LYS App Upgrade... Fun 5 Plans

Hundreds of teachers currently use Fun 5 Plans. This lesson plan app lets teachers build lessons with the Fundamental 5 practices embedded throughout and then maps instructional Rigor and Relevance. If you are not using it, not only is it really cool, you have just been rewarded for waiting. How? The upgraded app was just released, now along with everything else the tool does, the ability to file and organize lessons has been significantly improved.

If you are a current user, go to the Apple App Store and download the upgrade. If you are not a current user but are now ready to Fundamentally improve the quality of your lesson plans, simply go you the App Store and search for Fun 5 Plans.

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
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference; Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote)

PowerWalks Hero Schools (February 2012)

As is now a LYS Nation tradition, we will take time to tip our caps to the campuses that are taking the most important step in creating and maintaining an action oriented professional learning community. These are the campuses that have conducted an extraordinary number of formative classroom observations in a given month. For the month of February the cutoff numbers were as follows:

• Big Schools – 325 PowerWalks Observations
• Medium Sized Schools – 225 PowerWalks Observations
• Small Schools – 150 PowerWalks Observations
• Very Small Schools – 75 PowerWalks Observations.

So without further adieu, here are your thirty PowerWalks Hero Schools for the Month of February. Congratulations!!!

(#) = Number of Months in a Row

Elementary Schools	Junior High and Middle Schools	Alternative Schools	Combined Campuses	High Schools
McFee ES (CFISD) (4)	Hutto MS (HISD) (4)	Afton Oaks (JWJPCS) (2)	Louise Schools (LISD) (5)	Waco HS (WISD)
Cottonwood Creek ES (HISD) (5)	Marble Falls MS (MFISD) (3)	Garza County (JWJPCS) (3)
Hutto ES (HISD)	Lake Air Intermediate (WISD) (2)	Granbury (JWJPCS) (2)
Ray ES (HISD) (2)	Tennyson MS (WISD)	Hays County (JWJPCS)
Stanfield ES (SISD)		San Marcos (JWJPCS)
Alta Vista ES (WISD)		Waco Alternative School (WISD) (5)
Bell’s Hill ES (WISD) (5)
Brooke Ave ES (WISD)
Cedar Ridge ES (WISD) (3)
Crestview ES (WISD)
Dean-Highland ES (WISD)
Hillcrest ES (WISD) (4)
JH Hines ES (WISD) (5)
Kendrick ES (WISD) (5)
Meadowbrook ES (WISD) (2)
North Waco ES (WISD) (5)
South Waco ES (WISD)
Viking Hills ES (WISD)

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
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference; Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote)

A LYS Principal Submits... A Waste of Instructional Time

A frustrated LYS Principal submits the following:

One of the many things I learned from E. Don Brown is that there is a simple litmus test for every decision you make as an instructional leader.

If it's good for adults, look carefully, because it is probably bad for kids.

As you know, last week, classroom instruction in our entire school district was put on hold for four days in order to give a released TAKS benchmark. The reason given for this suspension of what's good for kids, instruction, was that we needed to some valid "data.” How they are aligning TAKS to the unseen STAAR is evidently above my pay grade. Of course, we already have plenty of available data from the common assessments we have administered throughout the year. But for the Mensa candidates at the white house, this data isn’t valid. It seems that non-teaching adults need a never ending flow of more test data so they could show other non-teaching adults how successful we are as a district at collecting "data."

Good for adults (who don’t interact with students) but bad for kids!

We have approximately 135 instructional days from the beginning of school to STAAR time. We just wasted four days that my students and teachers can’t get back. Don't get me wrong! I know that we need to collect data in order to make good decisions and to correct our course of action on the fly. But every time you weigh the herd, you have to skip feeding the herd. If we keep weighing the herd at the exclusion of feeding the herd, we're going to have some pretty skinny cows!

SC Response

Skinny cows? Is that where we get lean beef?

I feel your pain. Frequent benchmark testing is simply superstitious behavior that adds no value to the quality of instruction. Just today, I was explaining to a large audience the value of short-term assessment over benchmarking. I shared that two benchmarks a year are all that is needed. One in January and one at the end of the year (in Texas, TAKS is the end of the year benchmark). For the rest of the year, teach, assess, adjust, repeat. The first question I got was, “How do you know if the students are making adequate progress.”

I said, “Teach, assess, adjust, repeat.”

She wasn’t convinced. So I left her with this to think about. I have yet to come across the district that has tested its way out of the ditch. But I can show you scores of them that have taught themselves out of the ditch and then on to greater success.

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
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference; Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote)

Confirmed 2012 Presentations:

A Reader Writes... Teacher Nests - Part 9

In response to the 12/6/11 post, "Teacher Nests – Part 8,” an old school LYSer writes:

SC,

I really enjoy the dialogue about teacher nesting habits and agree that it facilitates teachers staying in their comfort zone instead of the power zone. Teachers (and administrators) ought to plan on their seat but instruct (guide) on their feet.

However, I was in two classrooms today that were as sterile as an unoccupied hospital room. The room was cold, uneventful, uninviting and spoke little of student-centered instruction, imagination, engagement and appreciation. Students seemed huddled together against the coldness, which could be easily melted by a room filled with the personality of the students and the content. Student work needs to be posted, inspirational tools should be at eye level, instructional keys and suggests strategically placed and regions of engagement defined and created to be inviting to students.

Maybe we should remember to move away from teacher nests and move into learning habitats where student success is not a threatened and endangered species.

SC Response

Let’s remind ourselves of a couple of thing before we delve any further into this topic.

First, if any administrator, counselor or professional support staff member has an office that is “nesty,” that has to be addressed first, before there is any discussion with any teacher. As it relates to purposeful instructional environments, if administration and support don’t “walk the walk” first, then no one “talks the talk.”

Second, the “Power Zone” for administration and professional support staff is the classroom. Again, if administration and professional support are unwilling to spend significant time in their “Power Zone,” insisting that teachers change their practice is the height of hypocrisy.

Third, though contrary to conventional wisdom, when it comes to instructional environments, sterile is more conducive to instruction than overly decorated. What we have to remember is that the critical variable in the classroom is the teacher and the quality of instruction. No environment can overcome a poor teacher delivering substandard instruction. But a master teacher delivering quality instruction can overcome numerous environmental factors. My discussion with most teachers deals with the fact that their classroom environment diminishes their effectiveness. Which means that they have to work harder than they need to in order ensure student success. Essentially, the come to work each day to run a series of 100 yard dashes, but before they get started they strap a 50 pound pack to their back. Crazy.

However, with your comments on classroom environments you are lining up with the teaching and philosophy of Lesa Cain. The classroom belongs to the students. Everything in the room should be geared towards their needs and success. If we find ourselves creating classroom environments that address adult needs, we have to question our motives and remind ourselves of the purpose of what we do.

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
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference; Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote)

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of February 19, 2012

I often refer to the LYS Nation as the freaks of education. And I say that with nothing but respect, love and affection. We are the freaks because we operate outside of the norm. When you are two standard deviations away from the mean, it doesn’t matter if you are on the left or right side of the bell curve. You are different.

Last week I ran across an article that highlighted the “Freakiness” of you, the LYSer. You are brainstorming ways to embed bootleg technology in your classroom and on you campus. On the other hand, one of our Mensa candidate peers in Pennsylvania has decided that the best course of action on his campus is to ban Uggs and other high-top boots on his campus. Why? It seems that students are smuggling their cell phones and I-pods on the campus in their.... wait for it.... Bootlegs.

While he’s at it, I think he should also ban backpacks. I hear that students often use these to carry books of their own choosing on to campus. After all, we run schools, we can’t have students accessing the depth and breadth of human knowledge just willy-nilly.

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 February 19, 2012, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. The academic performance of fragile learner is the best indicator of the health of the instructional system.

2. With the GT learner, the understanding must be that “Commended” (Texas annual assessment ranking) is the floor. Anything less is instructional failure.

3. Elementary teachers - There's a reason why kids are talking while waiting in line. They are bored! Have flash cards and distract them with practice.

4. When you use small group purposeful talk, the positive energy in your classroom doubles.

5. Download PW Pro... I just did... best $1.99 you will spend for the students. (By @cheadhorn)

6. Like head coaches, there are two types of Superintendents. Those that have been fired and those that will be fired.

7. Rank order (unofficial) why Superintendents are fired. 1 - Doing the wrong thing. 2 - Doing nothing. 3 - Doing the right thing. 4 - Just because.

8. LYS Update: Sean Cain will provide the keynote address at the Region 10 Leadership Conference in November 2012.

9. The latest lawsuit over our school finance system is just another example of failed leadership by our elected leaders. (By @SadlerTX)

10. Our book, The Fundamental 5 (by Cain & Laird), sold out and was the top seller at the Oklahoma Middle Level Educators Conference!!!

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
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
• Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference; Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote)