Tag: Leadership

Keeping Optimistic When in the Vice Grip of Crisis

Keeping Optimistic When in the Vice Grip of Crisis

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herding tigers

I’ve heard it said that we either make our decisions based on fear or out of love/passion. Fear is based on avoidance, anxiety, and maintaining current paradigms. Whereas love and passion are based on change,  potential, and new paradigms for a new world. In leadership, we need to balance both. 

Although I cannot speak for ALL schools, as I talk to others in different parts of the world, it feels like schools, especially private schools,  are caught in a vice-grip- the pressures and challenges of our teacher community coming from one direction and those of the parent community squeezing in from another perspective.  For example, communities in Brazil are grappling with re-opening businesses to keep the economy chugging along, but hasten to re-open schools. And there is a good reason for this since our transmission numbers are still high. However, from the parents’ point of view, it seems morally wrong to open bars and clubs while we fail to provide access to schools to educate children. I totally get that and I agree that this pandemic is bringing up misguided values in our societies. But there is this other issue–health and safety which has really hardly been addressed. Humans are highly social creatures so demanding that they remain distant from one another seems unholy for this extended period of time. Why is the best we can do is still to wash our hands and wear a mask? I can understand and appreciate why teachers are apprehensive to come back to face-to-face learning. Teaching isn’t a career with high occupational hazards; it’s not like when you join the military, you can expect to die when doing your duty. Teachers are public servants who haven’t considered these types of risks before, especially since their pay does not reflect the value that they offer society. Because of these competing ideas, it’s hard to find a way forward when all of us need to figure out how to co-exist with COVID and do what’s best for the long-term.

As I reflect on the uncertainty of these times,  schools are confronted often with challenges from a fear-based perspective. Fear of losing student enrollment…..fear of increasing anxiety and depression of community members…. fear of the inadequacy and outdated teaching methodologies…fear of going back to school with Draconian classrooms…..fear of learning loss and conceptual gaps…….fear of ….(fill in the blank)

These are issues that suck the oxygen out of the room. Somewhere, in the midst of this crisis, we have to find some hope and reach for the “blue skies”. 

As a curriculum coordinator, there are so many of these things that I can’t impact. I have no control of, but then again, who in leadership does these days? So I am reminded of this prayer that has been posted on my refrigerator for ages: The Serenity Prayer. This is great advice for times like these: accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

So when I look at those fears, I wonder if I have any power to change these things and if I do, what might be those actions. I think that everyone is working at their full capacity, but I wonder if there are some tweaks worth making in order to address the needs of our community and who might be those people that could be of support. Hmmm…

But what if we move into a more proactive approach? What if we looked beyond this pandemic and start to move into more visionary thinking. This is where I would prefer to spend my energy–in a state of enthusiasm and passion.

Lately, I’ve been enthralled by Dan Heath’s book called Upstream in which the main premise is how to solve problems before they even happen. Some of the most interesting phenomena he details are the concepts and barriers to change:

  • Problem blindness: I don’t see the problem or the problem seems inevitable. 
  • Lack of ownership: That’s not my problem to solve.
  • Tunneling: I can’t deal with that right now.

As I read that, I thought about all the systematic changes that we need to make in education. Equity issues, outdated curriculum, and standardizing the heck out of our students’ souls. But we fight over banal issues like should we teach cursive handwriting? Seriously? THIS is important?

I just have to shake my head when I hear that. 

So many issues are floating to the surface right now that are more worthy of our attention and focus. But maybe we have “problem blindness” or feel powerless with a lack of ownership and tunnel vision. But what if, instead of looking at the standards as our compass for student achievement and commiserating about learning gaps, we looked at those as a reference guide. Instead, what if we could address “heart gaps”, using the Sustainability Development Goals to direct our outcomes? What if solving these issues became the student focus instead of test scores?

Okay, SDGs too political for your school? What about happiness? Surely that is a neutral topic. If you aren’t going to empower learners to change the systems of the world, then why not bring more joy to the planet? I admire the work of Project Happiness Global who’s goal is to impact 10,000,000 lives through developing kindness, mindfulness, and all the other tools to bringing out the best in us, and our society. When organizations cooperate with schools, then we can get change happening. Looking at schools in New Dehli, India, it is inspiring to see how they are really projecting new possibilities for our world. Personally, if our children learned these skills early, I think the SDGs would take care of themselves because no compassionate human being would be able to tolerate people languishing with poverty, a lack of wellbeing or education, nor could they stand by passively and watch out earth be destroyed.

So, as I keep one foot present in the current trauma of this reality, another foot is planted in the future–the future I want to build for our school community and for the world at large.

Recently, we have been involved in strategic planning and one of the goals we have set is to be a “learning hub for excellence”. I love this goal! But we don’t have an expanded description of “excellence” yet and those indicators that we could measure for its achievement. We have defined traditional hallmarks like higher “quality” teachers and creating more professional development opportunities for our teachers in our community and around the region. But I feel that if we only judge success in traditional academic ways, then we have really missed an opportunity to be worthy of admiration. We have to include our mission, which is based on developing “compassionate agents for a better future”. I think we need to really unpack that and reflect on whether the decisions we are making during this pandemic are getting us closer to that goal or further away. We need to be pulled by our vision instead of being pushed by the pain of shattering paradigms. So, I’m still lingering on how we can establish Post-pandemic “New Normals” and thinking about what S.M.A.R.T. goals we can create in order to achieve our school’s mission and the larger mission of the IB. This nagging for a new normal helps me to generate optimism and hope. The time is ripe for change and we must look to the horizon beyond this crisis to see an improved state of education.

What about you? How might you stir your heart and move your mind to envisioning a future world that works for everyone?

Go As A River: Developing Professional Learners in a #PYP School

Go As A River: Developing Professional Learners in a #PYP School

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Professional Development is the life-blood of what I do.

effect plc
From the book, Teacher Collaboration for Professional Learning: Facilitating Study, Research, and Inquiry Communities

Being held accountable for improving the standard of learning is a weighty task, one that I take very seriously. It consumes a lot of energy in my role as a PYP Coordinator. Every Wednesday morning has been carved out for me to facilitate training and engage in a PLC (Professional Learning Communities). As you can see by this graphic, ensuring that our professional development time is well-spent is an important matter to be considered.

I’ve been in the field of education for 2 decades and I have definitely seen how it has evolved. In the book, Professional Learning in Action by Victoria J. Risko, MaryEllen Vogt, it was interesting that they noted research done by Kragler, Martin, and Sylvester that described the stages of professional learning over the years:

  • the in-service era (1950-1960s)
  • the staff-development era (1970-1980s)
  • the professional development era (1990-2000s)
  • the professional learning era (the mid-2000s to present)

Our current era, suggests that teachers must become leaders in their own learning, no longer passive receptacles but self-motivated and responsible. As educators, we are to engage in problem-solving, which is guided by our social constructivists’ principles. When we are intentionally directing our own learning, we are more purposeful in our decision-making in order to advance our knowledge and expertise.

