I'm so glad I am here!!

Week #1 complete!

As I wrap up the first week of my tenure as SPHS principal, where I actually had a building full of staff, all I can think about is how awesome it is here. We had a great day getting to know each other on Tuesday, where we began the process of developing a vision for our school. On Wednesday, we welcomed our new staff as a district and enjoyed an inspirational moment in the River Arts Center. Thursday, we gathered as a staff to hammer out some shared expectations over our 4 biggest behavior issues and a few other management issues were addressed before the start of the year. Today, I hope many of you took one last chance to relax and refresh before the marathon of the school year starts. I want every adult who works in the building prepared to give 100% when in front of students; that can only happen if you use your free time well.

I learned a lot about the SPHS staff this week. I learned that we really want to have fun doing an important job. I learned that we really want someone to give us permission to innovate and to support us and problem solve with us when those innovations go awry. I learned that we need to have a shared set of commitments to focus the tough work we are doing in a common direction. I learned that we need to spend some time engaging in conflict without making that conflict personal. And above all, I learned that we care deeply for our students and that we want to provide them the best possible education we can!!

The road forward will be difficult. We will have tough days and nights where the obstacles seem overwhelming. We will, all of us, question what we are doing. But when those moments happen remember the immortal words of Jimmy Dugan and carry on! If we do...we'll be great!

Favorite Learning Moment of the Week!

Back on August 1st, I read this blog "This is What Learning Looks Like (Ahem, Fun, That is...)" by Kristen Swanson. In it, Kristen has posted a picture of some people playing Jenga as part of a staff meeting. At the time I read this, I was deep in thought about how to start off our time together as a faculty. Particularly, I was looking for something FUN to do that would allow us to have a conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of our building; a conversation that would allow for every person present to have a voice.

As I looked at the photo, I noticed that it wasn't a standard issue Jenga set. I noticed that some of the pieces were different colors. So I asked Kristen about it. (You can see my question and her response in the comments below the post.) Her answer got me thinking that Jenga might be just what I was looking for. With each piece pulled out, the participant could comment on one of a series of questions tied to our activity.

However, as I thought about it, I began to worry about Jenga's ability to "do the job." One, it's a pretty small game, so in a large room it wouldn't be very visible to a large crowd. Two, how many players can you legitimately have engaged in Jenga? Our staff would have at least 80 people involved in the meeting and 80 people couldn't play Jenga, could they? 

We solved the problem by creating Jumbo Jenga sets using sections of 2"x4" that were 12" long. (Thanks Troy Talford) And then we made 8 of them. Here are the ground rules we established for the game, above and beyond the rules for Jenga itself: 

• Establish teams of 6-8 players
• Establish a "Task Master" and a "Recorder"
• Play Jenga by removing pieces and extending the tower upwards.
• Each player who successfully removes a piece and places it on top of the tower must answer a question about our school or comment on a previous player's answer. 
• They player who knocks the tower over must report a summary of the recorder's notes to the entire staff.

 

And here are the three questions we used: 

• What do I know for sure about the performance of our school and how do I know it?
• What do I wish I knew more about the performance of our school?
• Where are we failing our students when it comes to the performance of our school and why do you think so?

And here's the great work the game produced...

With a specific example

In our run through prior to the event, we had competitive games of Jenga that lasted about 15 minutes before the tower fell. So I budgeted 30 minutes for the activity, thinking that the additional conversation about our school would double the amount of time needed. Instead, the games of Jenga took almost 90 minutes!!! Why? 

Two main reasons I think. First, staff members engaged deeply in the three questions and much more time talking about our school than they did playing the game. Second, instead of being competitive within the groups, we had competition between the groups. Thus the groups became supportive environments of group play, where all members helped all other members make good choices about removal and stacking. It was fascinating to watch and looked to me like staff had a great time. 

I'd definitely encourage any educator to think about this activity as a lesson that engages learners, gets everyone talking, and encourages cooperation. It was super cool, from my perspective. I hope one or two of the staff will comment here, either confirming what I've said, or pointing out that I am full of crap. :-)

Things I am reading and thinking about this week

Honestly, I was pretty much too busy to read much of anything this week.  I did finish a little pleasure reading: (not the whole book, I just put them to bed.)

Other than that, it seems appropriate that I maybe link to the videos that I embedded in my presentation to staff this week. Each of them communicates an essential element of what I believe we need to do more of in education. 

I'll leave the interpretation of what those things are to each of you. 

That's it for now! Be careful out there!!

Go Eagles!

Friday Eve Of the last weekend of summer!

Principal's brain blows up!

I am writing this after leaving a session with Dr. Joe Schroeder, the associate executive director of the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators. Our topic was the use of time and leadership. Joe has given me much to consider in terms of some of the pitfalls of leadership I have been thinking about all summer. In taking a new position, one of my goals is to avoid the mistakes I made in my last one. (I wouldn't be a very good learning model if I came to Sauk Prairie and made the same mistakes here that I made in year one in Rice Lake, would I?) 

One of the mistakes I made there was to never get into classrooms as much as I wanted for the deep conversations about teaching and learning that I know I need to have to completely understand the work of our professional staff and to be able to coach all of us to higher levels of performance. (My goal in Rice Lake was, and will be in Sauk Prairie, to spend 40% of my school day in classrooms or in coaching conversations with educators.) Dr. Schoeder offered some suggestions, in a few cases simple refinements of practice I already use, in others truly new ways of thinking about how I do my work. I am looking forward to how this new learning will coalesce in my brain and how it will manifest itself in action.

Word of note about me: As a educator, I have occasionally  lived in dread of administrator's returning from a conference. I often awaited their forced implementation on Wednesday of the latest idea they had picked up on Tuesday. Luckily, I very rarely worked under that kind of administrator. Most of the administrators I have worked with and for, were thoughtful practitioners who had clear visions for the kind of work they wanted to do and they way they wanted to do that work. Those administrators, when they would learn something new, would reflect on it, implement it in their own teaching and learning, work out the bugs, talk with others about the new way, and then, when they fully understood the new concept from almost every perspective, they would bring it forward as part of an overreaching school improvement process. I try hard to be that latter kind of administrator and  hope you will call me on it when you think I am acting like the former.

August 27th...I have butterflies already!!

Planning a day of staff development for over 100 people, many of whom you haven't met for more than 30 minutes, some you have met with at all, is incredibly scary. I know that what we do that day will go down forever as the first impression many of you have about my leadership. Some of you, hopefully all of you, will judge my effectiveness as an instructional leader based on my effectiveness as a staff development planner. After all, if I can't provide learning opportunities for you, how can I hope to have an impact on the learning of the 836 students who rely on us?

At the same time, I will almost never again structure a day like this. I believe that staff development needs to be just-in-time and job-embedded. Which means that more often than not, you know what you need to learn next better than I do. So with that in mind, staff development has to be collaboratively developed and, since we have dozens of master educators with decades of experience and training, why wouldn't we use the entire staff as a resource for our learning as a faculty?

That being said, I know that the first day of a new Principal's tenure is expected to be him bloviating a bit about what she thinks about education and what he hopes will transpire in our shared future. (Isn't that non-gender specific pronoun thing where you flip back and forth between male and female pronouns confusing?) I'll do some of that, but I will also ask you to be active participants, to be engaged in the problem-solving that will be a part of what we do, to share your perspective on what a shared vision for our school should be, and to push back productively and respectfully when you disagree with something I or someone else has said.

So while I am scared to death...there is no where else I would want to be. We are going to have some FUN!!

Thoughts upon watching Pee-Wee football practice...(Not in the SP Community)

On Tuesday, I went for an extended walk/run through the neighborhood where I live. In one of the walk cycles, I happened upon a football practice for young boys. I am not very good at estimating ages below 12, but I have an 8-year old nephew, big for his age, and these kids all looked younger than him. So lets say they were 7-9 year olds. 

When I first saw them, they were running a sprint, probably of about 25 yards. I wasn't paying much attention, but when I noticed them again, they were running another sprint. I couldn't hear the coaches yet, but I did notice that after each sprint, the boys would reluctantly get back to the starting line, and then, they ran another sprint. By this time, I heard the coach start the sprint by saying, "OK, we are going to keep doing this until you get it right. On two! Set, hut, hut." On the second hut, most of the boys took off for the 4th sprint I had seen them run. However, one boy started on the first hut. So, when they got to the end of the 25 yards, they all walked back to the line, and the coach said, "Again! We had someone jump so we're doing it again. Set, Hut, Hut." 

Guess what? A different boy went on the first hut, while the rest of the kids went on two. Before they were half-way through the sprint, word of the false-start had filtered through the boys and over half stopped running with full effort, obviously knowing they were going to have to do the sprint again. 

I don't know how many times those kids did those sprints. I turned the corner then and I was out of sight. What I do know is that vision has stayed with me all week. I've thought about writing a letter to the editor of my local paper. Of contacting the high school coaches where I live. Of trying to find out who runs the youth football program so that I can talk to someone about what I saw. And I may do one or all of those things...except the letter to the paper. :-) Those thoughts are about concern for those boys and the experience they are having in their initial introduction to a sport that I love and that made a huge contribution to the man I am today. 

But I have other thoughts. Thoughts for the coaches. Concern for the coaches. Knowing the way that youth sports run, I know that those coaches either have a deep love for their sport or they, being fathers of the athletes participating, have a deep love for the boys. I know that they are doing the best they know how to do to teach those boys the game. They are relying on their experiences as players, on what they believe the culture expects from a football coach, on what they believe is the best way to prepare boys to play a sometimes violent and always physical game. 

But despite the fact that they are doing the very best they know how to do, they are killing any chance of love for the sport of football in at least a few, if not the majority, of the boys they are charged with teaching. And worse yet, if they knew that to be the case, most of those coaches would be heartbroken by the knowledge. So that leads me to ponder the options I mentioned above, and to reconsider: what is the best course of action I can take to make sure those coaches know how to do what they do better?

And my final thoughts about this practice are related to our school and American education in general. How many of the things we do in schools are the best we know how to do, but are still killing any chance of a love for learning in some (or even most) (or even just one) of the students who come to us? How many of us have ever confronted something we used to do that was the best we had to offer and have come to the conclusion that we were ruining a child's desire for learning? How many of have the courage to really look at every aspect of what we do, and who we are, to find those things that are causing indifference to learning in our students? And when I ask those questions, the first thing I wonder is "Do I have the courage?"

Things I am reading and thinking about this week...

It Only Took Six Years Before I wanted to Quit teaching by Joe Bower

Joe is one of those teachers who had the courage to look at what he did as an educator and to radically adjust it. I'm not sure I would have made all of the adjustments that Joe made, but I respect his decision to look at what he does critically and to make changes that he believes are better for kids. 

John Seely Brown on 21st C. Learning: Tinkering and Networking

Dr. Brown says that he is the "Chief of Confusion." His official title, as a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, is the Independent Co-Chair of the Center of Edge Innovation. In this video, he hypothesizes about the potentially crucial roles tinkering and networking play in any high level learning endeavor. I strongly urge all of you to watch and reflect on these ideas!! Yes, he is talking about video gamers and surfers, but the point is engagement and I think it applies to all learning. See if you agree. 

Cartoons of Children and Parents by Larry Cuban

Not everything I do is always so serious. Larry, at various times in the year, will do a blog post that is just an assemblage of cartoons. Most of them are funny, some are not. Some are un-PC; most are not. Most are good for a laugh and many might be something you want to save for hanging on the refrigerator. 

Have a great weekend. See you all on Tuesday! and remember, as always, Be careful out there!! 

"The First 30 Days!!"

Moving fast now!!

You know, when I write a title like "The First 30 Days," I start to wonder if maybe I'm not taking myself a bit too seriously. "The First 30 Days" seems like the heading of a CNN report on the start of a new presidency.

To be fair though, I didn't write that title. Thursday night at registration, a parent asked me about the first 30 days, and even made that joke about the presidential report. (So pretty much that entire paragraph is stolen material! I would properly attribute the source, if I could, but I met so many parents Thursday, the names are all swimming together.) In any case, I write this blog post until today. Because I need to to have the 30 days to meet with staff, students, parents and community members. To have time to relax and reflect in the Canadian wilderness...

The weather and the fishing weren't very good, but if you see one sunset like this, what else do you need?

...and to have an opportunity to see the building with the energy that even a few children can bring. I spoke to one family last night who were registering their 4-year-old for school for the first time. He was bouncing with excitement the entire time he was here. His mother told the story of him standing in the front lawn in May and crying he couldn't get on the school bus until next year. As I talked to that little man, I couldn't help but think of the following blog post, Please Don't Squash the Wonder by Nathan Barber, which I read earlier in the week. What will we do this year to protect and encourage children's sense of wonder? What will we do to build it back up in those that have lost it? What would our school look like if every kid in SPHS responded to the start of school the way that little 4-year old did last night? And what would we have to do to make sure that happened?

What would we have to do to make sure that happened? I've been thinking much about that in the last few days. Of the 56 individual meetings I have had with staff so far, it seems as if the question of the moment in the last week has been, "What do you believe about where education needs to go in the future?" Often that question is asked more pointedly, about a department or a discipline or even about SPHS as an institution. I've been somewhat hesitant to answer those questions when it comes down to specifics for what we will do, i.e. the structure of our programming, the schedule, the courses we offer, etc. My hesitancy stems from the fact that I don't have the whole picture yet. I haven't talked to everyone, and I haven't seen us in action. I need to learn more about who we are and what we want for our future before we can jointly begin to craft a plan for what we will do. And even once that happens, I'll be but one voice in the process. Sure, I'm the principal which means that my voice has a tendency to be a little louder, maybe, in the conversation than other voices, but I will work very hard to make sure we come to a shared vision of our future, and not implement "Chad's vision" of our future.

What Chad Believes about Education

That being said, I think I can answer the question of the week, as I posed it above, "What do I believe about where education needs to go in the future?" Here is a start:

1. If I can google it, I don't need to memorize it. (Schools need to forget the transmission of facts and focus skill development, so that later, students have the skills to learn the facts that they need to learn.)
2. Literacy and numeracy are skills that transcend subject areas and have high leverage in all career applications. These need to be the focus of every single adult who works with children.
3. Creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication are essential to the needs of the 21st century workplace. If schools aren't encouraging the development of these skills in every classroom, every hour, they are doing something seriously wrong.
4. Autonomy, purpose and mastery (as Daniel Pink and others suggest) are essential to motivating people engaged in high level "thought" work. I would add a 4th, interpersonal connectivity. If the business of schools isn't "high level thought work," I think we are making a mistake. So...encouraging autonomy, mastery, purpose, and interpersonal connections should be at the core of everything schools try to do. 

I leave it at those four, because I think that pretty well sums up where education needs to go, and because I believe, as I read recently in an article recently in Forbes, that complexity is the enemy of greatness. Focus on a few key concepts that have high leverage and protect them from all distractions and success will follow (if you've picked the right concepts:)).

Things I am Reading and Thinking About this week

 Do Teachers Have a Voice in Their Learning: A Gallup Survey Says "NO" by Jim Knight
"...even though your child’s teacher already thinks her opinion counts less than does the barista who sold you a coffee today"    I am certainly concerned about the results of this poll. I want teachers to have a voice in their own learning and I want teachers to be empowered to make decisions in their classrooms; instructional decisions about what their kids need next to help them be the best learners they can be. I will however admit to a certain amount of scepticism about polls like these.How much of that feeling of lack of control is a result of failing to grasp that the real power of decision making in a school is what happens in the classroom, the instructional practice, and not what happens in the legislature or central office, the curriculum or the standards. It seems to me that as we've moved to a standards-based system, teachers have increasingly reported a lack of control. How much of that reporting is a result of a failure to transition to a world where the decisions about "what" is taught are less important that the decisions about "how" something is taught. (And yes, I know there are other problems in education, other than standards, that complicate this. This is just what I am thinking about today.)

First Chance to Make a Learning Impression by Will Richardson
Will Richardson is one of my favorite education thinkers. He is constantly challenging me to consider the world as it is, not as I remember it to be. So I read him often and share what he is thinking often. I know that the principal who put together the letter he is complaining about here had the best intentions. I know this because I've sent the same "back-to-school" packet home to families myself. Will is reminding us that we need to keep the focus on learning all the time, if we truly want to transform the culture of our system...and that even seemingly minor gaps in that effort, like a BTS newsletter, can undermine our efforts!


An Eye for an Eye - Isn't the Best Way to Lead by Don Ledingham
I hope as I begin working at SPHS, that this is central to my beliefs will become obvious. With staff as well as students and the community. Failure happens as we try something new and as we are unsuccessful. This quote, "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow" by Emerson, is currently on the signature block of my emails. It's to remind me every few minutes, that I believe risk-taking has to be rewarded in our schools. If not, we may as well give every kid a computer and a Kahn Academy url and close up shop.

10 Ways to Learn From Twitter by Connie Malamed
Simply a list to give you some ideas about why I think Twitter, used as a learning network and not to virtually stalk celebrities, can be such a powerful tool.

One year Ago Today: Lessons Learned in the Wake of Suicide by Angela Maiers
I am touched by the author's reflection on her loss and her attempt to focus on the learning associated with processing one of life's most troubling events. The lessons she shares are good for all of us to reflect upon as we work with kids and strive to be the light in their lives that shields them from the despair the author's brother felt, or to be the lifeline they reach for when that despair does seep into their lives.

Personal Note

On July 25th, 2012, my dear friend, Diane Ishmael, lost her battle with breast cancer. I was asked to be the officiant at her memorial service. And while I felt ill prepared to serve in that capacity, I honored her request. As I sat on the stage that day, at over 380 pounds, and over the next few weeks, two things happened. First, I became angry with myself. I was angry because person after person talked about Diane's battle with cancer and how she fought for every day. I was angry because it was apparent that I was giving away a lot of days at 380 pounds. Since then I have lost 81 pounds, and sometime next week, I will drop below 300 pounds for the first time since 1992. 

The second thing I got angry about took a little longer to percolate to the top. But later in August of 2012, I received word that my sister's college roommate, Molly, had learned that the breast cancer she thought she had beaten in 2011, was back and had metastasized into her bones. Molly is an amazing woman, as are all woman, but Molly personally inspires me every day because of the unquenchable joy she brings to her daily existence. If you find that hard to believe, a person with Stage IV cancer, making everyone else around them more appreciative of life, read this article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

My anger now, after losing Diane and worrying about losing Molly "someday" and concern for all of us as cancer, a disease we are on the verge of beating for all time, continues to consume an unacceptable number of young people in the prime of their lives, manifests itself in a commitment to do something. I hope you'll consider doing something as well. Tonight, the SPHS track hosts the Relay for Life, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. (Donate here!) Please consider stopping by to show your support. Or even to participate. I am sure they would love to have you walk even a couple of laps to show your support for the victims and survivors of cancer. 

Next week, I may not have time to write a blog post. My commitment to "do something" has me in Chicago, participating in the Susan G. Komen "3 Days for a Cure" walk. I will be walking on Molly's Army, with my amazing sister Ellen, and her inspiring friend, Molly. I am confident those 60 miles will be a life changing event for me. I am even more confident that the almost $21,000 Molly's Army has raised will play a part in ending cancer in our time. "It is the least I can do." (If you are so moved, you can donate to Molly's Army here.)

Thanks for reading...and be careful out there.