An Assistant Superintendent Writes... What Do You Really Think - Part 3

In response to the 3/19/13 post, “What Do You Really Think,” a LYS Assistant Superintendent writes:

SC.

As usual you are right on target. Good teaching is good teaching. If our students are assessed on the standards then we must make sure we teach the standards. How many of us plan our summer vacation down to the last detail and how many of us just get in the car and start driving? My experience has been the planners use the data as the science of teaching. The really great teachers use the data to hone the art of teaching to make it meaningful. 

SC Response

Here is what wears me out and sadly I witness this over and over again.

Teachers who believe that they have done something enough that they can just “wing-it.”  The problem with this mindset is that you actually can wing it and cover your content.  But you will cover that concept with your default practices.  Which means the lowest common denominator of a person’s skill set.  “Winging it” does make your job easier in the short-run, but in the long run all you are doing is leaving potential and performance on the table.

Now the retort to this observation is, “I don’t have time to plan for multiple preps, everyday.”

And I agree. If the teacher has to plan for what to teach, when to teach it and how to teach it (even for a single prep) this is an overwhelming, if not impossible task.  Which is why the use of a common scope and sequence is a complete no-brainer.  Take “The What” and “The When” off a teacher’s plate.  This represents a significant and daily gift of time.  Time that can be used to plan for a better, more enriching, more engaging “How.”  EVERYBODY wins.  Teachers, students and the community.   

Or we can just keep ignoring the tools and winging it. If we do we can bemoan the results, finger pointing and sanctions all we want; but those things are just the predictable results of purposeful inaction.

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: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); NASSP National Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Shares... Lesson Framing

The following is an excerpt of a message from a teacher at an LYS school.

"Here are a few things that I noticed about Lesson Framing over the last couple of days.

1. It's NOT as time-consuming as people think because you can give the kids hints on what you are doing and they will give you suggestions on what to do next. I feel like it creates a little anticipation about what is going to happen (and so what if they know what you are teaching... why keep it a surprise?).

2. It makes me wake up SUPER EXCITED about my lesson that day. Why? Because I KNOW it is darn good and I can't wait to show it off to the kids. But, my excitement is now becoming a mirror image as I watch the kids. It is such an AMAZING feeling! The research is very true, I'm sad, they’re sad. I'm boring, they’re bored. I'm quiet, they’re quiet. Or, I'M HAPPY, THEY’RE HAPPIER! I'M INTERESTING, THEY’RE INTERESTED! I LIKE TO TALK, KIDS LOVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEE TO TALK, SO WE TURN AND TALK! Why did someone have to actually research that? It’s common sense, right?

3. Now it is easier to start off with the Engagement part of my lesson (This is what I thought I would only use it for). But then I kept planning my lesson and I started to extend my Engagement into my Exploration. Then I thought, maybe I can just make up a question in TAKS format that goes with this and use it for my Explanation part of my lesson (there's my anchor chart and the strategy is on it too). Lastly, I only need to EVALUATE my students on their EFFORT and ability from the lesson - (that is really the easiest part of the lesson), EXIT TICKETS!! Hit them with the real world, “Elaborate on the information you learned today. Give me examples of why you this is important to you? What made you feel successful in math today? What do you need more assistance with from today's lesson to make you feel successful?”

I’ve already shared this with my team; I thought I would share it with you also."

SC Response
What can I add of value? Not much? It’s like we say in our introduction, great teaching is well within the grasp of every teacher. Once you consistently execute the fundamentals, your passion and creativity will take care of the rest.

You go, girl!!!

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Why You - Part 2)

In response to the post, “A Reader Asks… Why You,” a reader writes:

“Common sense wasn’t 'Common Sense' until Thomas Paine wrote it.”

SC Response
It is common knowledge that the LYS reader is smarter that the average educator, but a Thomas Paine reference? That’s just showing off.

However, I am going to use your analogy. Paine didn’t invent his argument. He just took the knowledge, discussions and insights of those he was privy to and wrote it down in a way that way understandable and useful to the man in the street. To be compared to Paine is of course an honor (though I get it, the compliment was made tongue in cheek) but in a small, inconsequential way, it is somewhat valid.

I’m the first to admit that I am not an original thinker, but I do think I’m a pretty good translator. What I write about, talk about and coach on is cribbed from the works of Schmoker, Marzano, Collins, Gladwell, Fullen, and Buckingham, just to name a few. Add that to the fact that I was privileged to work for and with icons such as Schaper, Brown, Brezina, Hooker, Neeley, Sawyer, and Richardson. This means that what comes out of my head is the sum total of their wisdom. My spin is that I figure out how to make that work where the rubber hits the road, on the campus and in the classroom.

