Be Our Guest

"Be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test."

Most of us can sing or hum the words to this popular Disney song from "Beauty and the Beast."

For those of us who have been fortunate to visit Disney World and Disneyland, we know that Disney is world-renown for its customer service, the ability to create magic and memories over and over again for little kids and big kids such as us.  Walt Disney's ability to do the "impossible" has been sustained over time through generations with the implementation of unique business principles.

As educational leaders devoted to serving our students and families, what can we learn from Disney's service model?

In a recent Disney Institute blog post, Bruce Jones discussed the Disney principles of "Doing Things Right" and "Doing the Right Thing."

As a programming director for the Disney Institute, Mr. Jones discussed the singular mission of Disney: "striving to create happiness to begin forming life-long relationships with our guests."

Photo courtesy of David Castillo Dominici via Free Digital Photos.

Think of even that one word-- "guest."  Other theme parks, organizations and businesses aim to attract visitors, but at Disney we are all "guests."

Mr. Jones explained that guests are different than visitors.  In our homes, we invite and welcome guests.  We do special things for our guests-- the best towels, the best sheets, favorite meals and desserts.  "If someone is your Guest, don't you feel a greater obligation to ensure his or her happiness?" Mr. Jones posed.

So what can we learn from Disney.  Mr. Jones stated that Disney provides a script to each "cast member" (employee), for common questions or occurrences so that guests can have a high quality consistent experience.  It is important for each staff member to "do things right."  The Disney way.

Are there instances where we can provide better support for staff by providing guidelines on how to handle certain situations.  How do we want our secretaries or teaching staff to handle a parent who insists on seeing a staff member unannounced?  One who wants to visit classes during the school day? What about how to handle an irate phone call or nasty email?  How about a parent-teacher conference?  The more help we can provide our staff with common situations should provide a better experience for all of our key stakeholders.

In addition, Disney, according to Mr. Jones,  also empowers their cast members to "do the right thing."

In solving problems for guests, and in daily interactions, Disney encourages and promotes staff members to go off script in order to "empower people to intervene and own the common purpose."

A current TV Disney commercial shows a family excitedly at their first day of Disney and the cast members suddenly grows pointed ears in making all of their dreams of happiness at Disney come true.  Disney also empowers staff to do whatever it takes, even if it has never been done before, to make the Disney magic real.

Do our staff members feel the same way?  In this ever-changing educational landscape, the true work of every teacher, building and district has to be to individualize and personalize education so that each child can learn.  Our shift continues to be from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning.

Do we empower our staff to be creative in approaching each child in our classrooms?  When we were early in our Professional Learning Community journey, we discussed strategies that were uncommon in our district and building?

Re-does, test re-takes, differentiating reading assignments, flipped classrooms, grading practices,  extended time for learning, homework-- all of these became same-subject team and whole-staff discussion points.

Teachers at first were hesitant to individualize and personalize without making sure we were fine with it.  Clearly, change requires the culture and climate to empower and encourage staff to "do the right thing."  How empowered is your staff to try something never tried before?

Disney fosters creative problem-solving within a culture and climate where personalization ensures happiness and success.

Can we-- for every student in every classroom in every building every day?  If Walt Disney actualized making the impossible possible, we can, too.

The 3 C's to being an effective leader

What does it take to be an effective leader?  Countless articles and Twitter chats explore this topic daily.  Why?  Because those of us who have dedicated ourselves to improving ourselves and our organizations every day seek the most effective strategies to achieving excellence in ourselves and our work.

As a building principal the past 9 years and a high school administrator for the last 15, and now as a passionate educational coach,  I, too, have been, and will continue to be on this journey of leadership learning and discovery.

How do we ensure we are the best leaders we can be, as well as empower others in leadership?

The 3 C's.

We must each be a highly effective communicator, catalyst and cheerleader.

Communicator:  We must be the most effective communicators in our organizations with all key stakeholders.  Sounds simple?  This may be the most difficult of all tasks of a leader.  If you are a principal of a high school of 1600 students, you most likely also have a staff of at least 150 and well over 3000 parents and extended family.  You also may have a district with multiple high schools or buildings and a central office with whom to also communicate.

Every day you have key stakeholders with whom to communicate.  Do you?  Is every staff member in your building clear about the day, the week and upcoming events and goals?  Is every student?  Every parent? Every other administrator that needs to know?

What about the means of communication?  On any given day, you will need to communicate in person, through email or enews, on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook with your stakeholders, not to mention your PLN, and through handwritten notes and letters.

