Innovation Everywhere!

     Yes, it has been a couple of months since my last post. Sorry about that, but I took a Blogging break. Life has kept me busy. My Father-in-Law had a stroke, and we just returned from a trip to visit him up north. Health tragedies TRULY make me grateful for my life more than anything else I know. I lost a mother to cancer, my father had a heart attack, and now I have experienced stroke in a very intimate way. All of these debilitating events put life in perspective and have caused me to value every minute of every day as a miracle.

     This past couple of weeks, I have been paying close attention to the changes I have seen in the medical industry. For example, when my Father-in-Law had the stroke, they were able to take an image of his blood clot in his brain. The brain is a remarkable piece of work. Here is that image in black and white. Such imaging along with the amazing new medicines and things like robotics being used for surgery make our medical industry better. Innovation has improved this industry and many others.

     When we returned from our trip to Ohio, I had my own appointment with a physician. Being on vacation, like many educators, I was trying to fit as many appointments in to this week as possible. The doctor I was visiting was switching to paperless documentation. Many doctors I have visited over the years have made the switch, but this doctor was using the "latest and greatest". His staff took my picture with the iPad, they had me sign waivers on the iPad with an index finger signature, and everything was documented via the tablet. There was no paper involved in the visit at all. 

     If you know anything about me, you know that I am stoked by technology and futuristic trends. I LOVE how quickly all the fields around me are shifting to use technology tools. Innovation is so exciting, and my Twitter Feed is full of articles and retweets about technology and ed. tech.

     During the last faculty meeting of our school year, I showed a video about Innovation (I have added it here) to our faculty. I wanted them to be inspired by the comments of Geoffrey Canada, president of the famous Harlem charter schools that are featured in the movie, Waiting for Superman. The movie talks about some of the struggles of public schools. I love his philosophy in this video where he talks about the need for innovation in our schools and how so little has changed in our pedagogy. He describes the things that research shows us need to be changed, but they have not changed. Just today, I read a tweet from another local principal. She was quoting a speaker at the PAEC Conference being held at the Bay Point Marriott this week.  The tweet was:

     Some of the changes that Educational Leaders will be making in the coming years are going to be difficult. As Geoffrey Canada says in this video, we are out of time. We need to begin changing now. If you get time, consider the things he says.....and dream of the future.

Balancing Administrative Reality with Being Connected #SAVMP

#SAVMP

Balancing Administrative Reality

with Being Connected

I recently finished watching the Google Hangout hosted by Amber Teaman a.k.a @8amber8 on “Balancing the Administrative Reality with Being Connected.” The hangout was extremely informative because I got to see all the different personalities that I often follow on Twitter, but I also got to think about their responses to several good questions.  I was happy that many of the responses were similar to my own responses. I shared the same answers that they did on several questions, and that helped me feel like I am being successful in my Personal Learning Network (PLN).

The first thing that was humorous to me was... YES, some people consider being connected as not necessarily working. Justin Tarte @justintarte shared a story about getting called into the superintendent's office for tweeting while at work, but he was ultimately able to explain to his superintendent and eventually win him over to understand that leveraging social media is a highly effective way to increase your instructional leadership capacity. I have always been very wary of tweeting or blogging during work hours, and so I try to reserve my PLN work for evening hours. With this practice,   I don't ever run aground, and I keep perceptions from ever being misguided. I am very careful in this respect.

Next I was able to find solace in Tom Whitford's a.k.a. @twhitford answers. His view is that it is okay to send out personal tweets included in your PLN tweets because we are all real people. I appreciated that response because I have often tried to keep my personal and professional voices separate. I have three different twitter accounts, and it was refreshing to realize it is okay to use my educational account to throw out some personal tweets every once in a while to all my peeps so they will know I am more than my leadership “self”.

Next I got a fantastic resource from Amber Teaman called #kinderchat. That, by the way, is really what all this connectedness is about.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't identify and learn something from my PLN and then I turn around and share that information with the people in my own PLN or even better... I share it with my faculty or our school or our community.

Just this past week, I used the resources I found in #kinderchat in my newsletter that goes out to the faculty which I send out every Monday. I focused on the #kinderchat information that analyzed increasing rigor in the early grades. I received new knowledge from digging deep into the resources provided on that Twitter feed.  It is a great resource that allowed me to develop a context or knowledge base for something I've never done. I have not taught kindergarten and so having the new #kinderchat tool gives me a certain level of knowledge that empowers me to be a better leader for my early grades teachers.

