A Reader Writes... A Little Love for the Curriculum Department

After a recent presentation to 300+ school leaders, a reader and audience member writes:

SC,

I know you hear this often but Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! 

Your presentation to our district was exactly what our leadership teams needed to hear.  You present from such a strong, experiential background it gives so much credibility to your message. 

When you are the person responsible for a robust, viable curriculum for grades Pre-K through 12 in a district with approximately 39,000 students there is a little bit of pressure!  Your presentation helped solidify some of the initiatives we are doing and gave us other new ideas.  As in your words, "We must correct areas of concern and leverage areas of strength."  Keep up the great work and thanks again for sharing with us.  I look forward to working with Lead Your School as we go forward.

SC Response

No, thank you!  You all were a fantastic audience... informed, reflective and engaged.  If anything, the room lifted me up. 

I have nothing but respect for curriculum staff and there is no way I would take that job. It is the least loved position in education.  First, you actually know more than the people that you are supporting, but the supportees never seem to admit or appreciate this. Then add to this the fact that I have never met a teacher who says anything like, “Man, I really like our curriculum.  I would be lost with out it.” 

Instead, we blame any and all our problems on it (myself included).  So I emphasize with the pressure of your position.

I am glad that you found validation and inspiration in our discussions, and I too look forward to an opportunity to work with you and your team in the near future.

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); NASSP National Conference
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Superintendent Writes... Remember Who You Voted For

A LYS Superintendent writes the following:

SC,

I'm lamenting the crippling blow inflicted on CSCOPE.  I'm sorry to see this happen and I know this is not the ESCs’ wish. It’s all part of a public school witch-hunt.

So last session, Senator Dan Patrick votes to strip away our funding, which requires us to cut the very staff that might have had some time to write a little curriculum, votes to increase the number of accountability tests (when there was no money). Now this session he fools us with a few more bucks added back this session (though not as much as was cut). Then he conducts a witch-hunt over a handful of lessons, out of over 1,600, in order to eliminate an inexpensive way for small to mid-sized districts to have a curriculum.  Then he and his cronies celebrate that loss.... amazing.  

Then he votes to eliminate a few tests, but keep ALL the TEKS testable.  But now with CSCOPE weakened we are back to relying on textbooks, which are at best, TEKS correlated.  Which makes passing Texas accountability tests even more difficult.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist... but there is a conspiracy to make public school look like they are failing.

I'm waiting to see which private company "steps up" with a CSCOPE replacement product that is FAR more expensive to fill the gap. Any guesses on which Senators and Representatives will “consult” and lobby for those very same private companies after they leave governmental service (the Shapiro shuffle)?

As a district we have spent a year and a half spent aligning lessons to our mini-assessments and now it’s all gone.  I would like to thank Senator Patrick and his Far Right colleagues for allowing us the opportunity to re-organize staff to write lessons for 2013-14 implementation. There is nothing like re-inventing the wheel with not enough staff, time and money.  And the long overdue staff salary increases that we were planning on?  Now we get to reduce them in order to have funds to get a new lesson bank in place.

But this session wasn’t a complete loss, our Senators and Representatives did vote to increase their pensions.  As long as you don’t think about it, that seems fair.

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Writes... Talk to Your Staff - Part 1

In response to the 3/8/13 post, “A Coaching Note... Talk to Your Staff,” a LYS Principal writes:

Thank you, Lesa.

Great advice... and a great reminder. I am not sure it's always fear that keeps us from talking to staff. Sometimes it's sheer numbers of people and volume of details a principal deals with in a given day. But you're right, this is the game changer. Keep those reminders coming!

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top Tweets From the Week of June 9, 2013

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now Twitter users.  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 June 9, 2013.

1. Cut funding, increase testing standards, cut instructional days, increase class size... Scores don't go up. Then blame kids and teachers? Really? (By @LYSNation)

2. Trimester: It’s better for the fragile student, advanced student, CATE student, fine arts student and athlete. So when is your campus switching? (By @LYSNation)

3. Amazing! No matter how many times I've attended a Lead Your School workshop I walk away with something that can enhance my school. (By @principalschu)

4. From the mouth of a LYSer: We found that when teachers teach the right thing and kids have time to do the work, scores go up. (By @LYSNation)

5. "If we are not coaching our people, no one else is." I intend to coach! (By @jbsteadham)

6. We must control the spin on our own schools, systems and profession! Too many people weigh-in on us as if they know our work! (By @Principal_EL)

7. The more tied you are to a specific district or geographic location, the more you inject time and luck into your career advancement equation. (By @LYSNation)

8. Whiners whine because it works...it stops when it doesn't work. (By @Bstamm00)

9. Since the Texas has decided that biology is more important than chemistry, does that mean it is now OK to teach evolution and contraception? (By @LYSNation)

10. How will we know if students are truly enjoying their summer if we don't assess them on it? (By @sjunkins)

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

LYS Assistant Principal Search - Must Apply This Week!

 LYS Executive Search

~ High School Assistant Principal ~

A small, Gulf Coast Texas High School is searching for its next Assistant Principal

The successful candidate will have

• Demonstrated success educating at-risk student populations, at any grade level
• Texas school administrator certification
•  LYS training and experience, preferred

Information of note

• Small 1A/2A high school campus
•  Enrollment increasing
• Student performance increasing
• Rural setting, yet close to the Houston area
• Diverse student population
• Competitive salary and benefits

Qualified and interested candidates submit the following to Search@LeadYourSchool.com

• Letter of interest
• Resume
• Administrator’s certifications
• Two letters of reference

Application Deadline: June 20, 2013

LYS Executive Search

(832) 477-5323

LYS Nation, once again a school district is targeting you to be its next campus leader. Time to step up 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: Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook