Archive for the ‘Productivity’ Category

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Getting Parents on Board with the Common Core

June 10th, 2013 by Sheila Grady

Parent teacher collaboration

When it comes to implementing the Common Core State Standards, we have much to do, not the least of which is parent education.  Parent newsletters are one obvious avenue for getting the message out.  Here are some topics and ideas that can help you get a head start on next fall’s newsletters.  Principals, you are welcome to cut and paste and, of course, contribute your own “open source” musings in the comments!

 21st Century Learning

Things are clearly different in our 2013 world, and school is one of those things!  The model of schooling that most of us experienced was established in the 19th century and fine-tuned in the 20th century to develop a citizen workforce for the Industrial Revolution.  In many ways, the schooling we adults received was based on an assembly line model.  As we educate your children, we are not preparing them to work in a factory.  The skills they will need in the workforce will be a “blend of content knowledge, specific skills, expertise and literacies”.   (Source: Partnership for 21st Century Skills.)

Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity

The new basics are critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity.  In fact, at our school, we add a fifth “C” to this: conservation.   Let’s review what these skills are and think about how we may already see them being developed in our school.

  • Critical Thinking requires one to reason effectively, solve problems, make judgments and decisions.  We scaffold our students’ opportunities to think critically and provide a foundation upon which to base their thinking.  (Hint – our “Character Counts” program) 
  • Collaboration is the ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams, to be flexible and able to compromise, to assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and to value the individual contributions of each team member.    (Hint – Parent-Teacher Committees, Fundraising Drives)
  • Communication is the ability to express ideas clearly in a variety of ways—written, spoken, drawn, built, acted out—and to receive ideas from others by effective listening, watching, and questioning.  (Hint – Reading and Writing for sure, but also Art, Music, Tech)
  • Creativity not only means having new ideas.  It is the ability to elaborate or refine  the ideas of others and to be open to new ideas and possibilities.  (Hint – PTA Meetings, Science Night)
  • Conservation means that our students will take individual and collective action towards addressing environmental challenges.  (Hint – our school Green Team!)

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Posted in Models, Productivity | No Comments »

“The Delegation”

November 30th, 2012 by Skip Johnson

Students of El Crystal Elementary SchoolFacing incipient school closure

Last April I found out late on a Friday evening that my school had been unexpectedly listed in a San Bruno Park School District governing board agenda for closure at the end of the 11/12 school year. Up to that point only one other school had been recommended for closure by a consultant firm hired by the district. To say the least, there was a strong reaction from our school community. At the next board meeting dozens of parents and students lambasted the board and district administration. The final vote was 5-0 to not close any school in the upcoming year. However, knowing that with the the state and federal budget crisis, the potential failure of Proposition 30, and the uncertain success of a district sponsored parcel tax (it did not pass on November 5), as a school community we knew that we had to do something to fend off closure for the 13/14 year.

For the last couple of years, the former PTA president had wanted to establish our school, El Crystal, as a charter school. We looked at the district policy but quickly decided that none of us had the time to invest in that endeavor. However, with closure on the near horizon, Vince (the former PTA President) and I sought school and community members to create a mini-task force to discuss and consider other alternatives. By June of 2012 we had a group of between ten and twelve regular participants that met every other Thursday over the summer to strategize a plan. Eventually, we settled on becoming a Magnet School for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Our site has been designated by the district as a Demonstration School for the Integration of Curriculum and Technology for the last four years, so this move seemed logical. The staff had considered this notion during the school year, so it met with their overwhelming support.

Creating a proposal

We created our Magnet School Proposal throughout the summer. Just before school began, four members of what the district soon labelled “the delegation” met with the superintendent and one board member to present our proposal. The delegation was asked to come back with answers to a number of questions posed during the meeting. The district asked that I as principal, should serve as the liaison to the parent group. We met one more time to offer our responses. Our proposal was put on the board agenda in October as a presentation item. The board voted to place our proposal as an action item for the upcoming November 14 board meeting.

