Leading - The Power of Why

This TedTalk is about 6 years old and many of you have probably seen it before; however, it is one of those talks that I go back to periodically and re-watch because of its powerful message.  It is absolutely worth the 18.5 minutes.  Please take some time to watch it.



I am generally very skeptical of relating to education, books or talks that are business oriented.  This is one of those talks that I connect with as an educator.  Simon Sinek lays out for us the power of "WHY?"  He demonstrates how leaders who are successful understand and use that power to their benefit while those who don't, fail or simply get by.

If you are in a position of leadership or aspire to be, I encourage you to think about why you do what you do and how you share those ideas, as opposed to focusing simply on what you want to do and how you want to do it.

I find this notion very powerful. What are your thoughts?

Evernote, Backchanneling, and Tabs, Oh My!

George Couros

I just read a short post entitled, Stating the Obvious, by George Couros on his blog, The Principal of Change. Basically, the post is about the penchant of adults to complain about how kids are so distracted by their devices, yet when it comes down to it, they are simply doing what adults do when they are bored. I agree with the sentiment that this is stating the obvious; however, it is amazing how many people complain about this phenomenon and don't realize the hypocrisy of it. I guess my post is just expanding upon the idea in Stating the Obvious. By the way, if you don't follow The Principal of Change blog, you should start. I have learned a great deal from reading it.


All of our minds have wandered at meetings and we've opened up our email on our handheld device, tablet, or laptop. When I do that I am generally not engaged in the content of the meeting or session. But, I also want to note that I often use a device and may look as though I am distracted or not paying attention when, in fact, I am actually more engaged than others who may appear to be listening and attending to the teacher or presenter.

First, there is simply using an electronic device to take notes. I hate writing with a pen or pencil. After about the third word, my hand cramps up (likely psychosomatic) and I stop. So, when I am typing on a device, there is an excellent chance I am taking notes in Evernote. This is evident from the blog posts that I have written from my notes after sitting in sessions at Teachers College during their Saturday Reunions. (#TCRWP Saturday Reunion - March 2013 - Laurie Pessah's Workshop, #TCRWP - Cornelius Minor Session on the BYOT Movement, or Depths of Knowledge (DOK) is More Than an Acronym!)


Second, there is backchanneling! Generally, when I am at an #edcamp or #TCRWP session (or any other for that matter) I look for others who are having a conversation about the topic behind the scenes. I find that backchanneling  has provided me with a renewed ability to focus on the points that a presenter is making. When I can tweet out or use some other backchannel to converse about the topic as it is being presented, I am able to better digest the material, wrestle with it, and ultimately engage with it in a deeper way.


Third, I am often finding resources that a presenter is mentioning. There are sessions that I have attended where I have actually ordered a book from Amazon as the presenter had it up on the projector screen. When presenters mention other thought leaders, bloggers, and researchers on the topic being presented, I generally like to pull up a tab in my web browser immediately with the blog or connection so that I can easily find them when I get home.

While I realize that our students in school may not be doing the things I mention above. I think that we should find out what they are doing before we get upset. If they are productively engaging in their own digital way, then we should probably let them keep doing what they are doing. If they are just playing around and doing other things, we should probably try to figure out if it is our instruction that is lacking before we blame the devices.

How do you "pay attention" at meetings and conferences?

Reflections - Post #1

Last year on Super Bowl Sunday I decided that the following day was going to be a new start for me. I was
mainly referring to my health, weight and other related things. However, in making that decision last February, I have found that the past year has provided me with an amazing "refreshed" outlook on life, work, and family.

I wrote a post on December 2nd that gives some detail about my decision to make some changes in my health entitled, HATS,Goals, and Me. This post is a reflection upon the ten months or so leading up to running a 5k on Thanksgiving morning, the satisfaction of reaching that goal, and how it fit in with our school theme this year. The process of the last year has truly made me assess my goals and priorities throughout all aspects of my life.

By Everaldo Coelho and YellowIcon  via Wikimedia Commons

I had to sit down and take a look at all of the things that are on my plate and decide what things are vital to me and what things need to fall by the wayside or need to be postponed.  As I reflected upon this and made a list (I love lists, especially digital lists!); here is what I came up with:

Vital (these are not in order after the first two)
Family
Health
Friends
Work/Educator
Personal Learning and Growth
My PLN
Inner Peace/Faith
New Experiences
Time
Change


Postponed/Wayside (these are not in order at all)
Doctoral Work
Some Home Improvements
Toxic People
Sweating the Small Stuff
Stuff, in general - clutter



Please note that these are fairly broad categories and each has more specific subtopics on my personal list. This post is an introduction to a series of posts I am going to write about the items on the lists above. As I have always said, this blog is a place for me to learn with others by reflecting upon my life and work. So, this may get personal, but I hope that working through these topics here will provide greater clarity for me in the year ahead and maybe ignite a spark for someone else to look at things differently or make a change. As I work through these posts over the coming weeks/months I reserve the right to add to or modify the list as any evolving, reflective thinker might.

On some level this post and those that follow are inspired by @DrSpikeCook. This year he committed to writing a post a day for 365 days. I am not ready for that challenge (maybe next year); however, I wanted to commit to at least a series of posts that would provide direction and focus this year. This is my start. I am sure I will have posts about other things in between, but look for the title, "Reflections" and the post number for the ones in this series.

Please join me and comment along the way. I would greatly appreciate it.

Unannounced Observations

A strange phenomenon is occurring in my school at the moment surrounding unannounced observations. This year, the NJDOE has instituted a new teacher evaluation system for all teachers. One component requires at least one unannounced observation of the three required for tenured staff. This is a departure from past practice in our district. We have generally scheduled our visits. There was never a real sense of urgency to do unannounced observations because administrators work to be in classrooms for walkthroughs anyway, so "unannounced" informal observations were happening fairly regularly.

Our first round of observations completed before the New Year were all announced, but our second round of tenured observations have all been unannounced. This has created a different vibe in the building than I have been used to for the last 11 years. I remember back when I started teaching 20 years ago in a different district where all observations were unannounced; the principal would walk out of his office with his leather portfolio and news would spread like wildfire through the building that he was on the move. It was crazy because usually when he came to your room, you were already teaching and never got the message in time anyway, so you just did your thing and got observed.

Now, I am the principal and over the past several weeks every time I leave my office, I notice people looking to see if I have my iPad in my hands. It has actually become somewhat of a joke where I either hold up my hands to show that I am not "carrying" or I politely remind the teacher looking at my hands that, "my eyes are up here:-)"

Here is the crazy part, I am seeing some great lessons!! I am beginning to think that when teachers have advanced notice of observations they tend to over-think it. I have a wonderful staff who are dedicated to student learning and success every day. Conducting unannounced formal observations has only served to reinforce my belief that our staff "gets it" and that our children are being served well through their efforts. Can all of us improve in some areas? Yes, and that goes for me, the teachers, and anyone reading this post; however, I think that the shift to including an unannounced component to our observation system has been a positive one. I realize this may not be a revelation for those who have always conducted unannounced observations, but it was a wonderful reminder for me!

What do you think? Are your observations announced or unannounced? Which do you prefer? Why?

HATS, Goals, and Me

HUH?!?

Let me explain.

What is HATS?
At our school this year the theme is "HATS off to Learning!" HATS is an acronym for Habits, Attitudes, Talents and Skills.  More specifically:

       strong Habits

     positive Attitudes
celebrating Talents
developing Skills

We have been exploring these concepts during our Morning Meetings, at our Whole School Meetings, and throughout our classroom discussions this year. We even have a bulletin board in the hallway where students and teachers can post pictures that they would like to share of examples of their habits, attitudes, talents, and skills. So, how does this apply to me? As lead learner, it is important that I model what I am asking of the students. I don’t know that I consciously did it, but when I look back on things now, the last 5 months have been a reflection of our school theme for me (actually it is more like 8 months). Once again, let me explain.

New Habits
On Super Bowl Sunday 2013 I made the decision to start eating healthier. I was probably the heaviest that
I have ever been in my life and completely out of shape. I let myself get comfortable in the mindset that I was too busy to worry about my health. So, I decided that night that I was going to eat healthier. I’ve made the mistake of jumping in to this type of thing too quickly in the past and I didn't want to fail, so I figured I would just give the eating thing a try. It worked. I lost some weight and was starting to feel a bit better about things. This was the first STRONG HABIT that I cultivated. I continued this until the school year came to an end and then it was time to really make a decision on how to move forward.

Several months before, I downloaded C25K onto my iPhone; that is a “Couch to 5K” app. It sat on my phone and I opened it from time to time when I was bored; however, I did not really have any intention of using it. However, my PLN (Professional Learning Network) changed that. I went to #edcampphilly in April and met up with a number of people from my twitterverse.  After the event, we went out to celebrate and @sirotiak5, @wkrakower, @misscas22, and @thomascmurray were talking about doing a 5k in the summer (If I missed anyone, my apologies). There was no way that I was in any shape to run a 5k by then, no matter how many times they said I should. BUT, that was the spark that I needed.  I still didn't start running right away, but the seed had been planted!

On July 1st, I decided that I was going to give it a try. I have always hated running and it was definitely something I had never tried before to get in shape. Enter STRONG HABIT number 2. The app says that you will be ready for a 5k in 8 weeks. I say, “Ha Ha Ha!” If I tried that I would have certainly quit early. Fortunately, one of the many runners with whom I work (its like an epidemic at Bear Tavern) said that if I did not feel ready to move on to the next week’s running schedule I should just do the week over again; and again if necessary. That was great advice. By the end of the summer, I would get upset if I missed my running workout at the gym.

Positive Attitude

Somewhere during those two months in the summer, I decided that I needed a goal to attain. Since I had the app and was using it, I guess it was natural to decide on running a 5k. Thanksgiving seemed like a reasonable time-frame and my town has a Turkey Trot every Thanksgiving. So, in August when the registration became available online, I registered. At this point it became real. I told everyone that I knew about it so that I couldn't back out. I genuinely believed that I was going to run a 5k on Thanksgiving. I think it is safe to call that POSITIVE ATTITUDE. Even when I injured my hip and basically could not run for much of October and November (except on the stationary bike or elliptical), I knew that I was going to reach the goal!

Celebrating Talents and Developing Skills
Since my running mantra had always been "I'm not running unless someone is chasing me," it was awkward for me to start celebrating accomplishments in something that I have generally disliked my entire life. However, I found that for some reason my dislike of running actually seemed to make the accomplishments more meaningful. I began to realize that I probably disliked it because I never felt that I was any good at it. The first time I ran for 20 minutes straight I texted my wife with, "I DID IT!" Similar texts ensued as I reached other goals. I don't really know if running is a talent, but I know that I sure began to CELEBRATE it! Additionally, by reaching these goals and increasing my stamina, I was DEVELOPING the SKILL.

The Point(s)
We all need goals, and I found one that helped to spur me on to a healthier lifestyle. I received texts the morning of Thanksgiving from numerous friends and colleagues offering support. Here are a couple texts that I received from teachers at Bear Tavern:

"It is a great morning to run. Enjoy the moment and celebrate the accomplishment. You may not know this, but you've inspired a lot of your teachers - including me. Have fun."

"Happy Thanksgiving. Happy run! Disregard the other runners and have fun - even in the cold - this is what you've trained for. I look forward to hearing about it all." 

I can't convey how amazing it was to receive those messages that morning. I truly work with amazing people who are always there for one another. That morning as the nerves built up and I started to wonder if I was crazy for doing this, these thoughtful notes meant a lot.

I know that running a 5k is not a big deal in the scheme of things, but for me it means a great deal. I proved to myself that I can do it. I truly feel that I acted as an example for my own children and those at Bear Tavern in getting healthier, setting a goal, and working to achieve it. It reminded me of the amazing and supportive people with whom I work everyday. It showed me that my PLN is more powerful than I thought and can foster all kinds of learning. If all of that is not enough, it also showed me that adhering to the ideals in our school theme can help us reach our goals.

So, what should be my next goal....?

So Much to Say…

  

My last post was over one month ago.  I have to say that I have missed writing blog posts during that time, but I also think that it has recharged me for writing more this summer.  Our school year in New Jersey went until June 25th  and the last month was very busy, so I took a break from writing (I don't know that it was a conscious decision).  During that time so much has happened that I will be writing about over the summer in retrospect.

We had our school's 50th anniversary celebration; we had HVAC crews in our school displacing classrooms and installing HVAC; we have begun work in grades K-2 with new Readers and Writers Workshop units and curricula; we have done work on teacher and
principal evaluation systems; we have improved our home/school and community connections; we have had a very positive year and ended strong.

I have begun graduate work again; I have lost 30 pounds; I have started running; I have been reflecting upon my successes and struggles; I have committed to a new digital book club with 5th graders next year; I have worked to schedule greater amounts of PLC time in my school next year; I have started delving deeper into the Danielson Frameworks; and I have committed to writing more this summer.




So, you see, I have so much to say this summer!  I look forward to sharing and reflecting with you over the next two months as I prepare for an amazing 2013-2014 school year.


  Stay tuned!

Bear Tavern staff and students show their age

#TCRWP Saturday Reunion - March 2013 - Laurie Pessah's Workshop

It has been several weeks since the Teacher College Reading and Writing Project Saturday Reunion at Columbia University; however, I am just getting a chance to sit down and write some of my reflections on the sessions I attended that day.  This first post is about a session by Laurie Pessah.  The full title of the session was Systems and Structures that Administrators and Literacy Leaders Can Put in Place to Create School-Wide Change: Learning Walks, Feedback, and Other Supports.  It is quite a mouthful and the session was full of practical ideas that can be implemented immediately.

Laurie Pessah

Laurie began with a focus on walkthroughs indicating that traditional ones have been used by administrators for evaluation and supervision purposes.

• Walkthroughs should be done by a teamTeams should consisted of teachers, administrators, and coaches
• There should be a teacher from every grade level
• More people=Better Conversation
• They should not be about supervision, but about Vision

She talked about three types of walkthroughs: Common Core Curriculum Walkthroughs, Bottom Lines Walkthroughs, and Environmental Walkthroughs.  I have summarized my notes below.  In case you were wondering, I am fond of bullet points in my note-taking.

Common Core Curriculum Walkthroughs

• CCSS are meant to push students and teachers higher
• Guiding Question: "Is our school teaching high enough to the CCSS?"
• Walkthrough observers walk around with common core sheets/rubrics
• Administrators need to learn the standards by grade level
• The same lessons often occur in 1st grade and 4th grade
• We need to look at how the 4th grade lesson deepens the learning.

Bottom Lines Walkthroughs

• These walkthroughs are designed to see where professional development needs to be directed.
• The walkthrough team is looking to see that foundational Writers Workshop skills are in place
• Is it happening every day?
• Is conferring occurring?
• Are conferring records being kept?
• Is there a place for meeting to confer? as a group?
• Looking at the classroom through this lens will assist in seeing what essential Workshop skills need to be reinforced through PD.

Environmental Walkthroughs

• These walkthroughs are about the patterns seen in the rooms throughout a school
• The entire staff can/should participate in these walkthroughs
• The group goes into different classrooms and walks the rooms
• The group looks at the things that go into each room
• Is there a writing center?
• Are desks arranged to support conversation?
• What do kids leave outside?
• It is surprising what teachers learn from each other's rooms

The next portion of the session focused on Learning Walks.  These are a bit different than the various walkthroughs discussed above.

Learning Walks

• These walks can be done twice per year for maximum goal setting

• Sept/Oct and May/June
• Teams should be inclusive
• 8-10 people
• Member roles
• Each person has a focused "look for"
• The areas of focus depend upon what the school is working on
• The members only look at that one thing with "tunnel vision"
• sped modifications
• teacher language
• cooperative structures
• etc.
• The team decides upon topics for the walk and assigns each member's focus before the walk
• These walks are non-critical
• Having members from different grade levels gives more perspectives in the discussion

The final major structure that Laurie Pessah discussed during this session was Feedback.  Her contention was that feedback is the most important component to student success in the classroom; more important than class size, student-teacher relationship, explicit instruction, socio-economics, and inquiry instruction.  She showed a video of Lucy Calkins giving feedback to a child and then discussed the following principles of feedback.

Principles of Feedback

• It doesn't allways need to be about something new
  
• • can continue something old
• We should do research to know the bigger picture
• • what is teacher working on?
  • stay longer to figure out
• We should give direct and honest feedback
• • it is not negative to redirect in the moment
  • it should be based in evidence
• Always compliment
• • this makes conferree more open and receptive
  • make a practice-focused compliment

At the end of the session, Laurie briefly discussed several other structures and practices.  These included Lead Teachers, Professional Learning Communities, Reciprocal Classroom Visits, Common Planning time, and the two below that I will be starting on this Spring.

• June Visits
• every teacher goes down one grade level for a visit
• teachers can see what the students know in June
• eliminates September's preconceived notions of what students DON'T know
• "Quote Study"
• Instead of doing book studies at faculty meetings
• Choose 4 quotes to discuss.
• Can be given in advance or not
• Eliminates asking already stressed staff to do homework for faculty meeting.

Hopefully, these notes are somewhat clear and provide a glimpse into what was an excellent session.  As I have said in previous posts, the Saturday Reunion is an amazing day of learning about all things Reading and Writing.  I have a couple more posts to come regarding our March 9th visit to Columbia University.  Stay Tuned.

If you are confused by anything in my notes or if you want to discuss anything, please leave a comment!

Related articles

#TCRWP Saturday Reunion - A New Can't Miss for Me! (principalarc.blogspot.com)

Slice 2013 9 of 31 My Day at Teachers College Saturday Reunion(readingtothecore.wordpress.com)

#Slice 2013: 10 of 31- The TCWRP Saturday Reunion (tworeflectiveteachers.blogspot.com)

#Slice 2013: 12 of 31 - Two More Saturday Reunion Workshops (tworeflectiveteachers.blogspot.com)

#Slice 2013: 13 or 31 - Kate Roberts Workshop (tworeflectiveteachers.blogspot.com)

Our Meeting With Grant Wiggins

This past Tuesday, we had the great fortune to have Grant Wiggins at our faculty meeting.  He is doing some work with a couple of our teachers and as we were talking several months ago the topic of state assessments and how teachers prepare their students came up.  As we discussed the topic, I was thrilled that he would be willing to come to one of my faculty meetings to talk about how preparing students for assessments (all assessments) is a matter of instructional design.

Understanding by Design is a familiar concept to many educators.  On a very basic level it is about knowing where you want to go with learning and planning backward to achieve that.  This basic description doesn't begin to explain the nuances of the practices involved in UbD, but it is a starting point.  I felt as though I had a decent understanding of UbD until Grant Wiggins spent about 80 minutes with us and truly brought it to life!  I think the piece that I failed to fully reflect upon was the concept of "Teaching for Understanding."

It seems simple to say that we want our students to understand what we teach; however, our discussion of this topic was truly enlightening.  We explored the things that "a student who understands" can do and the things that "one who knows a lot, but doesn't understand" can do.  Take a step back and think about that for a moment.  It is a powerful distinction.  The examples that Grant Wiggins provided and the vibrant discussion of the staff helped to flesh out this concept.  I have to say that the level of interest, thought, and participation on the part of the faculty was inspiring; especially after teaching a full day!

This led to a discussion of the importance of transfer and what that means for children and assessment.  It is one thing to make sure things get covered and standards get checked off, but it is another to have proof that students understand what has been taught and can transfer that understanding to a variety of situations.  In particular, it is important to ensure that they can do this without the supports provided by the teacher or the scaffolding of a question that provides all of the information to answer the question.

Standardized assessments are not supportive.  They do not scaffold.  They ask students to transfer the things that they have learned in class (standards) to a situation or problem that is likely different and unfamiliar.

So, what does that mean for teaching, learning, and assessment?

I think one of the most powerful concepts that I took away from this meeting was that we must look at what it is we want our students to learn and understand, figure out the things that are getting in the way of them doing that, and design our instruction accordingly. As we do this, we must also gradually allow them to demonstrate their understanding with less scaffolding.  Once again, you may say that sounds like a simple concept, but if you take a step back and think about scope of that task, it is the hard work of planning that must go in to teaching.

This brief post does not do justice to the many ideas we discussed and that are floating around in my mind as I reflect upon the time with Grant Wiggins at that meeting; but, hopefully it will give readers a spark to revisit Understanding by Design.  I know that our staff will be looking at how we approach our units and lessons through this lens.

Related articles

• Grant Wiggins on Escaping Isolation and the Power of Social Media
• Backwards Planning, Understanding & Learning in the Classroom: Understanding by Design

The Center of Learning - Parent Connection (Part 2: Article Study)

Image via CrunchBase

Last week's PTO meeting proved to be a positive night of learning for all parents who attended.  As per my last post, The Center of Learning - Parent Connection (Part 1: Twitter Workshop), the evening began with a brief tutorial on how parents can set up a Twitter account and start following handles and hash tags that would be most beneficial to them.  The meeting went as normal, with the principal's and committees' reports.  A discussion was held regarding various methods that the PTO uses to communicate with families and how to continually improve in this area.  We had approximately 30 people at the meeting.  This was great!  We invited room parents to come to keep informed.  Many of them did; however, there were many who attended the meeting because of the article study we were holding.

I fully expected that when the meeting ended a number of parents would leave and we would be left with about half of the group for the article discussion.  I would have been very happy with this turnout for our first one.  But, to my surprise almost no one got up to leave when we said we were going to hold our discussion. This was encouraging!

Dr. Robert Brooks (bio)

The prior week we sent out the article with the following invitation:

Join the PTO at our next PTO meeting where we will discuss PTO business followed by a more detailed discussion and study of an article by Dr. Robert Brooks, entitled: Mistakes: What Parents Can do to Help Their Children be Less Fearful about Mistakes and Setbacks, http://www.education.com/reference/article/mistakes-parents-do-help-their-children/.Take a few minutes to read the article and come ready to share and learn as members from the BT community explore this topic in greater detail.

I began the discussion by explaining that we all have success stories and not-so-successful stories about our parenting skills and practices.  The discussion was designed to draw upon the cumulative knowledge of the group while using Dr. Brooks' article as a guide for the conversation.

I must say that I was very nervous when I threw out the first topic and no one said anything.  Who could blame them.  With thirty parents in the room, who was going to be the first person to share a potentially embarrassing comment about how they handle mistakes and what they model for their children?  So, I started and as I talked what began to happen was a gradual increase in the comfort level in the group.

I am not sure if they expected me to only talk about all of the amazing things that I do as a parent to raise the perfect principal's children, but that was not the case.  I shared things of which I was proud AND things that were my mistakes.  I think it was important that the parents understood that this was not going to be a lecture about good parenting.  It was going to be an honest discussion of a topic with which we all struggle as parents.  After about 15 minutes people were chiming in and adding to the conversation in wonderful ways!

More than the learning that we gained from the discussion of the article, I was most proud of the way this group of parents (many of whom did not know one another) came together to talk as a community about raising our children.  Fears were shared, hopes were shared, tips were shared, pitfalls were shared; but, most of all a connection was shared.  None of us have all of the answers, but together we can help and support one another.  This fits in very well with our school theme, which is: Better Together.

I know that this is not ground breaking in any way; however, I feel as though it was wall-breaking in some ways. Parents opened up with one another, they got to see the parenting side of their principal (for good, bad, or indifferent), and we learned a thing or two about making mistakes.

Hopefully we are making strides in the direction I mentioned in my previous post:

"I want Bear Tavern to be the center of learning for the whole community."

I can't wait for our next discussion!

Related articles

• The Center of Learning - Parent Connection! (Part 1: Twitter Workshop)

The Center of Learning - Parent Connection! (Part 1: Twitter Workshop)

This past Wednesday night we had our monthly PTO meeting.  It was a bit different from most of our meetings.  We have been discussing how to increase attendance at the meetings because often it is simply the PTO board, myself, and a few other parents who attend.  During a brainstorming session we talked about the idea of the principal providing an educational experience for parents, in order to make it a more interactive and positive experience.

You see, just as faculty meetings can become "verbal memos," so can Parent Teacher Organization meetings!  I have started to flip my faculty meetings by putting out all announcements and minutia in a weekly staff newsletter and using the faculty meeting for professional learning of some sort.  As I explained this to our PTO president, it became clear that we could do something similar with our PTO meetings.

Image via CrunchBase

We decided to try a couple of things in this month's meeting.  First, I held a "pre-workshop" for parents before the PTO meeting.  This was just a 30 minute workshop to get parents involved in doing something rather than sitting and just receiving committee reports.  Since our school has a Twitter feed (@BearTavernES) and I am always trying to increase our following, it seemed logical to give a brief workshop on parental use of Twitter.

I was very clear that this was not a workshop about protecting your children online and safeguarding accounts (that is fodder for a different workshop).  This was a brief introduction to using Twitter that basically started with creating your own account!  Here is the blurb from the flyer that we put out prior to the workshop:

*Come early (6:30 PM) for Mr. Arcurio’s Twitter Workshop - Mr. Arcurio will give a workshop on the use of Twitter and the benefits to parents.  Those who attend will have the opportunity to set up a free account and start following Bear Tavern and others of interest.  Most of us think that Twitter is a frivolous waste of time when we first hear about or even try it, but with the right direction it can be a great source of information on education, parenting, schools, and any other topic in which you have an interest.  Additionally, for those who do not wish to start an account there will instruction on how to keep up with HVRSD twitter feeds without having an account.

 At 6:25 I was worried because I only had one parent sitting in the computer lab at school; however, by 6:30 I had 5 parents and then by 6:40 I had 12 parents.  Since these parents were not our typical group of meeting attendees, we already accomplished a goal.  The workshop was very basic.  I helped participants create an account and then I began to show them how to search for interests.  I provided them with several twitter handles from which I felt they would benefit.  These included:
@BearTavernES
@HVRSD
@PrincipalArc
@Joe_Mazza
@gpescatore25
@edutopia
@parenting

We also went through how to look at the posts of someone you may want to follow and discern whether they are an appropriate follow for your needs. Additionally, I showed them how to search through someone's followers to find other appropriate matches.  I also exposed them to the idea of Twitter Chats by showing them the hashtag #PTchat (Parent Teacher Chat) The parents were receptive and very interested in this tool.
Some parents did not create an account and watched as others did.  I handed out a two resources for everyone to take with them: How to Sign Up for Twitter and A Parent's Guide to Twitter and Education.

Although brief, I feel that the workshop was successful in both providing an educational experience for the parents and helping to boost PTO meeting attendance (they all stayed for the meeting). It was on this evening that I truly began to see the power of something I have been thinking for a while and articulated at this meeting,

"I want Bear Tavern to be the center of learning for the whole community."

In part two of this post, I will discuss the article study that we conducted at the end of the meeting.  By the way, we had approximately 30 parents at the meeting and most of them stayed for the article study!

Principals' Walk n' Talk

During last week's #satchat the topic was helping struggling teachers.  During the discussion I posted the following tweet:

I got several retweets and responses (see some below) and felt I should share a little more about it

This past summer as the four elementary school principals and coordinator of elementary curriculum in my district were discussing issues of alignment among schools we ventured into the areas of teaching methods, educational practices, general school atmosphere, and culture.  Our district is constantly working toward alignment of the elementary schools.  It is important to all of us that our schools maintain their proud traditions and distinct character; however, it became very clear that we did not really know much about each other's schools!  As we talked an idea arose.  Why not meet every other week at a different school and walk through the building together visiting classes and discussing what we see.  Additionally, we are piloting use of an electronic walk-through tool (Teachscape) to help us hone our observation skills.  It made perfect sense.

I know this sounds scary; five official looking people walking into classrooms, hanging around for a few minutes and then leaving to talk in the hall.  It was for some teachers and students; however, now that we have been doing these visits for several months, people seem to have settled in and we aren't quite that big of a deal anymore.  I posted the following early on in my staff newsletter to help explain Walk n' Talk:

"Principals’ Walk N’ Talk Walkthroughs

People have asked for some clarifications about the Principal’s Walkthroughs, so I decided to answer some questions that have been asked.

What is the purpose of the Walkthroughs?

Currently the walkthroughs are being used to help the administration fine tune how we see instruction and classroom practices.  When we go out in the hall and talk with each other, we are discussing if we saw the same components of the lesson.  This is why we all come in together.

Are we being rated or graded?

No.  The checklist that we are looking at is essentially factual.  I can show anyone who wants to see on my phone.  Basically, one screen says, “Whole Group, Small Group, Pairs, Individual.”  All of these are valid forms of instruction; we are simply noting which one.  The same goes for instructional practices, environment, etc. We are looking at what practice(s) are happening, not what level.

Can we tell our children why you are coming in?

Yes, feel free to have a conversation with your children about what we are doing.  It is okay to let them know that teachers and principals continue learning even when we grow up.  I would rather you have the conversation than have students get nervous."

I have to say that these visits have been phenomenal opportunities for our group  to work collaboratively.  We are gaining a greater understanding of all four schools and the things that make them all wonderful.  Our discussions of instruction are rich.  It is amazing how five people can watch the same thing, yet see it differently.  This is where the real learning has been taking place for us.

A great side benefit of this practice is that we have truly come together as an elementary school team.  We have greater communication than we have ever had.  Our discussions go far beyond classroom practices and we are able to solve problems as we talk about issues in our schools and communities.  Additionally, we share resources, materials, and ideas with one another so that all of our schools can benefit from the collective expertise of the group.  I must say that I am truly enjoying this live, in-person PLN.  It complements my online PLN nicely!

If anyone has a question about Walk n' Talk or does something similar I would love to hear about it.  Please leave a comment.

EdcampNJ is Tomorrow!!!

EdcampNJ takes place tomorrow at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick.  I am extremely excited about this event.  I have been to several Edcamps over the past year and it is amazing for the one with which I am involved to be only hours away.

