We get to do this, we are just not there yet!

Creating A Culture of Achievement

Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey HOW TO CREATE A CULTURE OF ACHIEVEMENT--in your school and in your classroom

I thought for this review I would post my personal copy of the book I just devoured. You can see I am in love with office supplies as well as writing anecdotal note to myself for future reference. This read was a gem. Maybe it was the timing. I am in the biggest challenge of my career to date and in the mist of high stake change. I am absolutely thrilled for the opportunity, but finding a starting point required strategic thinking. 

Fisher and Frey provided the initial framework to start my thought process. They refer to this staring point as pillars, and the first pillar is defined the minute you walk into the building. What does that feel like for all stakeholders? What messages are we sending? Does each person feel a part of the change and valued for their insights and perspective?

The second pillar requires a shift in process and procedures that provides tools for teaching students to support them to become the person we know them to be. Holding students accountable for their actions and helping them understand how their behavior affects others. These restorative practices try to foster understanding of the impact of their behavior, and how they can repair that harm. 

The choice word pillar is the third pillar and built on the foundation of Carol Dweck's (2006) work with Mindset. A growth mindset "is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts" (p 7). To establish trust and create a culture of change requires us to listen, replace the word but with if or yet, and do the next right thing to help students identity their mindset of possibilities.

The fourth pillar is about learning and critical for the structure of equitable student achievement. We each need to get really good at teaching with research based practices and to get to know our students and their lives well. Understanding who they are and where they come from is the foundation for developing strong trusting relationships that establishes in each of us it is never too late to learn.

Finally the last pillar supports creating a system where each and every staff member, students, parents, and families knows without a doubt we are the best school in the world. We get to begin today with a passion and rigor that creates not only a sense of urgency, but one of pride and celebration. We get to do this, we are just not there yet!

How do we create a Culture of Achievement? Together. We create an environment that is conducive to learning with time and effort. Working every day in a forward movement and a positive mindset. Fisher and Frey provided a host of ideas to get the reader started. Here is my list which I have scribbled in the inside of the cover of my book. 

The Rider, The Elephant, and The Path

Chip Heath & Dan Health  SWITCH--How to Change Things When Change is Hard

It interesting when you learn about something new, you see if everywhere. For me it's the emotional elephant. He's large and in charge and sitting right in the middle of the Path. I could ignore him and hope he will get out of the way or at least get the hint. Although that is highly unlikely. 

For those that know me best I am the rational Rider, I am directing the elephant but often can't see the path around the elephants girth, and let's face it the elephant is much bigger than I am. If the six ton beast wants to go off the path, theb that is where we are going. It can be an arduous journey.

An Elephant, a Rider, and a Path--what does this all mean? It's a simple metaphor for "How to Change Things When Change is Hard". In order to facilitate change you must:

Direct the Rider:  Find the Bright Spots, Make the Most of Strengths, Small Purposeful Steps, and Celebrate Each and Every Victory.

Motivate the Elephant: See-Feel-the Change, Shrink It,  Sequence It, Fuel it With Hope and let it Grow

Shape the Path: Tweak the Environment, Reward Wins and Near Wins, Change your Own Behavior, Rally the Herd to Join, and Look to System Changes rather than People Changes.

I am really not the Rider, I am sometimes the Elephant too, but it's my ability to get into the head of both to shape the Ride. Leadership is hard, but with  transformational growth mindset its invigorating.

How To Communicate Best When It Matters Most

Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillian, & Al Switzler crucial conversations —Tool for talking when stakes are high.

The author’s define a crucial conversation as: “A discussion between two or more people where (1) stakes are high, (2) opinions vary, and (3) emotions run strong” (pg.3). How do we handle them? Typically we do one of three things; run from them, trip over them, or stop and “handle them well” (pg.3). The latter being the most difficult to master. When we fail, we miss the opportunities that can strengthen relationships and build connections in both our personal and business lives.

The author’s findings are based over several decades of research with thousands of people. Put simply they recommend the following steps:

          1)    Start with the heart. 
          a.    What is it that you really want and clarify want you don’t want?

          2)    Learn to Look.

          a.      Are others moving to silence or violence and what content and conditions lead them there? 

          3)    If they are, step out and--Make it safe.

          a.      Apologize, contrast to fix misunderstanding, and find mutual purpose.

          4)    Master Your Story
          a.      Analyze the emotions they bring

          5)    State Your Path.

          a. Share your facts and tell your story.

          6)  Explore Other’s Path.

            a. Express interest, acknowledge, restate, and prime their thinking.

          7. Move to Action.

          a. Turn your crucial conversations into great discussions.

Oh if it was only that easy! It’s not. The author recognize it takes years of practice to do this well. Their recommendations is to pick a relationship, an ongoing conversation, and let others know you are trying to improve the quality of your dialogs. Have them practice with you and run through one element at a time until you become more familiar with the process.

Artful Leadership

Max De Pree, Leadership Is An Art—New Forward by the Author

I was given this book to read as a book study for our administrative leadership team. When I discovered Max De Pree wrote Leadership is an Art in 1987 I admit I was a bit skeptical. Current research has propelled us forward to a more systemic way of what we should know and be able to do as leaders of learning. 

While reading I learned De Pree revisited his original work in 2003. He added a new preface which helped me reframe my thinking. Specifically he stated, "Knowing who we intend to be always determines what we will do with our lives" (p xii).  Putting the "we" into the context of leaders, and "lives" as our school systems, his wisdom becomes timeless. De Pree defines artful leadership as integrity, building and nurturing relationships, and community building to "fit the unique structure of your life as a leader" (pg. xii).

But how? How do continue to work together as teachers and leaders and deal with change and conflict and reach our potential?  De Pree addresses this enduring question with, "We do not grow by knowing all of the answers, but rather living with the questions" (pg. 58) by searching for knowledge, wisdom, and justice collaboratively together.  

The Principal

Michael Fullan THE PRINCIPAL —Three Keys to Maximizing Impact

It is interesting when you learn something new to deepen your practice. For me it’s about recognition and awareness of how it fits into the other existing systems. Rather than one more thing, it has the potential to enrich what is already in place. Asking me to do one more thing, just might put me over the edge. Helping me to do what I am already doing with greater clarity and purpose—well that’s doable.

Michael Fullan's newest book, The Principal, clarifies what specific actions are needed by the principal, to be the change agent to for all students to reach their goals. Although not as an instructional leader, as was my previous practice, but leading change with team learning. Creating the system where we collaboratively work together towards a common goal by learning alongside one another collectively.

Effective principals know the importance of spending time with teachers in and out of the classroom. Those rich engaging conversations are actually one of the most fulfilling aspects of being a principal. Providing support, specific feedback, and recognizing and celebrating success is an amazing opportunity for the principal to share their passion for teaching and learning.

My “ah-ha” moment occurred when I learned the "more powerful way" to becoming a change agent is developing "Professional Capital." Fullan explains "school leadership as the driver for change," focusing on three intentional practices:

Human Capital:  Inspire individuals and help develop them as new leaders but "use the group to change the group."  

Social Capital:  Collective thinking occurs when "peers learn from each other in purposeful, specific ways to improve learning in the school."

Decision Capital: The lead learner (principal) then seeks the collective knowledge of those around them "to make expert decisions that dramatically improve learning for all students.”

Fullan states, "The principal as the direct instruction leader is not the solution!” Nor do they lead all the instructional learning. The principal invests in time for collaboration to ensure intense instructional focus and continuous learning are the core work of the school, and does this by being a talent scout and social engineer, building a culture for learning, tapping others to co-lead, and being a learning leader for all.

Multipliers vrs. Diminishers

Liz Wiseman, Lois N. Allen & Elise Foster THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT: TAPPING THE GENIUS INSIDE OUR SCHOOLS—Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools

“Teachers who speak of ‘learning styles’ are labelling students in terms of how they (the teachers) think the students think, and thus overlooking the fact that the student can change, and learn new ways of thinking and can meet challenges in learning” (pg. 89).

When I heard a colleague refer to themselves a a hopeful "Multiplier" I was intrigued. When I heard another college reference themselves as a reformed "Diminisher" with aspirations of becoming a mindful "Multiplier" I was more than curious.  

