Andrew Chen and the Blueberry Story

After a full day of math instruction discussion courtesy of Dr. Andrew Chen, my mind is reeling. So many concepts, so many new ideas.

I did find myself surprised that I had never come across the famed Blueberry Story. After 15 years in education, I've heard the Starfish flinger, The Night Before Christmas Break, etc. But blueberries - I haven't heard this one.

The basic premise of the story involves a business owner who was conducting a speech at a teacher inservice - albeit making the teachers more and more upset with every word. When he finishes, a teacher asks why his ice cream quality is so renowned, he responds by saying he simply throws out the unusable blueberries.

And we all know how the teacher responds - we don't throw away the unusable, difficult to reach students. We welcome them into our classrooms and educate them any way we can.

I am proud to be a part of the public education system where we do our best to educate every child that crosses our threshold. At times it is difficult, but isn't every worthwhile difficult?

Here's theBlueberry Story...check it out.

From Drop Outs to College Ready

As I sat in a packed house session this week at the SW College Board Forum in Dallas this past week, I was anxious to here how a local high school moved students from the Drop Out track to the College Ready road. A few key understandings are still rolling around in my head...

1) The principal challenged his administrative team to ensure that no student loses credit due to lack of attendance. He empowered them with a "Whatever It Takes" mentality.... have coaches driving buses to pick the kiddos up - where ever they are, get creative in terms of credit recovery, not to take no for an answer, get parents on board...

2) Connect these students to something that engages them. Do you suspect the student is bored? Move them into AP classes. If they're already failing, what does it hurt? You never know what could come of the higher standards. Connect these students with skills that will carry them forward....CATE, cosmetology, etc
3) The principal doesn't send passes to class for students to come to the office to talk with him....he goes goes into the halls to find each student. As he walks the halls looking for a specific student, he often talks to several others that need him as well. It all goes back to the relationship with the student.

4) eHigh - an online high school program where students complete classes at home while they can still participate in the extra-curriculars of high school. This option provides the students the flexibility they need and replaces the "ship them off to another campus syndrome." Students are celebrated each step of the way towards graduation. As they complete hours or classes needed for credit recovery, pictures are taken and moved closer to the door of graduation and mini graduations are held.

5) Year Round Graduations - Students can participate in a traditional graduation ceremony at the end of the school year or at the end of the first semester in December. Why make students wait if they're worked hard to graduate? In certain cases, campus administration develops graduation ceremonies at the time of need based on the individual student's situation. This past year, the campus had one in October for a student that had be working hard to graduate for over 5 years.
6) Create optimism about the future. Work with families to remove any and all obstacles for failure. One key aspect is taking away the language barrier...not Spanish, but academic language....provost, bursar's office, FASFA, syllabus.

Overall, a very intriguing session that stretched and challenged my philosophies as an administrator....putting me right where I need to be to struggle and learn.

Overheard in a Classroom....The Case for Purposeful Talk

Overheard in a classroom today…a teacher to her students:

“Your explanation is worth more than what you wrote.”

This is one of the most powerful statements a teacher can say. She was pointedly telling the students that their talk - their purposeful student dialog was worth more to her than the rote answers they had on their review sheets.

It’s no secret that students like to talk and engaging them in doing so will enhance their learning. As pointed out in Cain and Laird’s book, The Fundamental 5, FSGPT (Frequent Small Group Purposeful Talk) makes a “significance positive impact on retention.“ In addition, the use of this type of dialog assists the students in maintaining their attention span throughout the lesson.

Not only will the use of purposeful talk enhance the students’ understanding, comprehension and ability to attend to the task; it will build a foundation on which their expository and argumentative writing skills will grow. Research shows that students who are able to successfully verbalize their learning are able to become better writers as well. Also noted in Laird and Cain’s book, “The process of writing critically requires the learning to take a subconscious idea, expand on that idea, connect it to other subconscious ideas and bring it to the conscious level through the tangible act of writing.”

Not sure how to even start the FSGPT process in your classroom or school? While it does take purposeful, intentional planning on the instructor’s part, you can keep some sentence frames in your hip pocket for daily use.

Share with your partner/or table group….

How are xxxx and xxxx alike? Different?

What the most important learning from today’s lesson?

Explain what I just said.

Develop a strategy to…

What is the relationship between xxxx and xxxx?

 

Simple, yet easy sentence starters can transform the learning in your classroom and increase the rigor dramatically.

