Friday, November 22, 2013

A Teacher Writes... What I Think About the Fundamental 5

When another teacher asked her about the Fundamental 5, Mrs. Simmons posted the following response on her blog:

I am a believer in the Fundamental 5. Our district also was stressing that we use the perceptual modes in class (hear, see, say, do) and that went hand in hand with The Fundamental 5. It (The Fundamental 5) really is done by most teachers already, the book just put it all into words and summarized what we all do in our classes. It also helps to remind us of some of the things that sometimes we do forget about as the year progresses.
Now after this year, every workshop I have attended seems to come back to these ideas without actually stating them. Again, it’s just bringing to the forefront of the teacher’s that what they are already doing is good practice, just to keep it up and be more intentional about it.
SC Response
Spot on! Thank you, Mrs. Simmons!
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: NASSP National Conference; The 21st Century High School Conference  
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Thursday, November 21, 2013

A Conversation With a Superintendent... Suspensions

The following is a snippet of a conversation that I recently* had with a LYS Superintendent. *Note: The conversation occurred in April 2013.  It sometimes takes a while for a post to get published.

SC,

You're a reasonable man, so who better to ask, “What would be a reasonable number of student suspensions days for a middle school with an enrollment of 800?”

SC Response
Great question.  Let’s do the math. I would submit that it would be reasonable to expect that in a given year, 2% of the students would warrant a suspension. So that would be 16 students. 

Of those I would expect that 40% of them would be suspended more than once. Rounding up that would be 7 students.

3 of those students would do something to get suspended again. 

That would give you a total of 26 suspensions. 

If all were suspended for the standard (but totally unnecessary) 3-day sentence, that would add up to a total of 78 days.  Round up to 80 and that would be my maximum reasonable number.  But at suspension day 40, I would be in my principal’s office and he/she would be outlining his/her plan for regaining control of the school.  Anything less that 20 suspension days for the year and I’m giving my principal a pat on the back.

Regardless of the number, I am always monitoring and checking the discipline data to make sure that our poor and minority kids aren't over-represented (which is always the case if no one is minding the store).

So what was your number?

SC,

715 suspensions for a total of 3,189 days of missed instruction. Up until today, this was considered reasonable.

SC Response
There is a phrase that describes what you have inherited... Institutional malpractice.

Your middle school has an average suspension term of 4.46 days per incident. That's asinine. It is also reducing your district’s revenue by about $92,000.00.

But in a rich (sarcasm) district like yours I’m sure you have money to spare.

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: NASSP National Conference; The 21st Century High School Conference  
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

A Teacher Asks... A Solution to Overkill

Blog Post: A Teacher Asks... A Solution to Overkill
A teacher asks for a little help

SC,

I see how simply wonderful the concepts in the book (The Fundamental 5) are, but our district set out to use your book as a beat all, end all way to “fix” our schools. Now our schools have been turned upside down and everything revolves around, “Are you doing the F5?”


Please help me!!!!!

SC Response
First, take a deep breath... 

Now let’s take a step back and look at the Fundamental 5.  The Fundamental 5 are the five high-yield instructional practices that set up all the other high-yield instructional practices. As we use them more, our students’ performance increases.

But even if I want to, it would be impossible to use four of the five practices 100% of the time.  You could and should Frame the Lesson every time, but because we realize that stuff happens, for Lesson Framing anything above 95% is optimal.

Everything else is based on your planned delivery of the lesson and changing your current instructional habits and routines. Just note that the longer you have taught, the more entrenched are your current instructional habits. 

Say someone walks in your classroom while you are teaching and students are working, yet at that time, none of the four delivery driven elements of the Fundamental 5 are being used.  What was the class really “caught” doing? You were “caught” teaching and students were “caught” working. And how is that bad? It isn’t.

Now let’s extrapolate that same observation over 15 to 20 visits.  Then there would be a consistent pattern of the teacher not using high-yield practices at high frequency.  What does mean? It means that the teacher's effort will not be commensurate with student performance.  In other words the teacher is sweating more that the students. What could be more stressful?

So here is my advice.  Work to increase the frequency that you use the Fundamental 5 practices in your classroom.  By doing so, you will be incrementally replacing less effective practice with more effective practice. Like taking the stairs instead of the elevator. 

If the instructional support staff is visiting your class on a regular basis, use the data they collect to gauge your progress.  Similar to stepping on the scales once a week.

If instructional support staff are not visiting your classroom on a regular basis, then you have to decide for yourself if their opinion is valid or not.

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: NASSP National Conference; The 21st Century High School Conference  
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Jeanette Nelson Op-Ed: The State of Teaching

LYS Coach, Jeanette Nelson, had the following piece published in the November 15, 2013 issue of the San Antonio Express-News
Re: “Looming teacher shortage fails students,” Gloria Padilla, Nov.2:
Gloria Padilla is right-on with her assessment of why there is a looming teacher shortage. In addition to her observations, I have seen multiple reasons for the lack of interest in the profession as I travel the country consulting with schools.
Teachers are pressured to dedicate instruction to those skills needed to improve student test performance, often short-changing student abilities to become critical thinkers who can analyze and solve problems, while reading and writing at a high level.
Legislative mandates for determining requirements for advancing or graduating have been designed and approved by elected officials with little or no experience in teaching and dealing with student behavior.
As for curriculum, the past decade has seen many courses added to the curricula, as well as objectives added to each course. Nothing of any consequence has been removed because the state tests cover every aspect of the curriculum.
Because of additional course and graduation requirements, many high schools and middle schools have gone to 8-period days with periods averaging 45 minutes. Any athletic coach would scoff at the notion of having only 45 minutes a day to learn and practice new skills.
Teaching is not promoted as a career for the brightest students, leaving the profession open for the less qualified. A billboard on Texas highways promotes an alternative teacher certification program by saying, “Want to teach? When can you start?” What an insult to teachers who have spent years learning and practicing the art and science of their craft!
As often noted, starting salaries in teaching are among the lowest among professions requiring a college degree. In Texas, the average starting teaching salary is under $35,000 annually. Only eight states offer beginning teachers more than $40,000, mostly in states where the cost of living is much higher than in Texas.
Students come to school at all grade levels with increased needs, many them not satisfied at home. The number of non-English speakers, special education students, behavioral-issue students, and students from broken and one-parent families has grown incrementally. Additionally, class-size limits have been raised.
Finally, teaching was never considered a dangerous profession. Yet, as the media demonstrate on a daily basis, too many incidents of violence have erupted in schools across this nation. There are professions where danger is anticipated as being part of the job. But teaching?
So, as Padilla points out, “Quality instruction is reflected in student achievement. ... Just getting students to graduate is not enough.” Devoted and well-qualified teachers would love to do just that. However, too many potential candidates see the problems in schools and make a decision to seek another career.
Jeanette Nelson, LYS 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: NASSP National Conference; The 21st Century High School Conference 
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Monday, November 18, 2013

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of November 10, 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 November 10, 2013.

1. Somewhere a student doesn't have supportive parents to help them with their schoolwork. Remember that Monday morning. (By @BluntEducator)

2. Want to rock your PDAS?  It's as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4, Fundamental 5. (By @tra_hall)

3. It's hard to find something more inspiring than watching an old dog learn a new trick. (By @LYSNation)

4. We should move kids to CAREER and college readiness rather than College and career.  Emphasize reality. (By @MISDAccountable)

5. Teacher to student feedback is not "teacher telling," it is "teacher coaching." (By @LYSNation)

6. Quality instruction can result in higher standardized test scores, but it does not mean that high test scores = quality instruction. (By @STAARtest)

7. The worst data is data that doesn't move. (By @LYSNation)

8. The Power Zone turns an academic task into a High Yield activity. (By @LYSNation)

9. 43% of businesses said they did not hire candidate because of info found on social media - provocative material #1disqualifier. (By @SchoolSZ)

10. I always thought it didn't matter much about a mascot... But something changed my mind this year. And you know what, I think I'm right! (By @ONeilCHSprincip)

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: NASSP National Conference; The 21st Century High School Conference  
  • Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook