Call For Presenters - The Fundamental 5 Summit

Don't wait, because the competition is heating up!

Does your campus have a Fundamental 5 success story that must be shared? This is your chance.

There are a limited number of presentation slots that are available for educators to share what they have learned on how to better implement The Fundamental 5 in their classroom, campus and/or district. 

Interested? Click on The Fundamental 5 Summit poster. 

We’ll see you in Austin, Texas in October!

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

New Book Update: On School Vouchers

Here’s your sneak peek at the cover. We’re getting closer to the publication date for the new book.  As soon as I know something, you'll know something.

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

Smooth Operators

Recently I was talking to some aspiring campus administrators when one of them asked me, “How do effective leaders monitor the learning environment to ensure smooth operations?”

This is a good question with a multifaceted answer.  And here is the short version of my response.

1. The leader needs to possess and maintain a good dashboard of critical leading and lagging indicators.  The leading indicators help you prioritize your actions, allowing you to just eyeball what is working and devote time to potential pitfalls. The lagging indicators serve as a wake-up call to the fact that something is out of whack.

2. The leader needs to ensure the campus has an effective common assessment process.  The common assessment process is the best way to ensure appropriate content pacing and to determine which instructional practices work and which instructional practices do not work.

3. The leader needs to live in the classroom and in the student common areas.  The work of schools is teaching and learning.  To lead a school effectively you must have intimate, firsthand knowledge of the work.  Otherwise, you are just guessing, or leading by approximation.

4. You have to constantly talk to your people, and more importantly, listen to your people. This allows you and the organization to pivot with ease and speed when the need arises.

5. Finally, regularly confer with your custodians.  They know more about what is really happening on your campus that any other staff member.  And once they know that you have their back, they will always have yours. 

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

Cultivating Effort

I had one of those days today that you circle and look back on with pride.  I was working with a high school staff that has already moved past typical.  And as such, they are hungry to conquer the next challenge.  So, we were working on increasing both content pacing and student cognition in the classroom.  Doing just one of these is tough. Doing both of these things concurrently… Well as they say on TV, don’t try this at home.

The immediate predictable result of this push will be that “grades” are going to take a significant hit. This is a Title I campus and when grades start dropping, a lot of these students will quit.  Not because they are lazy or irresponsible, but because they have learned that if you can’t win the grade game, why play.

The staff knows that if their students will stick with them, keep giving honest effort in the classroom, they will begin to produce better work, quality work, exceptional work, that will earn a good grade… by the end of the course.

But how do you keep 2,000 students engaged and moving forward when the going STARTS tough?

Here is what we came up with.

In the first 6 weeks of school, if the student engages in the work, exerts some effort, and turns in the assignment, the lowest grade they can get on that assignment is a 70.  This is all assignments, from homework, to daily work, to quizzes, to tests.

The message: If you try, if you trust me, you will not fail.

In the second 6 weeks of the school, almost the same rule applies. Except now the lowest score a student can get is a 60. There is still a safety net. Effort is still important. But performance is beginning to count a little more.

From week 13 to the end of the school year, things are a little tougher.  Essentially the same rule as before, except now the lowest grade a student can get is a 50. 

The idea is that if we are going to push students to greater levels of success, it will require a greater risk of student “failure.”  Which means that as caring professionals we have to make sure that the recovery from the failure is not impossible, but assured if…

You try and you trust me.

I’ll let you know how this experiment progresses.  

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