 
It’s easy – get the students talking.

9 Powerful Books for Administrators

It's no secret I love to read. I'm constantly reading articles, research topics, blogs and books.  Many are professional - others just for fun.  I've put together a must-have list of books for administrators based on my experiences.  Enjoy!

Training Camp by Jon Gordon

A must read for motivating others. Being wife of a coach, this book really spoke to me. I have used it several times with my staffs in creating a theme for our school year. I've read everything by Gordon, but this one is by far my favorite. 

Shifting the Monkey by Todd Whitaker

Another must read. I have also read most of Whitaker's work, but this one gave me practical ideas to put into practice immediately.  As an administrator, you deal with a variety of people every day. This book will allow you to quickly assess the conversation and provide you with tools to make progress.

The Power of SMART Goals by Jan O'Neill and Anne Conzemius

The concept of SMART goals has been around a while, yet I find myself going back to using the goal setting strategies outlined in this book. SMART goals are simple to use and can provide you a strong foundation for monitoring school improvement.

Essentials of Evidence-Based Academic Interventions by Barbara J. Wendling and Nancy Mather.

Make no mistake - this book is not for the faint of heart. Truly written from a diagnostic standpoint, this book will give you a wealth of resources to pair with your campus RTI program.  If you have the funds available, a copy per department or grade level is ideal.

The Response to Intervention Documentation Handbook by Andrea Ogonosky

 With the forward written by Jim Walsh and the content written by Dr. Ogonosky, I could hardly wait for this to publish. When it finally did, I had the honor of recieving my book directly from Dr. O herself. I might have even asked for an autograph... 

This is hand-down the best resource available for RTI documentation at the campus level. While this is a easily read book, one must have a solid working knowledge of the RTI program to fully gain it's benefits.

Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work by Phillip Schlechty

If the title sounds familiar, this is the followup publication to Working on the Work that was released several years ago. I found the updated to be much better than the original work.  Schlechty tackles the tough concept of engagement in a way that makes it easy to read and simple to put into practice. 

 Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchi

The administrative version of the teacher edition, this is a fabulous book that will identify and outline your strengths as a leader.

Drive by Dan Pink

I won't lie - you'll need to shift your perspective a little when reading Pink's works. However, I found this book highly interesting and motivating for myself. His thoughts on how people are motivated are readily explained along with anecdotes from live, successful companies.

Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott

Absolutely fantastic and highly useful book. With each chapter, you'll be learning simple ways to increase the productivity of your conversations. 

Why Administrators Can Be Difficult

Just the title of this post has my spouse in giggles. Yes, I can be difficult to deal with at times and it’s possible I’ve been referred to as the “darkside” during dinner-time conversations surrounding educational topics. However, there are reasons as to why administrators are sometimes viewed as difficult.


Administrators see the world through a lens of continuous improvement. What can be done better? How can we work smarter? Is there room for improvement? Are we as efficient as we can be? Are we doing all we can? These core questions are close to the lips of all administrators. It is our goal - our passion - to be making our schools as strong as they can possibly be. This may mean we pose the difficult questions in search of the answer not yet stated. Difficult questions lead to difficult conversations where no stone is left unturned.

Administrators challenge the status quo. There is simply no reason to do things the same way over and over again and expect different results. When the status quo isn’t making the gains needed in student achievement, then it’s time to do things differently. That’s where the above mentioned difficult questions come in to play. Challenging the status quo propels us out of our comfort zones and into the arena of new thinking.

Administrators abhor mediocrity. While that statement pretty much speaks for itself, let it be known the enemy of great is good. Campuses who feel they are doing a “pretty good” job will quickly find themselves sliding into what I call the pit of mediocrity. Have you ever tried to lift someone out of this pit? It’s a tiresome and difficult task. {And it typically takes a lot of paperwork!} Regardless, show me an administrator who accepts mediocrity and I’ll show you students who aren’t learning and progressing.

We are pushers. Personally, I know I am a pusher. I enjoy seeing the potential for success in a staff member and I gain great rewards in seeing them accomplish more than they thought they could. Side story – just Friday I spoke to a former staff member who vividly recalled the day I asked her where she’d be in 5 years. She wasn’t sure at the time, but that day I told her to start researching graduate degrees because I saw her doing great things in education. And you know what, right on time and 5 years later, she’s starting her degree in high education. Administrators also push at a campus level. I truly enjoy the challenge of watching a campus move together in a positive direction. Change is difficult, yet necessary in education and pushing is often what has to happen.

