Can't Stop Talking About It

 I'm doing a series of short posts during the holiday break. 

What does your conversation in and out of the classroom reveal about your passions? Students hear the one and your colleagues hear the other. What would they say you get excited about?

I remember long ago my students told me they could avoid a quiz or homework in Spanish class if they just asked their teacher about her time in Spain. She'd get so excited, she'd talk to the end of the hour.

I have never been one to spend lunch in the teachers lounge regularly. When I do find myself there, I love it when I can share a conversation with a teacher about an exciting activity she did or that she plans to do. Sure, we all need those conversations that have nothing to do with the job, but it's great to see passion for teaching spilling into what most consider work-free time.

And what conversations never come up in those settings?

Our heart's passions overflow into our words. What drives us and what's driving those around us can be heard behind the surface chatter, if we stop to listen. In a job as important as teaching, it's imperative that we as leaders (leaders of buildings, leaders of classrooms) take the time to hear hearts behind the words.

Creating Culture - New Insight

I'm doing a series of short posts during the holiday break. 

Artists create. Some paint pictures or compose music. Some (probably not thought of as artists) work on the canvas of daily life. They intentionally shape the culture of their environment.

When I'd talk with district leaders about staff or students, or my brother who pastors a church, I used to say the following when it comes to leadership and culture. 

Think of people in your organization who "get it". Don't worry too much about what it means to get it. Just think of a few of them. You know who they are. Then think of the group of people who don't get it. Maybe they're a much bigger group, maybe not.

So the big question I always posed was:  Q1:  What do people in the Don't Get It group see and hear regularly that makes them feel it's important to move to the Get It group?

The key words are see, hear, regularly and feel. Feel is probably most important. Without using the terms, this is really touching on the (possibly unspoken) core values of the organization. It addresses messaging and mission.

But lately I realized there's another side to this--another question that must be addressed. It's just as important to also consider Q2:  What do the people in the Don't Get It group see and hear regularly that makes moving to the Get It group feel like too much work?

See, a lot of people don't live up to their potential because they're convinced other people and circumstances will undo their hard work. They might not state it this way, but that feeling is a culture drain. It's drag on the vehicle in the race toward greatness. 

If you're not sure what the energy killers are in your organization, just listen to the people most comfortable in the center of the Don't Get It group. Those people love to point out what's holding everyone back. They chant them in grumbles, wrapping themselves in "why bothers" like cozy blankets. 

You will never eliminate all the possible answers to Question 2. Instead, the task is to move forward despite the resistance. In other words, make sure your answers to Question 1 are more pervasive in the organization than the forces uncovered by Question 2. Like strokes on a canvas, make it happen one small win at a time.

The Most Amazing Sound

I'm doing a series of short posts during the holiday break.

I’ve decided my favorite sound in school is that of students talking about what they've learned or what they're learning. 

Sometimes it’s just them retelling something, but it also might be them expressing an opinion or an explanation of something they discovered. For all that is said about assessment and data, there’s something undeniably powerful in just listening to a learner speaking confidently about the lesson material. 

I've heard this recently in "podcast" projects and Socratic Seminars. Here are a couple links.

• How we do "podcast" audio recording projects at our school
• A good post from John Spencer about Socratic Seminars

The Theme of Our Work

I studied math and computer science in college, not literature or writing. I have always loved  reading books of all types, though, and I have more recently tried my hand at writing fiction. 

One concept I hadn't considered much until I began writing is theme. Once I came to understand it better, I realized it was a source of most of my fascination with great stories over the years. It was a subtle, unstated message buried in every scene. It hinted at purpose beyond just the events I was reading or (in the case of my favorite movies) watching.

Here's a definition of theme from literarydevices.net. For our purposes, especially notice the sentences in bold.

"As a literary device, theme refers to the central, deeper meaning of a written work. Writers typically will convey the theme of their work, and allow the reader to perceive and interpret it, rather than overtly or directly state the theme. As readers infer, reflect, and analyze a literary theme, they develop a greater understanding of the work itself and can apply this understanding beyond the literary work as a means of grasping a better sense of the world. Theme is often what creates a memorable and significant experience of a literary work for the reader."

So I think of theme as a message the author is saying without saying it. It's the "why" woven through everything. I particularly like the idea from this definition that it can make a story memorable and give us a better sense of the world.

So when it comes to teaching like an artist, let's think about the theme of our work as educators. If you're a teacher, what is the overall theme of your classroom? If you asked your students that question, would they have the same answer as you do?

If you're a principal, what's the theme of your building? What overall message comes through the day to day routines and activities that take place through every classroom? What would your teachers and students say the theme is?

I would hope the theme of my work is that every learner (including those of us paid to be at the school) should find their passion and purpose, then do their best work from the energy they provide.

Some other questions to consider as we reflect on this:

• Should we state our theme explicitly? Or should we do our best work and let those who benefit from it find the theme with their hearts? 
• How can we know the theme we hope to convey is coming through? What indicators will we see and hear?
• Is the message of my theme for every learner I encounter in my work? Is anyone being left out?
• If the learners I work with are getting a different message from my work, how can I address that?

