Tests and Assignments

Dr. Scott Mcleod sent out a tweet with a quiz regarding Harry Wong's The First Days of School book.  I'm posting a portion of my corrected quiz.

I want to look at number 13....

Is that best practice? To write the test and quiz at the same time? I'd appreciate your thoughts.

A rant....

I'll be honest, this post has been a long time coming.

I understand that the purpose of blogging and twitter in education are meant to be collaborative. The things shared are shared for sharing purposes. I don't expect anything in return, they're my thoughts or someone else's in which I found value. The reason I'm upset, and that's a harsh term... I'm irritated... I have 777 followers on Twitter. Most are education folks, so my posts on the blog may pertain to them. On my last post, I had visits from a grand total of....40 visits.. Yes 40..

Now, I appreciate those 40 visitors. I really do. I appreciate the comment I received from Bill as well! The reason for my irritability is the lack of views.. I know that I am not the best writer in the world... Really, I have very minimal writing training, it's not one of my strengths by any means, but there are at least 737 people who for some reason or another follow me on twitter and didn't view the blog. I sent out a tweet with the link to the post, it was nicely retweeted by my brother, Bill Ferreter and my sister... Thanks family!!!!

Is there a reason, don't know. Not sure I really care. But it does beg some questions. Do we follow people on twitter just to increase our followers? Is the number of followers like a status symbol? I will say, I follow most of my followers back, not sure why.. a lot of them are from Iowa so I feel that necessary.

I am just as much to blame. I follow people, don't read all there stuff. Can't say I have time to read everything. With the new job, I can say blogging, blog reading, and twitter have taken a back seat to work and family..

So, thanks for listening.. I don't expect many responses or anything, this is my blog. I can write what I want to... :)

The Change Sandwich

This post is a response to Bill Ferriter's most recent post.

As I began observing/evaluating teachers, I remembered a strategy that my professor in my grad program told me about. Her advice was to start an evaluation conversation with something that you thought went well in the lesson. Then, discuss the needed improvements and end with something good again. The reasoning behind the strategy is you prep the teacher with something positive, create a trust. Then discuss what needs to improve, then end the conversation with something that also went well.

I like to call this the Change Sandwich. What I want changed is sandwiched between two things that they're doing well. To me, this defuses the situation. It takes the some of the bite out of the conversation by padding the need with something good. By ending with conversation with something that worked, the teacher can leave the conversation with something positive. No matter how much improvement they need to make, they can leave feeling a bit of success. Something they did in the lesson I observed worked!

Each staff member will receive something to improve upon. Each staff member will also receive some feedback on something that went well. Sometimes, the positive outweighs the needs improvement while other times the needs improvement is the larger portion of the conversation.

As I reflect about the frequency of the observations I do, the formal observations are specified by master contract. The informal observations and walk-throughs are where a more consistent picture can be formulated of what student learning looks like in each teachers classroom. Now, am I in the classroom as much as I would like to be? Not a chance. There are the managerial portions of the principalship that take time away from being an instructional leader. I am starting to schedule time in my weekly calendar to do walk-throughs and observations. If I don't, the time will be filled with other meetings or paperwork.

Well, Bill this is my take on the other side of the desk. I've been sitting in the exact seat you are now. I wasn't as good of a teacher as I could have been. Other things get in the way... Just as now, I am not as good of an instructional leader as I could be because of things getting in the way as well.

Is this a system problem? Should the role of principal be split in 2? Should there be someone to do the managerial portion of the job and someone else to be the instructional leader? Would administrators take less pay if the job was split in 2 for the sake of increased student learning????

Moving forward....

That's a necessity in schools today. The federal government through No Child Left Behind is mandating moving forward. There are stipulations on what moving forward means through NCLB, but is that what's best for education??

I don't think this is the case. I do however wonder what will create urgency within schools, administrators, and teachers. If you do much research on implementing change in any organization one of the key components is creating urgency within the system. As a new school administrator, I've spent the first 3 months getting to know our system. I've spent lots of time getting to know students, parents, community members, teachers, AEA personal, and other administrators in our district. I've also looked at what we're doing well and what we need to improve upon. To get our school moving forward, I need to work to instill a feeling of urgency with teachers. This hasn't been done yet..

My plan for the next quarter is to begin to challenge them even more. I've begun the ground work of focusing on student learning. Each teacher needs to focus on student learning rather than instruction. We are beginning to focus on providing supplemental activities for our students, but the next step is identifying which students need help in what areas. Utilizing formative assessments to gauge student understanding is key and will be part of our focus. In January, Matt Townsley and I will be presenting to district staff about formative assessment. I hope to have started the discussion on what formative assessment is and how we can use it by then!

As you look at your school, what areas need to change? What hurdles must be overcome for student learning to increase???

Change... why wait?

So, I am beginning to read "Learning by Doing" by the DuFours. After I read the first 2 pages.. this thought popped into my head. It's a longer thought, so Twitter wouldn't be the best place to post the question to get meaningful feedback, so I'm asking for your feedback.

Is one of the major reasons for a slowness of school change due to all people going through the system?  Let me clarify...

If I'm a doctor, I haven't spent 13 developmental years of my life at a hospital for 180 days a year...
As a teacher or principal, I have spent 13 developmental years of my life in a school for 180 days a year...

So, is that a hindrance? Is that a major reason for lack of school change?

Meaningful work

I just recently read Dr. Scott McLeod's post: Our Students want better work, not less work and it really got me thinking. Our students today are viewed as lazy and lacking work ethic. I somewhat agree with that. In the view of previous generations, our current youth would be viewed as lazy. The days of working on the family farm and doing chores or working to help put food on the table are gone. (Although, being from Iowa, there are still some farm kids out there, just not as many as there used to be.)

Our students today struggle with doing mundane tasks such as worksheets with multiple problems over the same concept. The students who already understand an idea don't want to do 30 of the same type of problems. They also don't want to read a section of a textbook and answer questions about what they read.

I believe that we have smart kids. They don't see the value in doing those kind of tasks. They don't really see it as learning, but just doing work. So the question is.... What is meaningful work? How can we as educators provide meaningful work for our students?

I've got a couple ideas, so here we go...

1. Work that other students can see, evaluate, and provide feedback to.
    I am very impressed with student blogs. I'm working with a couple of our teachers to start a classroom blog where students can publish their work and receive feedback. I got the idea from both Russ Goerend and Becky Goerend.  They both (along with numerous others) have classroom blogs where students publish their work. One of our teachers and I are presenting at ITEC in October regarding this practice!

2. A video
    Kids love videos! Look at the number of YouTube hits each day. With the cost of a flip camera and a computer, kids can create some really cool and educational stuff. I've done this with my students when I was teaching and the kids had some great ideas and really came up with some quality products.

What other ways can we provide our students with meaningful work?

Reflections after 2 weeks

Well, I'm closing in on two weeks with students as a building principal. It was been a great two weeks, a tiring two weeks, and an ever learning two weeks. I want to focus on two major learnings I've had in that time.

1. Relationships are oh so important.
   This is so true. I've already had some great conversations with people I was 'warned" about that would cause trouble. I tried to go into the relationship with an open mind and start fresh. We all at times need a fresh start. A change in leadership can be that time when parents, staff, or students get to start new.
   Along with this, positive relationships are great as they are usually returned. I've focused on greeting the students as much as I can. With our building set up, I can greet almost every student in the morning as they enter the building. What a great way to start the day, for both the student and myself. I have given and gotten more hi-fives in the first two weeks, than I ever have before. We've had very few discipline problems and I even have requests if I'll sit by students at lunch (I've made an effort to sit with a group of students while we eat this week)

2. Middle School students need time and directions on how to socialize.
  As I look around the lunch room, I see how important socialization is to students. When a friend approaches carrying a lunch tray, their eyes light up. If that friend passes by to a different table, you can see the disappointment on their face. How in our school can we help students socialize without the traditional "Well it's Middle School so...." Is there a place for helping students get along and teaching acceptance?

I think so, we've spent some quality time teaching about PBIS (positive behavior intervention supports). I believe we've seen gains in the time we've spent so far, but we have a ways to go. That is why I'm trying to build a positive relationship with as many students as I can. I am encouraging our staff to do the same. We need to model the social interaction we expect of them.