Friday, July 22, 2016

Harvard Day 7: Dr. Samuel Betances

Dr. Samuel Betances. Look him up. If you want to be inspired, follow him, watch videos of him speaking, think about his words. He was our final speaker of the Art of Leadership 2016.

First, he has cred. He told us he’s buried six brothers, citing drugs and violence as part of the environment he knew. He grew up in poverty, English wasn’t his first language, and he dropped out of high school. He was working at a hospital when a direct, kind woman started holding him accountable for his future. He speaks of her in this video:

My notes from his presentation are full of these clips of wisdom that should be on posters all over my office. And your office. And the world.

“You can't teach anybody until they give you permission to teach them; you can school them, but they may not give you permission to educate them”

“Never assume malice. Even when harmful things are done.”

“We have to stop failing students for not knowing what they haven’t been taught.”

“We don’t have students at risk. We have students with untapped potential.”

“Learn to reject rejection. The best revenge is success.”

“Words are noises that at pregnant with meaning.”

“You can’t be mad at parents for not giving what they don’t have.”

“To go from poverty to the professions, you must first cross a bridge called books."

“Every kid needs an adult that he doesn't want to disappoint with school failure.”

“Not all students in schools are  middle class, but all assessment tools are.”

“If you think you're a leader and you look back and no one is following, then maybe you're just taking a walk.”

Seriously. I’m having a hard time even summarizing all that I was inspired to think and to do after his talk. He talks about diversity and equity in a way that leaves no excuses for not educating every child in every school to the fullest.

He talks about words. I think I already wrote this in another post from another speaker, but kids need words! Think of all of the academic vocabulary we use. It can be like another language for some kids. It’s easy to say that parents need to talk to their kids more and have deeper conversations, but “You can’t be mad at parents for not giving what they don’t have.” Is it possible that the first step in breaking cycles of poverty is giving people words? Is it that simple?

I’m going to order this book, 30 Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain, on his recommendation. And I’m going to read more memoirs so I can learn from them and recommend them to others who can learn from them. And I’m going to ask kids to “authorize me to get into their business.” He advocates giving reading options as an alternative for disciplinary actions. I might even try that. I am inspired.

By far the most poignant thing he stated, and so incredibly appropriate in weeks full of racial conflicts and inequity and police murders, is this: “We have decided that some people are flags and some people are handkerchiefs. When really we are all made of cloth.”

So powerful.

He’s a diversity training consultant. He’s worked with Oprah. He’s a big deal, as he should be. I’m a little fangirl about the fact that he gave us all his email address. I wish that every educator I know could hear Dr. Betances speak, so I’m going to link a couple of the shorter videos here. You should totally watch them. I’ve watched many of them more than once. There are also keynote speeches on YouTube that are longer. Some of them are 80s and 90s, but it doesn’t matter.







Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Harvard Day 6, Part 2: Consultancy Protocol

My small group at AOL was the best one (Group 9 Forever!).

We met each day to review and discuss what we learned. It was always a powerful debrief, and it always deepened my understanding of the day’s topics. My group members included leaders from private, public, charter, and religious schools from all over the US and even China.

As pre-work for the institute, each participant completed a reflection on a current problem of practice and possible steps to improve the issue.

On the afternoon of day six, we met in our small groups and completed a consultancy protocol focusing individually on each person’s problem of practice. We each got 20 minutes of time directed specifically to something we were committed to work on, and the collective brain power of Group Nine was more than I could have ever hoped for in my twenty minutes.

The protocol we used is adapted from the Tuning and Consultancy Protocols and published by the Great Schools Partnership. The copy I have says I can copy it with attribution, but I do not have permission to post it online. If you’re a CSISD person, come see me.

We allocated time for an initial presentation by the focus person, clarifying and probing questions, group discussion, and then presenter response. I appreciated the ability of our group to focus on the problem at hand and to offer ideas, thoughts, and possible solutions. Many years ago I participated in a similar protocol through the Schlechty Center regarding lesson planning. I enjoyed that very much, but found that this process opens itself to a wider variety of problem solving topics.

This is another of those things I can’t wait to use with staff and colleagues. What if we used our staff development time or faculty meetings to dive deeply into problems of practice and truly focus on one issue or challenge? What if our data team meetings (which often become quick problem-solution conversations rather than true deep thinking meetings) followed an abbreviated protocol that helped us maintain focus and productivity? I think it would help all involved parties to see these meetings as more valuable and applicable.

Finally, I want to mention that we didn’t do the consultancy on the first day that we met each other. While we had only known each other five days, they were intense, powerful days of collaboration. I was incredibly comfortable sharing with my group, and I believe they would all say the same.

Earlier in the week we heard Liz City talk briefly about Meeting Wise. It just occurred to me at this moment that the protocol meets many of the guidelines for good meetings! 

It all comes together, doesn’t it!


Harvard Day 6: Leadership Case Study

The case study was awesome. Wonderful.  So cool. I loved all of the sessions, but this one was the one that I “got into” the most. Dr. Monica Higgins, Professor of Education Leadership at Harvard, led us through a case study that was out of sector, meaning it was unrelated to education. After five intense days of talking school, the time was right to discuss something not directly related.

It helps that that case study was about the disaster on Mount Everest in 1996, the same subject covered in detail in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air (maybe my favorite non-fiction book). I was SO EXCITED to discuss the case in the large group and hear other people’s perspectives, and I especially loved talking about it in my small group. The result, as you can expect, is that the out of sector case study was filled with applicability to leadership in every walk of life.

We were given the case study to read ahead of time, and Dr. Higgins began our time with this question: Why did this happen? As a group we went about the business of assigning blame and defending our positions. My opinion wasn’t necessarily reflected in the majority. (Adults have personal responsibility, people!  That’s all I’ll say!) It was fun to hear why others saw it the way they did.

We talked about systematic biases, specifically overconfidence bias and sunk-cost bias. I was especially in tune to sunk-cost bias because I think in education (and maybe in all fields) we have a tendency to continue an initiative with rigid determination simply because we’ve invested so much time and energy into making it work.

The importance of creating a psychologically safe environment was also quite clear in the study. Without that safe environment, people are not emotionally able to take risks. We talk all the time about creating an atmosphere where risk-taking is valued, both for teachers and for students, but I don’t know that we talk enough about how to create the psychologically safe environment that makes it possible. Dr. Higgins has published an article on this topic, available here.

Back to the idea of case study as professional development. It was incredibly engaging, and I found the presenter talked less than the participants. There was much back and forth in the group. Since our goal was to delve into leadership, we naturally tied our responses to that topic, but the presenter was available to steer us in the right direction.

We were given a book of case studies for leaders in education. It includes several case studies and guiding questions. I would LOVE to use this with a group of school leaders. I’ve done a few searches for case studies to use with teachers, but I’ve not yet found one that is as accessible as Everest. So help me out, internet!  If you’ve used case study with your teachers (in or out of sector), please share! Here’s the book I have that’s more appropriate for principals:



Did I mention that Dr. Higgins consults for the US Department of Education and has facilitated the Everest case study with Arne Duncan and his staff? It’s that good. It was such a pleasure and honor to get to participate in it with my Art of Leadership group!

Monday, July 18, 2016

Harvard Day 5, Part 2: Data Wise

Dr. Candace Bocala talked with us about the Data Wise process on the afternoon of day 5. The Data Wise process is outlined in The Data Wise Process: A Step by Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning by Kathryn Boudett. As with all of these posts, I will not go into detail about the Data Wise process because it’s not my work to share, but I do want to touch on some of the “a-ha” moments I had during the presentation.

I think it’s fair to say we’ve all looked at data. We talk about it all the time, reference it in conversations about how our schools are performing. Learning about the Data Wise process made me question how well we look at data, including what pre-conceived notions we bring to data analysis and how we may actually use data to reinforce our current thinking rather than to challenge us to question what we think. I know I’ve been in data meetings where the data reinforces what everyone already knew. The result is that all of the involved parties and their accompanying practices remain unchanged. Seems a little pointless when you think about it.

Bocala asserts that data conversations are conversations about diversity and equity. Data review should be grounded in inquiry and is a great way to get an entire team working to solve a problem together. I also greatly appreciated that Bocala references “all sources of information that give us information about student thinking and classroom instruction” as appropriate data to consider, which encompasses so much more than test scores.

We went through a process of reflection that included putting red, yellow, and green dots on the parts of a data review cycle. It was a great visual to see what parts of the process we do well and where we could improve. I’d like to use this process with teachers for other reflective conversations.

We also learned about the Ladder of Inference. This is so interesting to me because it articulates what I realized we’re missing in our data conversations. I found this great article on the ladder, and I think it would be worth your time as an educator to review it. Going through data review with the ladder in mind allows us to maintain our focus on facts and realities rather than our assumptions.

I learned about the Objectivity/Specificity Matrix. I haven’t found a clear online resource for this to link here, but if I do I’ll go back and add it. The concept is basically a way to give feedback that is specific and descriptive rather than judgmental and general.

And now for the really exciting part!  The Data Wise Project has a twitter account you can follow. Even better, you can take a free online course on Data Wise from Harvard! They have a great group of MOOCs which I’ll cover in another post, but I had to share this one here.  

We need to spend some time in our staff development talking about data, and I’m glad that I can now organize those conversations in the context of data wise. It will make us really consider what we can do to improve instruction for all kids.


Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Harvard Day 5, Part 1: Literacy

On the fifth day of the institute, we heard Dr. Pamela Mason discuss literacy. Dr. Mason is the director of the Language and Literacy master’s program at Harvard, and she was the person in charge of our entire institute. She’s great. Her presentation was particularly applicable to me because while I taught literacy at the high school level, I never had the privilege of teaching someone to read like the primary grade teachers in my school.
She began her presentation by asking us what we do when we read. There are some easy answers – make meaning, decode, etc., but can you really describe what happens in your brain when you’re reading?  I don’t think I’ve ever tried before, and I don’t know that I was successful. And I am a for real, hard core reader. We looked at samples of text that was all jumbled (which we could all still read, just slowly) and text that had such rich vocabulary that we could read it but had no idea what it said. Dr. Mason likened this to the way people with reading disabilities or who don’t have a good vocabulary may see text.
She discussed four pillars of literacy: phonemic awareness/oral literacy, phonics, vocabulary, fluency; and together these pillars hold up text comprehension. Writing and motivation serve as additional pillars. What most interested me was the designation of large and small problem areas, with vocabulary and comprehension in the “large problem areas” part of the diagram.
Throughout the institute, vocabulary continued to come up as vital part of literacy and learning. Mason advocates explicit instruction in vocabulary, and I questioned how much of that we do at my school. She stated that students should learn 3000-5000 academic words a year. That’s a lot!  But now more than ever I believe it’s necessary to increase students learning. Kids need words!
She asked us specific reflective questions about our schools and literacy. The questions were powerful for all school leaders, and if I can find them online published by Dr. Mason I’ll link them here. To me, they all spoke of rigor. Are we challenging kids with text and their responses to it, both in writing and orally? She also asked us to think about whether or not our kids are reading online. That’s certainly a life skill in the 21st century as much as reading print.
My English teacher heart was happy to hear her say that we shouldn’t throw out the canon, but we should expand it, including culturally relevant texts right alongside Shakespeare. I also would like to mention that she recommend The Warmth of Other Suns as a book that was meaningful to her, and it’s now on my “to read” list.
She concluded her presentation with an excerpt from a Kofi Anon quote that I think I’d like framed in my office:
“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”





Harvard Day 5, Part 1: Literacy

On the fifth day of the institute, we heard Dr. Pamela Mason discuss literacy. Dr. Mason is the director of the Language and Literacy master’s program at Harvard, and she was the person in charge of our entire institute. She’s great. Her presentation was particularly applicable to me because while I taught literacy at the high school level, I never had the privilege of teaching someone to read like the primary grade teachers in my school.
She began her presentation by asking us what we do when we read. There are some easy answers – make meaning, decode, etc., but can you really describe what happens in your brain when you’re reading?  I don’t think I’ve ever tried before, and I don’t know that I was successful. And I am a for real, hard core reader. We looked at samples of text that was all jumbled (which we could all still read, just slowly) and text that had such rich vocabulary that we could read it but had no idea what it said. Dr. Mason likened this to the way people with reading disabilities or who don’t have a good vocabulary may see text.
She discussed four pillars of literacy: phonemic awareness/oral literacy, phonics, vocabulary, fluency; and together these pillars hold up text comprehension. Writing and motivation serve as additional pillars. What most interested me was the designation of large and small problem areas, with vocabulary and comprehension in the “large problem areas” part of the diagram.
Throughout the institute, vocabulary continued to come up as vital part of literacy and learning. Mason advocates explicit instruction in vocabulary, and I questioned how much of that we do at my school. She stated that students should learn 3000-5000 academic words a year. That’s a lot!  But now more than ever I believe it’s necessary to increase students learning. Kids need words!
She asked us specific reflective questions about our schools and literacy. The questions were powerful for all school leaders, and if I can find them online published by Dr. Mason I’ll link them here. To me, they all spoke of rigor. Are we challenging kids with text and their responses to it, both in writing and orally? She also asked us to think about whether or not our kids are reading online. That’s certainly a life skill in the 21st century as much as reading print.
My English teacher heart was happy to hear her say that we shouldn’t throw out the canon, but we should expand it, including culturally relevant texts right alongside Shakespeare. I also would like to mention that she recommend The Warmth of Other Suns as a book that was meaningful to her, and it’s now on my “to read” list.
She concluded her presentation with an excerpt from a Kofi Anon quote that I think I’d like framed in my office:
“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”




