Friday, August 23, 2013

Dr. Rich Allen Writes... CSCOPE - Make It Work For You


SC,

I’ve been following your posts, and certainly saw the recent (and on-going) CSCOPE exchange.  I agree with MANY of your thoughts in this matter...

When I spoke at the CSCOPE conference in August, my basic theme was, “Take what works for you, then add your own ideas and style to make it come alive!”

I used to call that the 70/30 model.  70 percent of what they offer will work, but only if you bring at least 30% of YOU to the game...

R.A.

SC Response
Exactly.  No wonder your session was such a big hit at the conference. CSCOPE provides a vertically consistent model for teaching the required TEKS for meeting accountability standards.  Lessons were provided to serve as a resource, not an end all.  It was and is expected that teachers improve upon those resources.  Only the most narrow-minded critics (and sadly, some administrators) viewed the CSCOPE lessons as an absolute.  But that is what happens when the importance of the individual teacher is either misunderstood or not valued at all. 

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

Thursday, August 22, 2013

A Reader Asks... The Classroom Observation Process


A conference attendee and new LYS reader asks the following:

SC,

I had the pleasure of attending all of your sessions at the recent TASSP conference. I have a few more questions for you.  In what way or format do you provide coaching feedback for your teachers? Is it in writing or discussion? In my office or their classroom?  And is that dependent on if the coaching is directive or reflective?

Also, when doing the quick classroom observations (and I did write down the criteria for what to look for), do you recommend a particular commercial tool? I did download the trial PowerWalks App, does that disaggregate data in the manner you spoke of? I do see that it addresses the Fundamental 5, which we have adopted on our campus. Your answer to these questions would be greatly appreciated. I know that you will be visiting our school this semester. I look forward to seeing you again.

LC Response
Thanks for your PowerWalks questions! I’m Lesa Cain, a LYS Coach and former principal who was a big user of PowerWalks when I was a campus principal in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in Houston.  So here goes...

Feedback - We advise you to give formal feedback afar you have conducted 15-20 walks on any given teacher.  With that being said, please feel free to give your teachers a thumbs up, a smile, a nod - something to let them know that things are OK, if they are :-)  

The reason you wait to collect 15-20 observations is that no teacher can do everything on the walk-through form in 3-5 minutes... that is just a wisp of time.  But after 15-20 observations, you have an 
"hour" of time that you can really show the teacher patterns in his or her practice and then can discuss goals for the next set of walks.  It really doesn't matter if you go to them or if they come to you, and yes, maybe whether it is a reflective or directive conference can help you with that decision.

It is really important to talk to teachers face-to-face so that we really tell the truth about why we are conducting walks.  The reason is to go into classrooms so much that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt where the bright spots are on your campus, and then hook those teachers up with others who need to see how it's done.  So, if you have a teacher who is a terrific "Lesson Framer" and others who are struggling, then you can make arrangements for those who are having a hard time to take 3-5 minutes to go and observe how that teacher does it, so they can be successful too.  My point is that it really is a tool to make people better, and not a tool to put people on notice.  If that needs to happen, you have to move to shift to an extended time, PDAS observation.  And be clear with the teacher that you will be doing so.

Absolutely, positively, the best tool is PowerWalks!  Not just because it is the product we use, there are a ton of walk-through protocols, but what sets PowerWalks apart from all of the others is the report writing feature.  For example, at my campus we were being over-run with 5th grade office referrals in the afternoon - I ran a Fundamental 5 report for 5th grade A.M. versus 5th grade P.M. and it was amazing!  As a grade level, teachers were in the Power Zone in the 80% range in the A.M., and guess what - that percentage fell into the 40's in the afternoon!!!  Once I showed the teachers the data, there was no question as to how to fix it - even though they were tired in the afternoon - they had to be up in the Power Zone to continue to be proactive to solve issues before they happened.  That is the hidden power of the PowerWalks tool.

You can run reports with the trial PowerWalks App, but the feature is limited (especially if you have seen or used the complete system).  If you let me know that you are really interested in using PowerWalks, just let us know and we will get you started with a free campus trial for the month of September. Then if you like it you can get a subscription for the 2013/2014 school year.

Thanks again for your questions, I hope my responses helped.

L.C.

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

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

A Reader Shares... A Resounding Win!


A LYS Assistant Superintendent shares the following:

SC

Just had to report... Our accountability ratings came in.  All of our campuses met standards, and 43% of our campuses earned state distinctions! Time to celebrate for one day and then get back to work.

