Do you blame the parents?

For over 20 years, I have heard that children are less responsible now than they once were.  Shoot!  I am pretty sure I heard that I was less responsible than the kids who came before me!

Is the level of responsibility and self-reliance of kids declining?  Do kids perform fewer chores than they once did?  Are students less able to organize and maintain their "stuff" at school?  Can they find their own stuff?  Can they organize their own thinking?  Do they seem more helpless than a few years ago?

At school, teachers constantly create new and improved methods to keep the kids organized.  We want them to find their "stuff."  We want them to hold on to it until they need it again.  We want them to be responsible for it.  Binders and color-coded folders and labels and dividers and shelves and cubbies and trays and boxes and checklists and rubrics and agendas and planners and...on and on and on...  Some classes have ALL of those things.

Some kids can handle our systems of organization perfectly.  They do so every year, regardless of how the teachers differ in their approach.  Other kids are seemingly hopeless each year, regardless of how the teachers differ in their approach.  And variations in between.

Some kids keep a messy desk, have a messy backpack, they leave their lunch in the car at least once a week, and they never seem to get homework done.  Nothing gets signed and returned on time either.

Some kids have a tough time taking responsibility for their own choices.  They will try to blame others rather than looking at their own actions, "Little Glenn made me do it!"

Unorganized, or irresponsible, or always pointing a finger...who do you blame?

Some teachers look at the kids and blame the parents.  They say things like, "If parents did a better job at home, kids wouldn't be like that."

This statement may actually be true some of the time.  It doesn't matter.

Blaming anyone for a child's behavior is a waste of time.  Instead, look forward and focus your energies on teaching this child how to act in your classroom and in your school.  Teach the kid the behavior you seek.  It is OK to teach kids that there are a different set of rules and a different mindset for success at school.  Create a classroom that works for this student to be successful at school.

Or...deal with the status quo.

Dirty hands

The current unit for science includes a bunch of stuff about erosion and weathering and dirt.  The textbook talks about red soil in Hawaii and loamy soil and nutrient-rich soil and clay-rich soil.  Since a field trip to Hawaii is out of the question, the pictures and text in the book is somewhat irrelevant.

Instead, we went out side and looked for evidence of weathering and erosion.  We walked the places that water flowed and looked at the different dirt in different areas around campus.  We found places where fine particles of soil collected and we found areas with no fine soil, only rocks.  We noticed the direction the water erosion took place on the grounds of our school and checked out areas for deposition.  They felt the moisture-rich soil and shared the different soils in their hands.

And while all of this was happening, we used the appropriate vocabulary.  We noticed and wondered.  We found relevance in the ground beneath our feet.  We created connections between our world and the foreign language in that textbook.  After a great science walk, the kids mostly owned the vocabulary.  More importantly, they didn't memorize it.  They experienced it.

No Hurry

I have really started to pay attention to student/teacher interactions.  I have been looking for a natural flow and rhythm to learning activities, especially when the teacher is involved.

When I first began teaching, I had a realization that I was trying to move my students along at my speed, not theirs.  This was especially evident during small group instruction.  I might read a passage with some students and engage in dialogue about the piece.  I would ask questions and guide the discussion to focus on main idea, inferences, and author's purpose, along with many other learning targets.

All too often, I noticed the kids couldn't keep up with me!  I didn't understand why because I thought that since we were working through the reading and dialogue together, we would all be able to participate in the conversation at the same speed.  My brain found the information so their brain should do it at the same time.

It seems like a no-brainer to know that some students may work slower.  However, I was so intensely involved in the learning conversation that I tried to keep it flowing smoothly...according to my own timeline.

Now, I will wait.  I will wait for a long time.  Perhaps too long.  If a kid seems to be done with his thinking and writing, I may give him a side question to extend his thinking.  I wait until it seems clear that everyone in the group is truly ready for the discussion.  I watch them intensely with the hope that the activity flows for them and not me.  Then we dig deeply into the passage.  We do it together.  No hurry!

Word finds are GREAT for student learning!

No. No they are not.  A few kids enjoy them.  Most do not.  They do not help kids learn.  Stop doing them for the purpose of improving vocabulary or better spelling.  There are much better ways.