In Zen, there is an expression: Go as a River.

Zen philosophy always likes to represent a complex idea in simple terms, but this saying suggests that we have the capacity to receive, embrace and transform concepts, emotions, and difficult situations, in order to create peace, freedom, and community.  The Nobel Laureate, Thích Nhất Hạnh, reminds us that we cannot reach the ocean like a drop of water, we must surrender our isolation and learn how to come together through compassion and a willingness to accept each other unique qualities in order for us to have the energy to do the work we dedicate ourselves to, which in his world, is mindfulness.

There is strength in community.

As a Primary Years Programme Curriculum Coordinator, the heart of my work is collaboration. I not only model it through my efforts with members of the leadership team but with other stakeholders. And, moreover, I strive to cultivate greater collaboration amongst my staff.

The types of collaboration I see teachers engage in happens on multiple levels

  1. In the classroom: with the teachers who support learners, and the learners themselves.
  2. In grade levels: with the team of teachers for that grade level.
  3. In the division: with the various teachers and students at the different grade levels
  4. In the school: with other divisions’ students and/or teachers, the school leadership or the parent organization.
  5. In the community: with groups that are affiliated with the school or other organizations that they volunteer or work with. But in a sense, they are an ambassador of the school.
  6. In networks: with individuals or groups that share common values or interests.

So I have taken this notion, to Go As a River, as the rational and objective of our Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) this year. In my mind, coming together to learn with one another is an intimate and vulnerable act, since it requires honesty, openness, and transparency.  There are so many models of PLCs, mostly data-driven, however, I wanted a different approach. I wanted to bake a process into our PLCs that did the following:

  • developed the skills of collaboration within our division and our teams.
  • allowed for teacher agency.
  • taught teachers how to be researchers and guided them through a process of putting educational theory into professional practice.
  • cultivated supportive teams that helped individual teachers through the struggle in order to build teachers’ self-efficacy, something that has a high impact on student learning, according to John Hattie.
  • built the capacity to debate and discuss issues without personalizing it, so that people can have the experience of having productive and meaningful conflict.

In this way, teachers are pushed out of their comfort zone in a healthy and safe way, and everyone in our program benefits from our risk-taking efforts, especially our learners, who need us to be responsive. I also felt that it would be important to incorporate  the “5 energies of high-performing teams” that you can see in this graphic:

high performing teams

Clearly, I have high hopes for our teams. Simon Sinek, a man whose work inspires me to stretch boundaries, reminds me in this TED talk, that developing the trust and will to cooperate is not something you can simply instruct team to do, (“Get along, people!) but it is a feeling that is cultivated through the climate you create to provide a sense of safety.

As someone who gets to “set the tone” of not only how we collaborate but who we become as professional learners, it would be easy to turn to the many books written about how to construct Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), and just copy and paste those systems. Drive Outcomes through Shared MeasurementBut the heart of these systems was designed for standardized test scores and relied on student data in order to inform practices of school improvement. I struggled with this for several reasons, chief among them is that I don’t want our students to fit into a “standard”, I want them to be looked at as unique and special. I didn’t want them to reduce to numbers. If we only use data as the foundation of what we do, then we would miss out on opportunities for genuine teacher inquiries. Speaking of which, I examined the structure of teacher action research and thought perhaps that applying this practice into professional inquiries would be the route to go. However, I found that this was a goal-orientated structure that didn’t actually “teach” teachers how to collaborate, and may not appeal to all teachers since it typically culminates into a research paper. I felt that this put pressure on teams, and why would I want to stress out teams for the glory of publication? The last professional learning structure I examined was the Lesson Study I felt that this was a great tool to incorporate into our PLCs but wasn’t the PLC itself. Thus, I wanted to take what was great about all of these systems and create something that is unique, something that represents, perhaps even mirror, what we might expect in our Primary Years Programme (PYP) classroom.

Speak the Same Language (Intellectual Energy)

In a previous post, What Can Pedagogical Leaders Do to Grease the Wheels of Innovation in Their Schools? I’ve talked about the importance of ensuring that teams have a shared instructional language. Our principal, Matt Ihle, says it best: “Building understanding is the purpose of communication”–and thus by coming into an agreement of what PLC means to us, is the foundation for the work we will do this year. 

plc staff definition
This is our working definition of a PLC

So, the first order of business was not to come up with “norms” but to come up with a shared working definition of what it means to be “professional learners in our community”. We have to make sure that when I say we are having a PLC meeting, staff know exactly what that means because we have co-constructed a description that is full of vision and purpose.

Be over Do (Social Energy)

Often times we create these agendas and rush into the “doing” of the work before us, squandering really important time to develop teams. I can’t begin to tell you how many schools I’ve either worked at or visited that have leaders who feel that all they need to do is to throw adults into the room, give them a 1/2 hour to establish “norms” and collaboration happens. No! And No!

Conflict happens and what we do with conflict determines the capacity to do good work in our schools and creates the climate in our schools. How we move through conflict has everything to do with trust. In the book, Speed of Trust, Stephen Convey explains that “Speed happens when people truly trust each other.”--one of the reasons why teams are more productive and efficient is due to working through conflict faster.  Think about this quote:

“In a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing, and people will still get your meaning. In a low-trust relationship, you can be very measured, even precise, and they’ll still misinterpret you.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

You know that is true–communication and trust go hand in hand. You can probably think back to a time when someone said something to you that triggered in you some negative emotion and it made it hard to be around that person. However, you may have a friend or colleague who can say something critical and you can reflect on it without being offended by it. Why is that? The reason is that this friend or colleague shares your values. As a result of that, you choose to see how you are connected rather than distinct. Finding common ground is easy when you share common ideals.

So, again, we didn’t talk about “norms”, instead we talked about values. In our first meeting, we ranked and shared personal values with our co-teachers, and in the next meeting, we unpacked and discussed our professional values. It was incredible to see the shift and hear the conversations. People really got to know one another and have discussions that were meaningful, even if they weren’t directly about the PYP Enhancements and student learning. They had permission to be who they are, and what became the “norm” was acceptance and appreciation.

Tribes Vs Teams (Spiritual Energy)

Tribes represent a culture with shared interests and values. Leadership roles are distributed and dynamic. Individuals work toward a common goal, for the sake of their community. This is exactly what I wished for as the engine behind our PLC. These meetings should the development of a coalition that is dedicated to a purpose, so I wanted to turn teams into tribes.

So teachers took a Google survey to put their interests and questions around student learning. I looked for keywords and patterns in order to form the basis of the tribes, then sorted them into their inquiry groups.

  1. Encouraging Curiosity and Inquiry
  2. Translanguaging
  3. Student Agency
  4. Play-based Learning
  5. Student Motivation
  6. Differentiation and Universal Design for Learning
  7. Language and Literacy

When the tribes were inaugurated, I gave them a guide for this “vision quest” and referenced the work from the Center for Courage and Renewal circle of trust touchstonesas the premise for our rules of engagement and the Circle of Trust Touchstones became the “norms” of our tribes.

Tribes came together to discuss why this topic matters to them and unpack their philosophies and beliefs that will guide their practice. During another meeting, they crafted a mission statement for the work they will do throughout the school year. In their meetings, they would choose their roles, which were flexible, and purely determined by the group.  In this way, they could see the significance of their collaboration and develop a strong support system among them. Mid-year, we would examine and reflect on these mission statements, in order to determine the next steps. And, although some tribes were larger than others, every group has found their way to work through their challenges.

As a part of their PLCs, we had some meetings dedicated to going back to their grade level teams to share what they have been learning about and what their experience has been like doing the Lesson study and peer observations. We used the framework of the constructivist listening tool to provide for deep listening as people had time to share without interruption or judgment.

Acknowledging the Learning Pit (Psychological Energy)

I feel very strongly that if we are to take the profession of education seriously, then we will always be in a state of cognitive dissonance, as we grasp and reach for the “best practice” for the students that we teach. In my post, Why There is No Escape From the Learning Pit, , I explain this conundrum:

“It’s sort of ironic–me, the teacher, who is supposedly the expert, is often shoulder-deep with the students, trying to figure out the course and direction of the inquiry, instead of being assured and confident about the path we are going. It seems that bewilderment, frustration, and struggle have become the perks of being in a state of wonder and anticipation.” 

I think there is a real danger in not acknowledging the struggles we face when we start walking the talk, putting principles into practice. I wanted our teams to be prepared for it and accept it. Remember that Go As a River means that we the capacity to receive, embrace and transform concepts, emotions, and difficult situations, in order to create peace, freedom, and community.  

The Learning Pit is inevitable, in which we debate and grapple with who we are to who we wish to become as teachers. Furthermore, I explained that it was my job to get them out of their teacher’s comfort zone and that the structure of our PLCs was intended to push them into the pit, but it would also be designed to pull them out. Setting up this expectation was important because I wanted to normalize discomfort but also emphasize that it is safe to do it.

The Cycle of Professional Learning (Physical Energy)

action leanring

Years ago, I read the book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and the one big idea that I took away from it was that mastery comes from commitment. So I wanted to ensure that staff had the opportunity to test out and practice ideas, all the while, developing “staying power” when they face challenges with implementation. Thus are PLCs would be cyclical so people could problem solve and celebrate accomplishments. So our PLC meetings would include discussions around the following:

Research: Ask questions and seeking professional literature and learning resources that shed light on the most effective practices. 

Implementation: Discuss the challenges and successes of implementing new ideas and practices. 

Lesson Study: Develop lessons and integrate ideas into your learning community. 

Peer Observation: Watch a lesson related to the research topic. Engage in discussion and self-reflection afterward.

Data evaluation: Discuss the results of either formative, summative or anecdotal evidence of learning. 

Self-reflection: Consider your practice and develop your next steps on your learning journey.

Review and Debate: Examine ideas that have arisen as a result of your reading, feedback from your peer observation and implementation of new practices.

These ingredients would the agenda items for our meetings and represent the types of things we would do within our Action Learning Cycle.

Explore and Plan

First, each teacher inquiry needs to start by sharing the personal research around our areas of interest. We set up a SeeSaw PLC group so that people could post the things that were inspiring them. There’s a proverb: “to know and not do, is to not know”; so I wanted to ensure that teachers developed the capacity to read articles or watch videos with the impetus of testing ideas out in their classroom. To take curiosity and put into action, that would be the heart of the work we would do as life-long learners. Here is an anecdote from our PLC that facilitated this practice:

Pre-planning of a lesson: Translating Research Into Action

The research article I’d like to share:

A summary of the article:

The teaching actions are reflected in this article that I don’t do, but I want to try is….

Nothing fancy here, but it’s the lubricant of change and was the prerequisite for the lesson study. Again, I didn’t design anything complicated for that either. I wanted a simple format that would have the basic ideas for the peer observations:

The Plan: Framing the Peer Observation

What questions will drive the lesson? 
What planned actions will take place in the lesson? (Use the chart to simplify the “looks fors” for your peer) 

 

What the teacher(s) do(es)? What do the students do? 

As a result of applying my new professional learning into the lesson, I expect (my hypothesis about the unplanned actions) the students to…..

 

Act

This is the implementation phase when a teacher conducts a lesson that integrates their learning from their research and has a peer observe their attempt. The peer observation not only shares practice but it also holds teachers accountable to initiate their growth. Peers come together to share their notes and provide feedback.

And although implementation seems like an obvious action, going back into the research is also an action too. Research includes looking at student data, which can be formal or informal, and also examining more articles and videos–whatever resource they want to use to further their practice.

Bends in the River

As much planning as I put into cultivating the collaborative and trusting climate of our tribes, I have to also be willing to throw things out, as I reflect on what is happening in classrooms and in discussions. I must allow for things to happen organically. Sometimes it means allowing tribes to hold tension, giving them the opportunity to grapple with issues around what is the “best” approach. However, I think this is the kind of spirit that is imbued in the concept of “Go As A River”, as we transform conflict (whether it is trivial or substantial) and trudge out of the Learning Pit, becoming better for it, together.

#EdLeadership: Why You Can’t Lead without Love

#EdLeadership: Why You Can’t Lead without Love

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Michael Fullan describes in his book, The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive,  the attributes that are akin to what good leadership looks like in schools which I think are elements that are embedded into a Happiness-Based approach. In general, a “good leader”, always has hope, is selfless and ready to serve, and they exemplify life-long learning. Moreover, they have 6 practices within their school culture that are the 6 “secrets” for creating a safe environment for change and innovation:

  1. Love your employees/staff as much as you love your students (and parents)
  2. Connect peers with purpose
  3. Build capacity rather than judgementalism
  4. Know that Learning IS the work!
  5. Transparency rules
  6. Systems “learn” rather than being fixed

What can we take away from these “secrets”?

With Big Responsibility, Comes Big Heart

As I see it, the only difference between a teacher and a school leader is the level and scale of your ability to see the good and find reasons to love the people in your care. Leadership not only has to care about its students but see its staff as allies in the pursuit of excellence, and with that, care about their well-being.

Heart trumps the head, especially as the extent of your responsibility and influence expands in the learning community. That’s the choice we make every day–who and how am I going to bring about awesomeness in others?

