Saturday, May 14, 2011

A Little More Fundamental 5 News


Here's a Saturday bonus. We just got the proof back for our TASSP conference program advertisement (courtesy of Dave Martinez at D&M Design). We love it, so we thought that we would let the LYS Nation see it first. The congratulatory notes, texts, tweets and e-mails haven't slowed down. Again, thank you. Also, three more campuses ordered books for all of their staff yesterday. If you want to do the same, call Jo at the LYS Office and she will take care of you (832) 477-5323.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Now Available on Amazon.com! "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation




Friday, May 13, 2011

Just a Few More Comments on the Fundamental 5

First of all, Laird and I have been humbled by all of the calls, e-mails and texts congratulating us on the book. Thank you very much for all of the kind words.

Second, because of the LYS Nation after just one day the book shot up to number 18,526 on Amazon’s best seller list. Look out number 18,525 – we’re coming after you. Here’s the link to the book – http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Third, we will have our first book release event at the TASSP conference. If you are in Austin, Texas on Thursday, June 16 come by and see us at the convention center. We will be on the fourth floor in the common area from 8:30 to 11:15. We will sign books and the first 250 people with a book in hand will receive a Soon to be World Famous Fundamental Five Coffee Tumbler.

Fourth, if you are interested in buying campus or district sets of the book (like four campuses did yesterday) call the LYS offices at (832) 477-5323 and Jo will take your order.

Fifth, here are just a few more comments about the Fundamental 5 that LYSers have recently sent us:

Cain and Laird have identified a new paradigm, which will transform the education of children by distilling research and applying the basic fundamentals of blocking and tackling to the classroom. Within a year, Cain and Laird's formula has dramatically taken many Texas schools from worst to first. Cain and Laird hold the keys to the future of transformative education...The Fundamental Five is simply the best teaching system I have seen. It will change education. And with it, the lives of a generation of children." Robert Brezina, President – United States Academic Decathlon

“We implemented the Fundamental Five on my campus this school year. Right after spring break, one of my most veteran teachers told me that she had come to the conclusion that implementing the practices in her room had brought an increased sense of rhythm and purpose to her teaching. She added that lessons that were always difficult for students in prior years, were less so this year. Bottom line, the Fundamental 5 made a noticeable impact in her ELA classroom.” Unnamed LYS Principal

“Since I have heard you (Cain) talk about "five for five", I have not seen it until today. Ms. Holland, a 5th grade teacher at Johnson Elementary in GPISD, nailed all of the Fundamental Five practices in the time span of just one short observation. When I acknowledged her effort and expertise, her class gave her a round of applause. How cool is that?” Jim Davis, LYS Coach

“Though skeptical at first (I’ve been to lots of trainings by lots of big names) The Fundamental Five works! There is a big difference between telling teachers that they should do something different and providing them with the tools that allows them to do something different. The Fundamental Five are the tools that every teacher needs. Thank you.” Unnamed LYS Teacher

“Purposeful discussion and positive emotions are vital to supporting educational achievement. I loudly applaud the authors in offering teachers practical advice as to how this can be achieved in their classroom.” Dr. Rich Allen, author, international speaker and trainer

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Now Available on Amazon.com! "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Upcoming Presentation Schedule

June 11 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

June 15 (TASSP) - Improve Now!

June 16 (TASSP) - Conference Breakfast, hosted by E. Don Brown (LYS travel tumblers for the first 1000 attendees, last year we ran out); Fundamental Five; Tech Tools for the 2.0 Principal

June 17 (TASSP) - PowerWalks

June 18 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

It's Finally Here - The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction

THE FOLLOWING IS A REPRINT FROM THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011

We’ve been like kids waiting for Christmas morning. When will the day ever arrive... But to our surprise, three weeks ahead of schedule, we received notice yesterday that the new book “The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction” is now available on Amazon.com (here’s the link to the page – http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t ).

If you are interested in buying campus or district sets of the book (as some of you have already requested) call the LYS offices at (832) 477-5323 and Jo will take your order. Thank you to all of the LYSers who have sent us congratulatory notes and below are just a couple of the positive comments we have received.