SC Response
Congratulations. Exemplar work in a Title 1 district that uses CSCOPE.  According to all the naysayers what you and your staff is doing should be impossible. 

We have been sharing your success with anyone who is willing (or at least available) to listen.  The non-LYSers are not taking this good news very well.  It seems that because the success of your district is due to focused, hard work they are perplexed. Their whole schema of, “It’s not us... It’s them,” is now called into questions.

Keep grinding.  Performance is only going to get better.

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

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

A Reader Requests... The Fundamental 5 / PDAS Alignment


A LYSer makes the following request:

SC,

Hope you've had a relaxing summer. We are excited for a new year at HES. I remember when you showed how the Fundamental Five behaviors correspond to the domains in PDAS.

Is there any way you could post that again? I can’t find it and we would like to share it with our staff as we complete a PDAS update training during this week's staff development sessions.

Thanks so much.

SC Response
Summer has been busy but great.  And here is the alignment you requested.  Hopefully other schools will also find the information useful and timely.

When I Frame the Lesson, I make a positive impact on the following PDAS domains:
  • Domain I (Student Participation)
  • Domain II (Learner-Centered Instruction)
  • Domain III (Evaluation and Feedback)
  • Domain IV (Management)
  • Domain V (Professional Communication)
  • Domain VIII (Improvement of Academic Performance of All Students)

When I Work in the Power Zone, I make a positive impact on the following PDAS domains:
  • Domain I (Student Participation)
  • Domain II (Learner-Centered Instruction)
  • Domain III (Evaluation and Feedback)
  • Domain IV (Management)
  • Domain V (Professional Communication)
  • Domain VIII (Improvement of Academic Performance of All Students)

When I use Frequent Small Group Purposeful Talk, I make a positive impact on the following PDAS domains:
  • Domain I (Student Participation)
  • Domain II (Learner-Centered Instruction)
  • Domain III (Evaluation and Feedback)
  • Domain IV (Management)
  • Domain VIII (Improvement of Academic Performance of All Students)

When I Recognize and Reinforce, I make a positive impact on the following PDAS domains:
  • Domain I (Student Participation)
  • Domain II (Learner-Centered Instruction)
  • Domain III (Evaluation and Feedback)
  • Domain IV (Management)
  • Domain V (Professional Communication)
  • Domain VIII (Improvement of Academic Performance of All Students)

When I have my students Write Critically, I make a positive impact on the following PDAS domains:
  • Domain I (Student Participation)
  • Domain II (Learner-Centered Instruction)
  • Domain III (Evaluation and Feedback)
  • Domain VIII (Improvement of Academic Performance of All Students)

As you observe me execute the Fundamental 5 at high frequency and high quality, you will find it easy to evaluate me as Exceeding Expectations in the following PDAS domains:
  • Domain I (Student Participation)
  • Domain II (Learner-Centered Instruction)
  • Domain III (Evaluation and Feedback)
  • Domain IV (Management)
  • Domain V (Professional Communication)
  • Domain VIII (Improvement of Academic Performance of All Students)

So bottom line, when I execute the Fundamental 5 with high frequency and high quality, I can’t help but to exceed expectations on my PDAS summative evaluation.

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

Monday, August 19, 2013

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of August 11, 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 August 11, 2013.

1. If after 1st grade we can identify that a student is at extreme risk to become a dropout, and then we let that happen... Shame on us. (By @LYSNation)

2. Never argue with a crazy person. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. (By @RatliffT)

3. The whole point to knowing the future is to make it better, not to sit back and watch it happen. Actually use your data. (By @LYSNation)

4. Hutto HS is taking Lesa Cain's advice. We will work hard, make mistakes, and make changes. What will you do? (By @brandyjbaker)

5. Policies banning cell phones at schools are outdated. We can teach kids to use them responsibly and need to use current ways to reach kids. (By @Snowmanlearning)

6. Did you hear about the Teacher who won the lottery? When asked what she would do she said, "Teach & teach until I go broke." (By @LYSNation)

7. Llano ISD teachers still can use CSCOPE lesson plans after court ruling - Details on http://www.texasisd.com(By @texasisd)

8. In the CSCOPE battle, the ideology that we need to fear is the ideology of the Anti-CSCOPE loonies. (By @LYSNation)

9. I'm a concerned parent. Concerned that a few rabble-rousers are making teaching and learning tough for our teachers and students. (By @TheTexasHoss)

10. It never gets old reporting this; the number 1 best selling education book on Kindle, today... The Fundamental 5! Thank you, LYS Nation! (By @LYSNation)

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