Love of …

Who you serve

Everyone has a desire to create. In fact, I strongly believe that educators are some of the most creative humans on the planet because of the level of attention and intention we bring to the learning process. So, I believe it is the ability to care and have empathy for our teachers that help them along on their professional path. And teachers who strive for excellence and innovation, I believe, do the same for their students.

How do you show your teachers that you care about them? Do you go out of your way to talk to them, ask about their family or weekend, or do something thoughtful like give them a birthday card? How many of your staff members do you connect with during the day? And of those interactions, how many of them would drum up a feeling of goodwill and appreciation?  Not sure?–then track it. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

By the way, increased social interaction is a known antidote for the “blahs” when it comes to work, in general. In fact these social connections fuel innovation, in which one study showed how the importance of interpersonal relationships are to the professional atmosphere and learning behaviors of members in an organization.

What you do

Do  I really have to tell you this? Being in education isn’t a J-O-B, it’s a choice.

And it’s a choice to have relationships. We call this “culture”-the micro and macro choices that are made by every individual in that learning community to engage and connect. Educators who make a difference are the ones who understand the power of their relationships. Research shows that it eclipses raw intelligence in order to go beyond 1-2-3s and A-B-Cs because it’s this commitment to bringing out the best in others that creates impact and cultivates talent.

ken.jpeg So what do you do to bring out the best in teachers and colleagues? How do you instill trust and confidence in them? And how do you connect with them when you have something difficult to share? Do others solicit your advice for improvement or turn to others for help? Or do you have closed doors and closed minds?

You have to love what you do so you can do what you love. Think about how you inspire that in others and write down evidence of such impact.

How you do things

Everyone has a work ethic. Repetition creates discipline and culture within our four walls. Are teachers rushing out the door, seeing their work as a JOB and not a calling? And who’s responsible for that?

Ahem…..Hey Leader–YOU ARE! When you take responsibility for that, shift happens. You want to go back to step 1–Love of Who you Serve–so you can move from coordinating staff to co-producing with staff.

co-ordination to co-production.jpg

Just as when a child comes along and tugs on our sleeve, are we saying “yes” to our teachers’ ideas or listening to them challenge our decisions? We must cultivate the “voice” of our staff so that they feel heard and appreciated. In fact, I don’t think listening is enough. I think actively soliciting their ideas would open communication and provide the opportunity to ask them: “Now that you shared this with me, what action do you think should be taken as a result of it? Is there some way that you can lead this initiative?” This should not be seen as trying to manipulate them, but out of the observation that they deeply care around an issue and you VALUE their concern and perspective.

But it takes more than ears, it takes eyes–not only do leaders need a vision that is clearly articulated, but more importantly, school leaders need to take more responsibility for establishing a professional learning culture within the school. What do you see happening in classrooms? Have you ever read this paper by Peter Cole- Entitled “PD A great way to avoid change? Do you have a system of classroom observation, feedback, and lesson study? How do you create professionalism at your school?

I hope this post gives you a pause for reflection, making you wonder if the people around you see you as an encouraging person who inspires them or an obstacle to their personal happiness. Also, I hope you consider the habits and systems you use that cultivate the professional atmosphere and culture of your school–enthusiasm is the driver for the work and when people feel supported and cared for, they will go all-in.

Perhaps now you will too……

with love.

An Antidote to the Affliction of Mediocrity

An Antidote to the Affliction of Mediocrity

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Is there really any end to mediocrity in our schools? I’ve been really pondering this lately. Are the PYP Enhancements really going to change this?

You see, I’m a big Seth Godin fan. After reading the book Linchpin, it is hard not to look at the ways in which schools create mediocrity. status quo.jpegMediocrity in our ho-hum test scores, in our bland school lunches, in our students’ indifferent attitudes, in our top-down staff meetings, in our pithy report comments, even in the lackluster of our playground equipment. The evidence is everywhere.

Why?  I think it boils down to 3 things.

Magpie Mentality

The Challenge: Another year, another mandate. There’s something always new and shiny that we now must add to our “toolbag”. And although we must always be striving for excellence, this magpie approach wears down staff and often this term “innovation” is the repackage of a new “old thing” all the time.

Catarina Song Chen said something brilliant to me the other day: sometimes innovation isn’t about creating new things, it’s about the stuff we stop doing. I couldn’t agree more.  Which leads me to the next culprit, I believe, behind mediocrity…

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

The Challenge: I don’t know how many times the myth of more is better has been dispelled. Our physical and emotional bodies were not designed for marathons. We were made to sprint, having episodes of rest and recovery time built in. We cannot multi-task without developing cognitive wear and tear.

Leaders don’t have the luxury of shifting blame, they have to take responsibility for failure. If a team is in failure mode, ask yourself how did I create the conditions for this, and what can I do to change it?

An Antidote: We don’t have to re-create the wheel like developing new PYP planners this RED HOT MINUTE! We should have an unpacking of the Enhancements and reflect on where we are and where we would like to go, as a staff, in an All-In approach.  I love how this one district took the time to dissect the Enhancements. It is our responsibility as IB educators to be reflective and thoughtful FIRST, and then take action.

Fuzzy Goggles

Lack of clarity is the main culprit of mediocrity. There’s no focus. Sometimes that looks a lack of standards or supporting curriculum. Sometimes that looks like non-educators making educational decisions at our schools. Sometimes it looks like a top-down decision that has the best intentions but hasn’t been well-articulated.  If people in your organization are acting indifferent or uninterested, then leadership needs to ask themselves what can THEY do to navigate a course correction?  Because this attitude and behavior is a reflection of their communication approach. It’s DATA–and what is the data telling you? Floundering? Disengagement? Apathy? Then it’s time to ask stakeholders their honest opinion and then brace themselves for the truth. Be prepared to make changes because if what you were doing was effective, then you would get a different result. Fact.

An Antidote:  Priorities. Priorities. Priorities. What’s your school’s WHY? Communicate that why because it’s your compass. seth againAnd when people appreciate and understand the “bigger picture”, they can contribute to solving problems and challenges that are encountered in the learning community, rather than being obstacle makers and naysayers. It’s easy to rally individuals when they have a clear purpose, and they feel that they have “skin in the game”. We must not only inspire but incite others by bringing them into the decision-making process.

 

Mediocrity, in my mind, is a choice. When you build teams that have a purpose and vision, you need not be afflicted with it. As leaders, we need to take a hard look at ourselves and not shift the blame onto others, but rather take responsibility for the areas in our schools that are average, at best. If something is mediocre at your school, you suffer from a state of “vanilla”, then start to survey others as to what they believe may be behind it.  Once you identify troublesome areas, be candid and make a collective plan to move forward with stakeholders because average is a dangerous state to be in, as we move into the future of education.

