To Learn Twice

As school leaders, we often have those around us approach us with requests that are difficult to meet. Many times, the first instinctive response we reach for in those difficult situations brought to us by a student, parent, or colleague is: “no.” That answer is safe, easy,  and  doesn’t require us to extend beyond our comfort zone. I heard once that the secret to helping others is by trying to get to “yes.” That doesn’t mean that the answer will be “yes,” but the trick is to figure out what it would take to get there  and  be open to walking down that path. Once you open the conversation up, you must listen carefully  and  find the good points. In nearly every difficult conversation, even those where you strongly disagree, there is usually some good idea. Looking for good points could get you closer to “yes.” It might not be what was asked for at the start, but working to “yes” gets you further than ending with “no.”

Almost everyone is done for the summer, or soon will be, and I believe this is your best time to grow through reflection because you actually have some time you can dedicate to the process. I have long practiced “ Currere ” as a method for structured reflection on a project or a school year. Here is a quick way to break down a school year using Currere by asking four simple questions: What was my experience last year? What do I want to do next year? How am I feeling about current abilities and skills? What is my path forward to a successful year next year? The trick to taking action on what you learn from reflection is verbalizing what you are going to do next year. Speak your plans out loud and listen to what you are saying. As told in the recent “ Rationally Speaking ” podcast, you don’t have to explain your plans to anyone but yourself, but you do have to say them out loud - even if you just speak to a rubber duck . You will then help yourself build a better plan. The r...

Last week the Illinois House passed new legislation that would mandate that cursive is taught in schools across Illinois. This comes during the same time that they cannot pass a budget, for two years running . This got me thinking of the question "at what cost does cursive come at?" So I have attempted to estimate and cost it out. The two major variables for hard costs are materials and professional development. Handwritten cursive requires consumable workbooks. A common set of materials for teaching cursive, which typically occurs in 3rd grade, is the  Zaner-Bloser Handwriting series , which comes at a cost of $11.69 per student. According to the Illinois Report Card  we have averaged 152,545 third graders each year over the past five years. This gives you a cost of student materials of $1,783,246 for the first year,   and for every year after that . Many schools haven't been teaching cursive for a while, so we would have to coach up our teachers, modify dail...

The recent  SchoolCIO Summit in Baltimore  focused on closing the digital divide across the United States. SchoolCIO Summit attendees, comprised of K-12 edtech leaders, came from different backgrounds ranging from large urban school districts like Baltimore, to small rural ones like Neosho, Missouri, and everything in-between. Attendees identified the toughest digital equity challenge to be Internet access. Many attendees equated the Internet with water or power--a utility that is necessary in today's modern world. There are government agencies, communities, and businesses partnering to close this gap, such as the nonprofit  EveryoneOn , whose Chief Programs Officer, Veronica Creech, led a panel discussion on the topic at the summit. The "One Million Project" ( #1MillionProject ) sponsored by  Sprint  seeks to close one-fifth of the five million unconnected families through WiFi hotspots.  Comcast’s Internet Essentials , which works in partnership with the ...

One of the challenges in working in education is the ease in which the public can attack schools. I believe that there are several societal changes that have led to the rise of teacher and school bashing: 1. The death of the local free press: It used to be easy to get a reporter and photographer to show up at school to see the awesome things going on. Now a lone reporter, who is spread too thin, tends to only show up when things go wrong. It is the bad news that gets Web visits. 2. Bad news has more places to travel fast: Social media promotes the travel of bad news--especially when it can be delivered in a punchy headline, picture, or video. 3. Schools are just buildings from the outside: The public drives by and sees our buildings but can't easily see what is going on inside of them. Without evidence that school is different, the public is left to believe that school is a place that is worse than before and headed in the wrong direction. We need to change this perception. What ed...

The calendar has now flipped to August and teachers are getting ready to return to school. As I reflect back on my early teaching career, I remember spending many hours planning amazing lessons, but not as much time thinking about the people I would meet. As I became a more veteran teacher, I realized that the time at the start of the school year was better spent getting to know my students and investing in building relationships. This school year, I challenge all of us to intentionally focus time on the learner. Push off some of the early time dedicated for content to connect with students. Research tells us that you will make that time back in effectiveness with the relationships you build. This strategy holds true for administrators as well, as the relationships we build at the start of the year will offer us insights into the student experience as the year progresses. Once the school year gets started, all educators should consider following the example of  Karen Ritter , assis...

We are finally reaching a point in schools where the divides between students, devices, and connectivity are closing. One of the last divides to close is easy access to instructional resources as many schools still use outdated, static, and heavy textbooks. With the onset of easy-to-use tools like  Google Classroom  for distribution of content, teachers need to be on the lookout for easily distributable open resources. Summer is the ideal time to start pulling some of this material together. Phil Lacey has pulled together a catalog  of many online repositories where teachers can get started. One of my favorites is  CK12  which is now easy to share with students using Google Classroom ( here are instructions ). For schools looking to move in this direction check out the # GoOpen  resources provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Here, John King explains: "Openly licensed educational resources can increase equity by providing all students, regardless of...