One of the best parts of the conversation centered on the question… how can leaders find the time and find the energy necessary to be connected? I appreciated their answers. First of all, each of them seem like they are very high-energy. I am definitely a high-energy person. I am drawn to other energetic folks.  They shared that being connected is motivating and inspiring to them and it is what they live for! I agree because I know I love to learn. I constantly pursue new learning and strive to process new information to aid me in growth and improvement.  That feeling of growth is, in itself, inspiring to me and gives me the energy to spend those extra few minutes every night being connected and being the connected learner engaging in  DIY (DO IT YOURSELF) and creating my own pathway for improvement.

The last question that spoke to me was about... the need to be connected and still be productive at work. Wow. That is a tough one. I marvel at some of the people that I follow in my PLN like George Couros or Justin Tarte or Amber Teaman. I am alarmed at the level of presence they have and how little presence I have in comparison. Sometimes it is discouraging, but I know that I have just started this journey, and I will be able to grow my connectivity as the years go by. Also, I know that I will NEVER be the “Rock star” that some of those folks are. I will just be me, and I will be amazing being me! So, I will put in my 100% during the work day, and then I will come home and give my other 10% to my PLN. Then I have to kick in my mom and wife 100%.  Until they approve human cloning, I will just be very busy and very happy giving it all I’ve got!

Here is the Hangout in case you want to watch the professionals:

Google Hangout - Balancing Administrative Reality with Being Connected

Week 7 -- Promoting Critical Conversations #SAVMP

Week 7 -- Promoting Critical Conversations #SAVMP

How Do You Go About Getting Honest Feedback from Your Team?

This is such a great question. I am truly grateful for the thought provoking questions that George has provided us in each week's assignments. These are not easy questions.

Here are my thoughts about promoting critical conversations: 

Critical conversations can only happen in an environment where honest feedback is honored. For the first year at my current school, I have worked diligently to provide an expectation of a positive culture. We have too much to do and too little time to do it in for the adults on campus to focus on things beyond our control or to engage in destructive conversations about our students, parents, the district OR even each other. One of my favorite quotes of all time is where Abraham Lincoln says ... "All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."   I have ALWAYS tried to be positive in everything I do. Attitude is such a huge part of conquering any obstacle. I recall when my doctor told me I had colon cancer. He was shocked at my reaction which was ridiculously positive. I smiled at him through tear filled eyes and told him, "Okay. I've got cancer. What do I have to do to beat this?" This is how I approach every problem and all of life. So at school, I discourage negativity but.... I encourage problem-solving. I don't want the faculty to be confused that I frown on disagreement or other points of view. These are necessary to make us stronger. I have one teacher at school who is my "go-to" person for real and honest feedback. I call her my "real-talker". She alerts me to things that need to be watched, handled with care, or revamped. So, if any teacher comes to my office and says, "I don't mean to be negative...." I listen to what they have to say, and then I let them know that notifying me of problems in the system is NOT being negative. I always want to hear what they have to say. I honor everyone's opinion. AND, I also ask them to think of resolutions to the problem so that all of us have input in improving OUR school.

Next, I promote a culture of growth and learning by the students and the adults. We are currently undergoing individual data chats at school where I walk all of the teachers through a data activity that analyzes their instructional impact, their student achievement indicators, and the global data that represents our school's impact on student achievement. As all of us reflect on OUR data, we are asking questions like HOW CAN WE DO A BETTER JOB WITH OUR STUDENTS? WHAT CHANGES NEED TO BE MADE TO HELP OUR STUDENTS LEARN WITH MORE EASE AND MORE SPEED? WHAT CAN I DO TO INCREASE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT? WHAT HIGH-YIELD STRATEGIES WILL INCREASE STUDENT LEARNING? HOW CAN WE QUICKLY CLOSE or ERASE ACHIEVEMENT GAPS? To answer these questions, all of us have to reflect and honestly undergo self-actualization in order to make change. These are difficult conversations to have especially in the face of raw student data. I read a book this summer that captures this process beautifully. In Peggy Hinckley's book, Monitoring, she says, "The data is not a personal indictment of you as a teacher. It is the next teaching decision."

To have such honest questions will require difficult and honest answers. If the data shows we are not meeting the needs of our students, we must make changes. We must make these changes with urgency. Accordingly, it is critical conversations and honest analysis that will move us there quickly. 

So, honoring feedback and asking even the adults to grow and learn will promote the critical conversations and reflection required to help us all improve. I will continue looking for less thistles and more flowers..... and, as a few of my previous posts will contend....I will also hug the cactus. We must look at the flawed parts of ourselves in order to repair them and make continued progress!