It's The Artist That Matters 2.0!

I watched the video below by John Spencer after it was posted on a favorite blog that I read called, "Dangerously Irrelevant!"  Please take a moment and watch...

  As a self proclaimed technology enthusiast and an educator devoted to infusing technology into the classroom, I love the tools that are highlighted in the above video.  However, I think that the message is very important.  There is no tool that is going to "fix" education (I prefer improve rather than fix); however, in order to continually improve education those who educate must use the most powerful tools at their disposal.

There was a time when the pencil would have been considered the most powerful educational tool in the classroom; but, pencils used by students in a class with an exemplary teacher of writing have always been far more successful than pencils used in the classroom of a mediocre teacher of writing.  The same holds true for 21st century technology tools.  None of them will transform the learning.  If the teacher is inclined to learn the tools, work to master their effective use, and work to improve their teaching through these tools, the teacher and the tools will become exponentially more powerful. With a growth mindset, it stands to reason that appropriately implemented tools (even the pencil) can help the teacher become a more skilled educator.

We have all heard the cliche statement, "Technology is the means, not the end."  I would submit that this has become a cliche based upon that fact that it is 100% true.  I will always advocate for teachers having the most up-to-date, modern technologies at their disposal; however, those tools are simply window dressing if the teacher does not use them for the benefit of student learning.

So, the video points out that none of the modern technologies have or will "fix" education, which is a great deal to ask of any tool!  The only place where one hammer can build a house would be on Handy Manny.  In the real world it takes many tools wielded by skilled craftsman to erect that house.  We need to have faith in skilled teachers (artists) and provide them the tools (technology) to practice their craft (teaching and learning.)  This will transform education!

The Power of Crisis

Warning: In order to truly get the full story in this post, you need to click on the links.  I have been disconnected for the past several weeks.  I have not written a blog post and I have only checked my Twitter account sparingly.  This has not been an effort to relax and disconnect as I mention in one of my posts from July.  It has been a break that was dictated by some circumstances outside my control.  As a principal, I always work on what is called the "interrupt schedule;" which basically means that while I have plans for my week, my day, my hour, the universe has different designs and interrupts those plans for more pressing things.  This summer Bear Tavern Elementary School was presented with quite an interruption.  Unfortunately, on Sunday July 29th we sustained some fairly extensive vandalism.  You can learn more about it from CBS News, ABC News, and The Hopewell Sun.

 As principal of this school for 10 years, it was shocking and saddening to walk through the building on the evening that it happened.  I truly realized how much this school has become my home.  It was like getting punched in the gut.  To see our beautiful school in such a state was painful.  Needless to say, the aforementioned interrupt schedule clearly kicked in.  Everything stopped to address the more immediate needs of the building and the community.  Hence, my absence from this blog.

Fortunately, we found out that our insurance company would cover everything, which helped me to focus on the community.  One thing that I have learned about our wonderful community is that when there is a crisis, we pull together and we emerge successful and better than before.  This is the case in this situation.  After several email communications with the community, I scheduled a community update meeting on August 6th.  This meeting was attended by over 150 staff members and community members.  Here is the presentation that I gave and subsequently posted to our district website: We are Bear Tavern: Better Together! Better Than Ever!

It was truly heartwarming to see the show of support for the school. I received numerous messages that demonstrated the character and strength of our community. Here is just a small sampling of those messages that I posted in our virtual backpack: BT Better Together: The Support of an Amazing Community. 

As mentioned in the presentation above, we were not allowed in the building until August 20th due to the toxicity of the chemicals in the fire extinguishers that were discharged.  The reopening/Community Day that was scheduled was a wonderful success and our students, staff members, families, and community members came together to ready the school for our September opening.  Here are some photos of that day.

As we are now about a week away from the start of school, we are continuing to ready the school for the arrival of the children and there is a heightened sense of community among staff members and the community.  We have worked together to navigate a difficult summer and will move into the 2012-2013 school year with a renewed focus on our community through our simple (but powerful) theme of "Better Together!"

I can only hope that every principal has the privilege of leading and participating in a community like the one at Bear Tavern Elementary School!

WE ARE BEAR TAVERN!  BETTER TOGETHER!  BETTER THAN EVER!

More Fun Than a Barrel of (Shifting) Monkeys!

As I looked through my list of blog post ideas, I came to a book that I read a couple of months ago that has great relevance to the daily practice of school-level leadership.  The book to which I am referring is Shifting the Monkey by Todd Whitaker.  I know that Peter Gabriel said that I need to "Shock the Monkey."  As a child I used to play with a Barrel of Monkeys.  My mother used to tell me to quit all the Monkey Business.  And, apparently monkeys are adept at mimicry in that they often see and then do.  However, I have never been told that I need to shift monkeys, so the title of the book was immediately intriguing.  Additionally, various members of my PLN recommended it, which is good enough for me.

As I began reading the book, I quickly understood that we were going more down a "monkey on your back" kind of road and really started to understand why these monkeys would need shifting.  I have read several of Todd Whitaker's books in the past and I enjoy his straightforward, common-sense, accessible style of writing.  The book is not long, but it has a focused message that quickly resonated with me.  The subtitle of the book is, "The art of protecting GOOD PEOPLE from LIARS, CRIERS and other SLACKERS."  We all know these types of people and as leaders we could all use some advice on helping the former while addressing the latter.

@ToddWhitaker defines monkeys as "responsibilities, obligations, and problems everyone deals with every day."  Unfortunately, there are people in every organization who are masters at moving their monkeys onto the backs of others, whether it is through their own doing or through their leader's desire to avoid headaches by simply not assigning monkeys to these draining people.  He does an excellent job of explaining many different types of monkeys and exactly how they get placed where they do.  Ultimately, the question that the book seeks to answer is, "How do I protect my good people?"  These folks are vital to the success of the organization; however, it is not realistic to move all monkeys to their backs simply because it is a certainty that they will handle things appropriately.  Not only is it unrealistic, but it is completely unfair.

As the book progresses, the focus shifts from recognizing monkeys to shifting them where they belong.  The leader's role in this is key.  With the power to direct the location of monkeys in an organization the leader must ensure that they are distributed to the correct people and not just the good people.  Whitaker spends the latter part of the book discussing types of monkeys and how to effectively shift them to their rightful owners.  He also explains how leaders can contribute to the problem by creating monkeys that are not necessary.  One common example of this is creating a rule for everyone to correct the behavior of a few.  This places a new monkey on the backs of all employees instead of just the ones to whom the rule is directed.

I think that the book is an important read and can help any leader develop a positive environment.  It has given me a great deal to think about in my own organization.  The question to answer for any workplace is: Are the monkeys appropriately placed?  If not, that might throw a Monkey Wrench into the works!

Feel free to comment if you are so inclined.

Disconnecting to Recharge?

Traditionally in order to recharge a device one must connect it to power.  I find that I am obsessed with recharging now.  My iPhone is always above 40%, my iPad is constantly charged; any device that I have is charged and ready for any important 21st century emergency.  While I realize it may sound a bit excessive, I am fine with it because I find it vital to my professional life that I remain connected.  Additionally, the benefits of being connected for personal reasons are numerous.  But, my question is this:

How does one who is reliant upon recharging using a power cord recharge the professional battery?

The Answer: Disconnect.

I have to say that when I left for Canada this past Friday evening, I was still in full-charge mode.  I had my devices with me and charged for every occasion.  As we neared the campsite, I made peace with the fact that there was no WiFi and that I did not have an international data plan.  Basically, all I was getting was the occasional expensive call or text over the next week unless I headed into town (30 min. drive) to access WiFi at McDonalds.  Honestly, this was rather unsettling to start the trip, but I knew it would become a welcome respite by about day 2.

Sure enough, I was actually enjoying my time away from the connection.  I wasn't constantly checking email, Twitter, blogs, etc, etc. etc....  I was just enjoying being out by the lake, playing board and card games with my family, reading for pleasure, and just generally relaxing.  Now I can't lie to you, during our trip into town, I did stop by Micky D's and check a couple things, but not for long and I didn't make a special trip to do it.  But, I was confronted with a problem.  On about the 5th day of our trip we found out that one of the folks in the campground with whom we are friends had WiFi!!!  I quickly got the password and started to check things, but then I remembered the whole point of the trip: Relax, Recharge, Refresh!

So, I honestly did very little with the WiFi for the last couple days of the trip.

I remembered that this trip was about catching turtles and letting them go.

I remembered that this trip was about snapping a picture of a luna moth at night.

I remembered that this trip was about sleeping in a tent with the family.

I remembered that the best way to recharge is to unplug.  Now that I am back and will be going in to my office tomorrow, I am ready to think about the future and ready the school for the new year.  I look forward to all of the challenges that the months ahead will present!  Oh, by the way, all of the devices are charged again, too.

Feel free to comment if you are so inclined. 

I've Been Edcamped!

It has been a while since my last post as things have gotten a bit crazy at school lately with state testing, end of year events, and general mania, among other things; however, I took some time to feed my professional soul by attending Edcamp Philly a while back and I am hooked!  I have researched Edcamps, I have seen pictures of Edcamps, I have watched video from Edcamps, I have even been working with a group of educators to plan an Edcamp; but now that I have gone to my first one, I know that it is one of the most worthwhile and relevant forms of professional development currently available.

If you are not familiar, let me take you through the day.  First, I met up with some of my friends from the Twitterverse to drive to Philly.  It was nice meeting folks with whom I've interacted online.  Of course, that was only the beginning of the meetings.  After arriving at the University of Pennsylvania, we registered, got our wi-fi codes and some swag and then we were off to the session board to see what was offered for the day.  The board filled up fairly quickly.  Different participants came up and posted sessions that they were volunteering to present.  Could it be? A professional development day that does not have an expert?  Ah, there's the rub, the participants ARE the experts!  As the sessions got posted, they were quickly uploaded to a Google Doc so that we didn't have to stand in front of the board to see them.  They were accessible electronically all day.

After some very brief opening remarks welcoming everyone, thanking sponsors and organizers, and explaining the rules of edcamp, we were off to our first chosen sessions.  I decided to go to a session on using Edmodo in the classroom.  It was conducted by a third grade teacher from Virginia and was very interactive.  While most moderators would be thrown by audience members interjecting, questioning, and adding, at an Edcamp, it is expected.  The leader keeps the conversation going and provides a framework within which the group can learn.  I learned a great deal from the presenter as well as from the knowledge base that sat in the room.

My subsequent sessions were similar.  One was on Skype in the classroom.  Another was about the flipped classroom.  It was a day that I felt mattered and I truly enjoyed.  Why?  Because I felt like a true participant rather than a passive consumer of information and concepts being dispensed by a guru (that does have it's place, but not here.)  Another fantastic part of the day was lunch.  A group of NJ educators who are connected on Twitter all got together for lunch at a local restaurant.  This involved more professional conversation, as well as a great deal of fun!  An added bonus was a visit from @Joe_Mazza of eFACE fame.

The day ended with a Smackdown.  As we sat in the room awaiting this Edcamp tradition, I asked my friends if this was going to hurt.  They just laughed and said, "wait and see."  It turns out a Smackdown is an opportunity for anyone who wishes to get up and go to the computer up front and demonstrate a useful technology tool, app, game, etc.  The catch is that you only have one minute.  This was a great way to leave with many new resources to investigate.  It is amazing what people are using out there!

Another great aspect of an Edcamp is that participants and presenters post notes and resources on a wiki afterwards so that everyone can benefit from each other's experiences during the day.  This blog post does not do justice to the Edcamp experience, so I suggest that you find an Edcamp near you and attend.  You can do so by checking out the Edcamp Wiki. If you live in the NJ area or want to travel here in December (?), check out EdcampNJ.  It is taking place at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick, NJ on December 1, 2012.  I hope to see you there!

It's Not a Competition, It's a Reading Challenge!

As I look around at the world all I see is competition and competition is a wonderful thing!  However, everything does not need to be a competition.  I think that sometimes in elementary schools we forget that a part of what we do is teach children how to compete.  How to win, how to lose, and how to deal with all that goes with both.  This is best done on a small scale in classrooms or the gym.  It is generally not an easy lesson to teach to a whole school at once.

At our school we have a reading challenge called, "The March Reading Madness Challenge." It's a wonderful event and I look forward to it each year.  The basic premise is that the children need to read 40 pages or 40 minutes per night for one month depending upon grade level.  At the end of the month, the principal does a wacky stunt if the school meets its goal.  Nine years ago when I began doing the challenges, we used to announce the classes and students that read the most at our culminating assembly and those classes would get an ice cream party (pre-nutritional guidelines) or a pizza party.

Over the years,

• I've been duct taped to a wall three feet off the ground
• I've been pulled to the ceiling of the gym with rock climbing equipment and read to the school
• I've dyed my hair blonde and shaved my beard
• I've been dunked in a dunk tank (cold day!)
• I've been raised to the roof of the school in the fire truck bucket and spent 24 hours on the roof (29 degrees that night).
• I've kissed a pig
• I've been wrapped in a boa constrictor
• I've demonstrated a big rolling tube that would be added to our field day (hard to describe, but the children loved it). 

Then, of course, there is this year.  Well just look below to see what I did this year.

If you prefer video, you can watch it here.

This is a wonderful time of year at the school.  The children always come up to me and tell me how much they have read and that they are going to meet their goal so that I will do the stunt.  Of course, the purpose of the event is to get children to read more.  Hopefully, after the month is over a few more children catch the reading bug and keep on reading.

Over the years, we have eliminated the individual and class rewards.  This was not met with support from all.  The reasoning was because the main goal of the reading challenge was for the school to work together as one community of readers to reach a goal and cause me to keep my promise to them.  However, at our assemblies early on it was clear that the triumph of the larger challenge was lessened because the majority of the school did not get the party.  We sat down and had a great deal of conversation about the goals of the challenge and among those goals was not competition.  I think that it is important to keep the goals in mind when deciding whether competition should be an ingredient in a lesson or challenge.

That was about five years ago and our students continue to read just as much as they ever did.  Competition does have its place; however, when working with young children it is wise to decide where and when.  This may be a somewhat Pollyanna viewpoint, but as I said in the beginning, competition is everywhere and they will get a chance to compete probably more often than they want.  What are your thoughts on competition?  If you are so moved, please comment below.

Lessons Learned From a Refrigerator!

So, what can a refrigerator teach us about change in school?

New Fridge -Smudges and all

Our refrigerator died on us a couple weeks ago.  We bought a new one and had it delivered only to realize that we did not measure the height.  The width and depth, yes, but not the height!  So the delivery men took it back and told us we needed to pick out another one.  We didn't like the other ones so... we decided to remove those two useless cabinets above the fridge that store things that we don't need.  We called the delivery company and had them deliver the new refrigerator the next day.  In the meantime, I removed the cabinets... Well, I tried to remove the cabinets.  Unfortunately, they were not stand alone.  They were connected to the two adjacent cabinets.  So, I took apart the cabinets, had the refrigerator installed and then I went about building a faux cabinet looking enclosure by cutting down the original cabinet.  Once again, unfortunately, when I was screwing in a piece of wood (in the same screw hole as before, I might add) the power to the refrigerator went out.  Well, two new electrical outlets, a re-run wire, a hole in my living room wall, and two days of work later, I have electricity to my fridge again. By the way, we love it and we are glad we got it.

The faux cabinet enclosure (not finished)

Why do I tell this story?  Mainly, because I needed to vent.  However, as I was thinking about it, I realized that this story is like so many situations that we encounter when we need to change things in our school.  We have good intentions of improving something only to find that we have gotten in much deeper than we expected. Here is my take on the different ways my fridge experience correlates with my work experience.

