On the Shoulders of Giants

Extreme Teacher Leadership

This is one of those moments where I have so much on my mind, that I don't know what to write about. So I'm just going to level with you:

The past couple of months have taken a toll on me. Fulltime teaching and writing a book in my extra time, on top of my usual writing and teacher leadership activities, have been no joke.  I've pushed myself mentally and physically past what I thought was my limit. No, writing is not a sport; I'm talking about teaching without a full night's sleep too many days each week, for weeks at a time. (Serious empathy going out to the teachers out there who are new moms and dads and do this for their little ones).  

This weekend I'm spending time with family, and I feel like I'm barely here. I haven't had time to just be. I haven't had time to get my nails done or other seemingly unimportant stuff that grounds me.  

I'm not complaining. I'm proud and excited that I've written a book about an aspect of my teaching that I feel so passionately about and can now share on a new level; I love my students and I'm energized by teaching every day. I would not say that this feeling is one of being burnt out. It's just that there is a personal cost to trying to do so much at once.  

Yes, this should be called "Extreme Teacher Leadership"!  There are other ways, though... Check out the discussion by teacher leaders at the Teaching Ahead Roundtable on hybrid roles.   

 

[image credit: www.tourismontheedge.com ]

Dream Hybrid Roles for Teachers?

I've dreamt of a hybrid role that allows me to teach part time and lead part time.  Here, for example, was my birthday wish a few years ago... the image from that post was so great I had to repeat it here.

Right now, there is a great discussion happening at Teaching Ahead: A Roundtable hosted by EdWeek Teacher and CTQ.  Several teacher leaders, including myself, have posted descriptions of our ideal hybrid roles, and the discussion has been equally interesting.  

My post is about creating a multi-layered teaching position and I'm working on a follow-up.  Brooke Peters of the Odyssey Initiative has been writing about how to create a school around teacher leadership and she shares great suggestions and ideas for hyrbid roles gleaned from her travels to schools around the country.  Ilana Garon, Lhisa Almashy, and Linda Yaron describe their unique, ideal hybrid roles.

Check in now--follow up posts are coming out!

 [image credit: http://natalie.ukdesignernetwork.com/art/psele.jpg]

The Change I Most Want to See

Recently I was asked what positive change I would most like to see in schools. My answer, surprisingly, didn't take me very long to decide:

Of course, some classroom work needs to be done in silence, and speaking is not a requirement for learning, which is why I say just 50. And I don't mean that I dream of seeing unruly classrooms, where students are not engaged in learning activities either. What I'm responding to is the fact that, despite so much research indicating the need for active learning experiences, students are expected to be passive in school much of the time.  

The reasons for the lack of student voice in classrooms are complicated, and the responsibility does not lie solely on teachers. This change would require a major cultural shift in schools.  Teaching in a way that allows students to be active in their learning requires a larger skill set than teacher-centered instruction, higher level of responsiveness to student interests, and more planning time.  

Here is what I believe teachers need to create more active learning for students:

1. Preparation that includes how to design active learning experiences that address subject standards
2. Autonomy to design curriculum and instruction that responds to student interests and needs
3. Time to plan creatively with opportunities to collaborate with other teachers 
4. Support and encouragement to take risks in their teaching

More student voices in learning environments is such a big wish, because it would indicate these (and probably more) important shifts in the way teaching and learning are structured and supported.    

Flipped Hierarchy

I often dream of a flipped hierarchy in education, where at the top of the pyramid are the classrooms with teachers and students, and below us are all of the other people in supportive roles, holding up the most important work we do.  

If you are not a teacher, but you're looking at this image, thinking, "Yes, that's exactly how it is," then you should try talking to some teachers.  

I'm fortunate to feel supported at my school by colleagues, school leaders, and parents, but that's not necessarily the norm.  And there are still outside forces that threaten these conditions.  Do teachers feel recognized and supported by the people/organizations that influence and govern their profession?  The answer, by and large, is no.  And when teachers aren't supported, students aren't either. 

If we are really most important, then let's flip the hierarchy!

PBS Frontline on Rhee Worth the Watch

In case you missed PBS Frontline's hour-long segment on Michelle Rhee's tenure as chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, I'm making a plug for everyone to watch it.  I finally did and found it startlingly moving. 

John Merrow did an exceptional piece of journalism here that was quite fair. I could see why Rhee was called to action, why she felt so strongly about making sweeping change, and why people like Mayor Fenti were inclined to give her a lot of power. I also saw clearly where she went wrong, the damage her decisions caused, and her less than caring response to the damage.

A few thoughts I had were

• This is what happens when we try to apply a simplistic business model to education 
• This is what happens when one person's leadership goes unchecked
• This is what happens when appointed leaders attempt to make change through hierarchical structures without listening to other voices and building community support
• This is what happens when test scores are viewed as measures of teaching and learning 
• This is what happens when people think they can solve problems by scaring people, instead of addressing the causes of the problems 

The details are stunning and the hour it takes to watch the whole thing is well worth it.

Watch it by clicking here: http://video.pbs.org/video/2323979463  

[below is a screenshot of Michelle Rhee and John Merrow]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a follow up post written by John Merrow and Frontline's Phil Bennett, in response to accusations from current D.C. Chancellor Kaya Henderson and another commentor that the segment was unfair.

 

2013 Ed Policy Wish: Change "Obama's Approach to Education"

I woke up this morning from a strange dream in which my students were participating in a presentation on "Obama's Approach to Education." I was upset because I had planned to teach classes that day, only to find my students had gone to this bizarre assembly--and I had not been invited.

I was also upset, because, what valuable messages could possibly be imparted to students at this assembly? The presentation was not about the importance of education in students' lives, something the President has done a good job speaking about to students and parents in the past. This was specifically about his education policy initiatives.  

Students are the primary recipients of education policies, but I'm having trouble seeing how recent education policies benefit students at all. What is Obama's Approach to Education? Based on the last four years, I can point to Race to the Top, an initiative based on competition for public funds (our tax money), with a requirement that a significant component of teacher evaluations are based on value added measures of standardized testing data.  I know what my students think of that! (See this post: Student Thoughts on Accountability for Teachers).

In Teacher Incentive Fund grants, another policy initative of the last 4 years, all over the country districts are experimenting with creating hybrid roles that pay lead teachers more (which could be good moves), but the government controls the definition of a great teacher and the focus of the lead teacher's work: again through value added measures of standardized test data.  President Obama, do you really think tests measure what a good teacher is?  Apparently, you do not actually think so!

Yet, these heavy hitting policies--that gift and deny public funding to kids and families who have no voice in the matter--have the entire country chasing test scores and a huge, publicly funded industry growing around the endeavor. Meanwhile, students are losing out on authentic learning experiences, which they absolutely must have to be prepared for the dramatically shifting professional world they'll enter.  And with so much money supporting the new testing and data infrastructures, there is apparently not enough money for the essential elements of our children's education: foreign language classes, the arts, programs to support and retain teachers in high need schools, small class sizes, etc. How can we allow this to continue?

I've been nearly silent with my thoughts on these policies and how they reflect on president Obama's leadership when it comes to education. I've had my reasons--mainly, I didn't want to weaken Obama's chances of reelection, since I saw no better choice. I figured a negative blog post probably equals at least as much as a vote, so I kept my concerns to myself. I hope you know that was a big comprimise for me. I am a small voice in this debate, but I value my integrity. Now I will speak up.  

President Obama, you are a person of such intelligence, capable of the highest levels of leadership. You called on a highly articulate and experienced educator in Linda Darling Hammond to lead your education campaign in 2008, and you got my vote that year in large part because of that smart choice. I did not know enough about your leadership at that point to be certain you were the best person to lead our country, but I did know enough about Linda Darling Hammond's work to make a decision I knew would benefit children across America. Then you got elected and made a hard turn in a different direction. You have been nearly silent about this as well.  It's as if you just handed "education" off to someone else. I know you have so many issues to take care of, but I implore you to stand closer to our country's public schools.

Secretary Duncan said last month, "We came out of the gates flying" in the first term..." and he plans to "replicate that as much as we can" in the next term (EdWeek, Duncan Sketches Out Second Term Agenda).  Are you sure you're going in the right direction? The stakes for our country could not be higher. Education is becoming a support for big money at the expense of children's experiences, present and future, and you have the opportunity to turn that around. 

My education policy wish for 2013 is that President Obama will change his "approach to education."  For a great variety of thoughtful recommendations on how this might look, check out my colleagues at Teaching Ahead: Teachers' Advice to President Obama in His Second Term.  These are voices of teachers, who've committed their lives to our nation's youth, and their ideas deserve a chance.

 

[image credit: 5forcesofchange.com]

Classroom Management and the "Like" Factor

In a department meeting this week, we opened by reading a poem by Lau Tzu.  Although the translation was slightly different, here are the lines:

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.” 
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

In discussing this poem in relation to teaching, I thought about the meaning of the teacher having compassion for him or herself.  

And then, a comment someone made in a conversation on Facebook about classroom management popped into my head.  It was a comment on a post by a teacher about classroom management. (Was it Jose Vilson? He often has interesting conversations about teaching going on there, so it could have been started by him...) Anyway, someone had asked for words of wisdom about classroom management. I don't know if this was just somebody's thought or if it's a known quote, but someone wrote:

"It's not about if the students like you.  It's about if they think you like them." 

Suddenly, this thought connected to Lao Tzu's message.  If the teacher does not have compassion for him or herself, the teacher will be looking to the students for approval--to see whether he or she is doing a good job.  If the teacher-- let's say me, since I've been in this position before--if I am looking for the students' approval of me and my teaching, then I won't be focusing on giving the gift of compassion to my students. 

There's something confusing about this. The student's response to learning experiences I set into motion is probably the most important element for me to keenly observe and make meaning of as the teacher... The lesson here, though, is that I should be making meaning of student responses so that I can determine next steps for their learning. Not to tell me whether I'm a good teacher or not.  That's an egocentric response on my part.

We need to have compassion for ourselves as teachers, so we can, in turn, give this to our students as they make their way through learning.  Their response to us is often determined by whether they think we like them and believe in them. It's egocentric of them, but they are the children! They are allowed this! 

 

[image credit: tcfofbrevardnc.org]

 

The Language of "Expectations" in Education: Hope or Control?

I was writing a chapter for my Whole Novels book about setting up clear expectations, structures, and systems for accountability and support for students during the reading process.  In this chapter, I found myself repeating the word "expectations," especially in subheadings.  In effort to get away from that one word, I checked the thesaurus on my computer.  What I found gave me pause, revealing a tension in the way the concept of expectations is often applied in education these days.

According to the Microsoft Word thesaurus, "Expectations" is synonymous with prospect, outlook, potential, opportunity, and hope.

According to the thesuarus on my Mac laptop OS, 

(1) her expectations were unrealistic: supposition, assumption, presumption, conjecture, surmise, calculation, prediction, hope.

(2) tense with expectation: anticipation, expectancy, eagerness, excitement, suspense.

In Spanish, the verb, esperar, means equally, to expect or to hope. 

The general connotation of this word seems to be positive and hopeful, and that's how we want to approach our students.  We want students to do well in our classrooms, in part because we are hopeful, expectant and eager to see them do well, and because we want them to be similarly optimistic and excited to learn.  

At the same time, I also hear the word being used in a way that signifies authority or control--I think that's where the "prediction" part of the word comes in.  We expect things of our students and are encouraged to prescribe and predict outcomes. What if the student's response differs from our expectations?  Is that difference necessarily seen as a negative response? If so, we are using the notion of positive expectations as a tool of control.  In fact, in a learning environment that relies on punitive measures to respond to student behavior or lack of achievement, what we may refer to as "high expectations" can easily become inflexible demands.   

Back to my writing...  In a student-centered classroom, the expectations of the teacher are extremely important, and influence students' learning experience.  It is equally important that teachers be reciprocally influenced by the students' experience and response to conditions or tasks.  That dialogue is how positive leadership can empower an entire group.    

 

 

Beyond Tokenism: Recent Thoughts on Teacher Leadership

I want to let you know about an article I just published at EdWeek about teacher leadership, called, "Beyond Tokenism: Toward the Next Stage of Teacher Leadership."  The article is collection of thoughts that I've had percolating for quite some time now that seek to answer these questions:

Now that teacher leadership has taken hold as an idea--and that is a relatively new reality--how does it look in practice?  What works and what doesn't?  

What constitutes a worthwhile leadership experience for a teacher? What roles waste our time and talent, and how can we shift in response?

Teachers need to push the envelope and conversation around teacher leadership to make the most of our knowledge, skills and interests, and other educators need to give some thought to the same questions.

Please check out the article!  I'd love to hear from people about how this matches or doesn't match their realities. I will say that I've reached a place where my current involvements in teacher leadership do fulfill the criteria I lay out in the article, which is a great feeling.  More on those experiences sometime soon.  First, I really felt the need to point out both how far we've come and what work we have to do to keep pushing forward.

 

 

 

Teaching Tip: Students Who Need Extra Attention

It has been said that we now live in an "attention economy," where attention is one of the most valuable things we have. This is certainly true in teaching and learning.  What we attend to while we teach makes all the difference.  What students attend to makes all the difference.  

As the school year gets rolling and the beginning of the year jitters wear off, some students undoubtedly begin to beg extra attention. I've found it's important to recognize these students and set some parameters around how to handle their needs so that the attention we give them is useful, has a positive impact on them, and does not allow the rest of the class to get derailed.  

Sometimes, this demand for extra attention is the first sign of more challenging behavior to come.  Other times, it's a test, to see if we are paying attention. Finally it can be a cry for help, both an easily fixable one--or a more serious one.  The important thing is to be conscious about what approach we want to try with this student, so that we don't end up responding to pleas for attention in unproductive ways (like arguing with a studet during class).  

A few tips for channelling our attention on individual students productively.

1. Get more information.  First, talk to the student one on one, either after class, at another point during the day, or even during class, but in a non-public way.  Tell him or her what you notice in an even, non-judgmental, but curious tone. For example, "I notice that when it's time to begin independent work, you often begin a conversation with the student next to you."  See what the student says.  

Let's call the imaginary student Julie. She might tell you that the problem is that she can't see the board.  It's amazing, but kids don't always think to tell us important facts like this!  That is an easily fixable problem, and she'll be glad you took the time to ask and address it quickly. 

Other times, the problem is more complicated. "I don't like to write," she may respond, for example.  In this case, have a conversation with Julie, and try to identify at least something to try immediately.  However, don't stop there.  Talk to other teachers about what they notice, including teachers from past years.

Engaging with the student's parent is very important, too.  The first contact is the beginning of a year-long collaboration, so it's crucial to set a positive tone.  This must not seem like a "call-home-as-punishment." I like to present what I notice in a non-evaluative tone.  Then I say something like, "I'm interested in working with Julie on this issue in the coming weeks.  Is this something that's come up before?" or "Do you have any ideas about what might help me work with her on this?"  Sometimes these conversations lead to essential information. Perhaps Julie had an IEP all through elementary school and was declassified before middle school, but still has some trouble in a known area.  Other times, parents share their own concerns about their student, but often have some good tips and are able to reinforce messages to the child at home.

2. Decide how to give extra attention during class.  If the problem does not have a quick solution, it's likely that the student will require extra attention of one kind or another for a period of time, or even the whole year.  Sometimes, this can be a difficult truth to accept, when we have so many responsibilities--but it won't change by ignoring it or becoming reactive.  I like to think about a few ways to give that attention during class that will not detract much from the rest of the class.  A quick daily check-in at the beginning of class, as simple as asking, "How are you doing today?" can go a long way for certain students.  Giving the student a classroom job (eg. passing out post-it notes) or special role can also go a long way and create a daily opportunity to praise the student for fulfilling that role.  Writing the student a quick note (whether it's praise, redirection, or something else) on a post-it and placing it on his or her desk during class can be great.  This doesn't mean the student never begs your attention at an inappropriate time or in an inappropriate way, but it certainly lessens the need and chances of this.

3. Decide on a way to give extra attention outside of class. For some students, extra attention in class will not be enough--at least for a while.  It's worth recognizing this reality when it becomes apparent and taking some measures to answer the need.  This shows the student you are paying attention, you care, and you're committed to working with them.  There are many ways to give extra attention outside of class.  Here are a few ideas:

• Write the student a note about something interesting or positive they did in your class
• Write the student's parent a note about something noteworthy or positive they did in your class
• Invite the student to eat lunch with you one day
• Find out what the student is interested in and bring in a book or other resource related to this interest
• Connect the student with another adult in the building or elsewhere who can offer the student something related to his specific interest
• Ask the student to stay after class, after school, or come early to help you organize an upcoming activity for class (label materials, etc.)
• Continue to have one on one conversations with the student about his or her progress in the area that needs improvement.   
• Continue conversations with other teachers about what they are discovering about working with the student

Sometimes just one of these things, done one time, will make the difference for a student in my class and solve a problem easily.  Other times, no one thing will do the trick, but we have to keep on working with all our students, even when they seem to need more from us than we can give.  It's worth taking some time to make a plan for how we will intentionally apply extra attention to students who need it most. This makes it easier to set boundaries, so that when attention-getting behaviors present themselves in the classroom, we know how to receive the message the student is sending, but we the ones in control of our attention--one of our most valuable teaching tools.

 

[image credit: indstate.edu]