Thrivapy: Live, Learn, Have Fun

All of us can learn something from the experiences brought back home from the brave veterans who answered America’s call and served.  On this Memorial Day, I want to tell about one veteran from whom I learned some very valuable lessons. Frank Benjamin Watters served in the United States Army in Europe during World War II.  Mainly, Frank drove trucks, often filled with ammunition.  He was awarded the Bronze Star (among other accolades). Frank, like many veterans, was never eager to  talk about his experiences.  It made him uncomfortable to remember.  So, for most of my time with him, I never heard about his service.  That all changed when he finally told me about being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.  Frank knew his memories would eventually fade (many had already) and he didn’t want his war experiences forgotten.  The disease had forced him to tell his story and I am eternally thankful that he did. Frank B. Watters, the man I called “Paw Paw”, was my grandfather.  He was our fam

For many educators, the beginning of the summer months marks the end of a school year and the beginning of a well deserved pause from the daily grind of school.  While most teachers I know are sad to be away from the students, very few do not look forward to this break. I have always looked upon the summer as a critical piece to my own professional development.  When I was coaching, I volunteered to coach summer teams as a way to improve.  As a teacher, I often tutored or attended professional development opportunities available.  As an administrator, this time is vital to developing and refining operational plans to address the strategic goals of my division. No matter what role you fill in school, the summer provides a great chance to reflect on the previous year and prepare for the fall. Reflection Personal reflection is one of the top three pieces of advice I give teachers about how to improve their craft (the other two are: actively engage in a professional learning network a

On the morning of January 8, 1815, British Major-General Edward Pakenham ordered a two-pronged assault against a largely out numbered American force led by General Andrew Jackson.  The assault took place on the site of the Chalmette Plantation near New Orleans.  Thus, the Battle of New Orleans , the final major battle of the War of 1812, began.  Although much of the pre-battle preparations were either poorly executed or not executed at all, Pakenham was determined to defeat Jackson’s force.  His reliance on his overwhelming numbers and his troops’ training overshadowed any concern about the multitude of obvious challenges facing a British victory.  Weather, landscape, timing, morale, motivation, etc. all were in favor of Jackson and his entrenched American troops. When the fighting ended (after about 20 minutes, the withdrawal was ordered), the Americans earned one of the most lopsided victories in American military history. British:  2,042 casualties (291 killed; including Pakenha

Having recently finished Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dr. Carol Dweck, I am wondering about how to translate the personal challenge of reconfiguring one's mindset to a growth oriented mindset in classes? For those who are not familiar with Dr. Dweck's work, allow me to briefly get you up to speed. In her research, Dr. Dweck suggests that there are two basic mindsets that affect how people interpret information, process that feedback, and react according to these stimuli.  One mindset is "fixed."  The other is "growth." The fixed mindset believes one's qualities are "set in stone."  This way of thinking drives people to prove themselves over and over again.  Because these qualities are fixed, there is no room for to get better and, therefore, set-backs or failures are met with a high degree of depression and anxiety as one tries to align the self-perception with the failure to produce or achieve at a desired level. The gro

In my last post, I wrote about the different reactions to ideas that are sometimes associated with unhealthy and healthy school climates .  As a result, a reader left a comment in which he asked me for advice on how to move from an unhealthy to a healthy environment.  I am happy to oblige, so here it goes. The “Unhealthy” Climate In order to explore how to move from unhealthy to healthy, I think we need to establish an agreed upon description on what an unhealthy school climate looks like.  Unhealthy climates, in the most general sense, redirect the energy and focus of the school away from students and mission.  In the place of students and mission, these climates struggle to move conversations and planning beyond addressing the “crisis of the day.” There is also a higher degree of distrust, isolation, and political in-fighting among the various constituencies of the school.  Good ideas quickly loose momentum as they get bogged down in negativity, and efforts to defend the idea aga

At one point early in my career, I remember thinking that there was no way I would ever consider taking on a formal leadership role in schools.  My fear, as I so eloquently said at the time, was that “I would wake up one morning having lost all common sense.”  One of the reasons I had such an opinion at the time was that the level of autocratic, top-down directives were pervasive that I truly felt as if I had no value at all outside of my class.  I wanted to contribute.  I had good ideas.  But none of that mattered. Now, as I serve in my current role, I am highly aware of the need to be inclusive and work to understand, appreciate, and involve teachers in the operations of the school.  I believe these are important qualities for any school leader.  Establishing a professional and respectful atmosphere in which your best people can contribute and are motivated to engage in school-wide initiatives is a key element to success.  Most effective leaders will agree with this point. Good te

Developing a student-centered culture in your school and among your teachers is a key component to nurturing high achievement. Effective schools recognize this, but can get stuck in the conversation about how to promote such an environment. The hard part for me has not been KNOWING this, but TRANSFORMING these beliefs into practice. As we plan for the next school year and begin to introduce the underlying foundations for our faculty conversations, I offer these three “pillars” for upholding a student-centers culture. Each pillar is described in terms of a relevant resource for you to use as the backdrop to your conversations. Motivation Every school at which I have worked has grappled with the issue of student motivation. Face it, at some point all teachers are confronted with the challenge of coming up with new and innovative ways to motivate students. Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us  tells us about how external motivators often serve to lower p

It is easy to associate only with those who are mostly like us.  People who share our opinions are safe and often validate our thoughts and ideas.  It is much harder to engage with those who are less like us.  When we are faced with a challenge to our beliefs and philosophies, we get uncomfortable. We see this in schools.  We tend to become quite collegial with those like us and tend to be simply congenial to the rest.  When great minds think alike, they seem to gravitate towards each other.  When we are faced with a colleague who thinks differently, we often stay at arms length. But at what cost to the culture of our school does this happen?  As “lead learners” in our schools, do we not have a responsibility to enter into “learning conversations” with those who might have a different opinion or approach to teaching and learning?  Engaging with the goal of learning instead of needing validation can be quite liberating and satisfying, especially if during this interaction you discov

I began writing this blog in July, 2010. When I decided to take the leap into the blogosphere, it was because I thought I had achieved some level of experience and knowledge that could be useful to others. Being in a formal leadership role, I thought sharing my ideas was both helpful and appropriate. I still believe this to be true. In other words… I am a leader, therefore I share   Since then, I have engaged in other means to get my ideas out and to learn from other people. Using social networks such as Twitter and Facebook has been invaluable in opening up my professional perspective.  There is such a diverse assortment of educators who are willing to share their own ideas and experiences. As excited as I get when someone comments on my ideas, I am just as excited to read a fresh, interesting, and new take on educational matters. Many of these new ideas are not necessarily shared by educators in formal leadership roles, yet by proactively advancing the causes of professional develo

The longer I work in education, the more I am convinced that successful educational experiences are, to a great extent, the results of building positive relationships.  These relationships can be student:teacher, teacher:teacher, student:parent, parent:teacher, etc.  I am also of the mind that at the core of every strong relationship is effective communication. This begs the question, “What defines effective communication?”  For schools, I would be as general as saying that effective communication is the interactions of school members that advances the mission of the school.  More specifically, this may take many forms, including: Specific and accurate feedback on student work Follow up on school events Discussion of pedagogy and curriculum Forums to share thoughts and ideas about how to help individual students This list can be endless, but each example involves building, nurturing, and employing a team or partnership approach to the school’s operations. While the idea of est

Depending on your school’s calendar, it is likely that the school year will end for many of us at some point in the next three to five weeks.  In addition, many teachers and administrators are either planning for 2011-2012 or sighing relief to the end of 2010-2011 (or both!).  Most educators, however, are not necessarily looking to try something new in the final few days and weeks of the school year. I think this is actually a very good time to begin trying something you have been wanting to do, but have not begun.  With roughly three to five weeks left, you have just enough time to start and develop a new habit for your school leadership and/or instruction.  In addition, you can use the summer months to either continue the habit and make any adjustments to your approach based on real experiences. For example, you have wanted to send weekly positive messages to parents, but the idea got lost in the daily grind of teaching.  Begin now by making the effort to write one or two each day.

In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America , Louis Menand writes of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species: The purpose of On the Origin of Species was…to debunk the concept of supernatural intelligence – the idea that the universe is the result of an idea…Darwin wanted to establish…that the species were created by, and evolve according to, processes that are entirely natural, chance-generated, and blind (121). Menand also goes on to write: Darwin thought…that variations occur by chance, and that chance determines their adaptive utility…Natural selection is a law that explains why changes occur in nature…Since some members of the group must die, the individuals whose slight differences give them an adaptive edge are more likely to survive. Evolution is simply the incidental by-product of material struggle…Organisms don’t struggle because they must evolve; they evolve because they must struggle (122-123). I have been thinking about these passage

This is the first in what I hope is a series of posts designed to be more interactive.  The purpose is to explore and share more defined aspects of educational leadership through a progression of exercises.  Each exercise has an accompanying Google Doc that I will provide access to in these posts and in the “Open Contribution” page on this blog. I hope you find these exercises engaging and helpful in your developing understanding of educational leadership. Today’s Assignment This is the first exercise in the series.  Being the first, I thought it appropriate to begin with asking a simple question. What is your definition of “educational leadership?” If you would like some tips on how to put together your definition, please check out this out this post I wrote about defining educational leadership . Feel free to comment and share!

Explanation of the exercise I used this exercise today in my history class.  The basic premise is designed around  doing a “mind dump” of information.  “Mind dumps” are simply taking time to write down keywords or phrases that you know about  a given topic.  I have seen this used before tests, but not as part of a classroom lesson. I began by listing the three most current topics of discussion in our class: Westward Expansion , Civil War , and Civil Rights .  Students were then instructed to use either a sheet of paper or their laptops to create three columns (one for each topic). After the documents were set up, I instructed the students to take about 20 minutes to quickly list the keywords or phrases they remember from our discussions.  The only provision was that they could not use their notes from those discussions.  This was to measure what they actually remembered. Once the lists were made, I asked each student to choose one topic and one item on their list to share with the

Being an educational leader is very rewarding and taxing.  One day, your efforts pay huge dividends.  The next, you may feel as if you haven’t accomplished anything at all.  Progress is one area may lead to spinning your wheels in another. As with many things in life that are worthwhile, being an educational leader has it’s share of “gives” and “takes.” “Give” “Take” Ideas and concerns consideration Time to listen to concerns and ideas The support necessary to help teachers achieve their goals The opportunity to congratulate teachers on accomplishing their goals Honest and constructive feedback about how well a class is going Feedback on whether or not my expectations are reasonable Reasons to keep doing your best when things are going rough Away as many burdens and anxieties as possible A vision for the school’s future that is inclusive and shared by others Opportunities to involve others in generating or refining the school’s vision and beliefs statements If y

It is not uncommon for schools to assign summer reading to students. Some schools even have summer reading for teachers. It is less common for schools to make summer reading suggestions for parents. This year, I am making a suggested reading list for teachers, but also inviting parents to read the same titles. I have either read or am in the process of reading each. A brief description is included. If you have read any of these, please feel free to comment.  I am also interested in other suggestions, so feel free to make those as well. Descriptions from Amazon.com.   Seven Secrets of the Savvy School Leader: A Guide to Surviving and Thriving by Robert Evans From the Inside Flap School leaders today are working harder than ever, longer than ever, dealing with ever greater complexity, and sacrificing ever more of their personal and family time to their work. At the same time they are subject to increasing criticism, second-guessing, and unrealistic expectations. Adding to

“My students are so unorganized.” – That is why they call you , “teacher.” “I can’t believe how often the students forget to bring their (fill in the blank) to class.” – That is why they call you , “teacher.” “Why can’t she get this problem?  I’ve gone over this a hundred times.” – That is why they call you , “teacher.” “Yes, it’s on the test and yes, you need to take notes.” – That is why they call you , “teacher.” “If you didn't understand, why didn't you raise your hand and ask?” – That is why they call you , “teacher.” On the other hand…. “ Thank you for seeing me at lunch to explain.  Now, I get it.” – That is why they call you, “ teacher .” “ I can’t believe I got an ‘A’!” – That is why they call you, “ teacher .” “ Can we do another project like this one?” – That is why they call you, “ teacher .” “ Can you email my mom to tell her how well I am doing?” – That is why they call you, “ teacher .” “ Would you write a recommendation for me?” – That is why

Once upon a time, I was a baseball coach.  I remember instances (thankfully few of them) when the team was in a slump.  I felt frustrated and disappointed for the players.  I knew they were trying, but things just weren’t going our way. After one of those games, I was having dinner with a friend and I remember him saying to me, “Coach, you’re doing a fine job with the team.  The players know what to do and are putting out a great effort.  As frustrating as it is to see them in this slump, you need to project confidence for them.  At this time, that is the one thing they are lacking.  Remember, you can coach them to hit the ball, but you can’t swing the bat for them.” As an educational leader, I see teachers go through both good and difficult times.  There are moments when the teaching and learning are in perfect synchronicity.  At other times, teachers and students appear to be on totally different wavelengths.  In my earlier days as an administrator I may have been quick to offer a