Summer 2016

Summer 2016 is officially upon us and it came in a hurry as we prepared for remodeling of some of our larger classrooms in the building.....Ag, Art, Metal Shop, Science.  These large spaces were home to many years of history and piles of evidence of student learning.  Finishing a year and trying to assess students while getting ready to empty a room in two days is a daunting task.  I am not sure how Spruce Street and Tower Rock did this for a whole school last summer!  Amazing!

The summer professional development has already started with tons of staff meeting at the high school and various other places.  It is exciting to be a part of a place with a team that is constantly focused on getting better.  I am writing this during a google level 1 educator training to see if I can actually use blogger.  I am certain this is the most basic way, but it is a start.  Maybe I will be able to add to the blog as the year goes and do more than just type.  Have a great summer!

Aaron A

Friday Notes - 12/11/15

Stuff that happened this week:

First, most of my week was spent supporting staff and students, either directly in the classroom, in meetings in my office, or in meetings with staff. The biggest of those happened on Tuesday, when we unveiled the latest design concept from our architects related to the science redesign. In the briefest terms I can state, the concept involves swapping Agriculture, Art and Biology within the building and incorporating room  room 60. This was a result of my challenge to the Architect to identify two things: space in the building underutilized (by scheduling or purpose) and where might that space be re-purposed to create a career cluster. 

Understandably, since this concept incorporates areas of the building not previously discussed, there has been an emotional response to the newest idea. Those emotions run the gamut from joy to anger, but probably everyone involved experienced a feeling of being overwhelmed. Ultimately, we are about 100 decision points to go from actually making any changes to our building and lots of changes to the design will happen between now and then. I look forward to the process. 

Second, I completed my 5th formal observation this week. I have two more scheduled and will complete all of my formal observations for EE by the end of first semester. I believe I completed my last one last year in the third week of May. So, I am quite a bit ahead of schedule there. The corresponding bad news is that I have made 51 classroom visits so far; 249 visits short of my goal as we near the midpoint. I've got some work to do. I will mention that some of you aren't exactly holding up your end of the bargain. You agreed to call me on it if you hadn't seen me in your class by the end of the first month. Some have called my attention to it; some have not. I'd love to have you hold me accountable to this goal; so please good-naturedly harass me, pretty please? 

Third, in '17-'18 two new schools will almost certainly be joining the Badger Conference - Beaver Dam and Watertown. On Wednesday, the 16 principals of that new Badger Conference met to decide what the organization of the new conference will be. It took three votes and an 90 minutes of discussion about competition, travel, budgets, and academic impact. In the end, it was decided to add Beaver Dam to the existing North and Watertown to the existing South. Additionally, a comprehensive review of the impact of this change was established for the fall of 2019 to determine if that structure was still meeting our needs. 

While my weekend did not allow me to take in the Madrigal dinner this weekend, I was in the building Friday night watching the hundreds of students transform the school into their castle. Its quite an exercise in student leadership. Please congratulate our students on their efforts if you get the chance! 

 Next Week's Significant Events: 

• Monday, Dec. 14 
• Staff meeting in the RAC Gallery @ 3:40 PM
• We will be discussion process going forward for schedule revision. 
• BOE Meeting @ Middle School 7:00 PM 

• Thursday, Dec. 17 
• Holiday Tea in Office Conference Room 
• Swimming vs Verona at 6:15 PM 
• Gymnastics vs Milton at 6:30 PM @ Grand Ave.

• Friday, Dec. 18 
• Holiday Tea (Inclement weather make-up day) 
• Boys' Basketball vs Mount Horeb - 5:50 JV 7:30 Var.

Week After Next's Significant Events:

• Monday, Dec. 21
• High School Staff Holiday Happy Hour - 4:30 - ? at Prairie House
• Details to follow in separate email 

• Tuesday, Dec. 22
• Last day of classes before break
• Girls Basketball vs Dodgeville - 5:50 JV 7:30 Var.

• Thursday, Dec. 23 - Sunday, Jan. 3
• No School - Happy Holidays!! 

Friday Notes - 12/4/15

First things first...

Seems impossible that my last post was in late October. Sorry for that everyone. Between the week I was gone to the conference, the week I was deathly ill, and the week of Thanksgiving...a month can slip away pretty fast. Hopefully, we'll settle down into more of a pattern and get you the critical communication you need each week.

Stuff that happened this week:

Monday, we finally got initial concept drawings back from the architect for the next round of construction. Shane, Jeff, Aaron A. and I looked them over and have begun planning to hold meetings with staff to discuss the plans as soon as next week. Looking forward to the conversations, the additional planning and finally to construction this summer.

Tuesday, the community suicide prevention coalition met. Owen and I are now both a part of the work of this committee and plans are going forward to make an impact on suicide awareness in the Sauk Prairie Community. For what it's worth, Sauk Prairie's work in this area has drawn the attention of Sauk County and it looks like the county might be cranking up their suicide prevention efforts in 2016.

