Isolation Is the Enemy of Innovation #SAVMP 2.6

Isolation Is the Enemy of Innovation -- #SAVMP 2.6

     Change continues to wipe out existing paradigms in education. Teachers of today have a job that looks VERY different from teaching just 5 years ago. With the advent of data-driven instruction, technology integration, and ever-increasing accountability, teachers are living in a “brave new world.”

     With all of these incredible responsibilities added to an already time-intensive career, the need for teachers to collaborate is stronger than ever! So let’s take a trip back in time when I was a beginning teacher. 20 years ago (yes, I am a D-I-N-O-S-A-U-R), I started teaching. I had a mentor on campus who met with me about once a month. I was a fairly strong new teacher, so we just met after school when we could both find the time. After that year, I continued to fly on my own, and there was no more mentoring. It was part of our district’s plan at that time to provide new teachers a mentor during their first year. Then, each year afterwards, I would have a department chair who guided me and all department members in important calendar events, lesson planning protocols, and other school priorities.

     Fast forward to the future. Teachers now have virtual mentors available to them at a mere click of the mouse or a swipe of the touch screen! There are personal learning networks on Twitter, tutorial videos on how to teach anything on YouTube, and ideas on how to teach anything and everything with access to Pinterest, BLOGs, and many other vast resources on the Web.

     What used to be an isolated profession is now a connected profession. For example, in our district, we have moved to Professional Learning Communities as an amazing impetus for collaboration. It has improved our practices at both the school and the district level.

     Collaboration is also increasing via the Internet. The quickest and most dynamic way we have moved to transform the culture of isolation is by using Twitter at our school.  We are seeing the contagion of innovative practices occurring through the unique and dynamic Twitter window.

     Here are just a few benefits of our use of Twitter @MCherryStreet. We have many teachers tweeting just about daily, and all but a handful of members of our instructional faculty are leveraging Twitter power.

BENEFITS:

1.       Personal Learning Networks

My personal learning network has been the source of about 80% of all learning that occurs in my professional development arena. In the past 6 months, several of our district employees have joined Twitter, and now we are using Twitter to provide a World Wide and a Local Personal Learning Network. Here is a recent Tweet that contains one of my TouchCasts that allowed three administrators to collaborate together. This is sooo exciting!

2.      Excitement by Students

One of our #RockStar teachers, that I will refer to in the rest of this BLOG as Nikki, gets her students all excited about Tweets and the Retweets they have earned by national companies. She recently Tweeted about her students winning the grade level First in Math competition at our school. Her class Tweet was then Retweeted by the company, First in Math. Her kids were so excited, and they feel like they have voice!

3.      Transparency of Practices

Teachers are learning from each other and from others across the globe. We recently had a district Technology Exposition where our teachers learned several new apps. and programs that have caught on like “wild fire”. Several of our teachers are now using Go Noodle. Nikki, tweeted about it, and others all over campus can now see how one teacher could use this program--great ideas spread quickly. This is grass roots professional development from one teacher’s voice to another teacher’s view.

Take a look at these few Tweets where Nikki  credits another teacher on her grade level. These two teachers collaborate frequently! Teacher Kim is @CherryCheetah64.

4.      Classroom Walk-Thrus ~ The Window into a Teacher’s Practices

As an administrator, it is always difficult to get into teacher’s classrooms with the mounting paperwork responsibilities that accompany more and more federal and state accountability. Further, the immediate needs of students in crisis will throw my schedule out the window quicker than anything else. With that being said, Twitter has allowed me to see, sometimes on a daily basis, a snapshot of lessons occurring in the classroom. For my teachers who Tweet regularly, I can without a doubt­ vouch for the practices of that teacher because they provide documentary evidence EVERY SINGLE DAY about what occurs in their classroom. I have virtual CWT’s happening at my school. I feel empowered, but imagine how confident a parent will feel about the practices of this teacher! Twitter has been a tool for positive press for the teacher and the school! I, as the Principal, have access to our school’s FaceBook page, and I have begun cross-posting Tweets to our FaceBook page which gives the teacher twice the impact for those families who don’t have access to both—more bang for the buck!

      

5.      Ed Chats  -- Sharing Practices about Specific Strategies

Our school recently participated in 2 different Ed Chats. We modified the format a smidge by having them last all day so that any teacher could post to the Twitter feed during their planning session. This extended the Ed Chat to an 8 hour window, but the information we gleaned was priceless. Our topics were PBIS strategies shared by all faculty and the integration of technology. The PBIS chat was a positive way for teachers to share their successful strategies with each other while not interrupting their school day. This was organic professional development at its best. The technology integration Ed Chat provided my Technology Team with the diagnostic feedback they needed to help them organize and run a faculty meeting/professional development session focused on integrating the latest technologies. I created a Storify of that very first Ed Chat in a previous BLOG entry: Spreading the EdTech Virus.

