Educated Visions

Let's Talk About the "How."

2007-03-23T15:30:56-04:00

I heard about this awesome private school group called "Waldorf." Check them out at http://www.awsna.org/. As I read their website, I noticed that they speak to many conceptss of Coaching. So, I gained information about a school that embraces Coaching concepts. Now what?!!

That's the question isn't it. We know that there are schools out there who would embrace our concepts. How might we approach them. What would we say? What vehicle would we use?! So much to think about just to be able to bring successful concepts to the children, Teachers and Administrators of a school.

I encourage anyone reading this blog to shout out their ideas about the "HOW" of getting into these schools. Here are a few things that came to mind as I was looking at it.

What are their goals? - I went into a website for a local waldorf school and found a description of their long-range plans. This included Teacher retention, parental/Teacher relationships, Administrator/Teacher relationships, and Leadership training. All are things Coaches can help with and speed along.

What's important? - In reading their website I found out that community within the school and with parents is extremely important. That's a great way to start a relationship with the school. Speak to what's important to them. In this case I think the work Authentic might even be understood. My opening question could be: "Want to build an authentic community within your school?" If they respond to that, then they WANT a Coach!!

Speak on their level. - Whether we call, write, send an ad or make contact in other ways, we need to speak to them where they are. They don't have the Coaching Vocabulary. They have education vocabulary. Speak to their issues in their terms, with their issues at heart. Then propose that they change things and add in how that would look in terms they can relate to.

Any comments or ideas, please post them here!

Classroom Rules

2007-01-12T09:17:52-05:00

I just had the most wonderful experience at my first weekend of Coach Training. It was an "in person," 3-day weekend and the learning was absolutely astounding!!! I have experienced a classroom that I can flourish in and there are some aspects of it that I believe can be transferred into our school classrooms.

From a completely personal aspect, I have struggled in traditional classrooms. A text book, with a Teacher at the head of the class, everyone quiet and sitting still. I was an average student. Did the best I could with what I had. This weekend, I was able to embody the learning. I was able to feel it, experience it and fall flat on my face as I did so.

Many things contributed to my advanced learning. One is the environment created by the two "Teachers." My favorite rule was Nobody gets to be wrong. On day two we were encouraged to fail. Just in creating an atmosphere where experimentation was the name of the game, we were all "safe" to do what we needed to do in order to learn. The Teachers were very good at staying on task, cutting people off when needed and clarifying our understanding with us. As a student, I felt like I could ask any question, try out what I had learned, share my thoughts on the topic etc... without judgment. This was HUGE!! I felt supported, heard, understood and SMART! I've never been in a classroom where that was true for me.

So, how can we create this in a regular, school classroom? Here's where I see it's possible. Teachers are taught to listen for what the student is wanting or trying to say. They learn to acknowledge the student AND the work the student accomplishes. At the beginning of the school year/quarter/semester, the Teacher lays down the rule that nobody gets to be wrong when they are sharing their thoughts. The Teacher models these things for the student on a daily basis and Teachers work together to model it when in groups. I believe this is possible in the classrooms we have today. It's just a matter of a little training... maybe a weekend like I had last weekend.

Imagine the confidence that can be built in each child who gets to feel what Ifelt in MY class!!

Listening -- A Key to Success

2006-09-24T13:27:18-04:00

"Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery." Dr. Joyce Brothers

In the communication process, we spend nearly half of our time listening. Yet, people often complain that "nobody's listening" -- and sometimes that is true. With so much going on around us, it's easy (and occasionally necessary) to tune out some of the noise. However, good listening is powerful in aiding human relationships and necessary for real communication to take place.

When we feel as though we've been heard, been listened to, we love the listener who has embraced us and our thoughts and feelings. We connect and feel understood. Our confidence and self-esteem lift.

In schools, students are called upon to listen 60-70% of the time. Listening to directions; listening during lectures; listening to passages of content, to stories and films. Listening in assemblies and performances. Listening in social interactions and information exchanges with fellow students.

Listening with intention, active listening, is a learned skill. From childhood, we have our hearing tested frequently. But what about our ability to listen? Listening can be assessed, taught and exercised. It can be developed and nurtured.

How can the skill of listening be taught and cultivated? It starts with a teacher who listens to students and models the behaviors of active listening: At first, silence and eye contact, then head nodding and facial expressions that show understanding. Next, with appropriate questions and responses to what has been said.

If a teacher gives specific instructions and examples of listening behaviors, and orchestrates practice of those behaviors, improved listening will become evident among the students. The result? A more harmonious classroom atmosphere where even greater learning takes place -- a space for success.

Listening is a life skill that offers clear communication benefits for both listeners and speakers.

What Can We Learn?

2006-09-12T01:55:53-04:00

A Teacher learns every day they are in the classroom. Each student has something to Teach. What if the Teacher went into school each day to be a learner? Yes, there are lesson plans and curriculum that need to be taught. What if it wasn't Teaching at all? What if the plans concepts became a learning tool for both the Teacher AND the student?

No, I haven't lost my mind. I'm serious!! Take one of my favorite lesson plans for learning the musical staff in first grade.

Objective: To be able to identify each of the spaces on a musical staff. First we talk about the names of the spaces on a staff... "FACE". Then a few students draw notes on the board in a staff, followed by a bean bag toss game where students name the space the bean bag lands on. GREAT! This is learning, this fun, this is what a Teacher is supposed to do.

There are many ways to actually go about teaching this plan. What if the personal objective for the Teacher was to learn one thing about each student? Or learn who has made friends and who hasn't. What's the value in that? It's information that helps the Teacher guide each student through the school year. A Teacher who really knows her students can Teach with heart and meet her students where they are. Allowing the student to learn while remaining an individual.

This also creates an atmosphere in the classroom that is curious. Where exploration is encouraged. When a Teacher is excited about learning through her day, the students become excited about learning, as well. They start learning from each other and meeting each other on their own level. This would be a safe environment for kids to explore new things, ask questions and play with the many options that are in front of them throughout the day. The Teacher asks questions and the students answer. As the student answers, the Teacher gets really curious about what the student knows and allows that student to share his knowledge with the class. Then toss around a few other thoughts to come up with a creative exploration of a concept.

When I was a Teacher, this was my dream. To have a full day of tossing around ideas and concepts. I never thought to try it as a learner. The students can Teach so much. I wanted to get to get to know each student and I wanted to give each student a chance to shine. Here is one way to foster that atmosphere. Create a community of learners.

Communities of Learning

2006-09-06T13:04:31-04:00

What would our schools look and feel like today if they were truly communities of learning? Imagine if all the stakeholders in the school community truly identified themselves as learners. All of us, administrators, parents, teachers, board members, and of course our students, acknowledging that what we don’t yet know is a more powerful motivator in our lives than what we claim to know. What would the conversation sound like in our staff meetings and our board meetings? What approach would we take to a phone call with a dissatisfied parent or a child who has been sent to the Principal’s office? How would we present our ideas in our professional associations? How would we respond to the ideas of other?

When I declare myself a learner and live my life that way, I am committed to ongoing reflection and consideration of new ideas and approaches in light of what I have already learned. I am a listener and know the value of developing good listening skills- if I can’t listen I might miss critical learning. I am a keen observer, aiming to describe what I see even before I try to make sense of it in the context of what I think I already know and believe. As a learner I am thirsty for any and all sources of knowledge. As a Jewish learner, I am sensitive to the complexity and multiplicity of meaning and that sensitivity humbles me. But to play on Rabbi Hillel’s statement in Sayings of Our fathers, ‘if I am only a learner what am I?’

I am not sure that learning can really take place in the absence of community. Although some of us might wish otherwise, the garden of eden is not a secluded island filled with books for man to pore through for the rest of his life. Each of us is unique and endowed with divine capacities. As Rabbi Isaac Hakohen Kook has taught[1] ‘True peace can only come into the world through multiplicity…when all sides and approaches are revealed and it will become clear how there is a place for each.’ We have much to learn from each other, and a true community of learning is structured to honor that assumption. Professionals learn from their lay leaders and vice versa. Teachers have opportunities to collaborate and learn with and from each other. Students are not only learning with each other but are exposed to a broad range of people and ideas.

May we all be inspired to create and contribute to communities of learning!

