A Reader Writes... Happy and Thriving - Part 2

In response to the 10/9/12 post, “Happy and Thriving – Part 1,” a LYSer writes:

SC,

You know, the whole dynamics of leadership and teacher culture is complicated. One of the schools in my district is seemingly calm and friendly to the casual observer, but below the surface it is among the worse I have ever observed. 

Last year the principal was told to implement some needed initiatives.  The staff balked and complained, not much was accomplished and the principal was replaced.  The new principal, in terms of personality, is the polar opposite of the old principal.  In fact, he is a big teddy bear.  His job - implement the same initiatives that old principal was trying to do.  Yet the staff is even more defiant than they were last year.  Meaning that the belief that things didn’t change because the old principal was too “top-down” and not “collaborative” enough isn’t actually the case on this campus.  

You have more experience with a wider variety of school cultures than I do.  What do you think?

SC Response

Staff resistance to change is not unique.  Every campus deals with it at some level.  The real question is why does that resistance reach a toxic level on some campuses?  There are two typical causes.  

One is that the campus is staffed with a bunch of jerks.  This doesn’t happen often, but I have observed this on more than one occasion.  In this case the only solution is a war of attrition.  As the jerks leave, either on their own accord or with encouragement, you replace them with staff who are not jerks. Then you do everything you can to insulate the new staff from the jerk staff and isolate the jerk staff to minimize their toxic influence.

However, the primary reason why this occurs is that it is engrained, learned behavior. In this case the following cycle has occurred over and over again.

A. There is a problem (either real or perceived) that has motivated campus leadership to institute a change.

B. The change, with a corresponding requirement for some new adult behavior is announced.

C. The expected new behavior is monitored, which requires either some level of compliance or else there is some level of punitive leadership intervention.

D. This change in practice, increased monitoring, fear of consequence and/or actual reprimand increases the level of stress for all staff.

E. Because of the very real effect the change is having on the staff, one or more staff members quietly but purposefully complain to someone who outranks the change agent. This complaint will invariably address the negative effect that the change is having on morale and how it will invariably drive away the good teachers. This complaint will be purposefully skewed to support a return to the status quo.

F. The higher ranking leader will at this time become a Monday Morning Quarterback and reach the firm conclusion that the change is either unnecessary or is being managed incorrectly.  This Monday Morning Quarterback will issue an edict to the campus leader to slow down, communicate more, exempt certain staff or stop entirely.

G. The campus leader follows the new order, which by the way is almost always contrary to the marching orders originally given to the campus leader by the higher authority, which caused the change in the first place.  The change is halted and staff stress immediately evaporates. 

What you now have is the prefect Petri dish for creating a learned behavior.

1. A replacement behavior (complain to higher authority to stop change).

2. A behavioral cue (campus leadership monitoring for a new teacher practice).

3. Reinforcement (stress is removed).

Which is why I point out that system failure is leadership failure.  It’s never the teacher’s fault for complaining. If you aren’t complaining, it is most likely because you are not trying to implement the change. Real change always includes an initial dose of discomfort.  It is the fault of the absentee leader who doesn’t realize that he or she is teaching the wrong thing, over and over again.

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), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), 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

Staff Meetings With a Dash of Common Sense

You can’t escape the staff meeting.  They are a necessary component of school operations.  No having them is not an option.  Since they have to be done, do them right.  Most of the advice written on the topic addresses what should be discussed, so there is no need to recover that ground.  What I want to discuss is when to schedule them.  What most schools do is schedule staff meetings in a manner that is most convenient to administration.  Which means that there is one big meeting, either before school or after school, and staff better get there.  Most do, but no matter what one time is selected, there are always a couple of staff that cannot attend.  The administrative response? Get increasingly angry at the seemingly non-compliant.

But what I want you to consider is this - if you operate on the one time, get there or else, staff meeting schedule, the issue of absent staff is primarily a leadership issue.

A one time only meeting will always set up somebody to fail, often for legitimate reasons.  Which means the real solution is to have multiple meetings on the same topic (agenda).  Here are two ways to do this.

The Easy Solution: Have two staff meetings that cover the same topics.  Staff meeting 1 is held in the afternoon, immediately after school.  Staff meeting 2 is held the next morning before school.  Now coaching assignments aren’t an issue, getting kids to school isn’t an issue, traffic isn’t an issue, etc.  It doesn’t matter which staff meeting you attend just get to one on time. Now the legitimate reasons for missing a staff meeting evaporate to almost none.

The E. Don Brown solution (Ph.D. level): Have a staff meeting day.  On staff meeting day, the principal has the same meeting during each conference period.  This forces a number of positive and productive things to occur.

1. Meetings must be short, so the agenda only address issues that are pertinent and critical.

2. The group size is smaller, so discussions are tighter and more relevant to each small group.

3. Each teacher now has more direct face time with the boss.

The goal of a staff meeting is to get everyone on the same page.  That can’t happen if you can’t get everyone to the meeting.

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), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), 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

Teaching vs. Coaching

The difference between a teacher and a coach is accountability.

A teacher holds herself accountable to the teaching.

A coach holds herself accountable to the learning.

The LYS Nation is a nation of coaches.

Be a coach!

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), 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

Changing Practice - Real Life Cueing and Feedback

The following is an excerpt from the Hutto High School staff newsletter.  The staff is aggressively working to better implement the Fundamental 5 this year. The graph is a PowerWalks report, showing baseline observation data from the month of September.  This LYS Campus is not messing around.

Changing practices and habits can take time and lots of opportunities to practice.  Because we are truly committed to improving the craft of instruction, it’s now time for us to take our learning and apply in to our practice.  So, over the next two weeks, our Instructional Leadership Team will provide you with cues and reinforcements that will help refine and increase the effectiveness of our Lesson Framing. 

What cues are we talking about? It’s quite simple.  When someone, anyone walks into your classroom, consider doing the following – Refer Back To Your Lesson Frame.

Want to kill two birds with one stone? Mr. Coy suggests that you refer back to your Lesson Frame while Reinforcing student effort. Check it out... “Great job! I really like how you remembered to carry your numbers.  This shows that you are beginning to understand addition.”

Elementary... but you get the point!

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), 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 October 7, 2012

The great thing about my job is that I get to visit all types of schools in every imaginable setting, day after day.  The frustrating thing about my job is that over 95% of the schools I visit are actively discouraging the use of bootleg technology by students. Sad, just sad...

However, I understand why this is the case. Bootleg technology has now evolved beyond traditional school policy.  The ban on electronics begins in the age of the transistor radio.  My father’s favorite school story (that he is willing to share with his children) is how he would sneak a pocket-sized transistor radio and earpiece into class so he could listen to the World Series.  This was obviously a case of technology representing an instructional distraction, hence the need to ban the electronics. 

The next big leap in portable technology was the pager.  These started showing up in the mid 80’s.  There were almost no legitimate reasons for a student to be in possession of a pager during school hours.  So the technology ban remained in effect.

Then the next big leap in portable technology was the cellular phone.  These started showing up in mass in the mid 90’s.  There were almost no legitimate reasons for a student to be in possession of a cellular phone during school hours.  So the technology ban remained in effect.

Then, the next big leap in portable technology was portable gaming systems and MP3 players.  These started showing up in the early 2000’s.  There were almost no legitimate instructional reasons for a student to be in possession of a game player or MP3 player during school hours.  So the technology ban remained in effect.

But in 2007, the world of portable technology changed.  The smart phone arrived.  Now student began to arrive in class with portable, connected, high-speed computers in their pockets.  If we can learn to ignore our educators’ bias against radios, phones and games there are legitimate instructional reasons for students to use these tools in class.  Now, after over 60 years of “No,” it is time to revisit our institutional ban against personal technology.  

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 7, 2012.

1. If campus leadership isn't organized and on the ball, the teaching staff has next to no chance for real success.

2. However, a well-run campus can overcome district incompetence almost indefinitely.

3. Okay I'm throwing it out there... Policies written for the worst teachers only monkey with the best. The worst still don't care. (By @Shakespeare72)

4. If your STAAR remediation strategy is for students to work problems from the TAKS practice book, you've already lost, and its only October.

5. Expertise changes the brain: People who are experts on automobiles actually see cars differently from the rest of us. (By @anniemurphypaul)

6. The best self-control is setting up a situation where you don’t need to exercise self-control. (By @anniemurphypaul)

7. As a Principal, here was my focus for school discipline. Remove the chance to make a bad choice and the right choice is the default action.

8. Only half of poor preschoolers have alphabet books, compared to 97% of children whose parents are professionals. (By @anniemurphypaul)

9. Our schools and roads may not be in great shape, but our political attack ads are the envy of the world. (By @BorowitzReport)

10. If you think putting 39 students in the science lab is a good idea, you must be a Texas Senate or House member.

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), 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