LeaderTalk

Not My First Rodeo

After about a decade of being an instructional technology advocate from central office/state dept/university levels, I'm a year-and-a-half into my new career twist:  school-based leadership.

One thing I bring to the new job focus is the old job skillset.  So, when it was time for our school to write our new school improvement plan...what better way then to leverage some of the tools I've learned  along the way?

We started with a wiki to gather the brainstorms of the various teams, departments, individuals, etc in the school.  Though most on staff had never used one before, I would say the majority chimed in. 

I started the process by not typing the names of  everyone on the leadership team.  Instead,  I invited team members to type their own.  This small step marked the beginning of the culture shift of empowerment on this project.  From there, each leadership team member took the wiki, process, and ease-of-use messages to their respective teams.  The result was broad brush participation and input truly representative of the many, not the elect.

A neat feature of the wiki is the history.  For instance, the goal about Globally Competitive Students had 59 iterations. The evolution is documented by these arbitrary selections from the history:

• Infancy (Nov 10)
• Growth (Nov 18)
• Maturity (Nov 25)

We refined some of our brainstormed data through polls and surveys.  I used PollDaddy, housed on my wordpress blog to narrow our...

• Beliefs about Students
• Beliefs about School Community
• Professional Beliefs
• Teacher Working Conditions update
  

The neat thing with the polls and surveys was the quick turnaround.  We were able to publish the results immediately.  This lent credibility to the process.

Now we are in the process of transferring much of the raw information from the wiki, polls, and surveys into the template.  We are finding that the hard work is done.  And we will be to the point of wordsmithing just after the holidays. 

The result of using these tools was significant.  What we put in the plan truly represents the whole school, not just the leadership or leadership team.  This creates ownership.

In other turns in my career, I have been a voice (just one of many in the wilderness) to advocate such tools and models of work from the perspective of central administration.  And I have used the tools and processes before in the development of district and state-level plans. But the participation was always marginal and often felt contrived.

Using blogs, wikis, and poll/survey apps for an authentic purpose within the context of a school is an entirely different feel.  The tools, used correctly, definitely reflect a WE environment. 

WE are Newport Elementary School and this will become OUR school improvement plan.

Monument to Self

What is the dream job office? What does it look like?

Usually it is a corner office with a window or two.  Ample room.  Shelves of books that mark eras of educational trends.  Family pictures, triumphant memories.  Nice office furniture.  Perhaps a plant and some objects of art.  A focal wall adorned with degrees, recognitions and other monuments to self. 

And so it was with hope that I checked into my new assignment as an assistant principal of an elementary school, student population 815.  A new building, including admin wing, had just been completed on the campus.  And central services appointed two new administrators to lead a school that had missed AYP with the same sub-group two years running.

I met my new counterpart Beth in the new admin wing three weeks prior to the start of school.  Between us, we have over 55 years of public education experience---mostly at the secondary level.  She was coming from one of the highest performing high schools in the state.  I was coming from the largest high school in our system.  We have known each other for over eight years.  We have worked on projects and committees over time. 

As we began our first tour of our new digs, Beth pointed out the spacious, windowed office marked "Principal."  Then she showed me the adjacent windowed office marked "Assistant Principal."  After seven years in various admin cubicles, I could only think "Let there be light!"

And enlightenment there was . . .

"What do you think," she said, "about putting the two long conference tables in the 'principal's' office?  Then I could move into the 'AP' office.  You can have the office marked 'book' across from me."

I was a little unsure at first, but I thought about how the rooms would be used.  I knew she and I would not be slaves to our desks.  And I knew we had a staff of over 120 that we would have to get to know and lead in a hurry.

So we moved the tables into the room and adjoined them lengthwise.  Then we brought in thirteen chairs to surround the tables.  We fixed two dry-erase whiteboards side-by-side along one wall.  We brought in a data projector and a snack table.

Then the meetings began.  We met with site-based leadership twice in the first two weeks.  We met with the EC teachers, then the PE teachers, then Title 1.  We met with each grade level team.  We met with the parent advisory team, the crisis management team, the traffic flow committee, the specials team.  We met with bus drivers and constituents from the middle school.  We met with custodians.  We met with folks from central services.

We met with site-based leadership again . . .and again.

And from these meetings pure gold began to be spun.  A school community energized itself with the buzz of participatory and distributed governance.  The anthem became an echo: 

Everybody makes growth. Data is your friend. Everyone is positive, focused and directed. Communication with all stakeholders is key. Look forward.

The meetings have continued and are happening in many locations around the campus.  Our greatest moments are the weekly grade level meetings that last about an hour during common planning time and focus on curriculum and instruction.  Beth and I stay informed.  We direct, we respond, and we connect dots.

We have little need for the Monday afternoon faculty meeting, and there is no line of teachers waiting at our doors.

There's a dream office to a dream job in Newport, NC.  Unlike many offices, it's a monument to a learning community that is on track.  It represents the power of many, where voices are not only heard---but also honored and valued.

Rather than being a monument to self, it is a reflection of leadership vision and style that is paying early dividends of community involvement, professional trust and teamwork, and educational gold for students and staff.

That means everyone...including the cafeteria staff.  Oops!  How could we have overlooked the fine and industrious ladies who run the busiest lunch spot in our county?  They will be coming in very soon . . .Friday at 10:00 to be exact.

It's simply a matter of trust.

 

It'd Be a Lie to Say . . .

. . . that drop-out reports don't increase the alarm and rhetoric about the "drop-out problem" as we lurch further into this political season.

I cringe every time a new monthly drop-out report finds its way to my desk. The names, some of which I associate with faces, leap from the pages like ghosts from the past.

One of the recent strategies we have implemented is the exit interview for those students (and their parents) wishing to cut ties early with our high school.

I learn good information during these conversations: Too much girl drama going on...classes start too early...my kid doesn't work well in a rules-based system...he hates this place...she's bored...father's an alcoholic...mom didn't finish high school either...junior's gotta work to cover his car insurance...we can't get him outta bed in the morning...

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Yesterday afternoon, I had to get out of my office.

So after we loaded and rolled the afternoon buses, I strolled out to the back 40 where our spring sports teams are in the early stages of practice. The shot putters where heaving heavy shot. The pole vaulters rehearsed their approach techniques. The sprinters and hurdlers ran sets.

JV and varsity girls soccer players braced against the wind to hear the coach's instructions. JV and varsity softball players worked through conditioning and batting cage drills. JV and varsity baseballers took batting practice.

In the student parking lot, the NJROTC counted drills in precise cadence. The rappers and rockers emerged from the auditorium after yet another rehearsal for the pending talent show.

In the distance, the rat-a-tat-tat of the percussion ensemble rolled like gentle thunder.

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Getting out of my office for an afternoon walk is invigorating and yields great rewards. I get to see all the talent and potential in full bloom on our campus---even well after the school's academic hours have concluded.

The students I see have connected with teams. Their connections keep their days ever more productive; their relationships, ever stronger. They are participating in life in real-time, real-space.

They are not sitting in isolation, plugged into laptop monitors, thumbing numbing text messages to their friends, swinging Wii wands, or stupefied in front of TV screens. Their formative years extend un-virtualized in specialized environments marked by boundary lines, supervised by adults, and governed by rules. Their sweat, pain, chills and thrills are in direct response to their efforts and energies in organized sports, clubs and activities.

I salute the thirteen coaches/leaders who orchestrate these late-winter, late-afternoon opportunities on our sprawling campus.

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I switch back to the names on the drop-out roster. Where are those young people this afternoon? Are their lives so much the better outside of the system they vehemently detest? What teams are they now on and who are their teammates? What leaders are they following?

Tomorrow, I will once again hear the news reports of how American high schools are not adequately serving the drop-out population. With all the options and opportunities we already have on our campus every season of the school year, I can not help but think it is not exclusively the school that has failed these students.

It would be a lie to say that effective schools don't offer a wide variety of opportunities and options that can keep students connected to life-long learning.

In an ideal world, every student would come to high school prepared with the support, attitudes, habits, values, and competencies that promote curricular, extra-curricular, and ultimately real-world success.

In the real world, our goal in public education is to help those that do and those that don't.

It would be a lie to say that all of those personal assets and attributes are only developed and shaped inside the school walls.

Consumer-Driven Markets

"Subterfuge", a companion piece to this, is at Haulin' 'Net . . .

Unfamiliar discount real estate signs are hitting a little too close to home --- a coastal NC geographical area which experienced a steep real estate run-up over the last seven years.



According to an analysis by Bill Hitchcock of Hitchcock Realty (10 min 35 sec .wmv), Carteret County is somewhat following the national flatline or decline of real estate valuations and soaring real estate inventories. This area currently has a 36-month supply of houses on the market, and the development projects continue unabated.  Qualified consumers of housing have the advantage in this buyer's market.
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The recent Business Week Online audiocast "YouthQuake" (12 min 23 sec .mp3)  analyzes another market---Generation Y voters---and their potential effect on the pending presidential election.

• There are 43 million potential voters between the ages of 18-29.  They are called Millennials or Generation Y.
• They are the hyper-connected, "You Tube disaffected."
• The economics that underpin Gen Y are significant.  These "children of the rising Dow" now face the following challenges and uncertainties:
  • The average student loan debt is $20K, not to mention credit card debt.
  • Out-of-reach housing
  • Shift of retirement burden to the individual
  • Global discount labor bazaar
  • Sky-rocketing cost of health care
• Gen Y's are post-partisan, transcenders, Third Way---- They brought media and recording industries to their knees; they are often outliers who prefer outsiders.
• In terms of political affiliation, most Gen Y's are independents, then Democrats, then Republicans.
• Obama was first to understand and cater a message (You Tube video) to this demographic.  Others followed suit.

Generation Y wants to upgrade "the system."  Politicians know Generation Y is a hot commodity that could influence the election.  At the risk of pandering, presidential hopefuls are actively pursuing these qualified political consumers.
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From the Director's Desk (North Carolina Virtual Public School, 1/18/08):

Enrollment - NCVPS has now shattered the 6,287 student mark with 169 sections going live on 1/22/08. NCVPS has surpassed the Fall 2007 enrollment as well. Thanks to all of the LEAs for helping us achieve these benchmarks.

That's right, after a shaky start, NCVPS is actually bucking the trend and showing positive enrollment figures.  It has clearly tapped into a market of qualified consumers for 24/7 education.  Barring the unforeseen, its market share will continue to rise simply on the basis of relevance.

What do the markets of housing, voters and education have in common?  Consumers are driving the set of options in the new world order.  Vendors, politicians, schools, and all service providers flexible enough to adjust to market demands will thrive.

More on the markets of Indian Tea and Mozilla Firefox in "Subterfuge", a companion piece to this at Haulin' 'Net . . .

Sign Man, Cone Man and Gate Man

Reflecting on my first five months as a high school administrator, I don’t think much about the tedium of updating the message on the marquee or moving the traffic pylons or locking the side gate to the student parking lot. Instead, I think most about people.

Whether running the floor in the student/faculty basketball game or jamming with a group of teacher musicians and singers or leading some of our new teachers in modified lesson study, I have felt a part and felt the power of time and space associations that are a natural consequence of a large high school community.

But I want to relate three particular associations which I will think about every day during this two-week hiatus.

Our school has an occupational program for a small group of exceptional students. The students in this program have profound challenges due to circumstances of birth. Most do not receive grades, and most struggle with motor skills. Their language skills, IQ, and EQ are limited. For the most part, they live and work daily in a self-contained environment with two teachers and several teacher assistants.

Though just as much a part of our learning community as anyone else, these students are often the most invisible.

I learned early that one of the students was a pretty good speller. I took a shot and groomed him to update the marquee on a daily basis. He does a good job with it and is now a regular in the front office each morning to fulfill his job responsibility.

Another student stepped up to move the traffic pylons after each morning’s traffic sequence. He is autonomous. In fact, on a recent field trip to the community college campus, he took it upon himself to move their “cones.”

The third fellow has the responsibility of locking the side gate. This has been a project. We are on the third week of working together on this. We are seeing improvement, and I hope for him soon to achieve independence on the project.

I take time out (maybe 20 mins.) each morning to work with these three young men. I get to slow down before the typical onslaught of demands in a high school day. And the unintended consequences have been significant:

• These students are seen more in and around school.
• They are working on tasks and responsibilities that will be similar to some jobs they may hold.
• They have happened by my office during conversations with heated parents and/or dramatic students. Their mere momentary presence changed the tenor of some very difficult conversations.
• They have achieved endearing nicknames---Sign Man, Cone Man and Gate Man---among their classmates and teachers.

Although they have extreme personal life challenges, they tend not to get into trouble or get caught up in the usual teenage drama. 

As a high school assistant principal, I deal with enough students during the day who are caught up in some trouble of their own “normal” teenage devices.  I can’t help but think that Sign Man, Cone Man and Gate Man---in their own ways---are among the most blessed in our school community.

Down-home Christmas Time

Listening to the radio, concerts, and personal music collections this time of year, I am reminded that Christmas time has inspired much great music . . . perhaps second only to the topic of love, which is by no means coincidental.

As a way of saying Merry Christmas—and for your listening pleasure—here is Carol of the Bells performed by the West Carteret High School Student Singers.

And some Bonus Tracks  from the Patriot Down-home Singers (rehearsing in D-Hall below) —-

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

Silent Night

Such are among the gifts of the American public high school experience!

Allow Them to Falter

I am 35 days into my new job as a school-based administrator, but who's counting?

I am energized to be back in a school environment, and everyday brings new and unexpected triumphs and tragedies.  We've had about a third of our students make the honor roll, and many of our sports teams are winning.  The talents of the teachers and students in our cultural arts programs continue to amaze!

My best new friends are some very exceptional kids who update the school marquee on a daily basis.

Day-to-day, I can't help but notice the parents.  Not all parents, just some.

• I'm talking about the ones who hover over every move their high school children make. 

• I'm talking about the ones who go to the wall defending their kids when they have made blatant and grave errors in judgment.

• I'm talking about the ones who verbally abuse coaches because their kids don't get enough playing time.

• I'm talking about the ones who demand the schoolyard tough guy be banned from the school community for life because he displays the characteristics of every school shooter and endangers the entire school population.

• I'm talking about the ones who insist, "It wasn't cheating; it was cooperative learning."

These parents mean well and love their kids.  The problem is they may be loving them too much.   It may be better for them to let the students falter sometimes in school so they are better prepared to deal with adversity in real life.

The over-protective parent, who means well, can create a child that becomes dependent for life.  Is it a future-prospect stretch to imagine a helicopter parent barging into the supervisor's office because Little Johnny has been denied a promotion in the workplace? 

Hara Estroff Marano published “Nation of Wimps” (Psychology Today, 2004) and cranked up her own website to cover the phenomenon of “helicopter parents.”  I wrote about it in four entries this summer prior to my switch from central services to school-based administration. 

• Spreading the Psychic Fault Lines of 21C Youth
• Nation of Wimps, II
• Nation of Wimps, III
• Nation of Wimps, IV

Now 35 days in at a wonderful high school, I am living it up-close and personal. But who's counting?

The Power of the Peloton

It's 5:30 a.m. on Saturday.  While my household slumbers, I'm gearing up for my Saturday morning bike.  Anywhere from six to ten of us will meet at  daybreak and pedal our bikes for forty to seventy miles depending on circumstances.

Once the group gets rolling, we take turns out front.  The work is harder there as you cut into the wind.  However, you create a wind shield for the followers in the pack.  After you do your share of work, you drop to the rear and let the next cyclist in line pull . . . and so on.

Different riders have different strengths.  We have sprinters, climbers, distance specialists, guys good into the wind, and guys good with the wind.  We have mechanical gurus, and folks who always carry extra supplies.  We try to capitalize on individual strengths for the betterment of the group.  This process is facilitated via communication, often hand signals.

We look out for each other's welfare.  When needed, we share resources  (tubes, air, nutrition bars, water, encouragement, etc.). 

We share experience and common cause.

This from Knowmoremedia.com:

One thing that fascinates me is the power of the peloton. If the peloton organizes itself, they will almost invariably catch the breakaway riders. The peloton is just too strong. Surely there is little more disheartening to a breakaway rider than to look over his shoulder and see the massive peloton charging up his back.

I believe a blog network possesses a power similar to the power of the peloton; that is, the strength of numbers unified towards a single goal. One blog in a network of unified blogs benefits from the plentiful interlinking and interconnectivity between all of the blogs and bloggers in the network. The combined force of the network helps propel the blog to higher heights than if it were struggling on its own.

Now, further extend this peloton metaphor to your school unit or central services unit.  To what extent is it characterized as a tightly held together pack working in unison to capitalize on individual strengths?

How do you encourage the breakaways but keep them reigned in enough so they don't burn out or run off course?  To what degree can you keep pulling along the duds before they become like leaden anchors? 

How do you get the fiercely independent into the same race---or even the same sport---as the rest of the team?

It's Saturday morning and I'm off to join the peloton . . . a ritualistic highlight of my week.

Postscript at Haulin' 'Net.

From Central Office to School Admin

I’ve been trying to get back into schools for two years. Finally, the stars have aligned. I’m heading out of media/tech admin at the central office and back into school-life. I will be assistant principal at West Carteret High School.

I still have county oversight with athletics and distance learning. On the political side, I will see through this year’s substantial local $$ for technology infusion.

I’ve been wrestling with this move for a while. Part of me is excited, but I’ve got some serious butterflies. My goal is to keep sharing my worldview on education at Haulin’ ‘Net. I’m realistic that all that may get dashed soon after the late night ball games, etc take hold. But I hope not.

I left West Carteret as an instructional technology facilitator a decade ago. I have been fortunate to have had a variety of rich leadership experiences during that time. My six years as Director of Media and Technology have been eventful and rewarding. As a department, we are in real good shape. This year will be busy as we deploy and integrate a lot of assets. I look forward to hearing about the great things ahead in Media and Technology.

My replacement, who had been instructional technology facilitator at Croatan HS, is coming in to lead media and tech on a part-time basis. I am working with her on the plans, processes, evaluations, budgets, etc. we have in place for this year.

Trust me, this system is gaining with the new leader at the department helm. She was a county teacher of the year, so instruction is first with her. She is very intelligent, speaks well, writes well, presents well, is politically astute, is a numbers guru and comes from the Career and Tech Ed (VoTech) camp. She is a positive people person and a team player.

I have locked in a deal with County Gov to fund tech at certain levels for the next five years. So she won’t have to spend enormous time and energy in the political morass.

As for me, I want to get back to the uniqueness of school life. After ten years away, I look forward to dealing with the unique energy of high school students. I want to see 1250 unique student faces every day. I want to help them handle their unique challenges. I want to be amazed by their unique wonder.

And the WCHS staff? I look forward to working with them again. I look forward to learning with them. I look forward to supporting them . . . and with their support, I look forward to US making WCHS the best 21C school it can be.

Leaving media and technology during these times of rapid change is not easy. Here is one of the quotes that gives me perspective at this time—”Don’t lament that it is over; rejoice that it happened.”

I tell myself this often.

Administrators on the Ropes

If you are looking for an innovative and energetic way to build team and kick off the school year, how about this?

On 7/25/07, the central services and school-based administrators of Carteret County (NC) Public School System shared an abbreviated ropes course experience.

I have captured the event in a ten-minute photo/music artifact called Teams That Work.  It's a big 30mb file you may want to right-click and download to the desktop.   Whether you run it from your desktop or the Internet, notice the subtle shifts in mood as the morning progresses.

Kudos to the school system leadership for this courageous start.  Is there any better way to set the tenor of teamwork as we kick off the school year?