Each day the Hilliard City Schools Administration Team receives an email from our Superintendent, Dr. John Marschhausen. Yesterday’s email was entitled, “Savor Each Day”. I love the title of this email and I love the message even more. Dr. Marschhausen reminded us that in Hilliard City Schools “we have an uncommon drive to pursue excellence” and that we can’t let the day to day stop us from reflecting on the journey.
Would you believe that we have already completed 1/3 of our journey this year! We are lucky to still have 2/3 of the year remaining. We cannot waste our moments! Our students deserve the best experience possible each day that they step foot in their school. Let’s all seize the day. What are we waiting for? Now is the time to reflect. Now is the time to goal set. We have 116 days left in the school year. That’s a long time to make a difference. And that’s also a lot of time to waste. What are those things you’ve been saying you want to try? Kid EdCamps, genius hours, passion projects, blogging, connections outside the classroom, using technology or social media more purposefully, or providing more student choice? Take the plunge. My challenge to you is this, fill out the Google doc below. Answer the reflection questions and then, do it. Put your name on it! Stand up and own it!
_Remember, we are on a quest to be ELITE. We have to push each other. The time is now. Make every moment count.
_Here is your staff update for November 20.
0 Comments
A few weeks ago I wrote post called "This is Not a Drill". The post was about the importance of panic and a sense of urgency. Ever since that post, I’ve been thinking that in addition to the importance of panicking when necessary, we as educators must commit! And by commit, I mean we must commit to the relentless pursuit of excellence. Our students deserve it. Our colleagues deserve it. Our community deserves it.
In this world in which we live it’s very easy to jump on every new bandwagon that comes along. We live in a world in which we are exposed to new ideas, trends and buzzwords everywhere we turn. But, we as educators must know what our expectations are, what we believe in, what we are committed to. In Seth Godin’s latest blog post, he writes about the “quality abyss.” As I read the post and applied his message to education, I began to reflect on the following: What do I pay attention to? What have I stopped paying attention to? Have I lowered my expectations? Or, am I the person who is constantly raising my expectations? Do I have “the guts to care even when it feels like I am not being rewarded”? What is the eventual payoff for having the guts to care? Falling down the quality abyss-Seth Godin Attention stops being paid, compromises are made, quality goes down. Expectations aren't met. Expectations are lowered. Customers drift away. Budgets are cut, because there are fewer customers. Quality erodes even more, because there's less to spend, and employees care less. Repeat. The alternative is the quality ratchet: Over-focus on quality. Expectations go up. Sales rise as a result of word of mouth and customer satisfaction. More money is spent on quality. Repeat. Often, organizations don't realize that they're falling down the abyss until extraordinary efforts are required to make a difference. But it's always easier to fix it today than it will be tomorrow. And here's the hard part: You don't fall down the abyss all at once. You compromise, you cut corners, you don't bring as much to your work, and nothing bad happens (at first). So the feedback loop is broken. Working your way back out works the same way: You work harder, you raise your standards, you invest, and nothing good happens (at first). The challenge is to have the guts to care even when you're not apparently rewarded for caring. In my opinion the most powerful words in Seth’s post are these, “…it’s always easier to fix it today than it will be tomorrow.” Along the same lines, Dan Rockwell reminds us to “err on the side of soon.” I often remind teachers to “pay now or pay later.” The bottom line is that we need to decide what we are committed to and we cannot stop paying attention to it. We must stay the course and follow through. The payoff will come, but not without an intentional, committed investment on our part. So, what are you committed to? Don’t let yourself fall down the quality abyss. Here is your Staff Update for November 13th.
This is an exciting time in education. We are being asked to challenge the status quo. We are expected not only to be great, but instead to be ELITE. It is easy for educators to continue to instruct students the way they were taught 10, 15, 20 or even 30 years before. It is easy for educators to do things like give spelling tests or worksheets for homework because parents expect it, even though we know that these practices are not best for kids. What isn’t easy is to stand up and stop it. It isn’t easy to be the early innovator; the one who is out ahead of the curve disrupting the status quo. And sometimes, it’s even harder to be the first follower or early adopter of those new innovative ideas. But, we must decide who we want to be. We have the choice to lag behind and wait or we can choose to be out ahead of the curve, disrupting, creating a movement. In the following short TED Talk by Derek Sivers we learn the importance of having the guts to stand up and be the first one to join in.