The Why?  Dedicate a portion of every day to communication with all key stakeholders.  Principals and leaders determine the culture and climate fr their buildings/organizations and realize their mission/vision in every communication and interaction you have each day.  Students, parents and staff may remember that one interaction with you for the rest of their lives.  A powerful opportunity.  Don't miss it by not making time for it.

Catalyst:

Leaders MUST be the catalysts for the change every building and organization needs.  To be a catalyst in education you must be the best learner in the building.  Read widely all of the best educational research you can find.  Be a student of education in order to be a leader.

Henry Ford once said that if he had asked everyone what they wanted they would say a faster horse.  Henry Ford had a vision that no one else and revolutionized lives.  Do you? Principals have the power to revolutionize lives every day for the better.  Are you working on actualizing your vision every day with your key stakeholders.  By reading, attending workshops and institutes, immersing yourself in a PLN and participating in Twitter chats with other like professionals, you can become an expert in professional learning community work, formative assessment, a focus on learning, visible learning and a number of other best instructional practices that will improve your building.

Then collaborate with other administrators, teacher-leaders, students, parents and staff to develop timelines and action steps.  But the catalyst has to be you.  In science a catalyst is a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected.  Be the change you wish to see.  Accelerate the learning while remaining strong in the process.  Leading without being a catalyst is not leading at all.

Cheerleader:

At first glance this one may be a puzzler.  But truly, it doesn't matter how well you communicate or how good your vision and action steps are if you are not a cheerleader for your your students, parents, staff and every aspect of your building.  Cheerleaders are visible and enthusiastic supporters of teams no matter how big or small they are or what the score is.  When the team is down by 5 touchdowns the cheerleaders don't pack it in and go home. Rain?-- let it pour and the cheerleaders are still smiling and still cheering.

And that needs to be you.  No matter how bad the day is, how dismal the funding is, how badly the levy fails, you need to stand at your front door every morning and smiling broadly, greet each student who comes in.  You need to do the same thing for your secretaries, custodians, cooks and teachers, and have ongoing positive interactions with every stakeholder you encounter.  If you are smiling on the outside, even though the stress of running a high school is killing you on the inside on that day, then that is what your students and staff will remember.

Attend every school event you can.  Drive to the mock trial competition at the courthouse as well as to the basketball game.  Go to every play and every concert, sit down with your students at their lunch tables, and sit with the parents at away sporting events.  Why? Because an important part of being a leader is being all in, every day, with every member of your school family.

Actively engage every school day at every school event with every person you can.  Be a cheerleader for your school-- it will show that you care about every person, and that is one of the most important roles a leader has.

Being a leader today in education is not easy, but it is the best job in the world.  By being effective communicators, catalysts and cheerleaders, we can enhance learning for every student, every day, and change lives. And very few people get to do that for a career.

100% Can and Should Be the Goal

Education in the US has undergone tremendous changes in the last 5 years.  Two significant ones are the greater accountability for teachers for student learning and the implementation of Common Core.  Having been a high school administrator for the last 15 years and high school principal for the last 9 prior to this year, I have led and been involved in a number of discussions on these changes.

One common theme in the discussion to some of this educational reform from educators is that we should not be expected to adopt a business model because we are educators.  Some educators have felt that accountability is fine for businesses who can seemingly control their factors, but we should not be expected to adopt such rigorous reform that includes accountability standards for teachers, administrators, buildings and districts.

As a 30-year public educator, both as a high school and middle school teacher and as a high school administrator, I certainly understand some of the concerns, including educators being held accountable for assessments for which the state government has provided little time or support for administration and that teachers have never seen.

It is difficult to prepare students for assessments with which educators have very little experience. And these assessments are extremely arduous for special education students and English language learners who are not starting on an even playing field.  We certainly need to re-look at the graduation requirements for these students and mandated expectations.

But I also believe that we are responsible for a lack of establishing our own accountability for student learning for much of my career.  For too long, schools and teachers taught what they liked to teach with little or no focus or accountability to student learning.

I also believe that our educational systems have been plagued by low standards and expectations of our work, and that we should adopt much more rigorous expectations and goals, just as other professionals have for years.

The business world's ability to align staff and whole organizations to very high standards and a common mission and vision is what  educators and schools can and should emulate.  Our students deserve it, just as consumers of business organizations deserve it. A life-changing event in our family illustrates our appreciation for an organization with extremely high expectations for its consumers-- patients.

Almost two years ago my husband suffered a debilitating medical condition, a detached retina.  He had suffered no injury and had no precursors or warning.  One morning he woke up and an hour later his retina detached in his right eye.

Twenty-four hours later we were in emergency surgery which ended with a daunting post-surgery regimen.  He had to keep his head down for 24 hours a day for two straight weeks.  After the surgeon reattaches the retina, he inserts a gas bubble into the eye.  Staying face down causes the gas bubble to rise and floating on the back of the eye, rubs and helps heal the attached retina.  And we thought educators' jobs required high expertise. My husband is the runner, biker, skiier-type and an automotive crash research engineer.  Our lives as planned came to a stop.  He could not work, drive or do any normal activities.

Photo courtesy Idea go, free digital photos

As a high school principal I continued to work, meshed with putting three drops in his eyes before work, coming home to prepare his lunch and three more eye drops, and then home for dinner and more eye drops.  It was difficult to see him face down while trying to pass the time, even while sleeping.  I would come and go to various school events and return to him, still face down.  He was a good patient and followed all of the post-surgical regimen.

After these long two weeks, we returned to the surgeon, hopeful to hear him say that his eye was healed and our lives could return to normal.  As the surgeon peered into the eye we waited for what we hoped would be positive feedback.  Silence.

Then he hesitatingly stated that he was concerned about fluid in the eye and he wanted to watch it for two days as it could indicate there was still a hole in the retina.  After two lengthy days we returned and, alas, there was too much fluid and indeed, either a new hole had developed or the first surgery had not found this hole.

This news was devastating, as the surgeon had explained at our first surgery that while first detached retina surgeries are often successful, each failure leads to a more invasive surgery with more negative results for vision.  Retinas that are unable to be attached lead to blindness in that eye, a life-changer.

And then, the surgeon uttered these words that  us hope.  He told us that at his retinal surgery group, their goal was 100% re-attachments, and that he intended to reach that goal with us. The second surgery would be more difficult, and vision may be more compromised, but he intended to attach the retina.

My husband underwent the surgery, missed eight weeks of work, but has an attached retina in his eye. We appreciated we were part of the group which had 100% of successful surgeries as a goal.

I often now use this example in my presentations to educators, now as an educational consultant/presenter and a retired high school principal.  What if every teacher set a goal for every one of his or her students that 100% of them would be successful?  What if every school set that goal for every student, and more importantly worked toward it every day and communicated it with every student and parent?

Would every teacher instruct differently?  Would every school respond differently?  The answer is yes.

Photo courtesy Stuart Miles, free digital photos

I  know that some educators, both teachers and administrators, feel that 100% is an unrealistic goal. That we have too many students with external issues.  Is every patient the same?  Do surgeons have perfect and healthy patients or those with diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure that makes them more difficult to heal, whatever the ailment?

What if my husband's automotive crash research facility had less than a 100% goal for crash test safety?  Do you want the surgeon with less than a 100% success goal?  Do we want to eat at a restaurant with less that a 100% sanitation/safety goal?

Graphic courtesy of Jayme Linton via Twitter

Certainly some students are more challenging than others, but schools with effective pyramid of interventions can respond more appropriately, just as physicians respond individually to patients. High schools can be caring cultures and climates with dedication to 100% of students' success.  How? Through professional learning community work and alignment of all key stakeholders to a focus on learning.

Our school is a Professional Learning Community that focuses every day on learning, aligning every practice and aspect to a goal of 100% learning for every student every day with every teacher every class period. Every staff member focuses on the four questions of PLC work collaboratively in same-subject teams.  It has transformed our school into a true learning community, and high expectations yield high results.

In trying to attain perfection, we achieve excellence. Put simply, you hit what you aim for, so aim high.  And it has brought us success in a number of external indicators-- National Blue Ribbon School, National Model PLC at Work School, #88 in Newsweek rankings of America's Best High School, and outscoring Shanghai, the highest performing school system in the world, in reading, math and science on the PISA, the international assessment that ranks the world's best schools.

 If you are satisfied with a goal of 85% of student success, or a 77% goal, or a 95% goal, ask yourself if that would be good enough if you were choosing a pediatric surgeon or oncologist.  The answer would be no, for the failure rate is a life-changer, particularly if it is you, or your child.

Now picture your child in a classroom.  What would be an acceptable student success percentage that you would want his/her teacher to set?

Photo courtesy JSCreations, free digital photos

You see, that is the "why," the most important question that separates high-performing schools from average ones.  Shoot high, for if you fall short, you will have still achieved greater than your goal. Do we attain 100%?  Not necessarily, but do we exist in order to work towards 100% to change students' lives every day?  Yes.  And that is the growth mindset that is and will be the difference in education.

Graphic courtesy of Twitter

Paradigms for every educator: Microscope and Telescope

For those of us who are involved in improving student learning for every student in our schools every day, we have a myriad of research available to us, whether we are teachers, administrators, educational staff, or consultants.

Having served as a high school principal for the last nine years, I have not only read widely and deeply in educational research such as Professional Learning Community principles, Marzano, Hattie, Stiggins and other educational researchers but helped facilitate its implementation with our staff since Dublin Jerome's inception in 2004.  Now an educational consultant working with a variety of educators in diverse districts, I know that educators are working hard to digest research and implement effective instructional strategies to positively impact student learning.

This summer I read Training Camp by Jon Gordon, and one of the life lessons a football coach teaches the protagonist discusses the advantages of looking at life through both a microscope and a telescope.

I couldn't help but think how we, as educators and educational leaders, would also benefit from looking at our work through both paradigms.

Why? As educators, whether it be as a classroom teacher, building principal, central office administrator, or consultant, we benefit from looking at our practices and data both with a microscope and with a telescope.

Photo by Photokanok

Our data analysis often needs a microscope, making sure we "put the faces on the data," as Stiggins exhorts us to do, and digging deep to ask those "I wonder why" questions to give meaning to the data.  But we would also benefit from using a telescope, a longer range and bigger picture of our data.  This big picture gives us the opportunity to look at data longitudinally as well as conduct comparison analysis with same-subject team members and alignment with building and district data goals.

School districts often find classrooms teachers or individual building principals constantly using microscopes as they are laser-focused on their immediate student needs, with all of the daily stress, pressure and emotions associated with it.  Conversely, we associate telescopes with district administrators who must often analyze mounds of data from multiple buildings while always keeping a big picture in mind.

Photo by Idea.go

The most effective way to truly impact student learning, however, is for every educator-- classroom, building or district, to analyze data utilizing the paradigms of both the microscope and the telescope. A balance of paradigms in data analysis truly leads to more effective and aligned instructional strategies and a positive effect on student learning.

Why don't you "google" that?

It is hard to imagine life without Google.  How much do you "google" each day?

When did Google become a verb.  Rather than say we are going to look up something on the internet, we say we will "google" it.  It's become the "Kleenex" of the internet.  Very few people ask for a tissue-- but many of us ask for a kleenex.

We don't research on the internet-- we google.

Since our district transitioned to being a Google district, I have to admit I have become an ardent Google fan.  I love the email and also Google Chrome, easily rotating between personal and work email.

One of my favorite Google tools is Google Forms.  Have you tried it?  In an extremely short time, you can develop a survey with any type of question, choose what kind of answer and whether it is required or not, choose a cute theme background and share it with your entire staff, contact list or even small group.

It compiles the results in two different formats which you can also share with the recipients or anyone else you want for great transparency to survey takers.

Our staff uses Google forms to collect student data and we utilize it to solicit important input and feedback, documenting collaboration and SMART goals for same-subject team or departmental PLC work.  It can be shared among teachers, among teachers or administrators, or even with Central Office, a great documentation tool of teacher and student work.

Don't know how to repair your washing machine?

Don't know how to post a youtube video?

Don't know how to do a Google form?

Just Google it.

PLC: Putting vision into action

"Closing the Knowing-Doing Gap"-- Richard DuFour

We have been on a Professional Learning Community journey for all 11 years Dublin Jerome has been open.  When staff, students, and parents come together to create a new high school, a huge undertaking, it would be easy to be fragmented by many good ideas.

The year before we opened, we spent the time in the homes of our families-to-be, on the coffee circuit as you will.

We brought updated photos of the building under construction, and the families brought questions and provided input.

What kind of a high school did they want?

Our parents stated clearly that they wanted a high school that was "good" in a hurry.  Many of them had juniors transitioning, juniors firmly entrenched in the other two district high schools with which they were already quite happy.  The transitioning students were part of successful sports programs, stellar performing arts programs, and strong academics.

These parents were concerned because at that point, we had no credibility.  No school profile.  No average AP scores.  No average ACT scores. No good athletic programs and certainly no outstanding arts.

How good could we become in a short amount of time?

At one very formal coffee, the host had provided parents with note cards on which to write their question(s) and parents took turns as we sat in high stools on a massive patio.  I remember two clear questions from that evening:

1. What is your vision for Dublin Jerome?  An interesting question.  At first I tried answering it noting that we would bring stakeholders together to form our vision, etc.  But the parent interrupted me and clearly stated:  No, I want to know YOUR vision.

I thought a minute and then clearly articulated my vision:

One of the very best high schools in the world by numerous external indicators that indicated students learn at exceptionally high levels.

A Blue Ribbon high school on our very first five years of data.

A high school employing the best research in the world on focusing for learning for every student, every class period, by every teacher, every day: Professional Learning Communities.  I spoke very passionately about this research, for we had started it with a small and committed group of staff at the high school many of us were now leaving.  In particular how teachers collaborated in teams on the 4 questions of a PLC in order to focus on learning, rather than teaching.  How learning was the constant instead of learning.

A high school where teams of educators from local, state, national and international educational systems come to visit to see how we do business.

After rattling these things off the parents nodded and sat quietly.  I inwardly thought for a moment --what did I just do?  I had never articulated this vision aloud before but I knew in my heart that this was the school we could and would create.

After the meeting, one parent came up and told me she had contacted her brother, an educator in Illinois about the opportunity to ask us questions about her son's new high school.

She said she was so pleased to hear that we were utilizing DuFour, DuFour and Eaker's research on PLC work.  Her brother had told her that if we did not mention it, she should be very disappointed.

But she was not, and after articulating clearly the Jerome vision and seeing our parents' eyes, I knew we could do it, as that is what they wanted also.

And though PLC work is very often two steps forward and one step back, and certainly sounds easier then it looks, we have fulfilled that steps of that vision, and continue to work on it every day.

PLC is our focus and the reason for our success.  Blue Ribbon School?-- yes and with our first five years of data.  One of the top PLC schools in the nation?  Yes- a National Model PLC at Work School.  Visits from educators from all of the world?  Yes, thanks to partnerships with Battelle for Kids, we have hosted visitors from our state, nation and world, including some of the best school systems globally , China and Finland.

PLC work is not a destination, and we still have to work at it hard every day.  But the vision of being the best school for students still drives our decision-making. PLC work has made the difference for us and it can for you.

What is the Knowing-Doing Gap? DuFour and Eaker have both written about this subject, both in On Common Ground and in blog posts.  In thousands of schools across our country and world, we know what makes those practices and re-culturing needed to make the difference in student learning (the knowing) but we don't always implement the changes we need in order to change from a school focused on teaching to a school focused on learning (the doing).

It is this gap that separates PLC schools from the rest, and while the work is challenging and requires a growth mindset and stretch culture, it changes the lives of staff, parents and students.

And isn't that why we exist? Should that always be our vision?

How does being a PLC affect student exam week?

If you are like most high school principals as I am this time of year, your students are very likely to either be taking exams this week or soon after Winter Break.

For us, Tuesday - Friday is exam time, with Periods 1-2 on Tuesday, periods 3-4 on Wednesday, periods 5-6 on  Thursday and period 7 on Friday.  Students take two exams per day, and preceding each exam is a preparation period with their teachers.

If you are a professional learning community as we are, does your exam week look different then for students and staff within this schedule?

Yes.  For our students who have tiered privileges and incentives based on their grade level and their earned letter grades, only junior and seniors who have A's, B's and C's cumulatively for their first semester have earned the privilege of coming and going during exam week.  All juniors and seniors who have a D or F cumulatively are required to attend exam week in its entirety.  When they are not taking an exam the students report to the cafeteria where content lab teachers have duties based on the teacher exam schedule. Students are required to choose a subject area, most likely the area of their D and F, and teachers provide targeted academic help and support.

Freshmen and sophomores have not yet established a successful history of exam success, and they are also required to attend exam week in its entirety.  These students are also able to receive academic support from content area teachers when they are not scheduled for an exam.

What about the impact on staff?  Staff members value requiring students to receive extra time and support for learning during exam week and they turn in these students' names to our Attendance Office so that the students required to be here stay.  They also inform the students of who has lost the privilege of coming and going.

What else is different during exam week for us?  All exams are common exams except those singletons, and since our district has three high schools, some of the exams are district-common and some are building-common.

What does your analysis for your exam data tell you?  We carefully track the percentage of students who receive D's and F's on exams, as we do at Interim and Quarterly.  We have found that our quarterly grades are historically higher than exam grades and looked at various reasons.

When we engaged our students in these discussions, we found that even on same-subject teams that gave common exams were engaging in different exam preparation strategies.  In other words, some students all in English I or Biology, for example, were getting different review practices depending on their teachers.  We also examined post-exam practices, and found that teachers who developed common exams were also employing very different follow-up strategies with our students.  While some teachers utilized exams as formative for the second semester, some barely followed up at all with students on their performance.

In addition, we also looking this year at how each same-subject team is utilizing the class period prior to each exam, as we believe the teacher and student usage of this time also affects our exam data. We are continuing to work every day to not only improve our common assessments, but also to improve our exam preparation and follow-up, so that every student has an opportunity to do his/her best on assessments every day, and during exam week.

PLC: Systemic Response to a Learning Emergency

In many high schools, this week is Interim Week, the week where students and parents are informed about student progress halfway through the grading period.

At Dublin Jerome High School, a National Model Professional Learning Community at Work School and National Blue Ribbon School, not only do we communicate student progress, we act on it.

Do you carefully monitor student progress regularly?  We do-- at the middle and end of four quarterly grading periods per year.  More importantly, do you act on the D's and F's that individual students receive?  For us, it is a learning emergency.  And emergencies need immediate attention.

Here are the series of steps that we take as a Professional Learning Community to provide mandated intervention for students who need additional academic support to be successful:

1. We run a D and F report by grade level, by individual student and by individual teacher.  This allows for data analysis for academic trends as well as identifying individual academic concerns. Both the grade level data and individual student data is provided to every staff member.

2, Teachers submit grades electronically and then determine which students with D's or F's receive a Gold Card ( named after one of our school colors). A Gold Card outlines mandated intervention procedures for students.  Teachers meet with each of their Gold Card students and explain the procedures, which include a student getting 8 signatures that verify the extra academic support the student seeks and receives.  The responsibility then lies with the student. The teacher issuing the card is the first signature and the last signature, signifying it is complete within 4.5 weeks.  Students who receive a Gold Card but seek no assistance meet with an administrator and receive school discipline for insubordination.

3. Teachers send the names, grade level, subject and letter grade to a guidance secretary.  Guidance Counselors, with case loads by alphabet, individually meet with every Gold Card student and also initial the card, ensuring students understand how to get academic intervention according to our pyramid of interventions. Counselors also inform students with a Gold Card of a loss of privileges.

4. Students who receive a Gold Card are  subject to a loss of privileges.  For examples, seniors with early release or late arrival forfeit that privilege with a Gold Card for at least 4.5 weeks.  A section of study hall is built by our registrar so that the period 1 and period 7 study halls account for these new study hall students with attendance.

5. Students with Gold Cards must make arrangements either with their teachers before or after school or during planning time or lunch, or with academic content lab duty teachers to get extra academic intervention with the goal of achieving learning goals, including raising their grades to all A's, B's and C's.

In addition, students with all A's. B's and C's at Interim receive a sticker on their ID every interim and end of the grading period denoting that they have earned special privileges such as being able to leave study hall and go to a number of specially designated comfortable seating areas around the building.

Student success drives every decision we make and a D or F signals a learning emergency that necessitates a systemic response by a number of staff members.  Intervention by invitation doesn't work.  How do you respond when a student is not learning?

Do What the Team Needs

Whether you are a teacher, principal, engineer, manager, attorney or nurse, you are part of a team today.  Communication and collaboration are integral to every school and organization and we ask or are requested to be a team player.

For the most part, we strive to be a great team member and team leader.  Certainly we recognize the advantages of being part of a family and a team.  If you are an educator, you have most likely been a part of Professional Learning Community work, which mandates teachers working in collaborative teams to develop and implement common assessments, look at data collaboratively to inform instruction, and enact collaborative intervention and enrichment.  Certainly the new Ohio Teacher and Principal Evaluation Systems also mandates educators to engage in collaborative practices to improve student learning.

In addition, much motivational and educational literature has been published on the importance of team, cooperation and collaboration.  Indeed, most recently, author and speaker Jon Gordon has worked with many college athletic teams, organizations and schools on implementing his main principles of The Energy Bus.

This allegorical story of George, unhappy in life and work, and his transformation as a result of riding a bus that initially he hated the thought of riding, is a bestseller that reveal ten rules for approaching challenges.

We started out our year adopting the ten rules and receive short and great motivational email updates from Jon Gordon that reinforce how to overcome negativity and adversity to create success.  One of my favorites is Rule #6, No Energy Vampires Allowed, a visual and positive way to discuss the paralyzing effects of negative people on a team.

And yet, from time to time, we all become energy vampires, some just choose to do so for longer times than others.  One of the things I have noticed is that it is so easy to say that we want to be part of a team.  It is easy also to state we want to be positive team members, and when everything is going well for us, we are, especially if decisions are made that we disagree with but that don't really affect us.

But when a decision is made with which we disagree and directly affects us, it is much easier to forget the TEAM.

Today was a great example of that.  We have had six calamity days used this year, one over the limit.  The school board had previously denoted June 2 as a make-up day and the district announced today that we would use that day as designated.  The negative effect of that is that June 2 is on a Monday, and our exams were scheduled to end on the previous Friday.  We have now moved our last exam to that Monday, and it seemed today that no one liked the decision for varying reasons, not students, not parents, and not staff.

