Edscape: My Choice; My PD

On Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Edscape 2012 Conference at New Milford High School in New Jersey. The annual conference was hosted by Eric Sheninger (you can follow him on Twitter @NMHS_Principal and read his blog to learn SO MUCH every single day) at his beautiful school. The event was sponsored by Teq, who offered some great workshops too.

I had the great fortune of starting my day with the live #satchat hosted by my friends Scott Rocco (@ScottRRocco), Brad Currie (@bcurrie5) and Bill Krakower (@wkrakower) - even though Saturday was the first time I met these gentleman in person, they have been my friends and active members of my PLN for months on Twitter, which once again shows the power of SM. The live #satchat revolved around Global Leadership and how we can move our schools, students and communities forward in this day and age when being a citizen is no longer restricted to one's physical environment; instead we are all digital citizens and citizens of the world. The chat, as it does every Saturday morning at 7:30am EST & PST, was inspiring, motivating and extremely positive.

As if that wasn't enough to get the juices flowing, we then had the great privilege and honor of hearing our Keynote Speaker, Ms. Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher). Vicki is the author of the book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds and she maintains one of the richest and most engaging blogs I have ever encountered. This was my first time hearing Vicki speak (and I got to meet her, which was pretty cool) and throughout her keynote speech, I found myself shaking my head in agreement with everything she was saying. Her passion and dedication to her students and craft were infectious and inspiring. She reminded me about the fact that the only person I could control and change was ME! I couldn't worry about those people down the road who didn't want to change or grow or try something new - NO, I had to focus on ME! I had to focus on MY growth; MY evolution; MY exploration; MY passion because a healthy and fulfilled ME can have a tremendous impact on those around ME! Here are some of the nuggets that Vicki left with me and I think are worth sharing...

• In our schools, there are transmitters and transformers. We should all avoid being transmitters of negativity and instead focus on transforming the situation!

• As an educational leader who strives to support those he serves, it is my responsibility to help remove the obstacles - not become an obstacle! (this one really resonated with me)

• Even when we are feeling overwhelmed and stressed because another thing has been added to the load of expectations, we must say the following to ourselves, "I can't do everything but I can do something!" YES - we can all do a little something each and everyday!

• Instead of blocking things out of our schools, lets focus on the things that are worth letting in to affect our community in a positive way!

• We must involve our students in the creation of everything! If YOU build it alone, they will NOT come; if we build it together and engage our students, give them voice and empower them, they will come!

• As educational leaders we must be knowledgeable, trustworthy and generous with our time - YES! These are critical elements to being a successful servant leader!

• We must teach our community that online behavior has offline consequences!

• And the one that really stuck out in my mind... our children are NOT numbers; we must love them and show them that they are important because in our schools we aren't making copies, we are making originals! BOOM!

Although my little post does Vicki's keynote speech no justice, I think people get the idea about her overarching message... I can only control ME and I must never forget that my students deserve love, respect and support while in our school! THANK YOU VICKI!

Afterwards, I had the chance to attend four different workshops and each one presented me with some great ideas and resources that I am ready to put into play over the next few weeks. First up, I took a workshop called Evernote, Edmodo, LiveBinders and QR Codes with Elissa Malespina and Melissa Butler from South Orange Middle School. I learned so many things in that hour with Elissa and Melissa. First off, I learned how to use delivr.com to create my own QR Codes, which can be used in so many ways. The are a wonderful way to amass a bunch of different resources, links, photos, etc. in one little spot that someone could access with the snap of a picture on their phone or iPad - POWERFUL STUFF! I have seen the QR Codes for years and wanted so badly to learn how to create one and within minutes, Elissa had walked us all through how to create an account and create our own QR Codes. It is so easy and extremely user friendly - I have already started thinking about the QR Code I want to create to embed as part of my email signature - oh man, the possibilities are endless! They also showed us how to create a Livebinder (can't wait to do this so I can throw out all those gigantic three-ring binders taking up space on my bookshelves). The LiveBinder is a wonderful way to digitize all those things we have sitting in binders all over our buildings and they are so easy to create, modify and share! We also discussed how to use Evernote, which I am already a huge fan of and use both for personal and professional purposes. Evernote could literally change the way we do things as educators - we can collaborate on notes, keep running records on our students and embed handwritten notes that can be searched - awesome stuff! Check out this blog post I wrote about using Evernote with Balanced Literacy. Finally, they introduced us to Edmodo, which is a great resource and social media tool for teachers (like Facebook for school) that I have not fully wrapped my head around yet! You can access their whole presentation here - it is definitely worth checking out!