Wednesday, Aaron, Aaron and I participated in a facilities planning meeting looking at all of our outdoor instructional, athletic, and co-curricular spaces. The company we are working with will have a master plan developed by the last week before break and I'm excited to see where that will go. Also on Wednesday, in our team leaders' meeting, we discussed two major items: creating a 1-to-1 environment beginning in 2016-17 using Chromebooks and making a final decision about schedule revision by March of 2016 for the 2017-18 school year. On both topics, we worked on some outstanding issues, and the entire faculty will hear more at the December 14th staff meeting.

Thursday was occupied with the district safety meeting, our weekly HS pupil services team meeting, and an amazing PACKERS Victory!!

And Friday was dominated by student behavior. :)

Office Update:

Before Thanksgiving we agreed that the Office Conference room would be returned to usability by Monday, Dec. 14th. So all office staff have been working hard in their spare moments to purge that room of detritus and get it back to conference room shape. When that is done, with the exception of a few odds and ends we are waiting on with contractors, the Summer 2015 construction projects will officially be completed....just in time for Christmas!!!

Professional Reading:

I maintain a pretty hardy professional library in my office. You're all welcome to scan the shelves anytime and if there's something that interests you, take it, read it, and bring it back. New to the library this week:

Lost at School: Why our kids with behavioral challenges are falling through the cracks and how we can help them by Ross Greene. Learn more at: http://www.lostatschool.org/

From Disability to Possibility: The power of inclusive classrooms by Patrick Schwarz. Learn more at: http://www.heinemann.com/products/E00993.aspx

Thanks for the Feedback: The science and art of receiving feedback well* by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen. Learn more at: http://stoneandheen.com/books#thanks-feedback (*even when it is offbase, unfair, poorly delivered, and, frankly, you're not in the mood)

Questioning for Classroom Discussion: Purposeful speaking, engaged listening, deep thinking by Jackie Walsh and Beth Sattes Let more at:
http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Questioning-for-Classroom-Discussion.aspx

This Week's Significant Events:

Dec. 7-11 - NHS "Giving Tree" Week

• Dec. 7 
• Elf Day 
• Dec. 8 
• Reindeer Day 
• Gymnastics vs Mount Horeb 6:30 @ Grand Ave. 
• Dec. 9 
• Red and Green Day 
• Badger Conference Principals' Meeting (Art & Business) Deforest - Leave at 11:15 AM 
• PLC Day - Early release at 1:50 PM 
• Dec. 10 
• Ugly Sweater Day 
• Giving Tree "Donate While You Dine" @ Culvers 5-9 PM 
• Wrestling vs Milton 6:15 JV &:30 Var 
• Hockey Vs Deforest 7:00 PM @ SPARC 
• Dec. 11 
• Santa Day 
• Giving Tree Raffle Drawing in Office at 3:15 PM 
• Boys' Basketball vs Waunakee 5:50 JV 7:30 Var. 

Next Week's' Significant Events:

• Dec. 14 
• Staff meeting in the RAC Gallery @ 3:40 PM 
• BOE Meeting @ Middle School 7:00 PM 
• Dec. 17 
• Holiday Tea in Office Conference Room 
• Swimming vs Verona at 6:15 PM 
• Gymnastics vs Milton at 6:30 PM @ Grand Ave. 
• Dec. 18 
• Holiday Tea (Inclement weather make-up day) 
• Boys' Basketball vs Mount Horeb - 5:50 JV 7:30 Var. 

Friday Notes - 10/16/15 (Yes...they are a touch late.)

Stuff that happened this week: 

On Monday, the 9 staff members from SPSD who are attending the National School-Based Mental Health conference in the first week of November met to discuss the sessions we would attend. Our goal is to have as comprehensive of a learning experience as we can, so that upon our return, the 9 of us are in a position to use our learning throughout the district to make an impact for kids. To give you a sense of the sessions we are taking in, here is my schedule for the week: 

• Building a Collaborative Culture for Student Mental Health This practice group has as its primary objective to promote the active exchange of ideas and collaboration between school employed and community employed mental health providers, educators, and families.
• Wellness Works! A Coordinated Wellness Center Model for High Schools The Wellness Center model offers coordinated health, mental health, substance abuse and reproductive health services to students by providing direct services and comprehensive prevention and education to the entire school community. Learn about a three-tiered approach to providing a full continuum of mental and behavioral health services at school and walk away with replicable strategies to utilize youth development, community partnerships and staff consultation/training to enhance positive mental and behavioral health for all students.
• Transforming the Fabric of Communities through Connections: Improving Life Outcomes for Children and Youth This presentation will provide research and real-life examples of the use of social capital to improve youth outcomes. The audience will have the opportunity to engage in discussion and practical activities that introduce them to a variety of methods to involve youth in their communities in a positive way.
• Building a Collaborative Culture for Student Mental Health (Continued from first session)
• Unconditional Education: How the Infusion of Trauma-Informed Practice with PBIS Creates Highly Capable School Communities (Part 1) an interactive session where attendees will gain insight and skills in how to build community-wide capacity to effectively understand the impact of trauma and respond in ways that support the academic, behavioral, and social emotional outcomes of students.
• Some Secrets Should be Shared: Engaging the Entire School Community in Implementing an Evidence-based Suicide Prevention Program in Your SchoolAddressing suicide risk is more relevant than ever for school communities serving diverse student groups. Participants will understand research on safety, efficacy, and feasibility of suicide prevention program implementation and be prepared to engage youth and adults in an open discussion about depression and suicide.
• Interconnected System Framework (ISF) Tools to Help with Implementation This session will explore the ISF with the focus on implementation at the district/community level as well as the school building level. Developing tools, to support the integration of mental health through a multi-tiered system of behavioral support with schools, will be shared.
• Youth Participatory Action Research: Engaging Young People in Exploring Mental Health in their Communities (YIL) Authentically engaging youth in planning and decision-making can be incredibly beneficial to the young person themselves as he/she matures to adulthood, and to the community at large. This workshop will outline Oregon?s experience using two intertwined methods of positive youth engagement.
• Developing Tiered Supports for High School Academic Achievement Through Collaboration The impact of mental health conditions on academic achievement, as well as obstacles to treatment, will be considered. A tiered system of collaborative support services will be discussed.
• Sanctuary In Schools: Implementing Trauma-Informed Practice in Schools We will introduce the Sanctuary model and how the Mental Health Division of ANDRUS integrated it into the local public school systems. We will also provide concrete strategies and tools, and discuss challenges we encounter in the ongoing implementation. 
• Youth Mental Health Fist Aid: A strategy for scaling- up supports for adolescents experiencing mental health or addictions challenges Instructors as part of a comprehensive, state-wide scale-up strategy to address the needs of adolescents struggling with mental health issues. YMHFA is an evidence based program designed to teach adults how to help adolescents (age 12-18 years) experiencing mental health or addictions challenges. 
• Identification and Building on Youth Strengths to Support Success; Research in Progress Strength based practice is an essential tool in enabling children and youth success! For school-based practitioners, it is a tool to engage families. For families, use of strengths builds resilience and supports youth development. For children and youth who struggle in school, strengths enable the experience of competence, and positive identity! This session outlines current research in the use of strengths to support successful student performance. Assessment strategies, process and outcomes will be presented.
• Advances in School Violence Prevention: Collaborative Strategies to Keep Students Safe For more than a decade, two seminal documents: Early Warning, Timely Response and Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide have served as key resources in building a foundation for preventing school violence. This session will provide essential updates on resources and school-based programs that focus on school violence prevention, positive school climate, effective learning environments, and improving academic and social-emotional outcomes for all students. 
• Factors that impact the mental health and wellness of K12 and college/university students in California: The critical role of school culture This symposium will describe the more than $50 million California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) Student Mental Health Initiative, a historic statewide effort to improve student mental health, and the extent to which CalMHSAýs SMH statewide initiative is changing school environments to support student mental health needs. 
• Break Free from Depression: A 4-Module Curriculum to Address Adolescent Depression In this workshop, participants will be introduced to Break Free from Depression, a four session classroom based prevention curriculum developed to raise awareness around adolescent depression. Participants will be given the opportunity to deepen their understanding of how to implement a mental health prevention program through learning how to facilitate this curriculum in their schools and/or community. Participants will receive a detailed manual, a copy of the documentary, and materials needed for implementation.

Those 15 sessions represent some great learning opportunities. The rest of the team has a similar slate for the 3 days of the conference. I'm really looking forward to bringing the best learning we can find in the nation back to Sauk Prairie. For your reference, the whole team is: Doug Yost, Chad Harnisch, Owen Murphy, Missy Hilliard, Susan Baumann-Duren, Ted Harter, Mindy Breunig, Cindy Ladd, and Anne Uphoff.

On Tuesday, I met with two juniors, individually, who both struggled mightily their freshmen year. Each of them had challenges in their personal lives two years ago which contributed to great difficulty passing any classes in 9th grade. Both of them have made a turn-around academically, and while they are not out of the woods yet, if their current efforts continue, the payoff for both of them will almost certainly be on-time graduation. The biggest difference between my time as teacher and the role I'm in now is getting to see the full arc of a student's career. Seeing kids turn it around, and seeing staff not give up on kids, really reminds me why we do this work.  

