Singing their Song

So often when we talk about schools, students, parents and teachers, we discuss things in arm-lengths type of way. We discuss how they need to have richer and more meaningful learning experiences, how we need to provide them with the opportunities to use the technological tools in authentic learning experiences. What we don’t discuss is how schools need to be places of living not just of learning. They need to be places of community where children can experience life-lessons not just academic lessons. The story that follows is about one such event that took place at our school this past year.

The Idea

Tyler came to see me after basketball practice. I coach girls basketball so he had to wait until after I was done to see me. This isn’t necessarily unusual as I often have students come to see me after school, some because they want to work, some need help and some just want to be able to stay at the school for awhile longer. On this occasion, Tyler wanted to talk. He had this idea that he wanted to put on a Coffee House to raise money for Cancer. As he explained to me, he just really felt he needed to do this. His grandfather had passed away earlier in the year from cancer and he wanted to do something. He had been involved in other Coffee Houses, he played the guitar and thought it would be a great idea. We discussed times and dates. Another teacher who happens to play in a band was willing to help Tyler with setting up. A date and time was picked and the school was booked. Tyler was excited about the event which showed in his eagerness to get started on preparing. On December 8th, our school hosted the Coffee House where over $1300.00 was raised for Cancer Research.

The Rest of the Story

The story is a bit more than just the Coffee House. It’s a story about life. Tyler spent the next few weeks after our initial meeting working on the event. He put up posters around the school. He put out jars to collect money and advertise at various businesses around the town. He put up a sign-up sheet at school and began to spread the news that this was taking place. He spent a few days after school practicing, as did a number of the other students who were going to be taking part in the event. He promoted and had his friends promote. He arranged for a local band to take part.

The evening of the event, there were about 80 people in the school foyer ready to watch the different performers. In attendance was Tyler’s family, including his grandmother. This is where the real story starts. As Tyler got up and welcomed everyone, he explained that his reason for doing this was because he really needed to help others. He described how much it hurt when his grandfather had passed away, how the pain had been so great and he had hurt so much and he wanted to help others because it hurt so much. He explained that his grandparents would have been married 50 years this summer and his first song was dedicated to them as he had been practicing to play it at their anniversary. Beautiful. Powerful. Here was an 18 year old young man doing what many other adults could never do, would never do.  Then, with each performer that took the stage, there was a story. One had lost a sibling, another had lost a parent and a third had recently lost a sibling. They sang and danced in remembrance. The band,  which one of the staff plays in, took the stage.  One of the members had recently lost their spouse. It was an incredible evening. It all happened because one young man wanted to give – give to others because of the hurt he felt. Throughout the evening, people laughed and people cried. They applauded the efforts of the performers, enjoyed coffee and dainties and shared in conversation. All because one young man wanted to give.

Schools Are Real Life

Too often I hear the phrase “Well, when they leave school and experience real life…..” In fact, school is real life. To try to explain that to anyone who isn’t in a school is difficult. Schools reflect, to some degree, the society of which they are a part. Some of the resistance to change is, in fact, a resistance of society to the changes taking place. Schools are more than just places of learning, they are places of living which are changing and evolving. For so long schools have tried to keep the changes taking place in the society  from disturbing what was going on within their walls. This is no longer acceptable – our schools need to be living and growing, adapting and changing. But it’s more than just technology – it’s about all aspects of life. Too often when people discuss school reform, they focus on technology and learning but it’s so much more – it’s about life long learning. You can’t stop the rain from falling but you can use it to power your ideas and grow your dreams if you quit complaining about it falling

Tyler ended  the open mic portion of the Coffee House with a classic Tom Petty song – Free Falling.

Free Falling

Schools are real life – real life for our children. Things may not be where we expect them to be but then again, when does life ever go according to someone’s schedule or plan. Let’s not diminish what does take place through focusing on one narrow aspect like technology. Life is so much bigger.

I recently went to the EdCampYEG with two fellow staff members. Well worth the 2 hr. trip. PD should always be like that – open, relevant and engaging…oh, and most enjoyable! Stephen Banks – Ed Administrators2.0

This is just one of the many comments that I’ve heard that are like this. In my discussion with others on this topic, it would seem that a great many found these events to be very useful, informative, fun and great learning experiences. In a recent twitter conversation, it was suggested that the “unconference” was really where things were at. I received the invitation for ISTE Unplugged, which use to be EdubloggerCon, which stated

each year hundreds of educators interested in social media. technology, and teaching and learning build and participate in “unplugged”-style activities as a part of their ISTE experience. All of these events are free, so come join us.

This takes place during the annual ISTE conference. Now, the conference takes place in San Diego this year and has the following topics

You’ll experience more than:

• 300 model lessons, BYOD (bring your own device) sessions, lectures, and panels
• 135 hands-on and seminar-demo workshops (additional fee)
• 500 exhibiting companies, agencies, and organizations
• 400 informal and interactive learning activities

Who wouldn’t want to go? But is this practical for a majority of teachers? And is this PD, which follows a traditional format giving the results that teachers need? Has the time come to reform our PD events in the way we are searching to reform what is happening in education? Do we need big conferences where many who are attending already are moving forward? Or is it time to change how we think about teachers’ learning – to find the local experts and develop the teachers at the local level in a less informal more highly engaged manner.

Of course, there wouldn’t be the places for the advertisers and vendors at these types of gatherings and there might not be the need to larger corporate style speakers. Instead, it would be teachers working and supporting teachers – administrators working with other administrators and teachers to develop and support one another and teachers. It would be focused on the needs of the people attending and evolve from their specific needs.

As someone who has presented to staff and at local conventions, I know that it is very powerful to work with a group of teachers to help them learn and grow. Instead of pressing my version of what education and learning should be, to work with teachers to help them build their own way. It’s no longer good enough to continue on the path we have been on. It’s time to step away from the well trodden path. There are many examples of great opportunities taking place for teachers at the local levels and we need to focus on these to a greater extent than we are at this time. Although the big conferences draw the vendors and the $, maybe, like so many other things from our past, we need to look to our experts within our own schools and trust them to help us develop the programs and schools that will reflect a 21st Century learning.

Reading with Sister

It’s not always that you can watch your children spend time together enjoying a book or playing a game. It’s also at times like this that I am reminded that not all children have this opportunity. Some, because of poverty and other circumstances, do not have the same options that others have. AND, this is important for all of us to remember, not all is as it appears. Experience has taught me that things are not always as they seem and we need to be aware of, pay attention to, and develop relationships with our students because you never know when they will need you.

As we return to school later this week and prepare for the windup to our first semester, these are some of the key things I’ll be reminding teachers about:

• The return to school is a return to a place of welcome and safety for some of our students
• Not all of our students may have had a Wonderful Christmas Time
• Don’t spend time discussing what children received for Christmas – some didn’t receive much
• Be aware, attuned and open to those students that may be excited about returning to school if for no other reason than it’s away from their bigger issues
• Circulate and give all children time – you’ll never know what some child will need from a loving, caring adult
• Don’t react to the superficial – some children act out because they need your attention – so give it to them

For some students, returning to school is a return to a safe, caring, open and welcoming place where they have the opportunity to have a relationship with a concerned adult who will advocate for them. We strive to improve the lives of our students through caring and nurturing their love of learning while caring and nurturing them as people.

In my last post, I discussed the whole New Year thing and then began a reflection of where we are as a school.  This is a mid-year round up of life thus far at PPCS a brand new K – 12 school in rural Saskatchewan. The school is a combination of two schools – a K – 6 Elementary School and a 7 – 12 High School which came together on May 1st 2011.  This year is our first as a K – 12 school. In this post, I’ll discuss where we are and where we are going technology wise.

Tech for all – all for Tech

We live in a world in which technology surrounds and permeates almost every aspect of our lives. We see it everywhere, from our cars to the dining room table to, well, everywhere. And it’s not just kids that are using technology. Smartphones are being used by all ages. This Nielsen chart is one of many that you will find that shows the use of smartphone across age groups.

source:  http://socialtimes.com/nielsens-smartphone-usage-by-age-groups-study-intriguing-age-group-differences-for-blackberry-and-windows-phone_b83254

What you’ll notice is the increase in all age groups. This means that a great many people have a computing device to access all the time. If they have a data plan, they won’t have to worry about whether there is wifi or not and, if they have the ability to share their wifi, then others can access the internet without needing a local wifi system.

With this in mind, we decided at PPCS to scrap our policy for smartphones and other BYO devices and, instead, began to look at how we could harness the use of these in the classroom. Our division AUP focuses on the proper use of these devices within the school – puts the emphasis on students using these devices in the context of learning. Our policy basically states that the devices can be used during the school day for learning purposes but the use of these devices for such things as bullying, access unacceptable material at school and activities that distract from the learning environment will require the student to put away the device and may result in their putting it in their locker and have restricted use during class time. So far, we have had a total of 3 students sent to the office for excessive use that is not classroom related – texting and gaming.

Computers – being a new school we were provided with a new computer lab with 27 desktops, a teacher desktop with various software and a connection to projector. All our classrooms have ceiling mounted projectors that connect the teacher desktop, or any other computer, to the projector and Soundfield surround sound system that allow teachers to use a portable mic or connect the system to the computer. Each classroom has 2 laptops in the room. We have a portable cart of 22 and another mini-cart of 9 netbooks which can be used by the cart or individually – students sign them out at the library. We have wifi throughout the school which allows our students to go anywhere in the school to work – even the bathroom!  Just before Christmas we purchased 10 iPad 2′s and 10 iPod Touches. We will be deploying the iPads in the K – 3 rooms and the iPod Touches are for use by teachers for recording – video, pictures, audio or individual work. We also have 3 projectors that students/teachers can use throughout the school for small group work and presentations outside of the classrooms.

Technology Vision

Our vision was to get the technology into the hands of the teachers and the students so they could use it. Period. We would then support the use through tutorials and one-on-one sessions with lead-teachers supporting other teachers. To make this happen, our admin team would cover for one of the teachers during a prep period so the two could work together. We have also tried to manage the upkeep through a system where teachers ensure they let the admin team know of any problems with technology so we can then determine the appropriate action(s). The school does not have anyone who has release time for technology issues so it has become part of our admin team responsibilities so that we do not end up with a teacher being disturbed while they are teaching. This has also meant that some issues take a little longer to resolve so we encourage teachers to always have an option B when it comes to working with technology!

Before we did any purchasing, we discussed what we wanted to see our students doing with technology. We had a number of teachers who are familiar with using technology – 2 of our staff teach online classes – but we also have a number of teachers who have little technology experience. Our year began with all teachers indicating that they were interested in increasing their use of technology. As I indicated in my last post, we use technology for communication on a regular basis at the school – we support the staff to access the information and use technology but we also expect that they will use the technology to make themselves aware of what is going on, what they are required to do and what they can expect to have happening at the school. (We are still working out the kinks of some of these processes but remember we are 5 months old so we sometimes fall as we are learning to walk!)

 We had to do a number of brainstorming sessions on how we access computers when we have a few classes that are booked into the computer lab all the time – this limits who can access the lab because in our old schools – we had access to three labs and 2 mini-labs for the same number of students. It has meant that people are needing to adjust to this new reality. We haven’t been able to add as many portable devices as quickly as we wanted which, again, has meant some adjustments. What we have seen is teachers sharing the lab which has led to team teaching as the two teachers share their resources and talents.

Our division IT department has worked with us as we work through some of these things and has been willing to examine ways to make some of these things – like teachers taking the netbooks out of the building on evenings and weekends to use – so that teachers can have access all the time. This has also meant that we have had to introduce online services like Diigo and Dropbox so teachers can save their information to a web-based service so they can access it from any device they are using. More supporting and learning. With the recent addition of Evernote and OneNote as documentation tools, we are again having to support teachers as they work through learning to use these tools.

The one area in which we will be focusing in the remainder of the year is supports for students with learning needs. We have identified a number of students and a number of technology aides to assist them. We now need to make the two come together! Since this requires additional resources, it is taking us a bit longer to develop this part of our technology plan. However, with a renewed focus on this in the upcoming months, we hope to have these assistive technologies in place shortly after we return to school.

There is No Silver Bullet

Anyone looking for quick answers or shortcuts will be disappointed, I think. We have made great strides as a school in recognizing that our students and teachers need to have access to technology, to use it as they would use it outside the school and to be provided the necessary supports to be able to successfully make that transition from outside to inside the building. The factors critical in successfully using technology within the school, I believe, are:

• A focus on learning and growing by everyone in the building
• A realization that support for everyone is critical to success
• A plan for using technology within the classroom – meeting outcomes and student growth
• A willingness to learn and learn and learn – change is the new constant
• A shared leadership where people with strengths share with others and are given time within the day to do this. It’s not an add-on.

As the educational leader within the building, I realize that my willingness, or lack there of, to look at different solutions, to listen to what teachers are saying and then examine and re-examine our practices is crucial to our success as a school. Supporting the teachers so that we can do what is best for students is the foundation upon which we focus. It doesn’t mean we don’t make mistakes but we are willing to own up to them, admit it was a mistake and then look for a solution. At PPCS, everyone is a learner, seeking to improve each day.

Next topic: RtI and DI in the K – 12 school

I don’t. In fact, I don’t really celebrate this whole new year thing. My wife and I and our children – this year we spent it at my mom’s playing Frackle – usually spend the evening at home. At some point, we just didn’t see the reason for the hype – why do you have to wait until the new year to make changes or do anything? Why do we measure the past year against, well, expectations that are usually unrealistic?

As an educator, my new year began in August. This year was a very different beginning as we began our year in a brand new school with a completely different configuration than anyone had previously been in – a K – 12 school instead of an elementary or High School. One of the reasons I was hired for this position was to try to bring about some changes to the culture that existed, recalibrate in a sense. So now, at the halfway point, here’s where we are:

In this first year we have: hosted a Grand Opening, put in a new playground (installed while school was in progress), had a fire, a flood, a series of construction setbacks, hosted a teachers’ Convention for 800+ teachers (with the awesome and incredible Dean Shareski as a keynote), implemented a new report card and reporting system division-wide, implemented a new division-wide grade book,  had a student initiated Coffee House to raise money for Cancer, 2 play performances by our students, a basketball tournament and put on a Christmas dinner for 300 people. All this has happened as we try to find our identity as a school, merge two staffs and figure out just where we put that box with all the keys! (We still are looking for boxes and items we moved!) Our New Year, First Year, is half over so, instead of making resolutions, I’ve decided to do some mirror gazing. So my next few posts will look at key areas of education and how we, as a school community, are addressing and facing these issues.

Communication – Our number 1

In my tenure as a principal in 7 schools over 10 years – the number 1 area that requires a concerted effort and is vital to success is communication. How you engage in communication is the foundation for all that will follow.

Creating open and transparent communication and promoting win/win dialogue is so important. As an administrator, I focus on developing and monitoring communication in three areas: with parents, with students and within the building. Since we are “starting fresh” we decided to implement some new ideas and track their impact.

• Community Newsletter – this is a monthly newsletter that is mailed to everyone in the communities in which our students reside. Many of our students still only access internet through dial-up, a great many of our parents do not use the internet and we found that sending newsletters with our students didn’t mean they arrived home! Many people in our community do not have children in school, are elderly and have little contact with the school. This newsletter has been popular and we have received great feedback about how wonderful it is to know what is happening at the school.
• Updated website - we are in the process of updating our website – although it isn’t what we would hope, we are transitioning to a new software which has meant a learning  curve for us.
• Staff Wiki – this is where we have our calendar for events, information from the division, items for discussion, book study information, memos and other information. It serves as the information center for the staff.
• Evernote Premium – we have a staff account (don’t tell Evernote!) which we use to track and share data related to students, RtI and DI. We incorporate the use of OneNote, which is suggested by our division, and are building a repository of information/tools for use with students.
• Livebinders – handbooks are kept here for easy access. We have a staff account which we use to make suggestions about other Livebinders that we think will inform our practice.
• Diigo – our staff has an account where we have begun to save links related to specific topics – DI, RtI, PBL, FC, etc – which staff can access, read through and use. We’re in the infancy stages here with only a few teachers using this BUT with the growth of the use of blogging by the staff, this will grow.
• Class Blogmeister – 4 of our classes use this as a way to record and share what they are doing. What began as a pilot-project at the beginning of the year has now expanded to 4 different classes with other staff getting interested.
• Portfolios – we are in our second year of Portfolio Conferences with our students. We have expanded to having 2 classes using the blogging as a part of their portfolio which has really highlighted how we can demonstrate growth through the year.
• Student Led Conferences – this is our third year, my second. In a short period of time the staff have moved from a “not again” attitude to seeing these as great avenues for conversations between students and parents and this is helping them to reframe their thinking about their set-up and what takes place during the conferences. One of our staff has already moved to a Celebration of Learning model where the idea is to have students showing their parents the learning they are doing through learning stations and having discussions about what is in their blog.
• Student Newspaper – published quarterly – with works from our students. It is an award winning, student-directed newspaper that covers the different aspects of the school.

We have grown a great deal in 4 months. As a staff, we need to become better at regular communication with parents – phone calls or emails to parents to keep them up to date. We also need to become better at communicating as a staff so that our RtI, DI and SLC can be more transparent and fluid. We are looking at a school Twitter account and a FB page to provide yet another avenue for communication.

We are aware that we have few options for students to be involved in the communication at this point and we need to address this through our SRC. We are discussing communication, among other things, with our School Community Council (parent group) to determine how we can better communicate/dialogue with all parents. At some point we will have to address a way to allow parents to express their concerns and dissatisfaction in a way that will honour and support student learning and development.

As an admin team, we are constantly reviewing how we are communicating with the rest of the staff. Although the two of us are in classrooms everyday, we realize we need to streamline our communication so that we do not overwhelm people while still ensuring everyone has the necessary information. Our Wiki page has become a good place for this as has our sharing through Evernote/OneNote. It now becomes a process fine-tuning. We have decided on these 3 tools because they provide us with great versatility and huge potential for growth. We are also examining Google Apps for specific items, like forms, which we can use to gather information and data to help us with improving what we do at the school.

Next Up: Technology

explaining Twitter and other social media

Eventually

One of the things that use to keep me from doing things was the fear that I’d make an idiot of myself when I failed. Then I became a father – 8 times. I’m now cured of that since I’ve made an idiot of myself so many times it’s of no great concern. And it’s freeing.

You see, I use to want to make sure that I had things planned out and had covered as many of the “what if’s” as I could. I’d worry about what might happen, what if it didn’t work, what others would say, what others might think,….. I’d worry myself into not doing something.

Then I became a father. First of 4 girls. Then of 4 boys. The oldest is 19, the youngest is 2. The 4 girls did not prepare us at all to be parents of boys. In fact, I sometimes joke that if we had had the boys first, we’d have only 4 children. Sometimes I’m joking! I’ve made so many mistakes that I’m surprised that my children haven’t been taken by the authorities. But somehow they’ve survived – and stayed – and keep coming back!

As any parent, I always want to improve so that I can help my children and, partially, so they won’t blame me for their problems and end up in therapy like so many people. But with each session my wife and I went to or each book I read, I would come away with this horrible sickening feeling of failure. I wasn’t doing enough, I did too much, I wasn’t listening enough, I listened too much, I was too strict, not strict enough. And then the boys arrived and I’m being paid back for all those things I did as a kid X4!

Now you have to put this in perspective – I have 2 Bachelor degrees and an MEd, I’ve been in the teaching profession for 20 years, an administrator for 10 and always taught and there are days when I have no clue what I’m doing. Really, I don’t. I do know, however, that if I worry myself into doing nothing, things will turn out even worse. So, when I come across something that is new – and that happens on a regular basis in our house – I do a mental field trip, recall the land mines I’ve discovered and want to avoid, and go onward. Sometimes, like the other day when I made a mistake and ended up in an argument with one of my older daughters, I end up needing to reevaluate my own actions. Old habits die hard and, if you don’t recognize the symptoms and stop things, you end up repeating them. However, the one thing that I’ve learned from making an idiot of myself is to admit it, go seek reconciliation, look to create a win/win and then move on. Being perfect all the time is an illusion I’m rather skeptical of and often question those who “blow their own horn.”

So the other night, while dropping by one of the social media watering holes, I had a conversation with Mr. Dooley about talking about PLN and social media. It was a short conversation in which he made this request

I said I had a few and I’d put something together. Now, I’ve done a few presentation on using social media and such but then I got to thinking “It’s really not about the resources.” It’s about the experiences you have and the ability to share those experiences. So, instead of trying to put together something that probably won’t really be what is needed, I’m going to reach out to the 13 odd people who read this blog and ask them to share their experiences, tools and ideas so that this can be passed on. I’m going to do this in three ways – first through the comments on the blog, second through a discussion forum on the Ed Administrators2.0 website and third through a google form that I will share.

Advice – a few thoughts.

I often have people ask me about raising kids, since I have sooo many I must know a few things. I do know a few things but they are not tried and true and I’m not an expert. If I was, I wouldn’t need to take my cellphone to the bathroom just in case I have to text my wife to bring more toilet paper. I’d have a book and my own standup gig. I could try but eventually everyone would find out about the texting for the toilet paper and it’d be all over. So, instead, I’ll share a few things I know have worked for me and then, with any luck, a few other people will share their experiences. Eventually, with a little gentle persuasion, some pestering of people on twitter and some generosity from my PLN, we’ll end up with something that will help those looking for assistance.

Resources Ideas: My 4 cents

1. Evernote – show people this tool for sharing ideas and information, capturing things from the web and linking them to what they are doing. It is the one tool I use with my staff to share all sorts of information and, as we get better at using it, our communication improves as a whole. We’ve decided to have a premium account.

2. Twitter – it’s a great tool for finding information. I don’t ever begin to sell it as a tool for connecting. People have to learn that on their own. But I do show people how to find resources through the use of hashtags and searches. You can’t demonstrate the power of the conversations in one session – it has to develop over time. But you can show them such things as the hashtags and the various education chats that take place and when they take place.

3. Wikis – a wiki is a great way to organize things and share with others. Our staff uses pbworks as a launching point for a school calendar and other items that help us to keep organized.

We organize our gym and extra-curricular, foyer, intramurals and other school usage on this calendar that all the staff can access. It has taken some time to get everyone to use this method of tracking but, once we were able to show how it integrated into our calendar, it allowed all of us to know what was going on at the school and since we have a number of division consultants who visit, we all know when they will be at the school. We’re still working on improvements.

4. Skype – we use this to send quick message to one another during the day because it is installed on all teacher desktops and opens on login. We don’t have to call down or go over the intercom to contact a teacher. Instead, we just send them a chat message. We also have teachers who use this to connect with other classes to share.

It’s Not Rocket Science

These are the ones that I have used with 4 different staffs with varying success. I know that there are many more that people use but the key is the experiences that go with the use. At the end of the day, you just need to do it. You can’t expect to know it all nor will you be able to give people all the answers they are looking for but, if you can access some of these ideas, leverage some time with a few key people, things will grow. Our school use of Evernote and Pbworks is something that I brought in. I’ve used these tools to help teachers gather data about their classrooms, find resources and collaborate/share. The rest I try to get people to see the worth through their own growth and the whole mind shift that a PLN is one of the keys to be relevant and uptodate as an educator.

I don’t tell people it’s critical that they use these tools to be a good teacher nor do I think that without these tools you can’t be a good teacher. I may be in the minority but I also don’t rely on telling people these things to collect my pay cheque or to promote my interests or company or anything else. I believe that you can be a good teacher without using twitter or Evernote or, or, or….. because I believe learning is so much more than what takes place in a classroom/school with whatever tool – pencil, crayon, brush, camera, computer, smartphone, chisel, hammer, chainsaw, basketball, football, discuss, clarinet, trumpet, …. and people tend to get caught up in these arguments because they have another purpose/motive. (Yeah, that’s a bit of the soapbox but, hey, everyone else does it!)

So, now the form. Hopefully this will work and we’ll all be able to pool our ideas. Add to the forum on the Ed Administrator2.0 site, add a comment or visit the google form to fill it in and I’ll share the results. Eventually I’ll put this together here to share.

Thanks for reading!

During all this hustle and bustle, I’ve learned that like the rest of the year, I need to take time to be with myself – to listen to the quiet. Sometimes it can be hard, like the past week when we’re running about getting last minute things done, preparing for a meal (which seems to be always when you have 8 children), going out to visit friends and relatives or just being at home but I have found it is essential to be able to find that time to be quiet – meditate and reestablish my own inner equilibrium.

It wasn’t always this way. In fact, I would often make excuses about why I couldn’t do such a thing – I don’t stop moving, ADHD people don’t meditate, I need “noise” around me, I think better, I write better, I….. on they went. That changed a while ago when I was searching to improve my skills as a school administrator. As I read through various books and articles about leadership, I began to notice a theme that many of the great leaders of the past – Plato, Caesar, Ghandi, Jesus, Mother Theresa, saints, presidents, … – many of them emphasized spending time in quiet. They called it different things but all had time where they would spend time with themselves, quieting their mind and listening.