Here is a Tweet where Nikki uses the #PBS hash tag to identify this Tweet is specifically about our school's #PBS initiatives.

And, here is a Tweet that shows how much Nikki is loving using Twitter to learn from her colleagues:

     And, just to praise the power of #TwitterTeachers, I observed a tweet from #RockStar Nikki while I was typing this BLOG Entry—she is frequently leveraging the power of Twitter to impact not only her classroom community but also the educational community at large (with Twitter that is a.k.a. THE GLOBE)! To emphasize my points here, I was away from the school today, and I could see—with a visual—what this amazing teacher was working on right then--when the learning occurred!

     Nikki is an educator who has shifted the “norm” of her classroom culture by using social media spaces to connect and learn from educators all over the world. To quote Amber Teamann @8Amber8 who provoked this BLOG entry via the #SAVMP project (I believe she was quoting my hero, @GeorgeCouros,) “Isolation is now a choice educators make.”  The shift really has to happen for educators. Using tools like Twitter allows for educators to connect and share learning that is happening with educators in their own school and with any other school abroad. We need to make this happen, weave this magic for our profession, and continue to create transparency in our own classrooms.

     If you want to follow one of these amazing teachers check out my list on Twitter titled: #Cherry Street Rock Stars. And....Tweet on my friends, Tweet on!

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.

What Makes a Good Teammate? #SAVMP 26

I know that picking a few team members or even creating a team is not something everyone gets to do; many times leaders walk into an already established team or find themselves in other similar circumstances. But, when you do have the chance to pick a team, what qualities would you look for? What traits would be on your wish list? What non-negotiables would be a part of your Team Roster?

I have had the chance to work on several leadership teams over the years because I was an administrator at the secondary level where we enjoyed teams of 5-7 administrators. I also worked for some very different leadership styles on those teams. At one point, I had an amazing 2-3 years working for a former superintendent who was charismatic and energetic and definitely had vision. I loved watching him work with parents, students, and teachers. He was a gifted speaker who could make things happen.

I also worked on another pretty amazing team, a few years later, at the secondary level. My favorite part of that experience was my teammates. There was one teammate in particular who was brilliant! She and I worked well together for so many reasons. She liked to be out in front, and I liked to work the magic behind the scenes. She was the idea girl, and I was the achiever--I could put the ideas into action. And, most importantly, we challenged each other by always striving to be our best and by always looking for something new and innovative that would help our school or our students. We would sit for hours after the regular school day and brainstorm ways to improve the systems we were working in.

After having those types of experiences, I think I have been pretty spoiled. I have some lofty goals for what my teammates should be, and I will constantly strive to find that same synergy again. Here are the things I believe make a GREAT teammate.

STUDENTS FIRST:
Framing everything we do within the context of...is this what is best for our students?...will never fail any school leader. Yes, there is a delicate balance because the adults on campus need to be happy and successful in order to execute the plan for "students first". So I tend to hire folks who have the same mantra, "students first" in order for us all to carry the same torch. A great teammate will recognize this as the lens with which we review every decision. I truly consider my job like mission work. I work at a high poverty school with 80%+ students are stuck in cycles of generational poverty, and education can not only modify those cycles...it might even end them. I was a child of poverty, and my father ended the cycle for all of us! I believe all of us are dealing with the lives of children, and our "touch" should only be positive and powerful. I treat every child as if this child is the Superintendent's child! A teammate should have that same lens when making decisions for our school.

INITIATIVE:
I believe a teammate has to take the initiative. I know that delegation is part of the leader's job; however, my teammate and I, when we were at the top of our game, never had to be told what to do. As assistant principals, we always rushed into our Principal's office and listed the things we would like to do and how quickly we would have them done. This demonstrates proactivity and forward thinking. I love getting out in front of situations vs. reacting to them after they have happened. Being able to plan/predict a situation and how it will play out allows you to hone your skills in many areas. Comparing your plan to how it really occurred increases your ability to execute successful plans. AND....knowing how people will react to a plan you have created is key in planning for its successful implementation. Taking the initiative allows you to be innovative because you are generally the first one to start the task if you an initiator. 

A SENSE OF URGENCY:
I believe that a teammate will work swiftly and at a grueling pace during the work day because our time with these little ones is so short. We must make every minute count. A minute can not be wasted when those countless minutes add up to hours or days of instruction where a child could learn to read. I believe it is criminal if a child leaves the elementary school level and can not read proficiently. We must be creative and utilize everything in our power to help them walk through our doors equipped to succeed in our ever-changing world...a world that used to be concerned about neighbors and happenings in our town. Now, we are clicks away from others around the globe. We need to equip our students with the tools to succeed in a world that will look entirely different than anything we have ever known.