On Wednesday, I attended the Badger Conference Principals' meeting. Always a great opportunity for me to learn. Most important thing I learned this week: How lucky we are!! First in the students we serve. Some of our peers had great difficulty with their homecoming weeks. Drugs, alcohol, fire alarms! And our biggest issue was toilet paper! Second, in that we selected CESA 6 and MyLearningPlan for our Educator Effectiveness project. Talk to any of your peers in Teachscape schools and I know you will hear plenty about the ineffectiveness of that system. MyLearningPlan isn't perfect, but it works they way its supposed to when its supposed to! 

Big news from Thursday was our second 16-17 Calendar Committee Meeting. And by big news, I mean no news yet. :( However, the good news is that the committee members have been given homework before our next meeting on 11/3: bring draft calendars that meet the needs of the level you work at. So your high school representative, Mary Halweg, and I will be working next week to draft some calendar proposals for the 2016-17 school year. If you'd like to try your hand at drafting a proposal, let me know and I'll get you a black calendar form. If you just want to share input and let others do the drafting, talk to Mary or I this week. 

On Friday, I spent most of my day thinking about the emotional health of and talking with our students, particularly those most emotionally fragile and those closest to them. We are having an excellent start to the school year; being even more caring and responsive to student needs and experiencing some great successes. Yet, we still have some kids who come to school each day with a lot of pain. Interestingly, Lynn Frick spent Thursday and Friday at the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English convention and shared with me via email the following takeaway from Jeffery Wilhelm, one of the presenters: 

I'm in Milwaukee listening to Jeffrey Wilhelm. He's talking about motivation and inquiry teaching. He just introduced a Contract to Care. His research found if we even meet one of these qualifications, it makes a huge difference in student learning!
* Get to know me personally and recognize me as an individual
*Care about me as a person and a learner
* Attend to my interests in some way--inside and outside of class
* Help me learn--don't give up on me
* Be passionate, committed, work hard, and know your stuff

As Lynn said in her closing of the email, it "sounds like stuff we can all do." Do what you can this week to connect to your learners. It will help their learning; and it just might relieve their pain. 

Classroom Visits

Not the best week on the classroom visit front. I'm now at 36 total visits and have 264 to go. I do have 2 formal observations on the schedule before Nov. 1st though. (So Marcia rocks!!) And since I don't think I did my first one March last year, we finally have empirical evidence that I can improve year to year!

Something to think about: 

Tomorrow and Thursday we have Parent-Teacher Conferences. With some parents, the 10 minutes we have this week might be the only time we have to sit with them and discuss our shared hopes for their child's future. I know each of you will use that time to the best of your ability. For tips to do just that, NEA has a whole toolkit:NEA P/T Conference Toolkit. Might be worth a trip before sitting down with parents tomorrow.

This week significant events: 

October 19 - NHS Induction Ceremony 6-7 RAC

                   - SPHS Fall Music Concert 7 pm - South Gym

October 20 Parent-Teacher Conferences 4 - 7:30 pm (held in commons)

October 22 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
                   - Parent-Teacher Conferences 8 - 11:30 am (held in classrooms)

October 23 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
                   - Professional Development Make-up day

October 24 - Celebration of Life for Sue Halloway 1:30 pm SPHS Gym

Next Week Significant Events:

October 26 - New Course proposals (with prior department approval) due to Chad by 4:00 pm

October 27-31 - FFA National Convention

October 28 - Flu Shot Clinic @ SPMS 2:30-5:00pm

- Team Leaders Meeting 3:40 pm

October 29 - Aaron and Chad out: Attending AWSA Local Advocacy Session

October 30 - Marcia on Vacation through 11/3 (please plan accordingly)

November 1 - Fall Back 1 hour - Daylight Savings Time Ends

Friday Notes- 10/09/15

It's been awhile...

My last blog post here was in January of 2014...and I have a bunch of excuses for why I stopped writing...none of which will anyone likely care about. 

But I have a good reason for why I'm starting to write again...I've always liked the idea of a weekly staff bulletin because I think it serves an important role in all of us being on the same page. I'll be using this space for that purpose for the foreseeable future. 

Stuff that happened this week:

On Monday - board/administrator retreat - quite a bit of discussion occurred between 14 administrators and 6 board members in the following areas: employee relations, academics, and student life. There was an article in this week's Sauk Prairie Star that seemed to focus quite a bit on bullying, though I would say that was a minor topic in terms of time dedicated in the meeting. We talked a lot about the changing world educators have found themselves in recently and how we as leaders in the district can lighten the load to make all jobs more "doable." Also, the board encouraged administrators to be innovative and progressive in our instructional leadership and to be student centered. Retreats aren't good or bad in the moment; they can only be defined after we learn if they sparked any action and if that action was positive or not. So...we'll see where any of that conversation goes. 