Also, very few kids like The Quiet Game.  Most hate it.  They know what you need from them.  Kids choose their friends as the "most quiet" classmate.  Other kids purposely lose quickly because they know deep down inside that they will not be chosen.   Playing the quiet game really just sets the stage for you to be able to more easily spot the talkers.  Let's teach them how to talk to each other appropriately.  If too many kids are unable to act appropriately in the hallway, it is your fault.  If it is only one or two kids, address them individually.  Find a better way.

This week we are learning the letter R!  Letter of the week is irrelevant.  What a contrary and meaningless way to help young students gain ownership of the alphabet.  Start with the letters in their name.  Use environmental print. Stop cutting out 8 little letter R's and gluing them next to eight pictures of things that supposedly start with the letter R.  Kids need to learn letters and sounds through relevant language.  Worksheets with poorly drawn Rats do not help kids learn the capital R.  We can do letters better.

Copying off the board needs to end.  I'm not talking about copying a problem or an expectation for a learning activity.  I'm talking about copying a poem or a paragraph.  Don't make kids copy something that someone else has written.  If kids need to write something down, let them write their own words!  Copying is not learning.  Design something better.

Sitting out at recess for forgetting homework does not help kids remember their homework.  The kids who habitually lose their homework are only missing out on the movement they probably need.  The kids who always remember the homework simply see a stick pointed their direction.  Compliance out of fear is not the best way to do it.  Paying kids with rewards isn't the best way either.  Build intrinsic motivation by giving them better ownership of their behaviors and consequences.

Rainbow writing does not improve writing.  It does not help kids become better writers or spellers.  It does not increase engagement for the great majority of students.  It is a waste of time.  Kids are more thoughtful about choosing the colors instead of correct spelling.  I don't even know what pyramid writing is but it looks worthless.  Writing spelling words five times each is not good.   Spelling is tough to teach, but there are much better ways.

Round Robin reading still happens.  Oh my goodness, why?  The lack of engagement is beyond obvious.  The below-level readers cannot read the text.  Kids more than a couple of reading lower than the text can't even follow along.  Most kids don't follow along.  The high readers are bored to tears!  There are better ways.

These suggestions are not new.  These strategies were equally ineffective in 1994, my first year of teaching.  They were ineffective in 1979, when I was a 5th grader.  They are still ineffective, yet they still happen.

When educational practices are proven to be effective for all students, keep doing them.  The strategies highlighted above are not effective.  They are also not engaging or fun.  They are not fun for the kids or for the teacher.  Design better learning activities.

Runners gonna run!

Some people are really well-conditioned to only act when told what to do.  They defer all decisions to their boss.  They may do what they are told quite well, but this group of people doesn't make the decisions.  They wait to be told what to do.

There seems to be a correlation between the folks who wait to be told what to do and the folks who complain about what they are told to do.  They are usually the same people!

Some folks are so busy forging on with great teaching and learning that they don't wait for much!  Ron Clark, National Teacher of the Year and founder of The Ron Clark Academy says that these folks are runners  and they are too busy running ahead doing things that are best for kids to wait to be told what to do.  And they are definitely too busy to complain about it!

Brene Brown, author of Daring Greatly, says that when we are willing to own our story, we can write our own ending.  Don't wait for someone to tell you what to do.  Don't let someone else write your story. Wake up each day and ask yourself, "How can I be better today than I was yesterday?"  Then go be better!

It ruined my whole day

Yesterday was an abnormal day for me.  I got stuck.  Really stuck.  For too too long, I couldn't get my brain beyond the barriers.  The two people at the table with me later asked if I was having a rotten day.  One of them told me that my mood was obvious when I first walked in the office.  This is not normal me.

Normal me has no problem looking at the current reality and looking for ways to get better.  I look for ways to learn and improve all the time.  Some folks even say I need to occasionally slow down my talk of improvement long enough to celebrate the good things that have been done.  Normal me doesn't stay down too long at all.  Normal me may say one thing one way, then immediately address the same topic with a positive, forward-thinking mentality.

Just like everyone else, my mood can swing back and forth.  I do think that one of my strengths is being able to swing it back to positive quickly.  I don't stay down in the dumps for too long.  Even if the barriers in front of me seem daunting, I usually can get to the pro-active, barrier-beating attitude that is necessary for continuous improvement.

When one of my kids makes a poor choice and forces me to make a tough decision as a parent, I usually bounce back from it really fast.  I don't want my children seeing that one negative event can ruin a whole day.  When I am working on Title One documentation rather than working to improve teaching and learning, I don't let the government-mandated paperwork ruin my whole day.  I push through it as quickly as possible so I can spend time on more important things.  Even if I am forced to use up an entire day to meet a due-date because of my continued habit of procrastination, I do so with as much of a positive spirit as possible.  I may get grumpy on occasion, but I typically bounce back quickly.

Yesterday, I let the barriers blind me for longer than normal.  And I was lucky to have these two folks with me.  They did not let me bring them down.  They didn't let the fact that I was stuck get them stuck too.  They listened to me and considered my thoughts, but they did not let it impede their desire to implement the much-needed improvements to a campus-wide process.  Yesterday, I simply could not see the benefits of the new process according to our current reality.  They refused to see the barriers I saw as insurmountable.

When I initially came aboard my current campus as principal, I was tasked with hiring a new assistant principal.  I told the committee, "I need somebody strong enough to tell me NO."  I'm glad she is here.  I also needed someone with a true coach's mentality.  Someone who knows how to make me examine my own words and thoughts.  Someone who is not afraid to engage in rigorous professional conversation and hold me accountable for rational thoughts and words.  I am lucky to have an instructional coach of the highest caliber.

Because of them, I was held to a high standard.  I wasn't allowed to negate the importance of the improvement efforts that will surely benefit our students and give our teachers a better system for working with struggling learners.

Sometimes, when one of those days rolls around, the best thing to do is to trust the good people around you to not listen to you.  Trust them for their passion and their character.  Know that they share your goal and they want what you want.

Not interested

I was listening to The Tim Ferriss Show on the way to work this morning.  Great podcast!  His guest said, "I'm terrible at things I am not interested in."

Duh!!!  

A pretty obvious point of view that tends to escape a lot of folks in education.  When kids are not good at something, it just might be because they are not interested.  When they are good at something, there is a good chance they find it interesting!

If kids are not good at something, perhaps we need to stop trying to provide interventions and remediation until we have found a way to make it interesting.  There are many ways to do it!  There are also two popular strategies that simply do not work.

1.  A teacher cannot simply convince a kid that an assignment is interesting.  You can't talk them into it.

2.  You will not garner their interest by telling them it will affect the job they get some day.  I don't know too many fifth graders who give credit to their future job aspirations for their interest in an assignment.  I know tons of high school kids who believe whole-heartedly that they will never use algebra.  Most of them are correct


When your students say, "This is boring," they are telling you it is not interesting.
When your students say, "This is cool!" they are telling you that it is interesting.  Ask why and I bet they explain how it connects to something they find important.

Make the connections and make it interesting!

Micromanagement

I don't like the idea that every decision and action must be funneled through me.  As a public school principal, I want the folks around me to use their talent, expertise, and passion in ways that make school better and better for kids every day!  I want to be able to clear paths for folks so that their own improvement efforts shine.

However, there are some things that I micromanage.  We all have the little things that we want to control.  As an assistant principal, I was really picky about checking the textbooks in and out.  I wanted it done my way.  I didn't care which books you wanted.  I didn't care whether you wanted a class set, one book for each kid, or none at all!  I didn't care if you used them one bit!  But I was very specific about how to turn those suckers back in to the book room!  They had to be stacked on the counter, by the door, face down, spine away from the wall, in stacks of five or ten.  This made scanning each book easy for me!

Looking backwards, I can see that I micromanaged a few things during my first gig as principal.  I can also see that the amount of micromanagement decreased each year for five years.  After finishing my first year at my new school, I can see a few things that I will micromanage for a little while.

For example, I want to see kids writing across the curriculum.  Students will be writing at least once per day in each subject.  They will also be sharing their writing with each other.  I want to see it!   I will also be asking teachers to design math lessons so that students are talking about math.  I want to see collaborative problem-solving!  I want students finding creative ways to answer math problems and talking about it!  I want to see it!

