0 Wanted: Education Leader/Coach

It's ironic that I'm listing desirable attributes of education leaders and coaches when I have been a critic of the role of coaches in schools today.

I've been a critic because I believe that most dollars in schools should be spent on staff that directly service students. I'm not a fan of a thick outer layer of educational supports in school systems, though I do realize there needs to be some leadership--leadership to energize the team, complete the paperwork, interact with outside agencies, synthesize goals, and set overarching targets.

I believe that those leaders should serve as coaches--coaches that both lead the system and support effective practice. Hence I took my post "Educator Excellence: Are You a Good Coach?" and revised it to outline the coach/leader attributes that would serve me well as an educator?  I hope my students will outline the same for me at the start of the year in their introductory letters.

Wanted: Educator Leader/Coach

Qualifications:

Know Me
Take the time to get to know me through conversation, observation, and working together.  Don't let hearsay or singular observations frame your knowledge of me.

Service
Just as I work to serve my students, I hope you will serve me by working to support my ability to do a good job with optimal systems, time, effective efforts, streamlined paperwork, advocacy, and professional learning opportunities.  In turn, let me know how I can help you reach meaningful, student-centered goals as well.

Transparent Communication
Clearly identify process, goals, efforts, and result. When communication is hidden that hinders effective practice. Regularly let me know where you stand and what you're doing. Also, don't tell me you've become a leader so that you didn't have to do the hard work of classroom teaching (Yes, sadly a number of coaches and leaders have told me that, and that doesn't lead to respect.).

Set Goals
Make the time to set meaningful goals with me, not for me.

Strategize
Strategize with me. Bring good ideas, experience, and facts to lead this effort, and make the time to listen and respond to my ideas too.

Analyze and Revise
Use statistical data, observation, and conversation to analyze results with me.  What went well? What didn't? Why? How can we make optimal changes? Be transparent in data analysis and let the whole team know where we are hitting the targets, and where we need to work better.

Encourage and Inspire
Make the time to notice what's working. Acknowledge success. Point out good work. Do this regularly--teaching is hard work, and educators profit from this positive response.

Seek Support
Be a learner yourself. Share your learning, mistakes, and journey.  Model for me what you ask of me.

Understand Learning

Know that learning is a transformative process that moves from goals to new knowledge. Don't expect quick fixes and one-stop change.  Plan for and support the process.  Keep your eyes on the continuum of growth and share the journey with me.

Plan and Teach
Plan, model, collaborate, and do the hard work of teaching children well, don't just lead as a "sage on the stage." Instead, roll up your sleeves and work by my side to teach children well.  Just as you want to see me doing the job well, demonstrate your efforts with transparency. Let me notice your hard work, planning, and care in school and after hours.

Focus
Share your focus and goals upfront. Let me know what's important to you and why? Acknowledge that we can't do it all, and make everyone aware of the priorities. Regularly elicit feedback in this regard.

Create Community
Build team and community with the teachers you coach and lead. Share the good news of effective practice, effort, and result in ways that create community. Don't share with some and not others as that serves to create competition and fracture rather than team and community. Be inclusive and transparent.

Celebrate
Build in time to celebrate success in meaningful ways that matter to educators.

Keep Students Center Stage
By keeping students' needs center stage you will make critique and goal setting a more holistic, meaningful process rather than a personal, potentially ineffective process.

Lead Time
Always have a "loose-tight" plan in place and communicate that plan with lead time. Your goals, focus, and strategy should be known by all, and updated and revised regularly to reflect your responsive attitude and efforts with regard to students' and teachers' needs.

Disagreement and Debate
Welcome respectful disagreement and debate and see it as a process of refinement and growth. Similarly don't be afraid to disagree and debate when you feel an educator's work is not focused in a way that best benefits students.

The role of education leader, similar to the role of parent or educator, is a limitless role, but when this role is done with a sense of coaching and creating team, the learning community benefits.

What attributes would you add to the "education dream leader/coach" list?  What attributes would you add to a "dream educator/practitioner" list?

The more we communicate about our expectations, needs, and desires for roles and responsibilities in schools, the more we'll move towards revising and refining education roles and responsibilities to best meet students' needs and build optimal learning communities. I look forward to your thoughts.

0 Educator Excellence: Are You a Good Coach?

The role of teacher has shifted from an authoritarian, manager role to a coaching role.

Good teachers today are good coaches.

Schooled before the days of equal access to sports, I never had the privilege of being a part of a sports team. Yet now as the mom of three boys, I witness extraordinary coaching and the positive effects of that practice regularly.

What do good coaches do?

Know Your Team
Good coaches know their team--they know the individuals and the collective group. Good coaches make the time to know the children they are coaching with breadth and depth. Good coaches ask the team to share their needs, questions, and concerns, and then the coaches respond effectively.

Set Goals
Good coaches are goal oriented. They know where they want to take the team.

Strategize
Good coaches strategize. They thoughtfully create personalized maps of training, practice, and performance that leads to the ultimate goal.

Analyze and Revise
Good coaches analyze and revise strategy. They look at the efforts at play and make changes to optimize the journey towards the goal.

Encourage and Inspire
Good coaches encourage their team. They know the team needs regular inspiration, acknowledgement, care, and support to meet the challenges in front of them.

Seek Support
Good coaches seek mentors themselves. They know they can't do it alone and rely on the support of their colleagues, staff, mentors and professional learning to do the job well.

Understand Learning

Good coaches understand that learning is a trial and error process, a curvy line not a straight arrow. Good coaches expect error and mistakes, and use those errors and mistakes to guide individuals and the team.

Focus
Good coaches keep their focus on what's right and good for the individuals and team. They know that winning isn't always the most important focus.

Create Community
Good coaches create community. They foster team.

Celebrate
Good coaches celebrate a job well done regularly.

My overarching goal as a teacher this year is to be a good coach. That's a goal I believe in, and one that I'm excited to invest in.

If you have links, thoughts, ideas, and questions about this, please share.  I look forward to your inspiration.

0 Responsibility for Sharing Information

What is the responsibility for sharing information?

What information is rarely shared, and what information is readily shared?

Do you spread the good news of innovation, jobs well done, and impact in ways that inspire and invite similar work and effort?

Do you engage members of your organization in the questions and research you are pursuing on a regular basis?

Is your communication accessible to all and easy to read and understand?

Do you bring initiatives full circle from start to finish with the consult of the learning community along the way?

In what ways do you handle debate and disagreement?

How do we build effective education teams that communicate well, collaborate, and develop work to best benefit children?

In all of these posts related to communication and learning, I'm most interested in streamlining communication so that it is effective and inclusive thus leaving most of the time in schools for the work we do with children.

0 Why Move Forward?

Are you propelled to move forward in your work, thoughts, and life?

If your life and work are going well, why change?

The urge to grow often disrupts. A child's urgency to walk creates the need to childproof a house, a teen's quest for independence means a lack of sleep for parents, and an employee's new ideas upset a manager's plans, schedule, and expectations.

The desire to move forward comes from dreams and vision of what can be?

Teachers know education is not ideal--particularly teachers who work with large numbers of children each day. Teachers like that are constantly left with the choice of who to serve and how to serve so that most children are getting what they need.  The algorithm of teaching large numbers of people is not an equation that works for everyone--someone is always left out simply because the equation doesn't work perfectly (Am I wrong about this?).  Hence, the nature of teaching lends itself to vision, problem solving, and a desire for growth.

Similarly, life alone leads to a similar quest. We are never totally at peace if we're living life. There's always an area of desire, need, and quest.  Perhaps it's the desire for a child, the need for a relationship, or the quest for a new job.  The act of living is one that urges us to move forward in order to meet our needs, desire, and quest.

In schools, we're remiss not to note this need to move forward to find better ways to teach all children well. As educators we know the power education holds for a good life. We realize that education creates choice and choice holds the promise of happiness. We also know that the world is not perfect. There's much work to do in order to erase poverty, pollution, and greed--events that cause despair, pain, and most of all potential lost.

Hence, how do you foster forward movement in your schools?  How do you respond to those who seek to improve their work, learn more, and develop systems of positive education? Where is the balance between growth and that status quo?

We need to move forward as the world we live in is always moving and changing.  The pacing, direction, and ways we move offer us content for discussion and debate, important conversations that will make a difference.

0 Teacher Role: Beta Tester?

As the education landscape evolves, there is a new role for teachers, and that is the role of a "beta tester."

A beta tester gets involved in beta tests.  I found the following beta test definition on Webopedia:

A test for a computer product prior to commercial release. Beta testing is the last stage of testing, and normally can involve sending the product to beta test sites outside the company for real-world exposure or offering the product for a free trial download over the Internet. Beta testing is often preceded by a round of testing called alpha testing.

There are many good reasons for an educator to become a beta tester:

• Beta testing brings educators into the world of computer-speak and innovation.
• Teachers try out new products with lots of support for free.
• Students benefit from learning the process of beta testing as well as benefitting from cutting-edge technology.

Similar to any innovation, there is room for caution:

• Beta testing has to be balanced with tried-and-true, essential skill building and teaching.
• You have to make time for assessment and reflection.
• Be ready to stop midstream if a beta test is not profiting you or your students--don't just do it for the sake of doing it.

As far as I've noticed there are no guidelines for teacher compensation or benefits related to beta testing at this time. Some may argue that teachers are giving up their time and knowledge for free to benefit private industry. That's why I recommend getting involved with enthusiasm and caution at the same time; you want to make sure that your involvement is a win-win and supports your mission as an educator. My rule of thumb in the profession is the following: If ambition feeds mission, that's okay, but if ambition trumps mission that's a problem.

I'm not a fan of either-or thinking when it comes to private-public collaboration in education.  I know that private industry is going to continue to knock on public education's' door with zest and financial resources. I also know that public education by way of the learning community including educators, students, family members, leaders, community members, and policy makers have to answer that door with a focus on what's best for each child, all children, our communities, country, and world. No tool is a good tool if it does not benefit students with strength and commitment, and that belief needs to stand center stage when it comes to beta testing.

Have you been involved in a beta test?  If so, what is your advice for other educators and educational institutions who are beta testing or interested in the process?  Do you share the results of your beta test work with colleagues, leaders, and the learning community?  If you're compensated, what guiding principles do you consult when making such deals? If your system is involved in beta testing, how is that communicated to the public and what are the rules about funding?

Beta testing seems to me to be a new path in education, a path I'm excited to be involved in, but also a path that I want to take with my values leading the way. Your thoughts are welcome in this regard.

0 Learning is Like a River

Sometimes I think that people forget learning has a river-like quality.

Information enters and then it travels a river-like path. As the information travels it connects to multiple experiences, efforts, questions, and thought.  Information transforms as it travels its river-like path bending, yielding, bounding, still, and splashing against rocks.

Hence, for learning to have strength, it is important for educators to understand the wavy waters and long path that learning takes. Therefore give learning time.

Introduce the question early.  Let those questions simmer in the learner's mind. Then add to the learning with anecdotes, questions, information links and more questions. After that meet to share reflections, questions, connections and experiences. Then set collective goals. Assess the goals together, share the information with all involved. Revise accordingly and continue the process as the learning changes.

Sometimes learning is presented as much more of a finite process--here it is, learn it, know it. There's no time to ponder, reflect, and make connections.  There's no opportunity to collectively establish learning goals, share the process with others, and work together to assess your work. That learning holds less potential than learning that is treated like a meandering river path that twists and turns gaining strength until it is deposited into the wide ocean of collective knowledge.

Schools of old, factory model schools, responded to learning with a more finite, fixed process. New schools are in a sense innovation centers that embrace learning as an ongoing river-like process, a shared journey, and collective path of ongoing study, inquiry, and quest.

Patterns of communication, schedules, and structure, in many cases, have not kept up with the changing understanding of learning and the potential that learning holds.  That's the next step for many schools as they transition from "factory-model" environments to learning labs and communities. Labs and communities like riverboats that welcome all in the journey to discover, relate, and apply learning with strength.

0 Good Schools: Building a Culture of Learning

A culture of learning is integral to successful schools.

What is a culture of learning?

A culture of learning has the following attributes:

• Inquiry: Inquiry, research, and learning are embraced. All members of the learning community are seeking answers in their quest to learn.
• Share: Learning is readily and regularly shared in order to help the community grow.
• Collaborate: In a culture of learning all members learn with each other. Students learn from teachers, and teachers learn from students. Educators and leaders research and learn together. Family members are invited to share their learning and work with the education team to teach all children well.  
• Communication: Protocols and structure support sharing. A community blog, study groups, and PLC's are examples of structures that support sharing. Protocols that invite new learning, questions, and ideas strengthen communication. 
• Leadership: The leaders share their learning publicly, acknowledge their own questions and error, and support open, transparent learning within the community.
• Goals: Learning communities set goals, assess progress, and revise as necessary.
• Team: A sense of team is embraced and with this in mind all information related to learning goals and culture are shared with all members of the learning community: students, families, educators, leaders, and community members. 
• Celebration: In a culture of learning, learning is celebrated. 

At the beginning of the school year, educators and leaders set the stage for this culture in the following ways:

• Leaders share stories of learning success, questions, and learning challenge demonstrating the thought, struggle, and action of learning.
• Educators and leaders invite families to share their expectations, hopes, needs, and questions related to their children's education.
• Summer study is shared via online blogs to benefit all members of the learning community.
• Students are encouraged to share their summer learning.
• Learning becomes the main subject of early year meetings as the community reflects on what it means to be a learner, how to share learning, and the questions that drive our learning now and in the past. 
• Learning maps appear on school hallways, websites, and classroom walls.
• Mistakes are embraced as part of the learning path.
• Ideas for positive change are regularly entertained.
• New collective learning paths are chosen, organized, and shared as community members develop the learning community's efforts to teach children well. 

When the whole community comes together as learners, everyone gains.  On the other hand when individuals see learning and knowledge as singular, belonging to some, or safeguarded, then that learning does not benefit the community with the promise and potential possible. 

Fostering a culture of learning makes schools invigorating, inviting labs of knowledge, skill, concept, process, and invention. Learning environments like this invite the best of what we can do as educators, students, and leaders. 

Does your school exemplify a culture of learning?  If so, how?  If not, how could you change that?  

0 Student Power Converges on Madison

Starting today, the National Student Power Convergence is occupying UW-Madison.  My home department of Educational Policy Studies is a proud sponsor of this terrific event.  It is FREE, open to the public, and the place to be for the next 5 days.  UW Alum Maxwell Love, newly elected Vice-President of the United States Student Association, is a key organizer.

The agenda is entirely constructed by student organizers and aimed at sharing political and tactical analyses, and creating replicable campaigns to put student issues on the table in higher education nationwide.

Among the program highlights relevant for readers of this blog:

Friday August 2, 230-4 pm, Ingraham Hall Room 122 at UW-Madison
Student Debt: Dealing with Existing & Future Debt

Nelini Stamp as Moderator, Heather McGhee of Demos, Anne Johnson of Generation
Progress, Sami Alloy of Oregon Working Families Party, Scott Ross of One Wisconsin, and Sophia Zaman of United States Student Association

The millennial generation is the largest generation in American history, the most educated
generation in American history and the most indebted. The good news is that young
people around the country are pushing for the sweeping changes we need to tackle the
$1 trillion in student debt and make college more affordable and accessible for every student
and family. Check out this panel to hear from individuals and institutions involved in
the National Student Debt campaign.

Saturday August 3, 230-4 pm, Education L150 at UW-Madison
TAKING OVER YOUR STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Jalina Wayser of United States Student Association and New Jersey United Students

Just like power, student governments can be tools for the expression and manifestation of
your values. For this training, students from New Jersey United Students will draw on their experiences
of infiltrating and redirecting student governments to serve as hubs for organizing.

Saturday August 3, 230-4 pm, Ingraham Hall Room 116 at UW-Madison
HOW TO ORGANIZE ON CAMPUS: STUDENT DEBT 

Nelini Stamp of Working Families Party, Anne Johnson of Generation Progress

Mapping out Wall Street‘s Role on Campus will be a training on how to find the
different ways in which Wall Street has taken control of public higher education.
We will map out how to find endowment funds, board of governors/regents/
trustees that have ties to Wall St, and Wall Street on campus debit cards. This
will help give students tools to analyze the current power structure on campus.

Saturday August 3, 430-6 pm, Ingraham Hall Room 113 at UW-Madison
PUBLIC EDUCATION - ATTACKS & FIGHTING BACK

Jacob Chaffin of Ohio University Student Union, Stephanie Rivera of Students United
for Public Education, Israel Munoz and Ross Floyd of Chicago Student to Save
Our Schools, Jaysen Brazile of Newark Students Union, Anthony Ramirez of Voces
De La Frontera

College and high school students talk about the attacks on public K-12 education, the
fight back mounted by youth, communities, and teachers, and the role of college student
solidarity in the fight for public education.

0 Start the Year with a Simple Writing Assessment

Last year I wished I had provided more writing practice for my students. Now that's easier to say than do since our standards and expectations truly exceed the student/teacher hours or energy in a day, but this year I do want students to write every day.

I also want to be more aware, from the start, of each child's writing needs.  Ralph Fletcher inspired these new goals earlier in the summer at The Wayland Literacy Institute. To know my writer's well, I'll begin the year with the creation of online composition websites and offline writer's books and a simple assessment. The assessment will ask students to write me a letter. Then I'll use this checklist to evaluate each child's work and create teaching/learning writing goals for that child. 

How do you start your writing year?  What kind of initial assessment do you use? 

0 The Professional Binder

Many Massachusetts' teachers will recertify this year. Similar, but not nearly as cumbersome, as doing your taxes, the process depends on organization. An online or offline binder of certificates, course grades, and other documents that demonstrate your professional learning work will serve you well.

Summer is a good time to organize this paperwork as well as craft your professional plan. For new teachers, this might be common place since these binders are now expected for pre-service course requirements, but for those of us who joined the ranks prior to the need for evidence and professional development points (PDP's), it may still be a new process.

The goal is to clear the path to good work now so that most of the time in the classroom, you're focused on the children in your charge.