Then I had the chance to spend an hour with Beth Holland and learn about powerful 1:1 iPad integration in schools. What I loved most about Beth's presentation was that it was not all about the different apps we should download and let our kids use. Instead, she talked a lot about using the iPads to empower the students - she repeated that it is not about what the iPads can do, it is about what the STUDENTS can do with the iPad. This is so important because although our school hasn't even considered a 1:1 iPad implementation, if we ever do, this will be at the root of our philosophical approach - WHAT CAN THE STUDENTS DO??? Additionally, Beth spoke a lot about apps and how we must not mistake just using an app for being creative especially when many content area apps are just another form of drill and kill - this is so true! I hadn't thought about it but that is exactly what we should want to avoid if our kids do have access to iPads in school - let them create not just practice something they can do with pen and paper! Beth also shared that every iPad based project should go through four phases...

COLLECT - web links, videos, audio files, etc.

RELATE - make connections - your own, with other peers, with the world, etc.

CREATE - use the technology to create make something new (like using Animoto or the Book Creator app to create digital book guides)

DONATE - after our students are done with their projects they should give them back to the world- share them online or through SM!

After this workshop and a delicious lunch (thanks Jersey Boys Grill) I had the chance to attend the Home & School 2.0 workshop hosted by my friend Joe Mazza, lead learner at Knapp Elementary and a must follow on Twitter, and Gwen Pescatore (Home/School President) - check out their presentation. They talked about taking that home and school connection beyond the school walls in an effort to connect with as many families as possible. Joe has always spoken about the importance of meeting parents where they are an empowering them to be involved in whatever ways work for them. To that end, he hosts a weekly Parent/Teacher Chat (#ptchat) on Twitter on Wednesday nights at 9PM EST - everyone has a voice in this chat and it is definitely worth checking out! They also stressed the idea of turning the solid walls in our classrooms into glass walls so that parents can see in and feel connected to everything their children are experiencing - SO IMPORTANT! I left that space with so many ideas that I want to try with our PTA in our school. Finally, during their presentation, they also discussed some key points we should always remember when schools and homes successfully work together...

Collaborative

Transparent

Partnership

Relationship

Relational Trust

Implemented With - there must be a partnership between families and the school

Finally, I attended a workshop that spotlighted various apps and resources that could be used to enhance the learning experience. The presenters, from Teq, gave us some very hands-on experiences and showed us how to use things like Scribble Press, where kids can make their own digital books, and TagPad, which I am still learning how to use!

Overall, it was an amazing experience and I left at the end of the day feeling inspired, reinvigorated and motivated to try a bunch of different things. I think those are all the markers of a successful conference. I learned more on Saturday in one day than I had in attending various 2 or 3 day workshops. Bravo to Eric, Teq and their whole team for orchestrating this powerful learning experience - it was the best $35 I had spent in a long time!

SLO: Squashed Learning Opportunities

New York State has recently required school districts to submit updated Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) plans, which are directly connected to the end of year evaluations for all teachers and building administrators. The plans, as described on the EngageNY site, are quite comprehensive and are intended to ensure that there is an effective teacher in every classroom and effective leader in every school. WOW - that sounds great to me - I'm all for effective educators in our schools working with our children... but wait, lets dig a little deeper into this whole plan.

As part of the submitted APPR plans, districts had to incorporate various Student Learning Objectives (known in these parts as SLOs) as tools to measure growth in student achievement for teachers that are not covered by state provided growth measures (i.e. - the New York State standardized ELA and Math tests in Grades 3-8). For example, every Kindergarten teacher and Physical Education teacher and Foreign Language teacher is expected to develop an SLO, implement it at the beginning of the year to establish a baseline and then administer it again at the end of the year to assess student growth. So, what exactly is the purpose of the SLO experience? To help enhance our student learning experiences? To help educators learn more about our kids in an effort to target and personalize instruction? NO - we are administering SLOs as a way to hold educators accountable for student growth - not the daily student growth that may not be as black and white as a test score - just the growth on these meaningless, disconnected and mind numbing tests!

In the few short weeks since the start of the school year, it has become crystal clear to me that SLOs do not actually stand for meaningful Student Learning Objectives, like NYS claims; instead, SLOs really stand for Squashed Learning Opportunities. Why, you ask? Well, let me share some informal data that I have gathered over the first month of school. Over a two week period, many of our children, including our precious little kindergarteners who are a mere four years old and are excited about coming to school, have sat through over 200 minutes (almost an entire school day) of testing as part of establishing the baseline related to our wonderful SLOs. While the SLOs were being administered in our school, I watched kids cry, have break downs and completely shut down because their self-esteem was devastated by the fact that they couldn't answer certain questions connected to the SLOs. Personally, I don't understand how a policy that is intended to ensure that our children are working with effective teachers can work when we aren't allowing our teachers to TEACH because all they have time to do is test, score tests and prepare for the end of year tests that the state will use to judge their effectiveness. Does that sound like LEARNING, which the "L" in SLOs supposedly stands for? NO! In fact, it sounds like testing - pure and simple TORTUROUS TESTING - NOT learning anything meaningful and important that can be synthesized and applied during real life situations - no - just TESTING!

How much testing do our children have to be subjected to until we realize that tying any educators' evaluation (which will eventually become public information) to the scores of these tests is MEANINGLESS, USELESS and INEFFECTIVE? Haven't we learned anything from the cheating scandals that have rocked public schools in Washington DC and Atlanta (and many other school districts)? Haven't we all realized that tying test scores to teacher evaluations does not work?

We are single handily squashing learning opportunities for our children because we have become consumed by this movement to hold ineffective teachers accountable based on student growth using different types of tests. Well, I am all for getting ineffective teachers out of the classroom and away from our kids but that cannot come at the expense of our kids' love for learning or at the expense of the tireless efforts of our effective teachers! I believe that the time has come for us to start a revolution - parents, educators, administrators and the entire community must come together and advocate for the rights of our children. We must fight the policies being implemented that are promoting more standardized testing and erasing the creative learning experiences for our children that foster and nurture critical thinking skills.

This plea is not about protecting teachers or principals. This plea is not about letting schools off the hook for their levels of effectiveness. This plea is not even about shying away from the challenges of enhancing and improving our public schools. NO - this is about PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN'S RIGHT TO LEARN! We must stop SQUASHING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES and empower our educational institutions to implement instructional strategies and techniques that will foster student learning and allow our teachers to teach for the sake of learning not for getting a high score on a test! From my perspective, we cannot wait another minute to start our revolution - OUR KIDS NEED US NOW!  

 

Bucket Filling Bonanza



Cantiague Elementary School has been a Bucket Filling School since 2008! After the Shared Decision Making Committee Meeting decided that the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? would be the anchor for our school theme the following year things have exploded at our school. Although Bucket Filling was intended to be a one year theme, it has evolved into a philosophy and way of life at our school. Every child has read the anchor text during their time at Cantiague and each September we kick off the year with an assembly for each grade level where I read a picture book that supports or extends the Bucket Filling philosophy (see the picture below). Bucket Filling has become a way of life at Cantiague and as a result of being a Bucket Filling School we have seen an improvement in our students' self-esteem and a decrease in incidents of bullying and harassment. This way of life has provided us a common language that is simple enough for every child to understand yet powerful enough to convey a strong message. Additionally, as a result of being a Bucket Filling School here are some of the things that have happened in our school (first check out some pics & then read about the activities that have taken place)...

Our 2nd Graders writing about ways to be a Bucket Filler & avoid being a Bucket Dipper

Bulletin board in our Main Lobby that spotlights Bucket Filling & the Big Five

One of the banners we had made featuring the winning slogan from our contest

These posters hang up all over the school as a reminder

Displays like this are found in many of our classrooms as Bucket Filling is a way of life

This display is featured in our Library

One of our 2nd Graders included Being a Bucket Filler on his Heart Map for Writer's Workshop (upper center on the right side)

These are some of the books we have used to kick off each school year!

Some ideas we have implemented to further support the Bucket Filling way of life...

1) We implemented the Positive Behavior Referral Form (would be happy to share it with anyone who is interested) - each teacher in our building is given a bunch of these forms at the start of the year and they are encouraged to fill them out when they observe a child being a Bucket Filler (list of suggested things are at the bottom of the form). Our goal is to get one form completed for every child in our school. After the teachers complete the form, they give them to me and then I call the parents and tell them that their child was a Bucket Filler for whatever reason. Then I keep those forms in my office and each week a few of the kids are announced as Bucket Fillers of the Week (I get through every form before the end of the year) and they come down and get a pencil, wristband and their picture is taken and put on our website. This then gets emailed to the parents.

2) One year we had a slogan writing contest and the kids were encouraged to create their own Bucket Filling slogans. We narrowed it down to 10 slogans and then had a school-wide vote. The top three slogans (i.e. - At Cantiague Elementary we are Changing the World One Bucket At a Time) were put on banners and they hang around our building.

3) Another year we had a song writing contest and each grade level created lyrics about being a Bucket Filling school set to the music of Don't Stop Believin'. We then had a school-wide assembly and each grade got on stage and performed the song. Then we had a vote and the winning song is now our school theme song!

4) Two years ago the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders worked in small groups and created Public Service Announcements about Being a Bucket Filling and how to avoid Bucket Dipping. These PSAs were videotaped and shown across the school over a period of time.

5) We have little buckets in the lunchroom - one for each lunch table - and when tables are showing exemplary behavior they get paper drops and the table with the most drops at the end of the month gets extra recess. 

6) Each day we celebrate the Big Five (which have become the pillars of our Bucket Filling philosophy)... Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Be Positive and Be Kind - it is announced every morning and every afternoon when we remind children to be Bucket Fillers!

This is just a quick glimpse into the world of Bucket Filling at Cantiague Elementary School where we are Changing the World, One Bucket At a Time! 

