Semester 2 goals (Spring 2012)

Having busy days and nights is what keeps me going.  My work is fun and diverse and some days I toggle between all of the different things too quickly to do my best job keeping track of what is essential.  So on the dawn of our second semester at school (my online course and PhD student second semesters already started, but better late than never) I am going to post some goals so I can remind myself of what is important every day. This is not exhaustive, of course-- just some things to focus on. Family is number one, and my students next; after that the order is less meaningful.



1) Family

• Don't look at my phone around my daughter unless it is looking at something with her
• Pack good lunches
• Appreciate my awesome husband

2) Being a Face-to-Face Teacher

• Be clear about expectations 
• Hold students accountable to the goals they or I set for them
• Give meaningful feedback about their work every cycle
• Be a caring but motivating teacher of second semester seniors

3) Being an online teacher

• See being a face-to face teacher and 
• Commit to meeting with each student for a half hour individual conference each week
• Be in touch with their families and home schools with good news at least every month

4) Being a Department Chair

• Update the department meeting agendas and dates for the semester prior to the first meeting 
• Support initiatives of individual teachers or sub departments by making connections with resources around school 
• Develop an annual report question that fosters discussion and thought around our curricular review
• Visit classrooms every cycle and write reflections to the teachers

5) Being a Summer School Director

• Find the best people to teach in the open positions and make all candidates feel good about the process of hiring
• Support new and wonderful staff as they transition into the school 
• Communicate clearly with other areas of the Academy and the school as the summer approaches
• Communicate well with families and students about their summer experience

6) Being a PhD student

• Complete the readings for the evening they are assigned (and at least gather the optional readings into Mendely, if not read them) 
• Keep my reading journal on this blog (search for the tag ETEC750D) 
• Continue connecting with scholars in my areas of interest
• Narrow down a dissertation topic (or range of possible questions) 
• Learn from my amazing classmates
• Submit one paper for publication or a conference

That's all, I guess.

(image from http://mikevial.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/plate-spinning.jpg)

TEDx Overlake Viewing Party

We are hosting a viewing event for TEDx Overlake in Honolulu.  Please be in touch if you would like to attend!

Women Leaders: How?

Many cool ideas that I am exposed to these days comes from things my friends share on Facebook.  The other day I clicked on a link to a TED talk by Sheryl Sandberg (who happens to be the COO of Facebook) in which she describes three things for women to consider in terms of how their actions can keep them from taking on leadership roles.

1. Sit at the table:  She talks about how women can marginalize themselves physically and metaphorically in the workplace.  I found myself thinking about this the other day when I walked into a meeting in which I was a surrounded by "high ups" in the school.  Was I taking someone's seat?  Should I move to the end of the table?  Women, as Sandberg shares, tend to underestimate their abilities and so they can tend to marginalize themselves.  No need, sit at the table, and sit up tall.

2. Make your partner your TRUE partner: In relationships where both partners work full-time women end up doing twice the house work and three times the child care that their male partners do.  She talked about the deleterious effect that tis can have on women's perception of their work, and the quality too.  Makes sense.  And it made me think about how lucky I am in my relationship  in which my husband took on being a stay at home dad for our daughter's first two years.

3. Don't leave before you leave: If you are a young woman thinking about someday having kids, don't let that hope cause you to lean back or not take on things that are exciting and challenging to you.  Men who might some day want to have kids won't lean back and disengage from opportunities.

Sandberg based her talk on the reality of disproportionately low numbers of women leaders in all fields despite the fact that women make up half of the population and more than half of current college students.  Sandberg is not suggesting that women are to blame for the dearth of female leaders, but I was energized by the fact that she presents the situation and then gives three actionable items that we can consider to effect change and model true equality for our daughters' generation.  And she gets the challenges, she has two little kids.  A mom, a leader, a thinker- awesome.

When you have time. . .

In a regular meeting this morning we were presented with a reality that is unique in schools: We have too much time. Many of this things that this particular group and meeting time used to do have been moved to other conversations (read: meetings). And now, we have an hour a week that isn't going to get used up with stuff.

So our great leader posed the question:

What do we do?

• Do we cancel half of our meetings and meet every other week?
• Do we turn the agenda over to the group members and have them share something (from their classrooms, research, thoughts. . . etc. . . ) once a year?
• Do we meet to "check in" and then go on to other things if nothing has bubbled up?
• Are there other thoughts about how we might use this time?
  

Our "homework" is to ponder this delightful dilemma. When I think of how often you hear "if only we had more time" in schools, this seems like an opportunity not to be missed. What would you do with an unstructured hour a week with 22 amazing educators? I kinda' hope we don't cancel any meetings.

(Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com)

An ongoing discussion: Sharing and Learning

We are engaged in discussions at our school about how to best share what we do well in our school to both elevate the level teaching and learning at our own school and also provide a public service to schools in the state and beyond. We would like to create an forum for a illuminating great teaching and practice so that others may see it.

It is kind of like just opening the doors on the classrooms for others to see and this is not, as our head of school points out, a new idea-- there are schools all over the country trying to do this work. Still, this quest towards transparency creates a tension with teachers' tendency towards (and love of) autonomy. Some of the comments in an exploratory discussion today demonstrated this tension.

First there is the classic fear of letting anyone in (literally or figuratively) to your classroom. There are some departments that do a great job fostering an environment where sharing practice is the norm, and many more where this is a work in progress. How can this initiative be presented in a way that doesn't elicit fear from those who fall into this category?

Another teacher suggested a big chunk of time (weeks) that we could carve out of the school year to address this. A neat idea, but it goes against the notion of on-going and embedded on the job learning and improvement. We hope to share accessible, easily digestible and searchable information that can help teachers do their work better.

The discussion then turned to the ease with which younger people (I would say more connected) share the goings on of their lives, and that perhaps this shift to sharing just feels hard to this group (with an average age closer to fifty than thirty, as one administrator pointed out). Couldn't agree more! The simple idea of a social network and leveraging the connections that you have and sorting information based on how those that you trust feel about it is hardly new to those of us engaged at any level in an on-line presence (twitter, Facebook, Ning, etc. . . ). (as pointed out by @dkiang)

Then came the notion that the most valuable stream of information might come from the kids. One teacher suggested that if she could access information from students about what was working for them (or not) in their classes, she would spend the time to read that. I see lots of that kind of data from former and current students who I am friends with on Facebook
(which I know people have a variety of opinions about). And while it sometimes informs my practice, I get much better data from directed and pointed questions of my current students, who I survey often about my classes.

In any event, I am energized by these types of questions on a Monday morning in early October. No conclusions here, just sorting out some ideas. Any thoughts?

Environment (Physical and Intellectual) Informing Culture

For our leadership class this week we read a selection from Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. The selection that we read had to do with circumstance and environment impacting behavior. Gladwell used the story of the renovation of the New York City Subway system as an example. Basically, when it is clean and free of graffiti, and people aren't skipping fairs, crime goes down. Gladwell points to research that suggests that despite our sense that personality, or even an individual's lived life experiences-- how they were raised-- is central in determining how people act, that environment and circumstance trumps all. He goes so far as to write:

"A child is better off in a good neighborhood and a troubled family than he or she is in a troubled neighborhood with a good family." p. 167-168

As a parent, this is both terrifying and a little heartening. It is a notion that I have heard before from proponents of boarding schools. Surround your kids with amazing people in a great environment, and the children will thrive. It makes sense that if important values are truly lived in the community, they will impact the behavior of people. This reminds me of seeing a headmaster stop and pick up gum wrappers walking across campus. What an important message that type of behavior sends to members of the community, particularly the students.

I am wondering how can this insight be applied to the intellectual environment in a school. We also read a selection from Shaping School Culture by Deal and Peterson. They offered an examination of the power of ritual, ceremony and symbolism in school culture. They explored the notion of "living logos"-- leaders who represent values or meaning by their actions in their work. "The symbolism of intellectual engagement" manifests itself as leaders who read and engage with the research in their field, philosophy, or education in general, and then share their thinking. Doesn't this serve a similar function to painting subway trains and picking up trash on campus? If school leaders foster an environment of continual learning by modeling that themselves, they create a what Gladwell might call a "circumstance" of intellectual engagement. It seems plausible that then this would have a positive impact on student learning.

(Photo Credit: Me! With my groovy new machine. Columbia Campus, a clean, nice place to learn.)