The Fundamental 5 Nation Summit - October 2013

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Campus Security Checklist

Sadly, there has been a need to post a version of this a number of times on the blog.  But as we were reminded again this week, we can never ignore campus security.

In my education leadership career, I do have some unique experience and expertise in school security.  Here are some things that I recommend you should do to review your campus security procedures and practices, today.  This checklist is quick, practical, reasonable and actionable.

1. Keep your exterior doors and windows secured at all times. This may mean that locks need to be replaced and keys need to be inventoried and redistributed.  This should have been done before, do it now.  Stop the practice of people propping doors open when they go outside.  Remind staff and students constantly of the seriousness of exterior door safety. Be diligent in modeling and monitoring this practice and dealing with those that forget and break protocol. 

2. Review and practice alert, evacuation, and shelter-in-place procedures, regularly (and not just on the last day of the month). Immediately stop the practice of warning staff when there is going to be a drill.  It defeats the purpose of the drill and creates the learned behavior of “checking to see if it is a real emergency.” Also, there should be drills conducted on days when campus leadership is not available.  Emergencies can occur at any time.  Practice accordingly.

3. Keep your head on a swivel.  Stay alert.  When it comes to their surroundings, most adults operate in a fog throughout the day. This is where you can actually use students to help with security.  They are much more alert than we give them credit for.  Teach them to monitor our shared surroundings (visitor badges, unlocked doors, open windows, damaged equipment, unsafe conditions, etc.) and quietly report issues to their teacher. Make it a game.

4. When something seems off, listen to your gut.  If your gut is wrong, all you did was take an extra precaution.  If your gut is right, you prevented or reduced the severity of a difficult situation.

5. Plan for the worst. Pray for the best. We should not turn our campuses into armed camps and we cannot live in fear.  But we should be prudent and take reasonable precautions. 

I hope that you find this checklist useful and I pray that you will never have to confirm its effectiveness on your campus.

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

PowerWalks Hero Schools (August 2013)

In furtherance of a LYS Nation tradition, we will take this time to tip our caps to the campuses that have embraced 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.  Since this is the beginning of the school year, any campus that conducted even a single PowerWalks observation is to be considered a Hero Campus.  Next month, as you can see below, the bar will be raised a little bit higher

Your September Targets

Big Schools – 325 PowerWalks Observations

Medium Sized Schools – 225 PowerWalks Observations

Small Schools – 125 PowerWalks Observations

Very Small Schools – 65 PowerWalks Observations.

Now without further ado, here are your twenty-six PowerWalks Hero Schools for the month of August 2013.  Congratulations!!!

Elementary Schools	Junior High and Middle Schools	Alternative Schools	Combined Campuses	High Schools
Bell’s Hill ES (WISD – small school)	Blocker MS (TCISD mid-sized school)	San Marcos (JWJPCS – very small school)	Wink Schools (WLISD – small school)	University HS (WISD – big school)
West Ave ES (WISD – small school)	Tidehaven IS (TISD – very small school)	Rockdale (JWJPCS – very small school)	Louise Schools (LISD – small school)	Fairdale HS (JCPS – big school)
Specht ES (CISD – small school)	Smithson Valley MS (CISD mid-sized school)	Hays County (JWJPCS – very small school)	McMullen County Schools (MCISD – small school)	Mayde Creek HS (KISD – big school)
Freiheit ES (CISD – small school)	La Porte JH (LPISD mid-sized school)	Granbury (JWJPCS – very small school)	Springlake-Earth Elementary / Middle School (SISD – small school)	Kennedale HS (KISD – mid-sized school)
Provident Heights ES (WISD – small school)	Harris MS (NEISD – big school)	Afton Oaks (JWJPCS – very small school)		Cocke County HS (mid-sized school)
	Boyd MS (BISD – very small school)			Springlake-Earth HS (SISD – very small school)
				Hull-Daisetta HS (HDISD – very small school)

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... Early Instructional Feedback

A LYS Superintendent shares his notes with his principals after observing multiple classrooms during the first week of school.

SC,

I forwarding to you an email I have just sent to my principals. This is my reminder to them after visiting classrooms during this first week of school. After all, you have to model and you have to coach.

Principals,

Group work and cooperative learning is hard to do right.  First, the amount of time spent using this instructional method should be monitored.  We get excited when we see it because it is potentially a high-yield practice, but that does not mean learning is occurring.

First, groupings should vary.  Purposeful grouping is rare, but necessary.  Groups of 2 to 3 are ideal. Anything larger than that tends to turn into a social gathering. Grouping a high achiever with a low achiever has obvious benefits.  By grouping high and high together, the teacher can take the opportunity to teach the lower achievers in a much smaller setting and in a more intense, directed manner.  Most grouping I have observed have been student selected, which only increases likelihood of purely social groupings, re: ineffective.  Social grouping should be an infrequent occurrence, although I would not use the word "never." 

What is more ideal than continuous grouping is to stop teaching, have the students turn to a neighbor, and explain the concept to each other.  Better yet, give them a minute to bullet point their thoughts individually, and then share with their neighbor for a couple of minutes.  

The point is that as instructional leaders don't get too giddy just because you see students in groups.  Observe the grouping and groups very carefully and take that into consideration when determining the effectiveness of learning.  Be wary of classes where the students remain in groups for exceedingly long periods of time. Remember that the effective teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies daily.  Getting into a rut of doing cooperative and collaborative learning all day long is nearly as bad of a practice as lecturing all period long.

Next, look for the lecturer who has put students into groups.  Yes, the students are in groups, but the teacher never stops talking about the lesson.  This is a lecture that is simply being done without the students lined up in rows.  When a teacher first starts using groups, this will naturally happen, but as instructional leaders you need to watch for this and coach the teacher to better practices.  

Lastly, teachers need to understand that students don't primarily learn by listening to the teacher talk.  The students have to be doing the work.  I have seen math classes where the teacher never stopped talking and the teacher worked all of the problems as the students copied the teacher's work.  This is extremely ineffective.  No wonder the teacher is tired, she is doing all the work.  Work the kids, not the teacher.

These are some initial thoughts that you should address with your faculty during your first meetings, or in severe cases - one on one.  I am basing this memo on only a few walk-thru’s conducted during the first week of school, so this does not indicate a trend. But these are talking points that are worth continuously reinforcing with your faculty.  

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

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of August 25, 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 25, 2013.

1. Dear Moms of Kindergarteners:  They will be fine!  No crying! (By @DrSusanHull)

2. Great teachers don't let the stupid actions of their kids get in the way of the future of their kids. (By @LYSNation)

3. Just asked a kindergartener what he wanted to be someday. He said a NINJA!  Great answer!  We have enough lawyers. We need some ninjas!! (By @EkCoulson)

4. Forgot what teaching does to your feet! Getting back into Power Zone shape! (By @DanellaWheeler)

5. Lesson Framing sets the path. "We will," tells where we're going. "I will," tells if the learner has arrived! (By @CabidaCain)

6. Have to remember that naysayers are often the vocal minority.  Listen but stay focused on the positive. (By @RandyMBrown)

7. E. Don Brown just reminded a group that he had PLCs on his campus when the current guru's were still in grade school. Been there... Did it first! (By @LYSNation)

8. Formative assessments are not a part of the grading process; they are a part of the instructional process... (By @justintarte)

9. Just sat in the most useful training session with LYS Coach, Sean Cain. Can't wait to put The Fundamental 5 into action this year. (By @nightlight08)

10. Principals, Feed your teachers every chance you get. Prevents them from eating the kids. (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