These are two of the things I care deeply about and I believe will help move our school forward!  So I will micromanage them. These two things are only a small part of the excellent teaching and learning that already happen, nevertheless, they will definitely increase learning.

There will be other things that I micromanage.  I know what some of them will be.  I'm sure there are some things that I don't even know I will want to micromanage.

The title of micromanager is not one that most folks want to have.  Most folks do not want to be known as one.  But we all do a little bit of micromanagement.  We all have those things that we want done a certain way.  I don't want to be a micromanager but I do micromanage some things.

The top ten reasons not to think

We don't like to think any more.  We just want to know.  Why discuss the beauty of the art in the museum...just give me the list of the top ten exhibits and I'll go see them.  What are the Top Ten Instagram photos of the year?  Click this link to see the list of the WORST soccer fails of all time!

I see a list, I read it, and it occasionally entertains me.  I know that so many of these lists won't make me think, yet I am drawn to them anyways.  Maybe because I want to see if I disagree with the list or not.  Usually, I find out that I don't care enough to agree or disagree.  Or, I don't have anyone else who checks out the same list and wants to talk about it.  People like lists!

Facebook is filled with ad-driven lists that draw us in!

The 12 best 80's songs.  

The 36 funniest auto-corrects EVER!

88 BEST reasons to drink cold lemon water!

I enjoyed David Letterman's lists for years and years.  In my middle school years, I owned a book called, "The Book of Lists," and it was quite entertaining!  My parents made it disappear for a few years due to one little list that was not quite middle-school appropriate!

Do lists like these cause you to think more or less?  How can we use Top Ten lists to increase the dialogue and expand perspective?

Sports shows do a great job of making a Top Ten list, then arguing about it.  Who is the best basketball player of all time, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, or LeBron James?  I'm sure somebody would argue that I am actually leaving out the real #1!

What about creating a Top Ten list and asking folks to defend their rationale?  That would get people thinking and talking!  What are your top ten ways to use a Top Ten list?

I wonder...then I write!

Alan November says that most questions that we ask our students in schools can be answered fairly easily with  a quick internet search.  He goes on to say that in this country, we essentially see education as the lining up of facts.  He wants us to teach kids to ask questions.

He is not the only guy to say this.  Warren Berger loves great questions.  His book, "A More Beautiful Question," is excellent!  He discusses the importance of questions.  Especially the ones that do not have easy answers.

Earlier today, I was interviewed by a great teacher who is beginning her grad school experience.  She is in the first week of her first class and she was asked to conduct three interviews with folks from our school district.  The questions all dealt with leadership.

For so many of the questions, I found myself quoting Covey, or thinking Covey, or trying to channel my inner Covey!  It was an excellent opportunity to think about myself and my beliefs.

The last question asked me to offer one or two pieces of advice to her.  For that question, I wish that I had been given lots of time to think about it.  Just two???  Interesting!

I immediately thought of the things I do to drive my own improvement.  First, I try to always have a question that drives my thinking.  I am always investigating a question of some sort.  I told her to always have a question.  Always be curious.  Second, I told her to write about that question every day.  It doesn't take long.  Five minutes.  Putting your thoughts into written words puts them in order.

What is your question right now?  What makes you think?  Write about it!

They made fun of me today

The talent show was today.  It was incredible!  The talent that our kids shared was amazing!  The production effort of the staff was equally amazing!  Singers turned to comedy routines turned to drummers turned back to singers with the designed precision of a Broadway show!  Wow!

They followed it up with a quick act by the staff to celebrate the end of a great year and to have a little fun.  Several of the teachers acted out snippets of what teachers act like at the end of the year.  They showed a stereotypical teacher who might be too tired to get out the door on time during the month of May.  The next teacher was from our school, and could not WAIT to get to school to see our shiny, happy kids!  OK, so my last morning announcement of the year said that we simply could not WAIT to see the kids next year and we were sad that the school year had to end.

Then I walked on stage.  It looked kinda like me anyway.  He painted on a beard and covered just enough hair to look bald like me.  He also had his radio on his belt and his phone in his hand.  He spoke in an animated, overly-optimistic tone and gave the kids my usual "sign-off" for morning announcements, speedily saying, "Make it a supergreatwonderfulfantasticexcellentfaboulous day!"  He added about 22 more similar words, including a few that have never before been heard!  As he walked off stage, he pulled up his britches.  I guess I might do that too.

They made fun of me.

And it was funny!  And I was flattered!  And it really made my day and made me feel like a more included part of the campus!  I loved it!  If they had not included this little part of the show, the show still would have been awesome!  But by including it, they included me!  And I am thrilled to be a part of such a great group of folks!

Jeff is a lifelong friend of mine.  He is a genius, and an engineer, with multiple patents.  For as long as I have known him, he has lived by a simply motto, "I don't care whether you are laughing with me or at me, as long as you are laughing."

It was awesome to have so many folks laughing at me with me today!

Last chance

I'd rather give a kid one chance too many rather than one too few.

There a comes a point in time when you have to decide that enough is enough.  You have given Little Glenn just about all the chances he could possibly need to make better choices.  Well he makes that same poor choice again and you are done!  Unless you are not done.

When do you say that enough is enough?  When have you given a kid his last chance to learn that lesson and make the right choice?  Do the other teachers admire your ability to set limits early and fast?  Or, do they admire your ability to give chance after chance after chance with the patience of Jobe?

I don't know too many kids who wake up and say, "Today is the day I interrupt my teacher so much that she loses her cool and drags me to the office!"  I do know some kids that may seem to wake up that way though.  For the 88th day this year, Little Glenn has interrupted you incessantly.  He didn't wake up deciding to be the supreme interruptor, but he is wearing that cape anyways.  Does he get chance number 89?  Or was yesterday his last chance?

Butts in the air

It is no surprise that most students have things they find more interesting than schoolwork.  During an average ordinary day of school, the list of more-preferred activities is long.  Even during our best learning activities, it would be tough to find a kid who would rather get their hands dirty with a plate tectonics lesson using cookies and dirt instead of mine craft or soccer or fishing.  In other words, no matter what you have designed for kids to do in school, there is probably something each child would rather do.

How do we tap into that?  How do we bring it to life in our classrooms?  How do we design learning so that kids use their own interests to drive the things you need to learn.

We have all seen that lesson where kids are truly into it!  Stephen Barkley says that you can tell what kind of lesson is happening in a classroom by the number of butts in the air.  When all the butts are in the air and all the head are pointed at the same activity, engagement is high!  When all the butts are in the air and they are crawling around the room, engagement is non-existent.

Lesson design is not simply choosing the next page out of the textbook, running some copies, then showing kids how to do the work on the whiteboard.  Lesson design digs deeply into the learning objective.  What do the kids need to master during this lesson?  How will I know if they master it?  Then the big question...What is the best possible way to ensure that they can learn it?

I doubt the answer is to open a textbook and do a worksheet.  How do we get butts in the air!?!?!?!

More time please!

During learning time, what are your students asking for?  Are they involved in creative discussion about a project they care about and they are begging for more time?  Or, do you hear questions like:

"Do we hafta write the whole sentence?"

"Do we hafta show our work?"

"Why do I need to copy this?"

The questions your students ask are one of the best indicators that you have designed engaging learning.  All teachers love it when their students are so engaged that they don't notice the clock on the wall or who comes in the door!  Contrarily, it is not much fun hearing your students beg for ways to get out of the work you have asked them to do.

What? Me, Worry?

When it comes to improving education, there are two forces in action.  The need to make things better and the resistance to change.  Oftentimes, these two forces occur in the same brain!  Good teachers know things need to get better but they might be afraid to make it happen.  There is fear of the potential difficulties.  There is fear of future failure.  Worry about what the other teachers might think.  There is a worry that things won't be better.

The fear and worry about the potential future outcomes cause suffering in the teacher who wants improvement.  Suffering because the status quo isn't working.  Suffering because the better way is just out of reach.  Suffering because doing the same ol' thing is tiresome.  

Strange, isn't it, that so many folks suffer from a potential future that may not even happen?

Think or DIE!

Eric Weinstein says that we must, "Think or die!"

