A Reader Writes... (Teacher Nests - Part 6)

In response to the 8/19/11 post “Teacher Nests – Part 4,” a LYS Principal writes:

SC,

Just thought I would forward you what one of our teachers who moved to Dallas wrote about nesting

Hi boss! I wanted to let you know that I got settled in my new school. It is a COMPLETELY different environment than what we had at (A LYS Elementary Campus), but so far I like it. Of course, middle school is a HUGE change!

P.S. Thank you, for making us clean our rooms at the end of the day... You wouldn’t believe the trash on the floors, messy walls and staples left in the walls everywhere.

SC Response

Cleanliness, organization and a lack of clutter are all highly correlated to increased student performance. Plus, taking pride in one’s appearance and environment is a critical component of espirt de corps. But I’ll take this quick discussion of maintaining a clean and instructionally purposeful environment to another level. A clean classroom environment represents a small thing that to do well requires little brainpower but lots of will and discipline.

If staff and students are unable and unwilling to do the little things that require no thought, but discipline, why would you ever believe that they can accomplish the tasks that require both brain power and discipline? Quite frankly, the odds aren’t in their favor.

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

Attend the LYS presentations at the Texas School Improvement Conference on 10/26/11 and 10/27/11

Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Blog and E-mail: A Review of Functions

Some of you have seen a version of this post before, but since I wrote it, we have added cover 200 new members to the LYS Nation. Therefore, I thought a refresher might be in order. The following is my attempt to explain the features that are embedded in the blog site and the e-mail updates.

Note: This section relates to the blog site (not the e-mail updates).

On the left side of the page, E-Mail Updates: If you enter your e-mail address in the subscribe box, you will get a daily e-mail update of all the postings within the last 24 hours, after you respond to the confirmation e-mail (a spam preventative).

On the left side of the page, under the E-Mail Updates area: UpTweet – If you like a post, click UpTweet and it takes you to your twitter account so you can post a link on your timeline.

On the left side of the page, under the UpTweet area: Lead Your School Resources and Tools - Links to the Lead Your School campus support site; the PowerWalks site; the Amazon.com page for “The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction”; and the Amazon.com page fot “Jump Start Your School”.

On the left side of the page, under the Lead Your School Resources and Tools area: Twitter Updates – A running list of the last ten posts to the LYS Nation Twitter account.

On the left side of the page, under the Twitter Updates area: Current School News - Click on any of the four key words and the most current news stories that relate to that key word will be displayed.

On the left side of the page, under the Current School News area: Popular Posts – Shows the three most viewed blog posts from the last thirty days.

On the left side of the page, under the Popular Post area: RSS Feeds - I don't have a clue. The tech guys just said it needed to be there. Can anyone out there explain it?

On the left side of the page, under RSS Feeds: Followers - Again, no clue (just following tech guy instructions). Some of you do this, care to explain it to the rest of us?

At the bottom of the blog page, under the last post of the week: Blog Archives - Click on a week, and all the posts from that week will be displayed.

Note: This section relates to the actual posts (on the blog site).
If you click on a post title, it will pull up a comment box at the end of the post. Just type in your comment and click the "post comment" button.

At the bottom of each post, click "comment" and you can leave a comment or read comments others have left. However, the majority of the comments, I post under the heading, "A Reader Writes."

At the bottom of each post, click the envelope if you want to e-mail that post to another person.

At the bottom of each post, if you click a "Label" word, it will pull up all the other posts that have the same label words.

At the bottom of the post, there are reaction boxes. You get to rate the post.

Note: This section relates to the E-mail updates.

If you click on "Lead Your School", it will take you to the blog site.

If you click on a post title, it will take you to the post and there will be a comment box at the bottom of the screen. Just type in your comment and click the "post comment" button.

Note: This section relates to Reader Comments.

This is how all comments are handled:

Your comments, opinions and question are welcomed and encouraged. Keep them coming.

All comments opinions and questions are reviewed by me.

Comments, opinions and questions, where it is asked that the information not be shared, receive a private response from me.

One liners and comments that do not require a response are just posted as a comment.

Comments, opinions and questions of merit are posted as, “A Reader Writes…” They are posted in a first come, first serve fashion. So sometimes it takes a while to get to yours.

I don’t know if it is proper blog etiquette or not, but I spell and grammar check comments before I post them.

Comments are handled with a modified FERPA procedure. I will and do mask the identities of some writers, their schools and their districts. To protect the writer and who or what they are writing about.

Post format:

Text in italics is the comment of the reader.

Your turn… This is your invitation to weigh in and join the conversation.

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

State of the Blog - The Last 100 Posts (900 and Counting)

Hello, LYS Nation. This is the 900^th post to the column, so as has become a tradition, we will review our progress.

First, the review:

The 1^st post was on Monday, February 16, 2009.

The 100^th post was on April 14, 2009.

The 200^th post was on June 10, 2009

The 300^th post was on September 2, 2009

The 400^th post was on December 16, 2009

The 500^th post was on April 7, 2010

The 600^th post was on August 2, 2010

The 700^th post was on December 17, 2010

The 800^th post was on, May 17, 2011

The 900^th post is on today, October 5, 2011

The 900 posts represent more than 840 pages of single spaced text. This is the equivalent of about a 3,300-page book.