Practical, common sense solutions work. I do obsess on the work.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Why You - Part 1)

In response to the post, “A Reader Asks… Why You,” a reader writes:

“Lead Your School is definitely common sense. But if it is merely common sense, then why isn’t everyone doing it? This is the knowing – doing gap so often found in education. When my own team members ask me about this, I respond with an analogy. A “leader” can stand before a mass of people and say:

“People, tomorrow we are going to San Diego. When we get there it is going to be great. The weather is great. The climate is good for us. We will all be better off in San Diego. We will all have better jobs in San Diego. San Diego is the BOMB!”

The crowd cheers and is ready to travel to San Diego the next morning. The next morning things don’t go so well. The group travels for several hours and someone in the group notices they are headed east. Someone else becomes hungry and asks where the group will stop for lunch, but the leader responds with no “common sense” answer. Yet another wonders where they will sleep that night, and again, they receive a no “common sense” answer. When these people approach the leader they hear: “San Diego is the BOMB, let’s go!”

It soon becomes apparent the “leader” knows where he wants to go, but has no plan or clue of what it will take to actually get to San Diego. Once the people on the journey realize this, hang on.

School leadership is much the same. Every administrator knows the destination, and most can articulate what the school should look like. Very few know how to get there. This is where Lead Your School comes in: they provide coaching and a road map. When I started as a school leader I knew where I wanted to go, but as it turned out I had no solid, proven way of improving my school. SC, E. Don Brown, Brezina, and others changed that. I listened, learned, and had my teachers work with Lead Your School team members and as a result I led two Academically Unacceptable high schools to Recognized in less than two years.

As Voltaire stated, “Common sense is not so common.”

SC Response
I was talking to a principal recently about the same post. Her point was that doing things effectively is all about common sense, so why doesn’t it happen more. I think I have a partial answer and another reason why LYS is useful to schools and educators.

Consider a football game. The head coach is on the sidelines making decisions on the fly. Acting and re-acting based on incomplete information, experience, observation and intuition. His attention broadens and narrows play by play. He is leading and working in the moment. Assistant coaches are doing the same, but at a more limited or task specific scale. Players are doing the same with the added distraction of the other team purposely trying to foil them.

A school is similar, with the Principal, support staff and teachers filling the roles of head coach, assistant coach and player. Student learning is the opposition and accountability is the scoreboard. A big advantage that the football team has is after the game, they have the opportunity to study game film, an objective review of the big picture and what really occurred. The game film strips feelings and perception away from reality. Unfortunately, most school personnel do not have access to game film.

Unless you have access to LYS. We provide schools with the equivalent of game film. By standing in the blind spot, with the experience and knowledge to understand what we are observing, we are able to give educators an objective picture of what they are actually doing, as opposed to what they think they are doing. Once reflective, hard working, student centered educators have that picture, common sense just naturally kicks in.

On many levels, I think it is really that simple.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Asks... Why You?

A reader asks,

“Can you please tell me why our district has contracted your services? I have read through your blogs and information and it seems to me that everything you say is basically common sense.

I was just wondering what you have to offer our district.

Thanks.”

SC Response
Thank you for reading the blog, reflecting on what you have read and being willing to write in and ask a critical question. You have validated one of our guiding principles. Common sense advice and solutions are our goal. Yes, it is fun to talk theory, but for us, one of the true measures of whether or not we are adding value is effectiveness; and effectiveness generally boils down to common sense.

Districts contract with us for numerous reasons, a few of which are explained below.

1. We are a company of principals, with well over 90% of our coaching staff having significant and successful principal experience. What this means to the client is that our advice, training and solutions are geared towards both effectiveness and efficiency. What we suggest has to work, but it also has to work without overloading staff and teachers who are already busy and working hard.

2. We focus on subtraction as much as we focus on addition. Instead of telling a teacher, a campus and/or a district, that they have to do something new on top of everything else they are doing, we show the client what to quit doing. Or, at the very least, how the new thing will quickly take other tasks or problems off their plates.

3. We believe that the great untapped source of professional knowledge is the campus. As such, our systems, tools, training and coaching are geared towards empowering the professionals in the field and channeling their collective brain power.

4. We coach 24/7. If a district, school, administrator or teacher needs help, we help, right then.

5. None of the above would matter if we didn’t get results. The districts and schools that we work with improve faster than other schools and quickly begin to outperform others. When that happens, students have both more and better options, which is what we are all working for.

Thanks for your comment and question, welcome to the LYS nation.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...