Leadership experts Wiseman, Allen and Foster collaborated to approach leadership in our schools differently to get "dramatically enhanced results" by "utilizing others at their fullest." By definition a Diminisher sucks all the air from the room. They recognize themselves as the owner, facilitator and dictator of the learning. Haven't we all worked with someone like that? Frankly it's exhausting.  I DO comes to mind.

The "Multipliers" think differently, they operate differently, which causes people to respond differently." They see people as smart with the ability to get smarter, and stretch their thinking to build the collective "growth mindset" defined by Carol Dweck. Multipliers recognizes the genius in each of us and helps us thrive. Who wouldn't want to work in that type of leading environment?

So which one am I, a Multiplier or an Accidental Diminisher? Honestly I was afraid to find out. Could I be diminishing others despite best intentions to do otherwise?  I took the on-line self-reflective 3 minute quiz to find out at MultiplierEffectBook.com. The questions were straightforward and I answered them in confidence. 

Yikes! Tell me it isn't so.  I was more in the middle than I thought.  Although the authors reassured me that the "reality is that we all fall somewhere closer to the Accidental Diminisher’s scale than we realize. The important part comes in the knowing and making the changes needed to recognize and utilize the "smarts" of others and enjoy the journey of improvement with a collective mindset. 

This is an invaluable read for each type of educator to rethink our assumptions of leadership, remember we can't do it by ourselves, and why would we want to when there are multiple genius around us to support the thinking needed for effective change.

Know Thy Impact

John Hattie VISIBLE LEARNING FOR TEACHERS —Maximizing Impact on Learning

Visible Learning for Teachers is a powerful read. John Hattie summarizes 15 years of evidence based research and purposefully answers the question, “How do we maximize achievement in our schools?” He clearly states what actually works and how can we implement best practices in our own classrooms and schools. Hattie’s practical approaches provides opportunities for both the visible learner and visible teacher to consistently experience successful outcomes.

Here are my personal ah-ha moments and reminders while reading Visible Learning for Teachers. I truly tried to narrow it down to 10, but it was just impossible to do so.

“For any particular intervention to be considered worthwhile, it needs to show an improvement in student learning of at least an average gain—that is, an effect size of at least d = 0.40—the “hinge point” for identifying what is and what is not effective” (pg. 3).

“What is most important is that teaching is visible to the students, and that the learning is visible to the teacher. The more the student becomes the teacher and the more the teacher becomes the learner, then the more successful are the outcomes” (Hattie, 2009) (pg. 21). 

“The key issue is that children may think differently from adults/teachers, which means that attention needs to be given to how and not only to what the child is learning” (pg.43).

“The most important task is for teachers to listen” (pg. 81).

“Teachers who speak of ‘learning styles’ are labelling students in terms of how they (the teachers) think the students think, and thus overlooking the fact that the student can change, and learn new ways of thinking and can meet challenges in learning” (pg. 89).

 

“The focus of decision-making is more about developing the strategies of learning to achieve the success targets, and less about implementing a particular teaching method” (pg. 120).

“Nuthall (2005) found that most feedback that students obtained in any day in classrooms was from other students – and that most of this feedback was incorrect” (pg.138).

“Disconfirmation can be more powerful than confirmation” (pg. 139).

“Celebrate success, but examine it” (pg. 141).

“Teachers too often see assessments feedback as making statement about students and not about their teaching, and hence the benefits of feedback from such testing are often diluted” (pg. 141).

Replace your dinner conversations to, “What was the best thing that you did today (other than playtime)?’ to ‘What feedback did you receive from your teachers today?’” (pg. 150).

“The important distinction, however, is to move from the notion of ‘instructional leaders’ (which places too much emphasis on the instruction to ‘learning leaders’ (which places the emphasis on student and adult learning)” (pg. 175).

“We need to move from the prepositional divide of assessment as ‘assessments of’ and ‘assessment for’ to assessment as feedback for teachers” (pg.185).

"Not all teachers are effective, not all teachers are experts, and not all teachers have powerful effect of students” (Hattie, 2009) (pg. 190).

 

“My role, as a teacher, is to evaluate the effect I have on my students.’ It is to ‘know thy impact’, it is to understand this impact, and it is to act on this knowing and understanding”    (pg. 23).

For a more comprehensive summary of his synthesized research findings here is a link to Hattie presenting to a captive Ted Talk audience on what really matters for student achievement. Hattie on Ted.