The top 8 key words have been: Leadership (271); Teachers (186); Principals (185); Robert “Bob” Brezina (111); LYS Nation (108); E. Don Brown (107); Instruction (105); Campus / School Improvement (89)

The top 10 posts, in terms of distribution, have been:

1 – A Reader Asks... Modeling Examples (8/25/11)

2 – Crunch Time Common Assessments (2/11/2011)

3 - A TAKS Reminder From the LYS Elementary Coaching Team (4/19/2011)

4 - A Reader Asks... Grading Policy (1/12/2011)

5 – Readers Ask... More Assessment Questions (11/5/2010)

6 – Student vs. Teacher Data (8/17/2011)

7 – Top LYS Tweets from the Week of March 20, 2011 (3/28/2011)

8 – It’s Finally Here! The Fundamental Five (5/11/2011)

9 – Assessment vs. Benchmark (9/21/11)

10 – A Reader Submits... Instructional Strategies (10/19/2010)

There have been over 157,300 page hits.

There are 946 e-mail subscribers. Thank you!

There are now international readers and e-mail subscribers, with the following 12 countries represented: Australia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Egypt, Latvia, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand; United Kingdom, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands

All of this is incredibly exciting; especially when you consider that not too long ago ago, every number was 0.

A Little Blatant Self Promotion:

First, if you like the blog and you haven’t signed up for the e-mail subscription, please do so. I find that it’s easier to write to people than it is to write to web hits.

Second, if you like the blog and find it useful, tell three other people. This blog is a much more powerful resource for school improvement when it is a dialogue.

Third, if you have not sent in a comment yet, please do so. Education research points out that the act of critical writing actually makes the learner smarter. Let the blog assist you in sharpening your saw.

Finally:

Thank you so much for reading and responding. This network which started out as a way for just a handful of principals to stay connected has turned into a small nation of board members, central office administrators, campus leaders, and teachers who are focused on redefining what students are capable of. Who knows what we will discuss in the next 100 posts.

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

Attend the LYS presentations at the Texas School Improvement Conference on 10/26/11 and 10/27/11

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of September 25, 2011

Some good news on the bootleg technology front. The Superintendents of both Poth ISD and Louise ISD shared that they are in the process of setting up guest networks on their campuses. And they are letting the community have free access to the network (if they are in range). Way to get in front of the crowd, but to be fair, this is the kind of leadership one expects from LYS’ers

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 25, 2011, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. Even with all of the bad management practices out there, PDAS waivers still fall in the top 5 in the bad leader hall of shame.

2. Observed some great classrooms at Snyder Junior High School today. Teachers are hard at work implementing the Fundamental 5.

3. 2011 TASB Superintendent of the Year: Dr. John Folks, Northside ISD, Region 20. Congratulations! (by – tasbnews)

4. Texas used $5.9 billion in stimulus dollars to plug holes in budget during 81st legislature. (by – DrJerryRBurkett)

5. If a state applies for a "Leave Children Behind" waiver, does that mean they have formally given up on getting better?

6. "If the infrastructure isn’t there, the 'art' (of instruction) will not save you"... (by – tlonganecker)

7. Watching Brezina hold court with a group of rookies on how to be a superintendent. Better than a graduate course.

8. Brezina just shared a lesson he taught me 12 years ago. "Always leave at least one bullet in your gun."

9. Marion Jones (Aldine Board member and my junior high counselor) stopped by the LYS Booth.

10. Just gave away 1,000 LYS koozies at the TASA/TASB conference. There are 5,000 attendees at the conference. The LYS Nation continues to grow.

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

Attend the LYS presentations at the Texas School Improvement Conference on 10/26/11 and 10/27/11

A Quick TASA/TASB Recap

We wrapped up another great TASA/TASB Conference and once again the LYS Booth was a hub of activity. The vendors in the booth around us asked us more than once, “What exactly are you selling?” The answer, “Nothing. We’re all Texas school leaders. This conference is the chance for all of us to check in and catch up with all our friends and colleagues.” And we got to see a lot of you. I took a couple of pictures to share and a big thank you to the following groups and individuals that stopped by to just say “Hi.”

The Aldine Board, the Beeville Board, Eddie Bland, the Borger Board, Bonny Cain, Ben Carson, James Colbert, Tim Edwards, Robert Duron, the Florence Board, Karen Garza, Lloyd Graham, Richard Griffin, Les Hooper, the Huffman Board, Larry Hutto, the Hutto Board, Marion Jones, Chad Kelly, Wade Labay, the Manor Board, the Midland Board, the Mont Alto Board, Jim Nelson, the Northwest Board, Pete Pape, Andy Peters, Tommy Price, Harold Ramm, Randy Reid, the Royal Board, Elizabeth Saenz, the San Antonio Board, John Sawyer, Mike Seabolt, William Smith, Steve Snell, the Splendora Board, the Tom Bean Board, Chris Trotter, Ed Tweedie, the Vidor Board, the Vernon Board, the Waco Board, Kay Wagner, the West Board, John Wilson, Michael Zolkoski

The list is incomplete and if I missed you, just know that it is do to my sub-par, short-term memory. If you missed us, we’ll present and have a booth at the SIRC Conference latter this month and do the same at the TASA Mid-winter Conference in February.

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 on 9/30/11 and 10/1/11

Attend the LYS presentations at the Texas School Improvement Conference on 10/26/11 and 10/27/11