Category Archives: Transformation

No, Your Child Shouldn’t Attend a Failing School

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There is lots of propaganda these days about vouchers and school choice.  A favorite line to stir the masses on the topic is to say how children shouldn’t have to attend failing schools.

I think we have to consider what a failing school in NOT:

  • A Title I school-“Title I” is just a designation that states a certain portion of the school’s population is economically disadvantaged.  Because of this, the school receives additional funds to train teachers and provide additional resources so that students who may have entered school behind because of lack of opportunity.  If a Title I school is considered “school-wide” than even those children who are not economically disadvantaged benefit.  It is actually a huge benefit to attending a Title I school because these teachers are highly skilled in making a difference with all students, not just the students who learn easily. I took my own child to a Title I screen-shot-2016-09-25-at-1-33-31-pmschool rather than his affluent neighborhood school because I knew they would grow him, wherever he started from.  Being economically disadvantaged is not contagious.  You can’t catch it by attending a Title I school.  Children in Title I schools learn the value of diversity and are more likely to learn to know how to function with others who are different than themselves in the real world.
  • A school whose state test scores are below ninety percent –Just because a school appears to have high passing rates doesn’t mean they are a great school. It may simply mean that the students walked into the school with a good amount of skills learned from home. Right now on the Texas accountability test, passing rates are fairly low.  The test has changed to reflect higher-level thinking, and they are gradually building the passing rate as schools make the shift from “strategies” to “thinking.”  
    A high passing rate (or a low one for that matter) doesn’t tell you if a school is adding value to students.
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    The score in and of itself doesn’t show you for sure if a student is performing higher than they were when they arrived.  Sometimes when a student enters school with large gaps, the score may not yet be passing, but it is showing astounding growth.  An overall passing rate doesn’t tell you if a school can make a difference with all students.  
    A great school should be able to teach any child, any day, and grow their academic ability and their social-emotional health.
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  • A school with diverse ethnicities, cultures, religions, and backgrounds- Our world is changing and becoming more and more diverse.  Groups that were once majority are finding that is no longer the case.  To prepare children for the 21st-century world, they need to develop the skills to value and collaborate with others from all backgrounds, including those that are significantly different from their own.  Students who attend “homogenous” schools are more likely to struggle in college and beyond because the haven’t developed the skill set to work with others besides those who are most like themselves.

Here is what I think a failing school IS:

  • A school that doesn’t put children first – Schools should filter every decision they make through what is best for their students.  If it isn’t making a difference for children in a school, it shouldn’t matter.
  • A school that doesn’t value partnerships with their families –Schools should always be working to invite their parents in, ask their opinions and build relationships so that they can partner in the child’s education.
    If parents don’t matter, you might be in a failing school.
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    Does your school provide opportunities to be involved other than fundraisers? Does it have a parent involvement policy?  If not, it should.
  • A school that doesn’t grow EVERY student – It’s easy to appear to be a good school if all the students are the same and performing on high levels.  However, if a child walks in the door with lots of skills, a school should be able to grow the student from that point, not rest on their laurels A failing school is one that takes advantage of the fact that students may already be able to perform skills and doesn’t attempt to grow them more.  They may also not be able to grow students that have more difficulty learning.  They resort to labels and excuses of why it is the child that is the problem, rather than accepting the challenge and ensuring learning happens.

real-world

  • A school that doesn’t seek to teach problem-solving, higher level thinking, and 21st-century skills necessary to survive in a future that we cannot yet fully define – Our world has changed drastically, just since I was in school.  There are jobs and technology we couldn’t have even dreamed of at the time I was in elementary school.  We have to intentionally think about this world that doesn’t exist.  We have to make sure that our students are proficient readers, writers, and mathematicians, but we also have to make sure they are thinkers, problem-solvers, collaborators, and have skills to persist when things get challenging, while also being willing to grow.  Students can no longer live in a world of “perfection” because learning is messy and they don’t need to waste time memorizing things that they can access easily through technology.
  • A school using technology in learning only to consume information –To often schools have lots of technology available, but they are only using it to access programs that allow for practice of skills or looking up information.  Truly great schools are teaching students the programs that not only allow access to information but applications that allow them to create and demonstrate their understanding of concepts.  Research is showing that this type of creativity is critical for the future.
  • A school driven by high stakes testing and preparation –Too many schools these days are trying to prove their worth through high scores on high stakes tests.  The problem is that these schools are abandoning real learning for test preparation and cartoon5_2_13drills of skills rather than relevant learning grounded in real-life application.  Before you assume a good score means a good school, you may need to look deeper to find out exactly how those scores are being achieved and what may be sacrificed for the performance on a single day.
  • A school that doesn’t function as a learning organization –  A successful school is one where everyone grows and learns: leaders, teachers, students, parents, and community.  Administration and teachers should constantly be learning and evolving to meet the needs of the students and an ever-changing future.  They ways students are learning shouldn’t look like the ways we taught them 20, 10, or even five years ago.  There should be opportunities for parents and the community to participate in the learning as well. If the only learning is that of the students, there is definitely a problem.

Yes, no child should have to attend a failing school.  We just need to be careful to make sure we really know what a “failing school” really is.

Why I Blog-Inner Thoughts of a School Principal

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During Cohort 6 for the Texas Principal Visioning Institute, facilitators spoke a great deal about the power of blogging.  I started my journey into blogging a year ago, but having these conversations with other principals the past two days caused me to do a great deal of reflection about why I blog.

I hope that by blogging, it allows others to gain insight to me and understand my motivations in a way that builds trust.
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I am a very private person. Because of some bullying as a child, I have an intense fear of being judged and tend to become a hermit outside my work life. As a principal, I have learned that to be successful, I must have a public persona.  I must show my vulnerability and allow others to connect with me, but sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough minutes in the day.  I hope that by blogging, it allows others to gain insight to me and understand my motivations in a way that builds trust.

why-blog

My personal benefit is that I found blogging became my outlet for intense emotions, thoughts, and passions for public education that sometimes kept me awake at night.  If I take the time to write and reflect, then it somehow allows me to let some of that go so that I can rest knowing that I still have a record of my thoughts.  Before I began writing, it was like I was trying to hold all of my ideas in my brain and I had to remember every detail. Once I write it down, those thoughts are captured , and my brain can relax.

My final reason for blogging is that there are plenty of people in the world with misconceptions or hellbent on telling the negative side of public education.  I love my job. I am so proud and honored to serve alongside amazing educators.  Working to educate children is my God-given mission.  I believe that a free and appropriate education is the right of every child and the vehicle to a better society.  Yes, there are negative examples of i-think-therefore-i-blogschools and/or teachers, but I believe there are far more positives stories than bad ones.  Educators are the creators of all other professions, and they are the most selfless people I have ever encountered, willing to raise not only their children but the children of others.  If we don’t tell our story, then who will?  No, wait, if we don’t tell our story of greatness, shame on us!

It’s still hard to blog.  Sometimes my brain shuts down. Sometimes, I know I use too many passive voice sentences, and I am fearful I make too many mistakes because I am not an English expert or that I am too wordy. (Yes, that is my fear of judgment rising to the surface again.) I have to remind myself to use my growth mindset, have grit, and be willing to give myself grace just as I ask my staff and students to do so that I can reinforce my own beliefs and thoughts.  However, when I hit publish, I can still become consumed by watching to see how many people actually view my post or the fact that I don’t have many followers, or wondering if people will share my words with others.  I’ve even had times that my blog was lost in the middle of publishing and that just makes me mad and I stop blogging for a while.

If we don’t tell our story, then who will? No, wait, if we don’t tell our story of greatness, shame on us!
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I guess in the long run, the best reason for any blogger to blog is for yourself.  People will like you, or not like you.  They will follow you, or not follow you. The will share you, or not share you.  They will comment, or not.  No matter what you will always have how you feel about yourself and your blog at the end of the day. For me, the benefits I get from the release, outweigh any negatives. Besides, if you are wanting to make an impact,  there isn’t even the possibility for your words to have a positive impact on others if you don’t put them out there.

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It’s Not a Pep Rally, It’s a Hope Rally

Best Practice, Cultural Proficiency, Education, Leadership, School Culture, Transformation, , , , , ,

One of the most important things in my school culture is the time that the entire school spends together every Friday morning. I’d love to say I invented the idea of a morning assembly for elementary students, but I didn’t. I actually learned about it from my oldest son’s elementary principal. I remember her presenting it as a way to get students excited about school and ensure they were there on time.

I saw the idea evolve through several schools in that district. I didn’t necessarily buy into the idea at the time. They typically involved things that were usually done on the announcements, but now live and then expanded to student celebrations and a song.

When I came to my new school, one of the most urgent needs was the transformation of our school culture. They had been a campus where each team had a different school shirt, where they had never done anything with the entire school at the same time, and they were desperate to become unified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XvRC0dPYI0

I tried to follow the number one rule that they teach you in principal school (don’t change anything the first year!) but what could I do? They wanted this. They needed it! It became our tradition and weekly time together as a whole school. It became Eagle Shuffle.

I have heard our Eagle Shuffle referred to as a pep rally for elementary school. The thing is, I don’t think that is an accurate description. It’s really more of a “hope rally.”  During Eagle Shuffle the purpose is to be together, to celebrate our successes and to saturate our students’ minds with positive feelings about education.  I want them to have so much positive imprinting about school and hope for their future that it carries them all the way through graduation—from college!

Marketing agencies constantly play to children as consumers. They use bright colors, catchy jungles, and fun to sell their cereal, television shows, music, toys, and video games. Can we afford to do any less when it comes to education? I believe we must do the same thing with our students and public education if we hope to keep them as our clientele through 13 years of school. This is our product, and we only have ourselves to blame for poor marketing if nobody is buying it.

Some might ask how we can afford to give up the instructional time. I say this is the most powerful instructional time.
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 We are teaching our students who to stop and celebrate themselves and each other, we are teaching them about cultural proficiency and how to value one another. We are teaching them about grit and growth mindset and naming examples we have seen. We are teaching them there is always time to stop and sing and cheer. I need to know that when the day comes where they question whether education is worth it, they will remember their days at Degan and Eagle Shuffle and dig deep to find their grit and growth mindset and know that they can always make it a great day because it is always their choice.

A New Vision for Public Education in Texas and Beyond

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Eight years ago I was exposed to a new piece of work created by superintendents across Texas who had a greater vision for public education than simple accountability based on high-stakes testing.  At the time, I don’t know if I appreciated the work for all that it was visioning-instituteworth and the enormous thought and innovation that went into this vision. It was kind of like how we sometimes take things for granted, like our freedom in America or breathing. It’s just something you have. The district leadership frequently brought this document to the forefront of our conversations and asked us to reflect on its purpose and relevance for our work.

Then the world changed.  “Freedom”  and “breathing” were no longer a part of our work as leaders.  Every trace of the Texas Visioning Document was erased from the district and the work we did, only to be replaced with conversations driven by student and teacher performance on the state assessment.  It is true that you do not always appreciate what you have until it is gone.  But nowchangingworld, like the freedom of a democratic society or the air needed for survival, I was missing a critical part of my profession. I began a mission to find a district whose work was driven by the principles of the Visioning Document.  I had to find a new source of oxygen for my career. I was thrilled to find so many districts who had not abandoned this work and quickly found a home with like purpose.

It is our moral imperative as educators to prepare students for a future that we can probably not accurately perceive…”
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Four years later, I have been selected as a principal to represent my district to focus specifically on this document.  I find myself on a new frontier, no longer to serve solely a receptacle for the information being learned from the vision of this text, but as a vehicle to take this information to others.  It is a great responsibility to help spread the mission and vision of a new face of education. This plan allows for ownership, flexibility, and  board-blended-learning-scale-up-presentation-2opportunity for learning “anywhere, anytime, any path, and any pace.” It is our moral imperative to have the grit and growth mindset needed to prepare students for a future that we can probably not accurately perceive, to stand against special interest groups that would promote learning for some, but not all, and to communicate to society about how the future of education needs to change.  While it is somewhat scary facing the uncertainty, it is also exciting and a challenge I gladly accept.

Resources:

Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas

Caution: Sabotage Ahead

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selfsabotageyoursuccess

You would think progress toward a goal would make the work easier.  However, as I have learned with weight loss, it seems that whenever I get closest to my goal, something inevitably happens and instead of being 10 pounds from my goal, I am once again 20 pounds away.  Some experts say this is because our body has a “set point” and it keeps our bodies in this range.  However, I think that I subconsciously sabotage myself. Maybe I have become so comfortable being at a certain weight, living a certain lifestyle, that I’m not sure if I can “be” this new person, so I unconsciously sabotage myself out of fear.

I think the same thing can be true with professional goals.   Before becoming a principal, I worked at a place for fifteen years where I repeatedly hit a barrier preventing me from caution-aheadsuccessfully achieving my goals.  While I wasn’t comfortable, it had become my norm.  Being in a new role in a new district, I have been able to move past that, but I am definitely in the land of the unknown, professionally.

I think my staff is experiencing the same phenomenon.  There was no one that worked harder with children that this group of educators.  However, no matter how hard they worked, they weren’t getting the results they wanted.  The first couple of years the work was hard, but we didn’t yet see the fruits of our efforts, so that felt “normal.”  However, recently, our flywheel has begun to move.  The work is getting a little easier.  The payoffs are starting to happen.  It just gets better from here, right?

However, as we started this year, there was a huge sense of discombobulation hanging heavy in the air.  I could feel it with myself and with the staff.  I kept asking myself how we could feel more anxious when we have reached a place where we are getting settled in strong habits, and routines and our students are starting to make the gains we desire.  How could we feel unsettled if we know what to expect?  Or did we?

That was a giant realization.  We don’t know what to expect.  We are on the frontier of unchartered territory.  We don’t know what it feels like to have our students make these kinds of gains, and we worry if we can maintain the momentum.  Questions of “what happens if we can’t?” bubble just beneath the surface.

Fear is a powerful thing.  Fear goes immediately to the primitive part of our brain geared for survival, the amygdala.  Because our most important task as living organisms is survival, the amygdala has the ability to “hijack” our brain’s higher order thinking emotional-intelligence-an-essential-mind-skill-set-for-social-workers-11-638functions in order to protect us. Fear turns on the amygdala which urges us to “fight,” take “flight” or “freeze” even if survival is not actually at stake.  However, this prehistoric part of our brain doesn’t discriminate between a saber tooth tiger or a potentially failed goal, and any of those actions sabotage forward momentum and progress. So it is imperative to keep our amygdala in check and stay in our higher thinking brain to move past the fear and continue moving forward.  A challenge isn’t a saber tooth tiger; it is an opportunity to learn, grow and improve.

No one intentionally undermines their progress to an important goal, but it does happen. So how do we keep our amygdala off and prevent self-sabotage?

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  • Be aware of your surroundings.  As with any time you are entering a situation with uncertainty or potential danger, you must turn off autopilot and intentionally choose your actions.  If you are on autopilot, that overprotective amygdala may steer you away from the very opportunity you need to push through. Recognize that you may feel uncomfortable, but discomfort is not life-threatening so that you can keep moving forward.
  • Recognize that you will be stepping out of your comfort zone and make a plan. Growth and learning occur outside your comfort zone. Plan for what you will do to increase your comfort as you face the unknown. Let go of things that don’t matter.  Plan for what you will do if things don’t go as planned. Plan for what you will do
    Recognize that you may feel uncomfortable, but discomfort is not life-threatening so that you can keep moving forward.
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    when things go right! Just be careful when you are making your plan not to over-think.  Over-thinking tends to lead to anxiety and turn that amygdala on as you become overwhelmed with what to choose.  Keep it simple and trust your gut.
  • See what you want, not what you don’t. Our brains are powerful and attract what we think about due to the “Law of Attraction.”  If we want success, we have to create a mental image of the success.  If we think about failure, we are unwittingly willing it to happen.  It can be difficult to have a growth mindset and see yourself being successful in a situation you have never experienced. So find an example of someone being successful in the area you desire, and put yourself in their shoes to imagine accomplishing your goal.
  • Have grit and don’t quit. Even when it gets hard, keep that amygdala turned off. Don’t run and don’t stop.  If you are not growing you are declining (more laws of nature). If you have worked this hard to get this far, you don’t want to lose even a smidge of progress. Even if it doesn’t work out with your first attempt, you will learn information you need to try again, improve, and get closer to your goal.
  • Give yourself some grace.  Too often, our mindset is that we must be perfect.  Trying to be perfect can become an excuse not to try.  Perfection scares us and flips the “amygdala switch” because our brain is smart enough to know perfection is impossible, especially in a first attempt.  
    A goal of perfection often gives us permission to give up before we begin. Learning and growing is messy, and that’s okay.
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Self-sabotage to keep oneself at their “comfort” set point is normal, but those who are successful in reaching goals, know the strategies needed to push past existing set points to establish a new equilibrium of success. Use of these strategies don’t mean the journey will be without twists and turns, but maybe at least without detours of self-sabotage.  As educators, this becomes especially critical. Not only must we master this skill to ensure we reach our goals of students success in our classroom, but also if we hope to teach these skills of grit, growth mindset and grace to our students so they can navigate their own pathways after they leave us.

 

“Go Slow to Go Fast”

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Sometimes-you-have-to-slow-down-in-order-to-go-fast.

So a couple of weeks ago, I got a speeding ticket.  I was in a hurry to pass a car, and my lane was ending.  Within a few seconds, there were flashing lights behind me, and I had a ticket to pay.  I pleaded “no contest” and requested deferred adjudication. If I don’t receive another citation within three months, the ticket will be dismissed.  I’m trying really tickethard to be conscientious and stay within the speed limit at all times, but too often, I look down and low and behold, I’m going 10-15 miles over the speed limit again.  Even though I seem to be going with the flow of traffic, the realization that I am speeding sends an immediate sense of panic through me.

The same thing seems to happen in my school. As we have started the school year, “go slow to go fast” has been something coming from my mouth as a leader more and more often.  I remember when my own principal said those words, I would think,

“But why? If there is a sense of urgency, why not just go fast?”
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It’s amazing what a little maturity and experience bring for finding a new perspective.  I have definitely learned that like my speeding ticket, going too fast just puts others in danger and can eventually cause things to take more time than you hoped to save because you have to go back and redo all that you did by going fast.