1. While change is inevitable, sometimes it is hard to plan - We had no idea that our refrigerator was going to die on us.  We came home from work one day to a bunch of warm food!  Sometimes in our schools things happen that cause us to make changes.  It could be enrollment shifts, budgetary decisions, unfunded mandates, etc.  The point is while carefully planned change is always best, sometimes we have to change to adapt to the situation with which we are presented.
2. Mistakes are part of the process, learn from them and move on - Yes, I admit it, I forgot to measure the height, but sometimes when we are working to change something (especially with a deadline) we can miss things.  One missed measurement can scuttle the whole plan.  When we change in our schools we have so many factors to consider that it is nearly impossible to do it alone.  If I had done the measuring of the refrigerator with someone else or several someone elses, we might have caught the missed measurement.  When making change in school we need to involve all of the stakeholders in the planning process; not only so that they can have ownership of the change, but so that the project can be seen from many perspectives and the pitfalls can be avoided.
3. Sometimes our plans don't fit our situation and we have to make choices - We thought we were going to need to scrap our plans for the refrigerator that we wanted and go with something else; something less desirable to us.  However, we opted to remove the cabinets and change our situation.  When we encounter roadblocks, we have to make decisions. In schools, change is almost always met with roadblocks like resistance from various stakeholders, initial results that are not favorable, or lack of capacity to enact the change.  We can scrap the change or change the situation.  Sometimes the roadblocks are telling us that we made the wrong choice in our change; however, more often we need to reorient our organization to fit the new direction.  If stakeholders are resistant, is it because we haven't done the proper preparation? If our results are initially weak, is it because that is a natural part of the change or because we need to tweak things?  If we lack the capacity to make the change, do we need to provide professional development to be ready?
4. Change is not easy, sometimes it will cause us to doubt the new direction - The removal of our useless cabinets proved to be much more difficult than initially expected.  As I tried to remove them and realized that their removal would cause a larger reaction with the adjoining cabinets, I had to reevaluate the change.  I almost called the delivery company and told them to hold on the delivery again.  How often has a new program or initiative been introduced into our district and because it became very difficult to actualize it simply faded away?  Usually this pattern leads to the mindset, "If I wait long enough this too shall pass!"  But, with dedication, creativity, and hard work we can persevere and foster the change successfully.
5. Get others involved in the implementation. Don't try to do it all yourself - In the initial paragraph of this post, it seems as though I have done all of this alone; however, at the point where the cabinets did not come out so easily, I involved my father-in-law.  He is a bit more experienced in this type of job.  We made the decision to take the cabinets apart and then cut them down to create an enclosure.  One of the curses of being an administrator is that we often have a vision of how we want something to happen and have difficulty letting that go to others to be molded and changed.  The problem is that the ideas of others usually enhance and make our ideas better.  They are different than our original idea; however, the value of collaboration is immeasurable.  There is usually someone with more experience or a different point of view to stretch the original plan into something amazing.
6. It is likely that change will cause some major issues that require a great deal of work. - Seriously, this rebuilding of the cabinet took a total of 45 minutes.  We were very happy with ourselves!  Unfortunately, the last screw (literally, the last one) apparently pierced a wire in the wall (where there should not have ever been a wire) and cut the power to the fridge...and the microwave...and several other outlets.  Ahhhhh!!!. We spent two days mapping the circuit, isolating where the damaged wire fed, and cutting off the dead wire.  We replaced it with a new wire between two new electrical outlets to complete the connection. By the way the outlets on this circuit were crazy.  They spanned two rooms and outlets on opposite sides of the rooms.  In our schools we often have unanticipated problems.  These are different than the roadblocks because these are the "normal" problems that will occur with any change.  For instance, sometimes it is difficult to anticipate that developing and implementing a new program may disenfranchise a group of teachers.  A good example of this would be switching from a basal reading approach to a balanced literacy approach.  Teachers who have been teaching with basal readers for decades may feel that their efforts were good for years, but now switching to a new approach indicates that they have been doing it wrong.  These types of issues are real and need to be addressed. 
7. Change for the better is worth it! -  At the end of the refrigerator story, I mentioned that we are happy with the new fridge.  This is indicative of coming through any change process.  Once your initial vision has been reworked and your reality has been remodeled, it is usually very satisfying to see the fruits of the change!
8. A final note on change. - As you can see from the picture below, the wall in my living room took a beating to make this project work.  Change is messy.  No matter how well planned, there will be some things that do not go smoothly; however, just as Spackle can be a homeowner's best friend, organizational skills, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills are the change agent's best friends.

Living room wall - The fridge is on the other side of this wall

This may have been a stretch and it is by no means scientific; however, I believe that we can find lessons in everything that we do.  I hope that my refrigerator can provide some insight into school change.  I know that there are many books out there on change and much research on the subject, but I also know that I have a new fridge and it came with a story that I could share. While I know this is not a comprehensive treatment of change in schools, it's a start.

By the way, stainless steel is a nice idea, but I kind of like my children's fingerprints on fridge.  It lets me know that we live in our home.  Don't be afraid of the "mess" in your school.  It is the evidence that your students, staff, and community are living with those changes.  You can tidy up the mess and know that tomorrow it will be back, just like the fingerprints.  I think that is good.