The Right Tool for the Right Job - Part II

Approaching the end of the year and thinking about the future, I am evaluating my technology yet again, and planning for the future. I've found that my iPad is absolutely my "go to" device, and I carry it around campus before school and during classroom walkthroughs. Although at first people were overly interested and/or intimidated by seeing me arrive with a tablet, I find that teachers (and students) no longer pay attention to it.

In Evernote, my current schema is to start a new note every day called Admin Log, which begins with a list of the things I need to do for the day. I usually start by copying the prior days' notes, so it's got all of the things I didn't get to previously. It includes both personal and professional items. I use tags for the school site I'm at, and for the grade level(s) I observe. It is very easy to sort by tags and see all of the 2nd grade notes, comments, and images. Some of my daily notes end up being quite long, particularly if I take several pictures, and I don't think the search feature in Evernote desktop works very well. Those factors make it difficult to find the right note or the right information within my notes.

For next year, I'm planning to organize my notes into more logical notebooks that are more easily searchable. After a conversation with D, I'm thinking about having separate notebooks for each teacher, so I can easily get back and see the observations I've done and photos I've taken. I can also attach PDFs and send emails to a notebook, so that makes it a one-stop shop for all of the data I'll need for evaluation and supervision. I'll have a different notebook for facilities, and others as I see the need. Parent contacts and discipline are a couple of things I'm still noodling about, as I'm not sure how useful it is to have that information solely within my account. Functionally, it's possible that the old fashioned binder is still the best way to deal with those items.

I'm still not sure how to deal with my to do list. Wunderlist just doesn't "speak" to me, and I find it quite cumbersome to use (Sorry Brian!). I'd kind of prefer to have everything together, but Evernote isn't really a very good tool for tracking longer projects. On this side, I'll have to just keep playing around with it to find a system that works.

Good thing that summer is coming up so I can get all this organized!

The Right Tool for the Right Job

Image licensed from PresenterMedia

Now that I'm several months into my new position, I'm starting to take charge of my own organization, and customizing the work flows and reports expected by my supervisors to fit better with my style. As I read more by school site leaders, I'm also starting to incorporate suggestions that seem to me to be a match to my goals and expectations for myself. I decided the best approach to using any given tool is to just jump in and use it, so here's what I've been using to improve my administration and management:

iPad
I am now carrying my iPad everywhere in  my rounds on campus. So many times over the past 5 months carrying a clipboard I've wanted to capture and image with a note - now I can do that. I've already decided that my iPad and cover is pretty heavy, so I'm looking at other options that will make it more portable and easier to use.

Evernote
I am starting to use Evernote as a daily administrative log, based on a post by J. Robinson in the 21st Century Principal blog. I have created a little template for observations that matches what one of my principals expects, and I paste in that text for every classroom I visit. I can check off boxes for what I see, and add my notes. I'm still transferring it to a hand-written form afterwards, but since that allows me to clarify my thoughts and add constructive suggestions, I'm okay with that (for now).

Twitter
I've been using Twitter a lot over the past few months, posting 2-3 times per week about things happening at the school. Now that I'm carrying my iPad, I'm finding it easier to compose a tweet while I'm in a classroom. Which means I'm in a far better position to share the great things that students and teachers are doing, every single day.

Wunderlist
I now start my day with a list of to-dos. This involves a quick calendar review, and a scan of everything sitting on my desk (or email) that needs action. I have been doing it on paper and crossing things off, but my preference is certainly to go digital. So I'm trying Wunderlist, on the recommendation of some blog I can't recall at the moment. This one is new to me, but I've got hopes. I used to use Do It (Tomorrow), which was decent but didn't meet my needs at the time. I might go back to that one as well, and see which one is best for my current situation.

Helpouts - A tool to personalize learning?

I ran across this video about Google Helpouts:

It got me thinking about our push into personalized learning in my district. Helpouts are not just an interesting way to learn - they are an interesting way to teach. I wonder how we might leverage students teaching other students, not just as tutors about academic content, but about sports, music, gaming, life skills - anything that they have a passion for. Sharing one's passion with others is a powerful way for students to show their expertise, and even leadership.

So, how might we use this tool, or one similar to it, to support our students in their quest for personalized learning?

We Are College Bound!

CC licensed image from wikimedia commons

One of the schools I work in is a member of the No Excuses University network, with the goal of raising the college awareness and ultimately college-going rate of our students. We call our students "scholars" not "kids," and every classroom has a university they have adopted and use as their logo. Yesterday The Atlantic published an article about the types of language we use when encouraging students to go to college which really made me think about the efficacy of our approach. It said that, in many cases, we focus solely on the financial benefits that a college education will bring our students, and use that as the primary motivation. Instead, we should be "selling" college as a pathway to intellectual fulfillment and a better life in general, rather than just a way to make more money.

In one portion of the article I found particularly interesting, the author said that his students of poverty tended to talk about what they wanted to BE, rather than what they wanted to DO. Students might say they want to be a doctor or a lawyer, but they don't really have an idea what that means. Wealthy students might respond to the same question by saying they want to litigate trials or treat children with cancer, and then figure out the college path that makes sense for that goal.

I am looking forward to sharing this concept with my staff. It's not just about talking about college, it's about HOW we talk about college with our low-income kids. We need to continue to help them articulate their passions, then help them see that college is the path to turn those passions into a lifelong career.

Counting Down...

As I count down the days until our Winter Break with anticipation, I can't help but think of our students who are counting down the days with far less enthusiasm. For some of my kids, Winter Break means no hot breakfast and lunch for two weeks, and maybe no breakfast or lunch at all. For some it means the stress of being in a home with too many people, and not enough places to sit or sleep. For several, it means no warmth - physical, emotional, or both.

For many of my students, school is their place of safety, security and routine. Here's wishing them all the joy and relaxation I will be fortunate enough to have this holiday season.

Doing Common Core

I was fortunate enough to be invited to sit on my district Common Core Steering Committee. It's an interesting process to wrestle with the big ideas of what Common Core should look like, how we should get there, and what our benchmarks should be. One of the key messages has been that Common Core planning documents need to be flexible - as we learn more about what needs to be done and what implementation looks like in terms of assessment, the plan may need to be adjusted. Right now many planning documents are skeletons, with a lack of detail or specifics that actually allow decisions to be made or consistent implementation to happen.

For me, now working at a district rather than a county office, I am realizing how difficult it is to make decisions that "turn the ship" when a large district is involved. As a presenter and consultant, I suggested to districts that they convene a team, bring in stakeholders, identify priorities, etc., etc., etc. I acknowledged that it was going to be a multi-year process. But because I was outside the process looking in, I didn't have that gut-level FEELING of the push, pull, and frustrations that happen within the actual implementation. "Adapt to your reality" is a phrase I've used many times in terms of monitoring a plan, reflecting on what works, and making revisions. But reality is extremely hard to adapt to when money is scarce and time is even more so. Yes, I've said during presentation that time is the most difficult commodity to create, and offered a range of suggestions. But at the school site, between the constraints of the contract and the many demands we place on teachers, creating time is far more complicated than I ever internalized. Now, I need to provide CCSS implementation support for my staff in 40 minute chunks, delivered once a month. I need to provide support for my staff in single-page bulletins that are easily digestible and easily implemented. I need to bring parents up to speed in understandable 15-minute chunks, in English and in Spanish, embedded in ELAC, SSC and PTA meetings. The "how" of all that is incredibly difficult. And it requires a depth of knowledge and understanding that I am lucky to have, but many administrators do not. Sitting in presentations does not make for deep understanding.

More than ever, I think district leadership is key to building the scaffold for Common Core implementation, and site leadership is key to actual classroom implementation. The district needs to ensure equitable access to the resources (including time, money and materials) that is needed to implement. They must build the infrastructure, including a minimum amount of training, materials, and technology that all sites have in place. In terms of materials such as technology, hey must take the hard line that equitable is not equal, and that schools that already have the minimum may not get more paid from district funds. The district needs to coordinate professional development that includes cross-school collaboration and product development, so teachers leave the training with materials that are ready to use. At the site, administration needs to provide an ongoing focus on examining the implementation and refining practice. Administrators need to hold teachers accountable for moving forward with the standards, with individualized support plans and benchmarks if needed, providing ongoing opportunities for reflection, growth, and collaboration.

Licensed image from Presenter Media

Purpose of Evaluation

There is a longstanding debate about the purpose of teacher evaluation. Is the purpose to improve teacher practice through reflective conversation and expert advice? Is it to measure teacher competence? Or is it somewhere between those two, reflecting elements of both? An article last year in Educational Leadership addressed the question by asking practitioners what they thought to be the purpose of teacher evaluation. The vast majority of respondents said that evaluation was both improvement of practice and measurement, with an emphasis on improving practice.

As I begin my first formal teacher observations of the year, I couldn't agree more. It is critical to have standards of professional practice, and a clear understanding of what those standards look like. In my district, we have expectations about the types of instruction that will take place, the need for a variety of engagement strategies, requirements on ELD support, and a vision of what classroom environment should include. Those are the items we use to measure teacher competence. But it is the informal and formal observations that happen at least a couple of times a month, and the short reflective conversations those observations provoke, that drive teacher improvement. As I visit classrooms, I focus on one or two areas, looking for evidence of proficiency. Often I find it. Part of the conversation I have with teachers afterwards asks how or why they made the choices they did, and reinforcing that their decision-making was sound. Sometimes I don't find the evidence I'm looking for. So the conversation starts with whether I just missed the evidence, as I ask them to describe what that practice or strategy looks like in their classroom. 

At this point in the year (and in my site administrative career), I'm trying to be careful with directives. It seems to me that a first step for teachers who have gaps in their proficiency is to make sure they are exposed to best practices, so having them observe a strategy in a team-member's classroom is a good fit. I can then talk with the teachers as they identify what steps they will take, and the mandate comes from themselves. Later in the year I may need to provide more explicit directives, but for now I think the best intervention is one they pick for themselves. 

I believe that my role as a teacher evaluator is to help teachers realize their best student-focused, research-driven, multi-faceted selves. As I do evaluations this year, I need to keep in mind what success in the process looks like from my end - I am doing my job well if teachers are more closely aligned to the expected competencies and are more reflective practitioners by the end of the year. 

Make a Difference

What you leave behind isn't what's engraved in stone monuments, but what's woven into the lives of others.     -Pericles

Today at the Liberty Principal Summit, the principal told the story of Malik. She told us how she kept telling Malik that he was a good boy. Every time he came to the office on a behavior referral, she told him she knew he was a good boy inside, he was smart and hard-working, and that he could do better. By the end of the year, Malik was hitting less and smiling more. He went from basic to proficient. Most importantly, at the end of the year Malik said, I AM a good boy. That personal connection is something that makes a big difference to our kids' success. 

Sitting in the AP office, I see a lot of behavior referrals. I see students who have been told they are troublemakers, that they can't learn, that they are "bad". Of course I have to help the understand that their behavior is unacceptable. But I also need to let them know that I believe they can do better. I need to help them identify strategies that they own that help them to take charge of their own learning and behavior. And I need to help students believe that not only do they have the power to implement the strategies, but once they do they will see results. 

One of the main reasons I wanted to go back to a school site is to live the belief that I can make a difference in the life of a student. Every interaction is an opportunity to do just that. 

First Day of School

It has been a long time since I've had "first day of school jitters." Working at the County Office on a year-round schedule, first days of school held little relevance beyond the ways we scheduled training with our districts. But this year, returning to a school site (well, two school sites!), I had the opportunity to experience again the excitement and fear that come with new beginnings.

My first day of work was the first day of school. I had met the principal, but none of the teachers and of course none of the students. I am new to the district, and new to the role of assistant principal. I knew I was walking in blind, and I knew I would be expected to know a variety of things and address a variety of issues that were completely foreign to me. What could be less comfortable? And yet, I was so excited to just jump in to the deep end, and hope I could figure out how to swim!

It's definitely been a long week, and I know I've got many more long days and weeks ahead of me before I get my feet firmly underneath me. But it is so much fun to come home at the end of the energized with all of the new things I've learned, the new students and teachers I've met, and challenges I've conquered. I can't wait to continue!