Posts
A LYS Principal shares:
"Sean, after taking two high schools from AU to Recognized, followed by a one year of working for a district that lied about wanting to change, I am back in the game!
The good news is for the first time my new school is primed for change, with the staff already engaged in much of the initial work. Oh, and the raise is nice too! The LYS path is not always straight or easy, but it always leads me to a better place."
SC Response
I’ve been waiting for you to get a campus that would embrace you. With two rating jumps a year the being the established norm for you and your campuses, it’s better than even money that you, your staff and students will be celebrating an exemplary rating this time next year.
Best of luck and call me if you need me.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
Friday, June 18, 2010
Blog Page Style and Format
For those of you who go to the actual blog site to read posts (as opposed to reading the blog via e-mail updates), you know that we are playing with the look and style. What you are looking at today is not the final version. We will be making more adjustments, so it will get easier to look at and read. We just may be stuck with this version for a couple of days. I apologize in advance for any cases of blurry vision.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A Reader Writes... (Your Can Do It, Quick - Part 2)
In response to the post, "Reader's Write... (You Can Do It, Quick)", a reader writes:
"This post was a joke, right? LYS calls everyone out from time to time: teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, and each other. No one is spared scrutiny. No one escapes accountability. I have known Cain, Brown, and Brezina for years and I can tell you this:
1. They know that the teacher-student interaction is the most important interaction in the school system.
2. They know (better than anyone I have met) that in order to improve that interaction, the job of leadership is to build capacity among the teaching faculty.
Leadership provides the vision, the focus, and the feedback. Leadership is about being a cheerleader and a coach. But just like sports coaching, it is the players doing the heavy lifting. Does the coach make a difference? All the difference in the world. But he or she still doesn’t execute the actual play."
SC Response
I was confused by the response, but not alarmed by it. I figure it was one of three things:
1. Either the reader missed the actual intent of the post,
2. The post was a poorly worded or poorly written, or
3. The reader disagreed.
I actually hope it was the third option. Powerful and lasting ideas are forged through debate, discussion and scrutiny. If we all agree with everything that is posted on this blog, then it becomes nothing but a group think PR machine. Plus, if I get to walk onto a campus and point out to a principal what they need to do to get better, I expect the LYS Nation to feel comfortable in turning the table and doing the same to me. May the best ideas win.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
"This post was a joke, right? LYS calls everyone out from time to time: teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, and each other. No one is spared scrutiny. No one escapes accountability. I have known Cain, Brown, and Brezina for years and I can tell you this:
1. They know that the teacher-student interaction is the most important interaction in the school system.
2. They know (better than anyone I have met) that in order to improve that interaction, the job of leadership is to build capacity among the teaching faculty.
Leadership provides the vision, the focus, and the feedback. Leadership is about being a cheerleader and a coach. But just like sports coaching, it is the players doing the heavy lifting. Does the coach make a difference? All the difference in the world. But he or she still doesn’t execute the actual play."
SC Response
I was confused by the response, but not alarmed by it. I figure it was one of three things:
1. Either the reader missed the actual intent of the post,
2. The post was a poorly worded or poorly written, or
3. The reader disagreed.
I actually hope it was the third option. Powerful and lasting ideas are forged through debate, discussion and scrutiny. If we all agree with everything that is posted on this blog, then it becomes nothing but a group think PR machine. Plus, if I get to walk onto a campus and point out to a principal what they need to do to get better, I expect the LYS Nation to feel comfortable in turning the table and doing the same to me. May the best ideas win.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Updates from the On-going LYS World Tour
This has been a whirl-wind ride of the past couple of days. In just four days I have conducted 8 major presentations in 4 different cities. The highlights include multiple standing room only crowds at the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference, multiple standing room only crowds at the Texas Association of School Board Conference, and a capacity crowd at the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association conference. Then at the LYS Breakfast Reception at TASSP, we had over 700 campus leaders stop by.
Now I’m catching a 6:00am flight to California. I have to soften them up a little bit before they have to deal with Brezina and Brown.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
Now I’m catching a 6:00am flight to California. I have to soften them up a little bit before they have to deal with Brezina and Brown.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Most Outrageous Story of the Year... (PowerWalks - Part 4)
Related to the post, “PowerWalks – Part 3,” a LYS Principal shared the following with me.
Right before school ended for the year I visited a LYS Principal for a debriefing and planning meeting. As soon as I walked in his office he said, “You will not believe this.”
He reached in his desk and pulled out a DVD and said, “It was just like the blog.”
I then noticed that it was a DVD of “The Hangover” and said, “You’re kidding?”
“Nope. I was out doing my regular walk-thru’s and I opened the classroom door and the entire class is sitting there watching the movie.”
“What did you do?”
The Principal said, “I did just like the blog said to do. I took the movie out, asked the teacher out in the hallway and told him to go home. Then I called HR and they gave him his walking papers. But here’s the kicker, the teacher got mad at me and cussed me out.”
This is darn near the perfect case of a Principal stepping in to protect a class, his school and our profession. So, to this principal, that’s the way to step up and be a leader (on multiple levels). You made the LYS Nation proud.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
Right before school ended for the year I visited a LYS Principal for a debriefing and planning meeting. As soon as I walked in his office he said, “You will not believe this.”
He reached in his desk and pulled out a DVD and said, “It was just like the blog.”
I then noticed that it was a DVD of “The Hangover” and said, “You’re kidding?”
“Nope. I was out doing my regular walk-thru’s and I opened the classroom door and the entire class is sitting there watching the movie.”
“What did you do?”
The Principal said, “I did just like the blog said to do. I took the movie out, asked the teacher out in the hallway and told him to go home. Then I called HR and they gave him his walking papers. But here’s the kicker, the teacher got mad at me and cussed me out.”
This is darn near the perfect case of a Principal stepping in to protect a class, his school and our profession. So, to this principal, that’s the way to step up and be a leader (on multiple levels). You made the LYS Nation proud.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
Sunday, June 13, 2010
A Reader Writes... (Dress Code, Yet Again - Part 4)
In response to the post, "A Reader Writes... (Dress Code Yet Again - Part 2)..." one of the cooler heads in the LYS Nation writes:
“SC, you rock, as always. I am encouraged by your continued efforts to see that we, as educational professionals, move forward in positive ways to see that students are the focus of our behaviors.
Now, about dress code; this always leads to a vigorous discussion, whether it is about student dress or professional dress. Since retiring from the big chair, I am now a university supervisor of student teachers. It is interesting to watch each new group of student teachers. No matter how much professional dress is stressed, the student teacher will MODEL what their mentor wears. So, if a mentor is wearing jeans everyday the student teacher feels that they can do the same. I believe that it is all about professional dispositions, which are: values, commitment, professional ethics and organization. It is about meeting a standard of excellence or at least attempting to adhere to the standard through continuous growth in our personal professional goals.....which we hope all of us have no matter where we are in the work.
The question becomes then, "How can we expect our students to adhere to our classroom standards, when we do not adhere to the campus, district or state standard, whether it be dress or otherwise?"
What message do we want to send? What message is then received? I was on a campus this past semester where the culture was to yell at students because "it was the only way to get their attention". It was chaos all the time. I could hardly sit in the classroom. Think about that message.
So, our dress does send a message, and our attitudes about dress also send a message. Hopefully this teacher is still learning and has good role models. I do understand that secondary is much different than elementary, however, professionalism is the same. It only takes the administrator going into a classroom one time to say privately, "You are not dressed appropriately. I will keep your class, while you go home and change" to send the message about dress. The few times I had to this, solved any dress code question or problem with that particular teacher, forever. Administrators have the responsibility to see that everyone succeeds on a campus. Professionalism is set at the top and dress code is part of that.
And just for the record.....we did go through college for someone to tell us how to dress. It is part of the Code of Ethics, Standard Practices for Texas Educators. TAC-Title 19, Part 7, Chapter 247, Rule 247.2. Just look on the back of your Texas Educator Certificate."
SC Response
Ditto.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
“SC, you rock, as always. I am encouraged by your continued efforts to see that we, as educational professionals, move forward in positive ways to see that students are the focus of our behaviors.
Now, about dress code; this always leads to a vigorous discussion, whether it is about student dress or professional dress. Since retiring from the big chair, I am now a university supervisor of student teachers. It is interesting to watch each new group of student teachers. No matter how much professional dress is stressed, the student teacher will MODEL what their mentor wears. So, if a mentor is wearing jeans everyday the student teacher feels that they can do the same. I believe that it is all about professional dispositions, which are: values, commitment, professional ethics and organization. It is about meeting a standard of excellence or at least attempting to adhere to the standard through continuous growth in our personal professional goals.....which we hope all of us have no matter where we are in the work.