In essence, everyone became a victim, an Energy Vampire, sucking the positive energy out of the team.  Don't you know someone like that?  Every time something doesn't go their way, they play the victim.  Don't we all do that at some point?  Sure.  That is being human.

That is why that from time to time, we need to have those reminders that whether we want to be or not, we are always a part of a team.  Whether that team is our family, our church, our school, our organization, or our company, as a team member, as Mr. Spock once said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

How appropriate then today, that on Twitter, Jon Gordon posted a video entitled Do What the Team Needs.  Please watch this extremely short video, for it is a great reminder to all of us how fortunate we truly are to be a part of a team, whether we all like the decisions or not.  No matter what, we need to do what the team needs.

Take your work seriously but not yourself

Today is a big day, the first day of the Ohio Graduation Test, the Reading section.  Certainly a day for high school principals to take seriously.

Tomorrow we have an A-Team, a meeting led by our superintendent with every administrator in the district, certainly a meeting we take seriously.

Tonight at our Ohio Capital Conference meeting, an athletic league of 32 high schools in Central Ohio, we discussed a possible realignment of the league for football.  The discussion of high school principals and athletic directors certainly indicated that many of us took this proposed change very seriously.

It seems that at times our days are filled with serious topics.  Throw in the new Ohio teacher evaluation system, growth measures, AP testing, IB testing, new State report cards, the New Gen assessments, and other weighty topics and our work days are serious.

Our meeting tonight lasted until 9 PM and I have a 30-minute drive back to my home.  To be honest, I was worried about still posting a blog for tonight and yes, had other serious or potentially serious topics on my mind.  A long day.  And only Monday, I thought.

Thank goodness, before I left, I glanced at my Twitter account and found this, posted by my student leaders.

I had to laugh out loud.  I love it!  Thank goodness-- it reminded me that although we take our work seriously, we do not have to take ourselves seriously.  It made my day!  And thank goodness for student humor and social media!

Testing: Putting faces on the data

This week is Ohio Graduation Test Week, where all over the  state all sophomores will be taking this required test for graduation.  Students must pass all 5 sections in order to graduate from high school: Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies and Science, one section each day with a testing window of 2.5 hours.

Soon these tests will be replaced by the New Generation assessments that eventually students will be required to pass, consisting of  9 end-of-course assessments and accruing a certain number of quality points in order to graduation from high school.  Since these tests will be phased in, some teachers are currently preparing students for two different assessments.

For those of us directly involved in education at any level, we are aware of the amount of testing and accountability facing schools today.  This spring, our high school will be administering the OGT, Advanced Placement tests, International Baccalaureate assessments, ACT (we are a pilot school for the new online) and also a pilot school for two of the Next Generation assessments.

As a school,  welcome the new accountability standards and will work our best, as we always have, to do the very best we can every day to prepare students for any and all assessments mandated by our district, state or nation.

Still, I hope we never lose sight of the stress level these assessments place on students, parents, staff and schools.

Rick Stiggins, educational reformist, reminds us to "put the faces on the data," as a way of reminding us that every test score represents a student.  Testing, both classroom and state and national mandates, is personal, and we know as educators that many students are trying to overcome insurmountable obstacles in order to pass assessments.

But do the legislators and public, particularly those who have no current students or who has never had students in school, know and understand that?

What about the senior who does not have English as their primary language who is down to their last try before graduation to pass?  And that this senior has a two-year-old child and works two jobs outside of the school day in order to support her and her family.  While we would hope that she is devoting all of her time this week to preparing for the Ohio Graduation Test, the reality is that life supersedes testing.  This student works very hard at her school work and is determined to pass, and yet her score will be impacted by obstacles that perhaps the mandates cannot figure into her score.

What about the other sophomore who has missed over 30 days of school this year due to medical issues?  Not only is it difficult for a 15-year-old  to spend high school at numerous medical and surgical appointments while enduring uncomfortable medical procedures, but he is still responsible for passing all 5 sections of the OGT.  If the student even attends all 5 days this week, it will be the first complete week of school attended this school year.

Students with drug and alcohol abuse problems, mental health issues, language barriers, test anxiety, attendance problems, legal issues, and so on, permeate high schools today.  We have worked extremely hard this year preparing students for the OGT, holding parent information meetings, adding extra preparation sessions after school, aligning curriculum and modeling our assessments in the same format as students will find on this important test.  Still, we will have students test who are facing battles of which we are aware and battles of which we have no knowledge.

And yet when our scores and building report card becomes public, few will know the stories -- and faces-- behind the data.

If we are not busy being born, we are busy dying.

