Do We Need Principals?

Tonight during an #edchat on Twitter, the group was discussing leadership in education. Partially joking, but with some level of honest curiosity I sent the follow tweet out:

I got some initial kick back that schools certainly need a principal and could not imagine functioning without. I poked back as a means to stretch my own thinking and not necessarily to be perceived as an anti-administration rant. With that being said, here are a few of the arguments that came out and some of my initial thoughts.

“We need principals for discipline.”

This bothers me a little bit, because I always thought of discipline as a teacher’s job. Now, there are certainly times when things escalate and you need to bring in the “big guns” or reinforcements. My own school has three administrators and a school resource officer (school police). They are called in to deescalate situations and in some cases remove students from the classroom. My question is, why does this have to be the role of the administration? Can we not create a disciplinary advisory committee of sorts that handles this? What about this committee being teachers who are trained in such situations and provide that support? This group could also be the one that makes collective decisions on actions taken in terms of consequences and next steps.

“Someone has to do the schedules and plan the meetings.”

Let’s be honest, most of the meetings we attend are a waste of our collective time and only exist for the sake of saying they exist. A fair amount of the information in our meetings could be disseminated in a brief email. In terms of the schedules, I think we could again utilize a small group of teachers who are good at that sort of thing. I work with a woman that does all of the scheduling for our team’s special days and testing days. She has a brain that works that way and does it very well. Why can we not just tap these people to do this?

“We need administrators to evaluate the teachers.”

Yet again, why does this have to be an administrator job? Yes, I understand that teachers need to be evaluated and that often impacts if people keep their jobs or in some cases their pay. However, this model does not actually promote what it should, which is improved teaching and learning. When teachers are evaluated by administrators that are not practicing teachers, it is difficult to value their insight. On the other hand, if a peer observes and provides feedback that comes from a place of credibility and in most cases more honesty. Why can we not create a culture of openness and reflection where peer feedback is part of the norm? If that were the case, would we still need administrator evaluations?

Now, I am not an administrator and don’t even play one on TV. My opinions are completely based on my own experiences with administrators and the experiences of those I have talked with about the topic. I know there are many more things that administrators do that is not mentioned in this post and I am not exactly advocating that we do away with them completely. I am just wondering if there is a better way. The best administrators I know miss the classroom and the teaching. If you talk to teachers describe the worst administrators they often talk about how out of touch they are and not connected to what is really going on in the building. Would all of these problems be solved if schools were self-governed by the teachers in the building? Could we indicate a small handful of “go-to people” in times of emergency like the early days of the Roman Republic? I anticipate I will reflect more on this, but would love to hear your thoughts…can a school function without an administrator? 

We Are Not Newsworthy...

In the past year I have had my fair share of press related to some recognition I have received. I won't post anything here...but google me if you want to know. ;) A majority of it has been in the form of local newspaper articles or online blurbs. While it has been nice, it is not something I sought out or was initially comfortable with. I am nothing special and know plenty of amazing teachers that are far more worthy than I. That being said, I have embraced it recently as a way to tell my story and more importantly the story of teachers and students that don’t get that chance.

Back in March, I attended my state technology conference and stepped in on a media roundtable. Sitting at this table was a key reporter from the four major TV networks in the Chicago market; NBC, CBS, FOX, and ABC. All of these individuals sat and told really nice stories about how they had some personal connection to the teaching profession and unanimously professed their love of the teaching profession. However, they all admitted none of their networks had an education reporter on staff. They went on to say they want teachers to bring stories to them so they can run some “good press” on behalf of teachers. Well, personally, I think it is garbage that we have to bring them a story…isn’t that their job? Regardless, I walked away thinking I would try to bring them some stories and shed some rare positive media light on teachers and education.

Last month I was invited to Washington DC to attend a ceremony at the White House, meet President Obama, visit with Jill Biden and a whole host of other activities. Personally, I thought a teacher getting to meet the President of the United States was a newsworthy item. Let's be honest, regardless of how you feel about the man, this is an honor few ever get. I was really looking forward to sharing my experience as well as how my students are truly the ones that got me to where I am. So, I emailed every single one of the reporters that sat at that media round table…crickets…eventually one of them replied to tell me they were “passing it on”. I even sent another email to members of each of their staff and again heard from just one with the “pass it on” line. To this day, I have yet to hear from any of these reporters that claim to love teachers and want to share the good word. Needless to say, I was frustrated by this. I was hand delivering a positive story and getting nowhere.

My frustration boiled over even further when I was actually in Washington DC having breakfast with all the other State Teachers of the Year. We were eating together and awaiting the first live TV interview with Rebecca, who was just named the National Teacher of the Year. I honestly don’t recall which network was doing the interview but I remember distinctly what they did leading up to her interview. As they were announcing her coming to be interviewed, they ran a promo for an upcoming story on a teacher that fired a cap gun off in a classroom. Here we were about to celebrate one of the great teachers in our country, and the network decided to take a cheap shot and put a story about an ignorant teacher in first. To me this pretty much sums up our media’s perception and priorities in terms of education.

We live in a country where the profession of teaching is rarely viewed as a profession. Teachers have come under fire in more places than we can even begin to count. This perception is largely due to a few bad apples that get all the attention. As with most things in our society, the media truly shapes popular opinion. Yes, I understand that we as teachers can blog, tweet, connect and share our own stories. I also understand that the mass media is in the business of making money and nice stories of great teachers doesn’t make great news. However, I can’t help but feel an intense level of frustration towards media who even to my face say they care for teachers when they clearly do not back that up. When was the last time you watched the news and heard a good story about teachers?

For fear of this post being a complete rant, I wonder what we can do as teachers to establish ourselves as a profession and change the public perception of teaching. How did teaching become an elevated status in other societies around the world? Does the media play a part in that or is it unfair to expect them to help?  

Rules...are for the Teachers...

This afternoon I spent a portion of a staff PD day discussing our school rules and potential changes for next year. We went over the usual suspect; gum chewing, cell phones and dress code. The discussion was heated as it usually is when it comes to things that people feel strongly on. Myself, I want kids to be able to use cell phones in class, but there are many that want them completely banned. Gum chewing is the same way in that I don’t care if kids chew it in my class. There is plenty of research indicating the positive effects of gum chewing on concentration and focus. Yet, because it is a school rule, I enforce it in my classroom and don’t allow it to be chewed.

After all this discussion, I headed home and started to think about the whole process and had a bit of an epiphany. None of these discussions or potential rule changes had to do with student behavior but rather on staff behavior. Let me explain…

The gum chewing conversation came about because many teachers were not enforcing the rule and some sit in front of their class chewing it themselves. Yes, I realize gum chewing is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. However, if it is a school rule it must be enforced universally or it causes confusion among students and pits teachers against each other. I am labeled a “mean teacher” if I follow the rule we have in our handbook when others are not. So, this rule discussion was really not about kids chewing gum, but more about teacher’s enforcing a rule or not.

When looking at the cell phone policy, it is again more about the staff than the students. Anyone with half a brain knows the potential power of a cell phone in terms of a learning tool in a classroom. For resource strapped schools, these phones are mini-computers in kid’s hands. Why would we not want a kid to be able to pull out a phone and in seconds be connected and pulling information they need? Yet, this rule is not about that. It is about those staff members that are not willing to a) actively monitor their classrooms if students are using them and b) not willing to teach digital citizenship through their use. We are so afraid of a student doing something “bad” with a cell phone that we miss learning opportunities. Yes, kids could take pictures and post them on Facebook of themselves and friends doing silly things in the back of your class. I would argue that is a reflection of the teacher as much as the student.

On a total sidebar, I laugh at the number of teachers who are constantly on their cell phones during school hours texting, emailing, updating status and playing games right in front of the students. What message does that send the kids when the staff won’t even follow the rules set for the students?

Many of the other rules we discussed in the open forum had similar themes. More than once I heard, “it is too hard to enforce that rule.” I heard very few people mention what was in the best interest of the student’s and their learning environment. It may just be me, but I saw evidence that many of my school’s rules were a product of not keeping kids safe or protecting the learning environment. What I did see was rules being created because teachers were afraid to step up and enforce existing rules, or to step up and recognize learning opportunities and not punishment opportunities.

I wonder how many schools have rules established for the sake of the adults rather than for the sake of the kids. 

Cruise Control

As the end of the year nears it is very tempting to hit the "cruise control" button. It is easy to pop that VHS in, hit play and let the remaining minutes pass by in a stream of mono-toned narrations and antiquated special effects. Many of us will check out the laptop cart or hit the computer lab and assign our students to create "big projects" that are busy work masked in PowerPoint slides, driveling essays or elaborate posters. Instead, let us finish the year as strong as we started and not hit the cruise control button...our kids deserve better.

Kids will feed off our attitude and if we expect the best from them, then we must give them the best of us.

A Sit-down with Daniel Pink

Recently, I had the good fortune to spend some time chatting with author Daniel Pink at his home. I connected with Pink through twitter when I shared with him my work on helping start an Innovation Day at my school. Some of the theories behind the Innovation Day were taken from Pink’s work in his book, Drive that delved into with what motivates people. I went into the meeting with him without any agenda or really any idea what to talk about. Honestly, I just wanted to meet him in person because he seemed like someone that would be interesting to spend some time talking with.

Initially, we chatted about education in general and discussed some of our shared frustrations with the current system. Even though he is not an educator, Pink understood some of the very basic problems that I myself see in education. The part of the conversation that I took the most from was when we started discussing why his work, largely written for businessmen, was popular among educators. He openly admitted he is not writing his books for educators and will be the first to say that he is not an expert in that arena. Yet, many teachers and administrators look at Pink’s work and is resonates with them and their work in schools.

As we discussed this, it became very clear to me why his work has the appeal that it does within educational circles. While his work might be geared towards business people, it is the people part that is most important. He is looking at many aspects of the human mind and motivation and it is not simply business people or adults that it applies to. The concept of motivation and the underlying principles within apply to all humans…adults and kids alike. So, it would stand to reason that things that motivate adults would seemingly apply to kids in a school setting.

Towards the end of our conversation, Pink shared with me the outline of his new book and actually asked me for some feedback as to how it would/could apply to educators. He must be getting desperate for feedback because he was actually jotting down some notes based on my thoughts. J Without giving too much away, his book deals with the idea that we are all selling something, regardless of if we are actually in sales. He even laid out some specific traits and skills that make people successful at doing this. One might not think there is a clear connection to education but I see a pretty clear one myself. Teachers are selling ideas and concepts every day and how we do that is through using our own unique traits and set of skills. Administrators are no different as they too are trying to sell their staff and students on new ideas and initiatives. Some of the basic skills and attributes that Pink described to me have strong connections to our work as educators. I encourage you all to pick it up when he finishes it and it is on the bookstore shelves…

Focus

This evening I am speaking at my school district’s annual award’s ceremony. I am a big believer in the power of images and I created this one that will be my final slide.

The title is simply “focus”. Too often we in the world of education get wrapped up in the many facets of our job that we lose our focus. At some level we all got into this work because of the students. Yet, there is a great many things that often blur our work and get in the way of what we do. Depending on our role in education, we all have things that distract us from the meaningful work we have a passion to do. I am in need of this reminder from time to time and plan on keeping this image close as that reminder…focus on what matters. 

ASCD part five: Final Session with Todd Whitaker

It has been some time since I attended the 2012 ASCD conference in Philadelphia. The final session I attended was a high energy presentation by Todd Whitaker. During his session I could hardly keep up with my notes as it was a flurry of one liners and statements that rang true with me. I tried to figure out a way to articulate my thoughts in numerous drafts of a post to flesh out my thinking about various things Whitaker said. Those drafts are honestly still in progress. For now, I have a list here of a few of his statements with some of my notes that I wanted to share for starters. I anticipate I will be writing more follow-up posts going into more depth on some of these points.

• If we don't have difficult teachers, we don't have difficult parents.
• We have a choice when someone asks us how our day is going - it doesn't do us any good to not say "great"…even if our day is not. People feed off what others say regardless of if it is true or not.
• The ability to know how we come across and are perceived by others is crucial.
• We need to be able to understand how we come across...good teachers are aware of how they come across to students and other staff. Administrators need to be aware how they come across to their staff. Failure to do this by either teacher or administration leads to ultimate failure.
• In the phrase, "Poor lecture classroom" - poor is the issue...not the lecture.
• As with most things, we focus too much on the tool or process rather than the quality. Lecturing is not necessarily bad, but rather the way it is used.
• Good teachers will "figure it out" on their own...poor teachers never will.
• We need to micromanage our good teachers far less and them do their work free of restriction.
• Some teachers sit behind their desk because they don't know what to do with the students...do we want them on the other side of the desk?
• What does this say about us as fellow teachers that we allow these teachers to remain in our schools? What does this saw about our administrators if they allow these teachers to stay in the classroom?
• Single best measure of principal effectiveness is teacher input.
• As an administrator are you seeking input from your teachers?
• Anyone can have a banner "all kids can learn" but do your actions back that up?
• Unless you have been in the room with a good/bad teacher you don't know how good/bad they are.
• This one really hit home with me. Beyond the Tommy Boy reference, we must be in a classroom to see if a teacher is effective rather than taking someone’s word for it.
• There is nothing wrong with being afraid but it is wrong to act afraid.
• Kids and staff alike can tell if a teacher is afraid and feed off of that fear. No teacher should ever show fear for a student, nor should a teacher show fear of a colleague.
• Big difference between desire and action.
• Great people act on their desires and “bad” people just talk about what they want to do.
• Why are we punishing the good kids because of a few bad?
• Why do we spend time going over the rules for the whole group when it applies to just a few? In the same way, why do we mandate things for the whole staff when it only applies to a few? We should never send an all staff email when it only applies to a few.
• If as an administrator you don't teach your teachers between right and wrong, they won't know any better.
• We know it is right to model for our students, should we be doing the same for teachers?
• When you hire a new teacher you want your school to be like the new teacher...if not you have hired the wrong teacher. You don't want the new teacher to be like the school.
• This one certainly made me think...
• Principals say, "all my teachers are great," because then they don't have to do anything.
• We need to admit our shortcomings and take steps towards improvement.
• If a principal does not step into a good teacher's class - they are insulted. If a principal does not step into a poor teacher's class - they are giddy.
• Best thing about being a teacher is what we do matters. Hard is that it matters every day

I know this is a kind of a “cheap” post in that it is essentially a bullet list of things Todd said, but I am still processing much of it. My biggest takeaway is that we all have a responsibility to do more to lift up the good teachers and not be defined by the “bad” ones.