Whether or not our proposal gains the needed wind to take flight is in the hands of the governing board. But what I want to share is the extraordinary relationships that were established within the parent group known as the delegation.  Ten regular participants composed the group:

  • Parent and former PTA President who is a property manager
  •  A nurse
  •  A real estate broker
  •  An architect from the community
  •  Manager of a major department store
  •  Director at a bio-medical company
  •  Self-employed illustrator and author
  •  A former parent and community activist
  •  Director of fundraising at a public television station in San Francisco
  •  Webmaster for a non-profit organization

A model of collaboration

I have been an administrator in public schools for almost 25 years. I have facilitated, met with, and participated in numerous parent groups including PTA, ELAC, School Site Councils, and special committees designated by the governing board. Those meetings are usually agendized, focused on support for a specific school or school system, and driven by interest or protocol. Folks can participate or just ‘sit on their hands’ and let others do the talking and decision-making.

The delegation turned out to be a much more intense, personal, and gratifying experience. The participants were open-minded, candid, task-driven, solution-oriented, focused, and respectful to the perspectives brought by each member. The STEM idea was offered by Vince and myself. The group took this notion as a great idea, did research away from the meeting, brought their individual experiences and perspectives into the discussions, read everything given to them, and asked driving and well-thought out questions.  In other words, they were the ideal collaborative group. They were a model for what any teacher would want to see students achieve at any level in any classroom learning any subject.

Invest time with parents in open-ended problem-solving

I said at a recent conference that every principal should figure out a way to invest time regularly with a group of parents and an open-ended problem to solve. From this experience I gained insight to how parents perceive my behavior as an individual and administrator, how they perceive the goals of our school, how they perceive classroom activities, and how they perceive the intended culture of the school. If you asked folks to give you this insight straight up, you would receive nothing. In many ways, these participants were the faces behind the survey questions you send out about your school. I learned that some people perceive me as sometimes too frank and honest, that I could be more tactful, and that there was tremendous respect for how we care for the students in our charge especially with the technology we offer throughout the curriculum. In the final analysis, I learned that collaboration is an essential condition at all levels if any system if it is going to function at its maximum.

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Posted in Leadership, Models, Productivity | 6 Comments »

Tech No Substitute for Thought and Preparation

August 19th, 2012 by Jack Jarvis

Chalkboard with "unprepared" with X on "un"Last winter, tired of the abuse I was always heaping on it, my bad knee finally gave up on me.   An old football injury necessitated a total knee replacement.  Given the circumstances and timing, I volunteered to return to the classroom, as there was no guarantee I would recover enough to continue as principal.  So for now, my next career stop will be 4th Grade position in our district.

How do I feel about this prospect?  Perhaps a dream I had in June is indicative: I awoke to realize I was not, thankfully, being set on fire by a bunch of 4th graders.  Perhaps the phrase “complete, abject terror” does not put too fine a point on it.  How was I going to do all that prep?  And determine the routines?  And?  And?  And?

Fortunately, given my TICAL membership, I supposedly have some knowledge of tech integration, and in fact, I do.  I started drawing on it last month by digging into tech resources I might use in my new role.  Suffice it to say, what a vast cornucopia of resources to chose from—all ready for delivery via my laptop and projector.  I mean, I already had a good idea what was available, but boy, oh boy!  We have come a long way.

For example, there is the Pearson enVision math series that includes the whole book online, electronic manipulatives and tools that nicely eliminate any drawing by hand (a boon for me, since my drawing skills leave much to be desired).  In addition, each topic comes with movies that speak to the students in the language they prefer: cool visuals and sounds, to say nothing of the clarity, or the lack of wait time while the teacher is drawing out an example.

We also have Houghton-Mifflin’s Medallion reading series, which we have had going on ten years now. The first adoption year was 2002-2003, when few if any teachers taught with their computers.  Back then we scanned and processed the text so we could do a better job of teaching reading comprehension. Now everything is already there, making it much easier to present clear conceptual knowledge.

Then there is Brain Pop. I had not spent much time on this website, but am I glad it’s here. Since my district subscribes to it, I have access to a plethora of ready-made lessons complete with activities and assessments. I can’t begin to express how much work this will save me.

Add to all this the nifty little iPad app Splashtop, and I am able to use my iPod as a remote controller and present from the back of the room, allowing me to better monitor student attention levels and also annotate on the fly. Now if I can just buy the right stylus.

Of course there is one caveat to all this bounty.  In the old days we pulled out our teacher’s edition, turned to page 63, and explained the exercises to the students.  That scenario didn’t take a lot of brain power, especially when the teacher’s guide was designed to be “teacher-proof.”  You would think that all this great tech stuff I mentioned would make teaching even easier.  Not so!  If you want your students truly to learn, not to mention perform well at test time, you still need to seriously prepare for every lesson.   You need to work through and understand all those movies and apps and simulations in order to ensure you are using them with your students effectively and comprehensively.

Regardless of what some people may think these days, a well-prepared teacher is even more necessary in the age of technology, and will be for many years to come. At the same time, it’s sure great to have most of the construction work done for you.  It allows you to put more thought into what you’re doing rather than spending hours creating materials.  I still have lots of work to do between now and the first day of school, but my chore will be to become fluent in the new tools, not create them using PowerPoints and other apps.

I’ll let you know how it goes—now that my old and new knees have stopped knocking together.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Integration, Models, Productivity, Professional development | 1 Comment »

Gaining Perspective with LinkedIn

July 24th, 2012 by Lisa Marie Gonzales

Charlie Rose interviews LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner.

I’ll admit it. I’m a LinkedIn convert.

As of this summer, my time spent on LinkedIn has surpassed my use of Facebook. My colleagues would be proud but, until now, I haven’t come out of the closet to share my newfound interest.

Yes, I am one of those who joined LinkedIn years ago, as did my non-techie husband (he was member number 1,060 but the first 1,000 were Beta and according to him “didn’t really count”).  I never really saw the application in education until this summer when I spent a little time with a true LinkedIn believer who just happens to be one of the company’s vice presidents.

Before, when asked by colleagues in education, “Should I join LinkedIn?” my response was consistent: “It doesn’t hurt but it’s really designed for use in the non-education, business world.”

Shows what little I knew.

Robust World of Discussions

A robust world of discussions from education leaders all over the country exists in “groups” on LinkedIn, with the periodic international educator jumping in with a global perspective that often makes me sit back and think a little deeper.   Take, for example, the group established by the American Association of School Administrators.  The 6,000 members in its LinkedIn group have been exploring conversations about reform efforts like K-12 grouping structures, recommended professional reads for professional learning communities, and incentives for behavior programs. I spent this morning joining in the discussion about K-12 multi-age groupings, and within an hour had taken the conversation offline and now have research and three PowerPoint presentations from different leaders in the conversation on how they implemented multi-age classrooms, plus longitudinal data on its impact.

ASCD has another rich conversation network, thanks to its 3,700-member group.  Looking for a resource?  Perhaps 7-12th grade student-centered math projects?  This is a great place to ask for help as the breadth of members allows for a broader perspective and analysis of resources and best practices that we might not be as familiar with here in California.

One of my favorites is the Technology Integration in Education group, now close to 16,000 members strong. The discussions progress quickly, though you do have to sort through those initiated by vendors. I have a tech presentation I was asked to present to our countywide Library Camp next month. While I know what tech tools and web resources may be valuable for teachers and administrators, I struggled with the newly changing librarian perspective.  Two days after my query in this group, I had enough resources to double the length of my presentation.

Customized Suggestions

This morning I made the mistake of clicking on “Groups You Might Like.”  Thanks to its analytical tools, LinkedIn has figured out my preferences, dislikes, and what I most desire for dinner tonight. I selected a few more groups than I think I can handle monitoring on a regular basis, including the 5,300 member strong STEM Connections for K-12 Education (can I get them to consider adding the “A” to STEM for the arts?). Not surprising that 57 of my LinkedIn friends, known as “connections,” are already members of this group. Great minds think alike. Or maybe I have too many connections.  The International Society for Technology in Education was my second choice. It’s got close to 17,000 members!  I am confident I will have more to share with TICAL colleagues and other tech leaders after a little time in this group.

CUE, Inc. has a group on LinkedIn (thanks to Mike Lawrence who clearly realized the value of LinkedIn before I did). So does ACSA, but its moving much more slowly than others. We’ll see what we can do about that.

Jobs, too!

I guess it would be irresponsible for me not to also share that LinkedIn is great for networking to find jobs all over the country. The more information you put in your profile, including links to Slideshare presentations, articles published and volunteer work, the more views  your profile will have and the more connections you can make. And you never know when you might need a contact in El Paso, Texas.

I’ll stalk you, er, I mean “see” you on LinkedIn!

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Posted in General, Productivity, Professional development | 4 Comments »

How Social Media is Changing School Business

February 20th, 2012 by Devin Vodicka

Technology is impacting international diplomacy.  Under Hillary Clinton’s leadership, the U.S. Department of State is embracing 21st Century Statecraft, which it defines as “The complementing of traditional foreign policy tools with newly innovated and adapted instruments of statecraft that fully leverage the networks, technologies, and demographics of our interconnected world.”  In Secretary Clinton’s own words,

“We’re working to leverage the power and potential in what I call 21st century statecraft. Part of our approach is to embrace new tools, like using cell phones for mobile banking or to monitor elections. But we’re also reaching to the people behind these tools, the innovators and entrepreneurs themselves.”

Interestingly, the Secretary’s comments reflect changes that we also see in local politics and leadership for school districts.  Like many school districts, Carlsbad Unified is facing significant financial challenges due to ongoing revenue reductions.  As a result, our district has been forced to make difficult decisions regarding layoffs, the elimination of programs, bargaining concessions with employee groups, and other expenditure reductions.  Each of these decisions at a local level is inherently political. In the process, our school board faces genuine and legitimate pressure from numerous constituents, all of  whom have strong feelings about protecting services that they feel have the strongest impact on students, families, and the community.

If international policy is now shaped by “using social media and the Internet in combination with more traditional … tools,” what does this imply for leaders at the local level?  First and foremost, I believe that educational leaders must recognize that the impact of social media is a significant factor in shaping perceptions and beliefs.  2011 research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that 65% of adults are now active on social networking sites.  In addition, the research found that even controlling for demographic factors such as age and education, social network users “were more likely to be politically involved than similar Americans.”

Once we as school leaders recognize this reality, the first step is to become engaged in the social networks as a contributor.  In our district, we have been using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Blogger as platforms to share good news and to help us respond in crisis situations.  More recently, I started a blog to share business services updates, most of which focus on our current financial challenges.  Information posted to the blog is then fed into our district website, shared through the district Facebook page, and linked in a Twitter update.  These multiple avenues allow others to re-tweet, share the Facebook update, subscribe to the blog, or embed elements in their own websites.

The “viral” effect has been amazing.  Here is a screenshot of data from some uploads to the blog.  Given that we have around 11,000 students in our district, the number of times these documents have been viewed shows that there is a high level of interest from the community in these topics.

The benefits of getting accurate, timely information out to the community are tremendous in terms of ensuring a common base of knowledge.  While our challenges are still monumental, and virtually every possible option for cutting expenses remains controversial, I believe that our process of seeking financial balance would be significantly more difficult if we were not using these social media outlets to help with communications.

My strong opinion, based on these recent experiences, is that school leaders at every level should be determining the best ways to leverage social media and social networks to enhance communications and effectiveness.  If we don’t make a presence in this virtual arena, our absence will indicate a lack of engagement and diminish the relevance of our efforts.  If we truly want schools that prepare students for success in this digital age, we as leaders need to model the way.

For leaders interested in learning more about using social media in schools, I recommend the following resources:

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Financial Planning, Leadership, Models, Productivity | No Comments »

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