Let it be Theirs

I just finished reading Betty K. Garner's Getting to Got it and picked up some great insights on working with struggling students and empowering them to use their strengths to become more equipped learners. A theme that I kept seeing throughout is the unintended negative effects of adults doing too much for children, especially for students who struggle. I include several quotes below along with my reactions.

"Unless students interact creatively with information to construct meaning, there is little or no change." -page xv

I think about a lot the history classes I've taught as a teacher and taken as a student; we didn't DO enough with the information presented. I think about classes I've taken with tons of great information and factoids that I never did anything with that I've since forgotten. The information was great; it was interesting and provocative stuff; I worked hard finding cool information as a teacher and worked hard to remember the information as a student. But we never did anything with it; we never used it to do or create anything. Most of it's been lost; it wasn't learned.

"Too often, teachers make connections and point out patterns for students without realizing we are teaching them to imitate what we do rather than to construct meaning for themselves." -page 6

"...he mediated meaning- by asking questions rather than telling him what to do or solving the problem for him." -page 10

"Too often, well-meaning parents and teachers short-circuit students' cognitive development by doing the mental work for them.... We unintentionally encourage them to become passive recipients, to depend on others than on their own capabilities or need to know." -page 15

I wrote about doing the work for them after reading Margaret Searle's Causes & Cures in the Classroom. We mean well when we do it; it's to model what it's supposed to look like; it's to give them a sense of accomplishment; it's to prompt them; it's to help them do well on the test; it's to help them out in an awkward or embarrassing moment. It may even be more for us and our own comfort or ego than theirs. Whatever the reason, when we do it for them we're robbing the long-term to satisfy the short. Instead of telling we ought to ask; instead of lecturing we ought to converse; instead of talking we ought to listen; instead of trying to affect the result we ought to facilitate the process. 

"Sometimes teachers get caught up in doing lots of activities that keep students busy and may even produce wonderful products or displays. However, the time would be more effectively spent designing and implementing activities to help students develop the cognitive structures that will equip them for independent learning." -page 24

Impact won't be known until later. Whether they can do what they were taught how to do down the road is how we'll measure the extent to which it was learned now. They're only students for a small, minuscule amount of time when compared to how much life there is post-student; they need to be able to learn for a lifetime if they're going to thrive. Individual tidbits of information come and go; independence is forever. 

"The true level of understanding is evident in the kinds of questions students ask." -page 26

I used to love when there were no questions; I used to always think that if there weren't any questions then I must've taught it really well. Perhaps I was off base. Perhaps I wasn't focusing on the right stuff. Perhaps they weren't doing enough with the information I was providing. Perhaps I was doing too much providing. I think I was doing too much providing...

11 Ways To Get Them Talking About It

"...recap is especially helpful for students...who have memory barriers because they tend to forget the purpose of the lessons as they try to apply new skills. Verbalization not only reconnects the dots for them but also strengthens mental pathways for later retrieval." - Margaret Searle, Causes & Cures in the Classroom, p. 58

One of the surest and simplest ways to promote the learning of the lessons we try to teach our students or staff is to get them talking about the content or skills of focus.

Talking it out reorganizes the material or steps inside our own heads so that it makes sense to us.

Talking it out forces us process, apply, and create output as a result of the daily input; what good is input if it's not translated to output?

We need to be mindful of this when we plan and when we design learning opportunities for our students or staff.

We spend so much time planning, preparing, and practicing dynamic and interesting ways to give our people input, but it's how intentional and planned the output is that will determine to what degree what we've taught is actually learned.

Talking our way through new lessons is tried and true; it's a way to make it permanent in our heads without having to stretch our creative capacity; there's no writer's block or foreign skill set required to talk about what I'm learning.

Here are some ways to get them talking about what we're teaching:

1. Stop class or meeting every 10 minutes and have neighbors turn and talk about what was just taught, done, discussed, etc. for 2 minutes
2. When asking questions to the class have each student write their answer on a little white board and hold up their answers. Before revealing the right answer have neighbors discuss why they answered how they did.
3. Have students send you an audio note using the voice recorder app on their phone, or a website like vocaroo.com summarizing what happened in class today, what was taught, and how it will be used tomorrow and beyond
4. Have students prepare audio notes on the topic of the day taking a certain viewpoint. Use edmodo, a common Google doc, itslearning, etc. for students to have a single spot to post all of their audio notes to and use the prepared statements to springboard further more spontaneous candid discussion the next day in class.
5. Have students screencast as they solve a math problem or construct a thesis paragraph using webistes like screencast-o-matic or apps like educreations.
6. When making slides utilize the narration option; oral presentations don't always have to be live. With that being said...
7. ...Get people up and talking about their work in front of a group. Earlier in the school year I presented to 12 different groups of ~100 students over the course of two weeks; by the 11th time I really really knew my stuff.
8. In a history or literature class have the students Face Off. During a Colonial America unit I may partner students off and have one act as a Loyalist and the other as a Patriot; in an economics class I may have one act as Keynes and one as Friedman; in a lesson on the Korean War one would be Truman and the other MacArthur.
9. Establish a classroom routine where at the beginning of every class someone is the "leader," and they recap yesterday's class and ask members of the class content questions to review and generate discussion. Laura Evans establishes routines that get the students talking better than anyone I've ever seen.
10. If you have a website use it to provide an authentic audience for student spoken work.
11. Make an activity pyramid of options for students to respond to input and processes as they read or listen. The linked pyramid calls for written responses, but could easily be tailored.

Getting them talking about it betters the odds it moves from taught to learned.

How else can we get them talking about it?

8 Ways to Improve Praise

In reading Emily Houck's 100+ Way to Recognize & Reward Your School Staff I picked up a bunch of nuggets that I can immediately start using to make folks I'm trying to lead feel more valued, respected, and motivated to grow.

She writes, "...we should highlight and recognize their contributions to the present and the future, both because it is the right thing to do and because it will motivate them to continued excellence."

When people feel acknowledged they feel empowered to keep going.

She writes, "An educational leader needs to know which factors will promote and nurture professional growth in each individual."

No one person is motivated the same way; the more we know about the folks we're trying to lead the better position we're in to praise effectively.

She writes, "you have to tell the person why they are being recognized in a very specific way."

Don't cheapen your praise by just throwing it around for no particular reason.

She writes, "Immediate praise...signals true respect for the action and the actor because it requires us to rearrange our priorities to make the praise happen now rather than waiting until it's convenient for us."

Recognition that's planned around my schedule isn't real recognition; if it's worthy of being praised, then it's worthy of being praised right now.

She writes, "Recognition is a mind-set -- a way of doing business and relating to people every day."

8 ways to more effective praise:

Instead of..	Try This
Praising the group	Praise specific people
Giving vague praise	Be specific
Thanking someone in passing	Take the time to seek them out
Acknowledging talent	Acknowledge effort
Recognizing achievement	Recognize growth and improvement
Typing notes	Hand-write notes
Waiting until it’s convenient	Do it now
Combining praise with criticism	Criticize later

Moving From Taught to Learned

I've Been thinking about the concept of something taught vs learned since participating in #fhspantherchat on Twitter with educators from my wife's school, how we can differentiate between the two, and how we can help people get to the learned from the taught.

When it's learned I know why I'm doing it, and why it's to my benefit.

I've taught a lot of people a lot of things, but how many have learned from me?

Are they still able to do it, recall it, discuss it, etc?

What can I do get more of my people beyond taught and into learned?

How can I bridge what is taught in school and what they need to learn?

20 ways off the top of my head:

1. give them an authentic audience
2. give immediate feedback
3. start with more assistance but gradually remove
4. start slow but build speed one step at a time
5. don't demand memorization; aim higher
6. provide visual and auditory instructions and demonstrations
7. give them time to visualize and reflect at the beginning and end
8. arrange for multiple inputs at multiple times
9. get them writing or speaking about it early and often
10. record them doing it and discuss it
11. record and reflect in whatever way works for them so they can focus on the skill or concept
12. be mindful of the rigor
13. make sure it's relevant
14. create relationships conducive for learning
15. let them do as much of it from the start as possible
16. give as little help as necessary for completion
17. model what you'd do, but be open to variations
18. make them talk to you or anybody about it as they're doing it
19. any activity is better than idleness
20. provide multiple opportunities for demonstration / output

How else? What can we as teachers / leaders / coaches help move skills, concepts, thoughts, etc from taught to learned?

Why Do We Do the Work For Them?

Why do we do the work for them?

 I started thinking after reading the Week 20 post about delegation in the #savmp blog, and this quote from a book I just finished

"Adults need to model, ask clarifying questions, and help students reflect on and about their own routines, not do the work for them." - Margaret Searle, Causes & Cures in the Classroom p. 77 

Why do we do the work for our staff and/or students? Because we're afraid of what others will think if people under our tutelage produce work in need of improvement or worse. Because we think short-term.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking something to the effect of, "if my evaluee doesn't write a proficient goal or provide satisfactory evidence, then my colleagues are going to think I'm an unsatisfactory supervisor; what good am I if my people (or students) aren't proficient?"

So I do more than I ought to; I try to control the outcome rather than support and assist during the process. The goal that I'm concerned about becomes 90% my words and 10% theirs. They're "proficient," I pat myself on the back for "helping," and we repeat again in a few months. Nobody learns; we're not growing.

Ask questions instead of giving answers

If they don't do it themselves, then it comes at the expense of the long-term; the goal is always for them to be able to do it well without assistance. Start with them doing it themselves and let the doing it well happen organically. Guide by the side, ask questions, generate partnerships.

I shouldn't compromise the long-term goal to satisfy short-term insecurity.

Replace speaking with listening as often as possible

I should try to be the resource that makes them their own resource. In practice:

Student Discipline: Go through the handbook with them as you're determining consequences; when they match the offense with the proper consequence and then serve it, it becomes a lesson rather than a simple consequence.

Organization / Note Taking: Expose students to different examples of note taking and organization for the same topic. Show them an outline, word web, word cloud, venn diagram, etc. Have them decide which makes the most sense for them instead of mandating one style because it's what's always worked for you. 

They need to own it for it to be learned; if they don't own it, then it was merely taught; they won't remember

Instead of Getting Frustrated...

What I read:

"Adults must have tons of patience and provide lots of modeling, practice, and encouragement to support the development of good planning and problem-solving skills." -  Margaret Searle, Causes & Cures in the Classroom: Getting to the Root of Academic and Behavior Problems p. 42

"The ultimate goal is to enable the students to become more confident and independent." - Margaret Searle, Causes & Cures in the Classroom: Getting to the Root of Academic and Behavior Problems p. 30 

What I thought:

We've all worked with students and colleagues who have difficulties getting started and/or following through with tasks or initiatives; our first reaction often is to challenge the excuses folks that struggle with this always have, or to assume that they are lazy or oppositional.

In the classroom I saw this manifested in students who were always missing assignments, turning in assignments half done, or have grand plans end in mediocre finished products; in school leadership I see this manifested in staff who miss deadlines, create goals that are nearly impossible to meet, or want to improve in a certain area but have no concept of how to.

How we respond and how we as teachers & leaders communicate will determine if we will have any type of meaningful impact on their improvement.

Labeling or assuming takes the improvement process out of our hands; when we decide that our efforts will be wasted because of lack of motivation, laziness, etc, we've lost the opportunity to guide and support; we undercut our own capacity to lead and understand how to help folks move themselves in the right direction.

Getting frustrated or angry doesn't work; our relationships and the culture we manufacture in our classrooms, offices, schools, etc will either encourage or deter folks from seeking assistance. If they think we'll be mad or lash out, then they'll probably mask or hide the problem rather than seek our assistance.

If out of impatience we simply do it for them, then they become dependent on us.

If the same issue keeps happening despite our efforts, then keep trying something new; if they can't seem to get started or follow through, then help them:

• visualize the goal.
• see how by modeling using a "first me, then you" procedure.
• break down the process into individual parts
• visualize the action plan.
• verbalize potential obstacles before starting.
• verbalize the plan's details step by step.
• by building in class time for planning and clarifying questions.
• discussing what to do when they don't know what to do.
• engage in conversation about what went wrong last time and how to avoid this time.
• by showing them what you would do in same scenario.