On Tuesday, I attended the foundational meeting of a community coalition to address suicide prevention. The attendees represented our schools, local clergy, law enforcement, and local business leaders. I am hopeful that something will come of this. I'll let you know more as this group moves forward. Also, new staff began ALICE training Tuesday. I believe all new staff will be trained by next week Tuesday. We will talk about next steps with ALICE once all staff are trained. Two next steps on the table are: Establishment of rally points in the event you have to evacuate in an ALICE event and the training of students in ALICE. 

On Wednesday, our student Mental Health Event planning group met. They have decided to move forward with "action." So they have committed to the following: an awareness walk on Sunday Nov. 15th from 5-7 pm and a day of learning centered on mental health for Wednesday, Jan. 27th, 2016. Subcommittees of staff and students are working to firm up the details for both of these events, but I wanted to have you put them on your calendar. There are also plans for smaller awareness raising and learning activities between the two events, but those need additional clarity before I can share what those are. 

This morning I met with Kurt Rossbach, the advisor for the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) here at the high school. Kurt wanted to fill me in on some of the efforts of the GSA to enhance our already supportive school. They will be placing a post-it note on all lockers in the coming weeks with a message of support and access to numbers students can reach out to if they need someone to talk with. Additionally, the week of Nov. 16-20th is Transgender Awareness week. As the assembly debates a bill looking to mandate where students can go to the bathroom, it probably makes good sense for all of us to learn a bit about transgender life. The GSA is planning some informational sessions for students and staff that week. 

Fifty new chromebooks went online in the high school this morning. I've had lots of conversations about the relative scarcity of computers this fall, and almost everyone I talk to has sent the message that SPHS is ready to pursue 1-to-1 computing. So I've begun those conversations with the necessary district level administrators to move us in that direction. If you feel strongly one way or the other about 1-to-1, you should make sure you carve out sometime to meet with me and share your thoughts. 

Classroom Visits

I've made roughly 29 classroom visits this year. (I'm being pretty strict about that only counting if you are working with kids in an academic sense, so while I've physically been present in more rooms, I'm not counting every trip as a "Classroom visit.) To meet the goal I set in Sept., I need to make 271 more. I hope to finish this writing up and get out there yet today, so well see if I can't make that number a bit smaller yet this week. 

I've answered ACT practice questions in math, talked about the Cask of Amontillado in English. I've tried, and failed, to answer multiple questions asked of me in Spanish. I learned that clay holds less water than sand because sand has bigger particles. I discovered that a nut-driver is like a screw-driver but with a socket head instead of a blade. I heard some information about unit conversion and ratios but I admit I'd have to review my notes before I could say I learned anything :). And I engaged in a conversation about waste management in early European civilizations. And I think that is pretty much all just this week. So, not too bad.  

By my count, I HAVEN'T made one visit yet to at least 33 teachers. If you haven't seen me by the end of the month, you need to hold me accountable, OK? That was the promise!

Something to think about:

In my classroom visits, I've seen lots of students answering lots of teachers questions. I happened to be catching up on some professional reading earlier this week, and I thought this might be an interesting article for us to read and discuss with each other in a spare moment. Take a look at "Let's Switch Questioning Around" by Cris Tovani in the September issue of Educational Leadership. I think you'll find it interesting.

Next Week Significant Events

October 12 - Staff Meeting 3:40pm - River Arts Gallery

October 14 - Picture retakes
                   - Badger Conference Meeting @ Mt. Horeb (Parker, Massey, Packard, Mussack)
                   - PLC Day 1:50pm release
                   - Mental Health/Suicide Prevention Training - office staff 2 - 4pm @ SPMS Library

Week After Next Significant Events

October 19 - NHS Induction Ceremony 6-7 RAC
                   - Fall Music Concert 7 pm - South Gym

October 20 - Parent-Teacher Conferences 4 - 7:30 pm (held in commons)
                     (Rita Henn will cover the office for this.)

October 22 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
                   - Parent-Teacher Conferences 8 - 11:30 am (held in classrooms)
                     (Marcia will cover the office for this.)

October 23 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
                   - Professional Development Make-up day

October 24 - Celebration of Life for Sue Halloway
                   - 1:30 pm SPHS Gym

Where are we going? To PLC or not to PLC?

Where are we going?

(What you are about to read is my attempt to "think out loud" about where we are and where we might go, as a school and as professionals. I am trying to weave together my thinking on a number of readings, staff meetings, and group and individual conversations over the last 4 months. I'm not sure I am as coherent as I would like to be, but it's an attempt to extend the dialogue. Please, as you read, keep that in mind. And please join in the conversation by commenting at the end. Thanks.)

