The best laid plans...A Culture of Change pt. 4

So you are in a new position.  This new position gives you some sphere of influence.  You can be an agent of change to your school's culture.  Then the work begins and you see the line inspired by the Robert Burns poem is true: "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."  Most of what you have planned to do in your new position isn't going to work based on the clientele you are going to work with.  Outmoded thinking would lead one to believe this is an indictment on the clientele.  If people continued in this modality of thought; we wouldn't have any teachers in low-income/high poverty areas.  When you want to foster change where you serve people, it isn't the people that have to change; it's you.  If your program, ideas, or vision won't work with the people you are serving, you have to change.  Maybe things will evolve so that your vision can be implemented; until then you have to meet people where they are. 

This was such a lesson learned for me.  At the beginning of the year I had what I thought was a well formulated plan based on a vision I had for implementing this new teacher support program.  I was going to look at school wide data and created math and English goals based on our data.  Those goals were going to lead to student-centered instructional strategies to meet these goals.  It all sounded grand and splendid; then I got into the soup and found out my clientele wasn't quite ready for that level of support.  As I began to speak with my colleagues, I found their immediate needs to be quite different from my vision. 

So now I have all of this new information.  What do I do with it?  I had to model the one important foundation of education I wanted all of my colleagues to use; the data had to drive the instruction. Therefore, our weekly meetings have taken on more of a methods course.  There are so many inexperience colleagues making the transition to teaching and they don't have the theory depth that most lifers (like myself) have that we've gone in depth about intentional planning; using data to drive instruction; how to question to engage students among other things. 

Personally, this had to be okay with me.  One thing we know from research is if teachers aren't engaged in their content their students tend not to be engaged either.  I took this on as a challenge to improve my colleagues depth of knowledge.  Once their comfort with the foundational elements of instruction improve then the more rigorous parts of the vision can be implemented. 

Creating a Culture of Change Pt. 3

It's always important to understand an important characteristic of change; it's undeniable.  Change happens whether you participate or not.  As it relates to a school, if you aren't willing to change you just might be looking for another place to work.  That might be a bit forward, but it's true none the less.  The irony about change is when you try something new you just might find out you like it more than you thought.  

That's what happened in our last weekly professional development.  There was a lot of scuttlebutt that there would be some push back because teachers would have to teach a lesson to their peers.  Long story short colleagues that gave the push back told me that was the best weekly PD we had all school year.  One colleague said it best, "It's funny that we were so nervous in an environment where we would be supported."  That was the take away for me.  Someone understood the goal; mutual support.  

There are too many "teacher islands" in schools.  There are too many great educators doing too many great things in their classrooms for there not to be more great things going on.  We do our awesome things and keep them to ourselves, or we struggle in an area and don't ask for support because we don't want to see incompetent.  As a younger teacher I was struggling in a particular area so I emailed all of the teachers in my department.  A veteran in my department came to my room with some resources.  After I thanked the teacher what was said next was tragic.  "You shouldn't email everyone like that; they are going to think you can't teach.  Just come to me if you need help.  They don't think people need help."  

What we are finding out, however; is teachers observing other teachers is a powerful tool to help classroom management.  According to Education World the is benefit for administrators, teachers, and the school as a whole.  Teachers become more reflective with administrators; teachers begin to collaborate with one another; and conversations become more about student achievement instead of student behavior.  As our professional learning environments evolve I encourage you to take time and observe you fellow colleagues.  You just might be missing out on some cool stuff.  

Creating a Culture of Change pt. 2

                                                               Chronicles of a Coach
                                                            Being a Catalyst for Change

It's been almost a month since I last posted.  A lot has happened in that time.  My father passed away; my son got sick; and my wife started school.  It's been quite the time!  It's also given me time to reflect on the direction of this particular blog.  I want to share some of my research about education as well as my thoughts and opinions.  Even more than that, I want to sort of chronicle my first year as an instructional coach.  With that being said and with the idea of creating a culture of change, I'd like to offer some reflections on the first 3 and a half months of being an instructional coach where I work.  

When the position was posted, I knew it was the next step in my career.  One core elements of an organization that nurtures a culture of change is having people that know when it's time to take a different position.  I didn't leave the classroom because I was tired of the kids.I left because it was time to pursue the "next thing" in my career.  My classroom run--17 years-- was pretty good.  There were as many wins as there were losses, but each served as a learning experience.  At this point in my career I felt that I had enough experiences, both good and bad, to share with colleagues as it concerned their instructional practices.  I'm very comfortable in front of crowds of any size, and enjoy public speaking.  Once the position was offered, the work to begin to put the pieces of this position together was painstaking at best.  There was a lot of reading---LOTS OF READING--and research.  I want to do this right.  

I actually got a bit lost as first, but then it hit me; let the standards lead you.  Most schools that are in large districts have more of a scripted plan for their coaches.  They focus on a subject area, technology, or using data in the classroom.  Well, I have to do all of that and it's just me.  The trade off is the school is small.  In order to get a baseline of needs, I looked at our evaluation rubric and began to plan my weekly professional developments around teachers understanding the rubric and how the rubric can be an effective tool for planning strong instruction for students.  I owe a lot of the direction we are headed as a school to reading the book Instructional Coaching in Action by Eisenberg, Eisenberg, Medrich, and Charner and published by the ASCD.  Ushering in a culture of teacher accountability and coaching is not a task for the faint of heart.  Not only that, teachers may see the role of coaching and non-evaluative observation as punitive.  "Our test scores stink, and according to the state and everyone else I can't teach," a teacher might think to themselves.  That's because many conversations in the teachers' lounge truly fit the stereotype.  Teachers are either complaining about the kids, their parents, the administration, or some combination of the three.  There are few conversations about the "cool" stuff in my class, or how my students are having fun.  These are the conversations buildings that have coaches are attempting to create.  Conversations where teachers are reflecting, evaluating, looking at data, and (most importantly) looking for ways to create environments where kids are creating and having fun.          

Creating a Culture of Change

     Creating a culture of change in a building isn't easy or neat.  It is difficult and takes time.  There are some things that do help this process, however.  First, assess your "win."  What has your leadership team established as the vision for your building's or district's culture?  This may seem to be obvious, but if the change is simply for the sake of change or--even worse-- change because there is a new sheriff in town and they want to make their mark; no one will have a sense of direction.  Moreover you won't get the stakeholders needed in order to create this new culture because it won't seem authentic.  Once everyone that needs to be on board is on board you can truly begin the long arduous task of rebuilding or building a culture. 
     Why a culture of change?  The only sure in any industry or life for that matter is change.  There are many subcultures in a building, and the only one that can help change these is creating a culture of change.  As we analyze this idea, let's begin with what it isn't.  It is not the acquiescence by a group for another group (usually a minority) in the building or district.  Simple truth, you aren't going to please everyone all the time.  There will always be a vocal minority either resistant to change or only want what is good for them not for the majority.  This is also why everyone can't be a stakeholder in the process.  The people that are invested are the ones that don't need their voices to be heard and understand if there idea isn't best for the majority.  As I stated earlier it isn't change for the sake of change either.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping something that has been working for twenty years.  If it works keep working it! 
     A culture of change is the foundation to any successful organization.  In its simplest form it is the idea that we pilot new things; have tangible data from those things we pilot; look at the data and tweak what needs tweaking;and--most important--give it adequate time to know if it really works or not.  Time.  There's a word we've forgotten in education.  We can't possibly know if something works in 3 years let alone 1.  There needs to be time to see valid and reliable trends.  A culture of change is also about people.  When we know what we want our culture to look like, we can allow people the flexibility to be themselves.  As you establish this culture people will do one of three things: jump on board; leave on their own; or force you to ask them to leave.  As far as the last, if you are the leader of this change you have to be comfortable with this.  Everyone isn't going to jump on board.  When they show you they aren't on board and have no desire to get on board their attitudes can become toxic to the environment you are trying to establish.  When that happens it just might be their time to leave. 
More on this next time... Please leave some feedback after you read.  Thanks!!!

Questioning...continued

Questioning for mastery: 

     When we question for mastery, we are either assessing for learning (formative assessment) or giving an assessment of learning (summative assessment).  The first should be a thread throughout an entire classroom.  Teachers should check for understanding as much as possible.  There should be daily concept mastery in every class.  In order for students to master specific concepts, there are sub-concepts that require mastery.  These are the rudimentary elements of teaching with depth.  If you aren't questioning for understanding, how do you know students have the requisite information to master the day's objective?  If we look at this from an entire unit, kids fall behind because we haven't checked to see if they understand the information presented enough.  Everything is linked together.  If students haven't mastered the day's objective, they can't master the week's concepts; and cannot master the concepts for that unit.  There will always be a piece missing.

What is questioning?

At the heart of every teacher’s classroom is the concept of questioning.  Most teachers want to delve deeper into the idea, but don’t always master this concept.  First, we must understand not all questions end with a question mark.  In a classroom questioning is any task given to a student to elicit a response either formatively or summatively.  Kathleen Cotton (1988) writes that questions are instructional cues or stimuli that convey to students the content elements to be learned and directions for what they are to do and how they are to do it.  For questioning to be effective, however; teachers must see the relationship between the question--cue, task, or stimuli-- and desired student outcomes.  An understanding of this relationship allows the teacher to determine question types, rigor, and difficulty.To question effectively the classroom teacher must understand two important ideas about questioning: why am I questioning my students and how do I need to question my students.

Why do we question students?

Recall:  Teachers often want to know what students remember about a particular concept, idea, task, or lesson. When a teacher wants to gauge prior knowledge about a concept while introducing a new unit, questioning is used.  Very often the teacher needs this simple data to know what needs to be re-taught; what needs to be enriched--these are not the same pedagogically speaking-- and what students bring to the table with whatever new learning is going to take place.  Another reason for teacher questioning for student recall is to tie in previous--yesterday’s learning or concepts from the week-- learning into the new learning for the day’s new learning.  In both situations, we question students to gauge what needs to be reviewed to grasp new learning.    

Checking Understanding:  Another reason teachers question students is to check for student  understanding.  This check for student understanding occurs either during new learning or at the end of new learning.  This moves past the modality of simply asking, “does everyone understand?” and watching no one’s hand go up or ask a question.  When the check for understanding happens during instruction, the teacher needs to ensure a student understands either part of a concept, or a simpler concept to master a more complex one.This is assessing for learning.      If this is a mid-point check for understanding, instruction can be adjusted so students can demonstrate mastery of that part or simpler concept.  A simple check after a lesson can give a teacher simple data to drive the next day’s instruction.  These checks are not long.  They aren’t quizzes or assignments, rather; simple formative assessments to let the teacher know “my kids get it.”  This growing trend in education is central to mastery because this allows the classroom teacher to adjust their instruction during the lesson to ensure mastery.  On the back in of the lesson--assessing for mastery-- questioning for understanding gives “quality” to a grade score.  Formative assessments are so crucial; they give students opportunity to take inventory of their own learning during instruction time.

Well, that's all for now...We'll get more into questioning next time!!!

Happy Teaching!!!