"In a time when both institutions and individuals in education are universally being challenged to 'do more with less,' we find two fresh new voices [Cain and Laird] ready to take the challenge by delving into the idea that it is the small changes in instructional practice that makes college-ready learning in every classroom a real possibility...The story and practice that Cain and Laird bring to a new generation of teachers and principals is as exciting as anything I have witnessed." - E. Don Brown, past president of the National Association of Secondary School Principals

The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction is more than a theoretical treatise, and it is certainly not a book that re-covers the well traveled paths so often used as talking points in public education. Solidly anchoring one corner of Cain’s Foundation Trinity, the Fundamental Five has the power and ‘how-to’ tone that can transform America’s schools.” - Dr. Michael Seabolt, High School Principal

If you are not familiar with the Fundamental Five, this is a must read. The workshops can change the way one teaches, the way a principal does walk thru’s, and the way your students learn. We did this in my district this year and it has transformed our many ‘good’ teachers into ‘outstanding’ teachers.” - Andy Peters, Superintendent

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Now Available on Amazon.com! "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Upcoming Presentation Schedule

June 11 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

June 15 (TASSP) - Improve Now!

June 16 (TASSP) - Conference Breakfast, hosted by E. Don Brown (LYS travel tumblers for the first 1000 attendees, last year we ran out); Fundamental Five; Tech Tools for the 2.0 Principal

June 17 (TASSP) - PowerWalks

June 18 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

It's Finally Here! The Fundamental 5

We’ve been like kids waiting for Christmas morning. When will the day ever arrive... But to our surprise, three weeks ahead of schedule, we just received notice that the new book, “The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction” is now available on Amazon.com (here’s the link to the page – http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t ).

If you are interested in buying a campus or district set of the book (as some of you have already requested) call the LYS offices at (832) 477-5323 and Jo will take your order. Thank you to all of the LYSers who have sent us congratulatory notes and below are just a couple of the positive comments we have received.

"In a time when both institutions and individuals in education are universally being challenged to 'do more with less,' we find two fresh new voices [Cain and Laird] ready to take the challenge by delving into the idea that it is the small changes in instructional practice that makes college-ready learning in every classroom a real possibility...The story and practice that Cain and Laird bring to a new generation of teachers and principals is as exciting as anything I have witnessed." - E. Don Brown, past president of the National Association of Secondary School Principals

The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction is more than a theoretical treatise, and it is certainly not a book that re-covers the well traveled paths so often used as talking points in public education. Solidly anchoring one corner of Cain’s Foundation Trinity, the Fundamental Five has the power and ‘how-to’ tone that can transform America’s schools.” - Dr. Michael Seabolt, High School Principal

If you are not familiar with the Fundamental Five, this is a must read. The workshops can change the way one teaches, the way a principal does walk thru’s, and the way your students learn. We did this in my district this year and it has transformed our many ‘good’ teachers into ‘outstanding’ teachers.” - Andy Peters, Superintendent

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Now Available on Amazon.com! "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Upcoming Presentation Schedule

June 11 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

June 15 (TASSP) - Improve Now!

June 16 (TASSP) - Conference Breakfast, hosted by E. Don Brown (LYS travel tumblers for the first 1000 attendees, last year we ran out); Fundamental Five; Tech Tools for the 2.0 Principal

June 17 (TASSP) - PowerWalks

June 18 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

A Reader Submits... Madoff School Finance

A LYS reader submits the following commentary on school funding decisions.

Madoff school finance goes like this:

Hey community, we need a $10 million dollar bond. We need a new addition here, a new weight room there, a renovation to that library, a new indoor athletic practice facility, and maybe technology upgrades if funds permit. This will only cost you $20 a month out of your paycheck.

Hey community, we need a Tax Rollback Election (TRE) to pay for educational expenses. Teachers will be fired if we don't pass this. Armageddon is on the way if we don’t pass this.

What?

No, you can't bring up that new weight room and indoor practice facility. That is different pile of money.

What?

It all comes out of your paycheck, bottom line, regardless of what pile we scam you into putting it? You don't support schools, you fiend! The legislature doesn’t support schools either. They should send us more of someone else's paycheck!

SC Response

Great, now I have to channel Dr. Richard Hooker (you might know him Robin Hood) for you.

Community, we need to build and/or upgrade our facilities. Children in our district will use these facilities for years to come. These facilities will make our community a more desirable location for people looking for a place to raise a family. The cost of these facilities could be $50 a year for the next 5 years or $20 a year for the next 15 years. Should we share the cost of this infrastructure upgrade across generations or shoulder it all ourselves.

Now community, we have to pay to operate our schools this year. So we can’t forget that we are responsible for that also. We have to meet numerous state and federal mandates and there are things that we want to do locally. Now the state has committed to fund schools at a certain level, but it doesn’t. And it hasn’t rolled back its mandates. So we have to tax above the amount required to fulfill just our local initiatives. But...

A) Luckily due to industry, mineral wealth or and/or our really big houses, we don’t have to tax ourselves at a very high rate to cover the difference. However, some of our locally collected funds will be sent to property poor districts. But, even though it hurts, all property tax revenue actually belongs to the state so redistribution is fair and logical.

OR

B) Unfortunately we have little industry or mineral wealth and we have small houses. We can tax ourselves at the maximum allowable rate and we will still come up short. But if we do our part, the state will send us relief from the property rich districts.

Now the Anti Public School Agenda finance plan goes like this:

Public schools are bad. If they keep educating all those poor, black and brown kids they will want to earn a living wage and one day they might elect a minority president. Why should I pay for that? I like things just the way they are. I can I camouflage my elitist ideals?

I know, we will hold schools accountable to educating those poor, black and brown kids at a high level. Since those kids don’t want to learn, the schools will fail and we will be justified in dismantling the whole system.

What?

They are meeting the standard? Then reform “Robin Hood.” That will slow them down.

What?

They met the standard again? Ok, time for some tax reform. Take away their local taxing authority. Call it property tax relief. Tell them the state will make up the difference by increasing business taxes and that this time we promise that we will fulfill the state’s commitment to education. No, of course we’re not going to tax businesses higher. Why would I do that to my friends and myself?

Great. Now we don’t have enough money. Let’s blame the schools for being wasteful. The public will buy that. And get my corporate buddies on the line. How much will they contribute to my re-election fund if I outsource the whole thing to them? If the public thinks Superintendents get paid a lot, they should pay attention to what CEOs get paid.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Coming Soon! "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" www.TheFundamentalFive.com

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Upcoming Presentation Schedule

June 11 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

June 15 (TASSP) - Improve Now!

June 16 (TASSP) - Conference Breakfast, hosted by E. Don Brown (LYS travel tumblers for the first 1000 attendees, last year we ran out); Book Release Event and Signing; Fundamental Five; Tech Tools for the 2.0 Principal

June 17 (TASSP) - PowerWalks

June 18 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A Reader Writes... (Texas School FInance Situation - Part 2)

In response to the 3/24/2011 post, “Texas School Finance Situation,” a reader writes:

Cain,

First, as to the your comment:

"...and everything to do with poor leadership by the Governor and the legislature"

The word "everything" leaves out a few people. Like, for example, the superintendents, principals, and board members who built a model of education centered around non-educational issues, hence Friday Night Lights and all other "extra" curricular activities that actually drive the public school process, by design. Texas public schools spend about 10% of their budgets on extracurricular activities, yet very few people have suggested cutting those. I am just saying we built a system on a house of cards that NEVER emphasized the main thing, and we were wrong for that.

Second:

“Bond money and operations money are different. They cannot be combined. Not one text book or teacher was sacrificed when we built this building.”

You are a much smarter man than this. The truth is, few people have any concept of taxation, they only know how much money is in their paycheck. That is to say, there is only so much tax money, regardless of the purpose of the tax, which people will tolerate off of their bottom line before they say no more. If as leaders we lead people to spend those precious dollars on bond debt instead of making the main thing the main thing, we are disingenuous when we later scream, "but that money comes out of a different pile." There is only one pile of money: our paychecks. As leaders how we convince people to spend that precious taxed money is on us. We have failed in too many instances to appropriately prioritize that expenditure of taxation.

Wake up educators!

SC Response

Let me roll up my sleeves, this is starting to get fun...

First, I was raised in a Brezina system. Effective and efficient is the iron rule. So I am not letting Boards, Superintendents and Principals off the hook. In fact, many of the districts we work with actually pay for our services with the money they save by becoming more efficient. And one reason why those who don’t like us, really don’t like us is that we don’t sidestep hypocrisy. We not only ask why the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes, we point it out.

We both agree that extra-curricular spending is an area ripe for pruning, but that will require a macro-level policy change. Until now, there is not a board or superintendent that could survive being the first to implement significant reforms. When I was working for Dr. Neeley, I suggested that the first sanction for an AU secondary campus should be the moving of all extra-curriculars outside the school day. The second sanction would be the suspension of all extra-curriculars, essentially “No Pass, No Play” for the whole campus. The consensus opinion (not mine) was that it would be actually be easier to close the school.