The question becomes then, "How can we expect our students to adhere to our classroom standards, when we do not adhere to the campus, district or state standard, whether it be dress or otherwise?"
What message do we want to send? What message is then received? I was on a campus this past semester where the culture was to yell at students because "it was the only way to get their attention". It was chaos all the time. I could hardly sit in the classroom. Think about that message.
So, our dress does send a message, and our attitudes about dress also send a message. Hopefully this teacher is still learning and has good role models. I do understand that secondary is much different than elementary, however, professionalism is the same. It only takes the administrator going into a classroom one time to say privately, "You are not dressed appropriately. I will keep your class, while you go home and change" to send the message about dress. The few times I had to this, solved any dress code question or problem with that particular teacher, forever. Administrators have the responsibility to see that everyone succeeds on a campus. Professionalism is set at the top and dress code is part of that.
And just for the record.....we did go through college for someone to tell us how to dress. It is part of the Code of Ethics, Standard Practices for Texas Educators. TAC-Title 19, Part 7, Chapter 247, Rule 247.2. Just look on the back of your Texas Educator Certificate."
SC Response
Ditto.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
A Reader Writes... (Game On! - Part 2)
In response to the posts referencing “Game On!” a reader asks:
“What is Game On?”
SC Response
Game On is the LYS professional learning community on steroids. It structures the entire campus in a way to motivate students to work hard every day and provide the staff an opportunity to conduct continuous action research. This entire structure is disguised as a game. Think of Disney World, the kids are fully engaged in the task at hand, while behind the scenes every “magical moment” is entirely purposeful. Game On teachers simply work differently than their peers, but it isn’t like flipping a switch. Instead of “walking the walk,” Game On teachers are “running the run.”
And Game On works like nothing else: Here’s just a small sample of what the Game On Campuses achieved this year.
Houston - A dead school walking, two years ago it was announced that this Title I school would be closed at the end of this year (a freeway was built 100 yards from the campus). They are closing the door as Recognized (without TPM).
Austin – This Title I school, with a rookie late hire principal and a rookie late hire AP, is Exemplary for the first time.
McFee – This Title I school with the reputation of having some of the toughest students in its district is solid Recognized (without TPM).
Lee – This Title I school is Exemplary for the first time (without TPM).
Hairgrove – This Title I school (second poorest out of over 50 campuses in its district) has scores in the top 5 in its district. It too is Exemplary (without TPM).
If you are interested in Game On for your campus, just send me an e-mail and I’ll get back to you, but for now I’ll close with a Game On! Principal quote, “If we got our rating due to TPM, we wouldn’t give it back, but we would put an asterisk next to it.”
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
“What is Game On?”
SC Response
Game On is the LYS professional learning community on steroids. It structures the entire campus in a way to motivate students to work hard every day and provide the staff an opportunity to conduct continuous action research. This entire structure is disguised as a game. Think of Disney World, the kids are fully engaged in the task at hand, while behind the scenes every “magical moment” is entirely purposeful. Game On teachers simply work differently than their peers, but it isn’t like flipping a switch. Instead of “walking the walk,” Game On teachers are “running the run.”
And Game On works like nothing else: Here’s just a small sample of what the Game On Campuses achieved this year.
Houston - A dead school walking, two years ago it was announced that this Title I school would be closed at the end of this year (a freeway was built 100 yards from the campus). They are closing the door as Recognized (without TPM).
Austin – This Title I school, with a rookie late hire principal and a rookie late hire AP, is Exemplary for the first time.
McFee – This Title I school with the reputation of having some of the toughest students in its district is solid Recognized (without TPM).
Lee – This Title I school is Exemplary for the first time (without TPM).
Hairgrove – This Title I school (second poorest out of over 50 campuses in its district) has scores in the top 5 in its district. It too is Exemplary (without TPM).
If you are interested in Game On for your campus, just send me an e-mail and I’ll get back to you, but for now I’ll close with a Game On! Principal quote, “If we got our rating due to TPM, we wouldn’t give it back, but we would put an asterisk next to it.”
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
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