This school year, my staff and I have been invited to be disruptive educators. We have been charged with the task of redesigning elementary education. And, we’ve been given a timeline to adhere to. By August of 2017 we will be ready to give children a different, innovative, personalized elementary school experience. And, we have accepted the challenge. In order to accomplish our goal we must overcome our fears, we will need to unlearn and relearn new skills; we will need to be early innovators…disrupters!
In this post by Dr. Sanee Bell the qualities of disruptive educators are outlined. Disrupters innovate. Disrupters find their people. Disrupters move beyond the conversation. As we are thrust into an innovative experience that forces us to disrupt it will be important that we reflect on ourselves. Do we possess the qualities of disruptive educators? How can we build the skills within us to disrupt education in a positive way? Our time is now! Here is your staff update for November 6. I have the pleasure of having five first year teachers in my building. I’ve posted a few times this school year about how these new teachers are causing me to reflect on my own growth since my fateful first year (and not to mention they make me feel very old). This week, I’ve been reflecting on the roller coaster of emotions that occur during that first year. It’s a fact that first year teachers feel extremely overwhelmed in November or December. Check out the graphic below and take comfort in the fact that rejuvenation is coming soon and the fact that you are not alone, there are first year teachers all over country feeling just like you! So as we wait for that feeling of rejuvenation, let’s all take a deep breath and consider some words of wisdom from an educator who's been there:
You can do this! You are making a difference. And, you’re right, this job is serious. It’s not a casual thing! But, you have permission to make mistakes. You have permission to fail. Whatever you do, don't throw in the towel now. Work through the hard parts, persevere and know that when you get through this year (and you will) you will have so much to celebrate. Brittany, Jeff, Sarah, Stacey and Tasha-Hang in there! It's going to be alright. Need some more advice? Check out my post for January 2014-Advice for the Stressed Out Teacher. Here is your staff update for October 30th. __It’s October. Can you believe it? Not only is it October, but it’s the end of October. The school year is in full swing. Initial assessments are complete, the honeymoon period has ended and we have already completed 40 days of school.
If your school is like mine, you have sat in more data team meetings this year than ever before, grade level data teams, ELL data teams, title reading data teams and I’m even trying to figure out how to start data team meetings to focus on our special education students. In all of these meetings with all of these different groups of amazing teachers, my literacy coach, Tonya Buelow and intervention teacher, Eric Gulley, have been with me as we facilitate targeted conversations with teachers around student data. With every group of teachers we have tried hard to deliver one specific message- PANIC NOW! Yep, that’s right, we said it…PANIC, it’s okay, we want you to AND we want you to do it NOW. Not later, NOW. What we mean by this is: teach with a sense of urgency. Regie Routman says it best in Reading Essentials: When I suggest that we need to “teach with a sense of urgency” I’m not talking about teaching prompted by anxiety but rather about making every moment in the classroom count, about ensuring that our instruction engages students and moves them ahead, about using daily evaluation and reflection to make wise teaching decisions. Complacency will not get our students where they need to be. I am relaxed and happy when I am working with students, but I am also mindful of where I need to get them and how little time I have in which to do it. I teach each day with a sense of urgency. Specifically, that means that I am very aware of the students in front of me, the opportunities for teaching and evaluation on the spot, the skills and strategies I need to be teaching, the materials I need, the amount of time available, and the optimal contexts and curriculum. We need to get down to the essence of what we believe and what we do to ensure our students become excellent readers who choose to read. If we don’t know how to teach reading and move students forward, we must take responsibility for learning how. We must jumpstart our own professional development. If you aren’t panicking then you might need to ask yourself why? And remember, we don’t mean panic driven by anxiety but instead panic driven by urgency. Are you okay with the status quo? Are you missing something? Are your standards too low? Panic. Now. This is not a drill. Every moment counts. Let’s use them because if you don’t you’ll lose them. (Thanks to Eric Gulley for the inspiration for this post!) Here is your Staff Update for October 23rd. I’m in awe of the things that happen at my school every day. This week I’ve sat in on many meetings with parents and teachers as we have reviewed IEP goals and objectives; touched base about interim reports; answered parents’ questions, celebrated successes; calmed fears; and shared how much we love the kids we learn with every day.
I was in awe of the way my teachers made parents feel so welcome and supported. I was in awe of the fact that some meetings consisted not only of the child’s teacher from this year, but also the teacher from last year! What a concept! Last year’s teacher and this year’s teacher sit down with a parent and discuss progress. It’s GENIUS! I was also in awe of the words of wisdom I heard from my teachers as they spoke with parents about their children. My favorite statement came from Mrs. Callif to a parent, she said: We want to push your child out of his comfort zone and we know that can be scary but we need to do it here at school because this is a safe place. As a parent and an educator those words were music to my ears. I had chills after the power of those words sunk in for me. The best part was how smoothly those words rolled right off of Mrs. Callif’s tongue. The reason that she could so effortlessly provide these words of wisdom to the parent was because she meant them, she lives them, every day. Those words are part of who she is for kids. Teachers-remember that our job is to do just what Mrs. Callif said in that meeting. Push kids out of their comfort zones while they are here in this safe place. Parents, as always, we promise to push your children to that place where they can grow and learn. We want them to mess up, we want them to feel uncomfortable. We won’t solve their problems for them, but we will guide them and cheer for them along the way. It's not always easy, but it's worth it. Here is your Staff Update for October 15th. At the beginning of the school year we took a long, hard look at ourselves, at our actions, and at our interactions with students, parents and colleagues. We made a commitment to staying above the line and being ELITE. We made a commitment to respect one another enough to hold each other accountable for being ELITE.
We analyzed what we do well, what we believe in and determined what else we needed to do to be great…to be ELITE. On Thursday, I participated in R Factor training with Tim Kight. I think I wrote down every word he said, I’ll be sharing my reflections of this training in the weeks to come. As Tim spoke about culture he said that we “build a culture either by default or by what we do on purpose.” Let’s be purposeful. I don’t want a “default culture” and I know you don’t either. Remember, back in September we made a purposeful decision to build relationships with children, parents and staff. We made a purposeful decision to work on these relationships because we believe that in doing so our culture will be positively impacted. Here’s a reminder of what we committed to: At J.W. Reason we will build positive relationships with: Children-Parents-Staff Learn names of everyone in an attempt to really get to know them -Safety Partol (new name-Student Ambassadors) will address kids by name -when passing children in hall, if you don’t know their name, ASK! -Make a personal connection-ask how their day is going. Now, it’s October and trust me, I know it’s easy to get caught in the minutia, it’s easy to forget about how excited we were to work on our building’s culture and how excited we were to push ourselves to be ELITE. This is the perfect time to check the pulse. Tim Kight reminded me that: WE HAVE TO BEHAVE IN A WAY THAT WILL CREATE THE OUTCOME WE WANT! Ask yourself these questions in relation to our desired outcome: What have I done on purpose? How have I behaved? Have I put focused energy into building positive relationships? Each moment we have with kids is a chance to build these relationships. Let’s not waste our moments. Here is the link to your Staff Update for October 9th. _
I have challenged myself and my staff to be ELITE this year, to question one another’s purpose, to reflect on the choices we make, to push…just a little farther than we might have pushed ourselves in year’s past. One of the ways I’m pushing myself is by making sure I am having critical conversations with staff members. Critical conversations are the ones that, in the past, I may have talked myself out of having, the ones that I would think about and then decide to wait a while because things might change. This year I’m not holding back, I’m engaging teachers in conversations about their practice, I’m questioning our decisions and I’m reflecting on the systems we have in place as a school. What I’m also keeping in mind, is that while reflecting is great, it is pointless without action. So, I’m forcing myself into action and in doing so my teachers are taking action, too. These conversations are pushing some of my staff members into an uncomfortable place with me. Here is what I want my staff to know as we head into this “uncomfortable place”:
As we all experience this discomfort, I ask that we think about how we respond in uncomfortable situations. Do we STAND UP AND OWN IT or do we BLAME, COMPLAIN and DEFEND? Take a moment to really think about this question. Let it sink in. Do you STAND UP AND OWN IT or do you BLAME, COMPLAIN and DEFEND? This week I had a really hard conversation with a teacher and guess what, she stood right up and owned it, big time. At the end of our conversation she said, “Thank you for this feedback, I want to get better, my students deserve it.” Your students deserve it too. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, she followed the conversation up with an email explaining all of the changes she’d made and steps she’d taken in her professional growth in less than 24 hours. Here is an excerpt from the email she sent me: I did a lot of reflecting last night and changed some things for my lesson today. I looked over my DMA scores, pre-assessment data, and exit slips and regrouped my students for math groups… We took a gallery walk in the middle of the lesson because I saw so many great strategies with the manipulatives! My kids were able to explain their thinking better and I was able to question them based on the strategies I saw them using…I am so excited to make these wonderful changes to impact my students learning and my own professional growth! This is the definition of STAND UP AND OWN IT. Critical conversations and tough but they are worth it. I believe my staff can STAND UP AND OWN IT. I’ll be owning it, too. I have a lot of growing to do myself. We’re in this together, we’re worth it. _Here is your Staff Update for October 2, 2015.
Within weeks of my first year of teaching I was confronted with a room full of 6th graders on September 11, 2001. For the first time, I realized that I had the awesome responsibility of keeping children safe in the face of tragedy. On that day, with only a few weeks of teaching under my belt, I looked at the faces of children who were looking at me for answers, for comfort and for guidance when things felt scary and out of control.
On Monday, that feeling came back but this time it hit even closer to home as my staff and I worked with our local police and fire departments to run through active shooter scenarios. The thought of a shooter entering our school and putting our children in danger is terrifying. We don’t want to think that this could happen. It’s easy to live in denial, thinking that nothing bad could ever happen in our safe hometown. But, as the police officers reminded us today, it is possible for an active shooter to end up in one of our schools. And, because our bodies won’t go where our minds haven’t gone, we must think about this as a possibility. We must think about what we would do if we were confronted with an active shooter in our building. The most unbelievable part of the training was hearing these words from police and firefighters, “You are the first responders.” When these words were uttered there was a collective sigh in the room, chills ran up my spine, everyone sat up a little straighter, listened a little more closely, tuned in just a little more. Have you ever thought that; teachers, custodians, secretaries, cafeteria staff and teacher’s assistants are first responders? First responders take out the bad guy. First responders make quick decisions that save lives. We are first responders. Those words are still sinking in for me. They are on repeat in my mind. Teachers are first responders… Every parent, every grandparent, everyone who loves and cares for a child that walks through the doors of our school needs to know that this week every adult realized that our jobs just got even more important than they were before. Please take comfort in knowing that no one, not even for a second, entertained the idea of “every man for himself”. Not a single person was thinking about himself or herself, instead our conversations centered around how we would save children and how we would take down a shooter. We didn’t learn this in college. There isn’t a place on the teacher evaluation rubric for this. We won’t be able to include what we learned today in any sort of lesson plan. We’re all in. I pray that we will never have to, but if need be, we accept the responsibility of being those first responders. We will do everything in our power to keep your children safe.
Staff here is the link to the September 25th staff update.
“My favorite thing about school is going outside, free choice and making things!” These are the words I heard as I closed the door of my four year old daughter’s bedroom. I could hear the pure joy in her voice as she uttered these words, however as these words sunk in to my mind, I was surprised when I was overcome with a feeling sadness. Don’t’ get me wrong, I’m thrilled that my girls are loving preschool so much, but Bella’s words made me wonder what her school years beyond preschool would bring. Will she have teachers who value going outside, free choice and making things? Or, will she be a victim of the status quo, the pressure of standardized assessments or an industrial age mindset of learning? I ran downstairs and wrote down her words so I wouldn’t forget them. As I wrote the words, I began to reflect on my own teaching, my own school and the state of education. Then I started to think about life. I pondered my favorite things to do as an adult? I love to go running…OUTSIDE, I love when I have FREE CHOICE to be in charge of my own learning (that’s why I love twitter so much) and I also love creating and trying new things-you know, that “MAKING something out of nothing feeling”. What if school was designed around these three simple things…outside, free choice and making things? Imagine if we structured schools in which there was purposeful outside time, free choice (not a free for all) and where we trusted kids to make things. What if teachers really were facilitators of passions? What would our children be able to accomplish? What questions would they answer? I think we continue to inch closer to this vision of education but why haven’t we completely taken the leap? We need to continue to follow the lead of educators who are not afraid to try something new and believe in kids. This October, Hilliard City Schools, in partnership with the Columbus Museum of Art, will host its first Cardboard Challenge as part of the World Wide Day of Play. This challenge, inspired by the story of Caine’s Arcade will bring children and families together to create whatever they can imagine from cardboard and tape. What a great way to spark creativity! What a great way to find out where our imaginations can take us. After we experience this event, my challenge will be to determine how we as educators can bring this kind of learning to our classrooms more often, to create opportunities for purposeful play and creativity. Bella’s words will keep me focused, “My favorite thing about school is outside, free choice and making things.” I think she speaks for us all. Here is your staff update for September 18, 2015.
|
Archives
May 2023
Categories |