Do know that my comment was purposeful. Regardless of your opinion of the efficiency of district and campus operations, the current budget shortfall is the result of a structural tax deficit created by the Governor and the legislature. The effect of this tax deficit would have been felt during the last biennium if not for the inappropriate use of the federal stimulus package (note for politicians: supplement is not a synonym for supplant). I would even have been OK with that, if the Governor would have worked to fix his poorly crafted tax policy. But as we have seen, leadership is not his strong suit, political opportunism is. So in this case, I assigned the blame squarely where it belongs.

Second, you make my point for me. Tax policy is subtle and boring, yet very emotional. As school leaders, we have to understand that if we don’t educate our community on the importance of infrastructure investment, no one else will. Thus making them more susceptible to political demagoguery (see current political environment).

Now for bond debt. Bond debt allows current and future generations to pay for facilities that current and future generations will use and benefit from. And the primary reasons why we have significant bond debt are due to aging infrastructure (old buildings) and an explosion in school construction, due to our rapidly growing student population. So when you move to a district that has a higher tax rate due to bond debt, it is because you are moving into a district that had to build new schools to serve the new student(s) you just showed up with.

I’ll close with this, based on the education and funding models created and mandated by the state, there are some areas of budget inefficiencies. But I will submit that this inefficiency is less than the increase in student enrollment. Which means decreasing overall revenue available to schools is not a true “reform” solution. It is an anti-public school solution.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Coming Soon! "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" www.TheFundamentalFive.com

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Upcoming Presentation Schedule

June 11 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

June 15 (TASSP) - Improve Now!

June 16 (TASSP) - Conference Breakfast, hosted by E. Don Brown (LYS travel tumblers for the first 1000 attendees, last year we ran out); Fundamental Five; Tech Tools for the 2.0 Principal

June 17 (TASSP) - PowerWalks

June 18 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of May 1, 2011

I regularly have educators tell me that they want me to advocate for their district to provide them with cell phones, laptops and now I-Pads. And I always respond by telling them I can think of no idea that could be more career damaging. Not to my career, but to theirs. For years I have been explaining to educators that they need to use their own e-mail accounts, their own computers and their own cell phones. This is not because I don’t trust educators. This is because if you use district issued accounts and equipment, everything that you do becomes public information. And out of context, everything you receive and send will be used against you, if someone has an axe to grind. And right now, there are a lot of nut jobs out there with a perceived axe to grind. So understand, when I advocate the use of bootleg technology (cell phones, tablets, notebook computers, etc.) I want you to use your own equipment. Yes, I understand there is a personal cost involved, but think of it as a personal insurance policy as you become more integrated in the digital age.

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using bootleg technology devices to follow Twitter. If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us. To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of May 1, 2011, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. I’m holding the final printer's proof of "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" in my hands. Book available for all in 2 weeks

2. Congratulations to LYS (and Game On!) assistant principal Jae Simpson- Butler. She is the new principal at Hemmingway Elementary!

3. Tonite's run thought: Great schools understand that May is the first month of the Fall semester.

4. Tonite's run thought: Elite LYS campus leaders conduct over 600 documented classroom observations a year. What's your number?

5. I’m at a large (1,000+ students) Title 1 LYS school. This year they have averaged less than 1 office referral a day. The power of Foundation Trinity & the Fundamental Five!

6. I’m at a LYS school (Austin Elementary) - initial TAKS scores increased 5 points in both math & reading. Plus, they had a 5-point increase in commended rates. (P.S. – They were Exemplary in 2010)

7. Morning meeting with teachers worried about increasing class size. They asked for solution, but didn't like my answer - Vote against republican incumbents (since they vote against us).

8. One explanation for the current quality of our political leaders: Less than 25% of 12th graders scored "proficient" on the civics section of the NAEP.

9. The mission of a LYS Elementary School: McFee guarantees a solid academic and social foundation to inspire individuals to achieve their true potential.

10. Worried that parents won't support bootleg technology? Don't be. The Speak Up Report found that 67% of parents would buy a device for their child, if school use was allowed.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Coming Soon! "The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction" www.TheFundamentalFive.com

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Upcoming Presentation Schedule

June 11 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!

June 15 (TASSP) - Improve Now!

June 16 (TASSP) - Conference Breakfast, hosted by E. Don Brown (LYS travel tumblers for the first 1000 attendees, last year we ran out); Fundamental Five; Tech Tools for the 2.0 Principal

June 17 (TASSP) - PowerWalks

June 18 (TASB) - The Fundamental Five; Improve Now!