What Would Be Amazing?

This past spring, I asked if I could change my focus in the district where I work. For 14 years I served as the instructional tech coordinator. I wanted to emphasize instruction more, regardless whether tech was involved. I was glad to find the district administrators were open to the change.

So as I've been planning instructional coaching meetings with individuals, this question came to mind:  What would be amazing?

I have spent most of my career with "doing something amazing" as my end goal. But I learned that everyone in education has slightly to drastically different ideas of what "amazing" would look like.

What are some things that would happen in your district that would catch your attention as amazing? What would happen in your classroom that would make you say, "Wow"? What could your students do that would be labeled amazing?

I want to start conversations with that question. I want to learn if those amazing things they tell me would be done by the teacher I'm meeting with, by their principals, or by the students. Would other people think they're amazing? Would I think they're amazing?

Whatever the answer is, it won't be as important as what it reveals. Such an answer speaks volumes about things like:

• What does quality work look like?
• Who's responsible to make amazing things happen?
• Who has to (or we think has to) do their part before we will move to do ours?
• What really matters in the job we do every day?

For example, I worked with one teacher who dreamed up an impressive project last year when I challenged her to do something amazing. I fully expected to do all the dreaming myself, but she did research and came up with something that inspired another teacher from another district to do something similar. 

On the other hand, I've talked with some teachers over the years who imagine an amazing day as a classroom full of compliant students. Or maybe a test where everyone gets a high score. I'm not saying those aren't amazing things, but I'm saying a person's answer to the question speaks volumes about our starting place. 

If we don't ask, and if we don't identify these big differences in expectations, we very likely will assume we're all trying to get to the same place. We'll likely be upset with how poorly one thing is going, when others think everything is great.

So part of my reflection time this summer has been spent answering that question for myself. What would be an amazing result in the first weeks of my new position? What will be amazing at the end of first semester? Or the school year? 

Give it a try and see what list you come up with. Share it with your colleagues, and have them answer it too.

What Dreams Do We Have for Our Students?

Over the past three weeks I helped our high school principal, Loren Dockins, with a vision setting activity that has been encouraging. I say that based on the responses we received and the excitement we have at continuing the work. We still have a lot to sort through and much work ahead on the overall plan.

I'll share the document we used and describe how we ran it below. I'll also explain why I think the starting point is so powerful. First, here's some brief background.

It's coming up on two years since our district first shut down due to COVID-19. Like nearly every school, the ups and downs of dealing with the virus has made it very difficult to focus on long term goals and overall direction. We wanted a course correction.

Loren and I met with Dr. Scott McLeod at the end of 2021. That led to some rough plans for activities to involve teachers in setting a vision for our high school. Dr. McLeod suggested we look at the Portrait of a Graduate website for ideas. I was particularly inspired by this article, Dream, Don't Fix, which I found on that site.

The article talked about starting with a dream instead of a problem we want to fix. That was interesting enough to me, but what really caught my attention was that dream was not our dream for us. It suggested starting with what teachers dream for their students.

For all the talk I've done the past 15 years about what's right for students, I don't think I ever articulated the dream I had for them. What do I want for the students who go through our school? Not just in some vague sense, but what would I say if I had to state it concisely? What do my colleagues and my administrators dream for them?

So from that article and all our discussion, I drafted three questions and ran them by Loren. We fleshed it out more together, then sent it to Dr. McLeod for feedback. He thought the questions were excellent. He reminded us that whatever we get back from teachers, their answers would help us know where we are at and what our next steps should be.

My suggestion for this activity was to require every teacher to work on it alone. We had discussed similar questions before in groups, but in retrospect, I didn't see much impact of those meetings. Loren agreed we needed to let each of them work alone. He sent this Google Doc (through Google Classroom) to teachers with very little additional information. Loren he only urged them to take their responses seriously. It was important to us that no one felt compelled to give the answer Loren wanted to hear. 

See the document for the exact wording of this questions, but here's a summary of what we asked:

1. What is your dream for the students who will graduate from our high school?
2. Considering the state of the world and changes ahead, what skills and knowledge will our students need to achieve that dream? (We asked them to list these things in specific areas, like academics or training, jobs and careers, etc.)
3. Looking at your lists from Question 2, choose 5 - 10 traits that you think our students need.
4. Rate how apparent each of those skills are in the members of our current senior class.
5. What comments do you have about this topic or this activity?

Loren told me he was encouraged and excited by the results he received. I suspect teachers will also be very interested to see what everyone wrote. A lot more discussion is needed, but we plan to use the responses to define work for a committee tasked with setting a fresh vision for the school.

I passed the questions along to our middle school and elementary principals as well. The question will look different for them, but we all agreed it will be beneficial for similar work to be done there. 

I'll follow up with more resources and what we learned as our work continues.