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.
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!!
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...
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.
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.
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!!
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