Going slow at the beginning of a school year allows us to teach students exactly what they need to do to be successful and build stability for speeding up in the future.  So often, we assume students know what we want them to do.  If we go slow and teach them the routines we want them to do, we will actually be able to go faster as these routines become habits that our students begin to do automatically.

Going slow…allows us to teach students exactly what they need to do…and build stability for speeding up in the future.
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We must also go slow and monitor the routine, providing corrective feedback to ensure they are doing what we need them to do correctly.  If we allow our students to speed up and do the routine too quickly, they may actually practice incorrectly forming bad habits.  It takes way more time to break a habit and then replace it than it does to do it correctly the first time.

Finally, and most importantly, we have to make sure we are taking the time to build relationships.  I often think of Rita Pierson as she says, “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.”  Well, this makes teaching quite complicated. Pierson-Kids-Dont-Learn We can’t command our students to like us, and we don’t want to waste a year of learning.  It is critical to take the time to build relationships with our students.  If we do, we know what makes them tick.  We know how they think and how they learn.  Thus, we can go much more quickly.

The concept of going slow goes with parental relationships, too.  Many of the parents today did not have the schools that we try to create today.  They were often “do I as I say” environments where the value for individuals was scarce.  Parents who experienced “quick to label” judgments of schools that failed to meet their needs are going to filter their views of schools through their own past experiences.  We can’t just complain that parents aren’t wheels_came_off_400_clr_6906supporting us.  We must go to the root cause and build the relationships that allow parents to truly trust us.  When that happens, magically, parents no longer question every school decision.  It takes time up front, but it allows us to go faster in the long run with our parents helping accelerate the process.

“Going slow to go fast” in schools isn’t easy.  Much like my deferred adjudication for my speeding ticket, I look down and sometimes it feels like even though we are trying to go slow, we are somehow going so fast the wheels feel like they are about to come off.  As leaders, we have to recognize this tendency in ourselves, and in those we lead. I think the key is, that when you recognize that feeling, you can’t just keep your foot on the you are in the driver seataccelerator.  You have to make the conscious decision to slow back down. You don’t want to go fast before the vehicle is stable enough to handle it.

In these beginning weeks of school, go slow. Take time.  Find the grit to hold off and build momentum.  Rely on a growth mindset and take the time to create strong habits that improve each day.  But most of all, always have enough grace to give yourself permission to slow down.

A New Hope

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The concept of hope has become quite intriguing to me.  My campus uses the Gallup survey with our students and one of the measures is how much “hope” our students have.  Unfortunately, what we have seen is that the answer is not much.  It’s not just my school, but nationally, results show our students lack hope.  While I know that the world our children face is a challenge, their chances for success are minimal if they don’t have hope that they can overcome difficulties.  Gallup defines the opposite of having hope as being “stuck”.  Stuck means you can’t grow.  If you can’t grow and improve, you become more “stuck” and even discouraged.

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Gallup Survey 2015 National Results: Hope Index

As I have thought a great deal about this dilemma, I begin considering “hope” as a verb vs. “hope” as a noun.

  • Hope as a verb is just a wish left in the hands of fate. Hope as a noun is paired with the verb “believe”. You believe that what you desire will happen because you trust and believe that it can.
  • Hope as a verb causes you to hold back a little in case it doesn’t work out. Hope as a noun allows you to give it all because you KNOW it will work out.Screen Shot 2016-08-27 at 10.47.40 AM
  • Hope as a verb results in excuses for why it didn’t work. Hope as a noun results in facing brutal facts and making adjustments to move forward.
  • Hope as a verb makes you feel at mercy of the power of others. Hope as a noun gives you the power to accomplish your dreams.

 

I believe that being intentional in helping children develop hope is key.  That is why this year, as I enter my fourth year as principal (a.k.a. Episode IV), our theme is “A New Hope.”  I need to be clear jedi symbolthat it is not “Star Wars.”  Too often those attempting to make additional profit in high states testing attempt a play on words and market “STAAR Wars” products to educators. There is too much attention on this test which takes away from the focus on people.  Current accountability systems are often a vacuüm for hope. I have no fear of state assessment.  But “STAAR” is not what drives my school or our work with students.

On the contrary, my teachers are Jedi Master’s of Hope and work diligently to help  our young padawan cultivate their hope by helping them find pathways around barriers that stand in the way of the future they wish to create for themselves.  They do this using a Jedi

To prepare our students for a face-paced, ever-changing world, we must teach them to have hope.
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mindset and  building relationships, taking time for conversations to set goals, analyze progress toward those goals, and create new paths to achieve those goals to prevent becoming stuck.  They “feel the force” of  hope and help our students to do the same.

My campus has done intense training to become a “trauma sensitive” school.  Studies show one in four children are  to trauma prior to the age of four.  Trauma, especially ongoing trauma, can teach children at a very young age that they are stuck and have no control over their environment and thus create a mindset of “stuck”.  With much preparation and new tools, we will be a beacon of hope for these students until our students can find ways around their circumstances and stockpile some hope for themselves.

Public education is certainly different from when I was in school. It is even different from when I began my career.  However, we have to continue and adapt to prepare students for the world they face, which is fast-paced and constantly changing.  To do this, students must believe they can be successful in a world where the media floods them with stories that drain hope.  Yes, we must teach reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.  However, instruction in “hope” seems to be a new necessary course.

Obviously, hope is a important component for student success.  Ihopet is the precursor to other critical skills of grit and growth mindset.  Without hope, there can be no grit and willingness to stick to challenging tasks. Without the grit to stick to challenging tasks, there can be no growth.  Without growth and improvement, purpose is lost. Hope is not a wish or a dream, but the key to making dreams come true. Because of this, our schools have to be the source of a hope for our students, because our students are our new hope for the future.

Hope Resources:

Shane Lopez, The Hope Monger and Author of Making Hope Happen

 

Hitting the Wall

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Hitting the wall is a term often used to describe when a runner’s body just completely exhausts all of its energy while running a marathon. I must say, I am not a runner. If you see me running, you should probably run, too, as there is something chasing me! However, running and chasingI have found that this term has become meaningful to me this Spring. First, I felt I hit the wall in blogging. It wasn’t that my ideas, thoughts, or opinions were lacking, I just could not find the energy to get them on paper. It was probably a combination of so much energy being expended just in the day-to-day of running a school, but also, pouring your heart and soul on paper is a bigger challenge than I imagined. Putting yourself out there completely exposed, not always knowing how your words are received can be depleting, especially for someone whose “love language” is words of affirmation. Silence kills me!

I found this video and laughed so hard while making so many connections in my  life.

http:/https://youtu.be/3ItnxJLAOeY

One of the most powerful connections was an analogy of hitting the wall in education. For three years, I have been the principal of a campus in the middle of a great transformation. Our campus was in danger of being designated “improvement required” when I walked in marathon runnersthe door because scores on state assessments were in a free fall. As a result, my staff and I have been running a marathon at a sprinter’s pace. We have had to transform our understanding of teaching through a deeper understanding of the standards, practices that allow us to engage all learners at their levels of need, and a true comprehension of our students, many who come from backgrounds of poverty and trauma.

It is exhausting, to say the least, and a few weeks ago, I could see we were all about to hit the wall. So if our analogy of “hitting the wall” was appropriate, it aroused my curiosity to see what it is that runner’s do to avoid hitting the wall when they are likely very close to the finish line. What I found was some great advice that is more than relevant to educators in their last month of school:

1. Train-Whether a runner or an educator, proper training is essential.

You must continually be learning to refine your craft and become more effective in your implementation.
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Our students are continually evolving and so should we. We must learn how to become more efficient in choosing where to expend our energy so that we are always getting the most results. We cannot afford to use our precious resources on worrying about things we cannot change or on strategies or tasks that don’t get results.

measure of a man

2. Proper Nutrition-Hitting the wall is actually about the body and brain reaching glycogen depletion and no longer able to function effectively. Runners have now created complex formulas of when to consume which specific types of foods to have the fuel they need to finish the race. For educators, I think our nutrition is different. It is a mental nutrition of both learning and being around those who nourish our souls.

We need to feed our minds with things that help us stay positive and believe in our greater purpose.
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I think it is interesting in what I read about how runners also consider the need for complex carbs at a certain time while wanting simple sugars at other times. I think this true for educators. Sometimes we need to fill our brains with words of how wonderful we are and what a difference we make. Other times we need to feed on constructive criticism that helps us to contemplate how we can grow and improve, but always from people who have our best interest at heart.
3. Slow Down-I read that if a runner feels they are nearing the wall, they need to slow down to a “conversational pace” or one that they could speak with someone running next to them. How often as educators do we beginning moving so fast and become so out of breath we don’t realize we can’t carry on a conversation.
Sometimes,even when there is a sense of urgency, we just need to slow down and conserve some energy, so we don’t hit the wall.
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If you are so out of breath you can’t have a conversation with those around you; it’s time to slow down.

4. Have the Right Goal-I think one of the things I admire about runners is that even though there is a sea of runners, they really aren’t running against those around them. They are competing against themselves. They want to better their own time, not beat break throughsomeone else. Education has often been a competitive sport. “I want my scores to be better than theirs. I can’t share my ideas because I need to beat them.” I think we can all take some insight from runners, just as their bodies and abilities are not the same, neither are our classes or background experiences. We shouldn’t focus on someone else, but simply to reflect on ourselves and work to improve and get better each day, shaving a few seconds off our time as we run through each day.
5. Mental Toughness/Positivity-Ultimately, there is still times when a runner has done all of the previous steps exactly right and still begins to hit the wall. At that time, metal toughness and positivity prevail. A runner who thinks about his aching muscles and how too tough to killmuch time is left is doomed to fail. However, the runner who can focus on how much he has already accomplished and how close he is to his goals is more likely to recover. As educators, this time of year can be tough, but if you hyper focus on all that is not right and all that is left to be done, you too, are doomed like the runner hitting the wall. We must focus on each small accomplishment, celebrate each milestone, and remember we will accomplish whatever we set our sights on that is of value enough to have our actions align with our goals.

As we are running at breakneck speeds from April into May, I hope that each of you can focus on the goals you have to accomplish this year. Remember to slow down if you need to so that you at “conversation speed”. Maybe some extra nourishment is in order with a conversation with a trusted colleague.

You are only competing with yourself. Your mental toughness and positive attitude are the keys to finishing this race!
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Editable vector illustration of a man winning a race
Editable vector illustration of a man winning a race

Finding the Sweet Spot

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“To transform schools successfully, we need to navigate the difficult space between letting go of old strategies and grabbing on to new ones.” Robert John Meehan

This quote struck me this week.  It is true to have a real transformation in schools, we must master this balance of old and new strategies.  This dual mastery is especially critical if we are to escape the constraints of a dysfunctional standardized testing cycle. We must find that optimum point of where critical elements of instruction intersect to have the most effect on student learning -“the sweet spot.”

We must find where critical elements of instruction intersect to have the most effect on student learning -“the sweet spot.”
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As I began teaching twenty-five years ago, we ushered in the beginning of the demanding, rigorous, standardized testing era.  The tests at that time were increasingly more complex than anything we had seen before.  They were tied to accountability and a school’s performance on these tests was publicized for the world to see.

No worries.  Teachers were smart.  If the world said these tests were important, we could figure out ways to ensure students were successful.  I remember as a young, fifth-grade math teacher using a strategy that could assist even a struggling reader to determine the correct operation to use to solve the word problem. In reading, we could pinpoint the critical information the students needed to answer the questions, even if they didn’t have the stamina to read the entire lengthy passage.  I don’t think it was that we were trying to shortcut student learning.  We could essentially teach our students to follow a set routine of steps in a strategy, and they could be successful.  We were designing learning according to what society valued.  What was being communicated was that “tests” and “following instructions” were what was important.

authentic-skills

Over time, when have seen the shortfalls of this focus. Society has adjusted their perspective and decided tests based on this limited thinking were not important. We have realized that many students were crippled with no ability to solve a problem when they are not given a specific strategy or procedure.  We unwittingly created dependent students who struggled to approach problems with creativity.  As a result, tests have systematically been recreated to make those strategies from twenty-five years ago almost impossible to use. Words formally used as triggers are now embedded as distractors to see if students understand what they are doing. Tests are now designed to force higher level thinking.  They don’t rely on one set strategy that the teacher can say, “just follow these steps.”  It just won’t work. Regurgitation of facts or actions is essentially useless. To pass the “new generation” of high stakes assessments, our students must be proficient readers, mathematicians, communicators, and creative problem solvers.

Is this a bad thing?  I don’t think so.  Is it needed for our students to prepare for the future they face? Absolutely!  Is it easy? No way.  Essentially, it requires teachers and students to
“unlearn” everything they relied on in the past. Everything that worked and deemed them a success previously is now ineffective to achieve the new bar.

For those teachers in elementary schools today, it’s like being told you have to quit a bad habit, but you will continue to be judged on performance.  I liken it to giving up caffeine. Imagine you have been a heavy coffee or coke drinker.  Now you are giving up all caffeine cold turkey.  You know you need to do this for your health, but you still have to perform at high levels despite the fact that your body might be going through some withdrawal and experiencing caffeine headaches.  Finding that balance of teaching students at authentic levels with high problem-solving and performing triage for gaps between the newer test versions and previous ones take talent, practice, and hard work.

