Perception is reality. (The objective is to make them the same.)

I’ve often said that the five people who influence me the most and on a daily basis… I’ve never met. I’ve never met Lyn Hilt, a distinguished connected educator who blogs at Learning in Technicolor. I have been reading Lyn’s tweets since June of 2011. When she was a principal, I was fascinated and impressed with all the innovative learning experiences that seemed to permeate throughout her entire school. Then one day during a Google Hangout she said, “Shawn, I used to think the same as you. Just because you see it on social media doesn’t mean it’s the culture of the school. I have pockets of innovation happening at my school and this is what I choose to share. You will not see the poor classrooms.”

Many times the same is true when I speak with teachers.

“Teachers self-promote. In that, we’re no different than everyone else: proudly framing our breakthroughs, hiding our blunders in locked drawers, forever perfecting our oral résumés. This isn’t all bad. My colleagues probably have more to learn from my good habits (like the way I use pair work) than my bad ones (like my sloppy system of homework corrections), so I might as well share what’s useful. In an often-frustrating profession, we’re nourished by tales of triumph.” – Ben Orlin

If we truly want to offer value to those around us, we must create conditions so that teachers trust one another to share the most honest stories that we can tell. If we only reveal the good and disguise the bad and the ugly, we take the risk of maintaining a gap between perception and reality. More importantly, we take the risk of becoming comfortable, complacent, and stagnant. Let’s teach 25 years, not one year 25 times.

Something to think about.

The quality of a school cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.

Effective principals work relentlessly to create a strong climate for quality instruction and to define in detail what their pedagogical expectations look, sound, and feel like in the classroom. To do this, principals must become intimately familiar with what is required to improve the quality of teaching and learning. In other words, knowing what you don’t want instructionally has very little impact on student learning. On the contrary, having a strong understanding of what you do want to see in every classroom can make change become a reality. How else can a principal model, implement, support, monitor, and communicate effectively?

Keep in mind, it’s unreasonable to ask a professional to change much more than ten percent a year, but it’s unprofessional to change by much less than ten percent a year. Great educators take responsibility for their own learning rather than waiting for their school district to tell them when and what to learn. As a principal, we must lead this effort. Otherwise, it will be difficult to assist teachers and to engage in relevant conversations.

Something to think about.

"Every Day"

What you do every day matters more than what you do every 
once in a while. Review your goals and expectations. Add “every day” to the end of the statement and do it. Doing something every day versus every once in a while is the difference between good and great.

If your goal is to get into teacher's classrooms, then do it every day.  If your goal is to provide specific feedback at the time of the teaching, then do it every day.  Choose to be great because it's contagious.   

Something to think about.

Zeros Teach Responsibility

When I was in school many years ago, I remember a few students who frequently were given zeros for incomplete assignments throughout their elementary, middle school, and high school career.  Twenty years later, these same students grew up to become adults who cannot hold a job; who are unorganized; and who are extremely irresponsible.  According to some educators, these people should now be the most responsible people in the world.

Great teachers focus on mastery and a zero just isn't going to cut it.  In many cases, a zero reflects two people who failed in the classroom.

Something to think about.

A Window Into the Classroom

Many times, grading papers and student projects is something a teacher does in isolation.  In other words, no one other than the teacher sees the student’s work.  What if analyzing student work became a collaborative process in your school?  How would looking at student work provide a clear window into the classroom?  As we transition to more rigorous standards in my state, we have been collecting student outcomes to analyze the quality of lessons and units intended to address these new standards and expectations.

After our first semester of collecting and analyzing student outcomes, I have come to the following conclusions:

• Teachers are spending more time planning and preparing each lesson.
• Teachers are hoping to learn about the effectiveness of their own instruction.
• Teachers are gaining a better understanding of how students learn.
• Teachers are developing more effective assessment types that also measure application and conceptual understanding.
• Teachers who assign the highest quality work get it from their students.
• The amount of trust is increasing among teachers and school leaders.

Principals play a critical role in setting the expectation and must monitor the process and most importantly, recognize a successful student outcome when they see it.  The questions you must prepare yourself to address include:

• How often do you expect these teams of teachers to collaboratively plan and examine evidence of student learning?
• What do you want the end product(s) to look like?  How do you communicate this to teachers?
• How can teachers demonstrate that they have used this information to make the kinds of instructional decisions that would result in improved student achievement?

Viewing teacher lesson plans provide teacher intentions, however, analyzing student work will unveil what was actually learned.  This is one of the first steps in shifting the focus from teaching to a focus on learning.

We are using the Tri-State/EQuIP Rubric to evaluate the quality of lessons and units intended to address the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and ELA/Literacy.

Invoke Behavior

When it comes to change, which happens first…… a change in behavior or a change in belief?  This is an important question if you’re on a quest to see new ideas become reality in every classroom. In my experience, those who believe a change in belief comes first, end up talking about the same ideas year after year. On the contrary, those leaders who work to change behaviors end up opening the minds of their teachers resulting in a culture that sparkles with innovation, creativity, and a passion for learning.