Sounds a bit extreme, doesn't it?  To put it in context, this quote comes from an interview discussing his opinions on change, innovation, and status quo.  Doing nothing of significant difference is like like death.

He also says that simply choosing a different tool out of your toolbox is not innovation.  He believes that true innovation comes from creating new tools.

Educators talk all the time about needing more tools in their toolboxes to meet the needs of every learner.  Which tool will be the ONE that fixes the kid that has always struggled???  Indeed, it is one of our toughest challenges!  How do I strive to help each and every single student find success in my classroom and in my school?

By the time a child has struggled through a few years on your campus, there is a good chance that every tool you own and quite a few borrowed ones have been tried on the kid.  There is not a single tool, strategy, program, or app that has succeeded for this kid.  Now what?  Time to create a new tool!  Time to do something different!

How far outside of the ordinary are you willing to go?  How much difference are you willing to allow to create a successful learning experience for this kid?  Remember, nothing has worked so far.  Will a little bit of difference make the difference?  Or...do you need to do things that have never been done before?

Be brave, have fun, and create something new!

Isn't all feedback positive?

"I can't wait to hear some positive feedback!"

What do you mean by positive?  Do you want to hear only the good things?  What if there are some points of constructive criticism that will improve your efforts?  Do you want to hear those too?

For years, I have heard from lots of folks that sandwich-style is a great way to provide feedback.  Say something good, then share the area for growth, then end with something good.  Does sandwich-style really work?  Supposedly, it shows there is more positive than negative and it puts the "bad" feedback in the middle.

For some people, it doesn't really matter how many good things are shared, they will only hear the growth area.

Is there a better ideology for feedback?  I think so.  Create a culture where relationships and trust are strong enough between educators so that any feedback is considered positive!  Develop and grow a true culture of camaraderie and growth.  Make it so that everything you do for kids is open for feedback and improvement.  A friend recently told me that the best way to hear the positive side of things from everyone is simple: No matter the relationship, assume positive intent.  In other words, hear feedback as if it was spoken from the heart, regardless of who gives it.  Regardless of the tone of voice.

Tell me that my morning starter rocked!  Tell me that the transition to the next activity was terrible!  Tell me that I need to speed up the progression of a lesson!  Tell my anything that makes me better at what I do!  If I choose to hear your feedback as positive, I win.  If your comment makes me ask myself a good question, I win?  If your words help me improve my practice, I win!

After hearing you, I have a decision to make.  Will I choose to act on your feedback or not.  I can't unhear it but I can choose to do nothing with it!  If we have a relationship with a huge emotional bank account balance, it won't bother you if I don't heed your advice.  If we simply have a professional relationship, it shouldn't bother you if I choose not to act on your words.  Regardless of our relationship, if I make improvements based on your feedback, you have helped me!

Either way, I will appreciate your words.  I will use them to think about, to question, or to investigate my own practice.  The important thing is that we trust each other, we respect each other as talented educators, and we both want to be better and better every day!

At my old school... (2.0)

"At my old school..."  People at the new school hate these words!  Especially if they hear them all the time.  They don't want to hear it!  They don't want to hear about how much better everything was at your previous school!

"At my old school...," sounds like such a slap in the face.  As if the way that things work at the new place aren't good enough!  Every time folks from the new school hear those words, they get defensive because the way things are at this place have worked fine enough for several years now.  Quit judging your new home based on your old home.

And while we are talking about it, quit asking why we do things the way we do things!  You wouldn't ask unless you thought this way was terrible!  I know you are judging us!  Don't come here telling us everything is bad and everything you did at your old school is better!

Or...

That new teacher sure does come with a different set of experiences!  I bet we can learn a lot from her.  She seems to know what she is talking about and has been at several different schools and districts.  My career has only been here.  A new perspective may be just what we need to make improvements!  We have been doing so many things the same way for so long, it is good to have someone on board with ideas for making things more effective and efficient!

I like that she asks us why we do certain things in certain ways.  It tells me she is interested in understanding the rationale behind our way of doing things.  At first, it seemed like she was questioning us a lot.  But now I see that just makes sense for a new person!  Now I see that she really does accomplish most things our way.  

What that really means is that she only makes suggestions for improvements when she has experienced a better way.  Sounds like a teacher to me!  We always steal ideas from each other!  Why would it be different when she offers us something to steal!