In the last couple of days, I've had a series of conversations with staff about our professional learning community efforts. I got the sense from those conversations that at least some staff members were not yet clear about what I have been trying to accomplish in our recent staff meetings. As I reflected on that feedback, I had to wonder if maybe I wasn't being explicit enough. And then I wondered, what's the danger in being more explicit about what my goals are and what I am trying to lead us to consider? 

Since any dangers I could identify didn't scare me very much, I thought I'd use this space to try to be clearer. So here goes: 

We need to build shared understanding of what a PLC is. It is my opinion, built on six months of observation, that the majority of the professionals working in the high school do not know what a PLC is. That's a problem. We have no common definition of what a PLC is. When asked, in our last staff meeting, to rank your experience of our school as a professional on a number line from 1 (independent contractor) to 5 (integrated member of a highly functional team) the answers were all over the place. The average of the 51 responses was 3.16, slightly above the median of 3. But the mode, the most frequent answer, was 4. Meaning a ton of answers were also 1s and 2s. Fifty-one professionals having such divergent views about their experience of collaborative work, by definition means that we have not become a PLC. Third, a central concept of becoming a PLC is striving to eliminate the "depends" factor from schooling. (As in what happens when a student struggles? "It depends...on the student, the teacher, the subject, the hour of the day, who the parents are, etc.) Substitute the question "How does your team collaborate?" and I think we can reasonably assume from the above, that the answer is depends.

The smart folks at allthingsplc.info, the people behind the PLC movement, have this to say about the danger of not fully understanding what a Professional Learning Community is:

What Are Professional Learning Communities?

It has been interesting to observe the growing popularity of the term professional learning community. In fact, the term has become so commonplace and has been used so ambiguously to describe virtually any loose coupling of individuals who share a common interest in education that it is in danger of losing all meaning. This lack of precision is an obstacle to implementing PLC processes because, as Mike Schmoker observes, “clarity precedes competence” (2004a, p. 85). Thus, we begin this handbook with an attempt to clarify our meaning of the term. To those familiar with our past work, this step may seem redundant, but we are convinced that redundancy can be a powerful tool in effective communication, and we prefer redundancy to ambiguity.

We have seen many instances in which educators assume that a PLC is a program. For example, one faculty told us that each year they implemented a new program in their school. In the previous year it had been PLC, the year prior to that it had been “understanding by design,” and the current year it was “differentiated instruction.” They had converted the names of the various programs into verbs, and the joke on the faculty was that they had been “UBDed, PLCed, and DIed.” The PLC process is not a program. It cannot be purchased, nor can it be implemented by anyone other than the staff itself. Most importantly, it is ongoing—a continuous, never-ending process of conducting schooling that has a profound impact on the structure and culture of the school and the assumptions and practices of the professionals within it.

We have seen other instances in which educators assume that a PLC is a meeting—an occasional event when they meet with colleagues to complete a task. It is not uncommon for us to hear, “My PLC meets Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.” This perception of a PLC is wrong on two counts. First, the PLC is the larger organization and not the individual teams that comprise it. While collaborative teams are an essential part of the PLC process, the sum is greater than the individual parts. Much of the work of a PLC cannot be done by a team but instead requires a schoolwide or districtwide effort. So we believe it is helpful to think of the school or district as the PLC and the various collaborative teams as the building blocks of the PLC. Second, once again, the PLC process has a pervasive and ongoing impact on the structure and culture of the school. If educators meet with peers on a regular basis only to return to business as usual, they are not functioning as a PLC. So the PLC process is much more than a meeting.

So, what is a PLC? We argue that it is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. Professional learning communities operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators. (Emphasis is the original authors'.)

My observation is that we have people who fit into every category mentioned here. We have a handful, literally 4-6 people who are doing collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. (Some of those don't have the "collective" part, but are working in isolation.) We have three dozen who believe that PLCs are the time we meet, from 1:55 - 3:30, six times a year. We have some people who think that PLCs are a program that we adopted and that the new programs, whether that be Educator Effectiveness or the Common Core have supplanted that. And we have some people who don't have an opinion on what a PLC is, because they believe that if they keep their head down and don't attract too much attention, then they can keep doing what they have done for their entire career and no one will bother them. (And they have decades of experience proving that belief correct.) Also, this is a common place for people to land on the journey to becoming a PLC; it's mentioned as one of the pitstops in the reading I asked you to do last month. And that's where we are. Stuck in a pit-stop. It's not anyone's fault; it's just where we are.

