The Vision I Have for School #SAVMP

The Vision I Have for School #SAVMP  

Assignment: 2

Well, it is assignment 2 for #SAVMP, and I am excited to finally sit down and have the time to reflect on this topic. We started school today, and it was a great -- GREAT -- first day. 

So what is my vision for what school should look like? Here goes:

Foremost school should be where Distributed Leadership is the system for all change and for all professional development. I desire to work in an environment where everyone's opinion is honored. We all need honest feedback in order to grow. I often refer to it as "hugging the cactus". Each of us must look at the parts of ourselves that sometimes cause us pain if we are to grow and make progress. I also want our work environment to be one where everyone "owns" and is invested in the processes that shape the school. It is critical that our teacher leaders are involved in guiding the new teachers in their growth. AND, with some practice at this leadership style, everyone on campus is collaborating and creating vs. reacting to someone else's agenda. With this model, eventually, we will become a professional learning community where we are continually looking for ways to improve and to impact learning.

Next, I believe that school should be a place for Ensured Learning on Behalf of Students AND Adults. With the advances in technology and data collection systems, we have precise information at our fingertips that will allow us to analyze, interpret and ultimately, IMPACT student learning. This is the pinnacle of teaching. I believe we need to move beyond awareness of data and use it for calculated measures to improve student learning like never before. However, we must also rally together as adults and insist that we too are continually learning. Brain research and technology are reshaping old paradigms for learning. Teachers need to model life-long learning and commit to polishing and sophisticating their craft at all levels.

Relevant--we must be relevant! Brick and mortar schools are quickly fading away. Our instructors must evolve with the new coaching and/or facilitator models that are presenting themselves or else we will be obsolete. We must bring relevance to our classrooms, whether they be within 4 walls or virtual. Relevance requires authentic assessment, project-based learning, and higher-order questioning. I recently watched a YouTube video of Heidi Hayes-Jacobs where she asked why we were asking students to complete the questions at the end of Chapter 2 when they prefer to create a FaceBook page for Julius Caesar. She asked the provocative question, "Is the 21st century inside or outside the doors of your classroom?"

AND Caring....all the other items are useless without our love for learning and for our pupils. I have frequently throughout my career served under-resourced students. These students come to my classroom with so much baggage and many obstacles to prevent their success. Frequently, one of their obstacles is the missing resource of family....someone to believe in them, to protect them, and to love them. As much as possible, our schools should be that bridge for these students. While we may not be able to cure their ills or give them family, we can certainly, and with fervor, BELIEVE in them, protect them in our school, and love them into learning! We may be their only positive adult role model. We must care and care deeply because they don't care what you know unless they know you care.

There are many other elements that would be a part of my vision for school, but these are the ones that speak to me strongly at this juncture of my journey. I hope this is a school where you would like to send your child. 

Why I Lead #SAVMP

I am very excited about a recent program I joined. I am now a proud member of the #SAVMP program. SAVMP is the School Admin Virtual Mentor Program started up by George Couros. And, now that I have been paired with my mentor and mentee partners, I am most energized by the global perspective I will gain from a mentor outside the U.S. Our perspectives will certainly be varied; however, I imagine the human situation will provide multiple common leadership experiences.

George Couros
Our Fearless Leader

As part of the program, I have several assignments. And, after taking care of the many steps in our first assignment, I must proclaim that I have already learned several things. And.....if you know me......LEARNING IS MY FAVORITE!

Yet, the most daunting part of my assignment is before me now. I am to write a BLOG entry on Why I Lead. Generally, self-reflection is easy for me and probably is why I was such a strong teacher. I spent most of my waking hours trying to revise and fine tune my practice so that my audience (students) were presented with the best lessons  and learning possible. This assignment stumped me--just a little. I have always struggled with the fact that leadership requires me to be in the forefront ALL the time. I have often preferred providing the structures for someone else to lead. I was always comfortable with being #2 or #3. So....when asked the question, why I lead, I had to have that internal deliberation about why I would pursue a career that puts me where I am sometimes uncomfortable.

Here are my conclusions:

1. I have a sharp and clear vision about what GREAT teaching and learning looks like. From the first day I entered the classroom, I had that "with-it-ness" that administrators look for in a new teacher. And within one year, I was seeking every professional development opportunity I could to improve and provide the best for my students. Within 5 years, I was courted by a curriculum resource technology team called the Beacon Learning Center. And at that point, I was then teaching veteran teachers how to wield the power of technology to increase engagement and productivity in the classroom. In addition, Beacon, from the beginning, took a hard-line stance on crafting the finest of lessons--using the backward design model and ONLY standards-driven units and lessons. All lessons went through a rigorous proving ground of peer feedback before being revealed to the public. So.....way back in the 90's I was able to develop a clear vision of what effective teaching is and what to do when the students don't learn....the spiraling of the curriculum. Well, even now, sometimes on a weekly basis I run into teachers (whether it be on the WEB or in real-time) who don't understand the link between CIA (Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment). So, I knew it would require someone to lead others to the power these structures provide for affecting student learning. I can help my talented co-workers work smarter not harder.  :O)

2. I am always on the first wave of all change and innovation. I sat in a workshop last week and heard an experienced teacher tell me the one thing she hates about education is that it is constantly changing. I was running a whole other paradigm through my brain while she said this. What if the physician's practice of 100 years ago had stayed the same and no innovation was allowed? What if our hospitals didn't change with the advances of modern medicine? Our teachers are amazing professionals, and embracing change should be a MUST! Just like a doctor who seeks the right combination of medicines and advancements to cure his patient's ills, we educators must grab and experiment with every change that comes along to see if it helps our students achieve their potential. I think this no-change mindset is one of the greatest obstacles in current educational practices. When our students walk in the door and know more about the computer or how to leverage social media for learning than we do, then it is like the patient knowing more than the doctor. So, I knew it would require someone to lead others to the magnificent capabilities of technology and its impact on student learning. I see fear in the eyes of lots of teachers, and I want to show them change is safe, and it is good, and it will make them and their students better.

