Social-Emotional Education is Important in Our Schools

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I was fortunate to visit a couple of elementary classrooms this week during nurture group and I was heartened to see students engaging with one another and practicing skills to help them self-regulate and stick together.  While we have a lot of work yet to do, I am enthused that we are focusing more on meeting the social and emotional needs of our students. At one point in my visit, students were expressing their differences through telling their classmates of their fall break plans.  Each student felt free to express their ideas and excitement, even if it was simply staying at home to achieve the 30 goals in Mindcraft they had set for themselves. The differences in what kids thought exciting was totally accepted by the class as was evident in the expressions of all who listened.  There was no judgment. The social walls that are typically created, yes even in fourth grade, were not visible to me at all.

At this point, a memory came to me from my time as a middle school administrator.  My family and I were eating at Logan’s, and at a table across the room was a CGMS student with his family.  At school, this student was quiet, maybe shy, and did not engage with others. He was not one who many thought to include in their social circle.  However, in the restaurant that evening with his family, he lit up!. He laughed and talked the whole time. His gregarious behavior was reflected back by his entire family.  I remember being deeply sad that he had to put so many walls up at school.

This week, Brené Brown’s new book, Dare to Lead, was released.  I’ve been excited to get it ever since I pre-ordered it some time ago.  At one point, Brené is talking about the armor that students wear at home or at school.  A small snip/paraphrase is below.

We can’t always ask students to take off their armor at home or on their way to school.  What we can do, what we are ethically called to do, is to create a space where all students can walk in and for that day or hour, take off the crushing weight of their armor, hang it on rack, and open their hearts to truly being seen. We must be guardians of a space that allows students to breath, be curious, and explore the world and be who they are without suffocation.  They deserve one place where they can rumble with vulnerability and their hearts can exhale. We should never underestimate the benefit to a child in having a place where they can take off that armor. It can and often does change the direction of their lives.

It is SO HARD for many students to open their hearts to truly being seen. The polarization of our society and the ability to hide behind the walls of social media, compounds the issue of being safe and vulnerable.  Brené shares that you can’t fully grow and contribute behind armor. It takes a massive amount of energy just to carry it (armor) around.

I applaud the quadrant two efforts of our teachers.  Those who assume the responsibility in being a part of whole-child education are our rock stars.  Every student in our district is a child who is growing both socially and emotionally, and their ability to demonstrate vulnerability and courage opens wide the doors to lifelong learning.

Leaders Bring People Together

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As I read and listen to the news, I get more and more worried about the increasing polarization of our society.  People seem to love or hate much more than ever.  From the national stage, I am amazed how so many people are vigorous supporters of one candidate, yet others express the same vigor with dislike for that candidate.  Even recent discussions in our own state’s legislative branches demonstrate significant polarization.  I just heard a legislator on the radio say that his caucus is very set on an issue that surveys show is against the will of the people in the state.  Even in my own community, we have polarization on too many issues.

I realize that news folk seek out responses from both ends of the spectrum on issues, but as I listen to talk shows or reports from the street, it seems to me that so many people have tunnel vision only looking at one aspect of an issue and not seeing the big picture.  Of course, some of the people who are put on camera appear to be missing something…, but so are people who look at a mountain and can only see a rock.

Those that know me can attest that I am far from Milquetoast on many matters that are important to me.  Really, I have the ability to express some passion.  But, I ask myself, what the heck is wrong with seeing all sides of an issue…the good, bad and the in-between?  When did we start to become a society of people who wear blinders?

Of course, our connectedness through social media has arguably been a part of pulling us further apart.  We now have so many forums for us to hold personal court.  Don’t get me wrong, I participate moderately in social media functions.  One of my favorite aspects of social media isn’t reading the idea that is expressed initially, it is digging into the many responses to the idea that is originally posted.  Every once in a while I actually see someone demonstrate some thinking and regard for what is expressed by others.  It still strikes me that so many people are much more interested in expressing their opinions first rather than trying to learn the opinions of others.  (My favorite Covey quote:  “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” comes to mind here!)

I am blessed to work in a great profession where there is a significant proportion of reasonable people compared to the rest of the world.  I will say though that even in education, we have those who are quick to judge.  The silent majority still rules in the end, but so many times the path is fraught with frustration.  More often than not, I am heartened to see people disagree AND understand and respect the opinions of those with which they disagree.  I really do love school people!

As a leader, I have found that getting to the point where the middle ground can be found on significant issues usually comes when we work deeply with BELIEFS.  Determining the best questions to wrestle with and facilitating a conversation where others are learning, reading and discovering all perspectives before cementing their own opinions often leads to products that are best for students and teachers.

Ask yourself when the last time was that you had a thorough conversation at the beliefs level with your colleagues.  If you are a leader, when is the last time you facilitated such a conversation?

If we want to bring people together, we must focus on developing shared beliefs.  We need to ask questions of significance that are difficult to answer; and we need to give people time to digest the thoughts and opinions of others.  In our ever increasing world of polarization, now more than ever we need to have a firm understanding of how to build consensus through developing shared beliefs

By the way, if you don’t want to bring people together, please don’t lead anything.  We already have too much of that in our world and we don’t need anymore.

The BEST Teachers…

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Straight from John Hattie’s Visible Learning

When students were asked about their best teachers, the common attributes were teachers who built relationships with students (Batten & Girling-Butcher, 1981), teachers who helped students to have different and better strategies or processes to learn the subject (Pehkonen, 1992), and teachers who demonstrated a willingness to explain material and help students with their work (Sizemore, 1981).

In my humble opinion those are very LEARNER focused behaviors. When we focus on learners, our teaching becomes a solution, not an activity we perform every day. To help students learn, we must change our solutions.

While working on my laptop last night, my wife was channel hopping (she does that a lot). Stopping on the movie The Blind Side when the character playing Michael Oher was being tutored by character being played by Kathy Bates caused me to stop working and watch for a bit. During the scene I was watching, the actor playing Michael Oher looked at his tutor and said: “I don’t get it.” She replied: “YET, you don’t get it YET.”

So, I continued watching a bit even closing my laptop to save the battery. During another tutoring session, the tutor was working with Michael to find a topic for a paper he had to write. It was a very important paper as his future college scholarship rested on him getting a B or better on the single assignment. Kathy Bates’ character (sorry, I can’t remember her name in the movie) exhausted her ideas to motivate Michael, so she encouraged his father to step in. With a new approach and new ideas, they came up with a great topic to write about. The tutor never gave up and continued to find a new approach that would get through to help Michael learn.

Learning = (Teaching + Creativity) x Different Approach

Every Teacher MUST Answer This Question

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In a recent conversation with several teachers, I asked the question: “Does teaching exist in the absence of learning?” This is the most essential question any teacher can ask of themselves. The answer, Yes, No, or somewhere in between, sets the boundaries of a teacher’s effectiveness.

This is a question that many wrestle with as they have experienced students who were very difficult to teach or who were very resistant to learning. How can we make a student learn if they don’t want to? Perhaps the better question one can ask of themselves is: “What power do I have in motivating the most challenging student to learn?” How much power one believes they have is their level of self-efficacy. Webster tells us that self-efficacy is a person’s belief of their power or capacity to produce a desired effect; effectiveness. Fancy psychological research found self-efficacy as the foundation of human motivation and accomplishments. Unless people believe they can produce desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to act or persevere in the face of difficulties.

Yep, that’s us. We are working with our colleagues to increase teacher effectiveness in the face of difficulties and motivation is certainly key. That, perhaps, is a rather large understatement! Can we motivate teachers to become more effective if they don’t believe that they can be?

I once heard a story about a swim coach who “taught” a group of children to swim; however, try as she might, one student just couldn’t learn and had to be saved by a lifeguard on the last day of class. Did that swim coach teach that child to swim? Can everyone learn to swim? Maybe there are great reasons why the child didn’t learn to swim. Perhaps he didn’t take baby swim class when he was 9 months old like other children and he is just too far behind to learn. Maybe he has a disability that doesn’t allow him to make the proper connections in his mind to control his limbs as well as other children. I don’t know, but to me it is clear that the student didn’t learn to swim.

So, if he didn’t learn to swim, was he taught to swim? Did teaching occur?

Well, to me the big question hinges on the definition of teaching. Is teaching simply providing all of the necessary information on a subject? Being a formal student for half of my lifetime has taught me at least one thing…that there are some very knowledgeable teachers/professors in this world who can’t teach worth a darn. Knowing your material doesn’t mean that you can teach it.

If you’ve read this far, you’ve likely figured out where I stand on the subject. For the most part, I believe that teaching does not exist without learning.  I get it, there are some students that you just can’t reach.  I will say that if you never give up and always try new strategies and tactics, at the end of the day you’ll earn my respect.  I’m not quite Yoda when he said: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”  Trying is important.

