Top LYS Tweets from the Week of December 3, 2017

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of December 3, 2017 when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.

1. I worry about the "not everyone needs to go to college" crowd when I see stats like these... Of the 7.2 million jobs lost in the recession, 5.6 million were jobs for workers with a high school diploma or less. (By @jcasap)

2. How well you read or do not read determines where you’ll be in life. (By @aggiebianca01)

3. You manage things and lead people. School is a people business. Thus school leadership is about leading people to do amazing things! (By @Snowmanlearning)

4. Public education in the U.S. will only survive if public education supporters and their neighbors and friends make a point to vote in large numbers in every election (esp. primaries) for candidates who unequivocally commit to defend public education from privatizers' schemes. (By @johnkuhntx)

5. Public investment in K-12 schools has declined dramatically in many states over the last decade. (By @natsupers)

6. Change can be scary and uncomfortable, but we’re in this business to make a difference for kids. There’s no time like the present! (By @ichew_Willbern)

7. If you're complaining, you're not leading. Leaders don't complain. They share a vision. They inspire with optimism. They focus on solutions. (By @JohnGordon11)

8. A person working a full time job of ANY kind should never be in poverty in this country. (By @Snowmanlearning)

9. Leaders deal with things others avoid. (By @Leadershipfreak)

10. Texas State Representative Earnest Bailes speaking candidly— and truthfully—about special interest politics at work in the Texas Legislature. “Local control and rural school support are considered ‘liberal votes’ by the folks pushing vouchers.” Straight talk from a fine public education legislator. (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 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: TASSP Assistant Principal Workshop (Keynote); NASSP National Principals Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top Tweets from the Week of September 3, 2017

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of September 3, 2017 when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.

1. This quote sits on my mind today: "My whole career has been about 'You can't do that,' and guess what: I did that!" -E. Don Brown (By @jackson_carrie)

2. Congratulations to LYSer, Becky Flynn! She is the new Assistant Principal at Roosevelt Middle School in OCPS!! Who will be next? (By @LYSNation)

3. For elected officials to treat teachers as threats rather than heroes is an astonishing affront to civil society. (By @pastors4txkids)

4. Texas Senate to Texas House: "We will starve your schools until you let us privatize them." (By @pastors4txkids)

5. Some kids go an entire day without anyone saying their name. Be the teacher who speaks to each student by name every day. (By @justintarte)

6. School leaders must consider the instructional cost of any activity. (By @SRead806)

7. Don't be afraid to take the road less traveled on. LEAD your school! (By @Crysrommuel)

8. Research: "Homework in elementary school does not contribute to academic achievement," but daily reading does. (By @DanielPink)

9. Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse. (By @TheEconomist)

10. I am confident my students will perform much better after I read your book: The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird). Excellent book!!!!! (By @michaelwillis08)

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

A Kindergarten Assessment Plan We Can All Get Behind

The following post his based on an observation in the book, Think Like a Freak, by Steven D. Levitt & Steven J. Dubner. I heartily recommend this great book to all school leaders, both formal and informal.

In the general population, one in every four children has poor eyesight.  Drill down deeper and you will find that up to 60% of struggling learners have poor vision.  Which makes sense. It’s hard to read when it is hard to see. Yet, we educators test to determine if students have understood what they have read. We create interventions for those who have trouble reading. We are rated based on annual student reading performance. But we forget to check the most basic, and correctable, physical attribute related to reading... student eyesight.  We all (I know I did) assume that someone else must have done so previously.

So let’s quit assuming. I suggest that within the first week of school that all students are screened for vision issues, starting with Kindergarten students.  Notify the parents of any student that seemingly has a vision problem and make sure that the child gets the glasses that he/she needs.  Every day a child with uncorrected vision problems is in school is a day that child is falling behind his non sight impaired peers. 

On a personal note, undiagnosed vision issues affected my GPA when I was in high school.  I am color blind to over 60% of the Red/Green spectrum.  This was not diagnosed until a Department of Defense (DoD) physical I took when I was 18.  This fact explained why I darn near failed a semester of biology.  The reason I couldn’t indentify attributes of slide specimens, wasn’t due to a lack of trying... the specimens were highlighted with red and green dyes. Which is why I never saw enough of anything to identify. Oops.

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: 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

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 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• 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