A Reader Submits... LYS Followers?

A LYS reader shares this:

I was at an ESC meeting recently when I heard some non-LYS principals discussing “LYS Followers.”

LYS Followers???

I don't know of any LYS “followers.” I go back to the early years of LYS and I don't consider myself, nor have I ever been accused of being, a "follower". With LYS, I found a group of like-minded school leaders who were able to coach me to better put my ideas and philosophies into effective practice.

The reason the LYS concepts are so clear and prevalent now is because trail blazing principals like Owens, Marchel, Laird, Lesa Cain, Montelongo, Gibson and Seabolt implemented the concepts early on. Mistakes were made, lessons were learned. I am sure Sean Cain, Brown, and Brezina, will tell you they learned as much from our feedback as we ever learned from them.

Just because a principal has heard the message but doesn’t do anything different, doesn’t make them an independent thinker. It simply means that they value the status quo more than student performance (now, who is the follower – because that is not leading). There is a difference between simply attending church and being a true believer. The core of the LYS Nation are not simply believers, we are zealots, bent on improving our schools for our kids.

SC Response

Nothing I can add to this one except for, “Amen.”

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Come visit us at the LYS Booth at the TASA/TASB Fall Conference

Teacher Quality and Qualifications - The View From the Middle

It is interesting scanning the discussion about teacher quality and qualifications. As usual, both extremes have it wrong and those of us in the middle are forced to hold our noses and pick a side. Now let’s consider this issue from the Middle

First of all, teacher quality and qualifications are important. Studies show that the effect of a good teacher versus a marginal teacher carry forward through multiple years and even into adulthood. Most of us can point to one teacher that almost derailed our future and the one teacher that is the wellspring of our current success. The middle wants to make sure that having that good teacher, year after year, is not a matter of blind luck but a matter of design.

The middle understands that competency and excellence are a driven by potential, honed with experience, practice, continual study, advanced training and support. The middle understands that the teacher who refuses to grow and adapt drags down the entire profession.

The middle understands that quality teachers have to be provided with the tools of success (see: Foundation Trinity). But more importantly, quality teachers actually implement those tools with discipline and increasing competence. Purposely not using the tools is analogous to malpractice and can not to be tolerated.

All of this the middle understands and works to accomplish. And because of that the middle faces the most difficult job of all. Working to improve both the quality of education and the quality of educators while one side refuses to give us the resources necessary to accomplish the job and other side refuses to budge when it is necessary to cut our loses when our “peers” have neither the skill and or/will to assist us in accomplishing our goals.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Come visit us at the LYS Booth at the TASA/TASB Fall Conference

Uncle Mike's Advice

Last week LYS trained over 400 campus leaders on the PowerWalks observation system. Every trainee was diligent, attentive and earnest. We could not have asked for better groups.

While we were doing that, a LYS Principal was writing his weekly newsletter. At the end of the newsletter he included something I had shared in the blog about eighteen months ago. He thought it was important to remind his teachers of something my Uncle Mike (a successful business owner) had taught me (mostly by his deeds - he was a man of few words). I think the lesson is timely, especially for the 400 new PowerWalks users who are going to be spending considerable more time in the classroom.

1. Work hard.

2. Be decent to people, especially the people who rely on you.

3. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Come visit us at the LYS Booth at the TASA/TASB Fall Conference

Teacher Quality and Qualifications - Why the Left is Wrong

It is interesting scanning the discussions about teacher quality and qualifications. As usual, both extremes have it wrong and those of us in the middle are forced to hold our noses and pick a side. Let’s look at the issue from each angle. Next up, the Left.

The Left has missed the boat by viewing every attempt to address teacher quality, preparation and accountability as a direct attack on the profession. Instead of leading the charge to truly professionalize education, they have allowed the debate to revolve around the issues of labor and management. Which is a blue-collar mentality and argument. Which again leads right towards the “trained monkey” premise. Getting the job is not enough, teaching is and must become even more of a knowledge driven profession. We should push ourselves to improve the craft, increase student achievement, and add significant value in every classroom. The “trained monkey” should have no chance of keeping up with field. If we did a better job of both supporting and policing ourselves, the bad teacher would have no place to hide. But the Far Left has convinced us that if we don’t protect the bad and unqualified teacher, they could come after you next.

Yet the danger of that occurring is most prevalent in subjective systems. In objective systems, the “singled-out, random target of management” is an anomaly. Unfortunately, such a system, though better for the profession would directly attack the funding and power base of the Far Left. Professionals that aren’t driven by fear have less need for a blue-collar mentality and labor union like protections.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Come visit us at the LYS Booth at the TASA/TASB Fall Conference

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of September 4, 2011

I’ve been in a number of school districts in the past month training staff and not one of them has had an easy way for visitors and guests to access their Wi-Fi. In an age where everyone is trying to expand customer access to the internet, from coffee shops to auto dealerships to burger joints, schools do everything they can to prevent easy use. Why a district can’t create a guest network and share that network with the community at-large is beyond me. After all, the community did pay for the bandwidth in the first place (tax dollars at work). My point is, as the primary knowledge entity in the community, the school should be taking a leadership role in expanding connectivity. Not hording it like a pre-Christmas ghost visit Scrooge.

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using your own 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 September 4, 2011, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. A big thanks to the 400+ school leaders that we trained on the PowerWalks system this week. Your hard work and reflection was inspiring.

2. The formula for motivation is simple: Meaningful vision, measurable goals, meaningful work, and results. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.

3. You can waste time and money looking for a better discipline management program or you can just spend more time in the power zone and teach bell to bell.

4. I’m not a fan of making teacher ratings public. Unless the policy is applied to all public employees. It still wouldn't be right, but it would be fair.

5. Teacher evaluation is really about adding value. At-risk schools understand this. No one else wants any part of it.

6. I see in Illinois that they are drug-testing teachers. I could support this if the law included all elected officials in the state.

7. 22 percent of children who have lived in poverty do not graduate from high school, compared to 6 percent of those who have never been poor. (by: tgrierhisd)

8. I just observed a 6th grade English class with 35 students. Thank you, Governor Perry and the Republican Legislators.

9. It's not that I'm against the Fed's funding more teachers. It's that the states aren't stepping up to right thing in the first place.

10. Preach it @LYSNation, preach it!!! (by: tlonganecker)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Come visit us at the LYS Booth at the TASA/TASB Fall Conference