One of the struggles that I have encountered as a connected educator is the constant comparison of what my actual leadership/position entails and what twitter and blog posts make me think it should look like.
Homework is bad! Everyone should do PBL! What do you mean your staff isn’t on Twitter? Who cares about standardized test scores? Never be in your office!
Etc, etc, etc…
When you have conversations about innovation, sometimes the first assumption is that no one else is struggling with the balance of all. the . things. The reality is as a leader, just like our teachers, our role encompasses way more than what the memes tell us it does. In addition to all of the trendy & all of the innovative, we all still have to watch the same blood borne pathogen videos at the beginning of the year. We still have to meet our students academic and personal needs, as well as move our teachers along their own professional growth path. Oh, and be data informed, have crucial conversations, and develop relationships.
The upside is that as a connected educator the odds of you finding ways to meet all those needs is much greater. You make connections to incredible people who show you a little glimpse of that balance. George and I have talked about this a lot, and he references Yong Zhao’s quote that basic academic expectations should be the floor, not the ceiling.
Here’s the thing..you CAN do both. You can create a culture that allows your teachers to take risks. Your students can collaborate and create, and be successful within standardized measures. Technology allows you to combine personalized learning opportunities, while maintaining high academic expectations. It requires an innovative mindset and a willing to go beyond your basic curriculum guide, but it can be done.
Last year we piloted ipads in each classroom for our district. As a campus that hadn’t historically chosen to spend their funds in that manner, there was a huge learning curve. I was very clear that I wasn’t going to mandate a level of use, just that our expectation was to find a way they could be integrated within our core content areas, seamlessly. They could crawl or they could run, they just couldn’t stand still. We had scaffolded trainings each month, we allowed students to teach us, and we shared our successes and failures, publically. The lessons we learned and risks that were taken were organic. If I had mandated a minimum expectation of use, that’s exactly what I would have gotten. By giving them the freedom to try and to fail, there were huge gains seen across the campus. Even my most resistent, my most hesitant, was emboldened to TRY. Just last week, one of my rockstars had her students create a guide BY students, for students and parents detailing what the STAAR expository expectations look like. Another veteran teacher? Created flipped lessons using seesaw to help parents understand how her 2nd graders were learning about fractions. If you as the administrator set the tone and allow the risks, they will happen.
Don’t be confused by what you think you HAVE to do…get excited about all that you CAN do.
Allowingly,
Amber
PS: Can we discuss the awesomeness that is our 2017? I am on a road trip, in a loud and crazy snack filled car…and can still share these thoughts?? Amazing.
What a great post! So many ideas resonated with me. As a tech coach, my new mantra might be “You can crawl or you can run, but you can’t stand still”.
Yea! Thanks for reading, Sarah!
Thank you for sharing your struggles with trying to balance what sounds good from others with what is reality. Innovate inside the box resonated with me too. The freedom to say out loud that I cannot ignore standardized testing or budget limitations is freeing and allows me to look at what is in my control and what I can actually change. I appreciate you supporting your teachers to work at their own pace, but yet still expect some progress.
Definitely want we want to see from our students, right? 🙂 Thanks for reading!
I appreciate you addressing the balance issue we face as educators and sharing the ones administrators face as well.
Thank you for supporting your teachers and giving them the opportunity to ‘fly’ and ‘fall’ while learning how to best meet childrens’ needs.
Somewhere along the way in our professional and/or personal lives, we let ourselves get so caught up in constantly comparing what’s going on with “me” to what Mr. or Mrs. Teacher next door, down the hall, in another, school, in another district, on Twitter, etc. is doing. I frequently need to remind myself what I’ve heard two friends say countless times, “The only person you need to compare yourself to, is the person you were yesterday.” That one is from Rushton Hurley. The other is this goofy Canadian guy who reminded me “to be better than yourself”. 🙂
I love what you said about giving teachers the freedom to either crawl or run, just not stand still. Amidst all the craziness that is education and personal lives, we must maintain a “keep moving forward” culture in our schools. I just reminded some teachers yesterday that it’s not about how fast or how much you move forward, as long as you’re moving forward.
Hi Amber
I really liked the positive tone in your post. I agree, leading has a lot to do with having the right attitude and allowing people to learn at their own pace. We have had similar experiences with rolling out 1:1 chromebooks at our school. The main idea was – give things a try, risk is good, change allows for opportunities. Our implementation had its own hiccups, but we all learned together and grew as a team. This is certainly the approach to take, innovation can certainly happen within the box as long as you are open to change and taking a few risks.
I really like your approach for this: “They could crawl or they could run, they just couldn’t stand still.” In my view and experience, that will fuel creativity/innovation because the teachers feel in control. Great way to spark innovators mindset!
Hi Amber,
Crawl or run, just not stand still! Looks like lots of others thought that is a pretty clever way to approach something “new” As we’ve introduced iPads and more recent,ty added Chromebooks at our high school, it is sad that many of our teachers have been allowed to stand still –missing out on so many possibilities.
Cammie