A Reader Writes... Consolidation - Part 3

In response to the 8/16/12 post, “Consolidation – Part 2” a LYS Superintendent writes:

SC,

Great response. I love your answer, but how do we overcome this dilemma and expose the far right's agenda and their hijacking of a political party to the public?  After witnessing the 15% rule fall this past spring it looks like "Mad Mommas" are the best way to grab the legislature's attention.  How do we get parents to understand how public schools are being dismantled? I am frustrated like the original reader and it seems like the continuous effort to fight for public education against this hostile agenda continues to take away from our mission of ensuring that our students learn and that we prepare them for their future.

SC Response

At one time I thought the answer was to better educate our constituents about the reality of the far right’s anti-egalitarian agenda.  And I have been doing that for the past couple of years, against the advice of some of those who have my best interest at heart.  But over the past twelve months I have come to the firm conclusion that problem really lies with us, educators.  As a group, we consistently vote for those who have no appreciation for the service that we provide and no respect for those of us that provide it. 

Because of the unique skill set that I possess and some advantageous connections, I have been in the closed-door meetings with real power brokers.  Romney’s 47% comment did not surprise me; I’ve heard it before.  So when I’m presenting to large group of educators (which occurs multiple times a month), I regularly point out that our current lack of resources, overcrowded classrooms, and punitive accountability system are all part of an orchestrated plan, executed by those who have held political power for the past decade.  The overwhelming audience response? Usually groans, sometimes anger and the occasional question of, “Well, whom should we vote for?”

To which I answer, “The opposition.”

That receives the universal reply of, “Well... I can’t do that.”

I hate to sound pessimistic, but it is a lonely battle when the people you are fighting for aren’t willing to do the one thing that will further their cause – simply vote for those who believe in and will work to further the promise of public education.

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/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• 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) 
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals (Keynote), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

A Visit to See My Old Coach

Coach Tommy Wallace was my football and baseball coach for four years.  He also was my math teacher for four years in six different courses.  By far, without realizing it, he was the most influential (non-family) adult during my adolescence.  I was not Coach’s best student or athlete.  I wasn’t his favorite student either.  In fact, if Coach had a favorite (which I am sure he did), I don’t know if anyone on his teams or in his classes knew who it was.  All we knew is that he had a standard of performance (both on the field and in the class) that he expected and as long as you were working to meet that standard you got time and support, no matter how long it took (I still hear “Run it again, Cain,” in my sleep). And if you quit working, Coach was right there in your ear, talking you out of making a bad decision that could possibly define you for years. 

Because of all of the hours I spent with Coach Wallace (two to five hours a day, every school day for four years) I studied him.  Then, in my own classroom, I modeled my instructional style after him.  It was when I became an administrator that I began to reflect on why Coach Wallace was different.  I think about this more often than you might expect.

Here is how I explain Coach Wallace’s lasting impact on his student’s.  Coach Wallace was always a Coach.  It didn’t matter where he was standing, on the field, in the locker room, gym, classroom, hallway or cafeteria.  Every interaction he had with us was a coaching experience.  And since he was a coach, he didn’t freak out when we did stupid things.  “Run it again,” applied to everything from a play, a throw, a math problem, a disrespectful comment, all the way to inadvertent teenage profanity.  Just do it again, and this time let’s do it right (or at least better).  But Coach Wallace also did what all great coaches do; he tied whatever we were doing to a bigger picture.  He showed us how the decisions and actions we made defined us.  So it was imperative to do things right and do it at full speed.  And if we did it wrong, make amends and then work harder. 

Coach Wallace coached (and still coaches) kids.  That is the constant. The content is the variable.

Run It Again...

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/Fundamental5
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook
• 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)
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals (Keynote), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Readers Write... Administrator Dress Code - Part 1

In response to the 8/15/12 post, “A LYS Reader Asks... Administrator Dress Code,” two old school LYSers weighed in, one male and one female.

From the male LYSer,

SC,

I often wear slacks and polo style shirts to work, especially in school colors.  I keep a sports coat in my office that I can don for any unexpected need.

SC Response

That’s exactly how I was trained and what I did.  Using this strategy at times you may be just a little over-dressed, at other times a little under-dressed.  But you will never find yourself inappropriately dressed for any work related function.

From the female LYSer,

SC,

There are awesome administrators who disagree with your position!!  :-)

SC Response

Any woman who is getting fashion advice from me has definitely come to the wrong source.  It is a much more complicated question with endless options and variables. As such, I have no problem deferring the question of female administrator professional dress to those more qualified than me; top-tier female administrators.

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/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook
• 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)
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals (Keynote), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

A Reader Writes... Team Planning - Part 1

In response to the 8/14/12 post, “A LYS Principal Asks... Team Planning,” another LYS Principal writes:

SC,

Excellent post.  This makes a lot of sense and is better guidance than I have given my teams. The direction I have given them has primarily focused on using the four questions from DuFour to guide planning.  I have also worked with them to conduct data reviews on a 6-week basis. I realize that I need to be more hands on and engaged with them in this process.

SC Response

The mistake that most principals make (and yes, I made the same mistake when I was a principal) is that we carve out time for team planning and then assume that staff will know how to use it effectively.  They won’t. But here is the kicker; it is not their fault.  The staff can’t see the bigger patterns that motivated you to carve out the planning time (they are busy teaching all day).  The staff can’t come up with an effective group planning agenda on their own (again, teaching all day). And the staff won’t produce the product you envision unless you are engaged in the process.  For all the skills your staff does possess, actual mind reading in exceedingly rare in teacher populations.  Which means, as you have realized, that if leadership isn’t involved in instructional planning, a critical component of school success now hinges on hope and luck.

There is nothing wrong with using DuFour’s 4 questions.  I just believe that the questions are most useful in a low accountability environment.  Given enough time, the questions can move an organization to an improved performance stratum.  The issue is that time is luxury that few schools possess.  We now have to build staff understanding and capacity as we increase the pace of academic growth at an accelerated pace.  The meeting cycle I shared does exactly that.  It is correlated to Foundation Trinity and forces the instructional brainpower of the organization to focus specifically on the Foundation Trinity components that it uses and/or impacts the most.  Those components being a Scope and Sequence, Common Assessments, Teacher Craft, and Data Analysis and Adjustment.

You just have to keep reminding yourself that productive team planning does not occur by accident.  It takes preparation, leadership, monitoring and follow-thru.  In other words, work.

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/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook
• 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)
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals (Keynote), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of September 9, 2012

Two things happened on the bootleg technology front this past week that makes me optimistic.  The first is a study by Dell (do consider the source) that found that 63% of teachers surveyed reported that students know how to use technology better than they do.  Why does that make me optimistic?  Because it seems that teachers are honestly assessing their skills.  With that honest assessment, the next step is to empower students to use their personal tech skills in the classroom.

And then I watched that in action on a campus I was visiting.  At this traditional high school, students (in multiple classrooms) had their smart phones out, taking notes, responding to queries, and using education apps.  In a science class that was using a celestial mapping app, the teacher was having difficulty making the app work. Without missing a beat, he let a student take over the bootleg technology component of the lesson so he could focus on explaining what the class was observing.  It was beautiful to watch.  And for the “bootleg technology is a distraction” crowd, as I looked over the shoulders of students as they worked (in multiple classrooms), not one was off task. 

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 9, 2012.

1. If you are yelling at kids to hurry up and get to class, and then get mad because they start to run, you have a poor grasp of stimulus and response.

2. If principals are instructional leaders, why don't we discuss instruction with greater frequency at Principals' meetings?

3. Finding a principal who talks about instruction at all is rare, much less in faculty meetings. (By @txschoolsupe)

4. Of course, I do have to wonder if the perceived need for teacher unions would be necessary if politicians stopped using education as a pawn. (By @txschoolsupe)

5. 132 PowerWalks in the last 10 instructional days. Getting great insight and data from this tool. Fundamental 5 is driving instruction. (By @blitzkrieg607)

6. Hey, when every person in the room is the smartest person in the room, who is the smartest person in the room? Ego kills invention. (By @tlonganecker)

7. All administrators / teachers need a system to ensure they check on delegated action items, because often you delegate and forget. (By @TroyMooney)

8. America. Where millionaires are jealous of teachers trying to earn a decent salary. (By @LOLGOP)

9. Why do some argue that the best way to prepare students for poor instruction is to purposefully teach poorly?

10. I have never used twitter but signed up to follow you. Read and implementing The Fundamental 5 at our school. Great book! (By @jenaadan)

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/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• 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) 
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), Advancing Improvement in Education Conference (Multiple Presentations), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), North Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals (Keynote), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation