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.

Be Googleable...

I've spent a significant amount of time this summer searching through applications, interviewing both certified and non-certified staff. What's the first thing I do when I get the list of applicants?????

I Google them. 

If you talk to many employers, they say the same thing. 

So my advice to anyone who's looking for a job.. Be Googleable!

Now the question is... how do I become Googleable?

Well, number one. Create an online presence. There are many ways to do that. 

1. You could join twitter using your name as your id... 

2. Blog

3. comment on blogs

4. create a diigo account (again, using your name as your id)

Each of these will create a presence for you. There are other ways, like have the newspaper do an article on you etc...

So, are there other ways to be Googled????

A week of learning

I had the opportunity to attend a 5 day Kagan Cooperative Learning conference. I'll start by being very honest. I was really suspect. We've all been to those conferences that have been pretty drab. I wasn't exactly excited about spending 6 days away from my family either.



Wow was I wrong. This was a great learning time. My district had already had a Kagan trainer out to train some of the staff, so I was sent to learn the ins and outs of Kagan learning. I know that Kagan costs some money to get trained in, but wow what a great way to teach. I can see how I will use some of the structures in my professional development with staff.

I could write pages on what Kagan cooperative learning is, but I'll do some summarizing of key points. If you get a chance to check it out, please do. I highly recommend it!

As they say, Kagan is all about engagement. The trainer we had kept us very engaged in our learning. As he said, the typical classroom of 25 students during a questioning time has only 4% engagement. The student who answers the question... With Kagan structures, 25% of students are engaged, with up to 50%-100% depending on the structure.

Many people (including me before the training) see cooperative learning as dividing the students in the classroom into 3 or 4's. Then the teacher gives the students a task (worksheet or project) to complete. Well, what happens... the high achieving student complete the task and some students just sit and watch.
How is Kagan different??  That's the million dollar question...

The difference is the structures.. The different ways you assign a task to those teams (groups of 4). Instead of giving the groups a question to discuss, with Kagan structures each student is given a part of the task... Each member has a a responsibility to the group. One example is the Round Robin. This structure makes each student share something to the team. You can give each team member a time limit as well for their response.

Another difference is Kagan's focus on relationships. Much of our training time was spent getting to know the people in our groups of 4 (teams as Kagan calls them). This focus on relationships is what I see being useful in my work in professional development. There are many new faces in the building, so early I want to spend time having everyone getting to know each other. Building trusting relationships is going to be KEY!


I know this was a short snip-it of what I learned, I hope you can hear my passion for my learning. I've already planned how I'm going to use some of the structures in PD and want to see staff using the structures in their classroom. Half of the battle of learning is getting students engaged. I see Kagan as a great way to increase student engagement in the classroom.

Thoughts on cleaning

I've recently done some purging. I'm moving into my new office. This has given me the opportunity to sort through my "stuff" to decide what's important and what I need. There are things that look good, but do I need them to fulfill my duties at school? No...

I just did the same thing with the tweeps I'm following on twitter. I went through my list and made decisions.

"Does this person tweet useful information?"

"Do I learn from this person?"

These were the two main questions I looked at. I also looked at the last time they tweeted. There were some who haven't been active in months. Unfollow....

Now, why did I do this? It looks good if there are big numbers by my twitter id... but I've decided to follow those I find value in.

I also want to clean up my feed. I want the good stuff. I found myself moving very quickly through tweets... I probably missed some really good stuff..


I also noticed that I got a bunch of new followers in the last week. I engaged in some conversations regarding #iste10 . I imagine that some people started following lots of people who were there, or involved in those conversations. I welcome those followers, but hope they follow me because I provide them with something.

Just some thoughts on cleaning.. Is it a good time for you to clean?

A change

Well, if you follow my twitter feed, you have learned that I will be changing roles and school districts next school year. I have accepted a position as Middle School Principal at South Tama County Schools in Toledo, Iowa. I am really excited about this new adventure! I'm also nervous. I've not been a principal before.... I've been in control of my classroom... not a whole building of 6-8th graders, teachers, counselors, aides, a secretary, nurse etc....

 Now that may sound like I'm afraid, I'm not afraid.. The administrative team, school board, teachers, and parents who were part of the hiring process saw leadership skills in me they value and want in their school leader. Talk about a humbling thought. These people trust me to move their school forward. To take it to the next level. That's my goal, to take the school to the next level! I've spent the time since I've been hired preparing a plan. I know my summer will be spend learning the ropes of the building, meeting staff, students, and parents, and building relationships! So, if you don't hear much from the blog this summer, know I've not lost my educational passion, it's moved to a new task!

I won't give up my passion for assessment. I'm still teaching a class on formative assessment and standards grading with my brother Matt Townsley this summer. I also hope to introduce the idea to my teachers. Many of them have already visited the blog, so I hope the conversation can be started and we can use formative assessment to guide our instruction and help students have a deeper understanding of their learning. I'll keep posting ideas and experiences about assessment and learning here in the future. I may even throw in a good admin story as well!!! 

Thanks for the visits, and stay tuned in the future!