Top LYS Tweets From the Week of March 8, 2015

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 March 8, 2015.

1. 90% of North Caroline vouchers go to private religious schools. Tax dollars paying for religion. God needs no help from Caesar. (By @pastors4txkids)

2. Texas Legislature members who tout the Constitution on guns flaunt it when it comes to vouchers. "No establishment of religion" means exactly that: No.‬ (By @pastors4txkids)

3. “In a fire, everyone runs away - except for the fireman who run towards it.  When dealing with challenging students, be the fireman.” (By @DrRichAllen)

4. Do not fear those who do not understand your mission in life.  Living a life of adding value to others is not for everyone. (By @blitzkrieg607)

5. Principals who do not talk to teachers about instruction are like football coaches who do not talk to players about football. Why is one acceptable and the other is not? (By @LYSNation)

6. People seldom get in touch w/ their greatest strengths & abilities until its forced on them by major challenges. (By @RandyMBrown)

7. If only the rich can afford to go to the 'good colleges,' then we simply have a system of replicating privilege that already exists. (By @tgrierhisd)

8. Chastising students for not doing well on an assignment is not an RTI strategy. (By @LYSNation)

9. Teachers, repeat after me: Popcorn reading is NOT an effective instructional strategy. (By @LYSNation)

10. Question: why aren't educators the single most reliable, authoritative sources of info about Texas education for the Texas Legislature? Keep asking yourself that. (By @pastors4txkids)

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 
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• Upcoming Presentations: ASCD Annual Conference; TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); TEPSA Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); NAESP National Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Writes... (Dress Code Yet Again - Part 2)

In response to the post, “Dress Code Yet Again,” a reader writes:

"I didn't go through college and get a degree to have some suit come in and tell me how to dress. You can be comfortable and still look professional. As soon as you want to buy my clothes you can tell me how to dress."

SC Response
I assume you went to college and earned a degree to be the best teacher possible. Modeling is an irrefutable instructional best practice. If your campus has a dress code, consistently modeling the student expectation is the most effective way to teach the expectation. That is fact, not opinion. If you choose not to model the student expectation, you have demonstrated that you value other considerations over effective teaching. Again, observable fact, not opinion. If those facts cut close to the quick, either admit that there are limits to your pursuit of excellence, or do something about it. Getting mad is neither logical nor professional.

So I challenge you to reconsider and resubmit your argument in terms of increasing or decreasing student performance. Make the case that modeling is an ineffective teaching practice and is detrimental to your students. That will carry a lot more weight than “You can’t tell me what to do.” Which obviously, I can’t, nor do I want too.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

College Material

I have to admit that I’m losing my patience with the “all students will go to college” debate. The main reason for this is because when I’m on a lot of campuses, the staff is allowed to think that it is actually a debate. It’s not a debate, it is a fact. A fact that must be mandated, supported and enforced by school leaders.

I understand that not every student wants to go to college, but as educators we must prepare every student to pursue some sort of post-secondary training or education. College, junior college, military service, and/or trade school must be in the future of every one of our students. Anything thing less consigns our students to the margins of our rapidly changing economy.

When I was an AP and Principal, it may have been possible that there were individuals on my staff that didn’t believe that all of my students were going to college, but they were smart enough to keep that thought hidden when I was around. My mantra was, “get them to school, get them to class and get them to college.”

Here is some ammunition to support you in your fight to prepare all of your students for college:

• We don’t get to choose who will go to college and who won’t… We just get to prepare everyone so they can have the option.
  
• Entry level blue collar job reading requirement are higher than the freshman year of college… So preparing students for college is the easier job.
  
• His parents don’t care if he goes to college… So he’s lucky he goes to our school and not somewhere else.

I’ve got more responses, so send me the negative comments you’ve had to face and I’ll send you a response.

To sum up, we can and must prepare all of our students for post-secondary training. If you, as a school leader, are not willing to commit to this, it will be your students that suffer.

Your turn…