What Can Pedagogical Leaders Do to Grease the Wheels of Innovation in Their Schools?

What Can Pedagogical Leaders Do to Grease the Wheels of Innovation in Their Schools?

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When you hear the innovative what does that mean to you as an educator?

I think for a long time we thought if we superimposed the business model upon schools, analyzing and improving our school’s mission, operations, outcomes, and personnel, we’d produce high-performance metrics and fiscal efficiency. Gains in test scores and budget expectations would be innovation in itself, but as we examine the high-stress that the high-stakes initiatives have created, it’s hard to call this improvement in education. In fact, I think this approach has been demonized rather than lauded, and countries like New Zealand are backing off standards-based approaches and beginning to embrace a competency-based model of student achievement, as personalized learning is beginning to become more of a focus. I know there a quite a few schools that question “What is school?” and are moving away from classrooms into “studios” while other schools would be better off calling themselves “resorts” in which the whole school timetable is collapsed, and children are at complete choice. Yet there are other schools such as these in America, that look at this same question, “What is school?” and has defined it differently, expanding it beyond the school campus, and look at how they can connect more to nature and their local community for an authentic experience of learning. I think several of these schools ask a more interesting question, instead of “What is school?”, “What is worth learning?” 

deweyLet me explain a bit: recently I sat down with a Grade 11 student to explain how gene therapy works for her Personal Project on cancer treatments (Previous to teaching, I aspired to get my Ph.D. in Genetics and conducted gene therapy research). But as I was chatting with her, discussing the biological mechanism of the treatment strategies, I really wanted to pull out some literature on epigenetics, an emerging field that demonstrates that we have more control over our genetics than we think–a paradigm that I know has yet to get written into the textbooks. So when I encountered this quote below, it made me think about all of the things we teach as “facts” that have contradictory evidence which would shift perspectives and approaches to solving problems in our future:

A school’s mission is to prepare children for the future by teaching them skills, knowledge, and values, which it can only do by drawing on the past—that is, by teaching them what we know now. Much of the curriculum is fixed or slow-changing (fractions, the meanings of Hamlet, the causes of the American Revolution), and many schools emphasize their commitment to enduring truths and established traditions. Education is a conservator’s work. Good teaching is always creative, but not perpetually innovative, and while it benefits from regular refreshers and occasional overhauls, it doesn’t demand the kind of continuous updating that, say, law or medicine or high technology do. Continuity is a core value in school life.

–Robert Evans, Why A School Doesn’t Run—or Change—Like A Business

With this in mind, I think as schools begin to grapple with defining innovation for their unique context, they need to look at both of these questions: What is school?, perhaps looking at this as the operational side of it, and What is worth learning?, the outcomes that we’d want to be achieved. I’d also say that we need to consider “How do we learn?” as an important question to add to our conversations, as we consider the role of technology and connecting to communities as a component of our school’s mission.

innovationThese questions aren’t answered in a 2-hour meeting, they are inquired into over time, in an institutional self-study, and requires getting teachers voice, choice, and ownership in initiatives. So often lofty goals subtract the perspective of teachers, who are the ones held accountable to many of the suggested changes. Pedagogical leaders choose efficiency over effectiveness, and often side-step the very educators who are laying the foundation of change in their learning institutions. Including teachers in all of these conversations, from the initial inquiry into “What is school?” is not only what is best practice when it comes to leadership, but it is critical to buy-in and sustainable transformation. I can’t help but reiterate this, simply because innovation doesn’t happen in closed-door meetings, it’s a community-driven mission, and it requires all stakeholders. I’ll stop my preaching here, but schools need a collaborative approach to cultivating lasting change that has a true impact on our students.

Needless to say, this is a process of probing a school’s values and traditions and asking if they are truly serving to benefit their students and preparing them for their future. All the research I’ve read suggests that when those foundational questions are asked, then a clear and compelling mission and vision can be the springboard to transforming schools. Once that comes into laser focus, the next layer to innovation, involves reflecting on the following set of questions:

  1. How can we create the conditions for a shared vision and a shared instructional language?
  2. How can we provide resources for research and development for teachers and the time to go along with deepening their understanding?
  3. How can we create conditions for team learning? How can you adopt looking at student work protocols?
  4. How can we create conditions for institutional learning?

Common ground and understanding are what creates a culture of community and self-efficacy that is organic and supportive of school goals. These 4 questions develop the glue that keeps the motivation for innovation intact. If I had to pin a job description on pedagogical leadership, it would be to do just that: to keep moving people forward, together, for the better.

I hope these questions give you a pause for reflection and make you start observing your school’s context in a new light, surveying the current values and traditions within your walls of learning. Moreover, I hope it motivates you to start these conversations and start unpacking WHO YOU ARE as a school and start designing WHO YOU CAN BECOME. In my opinion, if more schools had conversations like these, we’d move away from looking at the 1-dimensional performance metrics and expand our awareness and creativity into new territories for education.

#Change in Education- Leadership through Design: How Schools can Rethink and Reimagine Themselves

#Change in Education- Leadership through Design: How Schools can Rethink and Reimagine Themselves

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Four years ago I made a study of Design Thinking, taking courses, reading books and trying to figure out how I could bring it to our youngest learners. (Psst…I think it’s the Secret Ingredient to Student Agency.) My passion for it has not stopped. Beyond projects and products, however, I think schools could use this thinking approach, not just in our classrooms, but in every area of our school. Why? I think often schools make hasty decisions before really taking the time to really brainstorm possibilities and thoughtfully enact change. With a design-led approach, you can improve and amplify collaboration and innovation in schools through human-centered research, starting with empathy, considering the needs of the user or the audience of your “product”. It’s not about YOU–it’s about THEM!! I love that! It’s really the whole point of education–serving the needs of others.

Here is an overview from the d.school in which you can see how design thinking is a major departure from how school leadership might undertake challenges.

design slide

Currently, our “MakerSpace Man”, Al Gooding is utilizing this approach with a redesign of our primary playground. He is collaborating with Grade 5 and Grade 9 students to create a more interactive and engaging playground with our students. Although this project is underway, you can see how the primary students are “testing” out the materials, which included bricks, bamboo, tires, and rope. For a week, they collected data of how others used the equipment and what challenges there were to this sort of play.

As you can see in the video, there’s been immense enjoyment and creativity. It’s gorgeous to see how play has been transformed through this project. Now those Grade 5 and Grade 9 students are going back to the “drawing board” to reflect and continue to research ideas before unveiling a reworked design of what our playground could be like.

So if Design Thinking can be applied to our learning spaces, what else can it be applied to?

Hmm…..

I’ve been thinking a lot about report cards lately. It’s a topic that is near and dear to my heart, especially if you read my blog post on #ChangeInEducation: Setting a Match to the Report Card? A Couple of Questions on #Assessment in the #PYP. Naturally, I feel it’s worthwhile to take the time to analyze this entrenched assessment and reporting structure. So how might we approach a redesign of this?

  1. Define: Who is the report card for? Is its primary user students? parents? other schools?
  2. Empathy: Survey members of the community, such as students and parents FIRST. If they are the intended audience of this important document that provides feedback and articulation of a child’s intellectual and emotional growth, then we need to know their thoughts on it. What do they like and dislike about our report card? What do they wish it had on there? What do they wish we could eliminate?
  3. Brainstorm: Have staff get together and examine some of the information gathered. This can be a group of volunteers or this can be whole staff endeavor. We need a diverse group of thinkers and perspectives in the room so we could start playing What If?  This stage takes time–it’s not a 15-minute exercise. Creativity and divergent thinking require research and a touch of silliness so we can break out of the box of convention. We also need to consider how we create “teams of thinkers” so we can have groups that come up with a variety of strategies. We may even want to have students involved in this brainstorm–it’s about them, right?–they might offer some really great insights and ideas so we should value their voice.
  4. Iteration: We create mock-ups of what a re-imagined “report card” looks like. (I know in my mind right now, I’d create a more visual report card with infographics or some other visual design that would communicate better than a bunch of educational gibberish that is often put into reports.)
  5. Design Sprint: Share our best prototypes with our parents and students. What response do they have to them? What questions do they have? What needs are still not being met? (Can we meet those needs?). Then we go back to the drawing board, armed with their ideas for our staff to reflect upon to create a prototype.
  6. Unveil the Prototype (Test): Staff uses the new “report card” to communicate the learning. Teachers meet with parents to discuss the report to ensure they understand the information about their child’s learning. Students need to express their opinions as well. Do they think the report card summarizes their growth and learning well? Why or why not?
  7. Feedback and Moving Forward: We analyze various factors within the reporting process, such as how much time it took to “manufacture” the report, how well did the parents understand the report and how meaningful was the feedback system? What other challenges do we need to address? Do we still need to iterations to this or shall we continue with our re-designed report card?

Did you notice?

When we think about the “Enhanced PYP”, a design-led approach naturally cultivates formal and informal leadership within a learning community. There are voice, choice, and ownership on every level–admin, staff, students, and parents (perhaps even others outside our community). I believe that as we move forward in our quest to put “principles into practice”, we prioritize creating new ways in which we deepen our relationships within our schools and create a culture of inclusion.

I hope through these two examples of our playground and the report card, you might begin to see how design thinking can be transformative in leading change and innovation in your school.

 

Prying off the Lid to Stir the Paint: The Enhanced #PYP and Teacher Agency

Prying off the Lid to Stir the Paint: The Enhanced #PYP and Teacher Agency

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How would you like things to be different at our school? This is the fundamental question that school leaders, teachers, students, and parents (really everyone in the building) need to answer. Because that is the starting point for our journey into “enhancing” our PYP schools–getting the Learning Community involved and excited about elevating the learning and teaching.  And this is the time to do it!

But maybe some of you are wondering where do we begin? Agency! This is the “heart” of the changes.enhanced pyp

If that word agency doesn’t connect with you, then I reckon you could replace it with another word: EMPOWERMENT.

Empowering students has been a major focus on a variety of blogs and blog posts; aside from the Sharing PYP Blog some of my favorites are IB Educator Voices, What Ed Said, and Sonya Terborg because they authentically grapple with the shifting mindset about our learners that I think all of us can relate to and feel inspired by. Taryn Bond Clegg has also created a compendium of resources. So if that is where you want to begin your journey into agency, then rummage around in those posts, basking in those fabulous ideas. However, I want to talk about the other members of our Learning Community because I believe that if we empower those people, student agency begins to happen organically. Today I want to respond to this tweet by the IB:

Voice, Choice, and Ownership

As I see it, enhancing our programs means that we need to disrupt the power structures in our schools, providing more voice, choice and ownership to our teachers. There’s an interesting story shared by David Marquet, commander of the nuclear submarine Santa Fe, of a moment in which he realized during a simple drill, having one point of command was not only limiting to the efficiency of operations of the sub, it was downright dangerous. He says that these traditional leadership structures throw “cold water on” the passion, creativity, and the working knowledge of those who are working under his command. He confessed that these hierarchical military structures in which the top leader does the “thinking” and the others down the food chain act upon those commands are embedded in many organizations-schools being one of them. In fact, schools are masters at it, as it has been the institution that has created factories of workers of the future. So, if we are to take this concept of agency seriously, then our organizational structures must collapse, in which “titles” only define who has the responsibility to push the “launch button”, but everyone else is in full command, not standing around anymore, waiting for orders. Furthermore, he states that “Good leaders don’t need to give good orders. They need to create teams that don’t need to be told what to do.”

Teachers as Leaders

Technically EVERYONE is a pedagogical leader, it’s just the level of responsibility and scale that differs. I know some of us enjoy being “the boss” but powerful leaders are the ones who listen to those they serve–it’s not the other way around. (I think this is why they call this a “power struggle”. ) leaders and powerThe reason why this is such a dynamic approach is that it demonstrates that we, as leaders, have trust in our teachers, believing that they are capable of change and willing to engage professionally in transforming our schools

With that in mind, we need to ask the teachers and get their ideas and opinions. Instead of asking teachers and staff to fit them into OUR box, why don’t we meet them where teachers and staff are and find out how they can authentically contribute to our school’s evolution? Why limit our school’s potential with our own finite thinking when we could approach them with a genuine intention to understand and appreciate their perspective and experience. I think this is the 1st step into figuring out how we can access their talents and employ them into new roles. I feel that it’s our curiosity as leaders that help us to see underneath the surface and begin to discern how we might start to transform our leadership structures. Because, if we were to reframe our definition of leadership, not as the one who has CONTROL, but rather as the one who has the ability to INFLUENCE, then a wide swath of possibilities are available and more people can be invited to the party, sort of speaking.

So what can teachers influence?

Professional Development: Professional development shouldn’t something that is done TO them-it is something that is done WITH them. I think often we assume we know what teachers “need”, making stark generalizations and not delving into the recesses of their hearts and minds, learning about what they desire and what fears they have. Plus, when we impose initiatives upon them, it creates passivity. We want teachers who are self-motivated, who can run with the ball, inspiring others, not compliant robots. Perhaps it’s time to personalize their professional development, allowing them to create their own PD plans.