Monday, July 11, 2016

Harvard Day 4, Part 2: Writing Across the Curriculum (and other stuff)

Dr. John Collins was our afternoon speaker on day four. He’s the guru of the Collins Writing Program, and spoke to us about writing across the curriculum. His program advocates four types of writing in all classrooms. I won’t detail those here, but you can get more information on his web site.

I was so interested to learn about the Yerkes-Dodson Law. Wikipedia explains it pretty well. This gist is that performance gets better with increased mental arousal, but there is a point where the arousal is too high and performance decreases. A good healthy level of stress and difficulty increases performance, but too much stress and difficulty, and learning will crash and burn. My business math class at A&M comes to mind…

Here’s a model from the Wiki article:

I’m very interested in identifying when students are at the top of the curve, and I know it will be at very different times for different kids. This speaks to appropriate rigor AND relevance at the same time. I like it.

Collins also stated “We over test and under quiz.” This left me questioning the role of formative assessment in our classrooms. Do we “quiz,” formally or informally, enough?  I always say that test scores should never surprise a teacher – the teacher should know who got it and who still has a way to go before he or she ever grades a test. But is that reflected in our practice?  It’s worth looking at.

He also spoke of the “curse of knowledge.” In other words, he believes that the longer you’ve taught something the harder it is to teach it because you lose the ability to understand why it’s hard. This reminded me of Daniel Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School?  I’m actually doing a 45 minute session on some of the concepts in this book at our district’s You Matter conference this fall, so Dr. Collins’s work may show up in the presentation as well!

Collins’s writing program comes with special paper that requires kids to skip lines. The main purpose for this is so that they can edit without having to recopy the whole thing. I thought of our students with dysgraphia or other difficulties with handwriting, and decided this is a great idea! His process also includes specific directions at the top of each page – called Focus Correction Areas (or FCAs)  - that he says work as a contract with the student, ensuring they know the requirements. I love that he didn’t just say that kids should write in every subject, but gave the how, both how kids should write and how teachers  should grade.

My favorite tip was a writing assignment as closure that’s something like, “What would be a great quiz question over what we covered today?” The teacher picks the best one and uses it. Then (my favorite part) you put all of the good questions in a jar at the front of the room and pull them out periodically to spiral back through content. Genius! Another tip was to take a student’s paper that meets the requirements well and copy it onto the back of all of the papers when you return them (with the name off, of course). This allows all students to have a positive “mentor”writing assignment to review and prepare for next time. Overall, his program seems very user friendly.

Sidebar: He’ll be in Houston at a couple of schools in the fall. I’m thinking of calling those schools to see if we can send a teacher or two who doesn’t teach writing but will integrate writing into the courses they do teach.

Finally, and not really related to school, I learned about a column in the New York Times called “The Ethicist.” Each installment gives a situation with an ethical dilemma. It seemed like productive fun to look these up and discuss around the dinner table. And I’d be lying if I didn’t see a great timed writing prompt for high school kids in there somewhere, too!





Thursday, July 7, 2016

Harvard, Day 4, Part 1: Efficacy

I don’t even know where to start.  Dr. Jeff Howard from The Efficacy Institute was our speaker. It was inspiring to say the least. Here are my takeaways:

Dr. Howard talked about being accepted to an elite high school based on his scores on an admissions test. Then all students who were accepted were tracked into three levels. He so clearly articulated the problem with this tracking. All students who were accepted had top test scores. 

However, in the environment of the school, the lowest group was the “dumb” group. They felt it, it created animosity between the students, and it labeled them as not good enough. These high-achieving students were made to feel “less than.” If a school can make high achieving students feel this way, imagine how it can make students feel who haven’t yet reached their potential.

He contrasted that experience with his experience at Harvard. During an early student experience, the president of the university addressed his freshman class. I’m paraphrasing, but the president stated that he believed they would graduate in four years because Havard doesn’t make admission mistakes

Think about the contrast. One organization segregated the best-of-the-best from the worst-of-the best. The other believed in the success of all students and empowered them to work hard and learn.

