A Reader Writes... (Broke is Broke - Part 2)

In response to the 11/11/2010 post, “Broke is Broke – Part 1,” a reader writes:

This goes beyond bullying. A teacher’s refusal to write lesson plans also affects our students’ education. It is an affront to teamwork and can have a negative effect on the accountability rating of the campus. Relying on someone else to do your planning work boarders on unethical behavior. The person you describe is a teacher who needs to rethink why they became a teacher in the first place.

If the grade level team members take turns writing particular parts of lessons or specific lesson for their team because they favor a particular subject, and all agree on and discuss teaching strategies, that is a professional learning community. But the teacher who refuses to participate in group planning meetings yet demands access to the product of those meetings, is only concerned about themselves.

SC Response

As is the case with you, I was appalled by what was described in the original post. My response to the original writer was advice on how to address the situation with the individual.

1. Do your work and the work of others (not fair and tastes bad).

2. You can refuse to share with those who do not reciprocate (feels bad).

3. You can point out the lack of teamwork with administration (can be bad).

But understand that situations such as the one described occur when leadership is not doing an adequate job of supporting and monitoring the instructional planning process. Much like the bully who terrorizes the playground when teachers don’t pay attention, the same can occur when administrators and instructional coaches do not actively participate in the discussions and meetings that drive instructional design. The campus manager who espouses the belief that, “I was hired to run the school, the teachers were hired run instruction” has ensured that both the campus and instruction are operating at sub-optimal levels.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Field Briefing from a LYS Coach

The following is a letter from the field from LYS Coach, Jeanette Nelson. I think the LYS Nation may find it interesting.

Hello, all...

I saw the great article on the LYS District in North Texas. No mention of Lead Your School, but it certainly appears between the lines.

My school in Washington D.C. is a low-performing high school and we will soon have another HS added to the assignment. It is most interesting! Both working here and living here. In spite of Chancellor Rhee's restructuring and re-alignment, problems abound. I have been privy to the politics from the inside, including working with an instructional coach who knows Rhee, the current mayor and the mayor-to-be personally.

The folks at the school are fabulous...a young mid-30's principal and assistant principal, and an instructional coach about to turn 68 and has the energy of a 30-year-old and the passion as well. The challenges are many, the students range in age from 17-21 and have all been disenfranchised in one way or another. (I learned the other day that one of the boys is only 13 years younger than his biological mother.) They are all impoverished and because many of them, both boys and girls, already have children of their own, are in a prime position to continue the cycle of poverty and reliance upon the welfare system. One would think that they would see the path they are on, but unfortunately, most of them do not and continue to challenge authority and are inarticulate as well as literacy-challenged.

The school is on a 9-week schedule, meaning that students can complete an entire course in 9 weeks, or in the case of some electives, complete a semester course in 4 1/2 weeks. My task is to build rigor in the instruction, as well as getting teachers to use their time in the 2 1/2 hour classes judiciously. The task becomes more difficult considering that many of the students do not really want to be here. But, because all the employers here now require a HS education, they feel they can just do seat time to get a diploma. Some have been in prison (including murder or attempted murder convictions, both boys and girls), some dropped out for a while because they had babies, some could not fit in other more traditional high schools or they were removed and kindly asked not to return because of their behavior.

The DC district has a set of standards, but no curriculum. Teachers must interpret on their own how and what to teach by breaking it down for themselves. Therefore, there is no guarantee that teachers across the district are even teaching the same things. Their state test covering reading and math, given to 10th graders in the spring, is not required for graduation, yet teachers are held responsible for the results on their appraisals. So students don't feel any compulsion to do well on the test, and sometimes end up graduating having never taken the test. My task is to increase the test results by a minimum of 5 percentage points over last year in both reading and math, but the chancellor is requiring an increase of 10 percentage points to maintain safe harbor for the school next year.

So, thank goodness teachers are starting to make some changes in their instruction as well as trusting me and working with me in developing a professional learning community. We still have a long path to travel, one filled with many rewards as well as some pesky challenges.

I miss all of you and hope things are going well. Don't let my Texas schools forget about me before I get back this summer.

Jeanette

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Broke is Broke)

In response to the post, “Broke is Broke,” a LYS Teacher writes:

You are right. Many recognized school still needs improvement. We are dealing with this on my campus

One major element of a teacher’s responsibilities is to complete the duties assigned. Writing lessons plans is one of these duties and it is a significant one. My school has teachers who think that writing lesson plans should be someone else's job. They don't write their own plans. They bully other teachers into giving them copies of their plans. And if they don't get the lesson plans, they blame it on the group.