“Excellence can be obtained if you:

...care more than others think is wise;

...risk more than others think is safe;

...dream more than others think is practical;

...expect more than others think is possible.”

Fiscal Cliff? What about the Accountability Canyon?

If you turn on any news station lately, it's likely you'll hear something about the fiscal cliff. It irritates me to no end that the leaders of our government are getting so much press for not getting their jobs done. The focus is entirely wrong.  Instead of discussing the implications of taxes and budget reform, we need to focus on educational accountability. This cliff is going to be nothing compared to the damage we inflict upon on our youth.  Thanks to the over-emphasis of standardized testing, the incomprehensible guidelines of 100% of students meeting AYP in 2014 and the lack of an accurate vision, we are hurtling students into the Accountability Canyon by the droves.

Here in Texas, the uprising against the standardized testing has begun and I tell ya, it's likely to be a old fashioned gunfight before it's over. There are several groups stepping out and advocating for what's right for students...Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment...Mothers Against Drunk Testing... Save Texas Schools...even our own lawmakers and TEA Commissioner have begun speaking out against STAAR calling it a "perversion of it's original intent."  Regardless of your political stance, we can all agree that requiring students to take EOC tests up to 105 times and still not graduate is truly sending students careening down the Accountability Canyon. 

Moving on to NCLB...now that 2013 is here, we have one year to prepare for ALL of our students to be 100% passing in both reading and math at all levels.  When NCLB began and the first charts showing the yearly increases in AYP were published, it seemed so distant.  Well, the distant future is now the impending future and it will be here in a blink of an eye.  Over half of the schools in Texas did not meet AYP this past year and I'm sure that number aligns with the nation as well. We have set our schools up for failure once again. 

Let's discuss that 100% pass rate in reading.  Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of all students being held accountable and aiming to be reading on level for their perspective grade levels/courses. The number one indicator for student achievement is reading level. In fact, research shows that if a student is not reading up to grade level by 3rd grade, he is more likely to not complete high school.  Make that student a male African-American and you have almost a 75% chance he will drop out by 9th grade.  Those are staggering statistics.  But what does that mean for us?  Yes, our students needs to be reading on level, but using a standardized test to get them there isn't going to work. We must be putting books in the hands of students, not pencils and bubblesheets.

From STAAR to NCLB and everything else in between, there is something larger looming out there...the Educational Accountability Canyon and our children are falling in it. 

Social Media as a Communication Tool

With the start of a new school year I always spend some time reflecting on what things am I going to improve on this year? Resonating within me is the need to improve communication. With improved communication comes clearer expectations, an articulated mission and increased movement towards the overall vision of the school. But how? How am I going to improve my communication with staff, students and the community?
I have always felt pretty solid in this area. I already utilize a variety of sources in which I send out and receive information… Facebook, Twitter, staff blog, electronic newsletters, etc. However, I know there are many more ways to promote communication.
Pinterest – No, I don’t feel posting my favorite recipes will encourage communication. However, posting links to educational websites, mobile device activities and parental involvement resources could be powerful. Pinterest is the one of the fastest growing communities online. We must go where the people are.
Wallwisher – While highly under utilized, I feel this simple site would be a fantastic way to gather feedback from staff, campus committes or parent focus groups.
Edmodo – With it’s format mirroring Facebook, it provides students and parents a comfortable online environment where you can monitor and control the content. I feel this would be a good alternative if Facebook were blocked or discouraged by your district.
Ning – Very similar in concept to Edmodo and Facebook, but slightly different as well. It provides an online community where content can closely be monitored. Again a good alternative to Facebook.
Diigo – Rather than a visual bookmarking service such as Pinterest, Diigo is closely related to delicious. Websites and documents can be bookmarked, highlighted and shared. Could be a powerful tool to use disseminiate campus documents to parents and staff.
Remind 101 – This is a great service that allows you to text a large group of people all at once without using your personal cell number. This provides a great way to remind teachers of upcoming staff development or parents of campus activities.
Yes, there are a number of ways to increase communication via the technology tools available today. But, I must throw one bit of caution to you. There is nothing that replaced the “old fashioned” way of communicating – face to face discussions. Technology provides us the efficiency , but we provide the level of personal service.