[1] Author’s translation

Realistic Expectations

2006-08-21T19:06:27-04:00

To have no expectations as a teacher or learner doesn't fit in these days of standards, test scores, and comparisons to schools "like ours." As teachers we've been fed a steady diet of objectives, outcomes, benchmarks, and accountability. And, we've been instructed to share those objectives and outcomes with students. There's no getting around it: there ARE expectations!

But, we can avoid the trap of unrealistic expectations. I think this is a good place for Coaches to become involved in the educational process. Coaches can work with teachers to help them steer clear of the pitfalls of placing too many expectations upon themselves and taking on excessive extra-curricular responsibilities. Perhaps the role of a Coach here is helping teachers to specifically define their goals and expectations. These smaller expectation bites will be easier to measure, reinforcing progress or showing where the process is breaking down. Having met with success, it's easy to set the next workable goals and expectations. If skills need reteaching, that is quickly recognized.

Also of great importance, more definitive goals will permit teachers to keep a healthy work/life balance. Maintaining that work/life balance benefits teachers, their families, and their students.

Walking the Path of Collaboration

2006-08-17T17:50:40-04:00

If I am honest with myself, I know that there were always and only two questions that I asked myself before I took on any new job or challenge: the first was am I passionate about the work? Do I really believe in the vision of what this work will allow me to do? And, are there people I will love to work with and learn from? Will I be part of a team? And so, even before I consciously used the language of “collaboration”, it was what I gravitated towards. But I have learned that collaboration does not come naturally to everyone.

In my graduate work in education at Stanford, (more than 20 years ago), I was first exposed to the ‘new’ methodology of cooperative learning by a wonderful and much missed professor, Dr. Elizabeth Cohen. When I began teaching, I applied it with a vengeance. There was something so powerful to the idea that my students could deepen their learning by working cooperatively with each other. Even back then, I resonated with the “coach approach” that says, ‘I am not the expert!’ Today it is a popular idea … “The teacher isn’t the sage on the stage but the guide from the side”. I was the facilitator who could help my students learn important concepts as well as how to learn with and from each other. As I moved into administration and ultimately began coaching administrators, I saw that the basic questions which animate cooperative learning techniques, are still the building blocks of any collaborative relationship:

· What is our mission or task?

· What role will we each play to complete the task?

· What do we need to know and be able to do?

· How will we hold ourselves accountable for accomplishing the task in a timely way?

· What will we do when we get stuck?

· What is the measure of our success?

The real challenge of collaboration is not ‘how do we do it?’ There are many wonderful guidelines, models and protocols available for teams who want to work collaboratively. (See below for some inspiring resources). The real challenge of collaboration is being open to truly experiencing it. Over the course of many years of walking the path of collaboration, I have stumbled over many of the obstacles and some have stopped me dead in my tracks. I don’t think they are all avoidable, and in fact, I am not sure that true collaboration can be had without encountering them. The breakthrough comes when you can name the obstacles, reconnect with your purpose for collaborating and draw on the wisdom of the group to forge ahead. I share just a few of these with you so that you might be better prepared for them.

I am accountable and so I will decide how we do this. I have coached many principals who stumble across this one. You want a leadership team that will share the burden of running the school. You want substantive team meetings devoted to problem solving that result in effective action. But what happens, when the team wants to move in a direction that may create conflict among other stakeholders in the school? Can you trust the team? Will the team support you?

I have the experience, I have been doing it this way forever, and we don’t need to change. I remember working with one particular team of teachers in a Language Arts Department of a middle school that were asked to collaboratively revise their approach to formal assessment. The chair of the department was a few years away from retirement and during her tenure had initiated many creative programs. Her faculty was now much younger and implementing new ideas and approaches more closely aligned with some of the newer theories of how to help students learn. The group had been using a protocol to examine their current assessments and consider where they were succeeding and where they were falling short. Not surprisingly, the chair of the department became increasingly agitated and obstructionist as it became clear that her traditional approaches were not working. What needs to happen for the chair to feel safe in this group context? How can she see herself as a learner? What is she afraid of giving up? What can the group offer her to compensate for the loss?

If I have to collaborate with others, I will be unmasked as inadequate to the task. You know the faculty member who is always sitting with her arms crossed and chair slightly pulled back from the group? What if her distance is not about resistance but insecurity? As administrators we have all inherited staff that we can’t justify firing, who seem not to be up to the task, and they know it too! Being a full participant in a collaborative effort can be very threatening and more often gets expressed as sarcasm and criticism rather than partnership. As the leader establishing the collaborative team, are you giving mixed messages? Are you measuring staff by the results they produce and ignoring the process they used to achieve the results? Are there ways in which you can develop your staff in areas where they need support? How can you be a resource for your teams so that they can feel successful?

The greatest gift of collaboration for me has been that as a result of our collaborations, my colleagues have become some of my dearest and closest friends. They have walked the path with me and we have stumbled together learning how to pick each other up and keep going to reach our destination.

Check out these resources:

· Annenberg Institute for School Reform. www.annenberginstitute.org. One of their core principals is that Community matters. Check out the ‘resources’ on their website.

· Coalition for Essential Schools. www.essentialschools.org. Check out the ‘resources” tab and look under Leadership and Community Connections

· The Power of Protocols by McDonald, Mohr, Dichter and McDonald. Teachers College Press, 2003

· Changing Schools From Within: Creating Communities of Inquiry edited by Gordon Wells, Ontario Institute for Studies In Education, 1993

· Designing Groupwork, by Elizabeth Cohen. Teachers College Press, 1986

· The Five Dysfunctions of A Team, Patrick Lencioni, Jossey Bass, 2002

A Vision Of Collaboration

2006-08-15T10:57:59-04:00

Where does Coaching fit into Collaboration? In schools there are many different levels of collaboration, beginning with the student and going all the way up to the Superintendent. Coaching offers the opportunity for each person to find their own unique contribution to the development of the group. Here's a thought...

A Teacher and Principal are having a discussion about how to facilitate the education of a student who has been difficult in the past. The objective is to create a systematic solution to the daily issues in the classroom. The Principal enters the conversation ready to listen to the Teacher's concerns. The Teacher enters the conversation ready to listen to the Principal's ideas. Both know that their opinion is important and they each have something unique to offer to the solution. Both allow an atmosphere free of judgment and blame. After all, it's not about who is right or wrong, it's about helping the student in the most empowering way they can create TOGETHER. What are some ways we can create this kind of collaboration right now?

Honoring Your Parents' Child

2006-08-05T10:50:46-04:00

You have a valuable job. You spend every day nurturing, educating and caring for children. But when was the last time that you took extra care of your parents’ child: You? Do you make sure that you eat properly, get enough sleep, have fun, take time for the things that are most important to you?

Many teachers feel that they would be cheating their students if they didn’t work so hard. I know many people (including myself from time to time) who feel that they just don’t have the time to relax; that too many other people depend on them.

The irony to this way of thinking, is that when your own needs are being sacrificed, you might be giving it all you’ve got, but it isn’t close to what you are capable of. No one wins.

An example is demonstrated through the pre-flight video on commercial airplanes. When the flight staff instruct you on the use of oxygen masks, they always state that parents of small children must put a mask on themselves first, before they put one on their child. This goes completely against parental instinct. But the reasoning is valid: if you become unconscious, or worse, who is going to take care of your child then?

Teachers are one of society’s most valuable resources. Parents entrust you with their heart’s greatest treasure everyday. Honor them (and your own parents) by living well yourself. It will be a gift for everyone.

New School Year Expectations

2006-08-01T09:34:01-04:00

Ah, it's that time again. Schools are gearing up for a new year. Time for a fresh start. As a Music Teacher I remember going back to school in the fall with all sorts of goals and dreams. I was going to be more creative, handle my classes better, get a better system together for organizing my room and so on. I expected the Principal to be nicer, fellow Teachers to be less "clicky" and students to be better behaved.

Boy I had a lot of expectations. Not only of myself, but of my students, Staff and Administrators too. No wonder I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere after the first month of school. I wonder what it might have been like if I would've walked into that school on the first in-service day with no expectations. If I would've just been there to learn, connect with my fellow Teachers and be present with what was going on in the moment. What would THAT be like?

What would it be like if the only expectation was that I do my job to the best of my ability?

As I think about those in-services, I see the possibility for Coaches to go into a school and help create an atmosphere free of unrealistic expectations. I wonder what that might look like. I wonder what might become of a school like that. I wonder what the benefits would be for the Teachers, Students, Staff and Administrators.