He said, “People play the role you create for you them.” I loved this message so much. So much.

Dr. Howard also talked of the “Room 206” idea. He asked if any of us knew of a classroom like Room 206, where tough kids with little educational background are working and engaged and achieving. Of course, we all know classrooms like that. The point, however, is that Room 206 proves it’s possible for everyone to achieve. Knowing that, Dr. Howard challenged us to consider this: Is it moral, then, to have rooms where everyone doesn’t achieve? Think about that for a while.

Proficiency does not have a flexible definition, he says. We sell kids short when we create different levels of proficiency for them based on what we think they can do. He describes the efficacy paradigm - everyone is capable of brilliance; capabilities are built over a lifetime through the action of effective effort. He addresses Adult Proficiency. He advocates the idea of “Getting Smart” rather than being smart.

It’s Dweck 2.0.

My favorite quotes:
“Are we saying that kids who are currently failing algebra can become engineers? Damn right.”
“If you can make a change [to help all students succeed] and you don't, you have to live with the moral consequences of that.”

You need to learn more from him. This article is a great one. I wrote the word “OUCH!” in the margin more than once.  I also found this pretty long video of him speaking. I didn’t watch it all, but I skimmed it. It seems very similar to what he shared with us. It would be worth your time.

I’m going to throw in one caveat. Dr. Howard focuses his arguments primarily on test scores. I’ve realized that the environment I’m in is very unique – where test scores are a source of information but not the only measure of success.  For educators all over the country, test scores are THE thing that defines them. This saddens me, as I don’t believe student learning can be completely quantified. So while I don’t believe in giving standardized tests any more power than they already have, I think Dr. Howard’s argument still holds true. I believe that all students can learn at high levels, and that’s his over-arching message.  



Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Harvard Day 3, Part 2: Strategy

In the afternoon on day three, Dr. Elizabeth City spoke with us about strategy. I have to admit that I wasn’t super excited about this session because it was the afternoon and I was tired, and also (with no offense to Dr. City) talking about strategy didn’t sound like something that would keep me on the edge of my seat. Then it occurred to me that maybe I should think more about strategy, and her talk, along with the activities we completed, reinforced that idea.

The first line of my notes reads "fail forward." We heard this term often during the week, and it's my new favorite. In my school and district we've talked about the importance of failure on the path to learning, and this term articulates it perfectly. I shall now forever use the words "fail forward." You a use them, too, if you like.

We started with a rousing game of Double This, Double That.  Look it up on YouTube (I’m not linking it because I’m going use it – so if you work at my school and are reading this – DO NOT look it up. No cheating!) Then Dr. City referenced a quote from US gymnast Simone Biles: “Remember to have fun. When I’m smiling and having fun, I perform the best.”

Needless to say, I loved this teacher and this session immediately!

She discussed the concept of starting with why, and since I had participated in a book study on Simon Sinek’s work Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, I felt that I had good background knowledge. However, when I studied the book I always kept getting back to the importance of the how and the what. I felt that if you only talk about why, then you miss lots of people who could help you reach your goals. I struggled with this throughout my book study.

My understanding of Sinek’s work was deepened greatly when Dr. City stated that if you just keep answering why questions, you’ll keep getting what questions. I found that I agree with the concept of the why being the most important, but that answering how and what isn’t in direct disagreement with that.

Why does strategy matter? It helps you move toward a vision. She also stated that if the current level of performance is satisfying your goals, then you don’t need a strategy. This allowed me to take a deep breath as I had this preconceived notion that she would suggest having a strategy for everything, which made me overwhelmed before she even began her presentation. In fact, she explicitly stated that strategy is NOT everything an organization does.

Strategy makes us prioritize, especially in the field of education where we seem to have new initiatives starting every five minutes. I’ve been working through our areas of improvement for next year and talking with our school’s leadership team about them. City’s activity of categorizing strategies and then placing initiatives beneath them seems like a very productive exercise for our young school.

She recommended a book that calls my name with its title: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande(man, I love a checklist!), and she’s published several books herself that intrigue me, including MeetingWise and Lessons from the DataWise Project. Overall, she was an energetic speaker who caused me to think of strategy in a different way than I had before. While this didn’t appeal to the the warm and fuzzy part of my job, it was definitely a nuts and bolts, how-to-get-things- done-well learning opportunity that will make me a better school leader. Dr. City was speaking my language, and I would love to learn more from her.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s Simon Sinek’s TED Talk on Starting With Why.