3. I have a very strong sense of right and wrong. This is the hardest part of the leadership role. I want the best for our teachers, our students, and our families. So, when I see a professional who is harming our educational family, especially the students, vs. helping them, I take action. This allows me to be the best advocate for the folks I am paid to protect and nurture--my team and my students. A dear friend of mine who has similar proclivities once sent me a quote:  "I always wondered, why didn't somebody do something about that, and then I figured out that "somebody" was me." I was often frustrated as a teacher when I worked with administrators who didn't correct unethical situations swirling in the occasional classroom on our campus. For example, why didn't somebody address the teacher who punished her students with their grades OR the teacher who friended all of her students on FaceBook and partied with them. It was so taxing to come to work and do my very best and work tirelessly for every minute of classroom time while others did not. So, I knew it would require a strong someone to lead and to provide the best learning environments for the entire educational community. Sad but true, this trait sometimes makes for unpopular decisions. But, as my very wise friend also told me....if you want to be loved, "Buy a puppy!"

4. I want to be a servant leader. This is the greatest goal for me personally. I want to always be a respecter of persons, a gentle but firm boss, someone who honors every opinion, and someone who serves to make the lives of everyone I lead a better life. When I make mistakes, I often try to "own" them and ask forgiveness or at least understanding. I want to be a supporter of those who support kids. I want to support, especially, my team of friends who are out there walking the same walk as me--a difficult walk. I want to serve and make everything I touch better in some way. I follow lifestyles of men and women of character with scrutiny so that I can mirror their lives and attempt to gain their same level of effectiveness and impact. Because somewhere out there, it took someone to lead .......me.

Cross-School Collaboration

This past month, I had the pleasure of participating in my first ever cross-school collaboration. I had several times in the past been a part of vertical teaming between feeder schools where a middle school that feeds into a high school met and planned together or where an elementary school that feeds into a middle school met and planned together. This time, for the first time EVER, I was a part of a very exciting cross-school collaboration. How did that look? Well, two sister schools, Cherry Street and Oakland Terrace Elementary partnered up to work together. We spent the summer in a collaborative book study.

The book study was hosted at the home of Lyn Morris, our 5th grade math teacher. The idea to have it in someone's home was so clever. It really gave the venue a feeling of coziness and comfort. Teachers brought in breakfast items, and of course, the coffee pots were filled and refilled.

Lyn's Beautiful Home

The first thing that happened with the intermingling of these two faculties was that current relationships were encouraged. We got to see Lyn's lovely home. In the picture below, Lyn is showing us some of the labors of her garden.

Peppers from Lyn's Garden

Kim Nix and Paula Clements

Also, I saw current relationships revisited. Here, are two of our kindergarten teachers, Kim and Paula, sharing a Blueberry Pound Cake recipe.

Next, I noticed all the learning going on between these two groups. We spent two separate days at Lynn's home digging into the book. The book, Transforming High Poverty Schools into High Performing Schools, brought into focus the various traits of schools with under-resourced students and how the teams in those schools fostered them into high performing schools based on certain principles. Teachers had been asked to complete reading the book prior to the collaboration days. When we collected the data about the perceptions of our groups, across the board we recognized that people's perceptions about poverty... were all over the place. 

Here is a sample question and you can see our responses fell all over the map. The question wanted to know what the reader believed was the reason for the lack of parent involvement among children in poverty. The graph of the results demonstrates that perspectives were broad.

However, about mid-way through the first day, you could see our perceptions begin to unify and take hold. Here are the major points from the book that exposed what the HP/HP schools look like:

• Have high expectations for their students 
• Embrace and use all data they can get their hands on 
• Use data to focus on individual students 
• Constantly re-examine what they do 
• Embrace accountability 
• Make decisions based on what is good for kids, not what is good for adults 
• Use school time wisely 
• Leverage as many resources from the community as possible 
• Expand the time students, particularly struggling students, have in school 
• Do not spend a lot of time disciplining students in the sense of punishment 
• Make sure the kids who struggle have the best instruction 
• Ensure principals are important leaders but they are not the only leaders 
• Pay careful attention to the quality of the teaching staff 
• Provide teachers with the time to meet to plan and work collaboratively 
• Provide teachers with time to observe one another 
• Think seriously about professional development 

Full Group Debriefing

Full Group Debriefing

Our teachers then took action to transfer this learning back to our individual schools. During the final break-out session, teachers who had studied and analyzed the information with diligence contemplated how to share these critical elements with the rest of their school's faculty. Each school's study group developed an action plan for sustaining this information throughout the course of the entire school year.

This was a 100% positive experience. I have to say that Lendy Willis, who I consider a mentor, was brilliant in thinking up this possibility. Behind the scenes, Deniece Moss and Tammy Boyer helped make it happen! For both of our school's faculty, it was an endeavor of collaboration, BUT even more so, I believe it was an arena for creating support networks among educators. We are working harder than ever at both of our schools, and it is critical that we get some "wind beneath our wings" every once in a while. We need to have a shared experience -- knowing that we are not alone in giving every last bit of energy to improve the lives of children, especially our children in poverty.

I commend the faculty at Cherry Street Elementary and Oakland Terrace Elementary. Go Cheetahs and Orcas! Have a fabulous school year! I look forward to our next project together.

To all the other leaders out there, I recommend this experience of cross-school collaboration!