Happy Birthday to the LYS Blog

That’s right LYS Nation, our daily conversation is eight years old today. It alternately feels like we just started this yesterday and that we have been doing this forever. I have to admit when I started writing eight years ago I had no expectations and no idea where this would take us. My biggest fear was that I would have writer's block after the first two weeks. Fortunately, the blog struck a cord with you (the reader and practitioner) and the LYS Nation was born. Writer’s block has yet to be an issue because the LYS Nation quickly stepped up and took over the topics of discussion. And as I regularly remind you, it is much easier and rewarding to participate in a dialogue than support a never-ending monologue.

I thought it would be fun to re-visit the first post I wrote for the blog, and yes, exactly eight years later, I’m dashing this off right before I hit the road to visit another school.

Thank you for another great year and who knows where we’ll go in the upcoming year.

Getting Started: An Introduction (February 2009)

Here I am sitting in another airport terminal at 6:00 in the morning. I wish I could say that this is unusual, but it’s not. I’m now a school road warrior. For the past five (now 13) years I have lived on the road, three, four and too often five nights a week. Going where schools and principals have needs and problems that they need help with.

There are some perks. Because of the travel points I’m a Hilton Diamond member and a Continental (now United) Elite member. This means on a big jet and in a big city, I get upgraded. That happens a couple a times a month, but most of the time I’m on a small plane going to a small town. I also get a lot of free Southwest Airline tickets.

“Congratulations, you fly a lot. Do you want to fly some more?”

I’m not complaining. I’m just making the case that I have seen a lot, worked with a lot of principals and schools, and have fixed a lot of problems. All of that to say, that what I’ve seen, what I’ve learned, and what I do may be useful out there.

I have observed that school leaders for the most part live on islands. Islands that have been built by isolation, misinformation, wishful thinking and/or petty jealousies. Hopefully, I can help get some of you off the island, or at least make the island more hospitable.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to write about school leadership and school operations. The focus will mostly be on improvement and what works. But I’ll also write about the tools that I find useful, books that I have read, conversations that I have had and respond to your comments. Who knows where this will go? I just hope that every once in a while, you’ll find something that is useful to you, your school and/or your staff.

Time to board now, off to another city and another 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 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Just Enough Consequence

I ended yesterday’s post, “The Problem and the Solution,” with the statement, “It’s not personal... It’s professional.”

Here’s what that means to the administrator who is dealing with a teacher’s student discipline issue. As the administrator, I want to deliver just enough consequence to achieve the desired outcome.  And there is the rub.  The angry teacher wants the desired outcome to be something between a serious maiming and death.  I get that, I’ve too have been angry at a student.

The non-angry administrator wants the student to return to the classroom as a ready to learn, compliant participant, as soon as possible.  Which means that the administrator will use a variety of consequences, from mild to extreme, that are designed to return the student, learning ready, sooner rather than later.  Translation: Teacher, sometimes all you are going to get is a student apology.

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

The Problem and the Solution

Today, I was on a campus training teachers. A teacher comes to my third period session beet red and spitting venom. It seems that she sent a student to the office for immediate execution and the assistant principal just administered a slap on the wrist. Yet another case of administration not supporting teachers.

After she calmed down a little, I took the “teachable moment” opportunity and explained a basic fact of school life. “If you divorce yourself from the problem, you divorce yourself from the solution.”

What this means is if you hand over your student discipline to someone else, you don’t get to dictate the outcome, because it is no longer your problem.  And if you don’t like it, it’s not personal.  It’s professional. 

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