Power of the Written Word

After being appointed Assistant Principal of a local elementary school in the spring of 2005, one of my first purchases was the book What Great Principals Do Differently by Todd Whitaker (if you are on Twitter, Todd is a MUST follow @ToddWhitaker). Although I wasn't a principal yet, I heard this book would offer some wonderful suggestions for things I could try as an administrator. Well, I will honestly admit that I tried nothing that first year as an administrator because I was completely overwhelmed and I imagine that I generally looked like one of those images of a chicken with no head running around in all these crazy directions... nothing really prepares one for that first year as an administrator, but that's a whole other post.

As luck would have it, the principalship in that building became available the following year and I was appointed after a lengthy interview process. The first thing I did during that initial summer as a principal was re-read What Great Principals Do Differently and made a list of all the things I wanted to implement ASAP in our school. Number 1 on my list was the weekly staff newsletter, which seemed like such an easy way to spotlight all the wonderful things happening in our school (especially within the rooms of all our Superstars) and also keep the staff updated on important upcoming events, activities and deadlines. The initial incarnation of our staff newsletter was the Monday Morning Message and one side contained the newsletter portion and the other side contained a weekly schedule of events broken down by day of the week. The initial feedback I received about the newsletter was quite positive-- unfortunately, most of the positive feedback was about the schedule of the week and not so much about the content of the newsletter but at least I knew it was being read and that was an important step 1 in the process. Over the course of the school year the newsletter started to gain traction among many of the staff members and people actually started inviting me into their classrooms to see different lessons or activities in the hopes that they would be spotlighted in the Monday Morning Message. There were also those people (you know the ones who come to you and say, "A lot of people in the building are uncomfortable with..." and in the end "a lot of people" really equals somewhere between 2 - 4 people) who complained to me that the newsletter was having a negative affect on the building because people were hurt and offended for not being spotlighted. Although my intention was certainly not to hurt anyones' feelings, I was happy to know that the newsletter was being read and that people wanted to be spotlighted... the Power of the Written Word was clear and this little staff newsletter was accomplishing a lot. Not only was I able to spotlight the sound instructional techniques and approaches taking place in our building but I was also able to subtly communicate a vision for our school... that is the Power of the Written Word!

Well, here I am seven years later (in 2008 I moved districts to become the principal of Cantiague Elementary School in Jericho, NY) and the staff newsletter is still an active part of my weekly routine. Initially there were mixed reactions to the newsletter at the news school -- some were excited to be reading it each week, others never pulled it out of their mailboxes, and yet some others had concerns that maybe this newsletter was unnecessary. Fortunately, over a short period of time the staff at Cantiague became interested in the newsletter and the schedule of the week -- but more excited about the newsletter. Not only did people want to be spotlighted but the staff loved reading about the exciting things that their colleagues were accomplishing and trying in their spaces. Our profession can be such an isolating one and this newsletter broke down the walls on some levels and encouraged the development of a Professional Learning Community. People used the newsletter as a jumping off point for conversations about instruction, for an exchange of ideas and for the informal scheduling of visits to each other's spaces to see all the great things that were happening. Once again, the Power of the Written word became crystal clear!

In 2011, the Monday Morning Message was reborn as the Fast Friday Focus and just last month I officially turned the paper newsletter into a weekly blog. Below is a sample of our weekly staff newsletter, which has become much more collaborative now that it is in the form of a blog -- people are commenting, sharing and collaborating even more!

Sample Fast Friday Focus...

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone as we close out the first full week of the school year! It was a busy week that featured our annual Meet The Teacher Night extravaganza, which was a huge success once again. Thank you all for working so hard to not only prepare such wonderful, thorough and informative presentations but also for making our building look so beautiful for the parents on their first official visit of the year. Between the pictures, writing samples, works of art and everything else, our hallways looked better than those of a museum - BRAVO Team Blue Ribbon!!

This last week has allowed me many wonderful opportunities to visit classrooms and different learning spaces and I cannot tell you how much fun it is to hang out in your rooms! First off, I am completely blown away by the launch of Writing Workshop in our building this year. I have seen it in almost every 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classroom and I am in awe of the work being done. First off, the kids are actually sitting and writing for extended periods of time and it is only the 12th day of school - that is unheard of! Not only is the quantity of their work impressive but the quality is awesome too. When visiting Karen's room, I could literally hear a pin drop because every kid was engrossed in their piece (check out a sample from Lindsey in Karen's class in one of the pics below). The kids had learned how to write off a picture on their notebook and the work was impressive. As if that weren't enough, Risa's kids jumped right to generating entries after her mini-lesson on special holidays and family memories - they were all so excited to share and generate entries. While visiting the third grade classrooms, I also saw some awesome stuff. The Heart Maps in the Montonelli's classroom were the most rich and impressive ones I have seen in a long time. Also, Janine had students sharing entries and she modeled how to offer positive and constructive feedback, which was so powerful. She used an entry from her own notebook and allowed the students an opportunity to share for the purposes of modeling the skill of offering feedback in appropriate ways. The importance of modeling for our kids had never been more apparent to me than what I have seen in the last couple of weeks. I have never experienced this type of Writing Workshop launch and I think this success is a credit to our collective efforts to implement the workshop in every classroom so now our kids are writers and are comfortable writing in a notebook and generating entries - it is so awesome! Thank you to all classroom teachers, Lisa D. and Team Literacy for making this happen!

This week has also provided me the opportunity to observe the launch of Shared Reading in many classrooms. I specifically spent extensive time in Rande's and Melanie's classrooms where they started the experience by introducing the Preview and Prepare process. I was so impressed with the sophisticated language used in both classrooms and with the knowledge our kids possess - they were able to identify text features, explain what they could gain from scanning the page and other such strategies and skills. The implementation of Shared Reading is such an important component to the Reading Workshop experience for many reasons but most importantly, it allows us the opportunity to "tuck" content area material into the literacy block. Use the Shared Reading experience to incorporate social studies, current events, science, non fiction, etc. because not only will it expose our kids to a bevy of genres but also helps them build schema when previewing new texts.

Finally, I saw some awesome math work happening in many of our classrooms! I spent time in Joe's room and I was so impressed with the fact that the children were able to dissect numbers and represent them in different ways. For example, they took 124 and expressed in words, expanded form, pictures, etc. I was so impressed by the strong number sense that permeated the room and the students' ability to explain their thinking and show their work - BRAVO JOE! (Check out a picture below of one of the whiteboards used during this group activity).

Please know that there are at least ten other things I could have written about here (doing Prezi with the Alites, the amazing independent reading conference I watched Tali do, the great math activity I watched in Meryl's class, the fun Spanish/English read aloud I saw Ilene do with 2nd graders, the awesome Fundations parallel activity I saw with Team Sanderly, etc.) but I don't want to overwhelm everyone with too much text...  :)

Tech Tip of the Week...

In last week's blog I spotlighted Wordle, which was being used in the Library and many of the classrooms around the building. Jeanne also uses some alternative Wordle like sites that you may want to check out (thank you Jeanne!!)...

abcya - which has a lot of resources but the Word Clouds are the Wordle-like feature; check out some of the games on this site too - really kid friendly and broken up by grade level!

tagxedo - this one costs money but worth checking out

tagul - this one allows you to create word clouds in different shapes

Schedule of the Week...

Wednesday, September 19

CST at 1:20PM

Thursday, September 20

Board of Ed. Meeting - 7:30PM at MS Library

Kids' Korner...

During recess a second grader, who was working with a bunch of other kids to construct something in the sand, came over to me and said, "Mr. Sinanis I am like the principal of this construction company." My response - "Oh yea, cool! How are you like the principal?" He says, "Because I walk around and tell people what to do!" LOL! I laughed out loud and he was totally confused why I was laughing!  :)

Pics of the Week...

                                

               Alites graphic organizer for                              3rd Gr. whiteboard showing

              describing a character's                                     the break up of the number 124

               personality with text evidence

               

      Writing sample from Karen's class          Students offering feedback in Janine's room

                                   

Although the newsletter doesn't allow me an opportunity to spotlight everything I see over the course of the week, it has helped give me a platform to share, reflect and encourage... what else could I ask for as the lead learner of our building? Please feel free to use any portions of the newsletter structure (don't use any of the pics please) and feel free to contact me with any questions!    

Blue Ribbon Staff

On Friday, we were informed that our school was being honored as a 2012 National Blue Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education. This recognition was being bestowed upon us because our students have performed at very high levels for the last several years (the data is based on scores from NYS ELA and Mathematics Tests). 

                                                     


Needless to say, we were thrilled about this incredible honor and we officially kicked off the Blue Ribbon celebrations just the other day with Blue Day, where all staff and children came into school wearing every shade of blue - it was an awesome sight to behold. Over the last few days I have received many congratulatory emails, texts, Facebook messages, tweets and phone calls, which mean so much to me. One colleague in particular asked me to share, in five words or less, the main reason I thought we won this prestigious award. Well, if you know me, you know that five words or less is a challenge in itself but to try and explain why we received the Blue Ribbon honor in five words or less seemed like an impossible task. That's when it hit me... I had the answer in two words (that's right, I had three words to spare)... our staff! We were honored as a 2012 National Blue Ribbon Award School because of our amazing staff at Cantiague Elementary School. I am blessed to be the Lead Learner of the 2012 Blue Ribbon Staff!

What makes our staff so special? What makes them a 2012 Blue Ribbon Staff? Well, it is hard to capture everything in writing but I am going to give it my best shot...

• Everyone is always smiling. It is the truth - whether staff members are talking to each other or greeting a child or engaging a parent, people are always smiling. I think this is critical because it sets such a positive tone in the building - everyone feels welcomed and our kids and families feel valued and safe in the environment - it is simply AWESOME to watch! (Ok - so sometimes we don't smile but those moments are few and far between and we are able to pull each other through those moments).

• The staff is united and connected. Classroom teachers and specialists; veterans and rookies; traditionalists and progressive folks; no matter what the different group a person might fall into, in our school, there is no distinction; no separation; no division! Instead, the classroom teachers and specialists collaborate to strengthen and deepen the learning experiences for our kids; the veterans and rookies enjoy each other's company and support each during the highs and the lows; and the traditionalists and progressive folks share ideas and try the things learned from each other in their own spaces. No one strives to be better than anyone else... instead, we all join together and strive to be the best school in the world for our kids!

• Everyone is proud to be an educator in our school and that sense of pride permeates the building! We don't necessarily take ourselves too seriously but we take our profession and responsibility to our kids and families quite seriously!

• Our staff is always willing to step out of their comfort zones and try something new and different that may enhance their craft or the learning experiences of our kids. For example, four years ago when we began shifting to a Balanced Literacy approach, rooted in both the reading and writing workshop models, although it took a lot of work, training and trial and error (and yes, some frustration along the way) there was never question of IF we were going to make Balanced Literacy work for us it was always a matter of HOW we were going to make it work for us and our kids! As if that wasn't enough, today at our Faculty Meeting we started talking about the possibilities of some Flipped Faculty Meetings - check out this post by my friend Peter DeWitt (follow Peter on Twitter) about Flipped Faculty Meetings. Although we haven't officially started the process and we are not exactly sure how it will play out, I know that we will all be dedicated to taking control of our professional development and making this a positive experience!

                   

                     

• Collaboration is the norm - not the exception! There is never a day that goes by while I am walking around the building that I don't see a group of staff members huddled together and working on something. People come in early, stay late, eat lunch together and meet during common preps to share, brainstorm and plan because there is this unspoken feeling that we can do things better by working together!

• Our staff believes in every kid no matter what the readiness level! Every child in our school will get exactly what they need because their teachers will work together to make it happen. For example, if a child seems to be struggling in the area of reading, and the classroom teacher has done extensive lessons and the child is still not getting it, no one ever throws their hands up and says, "Oh well - I taught it but he just doesn't get it!" No, our teachers will consult colleagues, specialists, parents, etc. to come up with different instructional techniques that might be worth a shot in helping that specific child learn. Last year, when we officially started implementing our Instructional Support Team (I.S.T.) as part of our RtI plan (Response To Intervention), the work accomplished was amazing. One teacher would bring up a child who was struggling and come to a meeting the following week to discuss that child. The team would be comprised of different specialists and at least one other classroom teacher. Well, the amount of suggestions, tips, resources and intervention strategies shared at that table blew me away - this team, working collaboratively and going above and beyond, solved EVERY problem it encountered! Furthermore, at this point in the school year (only about 10 days in) every teacher has made some form of positive contact with the families of their students - this is what sets the tone for an awesome year!

• Our staff works harder than any other group of people I have ever had the honor of working with in my professional career. Walking around our building each day is the gift that keeps giving. I learn so much because I see all the incredible things our kids are doing and learning as a result of our dedicated staff. I find myself thinking two things... WOW - I hope my son has teachers and teacher aides like this during his academic career and WOW - I wish I was this good of a teacher when I was in the classroom! Our staff works tirelessly to make everything great for our kids and the community as a whole. When were officially nominated for the Blue Ribbon, we had to complete an enormous application, which involved a lot of essay writing (maybe about 15 different essays). Initially I thought I was crazy for taking this on because I would never be able to get this thing done on my own. Well, I didn't need to get it done on my own because once I shared the application with the staff at a Faculty Meeting, they broke up into small groups, and on their own time, tackled most of the questions and in the end, our application was AWESOME because of their efforts.

                     

                      

Well, the truth is, this list could literally go on and on and on because the staff of Cantiague Elementary School is really that incredible. From the Main Office team to the Custodial Staff to the Teacher Aides to the Teachers, each "part" comes together to make up an amazing "whole" that deserves to be honored as a 2012 Blue Ribbon Staff!      

How NOT What: Doing Dewey

As we kicked off the school year last week, I really started to think about learning, teaching and instruction in general. During my 15 years in the world of education, I have always struggled with the ideas of the "best" instructional strategies to reach our kids and enrich their learning. Although I don't think there is ONE answer, I have come to one conclusion that has been proven to me over and over again during my years as a teacher and lead learner (thanks to my friend Joe Mazza for introducing me this term - follow @Joe_Mazza on Twitter) and that is, our kids learn best when DOING! A special thank you to John Dewey for inspiring this post... his words were uttered almost 100 years ago but they are still so relevant and important! 

In order to execute a successful educational experience, which would be personalized for each child to best meet their needs, we must shift the focus from the “what” to the “how.”  Too often, the focus in our educational institutions is on what the children are learning, how much of the curriculum is being covered and what materials are being used to teach the various concepts. Although these are important points to consider because they do impact our children, they cannot become the focal point of said educational experiences. As Dewey repeatedly points out in Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education , we must always be mindful of what we give our students to do as opposed to what we give them to learn. We cannot merely communicate information to our students, lecturing for example, and expect that the students have learned everything just because we talked about it or “taught” it (teaching does not always result in learning). We cannot continue to “pour information in” or expect our children to passively absorb information as a result of our teaching. Instead, we must employ a variety of creative, active and hands-on instructional approaches and techniques that raise the level of student engagement and challenge our children to construct their own knowledge and understandings based on what they are doing in the classroom. We must remember that education is about constructing understandings, not just being given a lot of information. Dewey states, “They (educators who employ methods that are successful in formal education) give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is such a nature as to demand thinking, or the intentional noting of connections; learning naturally results.” This statement needs to be the crux of every educational vision or mission statement if we are to ensure that all of our children learn in a meaningful way. Our educational institutions need to challenge our children to think because thinking is the basis for all intelligent learning and development of understandings. We must move away from this current push of standardized tests that assess low-level comprehension skills through multiple-choice questions (and we must disconnect these results from teacher evaluations) and challenge our children to employ higher level thinking skills where they synthesize and apply knowledge in different contexts and settings (and we must connect these results to teacher evaluations).

Furthermore, in order to maximize the learning experiences for our children, we must arouse and maintain their interest because they will then actively participate in their learning. This is where the idea of personalizing a child’s education comes into play. We must move beyond merely differentiating instruction (i.e. – harder work for the smarter children and easier work for the needier children) and look for ways to personalize instruction. If a child exhibits certain strengths, interests or significant background knowledge in any given area, then we must ensure that our schools tap into these strengths and interests to help our children learn in the most meaningful ways possible. Again, the focus must shift from how we teach to how we make sure that our children learn. The rich and meaningful learning experiences that our children will carry with them for years, which will ensure that they are educated individuals and will shape their life’s trajectory, will likely come as a result of the “how” and not the “what”!

Leader with Heart

From the moment our son, Paul, was born almost eight years ago, my goals as an educator began to evolve, grow and expand. I instantly wanted to do whatever I could to keep Paul safe, happy and fulfilled on every level. Initially it was difficult to see how this unconditional love for Paul would manifest itself in my classroom and shape me as an educator. However, six months later, after I began my first building administrative position, that parental love quickly molded me, impacted me and became the anchor for my approach to being an instructional leader... a leader with heart! I made it my goal to keep my students safe, happy and fulfilled on every level. I made it my objective to keep our staff safe, happy and fulfilled on every level. I made it my mission to blend all the theoretical stuff I had learned in "educational administration school" with what I knew made sense to me - yes, being logical, practical and rational were all critical keys to my success as a leader (they help me shift those monkeys and put out those fires) but without heart and love my success, our success as an educational community, would be non-existent.

So, what does leading with heart look like? What are the little tangible things that leaders with heart do on a regular basis? How does a leader with heart differ from the typical building leader? Although I am certainly no expert on the matter and have done no research and have no proof that the things I am about to share will actually work for everyone, these are the little things I do because I love being an instructional leader and leading with my heart is all I know how to do (sometimes it can make things challenging)...

1) I know the names of every one of our students; these children are so incredibly important to me and I feel that if I can say hello to them by name when I pass them in the hallway or sit next to them in their classroom or play handball with them at recess, they can begin to understand that they are all very special to me!

2) I know as much as I can about each staff member (whatever they are comfortable sharing) and their lives beyond the school building; as a parent it has become crystal clear to me that many of the things that happen in my personal life directly shape and impact the decisions I make in my professional life; by knowing our staff, on a somewhat personal level, I am better able to understand each person's perspectives, decisions and needs, which are critical to the success of our school! For example, if one of our teachers gets a call from her child's school that her son is sick, then my priority becomes arranging coverage for that teacher so she can leave immediately and go be with her child because that is where she is needed.

3) I announce the birthdays of each student and staff member during our daily morning announcements; I write a card for each staff member and invite each student down to my office to pick out a little birthday prize. Neither the cards nor the birthday prizes are a big deal (so glad places like Oriental Trading exist) but I do believe they mean something to the people on the receiving end - they feel special; they feel acknowledged; they feel connected.