Personalized learning is something that I am very passionate about. I created a series of podcasts to provide some resources out there for teachers to go deeper with their professional learning goals. I think one step of breaking down the power structures is to provide some i-Time or Genius Hour for teachers. Having them design their own learning path linked to self-selected professional goals can be a powerful means to develop a passion and a strong knowledge base.  By the way, I’m not suggesting that teachers only “can” chose the theme of the flavor of their Professional Learning Community –no I think teachers should be able to choose to work alone or in a team on these goals, further enhancing their agency, and then those groups get to choose the goals of their PLCs. If we remember that everyone has different learning styles, then it would further “enhance” to give them the freedom to choose the what, how and who of their professional goals.

Evaluation and Appraisals:  Let’s be honest, when teachers hear those words, evaluation or appraisal, they feel that this is either an exercise of fault finding or a justification process for keeping their jobs. These tools are the ultimate tool for keeping teachers in “their place”, and I think we need to start challenging this process and begin to reframe it. As true professionals, teachers want to be better because they KNOW that their daily efforts are making a difference in the lives of children. We should be giving credit to them, not finding ways to tear them down. Furthermore, I think teachers are more critical of themselves than leaders will ever be but they need authentic feedback. And as a leader who rarely observes the day to day learning classroom, how could you possibly give meaningful feedback? It’s for this reason why evaluations and appraisals are often seen as a joke–an exercise in “ticking a box” for accreditation rather than a true inspiration for professional growth and development.

So instead of putting a rubric or checklist of professional behaviors in front of them (if your school even has one), why don’t they create ones that mean something to them? How about school leadership toss out these autocratic structures and turn the reigns over to them? With that in mind, the only job that school leaders have to do is to provide absolute clarity–clarity of how these enhancements can impact the learning and teaching, and clarity of what your school’s mission and values are. This creates the intention to bring them into the fold of and is the fodder for an amazing amount of transformation to take place. In fact, if I was the ruler of the universe, I would lead teachers through a design-thinking process to recreate the evaluation and appraisal system, and allow the magic to happen.  Giving them the power of What If provides the motivation and creativity to really impact the learning in our schools.

Hierarchical Structures: Titles and Teams

The longer I am education, the more I want to challenge this. I wrote a post a while ago about What If Students Ran the School? (#SOL meets #EmpowerBook), and I’d like to ask to add this question: What if Teachers Ran the School? When I pose this What If-question, it makes me wonder what ideas around leadership structures could surface when we lean in and listen to the very staff we are leading.  These are just a few of my own thoughts and opinions.

In my mind, titles only provide a guide as to who has responsibility for what. It shouldn’t denote authority–give me respect or else! That is low-level leadership thinking anyway. However, I think if we gave teachers a genuine voice, then leadership titles really begin to be meaningful. They can trust us to do the job our title says we are supposed to do and free us from micro-managing. I believe Words Matter and creating titles can throw up walls or barriers to innovation.

So needless to say, I am very wary of creating rungs of leadership teams within the staff. If people are genuine experts in something, they should be called coaches because that denotes someone who is a mentor and teacher-leader, it’s a title that denotes active responsibility. But having “Head of ….” (ex: Head of English) suggests that this is the only person doing the “thinking” on this subject. I mean, the head is where the brain is, right? And we want everyone thinking!! Likewise, having a “Leaders of Learning team” or whatever jazzy name you give an “inner circle” creates cliques and resentment on staff. It creates a culture of “us” and “them”.   I think we need to dismantle any quasi-leadership team that has a guise of distributed leadership but poisons the well of school’s culture.

With that in mind, I am more in favor of having tasks forces that have active, focused energy on developing our school’s initiative. People with passion, coming together to forge a new destiny for our schools–that’s way more powerful and meaningful than any title we can toss at them. Plus, it gives more opportunity to have an eclectic group of individuals to come together, rather than hand-picked individuals.

So, as we start to question what these “enhancements” might mean for our schools, these are 3 areas that we can start to allow teachers and staff a stake in the game that we call “our school”.  Furthermore,  taking a design-based approach to examining these areas of professional development, evaluation and appraisals, and leadership teams, can begin to unlock the invisible chains that hold teachers back.  I think this will create a cultural quake, with the feeling of freedom and creativity permeating and taking root; because people being driven by a mission, rather than restrained by the tradition of “we’ve always done it this way”, creates a revolution on its own and, an exciting one at that.

Can you think of any other What-Ifs that need to be added to this enhancement when it comes to teacher agency? Please share in the comments below and get a conversation going!

 

The Role of the #PYP Coordinator: 3 Things that No One Wants to Learn the Hard Way

The Role of the #PYP Coordinator: 3 Things that No One Wants to Learn the Hard Way

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About a month ago, I sat having wonderful discussions with PYP coordinators from all over the world in the Hague about the Enhanced PYP. Aside from curriculum, it got me thinking about other aspects of the leadership role of the Curriculum Coordinator. It’s not an easy position to be in and no 3-Day Workshop or online course can provide adequate training for your school’s special challenges.

As coordinators, we have the responsibility for The 3Cs: Climate, Curriculum, and Culture. It’s hard to say which one of the 3Cs comes first as a priority as they are critical to the success and impact you can make at your school.  You often have to juggle them and it’s hard to keep those balls up in the air but they have to stay in motion. The impact they have on the community can help to create a contagion of positivity and goodwill if done well. Most of our professional development comes from the context of those 3Cs and they take time to develop. And no coordinator can be successful alone–they need a team, and teams develop through relationships.  I think having empathy and coming from the perspective of “the teacher” is particularly important as it relates to developing staff relationships, and there are few things that I wish someone would have advised me on when it came to the role.

People Before Paperwork

We are human beings, not human doings.  You’ve got to consider people over paperwork because people are our job–whether it’s the little people in our classrooms or the big people that make up our staff. paperworkI know we have our checklists of paperwork that we have to stay on top of, but at the end of the day, I’d rather have teachers focused on making sure the kids have engaging, authentic and impactful learning and I have rarely found that paperwork inspires them to create that. This is especially true at PYP schools in which we have to reflect often on our students’ learning so that we can determine the next steps in their inquiries

I had one coordinator who used to come in nearly weekly and, during our meetings, he would put our conversations about learning into the PYP planner or onto our scope and sequence documents so that the ideas were documented (ticked the box) and the teachers could engage in more creative thinking during collaboration time. Also, I had more time to communicate with families, look at data and plan more thoughtful provocations.

Coordinators should always look for opportunities to free up time so that teachers don’t have to be bogged down so much with paperwork and instead shift their focus to making learning impactful.

Professional Relationships: You get people ON the bus when you don’t put people UNDER the bus

A common mistake that coordinators make is that they complain to teachers about the administrators as a bid for connections. Don’t throw administration under the bus in front of teachers. As a new or aspiring leader, choosing to throw someone under the bus is one of the telling signs of your leadership capabilities.

[bctt tweet=”When you blame somebody else for something that you should be taking some responsibility for, you are communicating weakness and not strength” username=”judyimamudeen”] In most situations, you can be a change agent so you should be seeking solutions and not be projecting your frustrations onto the staff.  I know it may help you to “feel” that can connect more with the teacher’s perspective but it’s unprofessional and you will develop a culture of complaint and gossip. Who really wants that?

evalutionAnd it’s poor form to throw teachers under the bus in front of teachers. Trust is so important in your work so if you undermine others, expect staff to lose their confidence in you.

It’s the Law of Karma-what is said aloud, goes aloud. So Watch your mouth! The minute you walk away, that teacher you complained to is wondering “hmmm… I wonder what my coordinator tells others about me?” If you feel that a teacher isn’t working up to their potential, talk TO them directly (not ABOUT them) and in a non-threatening way, and seek out a mentor for them. Also, how you say what you say matters. Under your breath, if you must, repeat the mantra: Stay professional. Stay Professional. Stay Professional.

I’m not going to lie here. I have suffered from bouts of “Insert Foot into Mouth Disease” and, goodness knows, that I have had to go back to a staff member to apologize for saying something in a wrong way.  But, for me, it’s more important to have peace and understanding than lose face. However, I once worked with a vice-principal who NEVER ONCE said an unkind word about anyone. EVER. He had plenty of opportunities to humor me with grievances but he never did. Bless him. I thought of him as a saint. And if he asked me to jump, I was like “How high?” and “Would you like sprinkles with that?” He is still my inspiration today because he was always compassionate, generous, thoughtful and caring.  Now, if we all could aspire to that level of professionalism, imagine what a peaceful and productive school we’d have.

Communication: The Human Touch 

Have you ever played a game but you didn’t know the rules? You read the rule book (if there was one) but you just didn’t get the gist of the game. It was frustrating, wasn’t it? You felt like you could never win.

Often that happens with procedures and policies at school. Admin sends them policy manuals and handbooks (if you have them) and tells them to read it. And through osmosis, they are expected them to “get it” and feel successful in managing the systems and practices of your school community. New teachers need explicit explanations of the rules and norms of this “game” called At Our School We Do….. Sometimes coordinators do this through an induction program that is spread out over time. I know that I have dedicated a period of weeks to this and I found it highly successful. My staff feedback was that it mitigated the overwhelm of their transition and helped develop our personal relationship.

Another coordinator I know has staff meetings “end” early during key times in the year (like the 1st 3-way conference, or report writing time, etc..) so that she can have a Q and A sessions with teachers about expectations and protocols for important events. The staff members who already know these procedures and processes feel happy because they can “be released” to do other work, meanwhile, the teachers (mainly new teachers) who need some support can stay behind and get their needs met as well. Later, she sends a follow-up email documenting the expectations that help these teachers to remember those conversations.

Speaking of Emails vs. Meetings

emailsCall me Old Fashion, but I prefer the personal touch of staff meetings over email any day. I like connecting with colleagues and having a common understanding of the events in our community and our school’s pedagogical approaches. Also, consider the fact that if teachers are more concerned with keeping up with emails, rushing to read them then they are not examining students’ work or reflecting on the discussions they had, then the focus isn’t on improving learning. We want teachers to be spending their cognitive power on making learning for students awesome rather than your 18-bullet email about professional development goals. Let that one sink in a bit. It’s good to have a weekly newsletter to communicate important things but if you find that your staff emails began as a couple of sentences and now is evolving paragraphs, then it needs a face to face. A quick and dirty chat will be more impactful than a back and forth conversation over the internet.

And one last point about “the human touch”-Do you go into classrooms? Or do teachers have to come to you? Are you “The Boss” or are you “a colleague and mentor”? How you present and project yourself weighs heavily on the level of trust and compliance you will develop with your team.  Kindness and connection are vital to the work we do in schools. It’s how you build trust and loyalty.  Talk to you teachers-You don’t have to be charismatic and bubbly but you do have to have sincere enthusiasm for the work they are doing in classrooms. We all need encouragement sometimes and when you say it to their face, it is always more meaningful and authentic than an email blast. It’s great to give them recognition amongst their peers but to take the time to tell them in person is really powerful. Don’t underestimate the value and meaning of your words.

Perhaps you might relate to these challenges. As humans, we are all a bit flawed (except for that saintly vice-principal) and when you are in leadership your flaws are even more obvious. So I am wondering what other ideas and perspectives you might share that would help develop more positive staff relationships as we engage in their role in the curriculum. Tips and tricks welcomed in the comments below!

How to Avoid Being Napolean Bonaparte

How to Avoid Being Napolean Bonaparte

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I’ve long held a suspicion that there is a difference between an administrator and a leader, but now I know it is the truth. My current school has suffered through major changes several times since I’ve been here and now it looks to restructure again with its expanded campus. Needless to say, this has provided a lot of fodder for me to consider what is my role at the school and made me reflect on what is the distinction between someone who sees themselves as a someone who “ticks off the boxes”, my definition of an administrator,  or someone who is in fact in command of the school, my definition of a leader. As I see, you can’t lead people who don’t want to follow you, but you still can be an administrator who manages things lovelessly.

Music Genre

And the difference between the two is what are the values of the person in charge: completing paperwork or developing trust. Whether or not someone at the top is an administrator or is a leader, they influence the culture of a school, but the outcomes of their decisions permeate all areas of school life. The perspectives they hold about education plays a major part in how school policies and procedures are shaped and implemented.

Some of the fault in exercising power comes from the fact that the higher you climb in a hierarchical structure (which most schools ascribe to), the more you are the target of criticism and complaints. How you handle being the target of these remarks and gossip makes a huge difference. You have to ask yourself: Do I want to be liked or do I want to be trusted. The nuances in this perspective cannot be underscored enough. To put simply, if you think of your title like winning a popularity contest then you will always be defending your title. If you think of your title as earning a vote of confidence, then you continue to work toward maintaining and developing the strengths of your organization.  When you are in a “title”, there is hubris and then there is humility that becomes the norms of a school.  You get to decide which will define your use of power.  Douglas MacArthur said it best:

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.

As I wrap up my school year and prepare to move to another school, I will store away the memories of these experiences. Although I will not be in a leadership title next year, I have come to understand that “words without actions” are meaningless, so I feel strongly that titles without real leadership qualities are void of any value. I am a bit disenchanted with any grabs at power at the moment because I have witnesseleadershipd first hand at how detrimental it can be when people thirst to be given power or maintain control over others. I have come to feel relief in taking some time to redefine what I am and how I can best serve my new school community and the field of education at large. Alas, that will be my new focus–out beyond the 4 walls of my school–and look to how I might contribute to making a difference, not just in the International Baccalaureate, but in the larger conversation that is taking place in education: What really matters for our learners as we look to the future?

What about you? What are your thoughts about school leadership? What perspectives am I missing?

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