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

ASCD 2014 literally rocked my world!

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20140314-135640.jpgThe 2014 ASCD conference , Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, was held in Los Angeles this past weekend. With keynote speakers like Daniel Pink and Sir Ken Robinson, you knew going in that this conference was going to make you think…and it didn’t disappoint. My big take aways from this year:

#5. Educators are persuaders. That is what we do. Teachers persuade children to learn. Administrators persuade staff to engage and teach. We’re “selling” people, moving them from point a to point b. Education is a form of persuasion. If we are the sellers of what we do, believe in, and are passionate about…who is the buyer? Staff, students, and families. We have to embrace the fact that we have a product to sell, and we want their buy in. No longer can we say that we have all the answers and know what’s best without having to prove it. Informational parity is alive and well. Make a statement and you can be instantly fact checked from a phone in the audience. We have to embrace this new reality and use it to our advantage.Persuading/influencing, not making something, takes up 41% of adult workers time. Standardized test prepare for this…right? Gulp.

For more about the “always be selling” theory and educators as persuaders, check out Daniel Pink’s latest book, To Sell is Human.

#4, DNA is not your destiny. Good teaching trumps genes. Eric Jensen was AMAZING. The research he shared during his session was jaw dropping. His session was on how poverty impacts student engagement and learning. “That kid you think sucks? You’d be surprised at whats happening in that kids head.” Some of my tweetable quotes from him:

  • The stress we experience is our reaction to a perceived loss of control over an adverse situation. KIDS NEED MORE CONTROL! Ss don’t need more discipline when struggling – rather they need more control in their own lives. Help them!
  • Risk factors in an environment suppress IQ.
  • My favorite line: If you think a student is just like “his/her mom/dad” you used to teach…ask yourself if it’s because you’re teaching them the same way.
  • How we feel is whats real. It’s the link to what we think.

#3, The culture makes a difference for the whole child. Top to bottom, this ASCD conference spoke of the whole child. It was SO incredibly refreshing to see how many sessions were centered around loving, teaching, and growing a child. There is more to a great educational environment than high scores.  There were even comments directed at administrators to think about the WHOLE teacher. Principal Sharon Jacobs, from the Washington Montessori School of Greensboro in North Carolina, winner of the 2014 Vision in Action award spoke briefly at a keynote, (I could have listened to her ALL day!). She spoke so highly of her team, and how as a leader it was your responsibility to nurture your staff, & that enthusiasm was contagious. When she came on stage she took a selfie of herself with the ASCD audience in the background. Can you imagine learning in an environment like that? My tweetable quotes from her:

  • Proficiency is just one component of educating children…and not necessarily the most important one.
  • See children as more than a proficiency number. Take care of basic needs and the proficiency will come, more importantly, Ss GROW!
  • Vision, not just seeing things what they are, but what they can be…that’s what what vision in action should be!
  • It can be done, we did it, and you can do it too. #educationalmantra Principal Jacobs

#2, Don’t confuse compliance with engagement. What is engagement? What does actual engagement look like? When you have students raising their hands in class…are they engaged or are they just compliant?Self-efficacy and collective efficacy are critical pieces to increasing student engagement. How do we show support for this in the classroom? Robyn Jackson had the statement that “we lament that we want students to be engaged, but our policies and procedures suggest we don’t really want that.” Raise your hand before speaking. Sit quietly. Work independently. Real engagement encourages non-compliance! My tweetable quotes from the Robyn Jackson and Allison Zmuda session: 

  • Being taught something b/c it’s on a test is not a compelling reason to learn it!
  • Goal clarity does not equal posting a LO on the board. Takes more than that for Ss to get it and want it…
  • We tell teachers you need more engagement and we end up with teachers entertaining, not engaging.  <—–Isn’t this SO true!?