The question I'm asking us to consider is "are we comfortable with this pit-stop?" "Is this where we want to stay?" I know we took a simple vote about opening up this line of inquiry. And the consensus was, let's reexamine what a PLC is. But it is hard work to become a school where PLC processes are embedded in the work we do. Hard, hard work. That's why so few schools have developed into a "real" PLC and so many of them have settled into a rough approximation instead.

allthingsplc.info offers sample schools as exemplars. These are schools around the world that you can look at to understand the power that PLCs have had in those schools and how you might replicate that in your school. To be listed as an exemplar, you have to meet criteria. (You can find those criteria here.) The thing is, it's been 15 years since the first PLC book was published. And here is a map of the schools that have gone through the process to become one of the model schools on the PLC website:

Image url - http://www.allthingsplc.info/plc-locator/us

What is that? 168 schools in the United States are model PLC Schools? In 2009-10, there were 105,500 schools in the US. So .16% of US schools have managed to become Model PLCs in the roughly 15 years that's been an option. (Sure some schools might be "model" schools, but they haven't gone through the process of being verified by the PLC folks; even if only 1 in 100 model schools bothered to get verified, that puts the total PLC schools at 16%!) And just about every one of those 105,000 schools have spent at least some time in the last 15 years working on PLC concepts.

I won't hide the fact that I am not comfortable stopping where we are. I want to work in a school where PLC processes are embedded in what we do. Where we move from "doing" PLCs 6 times a year, to "being" a PLC all the time. I believe it is the best way for you to do the challenging work you need to as educators. Holding you accountable to the mutual commitments you make to each other and to our students, seems like the best way for me to lead. I want to be the principal of a school that embraces collaboration, a focus on student learning, a "whatever it takes" attitude, and that uses real data about students to make all those decisions.

Which brings us to where we are now, I think. I want to work in a PLC school. I don't believe we are a PLC school. Some of you think we are a PLC school. Some of you don't. Some of you want to work in a PLC school. And some of you don't. And last but not least, some of you don't know what a PLC school is.

This is the point I arrived at in the conversations I've had recently: Why don't you just tell us we are going to be a PLC school? (Translation, why don't you just make an authoritarian, top-down decision, forcing us to comply with your will?)  Mainly, because the work of becoming a PLC requires a deep commitment from a significant plurality of the staff. The work is hard, and the road is marred by numerous way-points, pit-stops, and obstacles. It is high-level, cognitive work; and I don't believe that can be accomplished by administrative fiat and rule compliance.

So, where do we go from here?

Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year...Day 173!! And Friday Focus!!!

Snow Day - 

I had started this blog earlier in the week, but now I am rewriting the opening paragraph as I sit at my desk in a near empty school on our first inclement weather day of the year. Empty schools, while nice for getting paperwork done, are boring, dysfunctional places for me. Without kids, and teachers, I can honestly tell you that I hate being in school. I know there are days where it has to happen, and I know there are days where I need to get the "business" part of running a school done, but I don't have to like it! Anyway, I hope that staff, students and families are enjoying this added day to your holiday break. We'll see you in 2014!!!

Mid-point?

In a school year, the semester split, in late January, is technically the middle of the year. But I have a hard time not taking time during the Holiday break as a more natural time for reflection and recharging. So, how am I doing? 

According to the staff's first evaluation of me, here is a "job satisfaction" break down:

Indicator	% Strongly or Somewhat Agreeing	% Strongly or Somewhat Disagreeing
Creates a healthy learning environment	96%	4%
Seeks input from a variety of sources for decision making	90%	10%
Supports a safe and orderly environment	98%	2%
Students know I care and am committed to their growth	96%	4%
Supports programing for all students	94%	6%
Communicates expectations for teachers for high quality instruction	94%	6%
Communicates that all programs are important, academic and co-curricular	98%	2%
Available for questions, reflection and support	81%	19%
Leadership team works well together	80%	20%
Leadership team provides needed coverage and support	88%	12%

I think most people would feel good about a survey that indicates that in all areas 4 out of 5 respondents agree you are providing the necessary support to the school. However, as you get to know me, you'll find out that when I give an evaluation like this, I spend very little time reflecting on what is going well. Instead, I obsess about the areas where people feel I am falling down. And even in the two areas where I scored 98%, I can't help but think about the one respondent in each of those areas who reports that, in their experience, my leadership is falling short. 

So, since I try to have a growth mindset, and encourage each of you to have one as well, I will try to focus on areas where I need the most improvement according to your feedback. In order the areas where the faculty would say I could most improve are:

• Leadership Team works well together
• Is available for questions, reflection and support
• Leadership Team provides needed coverage and support
• Seeks input from a variety of sources for decision making

Our leadership team, Shane, Laurie, Aaron and I, have been working to be more aligned since my first day in the district. These are complicated relationships between us and I do things differently than things have been done in the past here. I think we are coming together and it is an area of constant focus for us. Losing Laurie will inevitably change the dynamic of our working together, but we will continue to focus on our communication and teamwork. I hope that our end of year evaluations reflect that. If they do, great; and if not, we will be more intentional about this going into 2014-15. 