Effectively teaching students at high levels with meaningful, real-life problem-solving while performing triage for gaps between the newer test versions and previous ones doesn’t happen overnight.  Measures that previously determined students, teachers, and schools were high performers have been revised and now deem them lacking.  It is not the people who have changed.  It is the tests.  It is the expectations.  Even businesses learning-testingacknowledge that systematic change takes three to five years. There is often an implementation dip after starting new methods.  I would think that when you add young children to the mix, it can take a little longer. With that, we must be careful not to misinterpret or abuse test results. We are comparing apples to oranges.  These new tests are definitely not like any test you took in school.  It’s not in anyone’s best interest to make assumptions or broad generalizations, especially not the student.

This year is my third year as a principal.  I have been amazed at how fast positive change in instruction is taking hold on my campus.  I am blessed with a team of educators who know why they do what they do.  They understand what we need to do to prepare our students.  They have the grit to persist even when traveling this difficult road.  We are starting to see glimmers of this new way of thinking in our students while putting in extensive work to overcome gaps created by previous approaches.  They live in that sweet spot.

Yesterday, I read a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”

These words were written in a paper Dr. King wrote in 1947. Maybe this change in values of education represents the next swing of the teaching pendulum.  Or maybe it has just taken us 70 years to find the sweet spot.

Time to Teach

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My campus had some great conversations this past week with one of my leaderships teams and our grade level PLCs.  We talked about the tremendous impact student goal conferences are having this year on student achievement. During each of our PLCs, we spend part of our time specifically discussing any student who is not demonstrating growth. We don’t just discuss our most struggling students. During this time, we brainstorm interventions and strategies for any student whose growth has become stagnant.  As a result, we are seeing student scores increase an average of thirty to forty percentage points from last year on the same assessment. Honestly, I don’t believe I’ve seen growth as we are currently seeing in my entire career. Even with all the celebration, there was concern that student conferencing and goal setting takes a great deal of time away from instruction. This got me thinking. Is it really time away from teaching?

During this time, we brainstorm interventions and strategies for any student whose growth has become stagnant.  As a result, we are seeing student scores increase an average of thirty to forty percentage points from last year on the same assessment. Honestly, I don’t believe I’ve seen growth as we are currently seeing in my entire career. However, even with all the celebration, there was concern that student conferencing and goal setting takes a great deal of time away from instruction. This got me thinking. Is it really time away from teaching?

conferencing

Think about it! It’s not just people who perform poorly at tasks that get individual “tutoring”. Talented dancers take additional “privates”. World-class athletes have “form” coaches. Musicians take private lessons. Heck, I even have a “Principal Coach” that I speak with on a regular basis. Individualized feedback to help one improve is the very best and most meaningful type of teaching and learning. Because it is individualized, growth can occur more quickly.

When you spend time with a student, looking at results and helping them set goals for the future, you are teaching them to be reflective. That one-on-one conversation you are having with the students to discuss where they are, where they need to be, and how they goal settingcan get there is causing students to think about their learning and figure out how to improve. When you discuss with a student who hasn’t grown and tell them that “it is okay, sometimes we don’t grow, but what are we going to do now?” it helps them develop resiliency.  You ARE teaching! You are teaching them how to become a better learner. You are teaching them how to solve the most meaningful problem–how to overcome and address their own needs. You are teaching them the life skills necessary to exist in a future world that we don’t know how it will look when they grow up!

There is an epidemic of college-aged students who are floundering.  These students were “standardized” in school as we taught them how to “do as I do” and “perfection is the key”. I can’t help but believe this is due to a generation being raised with standardized testing and teaching students strategies to follow our lead rather than how to think it's a dream until you write it downindependently. These students have been brought up believing “less than perfect” is a failure and failure is abhorred.  It’s the fixed mindset of “If I can’t do it perfectly the first time, I must not be able to do it at all” and anything not mastered the first time is quickly abandoned by students with no grit.

Last year we tried to implement student goal setting folders. It was a disaster.  We made them too complicated.  They were too detailed to manage effectively, and the practice was quickly abandoned.  I didn’t resist, because I couldn’t see that the time spent was resulting in any student gains. This year, we simplified.  We kept our plan focused, and the payoff is huge. The most important thing is that we didn’t give up.

I am proud of the work we do on my campus to teach our students the skills they need to be resilient through challenges! They have grit.  They have growth mindsets. There is no argument to the fact that this type of teaching does take time, but if you think about how you use that time with each child to specifically meet their needs, you probably spent time more wisely in conferencing and goal setting than any content lesson you would teach that week. I do not think there is anything more powerful than one-on-one conversations with students specifically geared toward their needs. It IS teaching! It is teaching people not just content, and as educators, we should always have enough time for that!

To impact student achievement, time is best spent in one-on-one conversations geared to address students’ specific needs.
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Declining Resiliency In College Students