Do you believe that all students can learn? Search deep within yourself. If you truly believe this mantra, then you must also believe that you haven’t finished teaching if a student hasn’t learned enough…yet.

Solve a Problem Forever

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In my many roles I have the fortune to interact with multiple school administrators. During my time with these great leaders, I strive to make connections and to find meaning for my own study of leadership. Recently, a theme has emerged that has wormed its way into the reoccurring conversations that I have with myself. The principle that I am calling “Solving a Problem Forever” (SPF) is one that I believe helps to set the very best leaders apart from the rest.

Have you ever said something like one of the following statements to yourself or to someone else?
“I can’t believe this is happening again.”
“This problem keeps coming up.”
“I am tired of always hearing this complaint.”

One simple example of when I experienced the need to SPF was when I was a building principal and I constantly received complaints about the drop off zone at our school. For some reason, more and more parents chose to drop their students off instead of having them ride the bus to school and this created some issues for those 300+ cars each morning. While few students were late to school, the amount of complaints I received made this a significant issue for me. It would have been easy to ignore this problem because it didn’t affect the school day much, but it did create nagging heartburn for my parents who wanted to get their children to school on time. And…I hate repeated complaints. To me, it became a cultural issue and one that I knew I needed to tackle.

So, to solve this problem, I first began by designing a set of protocols and listed them on one side of a page with the opposite side being a satellite view of our school with arrows and specific zones marked off. Knowing that developing these “rules” would not solve the problem forever, I knew that I needed to engage my teaching abilities. I made TV announcements talking to the students, sent home messages to parents, collaborated with our maintenance director to secure signage and curb paint AND I started the second semester greeting each car that entered our drop off zone with the new safety and procedural protocols. All of this solved the problem…but not forever. Knowing that the few people who think of themselves before others had the power to mess everything up, I began policing the drop off zone and assigned an additional staff person to do this on a regular basis. When a rare parent would choose to not support these new protocols, I approached their car and talked with them.

While the system wasn’t perfect, it did improve drop-off considerably. Cars no longer backed up onto the road and parents stopped complaining. I even received comments about how much they appreciated the new procedures and a few who noticed me addressing those who tried to skirt the system praised me and our school.

Leaders know that to solve a problem forever usually takes time…sometimes a lot of time. While it is impossible to solve every problem you have at a “forever” level, it is important that you work to SPF every chance that you get. Because there are so many issues that need to be managed, it can be easy to allow problems to continue because you don’t have the time to solve them; but don’t let that be an excuse. Many times the large investment up front provides more time over the course of the year as the multitude of having to “deal with something” diminishes.

Additionally, not only does SPF usually require significant time, it usually also requires dealing with issues at a fundamental level. Having difficult conversations, following up with those you are serving, and developing shared expectations that are best for students, will always pay into your time bank. When you are able to have conversations at a fundamental and foundational level, you build trust and confidence…or rather, leadership capital. When you solve a problem forever, you affect your culture and that influences other areas of your leadership.

Seek First to Understand…All Stories

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I learned years ago that the source of a person’s anger is usually due to their story not matching up with reality.  Simple, but still a great thought when trying to understand why someone has “feelings” about an issue.  What do I mean by a “story”?  Well, a person’s story is their version of what reality should be.  Of course, that story doesn’t always match reality.  Let me share an example.

The Parker’s go to movies VERY early.  We leave home at least 45 minutes before the show starts taking a leisurely drive to the theatre and arriving in our seats with a drink and a small snack that we plan to consume before the movie starts.  Then, we play on our phones while waiting for the previews to begin.  Yes, typically we are the first people in the theatre.  The story we play in our heads is that there is no need to rush; cashiers are quick as lines are short, and we get to sit in a seat that we prefer with very little hassle and without inconveniencing others.

In contrast, some folks must leave their homes when the movie is advertised to start, wait in a long line for a ticket, purchase 27 different snacks and drinks from the concessions, and then find their seat (usually right in front of us) 5 minutes after the movie starts thereby missing all of the valuable previews and an opportunity for the perfect seat.  They also talk for 5 more minutes as they pass their snacks around (that doesn’t bother me or anything…).  I imagine that the “late” arrivers are quite content with all of this.  Their story is that they got to a movie in time to see the “good stuff” and they are thankful that there were awesome seats right in front of this other family.  If we traded movie going procedures, the Parkers and the late arrivers would both likely have anxiety attacks.

Now, we strive to control our reality by leaving extra-early for movies.  Sometimes, reality doesn’t play out that way as we are not always able to leave at a preferred time.  Those times, when we are not able to leave early, we speed to the theater turning into the parking lot on two wheels.  I shove Pam out the door with a credit card, and I park the car and run in to catch her punching the self-serve ticket machine with vigor.  We still get to watch the previews, but we were rushed and we do not like to be rushed.  This situation may not make us angry, but we certainly are not happy because reality did not match our story of what traveling to a movie should be like.

Just like our movie going experience, when we are faced with situations that make us unhappy, we all have an opportunity to make a choice.  Either we can change our story, or we can change reality by leaving early for a movie.  In making a decision to change reality, one must weigh the level of emotion experienced with the effort that it would take to change that reality.  If something does not bother us much, and changing reality is arduous, then we are likely to change our expectations…our story.  In contrast, if something garners a great deal of emotion, we are more likely to put forth effort to change reality.  The amount of effort that we are willing to expend to affect change directly corresponds to the strength of our emotions or feelings.  That is the premise of why I like to work with passionate people. Passionate people WORK to change reality.

Of course, this principle applies when leading others.  I’ve often found that when working with someone who has “feelings” it is good to work very hard to try to understand their point of view by imagining their story for myself.  Why do they feel the way that they do?  What is their story and how is it different from mine or from reality?  I try to be empathetic and follow Steven Covey’s 5th principal:  “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

This is also a great way to deal with conflict or expectations not being met.  When the person with whom you are conversing truly feels that you understand why they feel the way that they do, you can usually be more successful when getting your own point across; and, perhaps your point will be even clearer to you when you have full understanding of all of the important “stories”.

As leaders, we must always strive to realize the stories that people have.  Remember, their story is a version of what reality should be.  Through understanding all of the related stories, we have the best chance to determine whether we need to change reality by leading others to implement a new program or procedure, or whether we need to communicate differently to help change the stories that cause people angst.

Instructional Leadership–Now it Matters

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“I can remember a time when teaching was fun.” Have you heard this sentiment in your school lately? While it is not a phrase that a building principal likes to hear, it is one that captures the feelings of many teachers. It is understandable that teachers are feeling the pressure of performance. The expectations placed on teachers have dramatically increased as our society again points to public education as a solution for improving our economy and our nation. High stakes testing of students have been the norm in schools for several years. Now, high stakes evaluations pervade our professional lives as we work to meet the expectations placed upon us.

I don’t blame those who are expecting more of us. We are in a business whose primary goal is to change people. Sometimes, however, we forget that being agents of change means that we need to be open to that ourselves. If we believe that teaching is important, then the effect of what we do must be at the very least equally important. If we want to lead learning, then we must set the example and be learners ourselves. Increasing our professional capacity should be our expectation, not our yoke.

It is understandable that legislators and business leaders were looking at improving teacher evaluations as a means to improving the education of students. Research by the New Teacher Project (2007) noted several inconsistencies and disconnects in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) between classroom results and teacher evaluations. This system has since been revamped, but in 2007 CPS relied on a system that both teachers and principals viewed as arbitrary and unfair. The system identified 93% of teachers as either superior or excellent—at the same time that 66% of the CPS schools were failing to meet state standards (New Teacher Project, 2007). In one case study of a K-8 school with about 500 students, the standardized testing scores went from 45% to 27% while the teacher evaluation ratings sat at 78% superior, 22% excellent, 0% satisfactory, and 0% unsatisfactory. This, along with a plethora of other research, has been the impetus for actions taken by our lawmakers.

The dissonance between teacher evaluation ratings and student performances are certainly not solely due to teachers being rated too highly. We know that there are many factors which influence student outcomes; however, I believe that the best teachers get the best results. Good teachers do make a difference.

A follow up study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research (Sartain et al., 2011) found that an evaluation system, with proper training of teachers and principals, could be both reliable and valid. Key findings of their research on validity show that there is a strong relationship between the classroom observation ratings and value-added measures (test scores). Also, it was found that in the classrooms of highly rated teachers, students showed the most growth; in the classrooms of teachers with low observation ratings, students showed the least growth (Sartain et al., 2011, p. 9).

It is not a stretch to say that an evaluation rubric, chocked full of research-proven best practices for instruction, can be a tool for the professional growth of teachers. With a strong focus on best practices, an evaluation rubric can also be an avenue for improving student learning. For these assertions to hold any water, not only should teachers and principals be properly trained, they must also be professionally developed on the elements contained within the evaluation rubric. Best practices are only “best” if teachers understand them and see a purpose for implementing them in their classrooms.

Building principals have always evaluated teachers. As an evaluator, I have needed to understand at an intimate level all of the best practices from Bloom’s Taxonomy and learner engagement to Marzano’s high yield instructional strategies. I have also been expected to help any teacher who is not rated effective or highly effective in a specific competency. As a building principal, teachers looked to me and asked me how they could get better. This is something that I readily accepted because if I was expert enough to provide judgment of a teacher’s practice based on the standards set forth by the evaluation rubric, then I should also have had the ability to professionally develop them.

One could argue that this has always been the job of a building principal and I would agree. Now, however, the stakes have changed and teachers are seeing pay and tenure affected by their evaluation results. Not all teachers are against this. Even though much of the new education legislation is criticized as a way to cut costs and limit teacher input leading schools back to pre-union days and low pay (Wall, 2011), it is recognized by many of our best teachers that the time has come for compensation models that differentiate among levels of effort and performance (Center for Teaching Quality, 2008). The game has changed.

Most teachers want to put forth the effort to become better and I believe it is the job of the building principal to lead that charge. While managing a building well is the foundation of a quality school, a school only becomes excellent if its teachers are continually working toward improving their craft. Teaching is an art and a science and it is our duty as instructional leaders to take responsibility for the professional development in our buildings. Building level principals are seen as the most significant force in designing the foundation for learning, leading school and student performance, and designing school improvement efforts. The bottom line is that if we want to improve our schools, supporting and investing in principals is the key (National Association of Elementary School Principals, 2012). Additionally, there is a “sustained history” of research linking high-quality school leadership to improved school performance. (Grissom, Loeb, & Master, 2012).

The learning that happens in our school happens in the classroom and while principals are not in the trenches day in and day out, they are certainly walking around and through them a lot. A principal’s ability as an instructional leader and evaluator goes far beyond the number of official observations that are conducted. While I am a big fan of classroom walkthroughs, it should be known that those who spend time conducting them and NOT connecting those visits to professional development activities lose any effectiveness they may have. Principals cannot simply visit a classroom, smile, pat a few students on the head and walk out. That is a drive-by, not a walk-through. Without connecting a classroom observation to learning expectations, the visit by the principal holds very little power to affect instruction. It is essential to connect classroom observations with proper coaching and professional development (Grissom, Loeb, & Master, 2012).

To do all of this—lead instruction—a principal must not only have a strong foundation of learning theory and best practice, s/he must also demonstrate their teaching prowess through instructing the teachers for whom they serve. For teachers, student learning is a must. For principals, teacher learning is a must. There simply is too much to know and understand for a principal to not have a solid teaching and learning foundation.

The time has come to invest more in principals, not less. We must have strong pre-service programs and even stronger support programs that help school building leaders to manage, lead and instruct. The job of a building principal is too complex and too important for us to cut any corners. We should be thinking how to help principals gain capacity, not how we can make it easier for people to become a principal.

References
Center for Teaching Quality. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.teachingquality.org/pdfs/TSreport.pdf
Grissom, J., Loeb, S., & Master, B. (2012). What is effective instructional leadership? Longitudinal evidence from observations of principals. Center for Education Policy Analysis, Stanford University. Retrieved from http://cepa.stanford.edu/content/what-effective-instructional-leadership-longitudinal-evidence-observations-principals
National Association of Elementary School Principals. (2012). The Power of the principal, advocacy in action: Research-based recommendations to guide federal policies. Retrieved from http://www.naesp.org/sites/default/files/Advocacy_In_Action.pdf
New Teacher Project. (2010). Teacher evaluation 2.0. Retrieved from http://tntp.org/assets/documents/Teacher-Evaluation-Oct10F.pdf?files/Teacher-Evaluation-Oct10F.pdf
Sartain, L., Stoelinga, S. R., & Brown, E. R. (2011). Rethinking teacher evaluation in Chicago: Lessons learned from classroom observations, principal-teacher conferences, and district implementation. Chicago, IL: Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute. Retrieved from http://ccsr/uchicago.edu/
publications/Teacher%20Eval%20Report%20FINAL.pdf
Wall, J. K. (2011). New laws hang teacher pay on performance. Indianapolis Business Journal Online. Retrieved from http://www.ibj.com/article/print?articleId=27029