4) I am visible everyday to everyone (at least that is my goal until the administrative stuff gets in the way - but I limit that too and will address that later). I am in the classrooms, the lunchroom, at recess, in the gym and in the hallways all day. I literally avoid my office because I want to know what is going on in our school, in our classrooms, in the lives of our students and staff. By being connected to the daily happenings in our building, I am able communicate our successes from within certain spaces to the community at large!

5) Honest, clear and consistent communication are critical keys to leading with heart!

1. I write a weekly newsletter for the staff, Fast Friday Focus (thank you Todd Whitaker for this amazing idea and many others that I learned from reading What Great Principals Do Differently - a must read for all instructional leaders - check out these other materials), where I spotlight all the amazing things happening in our school. I try and spotlight different staff members each week and their varied instructional techniques and approaches because that type of sharing helps foster a professional learning community. It is not about someone being better than anyone else; it is about sharing great techniques, resources and learning experiences because these are the things that will help us all grow! 
2. I also maintain this type of communication with the families of our children. Our district has gone paperless and 99% of our communication is via email so I email the parents at least 2-3 times a week. My emails weren't very "meaty" at first - I would spotlight upcoming PTA events, school-wide activities and other such stuff; but as time went on, I realized this regular email to the parents (known as the Cantiague Daily Update) could be a powerful vehicle for spotlighting all the amazing things our kids were learning each day with their teachers! As a parent, I knew that when Paul got home all he wanted to talk about was lunch and recess, which was great, but I wanted to know what he was learning in math, what he was reading in class or what he was creating in writing workshop, which was like pulling teeth to hear about. So, now, my emails still include details about all the upcoming events and stuff but they also contain information about specific things our children are doing and learning on each grade level. I don't spotlight each grade level in every email but, within a two week period, I try and spotlight each grade level at least once. This information has garnered a lot of feedback from the parents - many of them have thanked me for sharing the specifics of the teaching and learning happening in our building because they are now able to engage their children about these experiences.

6) I try and bring people together on a regular basis. In regards to the kids, we are fortunate enough to have an auditorium that holds about 450 people and since our school has only about 400 kids, we are able to all fit in there at once. Although we don't have whole school assemblies as regularly as I would like (a goal for this year), we do them periodically and they are critical to helping build community and fostering connections across grade levels! (If you don't have an auditorium, you can use the gym or the field or even the front lawn - the location is not as important as the practice). In regards to the staff, I try and host a few breakfasts and a luncheon throughout the year to bring everyone together in a comfortable and relaxed space. The daily pressures of being an educator, especially in this day and age, can be brutal so coming together to just eat, chat and laugh are crucial to sustaining the emotional well-being of each person in our building.

7) I like to leave handwritten notes for our various staff members on a regular basis. The note may thank them for an amazing lesson or for their efforts in helping a specific child or for sharing with colleagues or it may simply help put a smile on their face when things have been difficult. Whatever the goal or reason, a handwritten note can go a really long way! I try and write at least one note/card each week but this is not always easy to keep up. In an effort to save paper, I have also recently started using the Penultimate app to email "handwritten" notes to our teachers while I am in their classrooms or right after I have left - we are fortunate enough to have had our whole building become WiFi this year so I am able to use my iPad in many powerful ways! 

8) I try and lead by example. For instance, I am really passionate about learning, teaching and curriculum so I try and learn something new each day that I could share with our staff. Whether it is the reading and writing workshop models for literacy instruction or the power of using Twitter (check out this great blog post by my friend Brad Currie, who I never would have met without Twitter) for staff development, my goal is always to share what is current, powerful and what could impact our children in the classrooms. I am always reading, learning, exploring and doing because I want our school to be the best one on the planet for each child!

9) I block out "observation" time in my calendar throughout the week and I try and do all my administrative work (the paper pushing, email sending, etc.) either early in the morning before school starts or late in the afternoon when the day is over and most people are gone. It is so important to be visible in the school community and I feel strongly that the last place people should find me during the day is in my office. Ok, so sometimes I "get in trouble" with colleagues or supervisors because I didn't respond to an email fast enough (even though I do see every email on my iPhone) or didn't return a phone call immediately or am running late to a meeting but the bottom line is that my kids and staff come first and the administrative stuff can wait, even just for a little while. (I will say that being late to a meeting is not cool so I am really working on that piece because I need to be respectful of other people's time).

10) I love what I do! Simply put, aside from my family, I live for being an educator and instructional leader and my passion for education is something I wear on my sleeve! I want to be a part of a team that creates a school that any child, family or staff member would be proud to be apart of!

Well, this list could go on... I feel like there are a lot of other little things that I do in my daily work as a leader that are also really important but I think that the list above, especially #10, are the ingredients to my attempts to be a Leader with Heart each and every day! I am sure many of you out there do these things and a lot more because I believe that in order to be a successful educator one must inject a lot of heart in their daily work. So, please feel free to try something I shared here or please post a comment at the bottom of this blog where you share examples of the amazing things you do to be a Leader with Heart!