I Gave it a Shot

I decided to give it a try. I tried a few times but just couldn’t do it. There was always something – I couldn’t stop the thoughts from swirling, I couldn’t sit still, I couldn’t …. Besides, in today’s fast paced world, there wasn’t any real need for it anyway. I decided, instead, to make lists of things I needed to do and then plan how to do it. That was a much better use of my time. I let the idea slide. But the seed had been planted and I began to notice that “being quiet with oneself” is a theme that runs deeply – from Star Wars through Lord of the Rings, NCIS and CSI and everything in between. We don’t always see the time it takes but it is mentioned again and again.

Do or Do Not, There is No Try

You can’t just “try” to spend time in quiet. You have to do it. It takes practice. For me, a great deal of practice. Increasing from a mere 5 minutes of just sitting to now I can spend 30 minutes “being quiet with myself.” It didn’t just happen at once nor was it easy to explain to others why it was important or what it does. But, like so many people who all of a sudden see the greater purpose of something, say like twitter or blogging or a PLN, spending time with myself has allowed me to become better at what I do – a husband, father, teacher, administrator, friend, … It is a very personal thing but, I believe, absolutely important to helping me to improve. Just like practice helps an elite athlete continue to improve through continually practicing and preparing for competition, being quiet with myself helps me prepare for my time with others. During highly stressful times when things have been very difficult, I find that this time is critical to assisting me in being able to discern what is important, what needs attention and what is  the “noise” I need to allow to quiet.

Filtering 

We are living in times of incredible “noise”, when we are bombarded 24/7 with information and the demand and expectation to keep up and keep ahead drive people to distraction. Clay Shirky said we don’t have an information problem but a filter problem. I believe this is absolutely true. We can get information all the time – but what we need to discern is what is the question?

As a leader, it has become very important that I learn new skills – to listen, attentively; to ask questions and seek answers – even if they weren’t what I expected/wanted; see the possibilities/opportunities – in people, in situations, in risks. This requires that, in the flood of information, I take the time being with myself to allow for filtering. We can always find something else to listen to or watch but sometimes it’s not what we need. Instead, we need to take time to listen in the quiet – it’s advice that comes from the greatest leaders. Information can be overwhelming – if we allow it but if we follow the advice of the ages, we’ll spend time being quiet – with ourselves and allow the leader within to filter through the noise.

It’s time to change something!

Changing in mid-stride

This past few weeks, I’ve been dealing with a few students in the MY and HS who have hit the mid-year wall. They’ve fallen behind in assignments, aren’t really interested in redoing anything and just have a “mad” on. One of them ended up in my office today. It was another case of trying to get into a confrontation. At our school, we are working to not confront students but invite them to join, request them to stop, ask them to participate and generally not in any way create a lose/lose situation. Now, I need to clarify that this is a HUGE transformation from just one year ago when we were suspending, on average 3 students a week for behaviour related issues and had a noon-hour detention that was FULL with students not completing work and not doing what was asked. There were several times at the beginning of the yar that I witnessed teachers yelling at students and all out shouting by students and teachers. Thus far, we have suspended 3 students for behaviour related issues and our referrals to the office have been reduced by approximately 80%.(I don’t have any hard facts or numbers on hand but it wouldn’t take me long to find out for those who wonder about this.)

This transformation is  related to our vision of “Doing what is best for students.” This is how we begin each meeting and each discussion about/with students. We have made it clear that it is not acceptable to belittle students or to engage in an argument with them, that they cannot be “written off” or amortized over time; ignored or avoided because they cause us to feel discomfort, we will contact parents, talk to them about our concerns and, when they “turn it around” tell them of the successes. We’ve told our public and our parents that we will “Do what is best for students.” so that they will hold us accountable – which can be very difficult especially in certain situations. We are learning and growing and our next step is to have students, parents and staff work together to create a Code of Conduct that will guide the actions of all people who enter.

One Small Step

So today, instead of beginning with the “incident”, I began by asking what this young man wanted to do when he was done school. Simple question. Then I waited. Asked more questions, listened and we began to discuss things other than “the incident”. This led to some discussion about his actions over the past little while and his responsibility in the actions. We examined the things that he found frustrating and I explained, best I could, some of the frustrations we were experiencing. It was a 45 minute discussion. At the end, all I did was ask him to give himself a chance to be successful but to “not kick the dog because he was mad”. He laughed, told me he got it. He left and went to class. From all reports, it was a good afternoon.

What are your experiences and successes when it comes to changing attitudes and culture? What insights or stories can you share?

Student Led Conferences

Student Led Conferences (SLC’s) might seem to be new but they’ve been around for awhile, at least 18 years – that’s when I first encountered them as a newbie teacher. Since that beginning, I’ve had the professional pleasure of working with a number of school staffs and communities in adopting and growing SLC’s. In my current position, this was our 3rd year with SLC’s. Our school, a newly amalgamated K – 12 facility in a rural community, has an evening conference time and a morning conference when parents and their children can come to the school for the SLC. In my opinion, the best way to facilitate the SLC is to have them in the evenings/after school when both parents will be able to attend – as many families have both parents working.