POSITIVE:
Being positive in the education business is two fold. First, it is imperative that we tackle all our problems in a positive light otherwise we would be devastated by the home lives of our children. In education, we do so much that goes unnoticed or unappreciated by the recipients. BUT, that is not why we are teachers or educators. We do the job because it is a courageous and rewarding job. We do not seek recognition. Just this past week, I had a teacher who voluntarily took an early morning ride in a police car to locate a lost child who did not make it to school. She knew the student because he was a member of her class. She saw him walking with his 4 other siblings to school. Then, when class started, he was not there. She quickly located his twin, and the brothers and sisters did not know why he didn't make it to school. They left him behind because he was walking too slowly. He was found within the hour, and this teacher was happy that he was safe. Keep in mind, this same student had tried to kill the fish in her aquarium the week before!!! We love our students, and we will view them and the opportunity to work with them as the best job in the world. The second need for positivity comes from the need to help our team of teachers stay positive. I read article after article that describes how one or two toxic (negative) employees can destroy any good work to be done in a corporation, small business, and school. I have a policy that if teachers bring me problems, they need to come with ideas and suggestions for solutions. We ALL own the success of our students and our school; therefore, we ALL need to be involved in the improvements. Feedback on improvements is essential, and it is how we will get stronger as a school; BUT feedback is a much different animal than someone who finds negative things to discuss all the time without any impetus for solutions. We are lucky to have only a few folks at the school who are negative at this point. It is sad that when we see them coming, we know exactly what their discussion will be about. So, a great teammate will be positive and assist our team in reaching innovative solutions and will not be discouraged by the morass of sad circumstances we encounter on a daily basis.

LEARNING ALL THE TIME (Teach me!)
As the lead instructional leader for our school, I am charged with learning and being versed on all the best practices and on all the new research that has any chance of making an impact on our ability to teach our students better. I am quite the DIY (do it yourself) learner, and it helps to have a teammate who is cut from the same cloth. I need someone who can challenge me with better and more cutting edge ways than I can glean in my own studies. I need someone who is versed enough in the latest research to challenge my decisions and think of even better ways than I can to tackle the issues at hand.

These are difficult skills to find contained in one individual. I am always trying to keep my own skills polished so that I can be the best that I can be...and there are some times that I fail. That is why I need that teammate who can remind me why we do what we do, who we do it for, and how amazing it can be EVERY SINGLE DAY!

I will close with a quote from Mia Hamm (my daughter is a soccer fanatic--LOL):

"Being a good teammate is when you try to sprint down a ball that everyone thinks is going out of bounds. But you go after it anyways and you get it."

This is the sort of commitment a good teammate has--the commitment to ensure our students never go out of bounds. We always guide them to be winners no matter what it takes!

Week 6 -- Roads to Innovation #SAVMP

Well, for this week's assignment, there were many ways to tackle it. I really didn't even have to BLOG. I could have just commented on someone else's entry, but instead I am trying to build my BLOGGING MUSCLES and blog more often. So I chose to answer the assignment via this question:

How do you go about creating innovative practices in your schools?

Certainly, as a new principal, at a turn-around school, I believe that I have not focused on innovation as much as I would like to; however, I do recognize innovation when I see it, and I know how to support it. 

I believe the easiest way to create innovative practices in our schools is ......simple......
YOU JUST SAY YES!

I have some brilliant and daring faculty who are true innovators. When they come to me and ask, "What do you think about this?" or when they inquire, "Would it be okay if I tried this?" my answer is always YES! YES! YES!

As the experts in the classroom, the teachers need my support when they are feeling courageous and want to branch out, especially in areas connected to technology integration.

I can recall multiple times over the course of the year where a teacher wanted to try something new. I fully supported them, and their idea blossomed, was a success, and it resulted in increased student engagement in learning. Risk-taking leads to innovation which leads to growth and success!

Step 2 for creating innovative practice at our school has been my Promotion and Praise of those who have taken the risks leading to innovation. I have 3 venues where I promote the practices of those who are taking the road to innovation. I promote and praise in my Monday Memo called the Cheetah Chat, in my Friday Focus called the Cheetah PUPdate, and during faculty meetings and/or after-school professional development sessions. The way to continue risk-taking behavior is to make certain it is rewarded. 

Innovation is critical in our ever-changing world. The technology is advancing so quickly that I can hardly keep up, and I am pretty close to the cutting edge of many types of tech. The problem will reach the tipping point  in education when the majority of children entering our schools know more about the technology than the teachers teaching them. In actuality, this might already be true in most high schools and many middle schools. Teachers MUST be innovators and need to embrace the culture of innovation to maintain relevance. I have set a new goal for myself this fall to try a brand new technology that I have not used yet. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I get there next month. May we all be innovators. Our students need it.