#1, Be a learner, be a sharer, be connected. Compared to last year, there was a definite hum of “connectedness”. There was a presence of technology and social media all throughout. Not a lot of nouns (Twitter, Vine, etc.) were necessarily mentioned…but the verb of being “connected” permeated throughout. Even the president of ASCD gave a shoutout for getting on Twitter. He challenged the audience, saying if he could do it, then anyone could do it! It’s about relationships, it isn’t about a tool. Whether it’s twitter, facebook, instagram, or even any asynchronous community, get connected. Grow with your peers. Admins, great leaders are part of the group as a learner! Set an example for your staff! Michael Fullan had a great line, “Pedagogy is the driver, let technology be the accelerator.” Connections can stimulate conversations and help relight that fire that makes all your energy and efforts worthwhile. Reflecting on our activities, our classrooms, asking for feedback, is an important piece of what we do…and finding a community is where that begins. 

If you think about other professions…what would we think of a doctor who discovered a cure for some disease…but doesn’t share it?

 

I enjoyed every single minute of this year’s ASCD conference, even during the earthquake that hit Monday morning. Leave it to ASCD to literally rock our world, 🙂  Learning from others, being involved in conversations that inspire me, meeting authors that change the way I do business…what an incredible four days! Next years conference is in Houston, so ya’ll come on down Texas way, 😉 You won’t regret it!

ASCD appreciative,

Amber

Weekly Update: Teacher Leaders…are you cultivating? #SAVMP

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One of the opportunities I’ve been able to take on this year with George Couros is the #SAVMP collaboration project. Each week we post weekly updates to work with administrators and their team of mentees to help develop leadership and embrace the challenges that comes with the responsibility of leading. This week we discussed teacher leaders and I’m cross posting it here.

 

When thinking about ways to bring about change or attempting to cultivate something new for your campus, where do you begin? Do you start with a formal staff meeting? Where you stand in front of the group and  tell them what you want to see happen?

How effective has the been?

Conversation at dinner last night talk centered around those rockstar teachers on your campus. The ones who are willing to go above and beyond because its what should be done for kids, not because they are getting paid to be there. When I think about some of the crazy ideas that I wanted to see happening in classrooms, I think about the teachers I went to talk  with to make that happen. When I wanted to see a bulletin board focused on the digital tools happening in the classroom, I knew exactly where to go to make that happen.  This teacher knew my expectations, knew my vision, and what my end goal was with the something as simple as a bulletin board. (Vision! It all come back to vision!) I also had to balance what was asked of this particular rockstar in order to not detract from her teaching, or her relationships amongst the staff. Todd Nesloney  wrote an inspiring post about how he embraced that role on his campus.

Who are your teacher leaders? How are you lifting them up and empowering them to be an example without ostracizing them from the rest of your staff? Share your strategies with your mentees this week so they can start keeping an eye out for ways to embrace and lift up those around them.

Have a great week!

 

Amber

 

Fabulous Fridays

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Sometimes it’s the little things that can make the biggest difference.

February is a long month. It’s a solid month of instruction, leads up to Spring, and typically, both students and staff get a touch of the spring fever.

We decided to have “Fab Fridays in February” and have a fun activity each week to help offset that feeling. These were cheap (or free!) and really helped alleviate some the doldrums many were feeling.

The first Friday I recruited some of our amazing moms to bring in crockpots of soup to show our teachers they were “soup”-er. It was a warm treat on a cold day and everyone enjoyed some down home cooking.

The second Friday coincided with Valentine’s Day and we played “Love Connection”. I found a bunch of “famous” couples…from Thelma and Louise to our principal and her husband and I cut them in half. I then placed half a couple in each person’s room. The goal was to find your loooooooove connection. It was SO much fun to see teacher’s racing down the halls, trying to figure it all out. There were current couples as well as some golden oldies, 🙂

Have you seen Legally Blonde 2? (yes, yes, I know. ) The next Friday we did our own version of the Snap Cup.

I placed a staff list and slips of paper in a cup and let the love flow! Teachers wrote their “warm fuzzies” on a slip, and passed it on. Next year, I think I’m going to start the love cup on Monday and then post them on the Friday, but either way, it was SO rewarding to see all the happy thoughts that were shared. From old team members to new hires…everyone felt the love!

