A Reader Writes... Commencement Address - Part 1

In response to the 6/10/14 post, “Commencement Address – Four Practices,” a LYS Principal writes:

SC,

Tell me you didn’t Fundamental 5 a Commencement Address!?!?  I can’t wait to share this with my teachers when they come back in August.  Unbelievable!

Did any of the teachers and administrators in attendance “get it”?

SC Response

Believe it.

I don’t know if the teachers figured out what I was doing (after all, they were understandably a little distracted).  But the principal knew and was smiling the entire time.

If what you are teaching is important and you need your students to remember it, then you have to use the Fundamental 5. And what lesson is more important than the commencement? It’s only the last lesson of high school. Then it’s on to four years of the worst delivered instruction of the entire school experience.

What I found to be humorous is just like any lesson, delivered by any teacher, I want a chance to do it again. Next time my delivery will be a little smoother and my Lesson Frame will be better focused.  

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: NAESP 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 Writes... Resume Basics - Part 1

In response to the 6/5/14 post, “Resume Basics,” a LYS Principal writes:

LYS Nation, 

One way to stand out is an online résumé! Check out re.vu

Here is what mine currently looks like, http://re.vu/jessicahanson  

SC Response

I like it. Click on the link because it is worth checking out. Here’s the website, http://re.vu if you want to create your own. 

I would definitely suggest that teachers and assistant principals do this or have something like it along with a more traditional resume.  The reason for this is that the experience set for teachers and AP’s is more similar than dissimilar.  Any positive thing that separates you from the pack is an asset.  Once you become a principal, experiences, results and connections are what will separate you from the pack. The quality of those and the interview are what will get you the next job. 

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: NAESP 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 

Public Education - Some Recent Observations

If you listen to those running for office and their supporters, public education just can’t get anything right. Which leads me to some interesting observations. Observations that may be biased by the fact that my teaching and school leadership experience was in inner-city schools in Houston, Texas.

Interesting Observation #1:  Over-testing and the damage to student self-esteem due to test difficulty were never issues until affluent and suburban schools were no longer automatically “successful.”  When the tests were kicking my students and my teachers in the teeth, we were either, “lazy or needed to work harder and care more.”

Interesting Observation #2: The same politicians who are now concerned with the negative effects of accountability... Also are the same politicians concerned with failing schools... Who also espouse that the solution to “failing” schools is to create financial subsidies for affluent and suburban families to send their children to segregated schools that have not and are not subject to accountability and state testing.

Interesting Observation #3: 90% of public educators must like the system the way it is and the way it is going.  Because they keep going to the polls and voting for the people that are racing to see who can defund and dismantle public schools the quickest.

But then again, as I wrote at the beginning of this post, maybe I’m just biased and need to work harder and care more.

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: NAESP 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 June 15, 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 June 15, 2014.

1. Congratulations to LYSer, Carlin Grammer! He is the new Principal for Midland High School!! Who will be next? (By @LYSNation)

2. Focus your energy on the points of greatest leverage. For a principal, that would be the adults who interface most with the students. (By @TinneyTroy)

3. Adult practice drives student performance. (By @shaunbarnett)

4. It's best practice that moves our toughest to teach kids. Their performance is a good gauge of best practice frequency and implementation. (By @LYSNation)

5. To increase rigor, kids need to Write Something, Say Something, or Create Something! - E. Don Brown (By @CEverettEdD)

6. Aha moment: Get the pacing down first and then focus on the rigor...duh! (By @baldwinAPlife)

7. Data driven instruction helps us to realize that we adults are truly the ones empowered to move kids to success or failure.  (By @Snowmanlearning)

8. A Lesson Frame is for students. Objectives are usually for fulfilling administrative mandate. (By @LYSNation)

9. You buy a student lunch and you notice that his severe behavioral problems become more and more manageable in class. (By @tra_hall)

10. Just found out that The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) just passed 59,000 copies sold like it was standing still! 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: NAESP 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