. My question is…what works? What techniques do you have for getting students in and out of the cafeteria in an orderly and somewhat quiet manner? How do you maintain order among a large group of students when everything you try gets met with disapproval, so much so, that you constantly have to look for new techniques? I'm searching for a happy medium; something that parents, students, and administrators could all live with. I found one school's success story of Bringing Calm to the Cafeteria but not so sure that's the right solution for my school. I would like to weigh all my options for good crowd control. The wasting of food will be saved for another post!

New Teacher Takeover?

I absolutely love teaching. I almost pursued a doctorate in curriculum and instruction (probably shouldn't say that since I'm in a different program). I love unpacking standards, developing assessments, differentiating, observing classrooms and conducting professional development for teachers. My project this year is focused on new teacher induction and support and so far has gone extremely well. I threw a "mixer" where I met with new teachers and mentors over happy hour and discussed the program and did a few get know you icebreakers.  Since then, mentees have met with mentors and discussed expectations, observations and some have even started reading a book together on teaching. I received a few notes saying they enjoyed the mixer and think highly of the new initiative. So what's the problem? I don't know.
I feel like I want to get more involved in new teacher's classrooms but how do I do that without taking over? I sit and observe teachers and see something I want to correct immediately but instead I leave detailed feedback and invite teachers to talk about it. I send suggestions on lesson plans but not regularly because what if I overwhelm them. Five of our new teachers are in science,math, and health and I have some really great ideas. Would teachers be open to a model lesson? How do I even ask without offending them?
At the beginning of the school year I conducted a survey to find out what areas new teachers needed help with and when they wanted to get help. Should I use that as a basis and just tell them the time we will meet to discuss instructional strategies? Maybe I am getting in my own way of making the changes I want to see. Maybe its me being in my first year as an administrator and not understanding my own authority. There are plenty of articles on the principal as instructional leader but what exactly is my role as AP in leading instruction?
I talked with two math teachers last week and offered to unpack a standard with them or help them differentiate a lesson. They seemed genuinely thankful and open to the help. I guess this is a good start. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I have a good idea!

I feel like I see a distinctive line in the world of assistant principal leadership (not the head principal) between being a productive agent of change (a.k.a. hitting the LKES marks) or just simply being a person who helps put the train back on the functionally operational tracks. In my head, these are 2 very important tasks, and they should be the full responsibility of different people. Follow me here….I have a good idea!

In the past, I’ve generally been of the mindset that APs are in the least useful position in terms of being an agent of change, because I viewed AP duties as primarily operational and logistical. Now that I am in the actual position, I see that part of my old thinking was flawed, but I also see that I was not completely off-base. On paper, administrators are charged with being instructional leaders (the LKES), but are all leaders actually good at instructional leadership? Maybe some leaders are just better at putting out fires and don’t need to be the instructional boss for a group of teachers? Everyone has a strength. Furthermore, if there are 4 APs in a building, then 2 should be instructional and 2 should be operational, with the head principal being the ring leader. This idea makes total sense to me, because not all APs want to become a head principal. Some are content with just having an AP role. And that should be allowed!

Perhaps one day (maybe sooner than later) I will get off my tangent rant of the upside down way I view AP responsibilities; however, that day is not today. J I remain pretty frustrated with the current state of separation from reality that exists between the LKES standards (what is expected) and what goes on from day to day and what APs are actually capable of achieving. Don’t get me wrong…I agree with the LKES standards, and I definitely believe these are the things we should be focusing on; it’s just not a practical reality for all APs in all buildings. The LKES standards promote administrators being agents of change, but, at the end of the day, some people are not actually good at being an agent of change. Why not let those of us who love instruction focus just on instruction, and let the operational gurus focus on operations? Why not let us play to our strengths?

The group that presented in class last week (the HR group) talked about the cost of replacing exiting teachers. This article talks about the cost of replacing exiting principals ($75 K), and the alarming trend of leaders who are leaving after less than five years. Just food for thought, because we talk a lot about teacher turnover, but what about administration turnover?!? Why is there not a heavier focus on that and what is causing that? Could it be that leaders are misplaced and not able to play to their strengths? I think I’m on to something…

From REactive to PROactive... how do I make the jump?

Hi fellow leaders!

I am faced with a leadership conundrum that I need your input on.  Every leadership book, blog, article, etc. talks about being proactive instead of reactive.  We need to be ahead of the curve, looking into the future, two steps ahead of the problem, seeing the big picture.  I wholeheartedly believe in those things.  Yet, I find myself stuck in a cycle of reactivity, and I do not know how to get out.

When I stepped into my role as executive director and principal this year, it was the first time in the school's (short) history that we've had someone in the role who is qualified (and even I am brand new and thus have little experience).  As a tiny nonprofit school for special needs, I feel like we've spent most of our existence just fighting for survival.  Establishing ourselves in the special education landscape has been enough work on it's own, let alone establishing a highly qualified leadership team to move the school forward on a larger, more long-term scale.

Given this history, it has been rather frustrating to feel like I am cleaning up leftover messes from the last director instead of moving the school in a positive, ground-breaking direction.  I badly want to be the kind of leader I read about, but the daily "fires" that crop up often get in the way.  And the fires that haven't been put out from years past still smolder and need addressing.  When handed a pile of financial books in disarray, unpaid insurance plans, unissued employment contracts, a legal issue with a former bookkeeper, a second legal issue with a former accountant, and a staff who have never known what good leadership looks like, I am struggling to get out from under it-- reactive mode-- and instead preventing these things from ever happening again-- proactive mode.

So my question to you is, how do I break the cycle?  How do I get from REactive to PROactive?  

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.  Thank you!

-Jen

When Enough is Enough

As I was thinking about what I should post, it dawned on me that I think this blog could really benefit me in that I can ask other colleagues who are in leadership positions for advice and tips to help build my leadership tool-kit.

As someone who works closely with the leadership team at my school, there are somethings that are very unclear to me.   My main concern is, as an administration, what options do you have when you have exhausted all your options with a challenging student?  

He is a primary grades student who was recently diagnosed with a mental illness.  He is a master manipulator-- extremely smart, but exhibits extremely, extremely challenging behaviors.  The teacher is to the point where she is ready to quit.

As the administration staff,  we have exhausted all our options:  RTI, SST, Referrals, Conferences (and what makes it worse, the parent KNOWS what goes on),  Psychological Intake Referrals, BAPS, Behavior Analyst Observations etc.   As the RTI/SST Specialist, everyone turns to me and I am like-  I am not a behavior analyst.

At what point does enough become enough?  What is one to do?

Culture Shock

I’ve thought a great deal about school culture, even before receiving the syllabus for this course.  When I was hired, the principal gave me a copy of School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It by Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker, she stated that the school’s culture was focused on the needs of the teachers and that she wanted to refocus it on the needs of the students. The principal said that we, the leadership team, were going to read it as a book study; however, that never happened as she was relocated and another principal was appointed. The book is still sitting on my kitchen counter, but I have done little more than skim through it.

I found a TEDTalk given by Dr. Mark Wilson, former principal of Morgan County High School and the 2009 National Principal of the Year. In the talk, Dr. Wilson discusses the elements that it takes to build a culture of success in a school: vision, unity, and empowerment. Dr. Wilson spends the majority of the segment discussing the positive impact that these three components can have by highlighting several of MCHS’ successful initiatives. As I watched it, I considered my perception of those three components in my current school.

I’ve been at my school for about nine weeks, and those have been the longest nine weeks of any school year so far. At the pre-pre-planning leadership meeting, our principal began the process of crafting a vision; it’s something that - to my knowledge - had yet to be done at the school. I can’t really recall how much time we spent in each group crafting statements, but there were several that were created; after sharing each of them, we wrapped up the activity with the principal indicating that we would be coming back to the process over the course of the year.

So far, that’s not been the case.

The overwhelming majority of our students do very well on their own. This fact is why a large number of the faculty see no sense in creating PLCs are looking at student data. Some departments may share common assessments; however, there is no discussion of standards or proficiencies or instructional practices. Teachers do not see a purpose in doing so. I guess it’s the old perpetuation of the old adage “if it isn’t broken don’t fix it”; in other words, as long as our students excel on their own, we don’t need to change anything. I don’t think my peers see what this mentality is doing.

The final component of Dr. Wilson’s culture of success in schools is empowerment. I believe that without the first two, there can be no authentic empowerment - among students or faculty. Dr. Wilson cites Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, in which Pink presents research that demonstrates our intrinsic need to be engaged in authentic tasks. The traditional approach to school - the sit-and-get - does not engage students. If a student’s grade is to mean anything beyond an average of points, then he or she needs to be actively involved in complex learning experiences and tasks. In doing so, students will be empowered to take charge of their learning. For teachers to do more than simply collect a paycheck, they also need to be engaged in complex tasks, and for most that comes in the form of designing and implementing lessons that meet the needs of all of their learners.

My school needs a culture shift, and I believe that it begins, as Dr. Wilson states, with vision. Once we have a vision then unity and empowerment will not be far behind.

Take Over, Shmake Over!

I work at a focus school. This means that the gap between our highest achieving students and our lowest achieving students is too large, and is too stagnant, and thus we must do something about it…or else! Being a Focus school means that we would fall into the category of schools eligible to be taken over in a couple of years if legislation concerning the Opportunity School District (OSD) is voted in as a amendment to the constitution. Here is some more information about it: https://gov.georgia.gov/opportunity-school-district-proposal

When I did further digging into the terms and conditions for being labeled focus or priority, my immediate thoughts turned straight towards the state’s feasibility. For instance, one condition for the approval of the bill is that no more than 20 schools a year would receive the state’s support –currently, Atlanta Public Schools has 44 schools or 60% of its entire district on the list! Seems like a bit of a pickle. Another finding is that the results are based on a school’s year-to-year CCRPI score in addition to student achievement on state tests. The lowest 10% of all Title 1 schools would then be analyzed and categorized as focus or priority– that sounds like a moving target to me! This process assumes that not every school can be doing well, and some schools are always doing poorly. Both of these conditions seems fishy to me…So my thoughts turn to two areas: (1) How do they intend to support the needs of that many schools for five to ten years, and (2) what are the specific details and determinations to get you on this list? Has no one else questioned why so many urban schools are on the list, and why such a high percent of APS schools are on both lists? Commenting on the issue, Dr. Meria Carstarphen, the Atlanta Public Schools’ Superintendent, stated her main concerns for her first year were not in school effectiveness, but were with the residual effects of the cheating scandal and addressing massive payroll problems. “I only got one year to fix what is arguably a 30-year problem,” Dr. Carstarphen stated to parents at on Opportunity School District town meeting (http://www.ajc.com/videos/news/parents-concerned-over-potential-state-takeover-of/vDby7x/) implying that her past priorities had not been on instruction and school effectiveness, but will be.

I will admit that I was pretty nervous when I heard that we were a focus school, but  I was less nervous after I heard how many APS schools were also identified as focus or priority. With over 50% of a single district’s schools on these two lists, there needs to be some changes and larger issues handled. What is the CCRPI index missing or what can be done to better support urban and rural schools? I hope this is addressed prior to any legislation passing in 2016. Until then, my school team and I will rest assured that there is safety in numbers…