Contrary to what many people seem to believe, SLC’s are much more time intensive and require a great deal of preparation on the part of the student and the teacher. Especially in a high school setting where a student will have more than one teacher, there is a greater need to communicate the purpose of the SLC.

So what is the purpose?

For me, as a teacher, it began with a portfolio of student work, some I selected and some the student selected. We’d sit down with the parents and “discuss” the work. At the time, there were so few schools doing this type of work that our staff was working to develop these pretty much on our own. What emerged over time, was a realization that we needed to redefine the whole SLC from an event that took place at a particular time and date to a process in which we engaged students and parents and the date and time was just a formal meeting to discuss the process. Whoa- talk about a mindshift! Much as we talk about such things as Differentiated Instruction being a process and not something we do or RtI being a process, so are SLC’s. They are a process that involves parents, students and teachers in the learning process and are valuable learning experiences in and of themselves.

The Process

SLC’s need to be discussed beginning in September. The process of developing a relationship with parents about student learning should begin when the school year begins and the SLC will be a point in time to review, with the student leading, what has occurred. It also needs to be clear that regular communication with the home is essential. Parents need not wait for that conference to discuss concerns.

Spreading the Message

A good way to begin the discussion is inviting parents to an Open House and discussing the report cards, SLC process and other learning initiatives. Notice that I said discuss. Don’t just tell parents what you will do but come up with ways to involve them in the discussion – topic tables, parking-lot discussions (a type of way to elicit questions) and teacher-led focus areas are some ways to involve parents. The first few times you have these Open Houses you may have a poor turnout but if you are truly open to what is being said, listening and then responding, your attendance will improve. People want to know you are listening.

Social media provides another avenue for you to elicit feedback from the community. Whether It’s a school web page, a blog, a wiki, FaceBook, twitter, a Ning, Google+ or some other service, you can provide parents with an opportunity to be informed about what is happening and a way to provide you with feedback. A blog post, wiki page, Google+ entry, Ning page would be just some of the ways to provide information and elicit some feedback. A third way, which might not work in some places, is a simple mailout. Now, before you skip over this and dismiss it, my experience, being in a small community for a number of years is that this is by far our best option for communicating to the community. In fact, since we began mailing out our newsletters to the general community, everyone who lives in the towns our students come from, we’ve had more feedback and comments from ALL sectors of population. The community wants to know what is happening at the school and a large percentage do not use social media – yet. We’ve had more businesses talk to us about supporting our student-led initiatives than before and more of our seniors contact the school about events.

This helps set the stage for the SLC’s. I would encourage staff to continue with the contact with parents either through small information inserts in the school newsletter, updates on the school webpage or FB or whatever is being used. These reinforce the message that learning is continuous and helps parents be aware of what is happening in the classroom.

The SLC “Event”

The actual conference can take a variety of formats and this depends on the age of the students and their familiarity with the process. As I mentioned, we are in our third year with SLC’s. This year the K and 1 teacher have been recording their students’ growth and progress using a blog. During the SLC, students were able to show and discuss their goals and what they had done through the digital images and recordings. They also had learning stations set up in the room where parents and students were able to explore the learning that students had been doing in the class. Feedback was extremely positive. Our other classes use a portfolio to highlight their learning goals and some use learning stations. In the elementary grades, feedback is positive.

It’s in the middle years and high school that the SLC’s aren’t always as successful at the start. As a school, we need to better prepare all parties. Again, this comes with time and experience. As students become more familiar with the process, parents are more open and teachers become less apprehensive. People begin to discuss more openly earlier in the year and, eventually the lingering effects of the traditional Parent/Teacher interview fade away. Some parents, especially with students in the senior grades don’t ever embrace the format and that is okay. We continue to provide them with more information through the many ways we communicate than they previously had and we are always open to parents coming in to talk about their child’s learning.

In the MY and HS, we have adopted a scripted format to begin the discussion process. This helps to set the stage. Because we want the discussions to be led by the students and them to focus on their goals, providing them with a starting point relieves some of the pressure they feel. Some of these students still are not very comfortable with discussing their learning. We began this year with asking teachers to have their students set learning goals in each of their classes and then, periodically, reflect on those goals. This was the basis for the discussions at SLC’s. We still have work to do to help everyone to see that this is a part of learning and being able to present one’s work, thoughts and ideas are essential skills.

In my experience as a classroom teacher, it was during our fourth year that we really noticed a change in the way parents and students interacted during the SLC’s and just a general change in the whole home-school communication when it came to student learning. The 7th year, my last at the school, was very different in so many ways. However, one of the keys was, up until then, a small turn-over in staff. We had worked in PLC’s to improve our SLC’s and this continuity was important in growing this process.

SLC’s are not new. We have new means to communicate with parents and students have some different mediums in which they can discuss their learning but the interpersonal skills that are needed and so key haven’t changed and the need for teachers and parents to invest in this process is still vitally important. Most of all, it takes time for all parties to work through the process.

The ride might be gentle but the road to change is usually a rough one!

In my role as an administrator who has been tasked a number of times with moving schools along and bringing about improvements and changes, I’ve learned a few things about the change process and working with teachers to bring about change. I see a great many people who do not fully understand the great difficulty in bringing about change on school level never mind a district level. Social media and its use is only a part of this change process. The list below comes from my experience in a number of schools where change was required – in many different ways. Without some sense of actually living through the change one is asking to have happen,  I find a certain lack credibility – just ask anyone who has overcome a huge addiction if they give credence to someone who hasn’t. So many who are discussing educational reform lack this experience – the tough job of working through the change.

But before I get to my list, I’ve noticed an increasingly large number of these types of lists. My twitter feed is full of them. Here, in no particular order, are some of those that have floated through:

60 Ways to become the person you love

Charlie Brown Leadership

20 Things Students want the nation to know

10 elements of High Quality Digital Learning

5 Simple Apps to use with Evernote

4 Brilliant Videos

5 Reasons Kids Hate your Lessons

12 To Provoke Supportive Learning Conversations at Home

18 Steps to Better Educational Innovation Leadership

21 Signs Your a 21st Century Principal

These are  from the past 2 weeks. Now, I haven’t had the time to read all the lists that come along but I did have a look at these and many like them. So, in keeping with the lists theme, which may indeed be a prelude to the New Year’s Resolution List  (which is for far too many an epic failure) I thought I’d throw these 10 signs that you are REALLY getting this whole shift in education.

1. You chuckle when you see the discussion about Klout – not because you think Klout is important/unimportant but because you know that, no matter what people think or say, without Klout in your building or your district or on twitter or …., you’re just screaming into the wind and there’s nothing more frustrating than screaming at the wind – unless you’re trying to teach your youngest to tie their shoes!

2. You understand that being socially connected is important but you don’t spend your days worrying how many times you tweet or how often or if you’re a twitter rockstar or ….  because life is about balance and you sometimes need to be in the room and not worried about those who aren’t and, unless you’re heartless like me, you have a greater connection to those in the room and a greater vested interest.

3. You try new and inventive ways to mash social media and what is happening in the school – but you don’t have a list of things every school should do because every school is different and you understand that, completely. Sharing what you do is a good thing, especially for those who are struggling with a place to start. You also understand that all teachers are different and not all of them have the same views as you – that is what makes your school a great place to work! You seek people’s strengths and use them to build upon. You’ve learned that, like your students, everyone wants to contribute and you seek those ways to make that happen.

4. You actually use the technology and tools in your teaching in a K – 12 setting  - you don’t just talk about how other people, even if they are in your building, are using them – you have walked the talk and have hands-on experience not just third party views. You have been able to mesh theories with actual practice.

5. You check in on the great international tech conferences virtually because you realize that, if we are telling our students that online/virtual learning is good enough for them, then you need to figure out how to make it good enough for you. You are a digital citizen and rarely, if ever, attend conferences. This type of PD hasn’t changed education, why should it changes it now just because it’s about technology. Unless, it’s not about the PD but about the connections, interactions and personal contacts – which would mean we need to rethink a few things….

6. You engage in twitter conversations using hashtags and have your lists but your world isn’t preoccupied with any one social network and you spend time elsewhere – and don’t always tweet about it. You see the possibilities of Google+ circles and social media like Plurk/Nings because of the different ways that the content is displayed, knowing that, in learning, there are times you need to be able to use these different models to help your students. You are open to change – “all my friends are here” isn’t a good enough reason for you not to go forth on your own and you actually give it a try – because that is what learning is about. You don’t worry about how it will affect your “standing” or “karma”.

7. You have been using digital technology long enough to know that, no matter what people claim, it is a tool. Yes it is a powerful tool, just like other tools that have societal implications and can be used for positive and negative but you aren’t limiting your students to just digital tools although you don’t regularly bring chainsaws into the classroom! 

8. You use multiple digital tools because you see that, for you, they work but you also see that, as there are many different people around you, not all of them will have the same needs nor the same uses as you do. You make suggestions and give others assistance, period. You understand and see how students use the tools in their lives, you use them too! You try to see how these two can mesh and you plan and organize with this in mind. However, you realize that the world of youth and the world of adult are not the same so, sometimes, there is no overlap and you’re okay with being the adult – because you can’t go back.

9. You understand that learning takes place all around us and you see how you can get your students to experience learning outside the classroom – digitally and otherwise – so you see the whole school – hallways, library, stage, gym, classrooms, office, entrances – and it’s surroundings –  playground, playing fields, road accesses, flower gardens, woods out back, etc – and the community in which you live – malls, stores, parks, community services – as places of exploration, wonder, excitement and learning. You sometimes use digital means to record these but other times you take along materials so students can see things through a variety of medium. And sometimes, you just take your students to go – with nothing but their minds because you know not all learning is countable or recordable.

10. As an educator and an adult, you know that you are required to do specific tasks, like assessing. Although you don’t always agree, you also know that you are an example to your students and because you choose to remain in your position, you do what is required to the best of your ability – not to spite the system.

As always, comments are welcome and appreciated.