At my old school...

Since 1994, my career has taken me through several incredible schools!  Every school had some great teachers, passionate about their students and passionate about excellent education.  Every school also had some that were not so great.  I have also been a part of a few campuses that didn't fit me too well. Most of those loved status quo rather than continuous improvement.  It is probably safe to say that I wasn't a fit in their eyes either!

Regardless, every campus had strengths that deserved to be shared.  One campus truly took care of the whole child.  Students were little humans above all!  Another campus utilized data to drive instruction better than NASA.  One campus blew me away with their constant innovations and collaboration.  

Within classrooms, strengths were everywhere.  One teacher made math journals come to life.   Another teacher constantly pushed the edge of higher-level thinking with her students.  Yet another caught the heart of every single student.  One made excellent learning look so gloriously simple yet it was always engaging and challenging!  Another truly gave ownership of the classroom to her students.  Strengths could be found on every campus!

We all know that educators are the best of borrowers.  Some say we are the best of thieves.  We love taking great ideas from other teachers, giving them a little remix, and making them our own!  And when we do borrow or steal, we gladly give credit to the giver.  It isn't about credit, it is about doing something that improves learning.

So what happens when someone new comes along?  A new teacher joins a campus after success in another school, another district, another state, or even another country?  New teachers bring their own strengths and experiences.  They bring their own biases and opinions.  They also bring their own assumptions and their own gaps in knowledge.

When the new teacher models something that the campus considers to be new and wonderful, teachers copy it and use it.  We borrow that bit of goodness and make it our own!  We may ask questions about it and seek to learn more.  We may share our successes with others and give credit to the newbie.  After all, better is better, and better is worth sharing!

The new teacher probably has questions too.  The thing is, questions from the newbie are often met defensively.  Folks that have been around for awhile often see these questions as derogatory.  The newbie asks, "Why do we do it that way?  In my old school..."

A process may work just fine in the new place, but the previous place used a process that was extremely effective.  If the new teacher simply puts the better process into action, others copy it and love it.  If the new teacher questions the new school's process, it is often seen as negative.  Why?

Each one of us is a product of our experiences.  I am the educator that I am because of my experiences.  My learning experiences, my teaching experiences, and my life experiences made me the person I am.  Same for you.  Same for your school.

If it is your goal to wake up today and be better than you were yesterday, don't be defensive when new folks ask why something is done a certain way.  Instead, ask yourself the exact same question, "Great question!  Why exactly do we do it that way around here?  Do you know a better way that we should consider?"

When someone says, "At my old school...," don't roll those eyes.  Instead, ask questions and see if there is something in that story worth borrowing.  If your new person has ideas worth stealing, be grateful for all that is offered, whether they offer it by showing you, or they simply ask you why something is done a certain way.

When someone asks, "Why do we...," it probably means there is a suspicion that a better way exists.  If someone says, "Maybe we should...," it means the suspicion of a better way is strong. When someone questions the processes, see it as a great opportunity to question them too!  When someone says, "At my old school...," listen with open ears and an open heart.  You might just find your own improvement!

Tomorrow, I will add a post with the same message.  I wrote two and could not decide which one to post!

I'm sorry you feel that way

A long time ago, I was taught that an apology can go a long way towards repairing a broken situation.  Just apologize so you can show that you care and that you are sorry for what happened.

I've kept this in mind for years and years.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.  Apologies during a disagreement work best when they are heartfelt and they are include admission of a mistake by the apologist.  For example, "I'm sorry I didn't handle that situation well.  I did a terrible job of hearing your needs.
 I should not have ignored you.  I should have listened to your needs better and found a way to help you."

Apologies during disagreements are meaningless when they don't acknowledge your own actions.  The most common is, "I'm sorry you feel that way."

Uggghhhhh....

If we are really close, I can appreciate the sentiment.  If we are friends or family, and you want me to know that you feel badly for the way I feel because you care about me, those words make sense.  If we are really close, telling me you are sorry is really just commiseration or sympathy.

If we do not have some type of close relationship, please don't apologize for the way I feel.  "I'm sorry you feel that way," is not an apology.