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11/22/2021 LfJ Series: Normalizing Critical Reflection: An Adaptive Leadership Approach to Data AnalysisRead NowListen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: We’ve talked about the benefits of shared leadership, how to measure stakeholder perceptions, and how to set up a sustainable multi-stakeholder governance structure. Now, let’s talk about the inner workings of structures once you’ve set them up. Shared leadership is best suited for tackling adaptive challenges. Adaptive leadership scholars contrast adaptive challenges with technical challenges. Whereas a technical challenge can be addressed by a straightforward solution (e.g., providing training on a tech tool or new curriculum), adaptive challenges require much deeper work. The essence of adaptive challenges can be captured in this sentence of Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky’s book: “Adaptive challenges are typically grounded in the complexity of values, beliefs, and loyalties rather than technical complexity and stir up intense emotions rather than dispassionate analysis,” (Loc. 1283). Adaptive challenges can take one or more of the following 4 types: our actions do not line up with what we say we value; we hold competing commitments; some things are deemed “unspeakable;” and we divert attention from the problem or displace responsibility onto someone else. At its best, shared leadership practices identify and dig into these adaptive challenges. How to tackle adaptive challenges in policy and practice. In stakeholder group or leadership team meetings or via data collection methods like surveys, interviews, or focus groups, we can ask each stakeholder the following questions:
Once you have gathered all of this information, you may want to identify common points of connection across stakeholder groups. Heifetz and colleagues call these “hidden alliances” as groups who may initially seem in opposition to one another’s proposed solutions may have a shared value or desired outcome that when illuminated can help them work together. How to tackle adaptive challenges in data analysis. When we analyze data, we often jump to conclusions. The ladder of inference, first proposed by Chris Argyris, details how data is interpreted, assumptions are formed, and actions are taken based on those assumptions. (This site explains the ladder in more depth using a visual and several guiding questions to support thoughtful interpretation of data.) At the bottom of this post, you can also grab my newest free resource, a worksheet that provides guiding questions and sample responses to support thoughtful data analysis. Strategic planning conversations are a fantastic opportunity to name and confront long-standing adaptive challenges. However, we usually miss those opportunities. Too often, strategic planning committees shy away from challenging our long-held beliefs and loyalties, which prolongs the problem and keeps us from getting 100% of students to succeed. As a result, we complacently suggest success looks like 80 or 85% of students succeeding. That’s unacceptable. On an earlier episode of the podcast, I spoke about how to effectively conduct a root cause analysis with the aim of surfacing hidden adaptive challenges. (You’ll find another free resource linked at the bottom of that post.) The key takeaway from that show is using Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky’s call to identify the habits, beliefs, and loyalties we are holding on to as a check for a true root cause. If we can identify and address those underlying habits, beliefs, and loyalties that need to shift, then the technical fixes we love to put in our strategic plans will actually have a chance to work their magic. Structures that Facilitate these Practices Engaging in critically reflective data analysis requires a clear and sustainable multi-directional flow of information as well as a mutual sense of trust and partnership. Facilitators who lead team meetings should be supported to create the space for generative conversation. (For more on this topic, check out Dr. Cherie Bridges Patrick’s ideas on creating the space for discourse and the related notion of safety in this episode.) Another structure that can remind stakeholder groups and leadership teams to routinely examine data and identify adaptive challenges is having a shared agenda template for all team meetings. This can be a loose outline of activities including prompts for data collection, analysis, and decision-making. The key is to have all stakeholders routinely practicing and honing these skills, which will ultimately help individuals and the larger community flourish. A Call to Leaders In Season One, Dr. Lejla Bilal spoke about adaptive leadership by saying: “It's engaging in a collective process of identifying value that others bring...Once we can lay down our egos, our experience, our authority, anything that creates power, and this distance of expertise, then we can have a real conversation about what truly are the challenges we're facing here and what sort of learning is required to even tackle these challenges.” Leaders, this work is essential. The processes through which we reach important decisions are just as important as the final decisions we make. In fact, research tells us a change in process will influence the decisions made for the better (Kusy & McBain, 2000). It requires humility and a dedication to growth, but if you can develop and nurture shared leadership structures at your school, the results can deliver a future we can’t even imagine on our own. Thanks for reading! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
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11/15/2021 LfJ Series: A Justice-Centered Process for Justice-Centered Policies: How to Create Shared Governance StructuresRead NowListen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: A Justice-Centered Process for Justice-Centered Policies: How to Create Shared Governance Structures This month, we have been talking about the value of sharing leadership with stakeholders, particularly students. We have also talked about how to measure student perceptions of things like leadership opportunities and feelings of belonging at school. Today, let’s take a look at what shared governance could look like in practice. Specifically, we’ll talk about structures to put in place to systematize shared leadership and school decision-making. Structures support sustainability. Shared leadership will not work as a one-off initiative. If each time a policy is created or changed, parents, students and teachers are part of the process, the school will make better decisions and simultaneously reinforce that stakeholder voices are truly valued. The Principles Research has highlighted a number of practices to bear in mind when setting up structures of shared leadership. Here they are: Embrace radical collegiality. Fielding (2001) defined this term in relation to students, but it’s useful for our work with families and caretakers as well. It refers to the idea that educators learn and become more effective when they see students (and families) as partners and they share responsibility for student success. Educators have to see students and families as partners, fully capable of making thoughtful decisions about student learning. If we can’t do that, shared leadership will never work. Build a representative leadership team. Research has found groups larger than about 15 members can become unwieldy and ineffective (Calvert, 2004; Pautsch, 2010). As much as possible, stakeholders should be represented equally, with a slightly higher percentage of students to reduce the ratio of adults to students, which has been known to overwhelm and thus silence students (Osberg, Pope, & Galloway, 2006). Clarify the governance structure. Be very clear about how and to what extent power is shared. Identify which types of decisions will be made solely by the school’s administrator(s), and which types of decisions will be shared. Clarify what is needed to move forward with a decision (e.g., majority vote, consensus using a fist to five protocol). Also, determine leadership team members’ responsibility to communicate with the stakeholders they represent (e.g., weekly, only to get feedback on major policies). For example, the leadership team may draft a new policy and want to get feedback within one week from all stakeholder groups so they can vote to approve the policy the following week. Use stakeholder research to inform decisions. Decisions made by the shared leadership team should be based on data. There are all kinds of data streams. Perception data (collected via surveys, interviews, or focus groups) is often overlooked, but it’s incredibly valuable! It’s this type of data that tells us about stakeholders’ experience of the school (e.g., their sense of belonging or the extent to which they feel their voice is valued). Pedagogy. Scaffolding learning experiences such as learning research and leadership skills so that all stakeholders can practice and improve their leadership competencies is important both in a classroom and beyond. Members of the leadership team should receive the support needed to enable them to communicate regularly with the stakeholders they represent. This could take the form of tech tool training so all members are able to create and send out a survey using Google Forms or to communicate asynchronously using an app like Voxer or an LMS like Google Classroom. Meet consistently. Meetings should be held consistently, at the same time and in the same place (whether that’s the same physical location or the same virtual room) if possible, to avoid confusion that may exclude members from participation in the meeting. Many shared leadership initiatives have failed to thoughtfully involve students or families because meetings were held during school hours when classes were being held and family members were at work. Case Studies These principles can be developed and sustained in a variety of ways. I’d love to highlight a few examples of how schools and districts are putting these principles into action. Superintendent Darcy Fernandes of Massachusetts’s Althol-Royalston district called for all stakeholders (including family members, students, teachers, and community members) to join sub-committees for the district’s upcoming 5-year strategic planning process. You can hear directly from Superintendent Fernandes on this episode of the podcast. A high school in Pennsylvania offers constitutional courses in ninth grade. (Often, government courses are offered as a twelfth grade Social Studies course.) They do this so that students are able to fully engage in school governance. The school’s system of governance is modeled after the three branches of the United States government, with an executive branch composed of school staff and the legislative and judicial branches composed of a mix of students and staff. You can read more about this school’s structure here. As a principal, Taryn Givan used the Leader in Me framework which involved stakeholder-specific “lighthouse teams.” The student lighthouse team was made up of 3-5 representatives from each grade team (selected by the students), staff had their own lighthouse team, and families had a lighthouse team of their own as well. The program emphasized building individuals’ leadership skills as they navigated their roles in the lighthouse teams and the larger school experience. You can hear directly from Taryn Givan on this episode of the podcast. On an even broader scale, Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) is a student body that advises the Boston School Committee and works with school leaders on 3 priority issues: environmental justice; student rights and student voice; and school climate & culture improvement. Every BPS High School has at least 2 students on BSAC. Page 3 of this document highlights Boston Public Schools students’ roles in governance at the school, district, and state levels. Facilitating Partnerships It is a daunting task to bring hundreds if not thousands of voices together to make important school decisions. A 2016 Center on Education Policy study found that nearly 50% of teachers said their input is not considered in school-wide decisions and that they feel frustrated and excluded. Students who have historically experienced exclusion from school systems and their family members who may have been excluded from their children’s school and/or as students themselves, may be understandably skeptical of the idea of seeing school leaders and teachers as partners. Establishing trust and a sense of multi-stakeholder partnership will take time and effort to build, and it is well worth it. According to researchers Carson, Tesluk, and Marrone, shared leadership thrives when members share a commitment to a common goal, receive emotional support from one another, and feel their individual voices are valued. Furthermore, they found “When team members feel recognized and supported within their team (social support) they are more willing to share responsibility, cooperate, and commit to the team’s collective goals” (2007, pp. 1222-1223). To help you get started, check out my free worksheet: Setting Up Structures for Shared Leadership. Thanks for reading! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: This is the second episode in our 4-part Leading for Justice series. In the last episode, we talked about the impacts of shared leadership and the research on why we should invest in this approach to leadership. In this episode, we're talking about how students experience school and how we measure student perceptions and experiences. We have to ask our students how they experience school instead of assuming we know what the students are thinking or experiencing. What do you want to measure? First, it’s important to consider the constructs you want to measure as you select a survey or design your own. For example, how do you take the construct of belonging and actually turn it into a scale (i.e., a series of survey questions) that accurately measures a student’s sense of belonging? It's far more accurate to have 3-5 questions that ask about different aspects of belonging because asking just one question like, “Do you feel like you belong at school?” could lead to students interpreting “belonging” in different ways and just responding based on one aspect of belonging. Let’s look at an example. Panorama has a great student survey (it’s available on their site for free). Within this survey, they have several scales (topics), one of which is belonging. Their belonging scale consists of 5 questions that they asked that all measure belonging. Here they are, in order:
The survey builds a more complete understanding of what belonging is through this series of questions. It also enables us to look at the results and see differences in specific aspects of belonging. For example, I’ve worked with a number of school districts whose students reported feeling connected to adults, but not feeling respected by students. So, define the construct(s) you want to measure. If you’re creating your own survey, I find it helpful to do some research. What does the research say? What are the pieces of each of these constructs? How do researchers define it? Scholars have already gone through the process of curating all of the theory and research that's out there in their literature reviews. This makes them good sources of thoughtfully detailed, yet succinct definitions. Curate Scales from Existing Surveys If you are thinking about creating your own survey, you can borrow from existing surveys. I would pull complete scales (all items that measure a topic), rather than picking individual questions you like. To start, you can see if you want to borrow one or more of my scales (the personal, interpersonal, or organizational student leadership capacity building scales which you can get for free at the bottom of this post) or use one or more of Panorama’s scales. I definitely encourage you to add a few open ended questions too. While they are time intensive to sort through and analyze, open-ended questions are a great way to ask students for more detail about their item/scale responses or to invite them to share what actions the school could take to improve in a particular area (or what the school is doing well!) These are great questions to create on your own as you can personalize them for your context and the things you specifically want to learn about. Principles of Survey Design Now, let’s briefly talk about how to choose a quality survey or design your own quality survey. I’m going to walk us through some principles of survey design. Of course, you can use research reports which should include statistics that reflect how reliable and valid the survey is. However, reviewing some general principles feels more immediately practical than advising you to dive into the research data for each survey that’s out there. Panorama Education’s research team, under the leadership of Dr. Hunter Gehlbach, has created a wonderful survey design checklist. I’ve highlighted a few of their recommendations and added some thoughts of my own below. Survey Items (i.e., Questions) The survey should use scales, not single items to measure a construct. This means students respond to multiple items on the same topic instead of responding to one question on a topic. Avoid negative wording. A negatively worded question is one in which a response that “disagrees” is a positive thing. For an item like, “I rarely feel like I belong” we would say it’s a good thing for students to “strongly disagree.” However, it’s cognitively challenging for respondents to switch gears like this, and it’s harder to compute a score for the scale or survey because you will need to “reverse code” responses to these types of questions. Response Options Students should be asked to respond using a continuum of answers. This is ideal because you can then measure a more precise degree of favorability, agreement, or frequency (whatever it is you’re asking about). All response options should be labeled with words. Asking students to respond on a scale from 1 to 5 without saying what each number means is going to result in imprecise data. Survey Length and Question Order Keep it short. I aim for the survey to take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Ask the most important questions early in the survey. Survey fatigue is real. Make sure the most important questions are asked up front. Do not put demographic questions at the front of the survey; they should come at the very end. It’s important to ask about the survey topic (i.e., belonging, leadership opportunities) immediately, but you also want the survey to flow like an engaging conversation. Implementing the Survey Communicate the importance of the survey (i.e., it will help us improve your experience at school—and back it up by taking action on the results!). I suggest using the introductory/consent page of the survey to highlight why this is important and how you plan to analyze and take action based on the resulting data. Dedicate time within the school day to take the survey. If you’re surveying family members, dedicate time or space during an open house night to invite families to complete the survey. Finally, remind stakeholders to take the survey a few times during the “survey open” window. Many schools wonder how often to give out a survey (especially as they seek to measure growth over time). Survey stakeholders as often as you are able to take action on the results. That might look like once in the fall and once in the spring. We don’t want to survey students every month if we're not thoughtfully analyzing and taking action on that data every month. Asking students to fill out a survey and then never acting on the responses is just as bad as never giving a survey in the first place. Those are the basics of survey creation/evaluation and implementation. I'm so excited to see the survey you select or create and the data that you get from it! Please feel free to share in the comments below. Next week we're continuing with the series with an episode on how to create shared governance structures. The following week, we’ll be talking about data analysis through an adaptive leadership lens! If you’re not already subscribed to the podcast, now’s the time to do it, so you don’t miss the rest of the episodes in the series. Thanks for reading! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: I am so excited to welcome you to the Leading for Justice mini series! This is going to be a 4-part series where we explore the research on why shared leadership should be an area of focus and how to set up structures for shared leadership in our educational contexts. This episode provides an overview of the impacts of shared leadership, reviewing the existing research with a specific focus on the benefits of providing opportunities for meaningful student leadership. As a quick preview of the mini series: the next episode will focus on how to measure the constructs we will discuss today; in the third episode, we will look at specific structures that amplify and sustain student leadership (as well as what this actually looks like in schools and districts); and the last episode will focus on how to analyze the data you’ve collected through an adaptive lens to finally tackle long-standing challenges. Let’s dive into the research on how shared leadership practices impact a school and its stakeholders! Advances Equity To me, the first step to addressing the question, “How can we improve educational equity at our school?” is to implement shared leadership practices. A quick note on how I define shared leadership as different from the term “distributed leadership”: shared leadership is inclusive of all stakeholders (students, families, staff, teachers, administrators, community members) whereas distributed leadership has historically been about administrators sharing power with teachers. To address the needs of your specific community, you want to ask the various stakeholders in your community: What needs to change? Especially when we’re trying to address entrenched equity challenges, we can no longer look to the same group of people who have always been making decisions to come up with a solution that will work. It has to be a community effort. Shared leadership asks us to listen more than we talk, to collect data—including perception data (we’ll talk about this more in the next episode)—before rushing to take immediate action. Not A One-Time Initiative Shared leadership practices are also inherently sustainable. We can’t have a one-time conversation about policy and call it a day. Sharing leadership enables us to have ongoing conversations about policy and practice. Problematic dress codes, punitive discipline policies, how students are graded, all of this can be regularly reviewed and discussed within a shared leadership governance structure. Improved School Outcomes Research has found that organizations actually make better decisions for the organization when multiple stakeholders are involved in the decision making process (Kusy & McBain). If we want better outcomes for our schools, it's in our best interest to include student and family voices—who historically have not been part of the conversation—to make better policies. For example, working with students, families, and teachers to create a feminist, antiracist dress code will likely decrease the amount of lost learning time due to dress code violations. Improves Student Belonging Equity is closely tied to belonging. “School belonging is associated with a range of positive educational and developmental outcomes, including psychosocial health and wellbeing, prosocial behaviour and academic achievement, and transition into adulthood. However, an increasing number of students worldwide report not feeling a sense of belonging to their school. There is growing research evidence that strong student–teacher relationships can promote school belonging...Students who lack a sense of belonging are more likely to engage in problematic behaviour, suffer from mental illness, and experience low achievement. The most at-risk students are the ones who are already vulnerable, and these effects can continue into adult life.” (Allen et al., 2021) In short, belonging is positively correlated with good outcomes and negatively correlated with bad outcomes. Yet, there is a worldwide trend that perceptions of belonging are decreasing for students. That is concerning. The 2021 paper used data from before the COVID-19 pandemic, and I imagine this trend has only intensified since that data was collected. Additionally, this research found student belonging was linked to increased academic performance and motivation and a decreased likelihood of risky and antisocial behavior, school drop out, substance abuse, truancy, and depression. Belonging is critically important! Improving Belonging is Especially Critical for Students Who Have Been Marginalized On average across all 67 countries whose students completed the survey, researchers found socio-economically disadvantaged students were 7.7% less likely to report belonging. This difference was substantial in the United States and 11 other countries. First generation immigrant students were 4.6% less likely on average to report belonging. Girls were less likely to report belonging than boys. (Note: No data was reported for non-binary or gender non conforming students. I'm not sure if that was because they didn't ask for it, or they didn't report that data in the summary.) This difference of girls being less likely to report belonging than boys was particularly large in seven countries, of which the United States is one of them. Again, these are concerning trends. Certainly, there are a lot of different things that we can do. On an interpersonal or classroom level, we can nurture positive student-student and teacher-student relationships. At the school level, we can amplify student voices in a meaningful way to show students’ their experiences and ideas are valued and they are full, decision-making members of the school community. Youth Development and Academic Benefits Individual students who engage in meaningful leadership activities demonstrate improved peer and adult relationships (Yonezawa & Jones, 2007); positive self-regard, feelings of competence, engagement (Deci & Ryan, 2008) and academic performance (Mitra, 2004). When students act as representatives of various student groups, that also energizes other students that may not have a formal role or aren't engaging in that leadership opportunity, but they identify with the students who are. Feldman and Khademian (2003) called this “cascading vitality.” Essentially, student leaders who have historically experienced structural, political, and/or social marginalization inspire other students with similar identities and experiences to see the possibilities for themselves to lead as well. Preparing Students to Be Civically Engaged...Now and Later Baumann, Millard, and Hamdorf (2014) tell us “preparation for active citizenship was a foundational principle of public education in America from its beginning.” This is a really powerful reminder that the goal of education is to prepare our students for active citizenship, and active citizenship is partnering with others and leading change in our communities. At least, that’s what I think of when I think about civic engagement. We often try to prepare students to be future leaders after graduation. It's also really important both for the time students are in school as well as later in their lives that they have authentic opportunities to be civically engaged while they're still in school. What’s Next? The next question is: How can I create these opportunities for my students? What does this look like in practice? That’s what the next several episodes in the mini series are going to be about! But the first step is helping adults (and families students) see the benefits of shared leadership. All stakeholders need to see each other as partners, capable of making thoughtful decisions about student learning. As you prepare to implement the ideas and practices we'll talk about in the next 3 weeks, ask: Why are we doing this? What are the possibilities? This episode was created to give you the language and research to be able to share with stakeholders who may be hesitant to jump into a shared leadership approach. Feel free to share the episode directly with colleagues and families. The free resource for this episode is a research one-pager highlighting the key ideas from this episode. So, if it's easier to share a short fact sheet with stakeholders, grab that resource below! There’s a lot of different ways that we can make shared leadership possible and we’ll explore several case studies in the upcoming episodes. For example, student leadership skills can be built during academic courses or by training students to serve as members of youth court or be peer mediators. It could look like passing a student Bill of Rights like this one that was published by students across the United States. Don’t miss the next 3 episodes in the Leading for Justice mini series! If you are not currently subscribed to the podcast, subscribe today so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for reading! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
 Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Dr. Stephanie Ryan is a chemist with a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences and M.S. and B.S. in Chemistry. She enjoys creating superior educational products and content using her background in science. Although an academic at heart, Dr. Stephanie is passionate about learning through play. She is the owner of Ryan Education Consulting LLC as well as a mother and active “Instagrammer”. When it comes to learning all about science, Dr. Ryan has a great method for getting free resources. The first is her new blog she created where parents and teachers can pick from a wide range of topics to learn about. She also finds free worksheets and lessons on Teachers Pay Teachers and shares those links with her community. Everyone Uses Science Dr. Ryan truly believes that anyone can be a scientist if they are not kept from it. Because we have a school system where prejudice and bias exist, often, only certain students get encouraged to study in the STEM field. Science should be a right for everyone because it has such an important role in our everyday life. Science connects people to the world around them. When we learn about biology, we understand the different life forms that make up habitats and ecosystems. In botany or ecology we figure out what plants need and what impacts the earth. Not to mention, we have come so far as a society because of chemistry. Playing with energy and experimenting has given us many of our modern luxuries. To summarize, everyday we rely on science in some type of way. Science can also help us understand problems and solutions. Our species has carried a reputation for negatively changing the climate. The temperature of Earth is rising, more animals than ever before are hunted to extinction, our rivers are polluted, fires burn out of control, the list goes on...These are big problems, but thanks to researchers and scientists, we don’t have to give up yet. There are many ways we can avoid contributing to the roots of these issues. The mindset shifts that are needed to make science accessible to everyone is to stop overthinking how you’re going to teach science. Let it be easy. All students need to do is look around them. “I needed to take a step back and not be so academic about it—not like create bullet points for the things [my son] needs to know, but more like let’s let him explore his world and learn.” Tackling Mindset Shifts to Teaching Science Dr. Ryan explains that the pandemic basically necessitated a simple approach to science projects. Doing class from home meant that teachers had to really think about what materials everyone had access to in their home. None of it was complex, and that’s a trend she hopes will continue. Another thing that can help students not be intimidated by science is to spend more time talking about the “how” and “why” behind the “what”. Explaining things through a bunch of definitions and formulas is not the easiest way for students to be able to grasp those concepts. So a shift in curriculum and in teaching this subject can be great for overcoming mental barriers. Failure Is Part of the Process If we want to see these dreams become possible for everyone, we have to be willing to let our kids fail. This is certainly related to science and the natural tendency children have to experiment. When they don’t know the way to do something, they may not get it right at first. But eventually, through trial and error, through questioning, reasoning, and paying attention, they will get it. This is a much more rewarding experience than just handing them answers to the unknown. This is something we can model for students too because often, there are things we don’t have the answer to. And even though it is so easy to just look it up in a matter of seconds, it’s going to do much more for your own growth if you use your own brain and science skills to figure it out. This just goes to show that no matter what age you are, you never stop learning! Thanks for reading! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
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I’m thrilled to announce that today my guests are two of my former students—Eliel and Rachel. In this discussion, they talk about their high school experiences as well as how things shifted in college. Imagining What School Could Be When I asked each of them what their dream for school is, Eliel responded by saying he wishes school would be a space where students could gain skills that would be useful for them in the real world. Although Math, Science, and English are important, there are so many more subjects that students never have the chance to explore such as learning about cryptocurrency, investing, and culinary skills. It makes him wonder, why can’t we expand student choice in that way? In Rachel’s opinion, a great school experience is one where there is a student-centered curriculum and enough materials in each class to make learning fun and rewarding. Having an advisor or counselor that can assist students with questions or issues is also something she’d like to see. It’s a great point because having systems in place to support students will mean all students, families, and members of the school would rally together to find solutions that work. In terms of creating a more personalized learning experience, Eliel imagines that teachers can make this happen by inviting more guest speakers who are experts in niche areas that interest students. For instance, if some students want to hear about what is needed to become a nutritionist, there could be a nutritionist coming to speak to students and answer their questions. Many schools have after-school programs. Creating special after-school programs where kids can learn to play an instrument or language or anything else is a big possibility as well. Pay Attention to Students' Interests & Partner With Them The idea of partnering with students still gets judged as radical but there is a growing number of schools that see the value in trying it. Students are far more likely to participate in the projects, lessons, and discussions when they have a say in how the rules and systems are constructed. Eliel can personally speak to this as someone who used to be in student government. In the past, when he and his group would have meetings with school staff, adult efforts to collaborate and not dismiss student ideas stood out to him. Rachel shared that teachers don’t have to worry about trying to pick the perfect lessons for students, just ask students what they’re interested in. Take the guess work out. In high school, she said it was easier to talk directly with the instructor but in college, there was less direct communication. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have assistants and tutors that can help students 1 on 1 if teachers have limited availability. “I would like for people to remember that when students go to school, they face so many difficulties and changes they have to go through. Some students may not have the same privileges as other students...So for me, I believe that schools have to create the systems that will benefit all students so that nobody will be left out.” Moving forward, the first step school leaders should take is really getting to know their students by listening more. Let students take the stage and see how much you can learn from them. From there, work with students to increase equity and introduce new policies that bring a wonderful educational experience to all. Thanks for reading! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
 Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Dr. Megan Sweet is a single mom who has been in education for more than 25 years as a teacher, school administrator, and school district leader. She co-hosts The Mindful Schools Podcast and The Awakening Educator Podcast, and recently authored “An Educator’s Guide For Using Your 3 Eyes”. According to Dr. Megan Sweet, the big dream in the field of education is to have schools that are more inclusive and empowering to students. Currently in the U.S. there’s a lot of systemic racism and low access to opportunities for students. This is a direct reflection of what’s happening in the rest of the world. In addition, white supremacy convinces teachers and school leaders that they must be constantly in work mode. But if educators and students share their stories with others, then there can be a movement of bringing awareness to these issues and inspiring change. Teachers Deserve Much More What Dr. Sweet sees in this country is that educators are not of high importance or not a priority to the authorities in society. She says this is evident from the lack of respect, the low pay, not giving them a voice at the table, and other factors. Teachers are the backbone of a well functioning community. So when they suffer, you will see the ripple effects. But when all teachers are heard, respected, and given enough resources to shine, the whole system of education will blossom. So how do we make this happen? Dr. Sweet believes in the idea of doing inner work as well as making changes on a school-level. First, we have to be able to uproot our own ingrained beliefs, biases, and privileges and ensure that we are not passing those on to our students. Taking better care of our needs and wellbeing is the next step since we can’t pour from an empty cup. As humans, we are wired to pick up moods, body language, and other cues. If you are teaching from a state of being stressed out, everyone in class will feel that. The environment no longer feels safe and it’s much harder for their minds to focus on learning. Another thing that can trigger this effect is when a student feels excluded or “othered”. When it’s all laid out, it’s quite clear that focusing on what you can work on within yourself actually does affect those around you. Once we are successful in that phase, we can work with others to take on those larger scale issues. This is not to say that teachers aren’t doing enough already. There is so much great work that goes into our day to day roles. Following these tips aren’t meant to add more to our plates. In fact, it’s shown that these things can set us up for more rest and more time. Get Back to Self Care Dr. Sweet recommends filling this extra time with something that does not feel like work to you. Get back to doing activities you love without the guilt. When we do things that bring us joy, we don’t resent our work because it’s no longer “preventing” us from these activities. In addition, it’s simple to connect back to your breathing in the busiest times of the day. Tapping into that mindfulness is so helpful for self-regulation. When you’ve reached the end of the work day, remind yourself to step away. Leave the work at work and come back to it at another time. These are all centered around self care and why it’s so important. Self care is a habit many of us have fallen out of and it’s time we jump back in with eagerness. “We need to actually be unapologetic about leaving work at work. There’s always going to be work to do. It never stops. So learning to step away and learning to unplug, disconnect, and have our own lives...it’s fundamental.” Unlearning What We've Been Told Dr. Sweet recalls how a few years ago, a school district was having their welcome event for the start of school. At the event, two principals shared their strategies on how they create highly effective school teams. One of the principals stated that they would intentionally not consider hiring any teachers who prioritized taking care of themselves and having boundaries in place. Indeed, this is an outrageous remark. But the reaction was just as surprising. All the other school leaders broke out in applause after hearing this. Unfortunately, this is further evidence that we are taught that our own wants, needs, feelings come last if we want to be a teacher. But this should not have to be the norm. It’s heartbreaking to see teachers and faculty overworking themselves to exhaustion just to prove their worth. Therefore, it’s important that we talk about what school leaders can do for teachers and faculty so that they don’t get pushed into this unhealthy zone. It’s critical you as a principal or leader unlearn that belief that was ingrained so that you can stop the cycle. Then model that behavior for teachers and encourage them to take those breaks and streamline processes. Over time, you’ll find that teachers become even more efficient and productive once they are more satisfied and taken care of. Thanks for reading! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Do You Tell Kids the Whole Truth? We all tend to use a different “filter” when speaking to kids versus adults. When you were young, you probably remember adults sugarcoating topics for you too. In a way, it makes sense because children and young teens are still developing their emotional regulation capacity. Many people want to keep children protected from having to deal with the kind of fear, worry, and loss of innocence that they deal with. The problem is, it can be hard to reach consensus on how much information we should share. Why We Shouldn't Keep Students in the Dark I believe that avoiding hard topics at all costs is not the way to go. Refusing to acknowledge traumatic events and topics does not give your student a chance to understand why and how such things could occur. It’s important to emphasize the fact that students can easily pick up on cues when something is wrong. Research shows that by age 2-4, children are already aware of social constructs and internalizing bias around identities like race and gender. “If we avoid it, there is this inherent thing that students will pick up, which is saying that something is wrong with people who deviate from the mythical norm—this idea of a white cisgendered male who is heterosexual, who is Christian, who is middle-upper class, etc.” Knowing that, you can be the one to help students navigate conversations that bring up all these emotions like fear or anger or sadness. Does that make you nervous? Even as an adult, you may still experience all the same emotions and uncertainty. I know I do. Many issues today do not have clear answers and there is still so much progress to be made. Despite this, we will march forward because justice requires us to commit and show up as best we can. In order to do the work well, I suggest you create some space in your class time that you use to foster better relationships with students. Making eye contact, asking questions, being willing to learn about another culture—these are all things within your power. We Won't Let Discomfort Get in the Way Secondly, I’ve seen discomfort hold back white teachers and principals from engaging in these talks. Bringing up these topics as a white person can feel very uncomfortable because we either don’t want to be labeled as “racist” or “biased” or we don’t want to face the guilt that comes up from facing our own privileges and roles in these systems of oppression. If I’m being completely honest, it’s inevitable that you will get it wrong. You may not correct a "microaggression," you may say something that causes harm, you may forget to give students a voice in something. And it will be okay as long as you are willing to own up to them and continue to learn from these mistakes. You don’t need perfection in this work, you want progress. “We want to be mindful when we invite students to talk about things, that can be traumatic for them or that are based in historical trauma, that that can be harmful. It can be if not done well...But what we want to talk about today is: How do we move forward with this work, enabling us to have these conversations in a way that is generative, perhaps even healing, and not increasing trauma for students?” When Sharif El-Mekki read an article written by a white educator that posed the question “Are white teachers still welcome in non-white charter schools?” He decided to respond with his own article which said “Yes, anti-racist ones and those striving to be anti-racist. The only prerequisites: they must understand, contrary to what some insist, that we do not live in a post-racial society, they must be able to handle candid feedback, even about their colorblindness and racism.” El-Mekki also brilliantly pointed out the false dichotomy in the article that claimed you can either be an effective teacher or an anti-racist one. In reality, you need to be practicing anti-racism to be an effective teacher (and leader). Traumatic topics need to be addressed using an approach that supports students. When opening up these topics for discussion, allow emotions to come up without censoring them. Allow personal experiences to be shared. Validate students’ identities. Students who may not directly relate to that topic can talk about what they can do to support students who have experienced this trauma. If all of this feels like a lot, don’t worry, you will improve over time. By committing to anti-racist practice and taking informed risks (e.g., starting these important conversations), you’re going to see so many benefits in your students, their achievements, and your own personal development. Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
 Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Daniel Bauer has mentored thousands of school leaders through his Better Leaders Better Schools blog, books, podcast, and powerful coaching experiences. His newest book “Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader” is one we’re talking about today. Past & Present Daniel Bauer’s freedom dream is one where everyone gets a free, high-quality experience in education. He recalls the school he used to attend as a kid had hidden inequity that not every student noticed. But Daniel did. He wondered why students that didn’t look like him were missing in his classes. Now as an adult, he realizes that there are actions we can take to get more diversity and more equity in the classroom. We can dismantle those systems that are prioritizing some students over others. One step we can take towards a better quality education is to be more aware of our own bias. None of us are free of bias and that’s an important thing to recognize. We can choose to be responsible for changing our ways and work on eliminating old biases while we look out for new ones. Another thing Daniel recommends doing is to pick up some new books to read. Reading for professional development is fun and a valid way to grow the mind. Try out “Unconscious Bias” by Tiffany Jana for practical advice and activities. Speaking of book recommendations, let's talk about Daniel’s new book. Why a Mastermind Will Change Your Life It is called “Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader”. His book reimagines what professional development for school administrators looks like in order to meet the needs of all school leaders. After reading this, you may be thinking “How did I ever go this long without jumping in a mastermind group?”. Usually, as teachers, we put many others before ourselves because we want to make a positive impact. But did you know that your impact could be exponentially bigger by working with a coach who specializes in what you do and what you’re trying to master? Just to be clear, a mastermind refers to a group of people, usually in the same field, who meet regularly to help each other succeed. Having mentorship through a mastermind is highly beneficial for a number of reasons. The first is that there are members who will relate to your own goals or troubles. They’ll understand what your work environment is like. Secondly, the coach in the group can help you identify areas for growth and what could bring more success for you and your students. Finally, anyone can give you tools and help you implement it. You’ll get the support you need while learning new skills. The value of that is completely worth the price of coaches and masterminds. “I have a motto that I live by: Everybody wins when you get better. You owe it to your community to do that too.” Powerful Strategies + Diverse Thinking In Daniel’s mastermind program, he focuses on what he calls the ABCs of powerful professional development: Authenticity, Belonging, and Challenge. Frequently, leaders in the mastermind will have to take turns facilitating and leading the group. It presents a good challenge while also amplifying more voices. The group will also read books together and discuss the strategies presented. The great thing about masterminds is that you get to present your questions and problems to your group and you receive feedback that—speaking from my own mastermind experience—is game-changing. Imagine getting a solution to something after weeks or months of struggling with it on your own. Everyone brings something new to the group because of their personal experiences and knowledge. Curious on whether it’s all worth it? Well, Daniel shared that one of his mastermind students had incredible success after executing what he learned in the mastermind. Scott, who was in the mastermind, heard all about “sticky core values”. He decided to apply that method with his own school and said “It changed everything.” His school, already performing well, soared to excellence because of those ideas from the mastermind coming to life. “The sticky core values is just one thing he’s taken action on, regarding what I teach in the mastermind; But he does that time and time again. And you can see just from a career trajectory, right, that it’s working for him. So that’s exciting.” To close, masterminds are not a new concept. They’ve been around for centuries. Some of the most successful people in history have been a part of a mastermind. Whether or not that term was used, the concept remains the same. Something you could do at this moment to get the ball rolling is to set an intention on how you want to develop yourself this upcoming year. I hope this episode has inspired you to come together with others and make some amazing strides in your life and work. Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
 Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Dr. Lorea Martinez is the founder of Heart in Mind Consulting—a company dedicated to helping schools and organizations integrate Social-Emotional Learning in their practices, products, and learning communities. She has worked with schools, districts, and organizations to guide SEL implementation efforts, including training teachers and leadership teams. An educator who has worked with children and adults internationally, Dr. Martinez is currently a faculty member at Columbia University Teachers College educating principals in SEL. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two daughters. SEL Considers the Whole Human Isn’t it a bit odd that traditionally in school, children and young adults are thought of only in relation to their performance or their productivity? If you feel like students deserve spaces in school to feel seen, heard, and supported, it’s time to bring in more social emotional learning. SEL gets teachers, admin, and leaders to practice seeing students as well as themselves as a whole human with needs. As a result, students who have their emotional and mental wellbeing taken care of show more progress and achievements in their academic goals. Aligning Our Teaching with Students' Emotions Social emotional learning is becoming more widely used in schools nowadays because the research really shows that learning and emotional development have a strong connection. Dr. Martinez’s book goes through all aspects of SEL including the misconceptions people have. One of those misconceptions is that it only applies to students. But students learn from teachers and teachers set the best example when it comes to talking about their emotions and what tools they are using to process. So it’s critical that we model those lessons so that our students can employ these skills as well. One challenge for educators is to bring out students' curiosity. Curiosity is a complementary emotion for the classroom because it means the mind is open and ready to receive information. Boredom however, is combative to receiving information. So when conducting lessons, you really have to ask yourself whether you’re aligning the emotions you want your students to have with your pedagogy and the type of content you’re sharing. “The brain doesn’t pay attention to things we don’t care about. And that is not students “being difficult”. That is just neuroscience, right?..So a way to counteract that, as a teacher, is really connecting what you are teaching with students' interests, with students’ passions, and then providing a choice.” You can engage in more equity using SEL because you’re more likely to be aware of social and emotional dynamics and structures that are disproportionately affecting certain students. SEL is naturally going to get us closer to social justice and equity. More educators would advocate for more opportunities for disadvantaged students. More students would be able to show up as their best selves every day. When it comes to classroom policies and school-wide changes, ask yourself whether these things are really supporting student success. If it’s not or if it’s making it harder for students to succeed, it doesn’t belong there. “SEL is not a destination...SEL is the vehicle to get us somewhere...And I believe that that place should be infused with equity and social justice.” If we can get more schools to recognize the holistic needs of students, they’ll naturally be able to turn their attention to excelling in their projects and classes. Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
 Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: On the show this week, I am talking with Dr. Sara Frost, optimist, scholar, and program operations manager for a non-profit. We are discussing what being an optimist means, the mindset shift needed to remain optimistic when faced with challenges, and why play-makers are so important for children. Playmakers Make Learning Special A “Playmaker” is a teacher who builds life changing relationships with kids and who helps them shine. Dr. Frost says that her big dream grounded in the critique of injustice is getting to a place where every single child has access to a high quality education. This includes providing them with the right tools and a Playmaker to help them accomplish their dreams. In addition, organizational leaders have a responsibility to promote optimism whenever possible because optimism is a magic ingredient that drives positive results. “If we have an environment where people feel like they can be optimistic, both the organization and the employees can benefit.” If you’re wondering where to find these people called “playmakers”, you won’t have to go far. Any coach, childhood education professional, teacher, or anyone else that works with kids can be a playmaker. We all have the potential to give children an environment that helps them feel empowered and ready to learn valuable skills. Don’t forget that optimism is what distinguishes these individuals as a true playmaker. To be a more optimistic person, there’s a certain reframing that needs to happen within. We need to start looking at the glass as half full even when things aren’t perfect. “Creating a world where optimists and optimism can exist is practicing that reframe. We should question, get curious, and think about how we can turn “I can’t” into “I can”.” Toxic Positivity vs Optimism Toxic positivity is something that can get mixed up in the thoughts around what it means to be more optimistic. Toxic positivity is the belief that no matter how dire or difficult a situation is, people should maintain a positive mindset. This approach will invalid the full spectrum of human emotions and experience. But optimism itself is the ability to see, feel, and focus on the good in yourself, in others, and in the world around you regardless of the circumstances. Optimism doesn’t want you to overlook the hard things. You need to acknowledge that they’re there in order to think about how to overcome them. So recognize the obstacles, allow yourself to feel whatever emotions come through, and then find the good. Focus on what you can change or control. One of the ways in which everyone was challenged mentally and emotionally recently was the start of COVID last year. 2020 was a difficult year for so many of us. There was a lot of fear, anxiety, trauma, and grief as this virus impacted families and took lives. Not to mention, indoor quarantining was a drastic change in our routines. The fear is still there as we attempt to open things up. Just remember that taking care of your body, mind, and spirit will make all the difference when wanting to stay optimistic. Be sure to make optimism a practice not just an idea or a wish. Practice putting a new lens on the situations or thoughts coming up. It gets easier the more you do it. In addition to the free "Get to Good" worksheet shared below, Life is Good Playmakers is offering a discount for listeners to get $10 off the Playmaker 101 course. Use the code: TEACHERSHIP21. Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Welcome to season 2 of the “Time for Teachership” podcast! Our first season has been a blast to produce and record. There are so many great moments from the show to look back on. Our first episode ever is still the one with the most downloads. If you haven’t heard it, it’s called “Creating a Culture of Coaching with Romain Bertrand” and I highly recommend you give it a listen. If you’re curious about Season 2’s upcoming content, you can expect to hear about efficient planning practices, shared leadership, and how to take better care of ourselves as leaders. I’m planning on decreasing the amount of solo shows to make even more space for new voices. We’re going to be bringing on more leaders, students, and families alongside the coaches and teachers to better represent the diverse roles of our audience. Students and families are at the core of what makes a school unique and it’s about time we include them in big discussions regarding education, equity, and curriculum. I’m so excited to see what you all think of Season 2. Thank you so much for supporting this show. Please leave a review so I can keep delivering episodes you love. See you next week!
 Listen to the episode using the above player or by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: For those of you who haven’t heard any previous episodes with Dr. Cherie Bridges Patrick, she is the founder of Paradox Cross-Cultural Consulting, Training and Empowerment, LLC. She is a racial justice consultant, leadership coach and psychotherapist. She works with social workers, counseling professionals, educators, and organizational leaders. And she uses a trauma focused lens in her work to build leadership capacity for racial justice. Cherie holds a PhD in leadership and change, and her research is in racism, denial, discourse, racial justice, social work and the helping professions like education. Healing Brings Us Closer to Justice Dr. Cherie Bridges Patrick is so inspiring for her continuous work in healing as a means of social justice. She knows that getting to justice comes from multiple avenues. She was particularly drawn to what healing could do for people dealing with intense feelings and trauma after experiencing racism, violence, discrimination, and more. She said healing is a necessary step in order to get to liberation because you can’t truly enjoy liberation for yourself if you aren’t healing from all the systems of oppression that seek to control you. Trauma & Polyvagal Theory One fascinating topic that Dr. Patrick has studied lately is polyvagal theory. Polyvagal theory, developed by Stephen Porges, is a theory that the vagus nerve serves an important role in emotional regulation, social behavior, and fear response. Trauma has a connection to this nerve, and our nervous system overall, because of the way that trauma shapes us and our communication with others. When someone has trauma, they feel a loss of safety which can prevent them from being able to open up to others. The challenge for teachers, parents, and community members is helping create the conditions for those individuals to feel safe not just in the environment, but in their presence. “When we can understand our own sense of safety, when I can feel safe in my body, in my skin, my nervous system is regulated...that is what I can do to contribute to safety. Stephen Porges talks about how safety is not just the absence of threat, it is the presence of cues of safety. Right, and so that means we have to understand the cues of safety—the cues that can contribute to people feeling safe and then be able to embody those.” How to Be Someone That Signals Safety It’s time to rethink that notion that we can create a “safe space” for others. It’s not for us to decide if an environment/group feels safe, right? What we can work on is our own discourse and body language. This requires us to get in touch with our own nervous systems. Paying attention to your breathing, intonation, and more is a great practice that will help you and your fellow school community. Bringing awareness into your body as you navigate through the day could help you figure out what things get you from one state to another. Drinking some more water, doing deep breathing, massaging your muscles, getting out of limiting beliefs—these are all potential ways you could enter into a different state with more calm and ease. Teachers and leaders have the opportunity to co-regulate with students and display cues of safety that students will need to perceive if they want to talk about trauma and injustices. If you want to start striving for this today, learn more about your autonomic nervous system. Get a good idea of how it functions. Then you can read about the body’s three main responses that are dependent upon the input that the brain receives from the situation/environment around a person. To dive deeper into learning how to engage students, I have great news! You can register for my free 1 hour masterclass HERE or below. For more, check out my Curriculum Boot Camp course or the “Just the Protocols” module now so you can create your own project-based units grounded in justice in no time at all! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode using the above player or by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Why We Constantly Forget Our Goal to Not Do Too Much This year there is one thing we can all do to improve our mental health and performance—take back more time and energy for ourselves. Who here can’t help but be an overachiever? Who finds themselves doing it all no matter how many times you’ve said “okay one thing at a time”? I bet almost all of us would be raising our hand right now. And it makes sense. Doing too much is almost...too easy. I admit, I have a history of overextending myself. As a motivated teacher, business owner, coach, partner, etc, there are a lot of opportunities to join new initiatives, committees, and projects. When a friend or school tells me about the work this one organization is doing, the excitement interrupts the voice of reason. Excitement is a big motivator for us. We get excited when we get the chance to learn something new because we are life-long learners. It’s the excitement to get loud and disrupt oppression that gets us on board. It’s the excitement of imagining our students coming to life when they enter our class that gets us to experiment with new strategies over and over until we get it right. While it’s great to see how passionate teachers and leaders are, it’s not so great to see how overcommitting is affecting our minds and bodies over time. Every time I have overextended myself, I’ve noticed a sharp decline in my energy and a limitation in the capacity I have for the people I serve. There’s a set of phrases a friend once shared with me: "I'm having a rope day” or "I'm having a string day”. On “rope days”, there is room for doing more and feeling like tasks are attainable. Other people can hang on the rope with me. But on “string days”, all of that is gone. There’s nothing more we can give because we’re exhausted and the string will break if anyone else grabs on. It’s my hope that all of us will be able to have many more rope days than string days from now on. We have to learn how to stop letting it get to that point of burnout. We have to take some preventative measures. This year, it’s a big year of transition coming back from the pandemic and figuring out how to stay innovative with your teaching. There is more pressure to support your students as they navigate these times. Colleagues may also turn to us for feedback or to step in when something comes up. So as you can see, the entire school stands to benefit from you showing up as your best self. My #1 Tip For Staying Your Best Self Here’s how I suggest planning: Rather than thinking about what needs to be taken off your plate, start with an empty plate and go from there. You have a limited capacity which you can visualize as a small plate with only enough room for a few options. What you decide to put on that plate is very important; It could be something that checks off multiple boxes (like a food that has carbs, fats, and protein) if it’s going to take up valuable room on your plate. The things that I found most important to check off in my day were: supplying my students with information through a resource, making space for them to process that information, and then giving them an opportunity to apply that knowledge to some sort of project/assessment. As leaders, we need to have flexibility and be responsive to students and colleagues. For you, this could look different. It doesn’t matter why you choose to put this one thing on your plate instead of that other one because you see the value in focusing on that and that’s what will drive good results. “Making sure we have the ability to be flexible when challenges arise and that we're able to take time to listen to students, to colleagues, to families, is critical not just for individuals, but also for community and collective well being. That's what the school year calls for; and to do this well, we need to have only the essentials on our tiny little buffet plates.” Don't Be Afraid to Communicate with Your Leaders Now you may be wondering how you can have this freedom to choose when leaders in the school are telling you to work on A, B, and C. I believe that there are ways to compromise if we’re all willing to be flexible. The things we usually expect teachers to do like grading, emailing, and planning could be automated in some ways. Leaders, make sure you are making time to get feedback from teachers about what they want to change or take off their plate. See how you can support them whether that’s hiring to fill in gaps, outsourcing to another role or eliminating unnecessary processes. My last tip is to have a counselor available for educators to go to during the work day. This is an amazing way to promote their wellbeing. Make sure you sound off below how you are planning to have more rope days this year! To dive deeper into learning how to engage students, I have great news! You can register for my free 1 hour masterclass HERE or below. For more, check out my Curriculum Boot Camp course or the “Just the Protocols” module now so you can create your own project-based units grounded in justice in no time at all! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode using the above player or by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Darcy Fernandes has been working in K-12 education for 25 years. She started her career as a social studies teacher. Ms. Fernandes then moved to become principal of Roosevelt Middle School in New Bedford where she stayed for 5 years. Her major accomplishment in this position was establishing the Amigo Center for parent support with particular emphasis in interpretation and care for ELL families. In addition, Ms. Fernandes began a program called Bridges with the President of Bridgewater State University, 150 students each year received college readiness training and academic support in math, science and ELA. Students recruited for the program were identified as at-risk students. The program is still in existence today. Ms. Fernandes is now the Superintendent of the Athol Royalston Regional School District where she is working to turnaround two schools within the district. Ms. Fernandes has spent her career working in districts with high numbers of low-income families and many of the districts she has worked in have had a high number of minority and ELL students. Ms. Fernandes has come from a background of family members who have advocated for civil rights. It is her honor and privilege to continue this legacy. She is not afraid to speak up for the rights of individuals even when it may not be popular. Treat the Root of the Problem One of the biggest misconceptions Darcy hears about helping low income students or students of color is to keep providing resources and funding without trying to fix the root of the problem. She sees this as inefficient because racism and inequity are continuing to harm multiple schools, teachers and students for every ONE that is supplied with resources. In her mind, it’s a matter of dismantling these structures of oppression if we want things to change for the future. Although Darcy attended an integrated elementary school, the systems were not set up to support the needs of all students. She remembers feeling ‘othered’ along with other students of color. There was a lack of care that went into teaching BIPOC students compared to white students. It wasn’t until college that she had a teacher who wasn’t white. There was no one that she could relate to in a sense. “So for me, I went into education with the understanding of ‘what were these structures about and how could I work to change them?’ so that more kids feel inclusive in school.” We Can Fix This Together Darcy has found through her work that time and time again, there’s a disparity in the funding that schools receive. The schools with white students that come from middle to high class backgrounds typically receive more money than the schools with lower income students. Not to mention, there are AP classes and college level classes being offered only to certain students without any opportunity to help other students master the skills needed to take those courses. Another issue that’s been identified is the lack of inclusivity in textbooks and the lack of diverse thinking. There is always more than one way to approach a subject or event, so why only teach one way of thinking? Being a teacher or school leader who wants to help their students of color shouldn’t stop at the school level. We need to embrace an activist role in order to really take down the structures that hold back many of our students. This means advocating for better policy on a district level or a community/city level. So if we want to bridge the gaps and create better schools for everyone, these are some of the issues we need to focus on. Sharing leadership and involving the community to become part of the solution was a no-brainer for Darcy. She started with having instructional leadership teams go to various schools to observe what was working and what wasn’t. These teams would then meet to talk about what needed to be changed. Recently, she has invited any teacher, student, family member, or community member to join the district's strategic planning process. She believes that giving everyone a seat at the table makes it much easier to figure out why things are happening the way they are. It is also good to have multiple perspectives on a matter so that the plans made in the future minimize the bias. Deciding how to teach during COVID building closures was one example of how the community has collectively decided how to move forward. “We found a really good solution that worked for everyone. And we kept the majority of our kids engaged the whole school year because of that.” What is the Data Telling You? When you pay attention to the data, it tells you a story. It shows you who’s benefiting, who isn’t and so on. Each person in a community will interpret it differently and that’s why we need multiple perspectives at the decision-making table. It’s possible to use those different ideas to form a plan that will work for everyone; a plan that incorporates multiple pieces and voices is just what a school needs to help it’s students thrive! To dive deeper into learning how to engage students, I have great news! You can register for my free 1 hour masterclass HERE or below. For more, check out my Curriculum Boot Camp course or the “Just the Protocols” module now so you can create your own project-based units grounded in justice in no time at all! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
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This is the sixth and final installment of the Curriculum Series. We are talking with Laura Cruz who is an avid reader who has been immersed in stories her whole life. Laura’s motivation comes from setting the stage for authentic human connection and learning. She is the senior manager of Learning and Development at BetterLesson where she designs onboarding, training and feedback systems for over 100 coaches who deliver workshops to teachers on topics ranging from blended learning to anti-racist practices.
Why Students Need A Way to Tell Their Story Laura’s experience with helping students write their story comes from a required autobiography class she started teaching. The course's mastery-based projects asked each student to write their own three-chapter autobiography/memoir, a literary analysis paper of a memoir published by an author, and one art component. The completed projects were then presented to a panel of teachers that were outside of the class. Those teachers would then use mastery based grading to determine if the student had mastered the skills. Laura said “My dream for this course was really about allowing my students to figure out their identity or reflect on their identity and really dig into what does that mean and who am I?” It is a special thing to be able to hear or read another person’s story whether it comes from a well-known author or a student. Student’s need the opportunity to tell their story. Creating a memoir is one way to achieve that. When a student tells their story, they get the power to decide what they want to talk about. Keep in mind there are so many identities to young adults other than “student”. They have to grapple with all of their identities and which ones have the biggest impact on their life. They have to determine what belongs in the story as something that’s shaped their journey. Another benefit of dedicating class time to this is it fosters compassionate relationships between students. Classmates are usually very supportive of each other’s work and they can relate to the physical and mental work it takes to produce a piece like this. They can relate to the walls that they come up against at certain points in the project. Looking For Something Better Something that was very important to Laura in teaching was to give better opportunities to her students who were from low income families and marginalized. As a white woman, she felt a responsibility to acknowledge the privileges she had compared to her students and find a way to bring a high quality learning experience to the class. She said being a part of a consortium school is great because these types of leaders look for the best way to help a student learn not just the traditional way. For example, they’ve recognized how unfair standardized testing is to students and pivoted to a better method of assessment. Creating the autobiography course took some backwards planning in order to set it up for success. She had to start with visualizing what that final literary paper would look like and what students would need to demonstrate at the end. Then it was a matter of naming chapter requirements and adding in things students could read to get inspiration. The middle would be all about working on things to build sentence writing skills, topics, etc. Then there would need to be teaching on different writing styles with examples so that students could decide which kind they wanted. Laura used an activity throughout the course called memory moments. “We really dig into the writing style and then they would write in response with their own story so that they had all these drafts that we could then figure out okay what are the three stories you really want to tell in this final autobiography piece.” As students finished off this course, the feedback that they shared was a sign that overall, the course was serving them well. Students acknowledged how it was more of a challenge than expected. But getting through the challenges pushed them to grow. Other students shared how they enjoyed using their creativity in writing these stories. They enjoyed putting whatever spin they wanted on it whether it was funny, adventurous, touching, or something else. Human connection is an element that isn’t found in just any class, that’s what makes this one particularly special. To dive deeper into learning how to engage students, I have great news! You can register for my free 1 hour masterclass HERE or below. For more, check out my Curriculum Boot Camp course or the “Just the Protocols” module now so you can create your own project-based units grounded in justice in no time at all! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode using the above player or by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Make it simple with a unit arc During my third year of teaching, I remember first hearing about unit arcs while sitting with my curriculum coach at the time. I was amazed at the possibility of using a handful of protocols again and again to save me so much time and energy as a teacher. As you’ll see, making your own unit arc doesn’t have to be scary. But it is a critical part of creating your own curriculum plans for your class. If you’re wondering what a unit arc is, it’s the pattern of purposeful learning experiences in which students engage throughout a unit. Establishing a pattern makes it predictable and simple for you to do each year. For a successful learning experience, make sure it is student-centered. The teacher should minimize their involvement while giving students the reins in solving challenges. Purposeful Protocols So what are the protocols that make up a unit arc? Behind each protocol should be a purpose. The four protocol purposes that I thought of after reading El Education’s protocols are as follows:
You definitely don’t have to come up with a hundred protocols. I recommend that you choose between 3 to 5 protocols using these 4 purposes. “Once I developed my own unit arc for my courses, I no longer spent hours determining which activity to prepare for each lesson.” Unit arc examples Unit arcs will vary from subject to subject, grade to grade, and teacher to teacher. Here’s one example of a unit arc used for a social studies class: First lesson—hook, Second lesson—establishing prior knowledge of students, Third lesson—broad overview, Fourth lesson—primary sources, Fifth—discussion, case studies, and so on. The type of unit arcs I create and help others make, focus on creating interest and engagement from students. These types of unit arcs provide students the chance to create meaningful work that tackles current issues in the present. I also believe that part of connecting students with these projects comes from allowing students to talk about these projects with an authentic audience. A great way to finish off a unit arc is with time for reflection. Students have the opportunity to consider what went well and get some helpful feedback on their work. Rarely do I find a bored student when using these unit arcs. The reason is that engaging content combats boredom. When students are engaged, they are building relationships with other students, staff, and faculty. They also take more ownership and improve communication skills and confidence. Battling boredom with engaging content is particularly if your classes are still being taught virtually. Trying to keep a student engaged while they’re watching you through a screen is challenging, and these unit arcs will make a world of difference. My suggestion for you now is to take the protocols that your students have already been loving and start building out that arc. To dive deeper into learning how to engage students, I have great news! You can register for my free 1 hour masterclass HERE or below. For more, check out my Curriculum Boot Camp course or the “Just the Protocols” module now so you can create your own project-based units grounded in justice in no time at all! Continue the conversation below in the comment section and join our community of educational visionaries on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode using the above player or by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Driving questions, Essential questions, and Supporting questions This series, we’ve been talking a lot about project based learning. One of the main elements of Project Based Learning is coming up with a driving question. What’s a driving question? It is one that’s aligned with learning goals, engaging, allows for open ended responses, rooted in a specific context, clear, and centers justice. There are also essential questions and supportive questions. Grant Wiggins has a blog post that explains the difference between all of these. The essential question stays relevant and comes back into curriculum unit after unit, even moving between subjects and grade levels. Supporting questions are small scale. They have an agreed upon answer and they help students in answering their big driving question. All of these question types are helpful for different reasons. They all go together into completing a project that looks at an issue. What’s important here is not trying to leave any out or substitute one for the other. In this episode, we're diving into the details of a driving question. “There are different levels of questions and an essential question as the driving question for a project is not going to cut it. it's not going to be super engaging, it's not going to be contextualized in a way that makes sense for the project so students might be confused; they might just be disinterested. And the supporting or what I have been calling the scaffolding question is just way too narrow.” What make a driving question stand out? It’s important for a driving question to be exciting for students. If there’s no interest, it’s automatically going to be a less effective project with answers that may not be fully developed. We want it to be in a specific context so that it’s not too broad. It needs to be open ended so that students can all respond in their own way with something unique to bring to the table. It should be clear; students should know what is being asked of them. Lastly, it should center justice and give students a chance to be a part of real world problem solving. Examples A way to make sure that your driving question hits all of these elements is to create at least 5 rough drafts before you decide what your final question is. Additionally, ask a friend or students for feedback to see if anything’s missing. To borrow an example from John Larmer at PBL Works, if you were going to talk about math and basketball, your first draft might look something like this: How is math used in basketball statistics? Then it could progress to: Is Lebron James the best basketball player ever? There’s a clear difference here for a couple reasons. First, it’s gotten more specific. It is more compelling. People are much more interested in Lebron James as the subject. And it’s created another question about how to define best and what that’s based on. Now it would have to be edited further to include justice. Sometimes when justice is added to the question, the question may get bulkier or less clear, so you want to try to maintain a balance all of these qualities. Some of the possible directions you can go with driving questions is making it:
Here is John Larmer's post with some more sample questions to check out Closing activity: As we close this post, just take a moment to do some brainstorming. Think of a unit idea/topic that you could use for your question. Then try to come up with those 5 minimum drafts. Use the Backwards Planning Template to give you a checklist for driving questions as well as some other info you won’t want to miss. If you have any further questions feel free to reach out! For more, check out my Curriculum Boot Camp course or the “Just the Protocols” module now to create your own project-based units grounded in justice in no time at all! Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
Listen to the episode using the above player or by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: Matthew Pimental has 15 years of experience in education. He got started with developing cultural immersion experiences for American teenagers to locations throughout the world before transitioning to a classroom position in a Philadelphia charter school serving students from the third (economically) poorest zip code in the United States. He transitioned to a role supporting students identified as “intellectually gifted” and now oversees professional development programming for teachers. He also supports a school within a school project-based learning program in a highly diverse school district in a metropolitan area. Can you remember the first time you heard about Project Based Learning? Perhaps it was from this blog, during a PD workshop, or maybe you saw your coworker teach a PBL unit. Did you think to yourself, “wow that sounds like a lot of work,”? You’re not the only one. Our guest, Matthew Pimental, says it’s common to hear teachers assume that being unconventional in the classroom means throwing away everything you know and having to start all over again. That’s what deters schools from getting into project based learning. In this episode, Matthew breaks down some of these fears and talks about why it’s really not as big of a leap as you might think. All schools should be able to make changes that will help the students The methods and ways in which people are taught do not have to be through a textbook. Many schools get a kind of tunnel vision when going the typical route. Teachers try to get through the fast paced flow of the week without remembering that there is more to education than this one way. Matthew remembers feeling like a cog in a machine as a student in middle school classes with traditional models. There was no personalized learning. Private schools seem to have more resources and capacity for unique learning experiences. But fun, enriching education experiences shouldn’t be a luxury for private schooling. Public schools deserve the same outcomes. That’s why project based learning is on the rise. The benefits are stirring conversations. Is PBL less rigorous? Some parents and principals worry that changing the pedagogy and evaluations for students means losing out on organization and quality. Here’s the secret: there’s only a risk for disorder and low quality if you allow it. Proper planning and following research based strategies is all it takes to make sure any changes are smooth. For example, shifting the grading system to align with a PBL approach does not mean throwing out all forms of assessment and feedback. “If you're not going to grade students, how are you holding students to excellent work? Right, you can't avoid that just because you're not going to use grades, and I think oftentimes...getting away from grading winds up being getting away from any kind of evaluation whatsoever, and that's not high quality education.” PBL can still meet the basic standards within your state. It’s not as radical as one may think according to Matthew. PBL curriculum still enables students to learn the most important course concepts and skills. Not to mention, he recommends that you keep using practices from the traditional model too because many of those still have value. Find what works for your students and keep it! Then, look at what’s left to change. Use project based learning as the main course (not the dessert at the end). The project should drive the learning. For teachers who don’t feel like they want to incorporate PBL into every unit, Matthew says some of his teachers choose specific units to use a PBL approach and other units are designed using a more traditional model. What do you think your students could accomplish with more project based learning? If you've already started, what successes have you had? If you're not sure about starting, what’s holding you back? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! For more, check out my Curriculum Boot Camp course or the “Just the Protocols” module now so you can create your own project-based units grounded in justice in no time at all! Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self. More Links! During the show, Matthew refers to a student-created book as the culminating "public product" of a ninth grade PBL unit. Here are links to two of those books (2018) and (2020). He also mentioned his teachers are participating in High Tech High's Unboxed Podcast. Matthews’s email and more information on his district can be found on Cheltenham’s Website.
Listen to the episode using the above player or by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below: One of the foundational elements of backwards planning justice-centered units with flexibility and multiple opportunities to practice skills is a course-long rubric. Getting clear on where we're going helps us as educators, and that clarity helps our students. Using one rubric for all course projects In last week’s post, I touched on project based units, curriculum design, equity, and mastery based grading which helps students deeply understand content and repeatedly practice and refine key skills by addressing one driving question throughout a unit. We cannot design application projects or create lesson-level activities for students to practice the key skills if we don't know what the key skills are. That's why a course-long rubric is step one. “Work within your department or the grade you teach to be able to co-create a rubric that has the same priority standards so that students moving class to class or grade to grade, year to year, they see the same language... and they get further opportunities to be able to practice and refine those skills.” Co-creating this rubric with fellow teachers who teach the same content or grade level will result in a better rubric that's aligned from year to year and class to class. It also saves the student the trouble of having to read through and learn new rubrics. Now, there are two ways you can make a rubric for mastery. One is called a single point rubric. The three columns are: Approaching standards, Outcome, and Above Standards. In the middle column, you will list all of your outcomes. So name the skill and under it explain what being proficient in that skill would mean. The other two columns are for you and a student to write your own notes. If a student is not quite at the standard, you will describe why in “Approaching Standards” and if they have gone above those standards you write how they exceed the standards in the “Above Standards” column The second option is a three or four point rubric with 3 or 4 vertical columns and horizontal rows for the priority skills. The difference is that you define each category of mastery on this rubric (e.g., below standards, meets standard, and above standard). Best practices:
I think you’ll find it useful to hear about the skills-based rubrics that the New York Performance Standards Consortium has developed. Many schools have adopted these standards and it’s great to see these collaborations between departments in different schools. Their four point rubric is based on these core subjects: ELA, Social Studies, Science, Math, and Engineering/Design Science. The priority skills listed for ELA are organization, analysis & interpretation, style & voice, connections, conventions (written) or presentation (verbal). Social Studies is viewpoint: thesis & claim, evidence & sources, analysis & persuasion, effective organization, understanding of implication & context voice, and a presentation format. For science they have the presentation piece plus contextualize, critique, experimental design, collect/curate/organize/present data, analyze & interpret results, revise original design. Math is problem solving, reasoning & proof, communication, connections, representation. Finally engineering/design science contains problem solving, reasoning & proof, communication, connections, representation and a presentation format. Rubric design is critical for backwards planning curriculum, and it doesn't have to take forever! Take a look at my rubric templates below to see the templates we discussed today. For more, check out my Curriculum Boot Camp course or the “Just the Protocols” module to create your own project-based units grounded in justice in no time at all! Until next time leaders, continue to think big, act brave, and be your best self.
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AuthorLindsay is a educator and leadership coach who helps teachers develop engaging project-based curricula, fosters student and teacher voice, and works to advance racial and gender equity and culturally responsive practice. Archives
November 2021
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