The end goal with our students and staff is always confident independence; we don't want to respond to missing, incomplete, or poorly crafted work in a manner that will impede progress toward that overarching goal.

We want them to be able to do it consistently well without assistance, but we need them to be honest and timely when they require assistance.

Instead of reacting emotionally when planning and problem-solving skills lack we ought to think clearly, identify why the issue may be happening, and continue to utilize new strategies until they can move forward with a plan confidently and independently.

6 Tips For New School Leaders After 2 Months #savmp

It's been a busy two months! Packed yet awesome, my first 40 school days in a new school in a new position have been loaded with challenges that have humbled and/or empowered me and my ability to satisfy and juggle short term needs while moving forward with numerous long term visions and mandates.

The position is hard. Moving into full time school leadership is demanding; with the new job comes constant high stakes tests of my communication, organization, and time management skills. Scrutinizing my own practices constantly has become essential in developing necessary systems in place to manage my affairs well.

With that in mind I've identified 6 habits I've adopted that I have found works with the dual tasks of establishing oneself at a new school, and fulfilling everything that comes with school leadership.

1. Call People Back - whether it's good, bad, or ugly I get back to everyone the day they contact me. I figure that if I am slow to get back to people I risk sending the message that I'm disorganized, unresponsive, or worse, in over my head. Whether its colleagues, parents, or students I get back to the folks who ask to speak to me promptly; It makes for better professional relationships, and for stronger professional brand. People may not be satisfied with the message they receive, but they will appreciate that it was delivered in a timely manner.

2. Schedule Action Items - it's easy to forget to do things; even the simplest of tasks sometimes get lost during "one of those days." I schedule all my action items in the calendar on my phone / email; from walkthroughs to sending emails to checking the daily attendance I schedule it in my calendar. I'm juggling a lot of important initiatives, and nothing can fall through the cracks. It ensures that priorities and action items are addressed at the right times, and that I’m never in a position where I have to say I forgot or overlooked something that I needed to tackle.

3. Save Everything - it’s easy to lose things. If I walk from the office to the cafeteria and back, then it’s safe to say that I’m coming back with some kind of note or sticky or something the equivalent thereof from a colleague or student about something or someone that I need to address. I scan all of my hand written notes, stickies, rogue pieces of paper, etc. into digital folders as soon as I receive it. Just today (October 8,) I utilized a handwritten note from September 9 that I took down during a side conversation with a student as part of an investigation. Had I left that handwritten note on my desk in a pile I reckon it would have been lost or misplaced weeks ago; by scanning and filing digitally I’m better able to utilize the conversations and dealings I have on a daily basis to execute my job more effectively at a time convenient to me.

4. Organize Constantly - every day ends with personal organization. I take all my emails and put them in folders after I’ve addressed them; as mentioned above I scan all my handwritten notes into email and then shred the paper to keep my workstation clean and efficient. I schedule my action items for the next day. No matter how badly I want to head home or how drained I feel at the end of the day I take care of myself and organize for tomorrow. I may have 10 things going on, but at least I know where everything is!

5. Have a Running Priority List - “To Do” lists don’t cut it; I have a “Priorities” list constantly going as new ideas, action items, and needs arise. There have been things on that priorities list since late August, because something always comes up that takes priority; I've learned quickly to accept that the work will never be finished, and that the most strategic and situationally important items are the ones that need to be met on a given day. Figuring out how to identify priority items is an ongoing focus of mine;certainly one of those intangible skills people rarely talk about in leaders is correctly identifying the right time to address initiatives.

6. Go 1 on 1 - it's hard to be new in a big group and expect to lead; the best way to quickly establish yourself as a professional and a leader in the group is by purposefully engaging colleagues, students, and community members in one on one conversations. I try to schedule appointments, stop by classrooms, seek students out who were in a class walked through, or go to after school events; getting out of the group and into smaller settings was key in the first month or two. It's easier to make a big group impact when you've established your brand with individuals stakeholders.

Two months in and things are moving in the right direction, but we gotta just keep it going through the rest of the fall into winter. I need to keep identifying what works, what needs to be done, and when's the best timing for it; most importantly I need to make sure I remember it's more about the people I work with than any set of tasks assigned to me.