The last Fab Friday we deemed as sweets for the sweet…we served cookies and milk! Once again, I had amazing moms who baked (or bought!) cookies and brought them to school. I supplied the milk and viola! A sweet way to celebrate all the hard work that our teachers do, each and every day.

Our campuses are more than just a job. They are like a second home! The culture we build and cultivate is a beacon that can either lure or repel the best and brightest. Your culture is evident in everything,  from how you communicate to your teachers (or students!) to how the halls are decorated. It ALL plays a role in defining your brand, in showing who you are.  The better your culture is on the inside, the more attractive you will look to the outside…and in public education these days? We always want them to see our BEST!

Whether you have a campus or a classroom,  you can make Fab Fridays work for you! (Or Marvelous Monday’s, or, Terrific Tuesday’s….)

(Thanks to Melinda Miller for sharing all of her Fab Friday ideas! We’re all better together, :))

 

Fab FridayN,

Amber

 

 

 

Are you a yeller? Hush!

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***disclaimer: This is a continuation from a conversation happening on Voxer. Not a post directed at my current staff! 🙂

Her name was Emily. I remember her sweet round face, her blonde hair, and her sparkling personality. I also remember that she started every single composition with, “Hi, my name is Emily and I’m going to tell you about…” I will also never forget the afternoon I made her get in her chair and announce to the class how sorry she was that she kept doing that and that she would never do it again.

I look back on that memory now and cringe. CRINGE. I am so thankful her mother didn’t come and just decimate me over that poor attempt of a strategy. That was my first year teaching, and thankfully, the only year that I remember having done that.

This is something I am extremely passionate about, probably because I remember sweet Emily. If you don’t like children…or interacting with people…I just don’t know that education is the job for you.

CONFESSION: I don’t think embarrassing students is ok. 

CONFESSION: I also don’t think its ok to yell at students. 

I’m not saying you have to be sun-shiney and roses all the time. I’m not saying that there aren’t realities that make teachers days a struggle. (or assistant principals!)  I know this. 

I am saying that you don’t have to be ugly. You don’t have to be sarcastic. You don’t have to yell.

Is this an unrealistic expectation in education?

 

Tone intolerant,

Amber

 

What do you do for the unloved? Be a LOVE NINJA!

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In every classroom there are students who don’t quite fit in. They may be more mature than their peers, or less mature than their peers.

They may dress differently.

They may learn differently.

They may laugh differently.

 

Sometimes they may BEHAVE differently. 

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It doesn’t take much a for a student to ostracize themself from their peers. How do you foster relationships? How do you help students with social skills? Students without siblings, or in a new environment may need some additional support. A former co-worker I had used to do “Lunch Bunches” where once a month she’d bring in students that needed social skill help along with  some of the more established students, and try to develop relationships.

I saw an article posted on Facebook from a friend. It was such a great example of how important dealing with some of these ostracized students can be, and why as a teacher, it should be on your radar too.

Every Friday afternoon C’s teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student whom they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her. And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, C’s teacher takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her and studies them. She looks for patterns.

Who is not getting requested by anyone else?

Who doesn’t even know who to request?

Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?

Who had a million friends last week and none this week?

You see, C’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” C’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she’s pinning down- right away- who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.

You can read the whole article here. (She also talked about what a “Love Ninja” this teacher was, which has given me a whole new goal in life. I want to be a LOVE NINJA!) There are students who truly need our help to be connected. They need to know how to be a friend in order to have a friend. I shared with a teacher this week how absolutely eye-opening it was for me in high school when a boy I wanted to ask to a Sadie’s Hawkins dance told my friend that I was “too immature” for him. It was such a self actualization moment for me….I had no idea. Students can be completely unaware of how they are coming across to their peers and it  falls to us to help them see.

Look at your classroom…or your staff, this week. Are there connections to be made? Is someone slipping through the cracks? I challenge you to help make the unlovable feel loved. 

 

Love ninjaN,

Amber