MiddleView

This post orginally started as a comment to "Helping New Teachers" by Patti Kinney.  The comments became way too long so I turned it into a post.  Who wants to read a 3 paragraph comment?

One of the most important responsibilities of a school administrator is recruiting and retaining quality teachers.  This certainly is not an easy task.  As an assistant principal I get to spend a lot of time working with teachers.  I make mentoring new teachers a priority.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, teachers are “where the rubber hits the road”.

I think we all know how important this is.  However, are we doing the best we can to support and develop new teachers?  I remember my first teaching job.  I was fresh out of college and very excited to have a class of my own.  I did well in my college courses.  I did well during my student teaching.  However, I was now on my own.

When I arrived at my high school it was almost surreal.  I could not believe I was about to face 5 classes of kids just several years younger than me.  There was so much to do the first week before the kids arrived.  There were plenty of teachers offering there help.  The funny thing was that I did not even know what to ask!  I was lucky to have a great group of teachers in the department.  The district even had a formal new teacher program.  I learned a lot from the people I had around me.  What if that great supporting cast was not there?  I am sure in many schools it is not.

This also leads back to the frequently asked question - are we effectively preparing our new teachers?  Like I mentioned earlier, I did well in my education courses as an undergraduate.  However, was I going to be able to apply it in the classroom?  I know I had the assessment course, the reading in the content area course, the education technology course, and so on.  I do not recall any courses on dealing with classroom management or angry parents.  I think we need to spend time on these topics.  Before I steer way off topic, let me return to the post at hand!  Overall, I think I did well in part because of my university preparation, but to a much greater extent the informal “support group” of fellow teachers and my principal.

I try to remeber all of this when I priortize my day as an assistant principal.  I know I must make time to help my new teachers.  It is tough, but drastically important.  How do I manage to do this as administrators are pulled in so many directions?  Here are a few of my strategies.

• Schedule time weekly to assist new teachers.  It seems if I write it in my planner, it has a much higher chance of actually happening.
• Make contact with new teachers as often as possible.  Some days this may include just stopping by during class change.
• Make sure new teachers know who to ask.  I remember not asking things simply because I did not know who to ask.  If the copier jams, who do they ask?
• Make sure your veteran teachers are providing the support.  I can offer help to new teachers.  However, those teaching around the newbie can offer so much more.  They know how the electronic grading software works first hand!  At the middle school level, they know the ins and outs of the kids on their team.
• Talk with new teachers about the importance of building relationships with their kids.  They need to know the value this can have.  Teachers should feel “ownership” of their kids and their academic success. 
• Get in their rooms as much as possible.  You have to be there to see what is going on.  As a new teacher, I wanted everyone to think I was the best teacher ever.  This may cause some people to cover their problems rather than ask for help.

There are so many more ways to support new teachers.  What works for you?

 

Posted by Michael Waiksnis at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Two articles crossed my desk this past week containing information that I find significant for middle level leaders.  The first was a summary of Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long-Range Plans, released in October by Public Agenda and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (NCCTQ).  It found that new high school and middle school teachers are more concerned about lack of administrative support, more frustrated by student motivation and behavior, less likely to see teaching as a lifelong career choice and less likely to believe that all students can achieve in school than new teachers in elementary schools.  This level teacher was also more likely to question their preparation and felt their education had put too much emphasis on theory and not enough on the practicalities of teaching.  The full report can be found at www.publicagenda.org.

A day or two later, an article by Stephen Sawchuk appeared in Ed Daily under the headline of “High Quality Induction Provides Bang for the Buck.”  The article summarized a study done by the University of California, Santa Cruz that found teacher induction programs, regardless of the cost, paid off in the long run through more effective teaching, increased student achievement, and higher rates of teacher retention.

When I was a beginning teacher, I had the time and support to hone my craft over the first several years of my career.  In today’s educational world of high accountability, teachers are placed under immediate pressure to help their students achieve; for first year teachers, this adds considerable stress to the already difficult task of being a beginner. As a former middle level principal, I felt the most important responsibility I held was that of hiring and supporting new teachers.  I was also fortunate to have a staff that embraced new teachers and gave them needed support, both intellectually and emotionally.    

As school leaders we have to be accountable for helping our beginning teachers succeed.  More than simply pairing them up with an experienced teacher to “help them when they need it”, we must implement a well-planned and purposeful induction program to ensure they have the support they need to be successful.   What are ways that this can happen?
•    Schedule regular meetings with new teachers to touch base, let them know they are supported, and to listen to their concerns.
•    Give “instruction” on school policies and procedures well in advance of the “event”.  ie: process for progress reports or report cards, parent or student-led conferences, testing protocol, etc.
•    Offer “mini-lessons” by experienced teachers to help them add to their instructional repertoire.
•    Provide them opportunities to visit the classrooms of dynamic experienced teachers.
•    Ensure mentor teachers understand the mentoring process and are capable of providing the needed support.

Other thoughts?  Please comment on what worked when you were a new teacher or activities in place at your school.

Posted by Patti Kinney at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Helping Those In Need....

 

I am for increased accountability in education.  I think it is guiding us in the right direction.  I see the value of state “super” tests and the magnitude they hold.  Is it perfect?  No, not by any stretch of the imagination.  The question that hits me is what are we trading off for this increased emphasis on accountability?

One of my goals as an educator is to teach our children to become productive members of society.  My main goal is to increase their achievement levels in all subject areas.  I also see the glaring need to guide them to appreciate the importance of giving back to society.  I show the students that no matter how little they may have they can impact the world.

Many of our students do not see community service first hand.  They are missing out on the rewarding experience of giving back.  As educators, I think we owe it to our kids and society to expose them to the world of community service.  I am not suggesting we require students to simply log 40 hours of service as a diploma requirement.  This is what happened to me in school and it did nothing of benefit in the long run.  We need to expose our children to exciting and engaging activities for the purpose of helping others, not fulfilling a requirement.

What can we do as educators to increase the involvement of our students?  What if the students do not have the means to give?  How do we find the time with the increased pressure to perform well on a test? 

What can we do to increase authentic involvement? 

If service learning is a requirement for graduation, the students will manage to complete the required number of hours.   I was a teacher and assistant principal in a high school for 6 years and we had 100% compliance.  I also suspect that many of the hours recorded were simply just recorded.  To engage our students, we need to offer a variety of ways for them to become involved.  The school also needs to place true importance on giving back.  If we offer a variety of choices that connect with students and place value on the projects, students will gravitate towards giving back.  If we simply assign projects the results will be vastly different.  If a student is not passionate about saving the ______, do not force him!  Let the students choose from a variety of issues.

What if they do not have the means to give back? 

I think this is the most important component.  I have worked at two schools and both have a high percentage of low SES children.  These are the kids I want to reach.  They need to know that giving back does not always mean writing a check.  I am sure organizations love just getting a check, but there is so much more that needs to be done.  In fact, most service learning projects are not about the money (at least not the student’s money!).  When students form a group with the goal of giving back there are many, many things that need to be done.  We need people to raise awareness for issues, contact government officials, visit those in need and so on.  Give each person a role and let them flourish.  Their own money is not necessary!

How do we find the time in our already crowded school day? 

School wide service learning projects are my favorite.  The majority of the work will be done before and after school, but we can use bits and pieces of the school day.  We have worked with The American Cancer Society over the last 6 years at both of the schools I have worked.  The Relay For Life is a great way to get our kids involved.  Student clubs can create their own ways to raise awareness and money for the ACS.  Individual classes can create ways to join the fight against cancer.  Some simply raise money and some become public advocates for the cause. Some students want to help but are extremely shy and/or have not been exposed to giving back to the community at home.  These kids can take a small role; stuffing envelopes, asking businesses for donations, helping set up for the car wash etc…  Through a little hard work a lot of dedication we have donated over $120,000 to the ACS over 7 years!

One of our students at the high school had been involved with the project for a few years.  She was very dedicated, much more than most people.  This past year she was the chair for the entire city’s Relay For Life.  Quite an accomplishment for a 17 year old!

We need to focus on creating global citizens.  If we plant a seed of giving back in each child, I think we are on the right path.  If we do not expose our students to the benefits of authentic community activism, they may miss out for good.  I have seen first hand what a bit of inspiration and persistence can do for our students.  Will it take time?  Sure.  Will it take planning?  Sure.  Is it worth it?  Ask all of the people and organizations that rely on us for support.  Even in the age of educational accountability, I think it is drastically important that we teach our kids the importance to give back.  Will it show up on our school report card?  No, but we will be making the world a better place.

Posted by Michael Waiksnis at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I’ve been thinking about a keynote I have to give at a conference next March – the theme will be “Sailing the White Water Years: Straight Jacket or Life Jacket”.  When I first saw this, a memory came flooding back – my first - and for a long time, only - experience with white water rafting.  While I won’t bore you with the details, I will say while it was not exactly a life-threatening experience, I was profoundly grateful for the lifejacket that kept me afloat when the raft and I parted company.

As middle level leaders, we are surrounded by turbulence on a regular basis – face it, it comes with job of being around young adolescents for most of the day!  And while sometimes they can make you crazy enough to need a straightjacket, it’s the life jacket that keeps us afloat and coming back day after day.  So, what’s your life jacket made of?  Here are a few of the materials in mine!

Humor – It’s a necessity when you’re around middle school students.  At times their honesty and candor (especially about a new haircut or new clothes) can be cutting unless you find the humor in it and are able to laugh at yourself.

Attitude – It took a while, but I finally learned the only thing I can really control is my response to a situation.  Keeping a positive outlook, despite the circumstances, makes all the difference in the world.

Friends – Having people in and out of the workplace that you can trust, confide in, and use as a source of feedback is essential to staying on top of all that you do.  

A Strong Network – No one quite understands your job like someone who’s doing it or has done it.  Developing a collegial network gives you people to ask when advice when needed or when you just want to be reassured you’re not the only one who has been in a particular situation.

A Life Outside of Work – Easier said than done.  Being a school leader can be so time consuming but to keep your sanity, you have to find time for things you enjoy that are not work-related – time with family, hobbies, exercise, etc.

Stay Healthy – Exercise, eat right, get enough, sleep, drink lots of water, etc.  The job is hard enough when you feel great, but on those days when you’re not feeling well, it’s more than exhausting.

Next time you feel like you're sinking, remember to use "your" lifejacket in order to stay afloat amid the rough waters of working with young adolescents.

Posted by Patti Kinney at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are unfamiliar with the website www.simpletruths.com, check it out!  The site hosts a series of inspirational videos that are at the same time heartwarming and thought-provoking.  While it is a business that sells the videos and accompanying books, you can watch the videos for no charge.

I’d been to the site many times in the past and had even used the videos in staff meetings to spark conversations about the work we were doing as a school.  I hadn’t visited it in a while until the other day when a friend emailed me about a new video on the site called “The Simple Truths of Service”.  It’s the story of Johnny, a young man with Downs Syndrome who works as a bagger at a grocery story.

Customer service is at the center of so much that we do as a leader.  Our actions and responses to the students, parents, and community that we serve have much to do with the reputation of our school.  An incident this summer brought this truth home to me.

When the mover packing up my belongings heard that I had been a principal, he shared this story.  He had originally thought that the principal of his son’s school was wonderful – kind, personable, caring – but then an incident happened that changed his mind and he no longer thought the principal was “very good”.  You see, the principal had allowed students to hold a car wash in front of the school and they used one of the handicapped parking spaces.  The mover’s wife was handicapped and when she came to pick up their son, she had to park elsewhere.  This was a small incident, yet he was now out in the community sharing that the principal of his son’s school didn’t care about handicapped people.

Small incident? Yes!  Fair conclusion? No!  Yet these types of things happen more frequently than we like.  Schools do so much good that goes unnoticed and yet many positive interactions can be wiped away with a single unpleasant experience. And sometimes we're not even aware that this has happened. 

How can a school improve customer relations?  Here are a few thoughts –

• Smile!  Even over the telephone, it makes a difference in the tone of your voice.
• Listen and empathize – A good neutral phrase to keep handy is “I’m sorry to hear that, I’ll look into the situation.”  While this doesn’t imply that you agree with the stated concerns, it does recognize the caller’s feelings and promises action – just don’t forget to get back to them once you’ve gathered the information and formulated a response!
• Ensure a timely response – Whenever possible, try to return calls by the end of the day, or at least within 24 hours.  Maybe it’s just a quick call to say the concern hadn’t been forgotten and is still being examined, but even that assures the caller the issue was important.
• Be pro-active.  What are you doing to get the message out to your school community that says “we care about your children”?  Here’s an idea to try – In a central location, place a box of post cards along with mailing labels for all students.  Challenge the staff to send a positive note to the parents of every child in the school within a two or three week period.
• Give advance notice – Have you clearly communicated school polices and procedures with the parents of your students?  Are there multiple ways parents can access this information?  In discipline issues that deal with violations of rules/policies, prior notification of those standards are critical.

These are a few very simple suggestions for a complex issue and it’s important to remember that customer service is the responsibility of every person within the school – not just the principal.  But as the video of Johnny illustrates, one person’s attitude can impact the whole culture of a workplace.  What are you doing at your school to improve customer service?  Please share!

Posted by Patti Kinney at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Developing Educational Leaders

Posted by Michael Waiksnis at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been using an article by McTighe and O'Connor on Seven Practices for Assessment with teachers of middle grade students.   The article is fantastic and comes from Educational Leadership.  The eye-opener for me is to find out how many teachers are not designing Summative Assessments before they begin a unit of instruction.  Summative Assessments that are authentic, require analysis, synthesis and evaluation thinking.  This revelation is making me wonder about teacher preparation and what we expect as principals.

One strategy I am advocating for all principals is to ask for the summative assessment before a teacher starts the unit of instruction and to determine if the summative assessment meets the criteria for national standards, state standards and higher order thinking.  After reviewing many Summative assessments the principal may decide what strategy to take for professional development on assessments.

Posted by Steve Hoelscher at 06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 

I previously wrote an article on state assessments and how they compare to national standardized assessments.  You can read, "Where is Your Bar" here.  I will refrain from saying the same thing in my previous post.

However, I found a spiffy gadget to get a quick look at how each state's assessment stacks up.  You can roll over a map of the U.S and see how each state compares to a national tests.

 I found this one at the Practical Principals.  Pretty practical!

Posted by Michael Waiksnis at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In fourth grade, I was Pocahontas in a classroom play.  That memory came flooding back to me the other day as I wandered around the Jamestown area and was reminded of the early history of our country.  The familiar stories of John Smith and Pocahontas were there, but so were the stories and graves of the lesser known colonists – those who had the courage to give up all that was familiar, put their lives at risk, and venture to this new world.

Seeing all this, caused me to think of the courage involved in being a middle level leader.  While we don't generally put our lives on the line when we go to work in the morning, it does, never-the-less, take a special type of courage to do what we do.  I love the Albert Schweitzer quote, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others.  It is the only thing.”  As leaders, the main thing is not what we say but what we do – and living out our convictions takes courage.

Courage is visible when we advocate keeping the basics of middle level philosophy in place at our school despite pressure to give it up for the sake of “the test” and it’s visible when we confront a fellow educator whose actions are not in the best interests of students.  Courage is necessary to back up a teacher when faced with an angry parent (assuming of course that the teacher’s actions were above reproach) and it’s necessary when meting out consequences to the school board chair’s child in a disciplinary situation.  It takes courage to walk into a staff meeting and lead the staff in a discussion of a less than popular topic or to stand up in front of the group and ask forgiveness for a mistake that you’d made.

Don’t take your acts of courage for granted.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all that the word courage comes from the French word couer meaning heart, because at the center of every high-performing middle level school beats the heart of a courageous leader!  What acts of courage will you perform today?

Posted by Patti Kinney at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)