Make the Last Month Count

When you look at schools that outperform their peers, one of the telling differences is the urgency of May instruction.  Sadly, most schools in the month of May start to ease up and coast to the finish.  Those who don’t begin to separate themselves from the pack.  It is amazing what an extra month of focused instruction will do for student performance. 

This isn’t a sermon where I say, "Shame on you for not sprinting to the finish."  That would be the easy way out and doesn’t attack the real question, “What does sprinting to the end look like?”

So here are a couple of examples:

1. Loop Teachers.  Instead of taking the first month of school for students and teachers to get to know each other, use the last month.  Have teachers from the next grade teach a week or two at the lower grade.  They can preview upcoming content, review pre-requisite material, set expectations and begin to build relationships. 

2. Fact Month.  Every teacher I know complains that students no longer know their facts.  Use May to teach the facts most critical for next year’s content.  Build in a sense of competition with weekly team-based fact bees.

3. Capstone Projects.  Use May for students to work on interdisciplinary and/or capstone projects.  These can be either individual or team projects.  A consistent teacher complaint is that standardized testing has robbed us of the opportunity to connect and extend the curriculum.  What better time to do exactly that, than May?

4. Start Next Year’s Curriculum.  For most schools, the actual curriculum delivery schedule is from the first day of school until the state (or district) summative test.  Then from the day after the test to the end of school, the pace of instruction rapidly ebbs.  The actual curriculum delivery schedule of many high performing schools is quite different.  On these campuses, the first day of instruction of new content begins on the day after the state (or district) summative test and goes full speed until the summative test next school year.

Just remember, May is what campus leadership makes it.

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: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Addressing Stress

When I visit a new campus I am invariably told by multiple sources that, “The teachers are really stressed,” or “We are really concerned about the amount of stress that teachers are under.”

To which I always ask, “What exactly is the source of all the stress?”

The answer is presented as a list of changes which almost always includes a couple of the following:

A. A new leader

B. A new curriculum

C. New pedagogy expectations

D. New technology

E. A changing student body

But here’s the catch, on these "stress filled" campuses, I rarely see any of those things being actually addressed or implemented.  And I’ve been doing this for a long time, at hundreds of campuses across the county.

Here is what I think is really causing the stress.

Fear of the Unknown:  The education landscape is changing rapidly and we are a risk-adverse profession.  We don’t know what funding will look like, accountability will look like, or what schools will look like in the near future.  This is stressful.

Lack of Control:  Before accountability, all a teacher had to do was cover material related to the content, maintain decent classroom discipline, not upset parents, and maintain an acceptable pass/fail rate. Not easy work, but work where the teacher had near complete control and was questioned by essentially no one.  Now in the accountability era, the teacher must teach specific content at specific rigor levels and have near 100% mastery.  And now everything the teacher does or does not do is in question, by anyone. This is stressful.

Inadequacy:  It’s time to be honest, what is expected of today’s classroom teacher far exceeds what was expected of yesterday’s teachers.  This requires better tools, better models, better training and better support to build this new level of teacher capacity.  And if the district and campus is not doing its part, teachers are being asked to perform at a level that they are currently unable to do.  This is stressful.

Guilt:  There are teachers who know they are not attempting to do what they have been asked to do.  This is stressful.

Stress not addressed can be debilitating. Stress inappropriately diagnosed leads to frustration and wasted effort on empty solutions.  Stress appropriately diagnosed can be managed and alleviated.

So what are the real stressors 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: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Shares... The Fundamental 5 in an Elective Class - Part 1

In response to the 1/28/2014 post, “The Fundamental 5 in an Elective Class,” a LYS Fine Arts Supervisor shares:

SC,

I had to print this one! I am going to give copies our district's Fine Arts teachers the next time I get to meet with them.

SC Response

Great! We have found that some of the biggest “Local Heroes” when it comes to Fundamental 5 implementation have been the elective teachers.  Especially art teachers, band directors and vocational teachers.  If you teach performance-based subjects, intuitively the Fundamental 5 makes sense.  It takes great teaching to get students to exceed in performance settings and the rubrics of success for these teachers is greater than the typical classroom.  Don’t believe me? Consider this, an essay that scores a 90 is pretty good.  The band that hits 90% of the notes in a piece of music is pretty bad.

Bottom line, The Fundamental 5 is just solid teaching and coaching in all settings and classes.  

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: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

An Attempt at Meaningful Dialogue, Round 1 - Part 1

In response to the 1/15/14 post, “An Attempt at Meaningful Dialogue – Round 1,” the LYS Nation writes:

SC,

This is an excellent example of an informed superintendent! I appreciate leaders like this! Actually, I learned a lot from this letter. 

Thanks so much for sharing this!

And...

SC,

This is extremely enlightening... from a teacher perspective as well as an aspiring administrator.  

Thank you. 

SC Response

Don’t be afraid to answer the question and don’t be afraid of bullies.  In our field we should not apologize for knowing more than even the most interested layperson.  It is our job to know more than they do.  After all, the best among us think, study, and do education 24 / 7 / 365.  

I don’t go visit my doctor, assuming that we are equals in terms of medical knowledge, even though I have put on hundreds of band-aids and have self-medicated cold symptoms. 

Like my doctor, we do need to treat people with dignity, listen to them and answer their questions.  But my doctor does not agree to disagree with me.  Imagine if I walked in for my annual check-up and with complete conviction told my doctor that I think that I should be able to smoke, drink to excess, eat to excess, and not exercise because that was good enough for my Grandfather and he lived into his 90’s.  He would politely tell me that I was wrong and enjoy my diminished life.  And trust me, it wouldn’t bother my doctor in the slightest if after this discussion I left his office unhappy.

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: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of April 13, 2014

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 April 13, 2014.

1. The best part of education starts and ends with the students. (By @montelongo_john)

2. Confidence comes from being prepared. (By @CoachKWisdom)

3. Today's Quote:  "In education, positive thinking alone gets nothing done - but it's a better starting point than negative thinking." (By @DrRichAllen)

4. Leadership is the key to school success. And failure. And mediocrity. (By @Snowmanlearning)

5. Accountability systems in place across the country put an undue burden on the teachers of academically fragile students. (By @LYSNation)

6. It is a lot easier to criticize a leader than it is to be one. (By @ToddWhitaker)

7. Teachers in Finland must score in top 10% of their class in order to be accepted into teaching college. Job is much more respected. (By @JonRysewyk)

8. Confusing: Teachers want to know all details and why we do what we do, yet resist doing the same for kids about what they are learning. (By @CabidaCain)

9. A comfortable, happy, inadequately educated childhood leads to a stressful, comfortless adulthood. (By @LYSNation)

10. Being a leader means you have to have more conviction than anyone around you about where you're going. (My @MySOdotCom)

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: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook