Teachers as Informal Leaders

Published June 30, 2009 Change Agent 0 Comments
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Teachers can be leaders. This doesn’t mean they get to call all the shots in their schools. It means that teachers can influence other teachers and even administrators, and they can help to direct the course of their schools.

Steven DeMaio wrote a post over at Harvard Business where he describes some of the leadership principles he follows as a teacher. Steven doesn’t wait to be vested with authority. He simply thinks about how he might use his everyday words and actions to influence others. The leadership he describes isn’t heavy-handed, but he is intentional about his attitude and demeanor:

“In essence, the effective informal leader is inquisitive rather than watchful.”

I’ve seen a number of teachers lead with answers and proclamations and complaints. A far more effective approach might be to lead with questions. The questions I ask reveal my values and beliefs, as well as engaging others in thinking about their own values and beliefs. A conversation about values and beliefs is a leader’s conversation, rather than an administrative conversation.

What is world-class education?

Published May 23, 2009 Change Agent 1 Comment
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The title of this post refers to the vision statement for my district. I recently applied for a district committee position (unsuccessfully). In the application, I expounded on the meaning of our district vision moving forward:

World-class education in 2009 and beyond will involve three key factors: customization, collaboration, and ownership.
Increasingly, students and families will expect a customized learning experience for each learner. We know that every student in our district has a unique mix of learning strengths and styles. As we move forward, we will need to develop resources, tools, practices, and assessments that allow educators to harness the strengths of each student to maximize academic achievement.
Collaboration will be the life-blood of this movement toward customized learning. Educators throughout our district will need to combine their bags of tricks, and they’ll need the tools to sort through and catalog those resources for easy modification and implementation. To realize world-class results, we will need to collaborate and share with educators world-wide.
We must empower our students to take ownership of their learning and performance. By developing assessments that are timely and informative, students can assume a more active roll in their own achievement. For students, assessment data should provide logical and immediate feedback regarding mastery of skills and concept. For teachers, data tools should allow easy slicing and dicing of assessment data to inform instructional decisions. We must also cast a wider net to collect student-centric evidence of mastery. Students express mastery in many different ways, and our data collection should acknowledge and leverage this diversity.

Casting the vision in a small way

Published May 6, 2009 Change Agent 0 Comments
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I’m serving as a coordinator for our site student assistance program next year. My partner and I are making plans and brainstorming options for the processes that will support at-risk students on their way to mainstream interventions or special education services.
As we dream and discuss and collaborate, it strikes me that a solid, engaging mission is critical for this kind of work. We’re toying with this statement: Collaborate with teachers to individualize instruction.
To preload this goal into our work next year, I incorporated the mission statement into an online feedback survey.
The question reads "CSTs mission: Collaborate with teachers to individualize instruction. What grade would you give us in achieving this goal?"
In this screenshot of the survey, “ES” represents “Excels in the standard”, “MS” means “Meets the standard”, AS means “Approaches the standard”, “FS” means “Falls below the standard”, and “FFS” means “Falls far below the standard”.
We don’t know who will serve on the team next year. We’re inviting teachers this week to consider return/joining. I’m hoping that as they share their opinions and observation from this year, they’ll catch the mission statement and show up to school in August with a clearer idea of what we’re about.

My podcast A-list

Published April 8, 2009 Off Topic 0 Comments
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John Sowash wrote a post mentioning his favorite podcasts, so I thought I’d post my top-list.

  • 4 Guys Talking - Scott Mcleod et. al discuss the big questions in education, and the try to sort them out.
  • CBC Radio: Spark - This Canadian radio show seems to cover geeky tech, biotech, and tech and culture really well.
  • EdTechTalk - There’s something for every educator with shows covering leadership, classroom practice, and, of course, educational technology.
  • Learning Matters with John Merrow - He’s been covering American education for years. Recently, he and his colleagues have conducted excellent interviews with leaders in both New Orleans and D.C.
  • Harvard Business IdeaCast - The best in leadership talk.
  • MacBreak Weekly - Leo Laporte recently had Levar Burton as guest. He’s the Reading Rainbow guy and he’s a Mac-head!
  • Mars Hill Bible Church - Rob Bell teaches a little more than half the weekend sermons. All the teaching at this church is thought provoking and Christ-centered.
  • Neue Ministry - Church leadership interviews from the Relevant Magazine crew.
  • NPR: Live Concerts from All Songs Considered - I highly recommend Radiohead, Belle and Sebastian, and Jose Gonzalez.
  • NPR: Planet Money - Coverage of the financial crisis and simple explanations of how it happened and how it may get better.
  • Steve Brown, Etc. - I just started listening to this interview show hosted by a Rerformed Theological Seminary Prof. Really deep discussions, but really funny at the same time.
  • This American Life - The best storytelling in any media, bar none.
  • 60 Minutes Podcast - I work on Sunday nights, so I don’t get to watch 60 Minutes on CBS. Fortunately, they post the full audio from the show on iTunes weekly.

Leadership vs. Laser Focus

Published March 31, 2009 Change Agent 0 Comments
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Teachers deserve to feel like an integral part of an institution that is making a great impact on it’s community.
The system of which teachers are a part is cheating them by exploiting one the best qualities of classroom teachers: laser focus.
Teachers are trained to focus with laser intensity on the 20 - 35 students in their classes. They go to great lengths to know their students and tailor instruction to the needs of their kids. This leaves them with little time or energy to focus on the workings of the school, much less the vision or mission of the district or even state. The unfortunate byproduct of this laser focus is a failure to coordinate and collaborate with other educators in meaningful ways. It also starves the organization of leadership.
I certainly don’t believe teachers should sacrifice student achievement so that they can attend more committee meetings. I’m suggesting that perhaps excellent performance in the classroom and effective leadership in an institution are not mutually exclusive.
What if a teacher could apply her efforts in the classroom directly to a shared, tangible goal for the site or the district? Would that teacher change his practice to better align with the district or state goals? Would that teacher be more likely to communicate and coordinate with other teachers to ensure complimentary efforts across classrooms and campuses?

How I learned to fail

Published February 11, 2009 Teachers Bag of Tricks 0 Comments
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I love many aspects of skateboarding. It’s a creative outlet, a social event, optionally dangerous, optionally competitive, and continually educational.
I learned to fail when I picked up a skateboard in High School. I would try the same trick hundreds of times until I got it. Each miss (or slam) gave me new insight into small changes in my technique.
I’m noticing now that I got better at skateboarding because I got better at observing my body movements and changing isolated actions (kick forward, increase the angle of the board to the ground, rotate my shoulders before I pop my board). I now use this kind of disciplined thought in my work and in my relationships. I certainly act on gut instinct when it’s warranted, but I don’t typically act out of a fear of failure. I make decisions knowing that if I fail, it probably won’t be the end of the world, and most of the time, I’ll have a second (or third, or fourth) chance.
How did you learn to fail? How can teachers help students to fail well?

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