If you don't know what an Edcamp is, check out the post that I wrote after attending Edcampphilly this past spring (I've Been Edcamped!).  In short, it is a conference where the participants are the presenters and learning occurs on your own terms.  You are not at the mercy of the conference, it is yours to craft!  If this is intriguing to you, I encourage you to register tonight and go tomorrow on a whim or just show up, you won't be turned away.  You have nothing to lose and I assure you a great deal to gain.

The morning will start off with a live #satchat.  Scott Rocco and Brad Currie will be moderating and there will be participants from all over the country and all over the world.  Having taken part in a live #satchat before, I can say it is both exciting and informative.

I have had the honor of working with some amazing New Jersey educators as this unconference has come into being.  I marvel at the passion with which these folks do everything from EdcampNJ planning to teaching in and running their schools and districts.

I hope to see you tomorrow.

#EdCampNJ | Dec 1 2012 | Linwood Middle School | North Brunswick NJ

Linwood Middle School

25 Linwood Pl, North Brunswick Township,NJ 08902

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The Daily 5 - Faculty Book Study

This month we kicked off a book study of The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (the 2sisters) at our faculty meeting.  I am devoting 25-30 minutes of each faculty meeting to discussion of short sections of this book to allow for some in-depth discussion of the structure.  I have to say that the 30 minutes we spent this past Monday were fantastic.  It was wonderful to be a part of such rich discussions around a topic that is so vital to what we do in the elementary school.

I have found over the years that moderating a book study can be stifling.  It puts a great deal of onus on the moderator and it can limit the direction of the discussion.  So we are using a method that has been successful for us in the past.  I asked the staff to read the first two chapters before the faculty meeting and put three sticky notes in the book with questions or comments that they would like to answer and/or discuss.  Once at the meeting the staff breaks up into groups of 5-8 teachers and all members of the group are equal contributors to the discussion.  After the first 2 minutes of the first meeting it always seems to flow nicely.

I chose to move to each of the groups and take part in all of the discussions.  I must say that it was amazing to see that the teachers were discussing so many of the same things in different groups.  One of the major topics of discussion revolved around how to fit all of the pieces of The Daily 5 into our two hour language arts block.  The great thing about these book discussions is that the answers are generally all right there in the collective experiences of the groups.  I listened to teachers who have been working with this structure explain some of the techniques that they have used to accomplish their goals in that time frame.  Additionally, members of all of the groups were spit-balling different methods for doing the same.

Another big discussion topic was assessment of skills.  In the book the sisters talk about how they moved from worksheet driven "busy work" to skill driven practice when the teacher is working with a group.  It is difficult sometimes to see that there are a variety of methods for assessing students' mastery of skills and concepts that do not involve making them fill out a worksheet that we need to later grade.  The prevailing idea that came from some groups involved keeping a skills chart for each child and assessing their mastery during small group reading instruction.  This would be a much more authentic assessment than a contrived worksheet that is completed partially to practice skills and partially to ensure that students are accountable.

The other major discussion topic was the idea of trusting the students.  We work very hard to create community in our school and classrooms and our children are given many opportunities to demonstrate that they can be trusted to make appropriate choices; however, during our reading block we still have some difficulty letting them have control of their learning and trusting that within the framework and parameters set, they will make the right choices.  I have seen it firsthand in classrooms that are structured around The Daily 5.  Students are engaged and making good choices.  The key is teaching the choices, setting the expectations, and then scaffolding the students to the point where they can stand on their own and the teacher can focus complete attention on the small group or individual instruction/conferencing.

Is all of this easy? No.  But, I think that the work that is done in the first weeks and months of school to set up the routines can lead to a great deal more valuable instructional time as the year progresses.

Needless to say, I felt that the first installment of our book study portion of the faculty meeting was a success.  It was heartening to hear dedicated teachers truly sharing their ideas and providing one another with support and ideas for moving forward.  There was so much more discussed than I can write here. I can't wait until next month's meeting to be a part of these discussions of chapters 3 and 4!

If your school is using The Daily 5, please comment and let me know any important successes, struggles, ideas, or caveats that you think I could share with the staff.  I always enjoy learning from the experience of others.  I have gained a great deal from reading some of The Daily 5 posts from Jessica Johnson's (@principalJ) blog "Reflections from an Elementary School Principal."

Other great resources include:

The Daily Cafe
The Daily 5 - Pinterest Board
MNWelementary-daily5andcafe wikispaces