my version of transparent, collaborative leadership...with a Teamann twist

What Principals can (and should!) learn from Kliff Kingsbury

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Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury is a fan favorite, partly because he’s a former-player-turned-coach, but also partly because he bears a striking resemblance to Ryan Gosling. He also holds the distinction of being the first coach in Big 12 history to start his career at 7-0. With an impressive track record of grooming athletes in his previous positions, notably Houston Cougars quarterback Case Keenum, and then there was, what was his name? Oh yes, the Texas A&M Heisman winner, Johnny Manziel, Kingsbury’s first season at Texas Tech led to a palpable air of “swag” in West Texas.

A head coach is in charge of developing his players, ensuring that as a team, you get overall success from individual strengths. Isn’t that just like the role of principal? How impactful is the catalyst of a dynamic leader on a team? Well, according to Red Raider players, very instrumental.

“Really, a team gets its personality from its head coach. Coach Kingsbury is a very strong person. I think the way he conducted himself…made us a stronger team.” 

— Texas Tech senior RB/OLB Kenny Williams

12 games in, it looked as if the wave of momentum of the Raider Nation was about to crash. You’d have never known that from Kingsbury’s demeanor. It didn’t change the whole season. Not when they started 7-0, or lost the next five. He got to the field house at 4 am, every day. He worked out twice day. He refused to dwell on the past. He refused to let his players do that, either. Many educational theory books point to the principal as being the tone setter for the campus. Todd Whitaker says that when the principal sneezes, the whole campus catches a cold. A leader doesn’t dwell on the present, he looks to the future. 

 

Kingsbury brings an air of excitement to his team. He relates to them. A dance off amongst players that he participates in? Genius. Not only is he showing his team that he can still relate to them, but Kingsbury is showing them that you can work hard and still have fun. We are losing the FUN in our edu world! It is up to the administrators to remind both our staff and students that you can have fun and learn. We can model that in a variety of ways…no dancing required!

In Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools, my favorite chapter details the importance of timely, effective feedback through regular observations. It also details how the single most important attribute of a principals’ role is coaching. At Texas Tech, Kingsbury coaches each player to get to a level of success as a team. He recognizes that you’re only as strong as your weakest link and that you always want your best players on the field. Effective observation and feedback isn’t about judgmental evaluation, it’s about coaching. The primary focus of observations shouldn’t be used to judge your teachers, but to find the most effective ways to COACH them to help improve student learning.

Kingsbury also brings resiliency to the Red Raiders.

” That’s how you build for the future. Because it’s not always going to be going well. It’s not always going to be fall in your favor. But you gotta keep fighting.”

—Kliff Kingsbury

With ever-changing paradigms in education, administrators have never faced more changes and challenges day-to-day. Resilience and unwavering optimism is necessary as a leader. You become resilient by CHOOSING to be resilient. Believing that you are making a difference in the lives of children is motivation enough to keep moving forward. Leaders must bounce back, choosing self efficacy over feeling powerlessness. It doesn’t matter if you lose a game, Kingsbury says “learn from the loss”. We all know that things don’t always go our way. Teachers can harness this power in their classrooms as well, recognizing that while every student may not be the “best”, there is something they are the best at.

Kingsbury has been called the “quarterback whisperer”.  He doesn’t want his players to be so afraid of failure that they can’t be loose,  can’t reach their potential, can’t have fun. While I’m no Robert Redford, I do think there is much to learn as an administrator from a coach who chooses to lead fearlessly, in his on way. #ourcoachiscoolerthanyourcoach, indeed.

KK

Guns up,

Amber

Vocab Rehab, an ASCD arias…& a give away!

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vocab rehab

Last week we met with grade level teams to discuss our most recent benchmark data. Resoundingly, there was an understanding that while students may know the concept or skill, what was most lacking, in grades 3-5, science, reading, and math…was vocabulary. More specifically, lack of vocabulary mastery. Each grade level mentioned it, and some discussed specific vocabulary words that were embedded within the test that weren’t at all related to the content being taught. How as a teacher can you find time to teach “one more thing”?

Imagine my delight when I remembered I’d grabbed a recent ASCD arias, titled “Vocab Rehab”, by Marilee Sprenger. Knowing it would be a quick read (all arais’s are designed to be short & sweet!) I intentionally got to a restaurant 30 minutes before a dinner date to meet a friend. That was all it took to blow my mind!

Ms. Sprenger began the book with research to illustrate the importance of a vocabulary enriched classroom. She specifically mentions needing to “teach up”, not watering down academic vocabulary within instruction. Vocabulary acquisition is cumulative,meaning students with high vocabularies learn new words faster than students with more limited vocabularies (Referenced from a study by Hart & Risley, 2003).

She gives multiple 10 minute lessons that can help increase vocabulary instruction that can apply to any subject at any grade level. The list of ways “not” to teach vocabulary rang a bell…assignments like “use the word in a sentences, find and define, write and draw a picture”, all assignments given BEFORE a student truly understands a word. By using the integrated strategies Ms. Sprenger shares will ensure students KNOW the words, vs just being able to recognize a definition. The ability to read & understand a word within context require more than just a “look it up”!

My two favorite activities? Let’s say you have 10-15 words you want to teach. Give each student a lanyard with either a vocabulary word or a synonym for one of the new words. Have students line up by “like” terms, or antonyms throughout the week. Call by like meanings, or opposites.

I also like the idea of giving student a lanyard with a new vocabulary word, it’s definition, synonyms, and antonyms to wear each day. They can partner quiz at restroom breaks, in the lunch line, etc. Once a word is mastered or used successfully in class, they can switch lanyards. Easy!

There are so many gems of greatness is this book, I highly recommend it to anyone who recognizes how valuable vocabulary instruction should be. It focuses on easy ways to form strong connections in the brain over a short period of time…every teachers goal!

I happen to have an extra copy of the ASCD arias “Vocab Rehab”, if you’re interested! Enter to win by with your information below!

 

[gravityform id=”4″ name=”Win your own of Marilee Sprenger’s “Vocab Rehab”!”]

(This giveaway will end in one week, on April 12th!)

 

Vocab rehabbed,

Amber

Who has time for engagement?

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photo ala the amazing @venspired

photo ala the amazing @venspired

I am reading Eric Jensen’s latest book from ASCD, “Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind“, and am blown away by the research and strategies I’m finding. In even just the first few pages, he discusses how engagement always shows up as a vital achievement factor in most studies. It isn’t, however, always called “engagement”, that’s just the buzz word of the moment. He references a study by John Hattie where engagement was also found to be called “feedback”, “cooperative learning”,  “project learning”, or any kind of “interactive teaching”.

Research shows that for every 2% disengagement rises, pass rates on high stakes tests drop by 1%(Valentine & Collins, 2011) via Mr. Jensen. We can’t afford to not care about engaging our students. We can’t continue to only worry about the material we need to teach, and not those lil’people we are teaching it too. School should be the BEST part of their day. If we can make that happen, attendance rates would soar.

Some of the pushback on providing lessons for students that are “engaging” is that we have a lot of content to impart, and not a lot of time in which to do it.  “School is not about always being fun, Amber.”  But when you think of those synonyms above…those are the kinds of activities that we SHOULD be seeing in our classrooms. That’s not rocket science! With such a national focus on having students graduate, and attending some form of higher education, we first must KEEP our students in schools. To keep them in school, we need to make it more engaging. Students do not just magically become more interested, we have to do our part to make that happen!

What can you do to make your class more engaging these week? Not more entertaining, but more engaging. Whatever it is, know that it will be worth it.

 

 

Engagingly,

Amber

Let’s talk data, shall we? (wait, come back!)

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Data meetings are always fun and exciting. Teachers love when that lil’data appointment pops up in their email box. It’s a hard conversation to have because amazing teachers are already well aware of their students strengths and weaknesses. It’s still a reality in our classes. A necessary evil, if you will. My principal had a great analogy. We want to apply the data effectively because if you go to the doctor when your stomach hurts, you don’t want him giving you headache medicine.

While it may seem like “busy work”, ultimately, it benefits you most of all.

If you’re already aware of the in’s and out’s of student performance, how can looking at data help you? Think of it this way, you may have a general awareness that you need to lose weight. But that favorite dress/suit? when it’s tight you know its time to trim the carbs. Looking at specific data can heighten your awareness of certain topics/concepts.

What if the results are overwhelming? Break it down, bit by bit. Take one question a week. Focus on the vocabulary within the question. Anyone can eat the elephant, just one bite at a time. Need help with question stems? Try this site.

How do I spiral this into my already action packed plans based on existing curriculum? Make cards that you can use during bathroom breaks or at lunch. Have your students answer and talk it through with a student partner. Use it as a bell ringer that first 10 minutes of class while students are filing in and getting situated. Cut a couple of assignments a week down by half. Use that time to focus on lower scored skills.

How can I teach it differently, when I’ve already taught it the best I could? Within your textbooks, there are scaffolding lessons available. Think of iStation, Study Island, Think Through Math, Ten Marks…there are a variety of sites that offer teacher lesson support. If you’re on twitter, find educators who teach similar subjects and ask to share. Check Pinterest. Check for Facebook groups. Look at Teacher Pay Teachers for ideas…get creative!

Stay FOCUSED. Don’t let yourself get lost on the tangents of “poor questions”, “bad data”, “these students”, and “overall passing percentages”. Even if 88% of your students passed, what if it was just 1 TEK or strand that could bump the rest of your kids up?

One teacher mentioned that she has her students go back over their most recent assessments and decide which areas/TEKS they struggled with the most. Students are completing different assignments, prescriptive tasks, based on where they were struggling. When you can transfer the ownership to the students, how much more powerful is that?

Be intentional with your material…there’s just not enough time in your day to miss a minute. Especially when we’re doing so many great things.  I’m a big believer in a whole child focus, but there’s a time and place for data as well!

Data dug,

Amber

Are your thoughts tweet worthy?

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I will always remember the first conversation I had with a professional colleague about Twitter. I’d attended BLC and been swept away in a Twitter tidal wave by Liz Davis and Lisa Thumann. (This also, coincidentally enough, was where the @8amber8 moniker came from…who knew this tool would become my go to PD reference and I’d have to explain that bad boy all the time!)

It came up in conversation that no one wanted to know what I’d had for lunch that day, that Twitter was pointless. This thought has now gone by the way side, 🙂 and there are 243 million monthly active users. While some may still talk about their lunch, it has become a place to share and be shared with. Twitter is an outstanding communication tool for three main reasons:

  • Twitter enables you to release brief, 140 character, gems of greatness to the world.
  • Twitter encourages conversations outside of your silo.
  • Twitter is word of mouth “genius sharing”. Great ideas get shared, and seen, and built upon.

Are you worried you don’t have anything to say? Wonder if your ideas are tweet worthy?

Here are 5 things you can tweet about….

1. Edu Wins: Share the good things happening on your campus. Break down the walls of and allow others to see what is happening. Tell your story. There are GREAT things happening every day in our schools, we should want to invite everyone to know how amazing our students and teachers are. An elephant can be eaten, one bite at a time, and some of our tweets may be those bites that show others just what we do.

2. Great ideas: My favorite event we’ve done this year has been “Tacos & Technology”, an idea I learned about from Sam LeDeaux, a principal in Chicago. While I love both tacos & technology, I’d never thought about putting them together for a parent night until he shared what is campus had done.

3. Support: A PLN becomes your educational support system. Need to ask a question and not feel judged? Need affirmation that what you are thinking or doing is what’s best for kids? There are people there to support you…and vice versa. Support others!

4. Questions: If you’ve ever read a thought-provoking article and wanted to discuss it with someone, here’s your chance. Tweet the link and start a conversation. Wonder how to make genius hour work? This space allows you have dialogue with other educators, other practitioners, who have tried it. Learn from them!

5. Who are you? George Couros has written about the difficulty in keeping your personal and professional life separate. Educators are persuaders. So much of our professional life is inspired by the personal connections we have. It’s impossible to keep those separate and yet simultaneously woven into the relationships we develop. You can’t know my heart if you don’t know a little of whats inside of it.

4 things that you shouldn’t ever tweet about, 🙂

1. Negativity: There are enough negative people in the world. We don’t need anymore like that. Any donkey can knock down a building, but it takes a special donkey to build one up.

2. Rants: Same as above. Ranting and raving will not solve anything. This isn’t that kind of space, and it undermines our goals in education: to lift up, inspire, and to teach.

3. Profane or inappropriate thoughts, images, jokes: The best (and safest) social media advice I’ve ever been given came from our communications coordinator. If it isn’t something you’d be ok with on the headline of the newspaper or happening in your school lobby, don’t post it. He didn’t say don’t DO IT, he said don’t post it, anywhere. There’s enough that can happen in life that we don’t, as an educational system, need to be sharing publicly things that could damage our professional image or efficacy. That’s a lesson to learn the hard way. Just ask her, her, or her... (Three cases have gone to the Supreme Court involving educators and free speech, and all three lost, by the way.)

4. Remember your purpose! If you’re on Twitter to learn, to share, and to grow professionally, as defined by your intent and bio, then do that.

 

What of your reasons have I missed? Not jumped into the Twitterverse? What’s holding you back?

 

Tweetly,

Amber