To paraphrase Bob Dylan, if we are not busy being born, we are busy dying.  Today I start blogging for the first time, and I believe part of the reason is that I hope I am being born every day by discovering new and wondrous things in life.

I started on this blogging journey at the encouragement mostly of my daughter and as part of my journey into the world of Twitter since last fall.  As a high school principal, I had been seeking an opportunity to better communicate with my learning community as well as connect positively to the greater community I serve and so I established a school Twitter and Facebook presence.  I was truly amazed how quickly our friends and followers embraced us and I truly enjoyed in particular recognizing our students and families through real time photos and their participation in athletic events, plays, concerts etc.

These tweets and posts led me to wanting to establish my own personal learning network and so I entered the world of Twitter.  I did not know what to expect but admit that Twitter is one of the best professional development choices I have made.  I truly love it for all of the reasons many of you do, and I also believe it has made me a better principal.  In the end, I do not believe that as principals we can continue to ask staff to move forward in technology and face the changes in accountability if we are not willing to do the same ourselves.

And so, now why start a blog?

1. I believe very strongly that principals and educators need to lead with empathy and enthusiasm for learning and for life.  We need to be the harbingers of ongoing hope and optimism.  After reading many tweets, blogs, and articles, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of research and writing that clearly puts the burden for educational success and student achievement on us.  By blogging I hope to find a deeper connection with exemplary educators and gain exposure to your ideas and insights in leading.

2. Yesterday my daughter, also an educator and a National Writing Project consultant, helped me set up this blog.  She is a blogger and I have been mesmerized by her writing, her insights and the connections she has made with other educators.  After spending the morning with her about setting up this blog, I saw in her eyes all that is best about young educators today--bright and deeply committed to changing the lives of her ELL students. And I am amazed by her technology skills.  How did she ever learn all this, I ask her.  And she just grins and shakes her head without a answer.  And that is the difference between her generation of educators and mine.  She doesn't know how she learned it because she LIVES it.  I have to LEARN it.  Her whole life is different because she and her husband naturally use technology.  More importantly, she teaches differently and utilizes technology naturally in her classroom to improve her students' achievement, especially in literacy.  This year she taught her students how to blog and connect with the real world through writing and reading blogs in the Slice of Life project.  People from all over the world commented on their writing and reading and the world is their audience.  They grew immensely and I hope to experience what they did.

In the short hours we spent together in learning about blogging, I learned the importance of choosing the right background colors from her (Mom-- I have read that dark backgrounds and light print are more effective for blogs--the colors we chose are the Jerome school colors), widgets (she started losing me here, believe me) and the importance of choosing the right name for my blog. (Mom-- the name of your blog should reflect what you really believe about education or why you are blogging, but it can't be so long).  This led to a philosophical discussion with her on my core beliefs of education-- it was truly meaningful to be able to discuss this with her from one generation of an educator to another and from mom to daughter.

My title-- Every Student, Every Day is from my heart and reflects what I believe education, especially high school education, is and should be.  We work every day at getting better at this at Jerome, for it depends on every person in our building, secretary, custodian, teacher, administrator, and/or counselor to focus on changing the life of an individual student every day in some way, making a substantial personal connection.  Yes, our focus is academics but changing lives is our business, for the decisions we make daily and the decisions we help students make truly can and do affect the people they become and the learners they become after high school.  And the world needs good people and good learners.

3. I hope to blog to have my colleagues and other educators, perhaps even my students and parents, get to know me better.  Relationships are so important in education today and we can better build trust when we all know each other better.

4. I also hope to be a resource for other high school principals, particularly in collaboratively and interdependently working and sharing with them our ideas in Professional Learning Community work.  I have been significantly impacted by hearing Rick DuFour early in my admin career as an assistant principal and knew after that first meeting at the Franklin County ESC Principal Academy that PLC work is the work that high schools needed to be doing.  Having been a high school admin for 14 years now and principal now for 8 years in a new high school (this year we celebrate our 10th anniversary), PLC work has become my passion and guiding light in improving and creating a high school committed to student learning every day.  I am eager to learn from each of you who also have this same passion.

And so, I end my very first blog post.  I will be interested in what my daughter thinks (Mom-- it may be a little long :)) and I am interested in what you think.  I know that learning is living and that living is learning.  I strive to be born every day in learning. I know that every day as a high school principal and a high school educator is a challenge but one worth taking, for it is these wonderful students and colleagues that change my life for the better every day.  I also know that I hope to get better every day, and with your help, ideas, input and feedback, I hope to achieve that goal, as a person and as a principal.

With Celtic Pride,
Cathy