This is not LYS. It is simply a poor work ethic. Part of LYS is to write lessons together as a team. When a team member does not care to write their part and just passes the buck to another part of the team because they just have too much to do in their lives and cannot write lessons, they need to go look for a job that does not require being part of a team. Anyway you are right, a lot of non-LYS Recognized Schools need to be set straight.

SC Response
An action oriented professional learning community has internal discipline. The transition from a loose confederation of teachers to a team of professionals requires the development of professional norms. Something that some of your peers seem reluctant to adopt.

This puts you in a tough position, leaving you few easy options. You can:

1. Do your work and the work of others (not fair and tastes bad).

2. You can refuse to share with those who do not reciprocate (feels bad).

3. You can point out the lack of teamwork with administration (can be bad).

What I suggest is creating regular meeting times, assignment of specific responsibilities and documentation. Those who act as professionals reap the rewards of purposeful collaboration. Those who do not, have to argue against written requirements and expectaions. Which is a tougher task than saying, “I’m busy and they won’t share.”

Good luck and keep working to get better.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

The Seany Craig Plan (Apologies to Jenny)

I started to get excited when I began reading a story about 70 educators in Florida that included the following statement, “We supported each other and developed friendships that have lasted… We exchanged…”

Then reality stepped in and the statement finished with, “...recipes, health tips, provided encouragement during challenging times, and celebrated successes and fitness milestones.”

Yes, the story was about a group of teachers banding together, sharing ideas, making goals, and supporting each other - to lose weight. And they were successful, in one month, as a group, they lost 279 pounds (or about 4 pounds a person).

Yet, ask those same teachers to use that same strategy with their instructional practices and I promise you that they would fight and stonewall, all in the name of protecting their creativity and professional autonomy.

When I speak and coach, I often tell the audience that improving instruction is as simple as losing weight. And I am going to make my argument one more time, using the above mentioned teachers as the example.

The Seany Craig Campus Performance Diet Plan:

1. Adopt a common scope and sequence (the recipe book)

2. Adopt short-term common assessments (a scale)

3. Hyper-monitor (A daily calorie intake / expenditure log)

4. Share the data as a team (peer support)

5. Make adjustments based on the data (menu and exercise adjustments based on progress towards goals)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…

Instructional Leadership in Action

I was recently on a campus that I work with and I witnessed a package of leadership and teacher actions so out of ordinary, yet so sublimely easy and effective, that I have to share it.

This campus is preparing for the state accountability test. Based on their state test results from last year and their current common assessment results, they know that math is an area of concern (Action 1: Using Data).

Based on their data analysis, they are conducting a math concept review for their students. Each day, for 15 days, the math teachers are rotating through the math classes to re-teach 1 identified weak key concept (Action 2: Adjusting Practice Based on Results).

During the first day of the rotation, the administrators went and observed the teachers in action (Action 3: Hyper-monitoring).

After the administrators completed their observations, they met as a team to discuss what they observed and what feedback they should give the teachers (Action 4: Instructionally Focused Administrative Team Discussions).

Then at the end of the first day, the administrators met with the math teachers and provided the teachers with feedback. As a group, they discussed and determined what changes they would implement to make the review sessions even more effective (Action 5: Using Feedback – Improvement Loops).

This in a nutshell is how you systematically and purposefully get a little better each day. It was so awesome that I cried one lone tear.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…

Data Use

There are two basic types of data to work with in a school, student data and teacher data. Using student data is the first stage of data analysis and if you aren’t using data on your campus this is where to start. Student data will indicate where the low hanging fruit can be found. For example, I was working with a campus and in the midst of doing some item analysis, we discovered that students were overwhelmingly missing science questions that dealt with application. That problem was solved by getting students in the lab for more hands-on activities.

However, student data will only take you so far. The next stage of data use revolves around teacher data. It is the team analysis of this data that is the foundation of a truly vibrant professional learning community. To begin this process, leadership must provide teachers with three tools. The first is a common scope and sequence, the second is short-term, common assessments and the third is hyper-monitoring data. These three tools allow teachers to identify which teachers make the biggest and most consistent gains with the campus’ most academically fragile students and which components of pedagogy seems to make the biggest impact in the classrooms.

Armed with this information and time to plan, learn and adapt, an instructional staff can go from sub-par to extraordinary in less than a year.

Your turn…