Don't Disappoint Coach Miller

LYSers are known for spending a lot of time in classrooms observing instruction.  It is a critical part of becoming an exceptional instructional leader. In this pursuit there is a minimum standard.  That standard being 30-minutes a day devoted to observing the most important thing that occurs on a campus... Teaching and Learning.

Those new to LYS often struggle to accomplish this, and LYS does provide processes, training and support to those new to the practice.  Occasionally, a defensive school leader will claim that this is unreasonable / impossible.  Which brings us to LYS Legend, Coach Harry Miller.  After hearing a group of campus leaders run through a litany of reasons why they were not visiting classroom rooms, Coach Miller shared the following:

“As school leaders we work long hours. In fact, I don’t know a school leader worth her salt that doesn’t spend at least ten hours a day on campus.  In those ten hours, how is it not possible to carve out just 30-minutes throughout the day to visit classrooms? Do the math, 30-minutes represents just 1/20^th of the day to ensure that teachers and students are successful. 1/20^th of to day to solve little problems in the halls before they become big problems in the office.  Honestly, if a school leader can’t devote 1/20^th of the day to actually becoming a more effective leader, that is just disappointing.”

Today, get out from behind the desk and go visit 5 classrooms. Don’t disappoint Coach Miller.

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Asks... Lesson Framing in Self-Contained Classrooms

A LYS Assistant Superintendent asks the following:

SC,

The training that you provided this past summer was great and our staff has worked all semester implementing the Fundamental 5.  With that implementation, we some have questions.

  

What is the best way to manage “We will” and “I will” statements (Lesson Framing) for grade levels that are self-contained and have several content objectives?

I appreciate any guidance that you may be able to give us.

SC Response

Great question.  I would start with the reminder that the self-contained classroom is inherently unfair for both the teacher and the student.  The teacher is expected to be an expert in all four content areas, plan for all four content areas and deliver, daily, rigorous and engaging instruction in all four content areas.  Yet, Framing the Lesson is where the breakdown occurs?  The better solution is partner pairing, but we can save that concept/practice for a later discussion. 

Start with the understanding that a Lesson Frame frames the big idea or the critical understanding of the lesson.  Which means, especially in elementary classrooms, you don’t frame everything taught during the content time. You frame the most important thing.  So let's say during my Reading/ELA block that my direct teaching addresses reading comprehension, but I will also have a grammar review, centers, individual practice and some pullout groups. Most likely, I will Frame the direct teaching concept. From a practical and observation standpoint, this means that there will be less Lesson Frame / student activity alignment in an elementary classroom than in a secondary classroom. 

Now, the question becomes, "Which content areas should be framed?"  

The answer is (in the self-contained classroom), "The critical content areas." 

Depending on the class and the grade the critical content may be just reading and math. Or the critical content could expand to include reading, writing, math, science and social studies.  But to not frame the critical content is not an option.  On this I cannot be more direct. To not Frame is to not prime the brain to be receptive to the learning and to not set up the brain to retain the content.  Which means to purposefully teach poorly. 

Now, if I have assigned my teachers the nearly impossible task of being self-contained, there are three things that I must do to help my teachers. 

1. I must provide them with a common scope and sequence.  I must give them "the What and the When” of instruction if they are to plan for quality delivery in four different content areas.

2. I must carve out time for my teachers to plan and collaborate together.  And I must make sure that they use the time appropriately and effectively.

3. I must visit classrooms to observe instruction and check the Lesson Frames.  If the Frames are not posted, cue the teacher to get them up.  If the Frames are of poor quality, help the teacher revise them. If the Frames are up and of good quality, give the teacher a “Thumbs up.”

I hope this gets you and your team past this little hiccup.  Let me know if you need any more assistance.

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Rev. Charles Foster Johnson on the New Texas Education Commissioner

The following is a statement from public education advocate, Reverend Charles Foster Johnson:

We wish Mike Morath all the best as he assumes the position of Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency.  We look forward to working closely with him to ensure quality public education for all 5.2 million school children entrusted to our social responsibility, and to oppose any attempt to privatize this essential public trust.

We stand with our highly qualified, well-trained, and thoroughly experienced educators in Texas and trust their judgment on what is best for our schoolchildren.  Education is a sacred servant-calling before God.  We are privileged to submit to the authority and expert testimony of our proven educational leaders.  We exhort our policymakers to do the same.

It is somewhat puzzling that Gov. Abbott would choose as our state educational leader someone from outside the field of public education, who has no formal training as an educator, no classroom experience as an educator, and no direct administrative experience in stewarding and shepherding the education of students.  We hardly believe that such an individual could not be found among the 1,200 active superintendents of our great state alone, not to mention the thousands more Texans who possess sterling educational credentials. Therefore, as we congratulate our new Commissioner, we invite him to join us in full cooperation with our established educational leaders.

We are eager to join Mr. Morath in empowering school teachers and school administrators in our 8,500 community and neighborhood schools, in advocating for the proper funding of those schools, and in opposing any measure to privatize this public and communal trust. To take a center of learning overseen by the public interest and turn it into a center of profit controlled by private entities is a violation of God’s common good.  We have every full expectation that Mr. Morath will join us in the protection of the fundamental provision of universal education for all Texas children by the public and at the public expense.

Reverend Johnson is the Executive Director of Pastors for Texas Children.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Checkpoints and the Un-informed Leader

Sometimes I’m in a district and I witness leadership making a huge mistake. Today was one of those days.

Today, I heard a Superintendent tell his Principals that if their checkpoint scores didn’t improve then their jobs would be at risk.

Definitely a case of backwards thinking.

Checkpoint scores are about providing the following information:

First: Are we on pace?

Second: What works, instructionally?

Third: What doesn’t work, instructionally?

A Distant Fourth: What have students mastered?

Items 1 through 3 require an honest assessment environment and time to adjust practices. These are some of the prerequisites for improved student performance.

Item 4 can be masked by manipulating the assessment environment, which provides invalid data, which impacts adjustments to practice, which impedes student performance.

Trust me, based on his threat, this Superintendent will get better common assessment scores. And he is going to be red faced and tongue-tied as he tries to explain to his Board why his STAAR scores remain flat.  Odds are he will end up blaming his teachers, his principals or the test. 

Again, “Lose the Battle, Win the War.”

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of December 6, 2015

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of December 6, 2015 when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.

1. Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. (By @CoachKWisdom)

2. “The very roots of honesty and virtue lie in good education.” (By @DrRichAllen)

3. Leaders hold themselves accountable. (By @Leadershipfreak)

4. The purpose of education is not to make you smart; it is to make you useful. (By @josephgrenny)

5. "Champions aren't born. They're made." (By @UHouston)

6. The belief that all taxes are wrong is a function of being shortsighted, selfish and greedy. The public funds the public good. (By @LYSNation)

7. Kids who took AP math in high school were 4X more likely to persist in higher education over those that took up to Algebra II only. (By @edwonkkimmy)

8. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that protects you from being offended by the truth. (By @neiltyson)

9. Going to school, work, or the movies without being shot must be covered somewhere in the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit happiness. (By @TheXclass)

10. 79,000 is a good number. It is also the number of copies of, The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) that have sold! 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
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool)
• Upcoming Presentations: American Association of School Administrators Conference; National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)