Coming Soon to the Apple App Store: The Fundamental 5 Lesson Planning Tool

You won't have to wait much longer. The lesson planning tool that actually makes your job easier.

Here are some comments from just a few LYS Fundamental 5 campuses that have seen the beta version.

Awesome!

Can’t Wait!

Hurry Up!

As soon as it is out, we’ll be the first pilot campus!

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

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

• Improve Now – 8:00am
• The Fundamental 5 – 9:15am
• You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See – 10:15am

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

Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

A Reader Writes... (The Summative Evaluation - Part 1)

In response to the 8/31/11 post, “The Summative Evaluation,” a LYS Principal writes:

This could have been a conversation between you and any number of us LYS Rookies. This second year is tougher and already more exhausting because the focus has to be clearer and the conversations that much more explicit - not to mention the monitoring of any TINAs that were implemented.

Today, I reflected that I had vowed that no matter what, I'd always put kids first. So tomorrow I'm going back and meeting with my people who aren't behaving like they clearly understand that. That rearview mirror on my way home has a way of telling me the truth!

SC Response

I don’t know if the second year is tougher, but it is definitely different. Now that you have a better feel for the routine parts of the job, for the first time you have the opportunity to look beyond yourself, and start to focus on making your people better. But you can only do that if you protect yourself from all the politics, administrivia and distractions that steal your time, attention and brainpower from what is truly important. That’s the value of the external coach. The external coach won’t let you excuse your way out of doing what is right for your students. The internal coach often has a different focus. Not wrong, just different.

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

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

• Improve Now – 8:00am
• The Fundamental 5 – 9:45am
• You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See – 10:15am

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

Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

A Reader Writes... (The Little District That Will - Part 1)

In response to the 8/16/11 post, “The Little District That Will,” a LYS’er who is a new principal writes:

SC,

The faculty at the High School have been on fire all week thanks to the encouraging message of The Little District That Will posting. As with any change, the faculty was unsure about what the new school year would look like. When they attended the training on Thursday and Friday they knew that everything was going to be all right. They knew that we were still focusing on the Foundation Trinity and the Fundamental 5. They understood why we had been using Common Assessments for the past year, and how they were going to be used to help them improve their craft. The "big picture" you showed them really brought it all together for them.

The enthusiasm of the teachers began to spread throughout the community over the weekend. By Monday, when regular in-service training began, the positive atmosphere was clearly evident. On Tuesday, when I shared the blog posting with them, the enthusiasm and positive "vibes" were actually tangible. We reviewed the Fundamental 5 and developed objectives using the Bloom's verbs. We developed Small Group Purposeful Talk and Critical Writing questions from the "Talk like a Genius" question stems. One teacher with over 40 years teaching experience commented that he had learned more over the last few months than he had learned at any other time in his career.

Over the next few days the word about the great things that we are going to accomplish in the classroom is circulating freely around the district. The enthusiasm of the faculty is infectious. We had Parent Night on Thursday evening and had a record number of parents and students attended. Every parent I spoke to, without exception, told me how many good things they had heard about the school and how excited they were about the new school year. Marzano observed an increase in performance of about 29% when people's effort was recognized and reinforced. I have seen an entire campus transformed. Thank you for your encouraging words and especially for the superb training that LYS has delivered to our district.

SC Response

There is huge comfort and relief when leadership can tell the staff, “This year we are going to continue to work and build capacity within a clearly defined system.” It actually allows professionals to hone actual expertise. What you inherently understand as a rookie is far more useful to your staff that the veteran principal that thinks the key to instructional leadership is coming up with a new “theme” for the school year. Keep up the great work and don’t forget that we are just a phone call away if you need us.

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

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

• Improve Now – 8:00am
• The Fundamental 5 – 9:45am
• You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See – 10:15am

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

Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

A Reader Writes... (Student vs. Teacher Data - Part 1)

In response to the 8/17/2011 post, “Student vs. Teacher Data,” a LYS Principal writes:

SC,

I enjoyed your post, “Student vs. Teacher Data.” Ronald Thomas shares your thoughts as he writes the following on this very subject in Education Week (My Nine Truths of Data Analysis - 6/15/2011):

"Focus on instructional insights derived from data. We don’t need ‘data driven’ schools. We desperately need ‘knowledge driven’ schools…Data are useless unless organized into meaningful patterns. Some schools are getting better at creating charts and graphs that can be useful to teacher teams, but others are drowning in data. The most important questions in data analyses are not ‘What did the students score,’ and ‘How many passed”. The most important questions are:

• What do the students know?
• What do they not know?
• What are we going to do about it?"

Common assessments, utilized properly, target short-term lesson planning and drive the planning/instructional delivery engine. Without adjusting lesson plans and adult behavior according to the teacher data—we are simply wasting a tremendous amount of time, energy, and printer ink.