The other two areas, seeking input and being available to me are related. They are about accessibility and listening. Many of the comments are about the need to go through Marcia to schedule time with me, or about my distracted nature when someone drops into my office to chat with me. I am not good at stopping one task I am thinking deeply about to engage with someone. When my brain is focused on a task or on problem solving, I am deeply engaged. When asked "Do you have a minute?" it feels rude, and sort of untrue, to answer, "No I do not." So I will say yes most of the time. The problem of course is that I won't be listening to you with my entire brain...or even most of my brain. Unless your "Do you have a minute?" rises high enough on my priority list to overwhelm whatever it is that I am working on at the time, most of my brain is going to be engaged on that prior task; and that means that you are going to be dissatisfied with my response to you and I am going to feel like I haven't been effective at either thing. 

To eliminate this, I have tried to use Marcia as an Executive Assistant...to assist my executive functioning so that when you have my attention you have my whole attention. If this feels awkward to you I apologize, but I want to be wholly engaged in the issues you bring to me. I am not intending this to be an obstacle to getting your needs met or to avoid talking with you. If you would prefer, my calendar is a publicly searchable document in Google. You can schedule your own meetings with me. And please, if you do so, invite me to your classroom at a time that works. I'd rather meet with you in your room, closer to where learning takes place, than in my sterile administrative office. 

I hope explaining why I am asking for this will help more of our staff understand and accept that the structuring of my calendar is about making me more effective and more accessible, not less. I hope that pointing out that you have the flexibility to schedule your own meetings with me if you are comfortable with that does the same.  And maybe, for some of our staff, I just need to say the following: "I am willing to talk with you about any topic any time I am available in any place you care to meet. Moreover, I am excited to talk about education and learning and students with you. It is the passion of my professional life and I can't think of many things I like more than talking with educators about all things education. Please, please, please approach me with anything, even and especially if it is 'You are doing a crappy job of __________?' or ' Can you help me with_____?'"

The other thing I will be doing in the next few months, to help assure more staff feel I am accessible and responsive to your needs, is to stop in during times you are not with students, before or after school, or other times during the day. My goal here will be to give you a pain-free, uninterrupted time to share any thoughts you have and for us to continue to get to know how each other thinks. If you are busy working on something and would prefer not to be interrupted, please ask me to come back latter. (I don't want to do to you, what I am asking is not done to me with drop-ins. That would be sort of hypocritical, wouldn't it?)

Time away

Teaching is a stressful profession. As we head into the Spring, each of us will feel the pressure of getting our charges ready for the next stage in their journey, whether that is moving on to the next class or graduating from our fine school. These next two weeks are a natural and needed time for each of us to spend with family and recharge our mental batteries. Please take some time for yourself and your loved ones. Enjoy the holidays. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. 

Office Hours

Over the next two weeks, I will be in the office on Monday, December 23rd and Monday, December 30th. If you have need to speak to me, please stop in. Of course, if you need to speak to me any time, you can give me a call on my cell. 

Things I'm reading and thinking about this week:

Gratitude can Fuel School Transformation by Elena Aguilar
I like the idea that we can intentionally make ourselves and those around us feel better about what we do by making conscious decisions about how we respond to the events of our lives. I think we can all attest to the impact Cliff's positive attitude has on us; so can we do the same for others? I think so.

Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning by John Dunlosky
We've had a lot of talk lately here about how to help our students be more successful. Which has had me looking for ways to help and support teachers as they try to do just that. Here is an article that was shared with me, that while it is a little dense, has some great suggestions for how to improve student performance with some researched-based study strategies. Take a look.

More on the Immeasurable by Will Richardson
Only six words of this blog post are by Will. They are his comment on a statement made by Larry Cuban, another big thinker and blogger in American education. Basically, both are a reminder that many things we all believe are important in education, not the least of which is our relationships with our students, are not measured on standardized tests. And in a world where it seems like things that aren't measured are increasingly devalued, how long is it before the importance of relationships with kids becomes devalued? My unspoken question is what can we do about it? (Also, to mention that entire subjects that have historically been very important in American education, like Art, Music, Phy.Ed., to name a few, aren't measured on standardized test either.)

The Biggest Lie Students Tell Me (and how to turn it around) by Jose Vilson
I love this blog post by Jose. "I can't do this" is something I think we have all heard from many students. I heard it this week from a reluctant student when a teacher asked me if I would try to work with them on some math problems. We had a great conversation about it as it became clear to us both that the student was at least as competent at the work as I was. Keep striving to show kids the falseness of this lie they tell, even to themselves!!

How to Help Stressed Out Teachers by Joyce Dorado and Vicki Zakrzewski
A kindly member of our staff shared this with me in recent weeks. A few good tips here. (Not that any of us are stressed out.)

Cartoons: Parents and Kids at Home By Larry Cuban
On the cusp of holiday break, this blog full of cartoons about kids and their parents seemed funny and appropriate to share. Enjoy.