Recently during a twitter chat, the following question came about: If you’ve been a part of an innovative school, what caused it to be innovative?

I responded:

You see, the leader within this particular building created a culture of innovation by answering the relevant question… why?  For instance: Why technology integration is important.  Why failure must be viewed as a success in learning. Why it's important for educators to take responsibility for their own learning. You get the idea.  The leader put specific, timely action plans or SMART goals in place that resulted in all teachers engaging in new behaviors.  After experiencing the effectiveness of such behaviors, we soon changed our belief.  Before long, we were all closing the gap between what we knew and what we actually did.

For some reason, almost intuitively, it seems like belief is a precondition to action.  Instead, let’s invoke a change in behavior.  Learning is useless if it isn't applied. Reading a recipe book is not the same as picking up a utensil and cooking.  Let’s work to get others cooking something new.  Who knows.... they just might like it!  

Are you the two boys talking about it or are you a Mikey and willing to take risks and try something new?  Something to think about.

Learning Is A Consequence of Thinking

How do YOU take responsibility for your own learning?  How do YOU continuously grow the gap between what you know and what you do?  How often do YOU think about your own art of teaching? What do YOU do as a result of those thoughts?  These are questions that I ask when interviewing and searching for the best of the best.  Many candidates respond with a blank stare and struggle with recalling the last educational article, book, or video they’ve read or watched.

Great teachers take responsibility for their own learning and do not wait for their district to tell them when and what to learn.  Most school districts are limited to five professional development days throughout the school year and I believe to be the very best, critical, creative, and reflective thinking must happen daily.  If learning is a consequence of thinking, then think.  Our students are depending on you.

How would YOU respond to such questions?  If you find it difficult, then it’s time to change the wayYOU learn.

“Change how you learn first. Once you change, you won’t be able to go back to teaching the same old way.” ~ Stephen Downes

Please comment and list those connected educators who not only cause you to think daily, but many times differently.  As summer approaches, it’s time we fortify and strengthen our own PLN.

Fostering A Continuous Gap Between What We Know and What We Do

As we already know, a gap exists between what we know and what we do.  Successful educators work to narrow this gap between new ideas and implementation.  However, I believe the size of this gap does not necessarily indicate one’s success.  Some educators are terrific at executing what all they know how.   The problem is, their pedagogy is out-of-date, irrelevant, and this gap has been stagnant for many years.  On the other hand, there are educators who engage in twitter, who subscribe to RSS readers such as Google Reader and Bloglines, who create personalized online magazines through tools such as Zite and Flipboard, and who curate content through platforms such as Scoop.it and Paper.li.  These educators have an enormous amount of growing knowledge. 

As leaders, which educator do you desire for your building?  The answer is easy but fostering such a gap takes intentional purpose on the part of the leader.

Fostering Knowledge

• Recognize what your teacher wants to learn, as well as, what they need to learn.  Then, spark their curiosity.
• Assist teachers in developing a strong PLN by introducing content specific educators who are both like-minded as well as those with differing viewpoints.
• Assist teachers in curating content by creating an RSS reader and/or personalized magazine.
• Assist teachers in subscribing to publications such as Education Week, Edutopia, Teaching Channel, E-School News, etc…

Fostering Doing

• Embed time for teachers to develop new knowledge and on the job learning opportunities.
• Urge teachers to take the time to practice what they learn. Knowledge is power only when we use it.
• Commend good mistakes when risks are taken and lessons are learned.
• Invite regular reflection. Encouraging teachers to establish a personal learning blog that documents what they learn is one of the simplest but most rewarding and valuable approaches.

As leaders, it is important to grow and maintain our own gap between what we know and what we do.  Otherwise, it will be difficult to assist teachers and be the lead learner within your school.

This is a working document.  Please share other strategies to fostering this important gap to remaining relevant in the classroom.  

Cross-posted at Connected Principals

Dear Principals,

What if you were to ask your faculty and staff within your building this one question:

Who do you view as the instructional leader in our building?

Who do you think they would say?
Better question, who do you know they would say?

Something to think about.

Teaching Student Writing in a Digital Age

Guest post by Neven Jurkovic.

Consistent access to technology can enhance virtually any classroom, no matter the subject or grade level. One subject that can be especially impacted by the presence of technology is writing. This is because writing done for online spaces and audiences is in many ways fundamentally different than writing that has traditionally been done in the classroom, on paper, for a small, captive audience. With the help of technology, here are four key things teachers should do to help students learn how to write for an online audience.

Hook the reader, then keep it concise: Unlike captive classroom audiences, digital audiences have virtually infinite options of what to read. As a result, students must be taught to hook the reader with a catchy headline, title, or opening sentence. Once they’ve hooked the reader, the remainder of the piece should be concise – even more so than when writing on paper. Posting on Twitter, with its 140-character limit, is a great way for secondary students to get good at making a point quickly.

Mix written text with links, audio, and video: Whereas paper and pencil writing is limited to text alone, digital writing can include hyperlinks to websites, links to an audio podcast, videos, images, and more. Students must be taught to take advantage of these options, when applicable, to make their writing even more effective for an online audience.

Edit and collaborate more effectively: One of the best parts of writing on the computer is the ease in which students can edit their work – a few clicks can replace the previously painstaking use of erasers, editing marks, and proofreading marks. Students can also collaborate on writing more effectively: instead of being limited to an in-class peer editing session, virtually any number of students can work together to create and edit their writing in real time using Google Docs accounts.

Expect an audience: As mentioned above, students in the past expected their written work to be read or heard by their teacher and perhaps some classmates. Writing that is posted online, however, can reach a potentially global audience – but that audience must be earned. Students must be taught not only how to hook that potential audience but also to be thoughtful about what they choose to post online in light of that audience. Teaching students to be digital citizens who carefully consider the digital footprint they are creating is essential.

Digital writing is truly a separate skill that must be taught to students, distinct from offline writing. Students must be given frequent access to technology as well as specific digital writing instruction to ensure that they become proficient in writing for online audiences.

About the Author: Neven Jurkovic

Neven Jurkovic’s interest in teaching mathematics with technology developed while pursuing a Master of Science degree at Southwest Texas State University. Apart from publishing a number of papers on the application of artificial intelligence in elementary mathematics problem solving, Neven is the creator of Algebrator, a widely used math tutoring software. Currently, he lives in San Antonio, TX and is the CEO of Softmath: http://softmath.com/

In The End, What Matters Most?

On June 29, 2012, I completed my final day as principal at Dibble Middle School.  As I packed the last book (What Great Principals Do differently: 15 Things That Matter Most by Dr. Todd Whitaker - It's always the first book on and the last book off my bookcase) I took out my phone for one last pic of my empty office.  I then embedded the pic in a tweet to my connected staff.  I immediately received many sincere and somewhat lugubrious responses. As I walked out the door for the last time, I wondered to myself: Did I make a big enough difference?  Will everything we worked so hard to put into place continue and improve?

At exactly 11:25 p.m., I received a tweet from one of my teachers, @MrsBeck25, who had altered and enhanced the picture that I had previously tweeted out.  To me, this picture says it all.

This photo will now be framed and represent the 16th thing that matters most:  

Instilling In Others, A Passion To Progress Forward

Thank you Mrs. Beck

Assisted Learning

Recently, Tom Whitby wrote a provocative article called Hypocrisy in the Profession of Education. I ask that you take the time and read and share this article. In fact, if you are short on time, stop reading my thoughts and click here.

“The biggest hypocrisy of the Education Profession is that the educators too often have become poor learners unwilling to leave their comfort zones to improve their learning. They are not “bad teachers” they are however victims of bad practices of a complacent education system. To be better educators, we first need to be better learners.” - Tom Whitby

I believe that educators do the best they know how. In other words, they can only do what they know. How can we as leaders assist teachers in increasing their knowledge and know-how? I believe it starts with the leader. Only when the school leader is the lead learner, can we effectively assist teachers in eliminating bad practices due to complacency.

As leaders, we should...

• Work to recognize what our teachers want to learn, as well as, what they need to learn. Then, make an effort to spark their curiosity. Keep teachers in their uncomfort zone. Ask the right questions and want to hear their answers. Assist by asking “How” and “why” and “what if” questions to stretch the boundaries of their minds.

• If a teacher has an iPad or iPhone, introduce the personalized magazine App, Zite. Assist the teacher in choosing topics of interest such as Education, Professional Development, etc.  This is a great way to stay abreast of the latest issues and trends in education.

• Sit alongside a teacher and assist in setting up a Twitter account. Do this at 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday so that at 11:00 a.m. you can introduce #edchat and participate together for the first time.  Share a list of other chats that would be of interest to the individual teacher.

• Assist a teacher in setting-up an RSS feed. There are many different ways to do this such as Google Reader. Share specific blogs that would be of interest to the individual teacher. For instance, for 4^th grade math and social studies, introduce Paula Naugle's classroom blog. Here is a link to Cybrary Man's Class Blogs.

• Urge teachers to take the time to practice what they learn. Curiosity without initiative does not translate into results. Many times it takes a change in behavior to cause a change in belief.  Assist teachers by providing them the time and resources they need to put new ideas into action.    

I truly believe the more you learn, the more you will want to know. By assisting and distributing expertise throughout your staff, the level of what your teachers' know and are able to do will increase substantially.  Before long, many teachers will be challenging you as the lead learner!

A little assistance and a new way of learning can prepare educators to thrive in the ever changing environment that we face every day.  Please add to the conversation.  What are some effective ways school leaders can assist teachers in continuous learning?