Lead On.

SC Response

I take Thomas’ three questions to an even more focused level.

1. What practices improved student performance?
2. What practices stymied student performance?
3. How do we know this?
4. How do more or less of the identified practices.

When a campus is asking and answering these questions within short assessment windows, the effect is continuous incremental improvements to schools systems and teacher practices that result in increasing student success.

The leadership challenge is to push and pull staff up to the point where they see, experience and appreciate the value of working in such a system. This does not magically occur. But once it does (as you are experiencing at your multi-year, exemplary campus) just point them in the right direction and get out of their way.

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

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

• Improve Now – 8:00am
• The Fundamental 5 – 9:45am
• You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See – 10:15am

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

Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

A Reader Asks... Fear / Superstition Driven Benchmarking

Blog Post: A Reader Asks... Fear / Superstition Driven Benchmarking

A LYS Principal asks:

SC,

What do you tell teachers when they start asking about doing full-length release TAKS assessments or some other version of an extended exam? They are concerned that we do not prepare students for the length of the test by doing shorter exams. How would you respond?

Thanks.

SC Response

I would respond in the following manner.

Our students’ best chance for success requires:

1. That we teach the scope and sequence at the appropriate pace and at the appropriate rigor.

2. That we make continuous and incremental adjustments based on timely, short-term data.

3. That we maximize instructional time.

A release TAKS benchmark style assessment conducted in the Fall semester does not help us does not help us accomplish 1, 2 or 3. In fact, it is a distraction to all three. Carving out significant time to conduct a long benchmark, makes it difficult for teachers to maintain the pace required by the scope and sequence.

The collected data is completely predictable, at-risk students will not have mastered content that they have not been taught. Testing is not instruction, so we are sacrificing instructional time for the purpose of what? Superstition and tradition? In this case we will just say “No more.”

As for the argument that students need to be exposed to a longer test, we are a secondary school, if they are not used to longer tests by now, one more isn’t going to solve the problem.

If we are going to be successful as a campus, we are going have to let go of what doesn’t add value and embrace what does. This is one of those letting go times.

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

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

• Improve Now – 8:00am
• The Fundamental 5 – 9:45am
• You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See – 10:15am

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

Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of October 9, 2011

The latest roadblocks I have heard in regards to the use of bootleg technology in classrooms are variations of, “Well, not every student has a device,” and “We don’t want to be unfair or make kids feel bad.”

When I hear comments like that, I know why the school is struggling. Those comments are indicators of no problem solving desire and no courage to separate from the herd.

Not every student has a graphing calculator, but schools compensate. Not every student can afford lunch, but schools compensate. Not every student has a private ride to school, but schools compensate. And not every student has an involved parent, but schools compensate. The whole idea behind the use of bootleg technology is to better adapt and compensate.

Every student does not have a device? You let students share and collaborate. Every student does not have a device? You let the students who have their own device use it and let the students who do not use the school equipment. Every student does not have a device? You purchase a few and let students check them out for longer projects. We issue textbooks and let students check out books from the library (many of which are now more expensive than bootleg technology) but somehow we think a technology device is different?

As with any implementation of new practice, there are roadblocks to overcome. But in the case of bootleg technology, 98% of the roadblocks are of our own making.

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 October 9, 2011, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. @LYSNation, First campus conversation over Fundamental 5 today. Encouraged by feedback. Know there is some reluctance among teachers. (By – @Blitzkrieg607)

2. @blitzkrieg607, You can get through that by setting a reasonable implementation expectation and then monitor and support. What also helps, use PowerWalks and you can create campus, team and individual Fundamental 5 reports.

3. @blitzkrieg607, Don't forget that teachers still have to follow the scope & sequence. Teaching the wrong thing better doesn't improve student performance.

4. Improvement initiatives without goals and timelines allow "hard" work by adults to be the rubric of success. Not an optimal solution for kids.

5. A redesign plan that requires AUTOMATIC removal of campus staff should also include removal of central office staff. Leadership does matter.

6. Run Thought: The solutions developed for early adopters are rarely appreciated by the laggards.

7. The idea that you need to have "buy in" to improve a school means that under serving students is an acceptable course of action.

8. If more than 50% of a group earns the "merit" bonus, it sounds like merely meeting expectations is meritorious.

9. Did you register to vote in the November election? As a reminder, every republican in Austin voted against education.

10. My 76-year old mother-in-law just sent me an article on bootleg technology. By regular mail.

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

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

• Improve Now – 8:00am
• The Fundamental Five – 9:45am
• You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See – 10:15am

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

Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference

Coming Soon to the Apple App Store: PowerWalks - Lite

Feeling left out because you don't have access to the best instructional observation tool in the world?

Cheer up!

Just for you, the sidekick is on the way to lend a helping hand!

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