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In this episode, we continue our mini series of episodes focused on transforming the systems that uphold inequity in our schools. Specifically in this episode, we’re addressing competency-based learning and using competency-based rubrics as a tool for increasing equity in feedback and assessment.
Why? Typical grading policies lead to grades that are often inconsistent, inequitable, and don’t relate closely to students’ competency in a subject. They also cause many students high levels of stress (Ed. Magazine). Haystead and Marzano (2009) found teachers who measured skill growth over time on competency-based rubrics noted a 34% gain in student achievement. In competency-based classes, students showed increased student learning, less stressful classrooms with better teacher-student relationships, and decreased grade achievement gaps (Crescendo Ed Group). And if you’re not grading for students’ competencies in subject-specific skills, what are you grading for? Likely, a student’s ability to memorize, fill out a worksheet, or have their butt in their seat. (A little tongue in cheek, but I’ve seen it—I’ve even done it as an early-career teacher!) Why rubrics, specifically? What’s helpful to learning is actually feedback, not necessarily grades. Feedback that provides actionable next steps to improve a competency is what rubrics can give us! How do we do this? Step 1: Ask teachers to reflect. Here are some sample questions from Competency Collaborative:
Step 2: Share the above research and the hallmarks of competency-based learning. Teachers have transparent learning outcomes that inform their lessons and assessments, and the criteria and expectations for meeting these outcomes are shared with students. This helps teachers plan more efficiently and effectively. It also helps students know what’s coming and reduces anxiety. When giving feedback around a specific competency, the teacher gives specific next steps for students to improve. The feedback is useful and timely. (So, don’t give all the feedback at once. Instead focus on the first next step.) Again, helpful for students and teachers! Assessments are opportunities to demonstrate competency over time. Mindset shift: Think of assessment as an ongoing dialogue, not a “one-and-done” act. If students will be revising their first try on an assessment or doing a lot of similar assessments, this again helps students and teachers (fewer assessments and rubrics to create!) Step 3: Consider categories of competency. A typical scale is four points or categories. One example Competency Collaborative has shared can be remembered with the acronym NAME: Not yet, Approaching, Meeting, and Exceeding. I think you can also use the first three or use a visual, non-linguistic category name like the example on the first page of my Skills-Based Rubric Templates. Step 4: Use team time to have departments create subject-specific rubrics. Ask each department or team to select 4-8 discipline-specific skills that are taught across units and grade levels. Define what each category of competency looks like at the highest grade level, and then backwards map competency for each grade level or grade band. Step 5: Have teachers use these shared rubrics for every assignment. For summative assessments, use the whole rubric (all skills). This also helps teachers design assessments align with the complete rubric. For formative assessments, teachers can use one row of the shared rubric (just the specific skill the student is demonstrating in the formative assignment). Final Tips and Implications for Teaching To ensure students have time to revise and improve their skills based on feedback on a previous assessment, embed regular “Competency Upgrade Days” into the course. During this time, students can determine which activities will be best for them based on the feedback provided. They can also ask their peers for feedback because all students will be familiar with the rubric language. This frees teachers up to be what Competency Collaborative folx have called a “cognitive coach.” In terms of pacing, a big shift for teachers will be moving from a “coverage mindset” of speed and breadth to prioritizing deep learning and skill transfer across contexts and content areas. This is likely a desired shift, and the development of competency-based rubrics will help get you there! To help you create your first department-wide rubrics, I’m sharing my (recently updated!) Skills-Based Rubric Templates with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 159 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about my student experience data strategy here:
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In this episode, I’m inviting you to dream big to support student achievement, teacher retention and educator well-being. Teachers are overwhelmed, stressed, and exhausted. The educational system is not set up to support teachers’ mental and emotional wellness. Since we are focused on systems transformation, we’re thinking about the systems we can revise to stop putting the burden on individual educators to to self-care their way out of burnout.
Why focus on teacher schedules? From Hattie’s research, we know the thing that has the largest impact on student learning is collective teacher efficacy. How do teachers’ build efficacy? Professional learning. This includes opportunities to collaborate, learn from and with peers, and have enough time to thoughtfully and effectively plan instruction. In many schools, this is not possible during the school day, given the schools’ schedule. This excerpt from “Reimagining the School Day” highlights some interesting data. “Teachers in the United States reported spending 27 hours teaching out of 45 hours of work per week compared to teachers in Singapore, who teach for only 17 hours per week and teachers in Finland, who teach for a total of 21 hours per week. Schools in these countries prioritize time for planning and collaboration, recognizing that developing and executing lessons take time and preparation…In another analysis of more than 120 school districts, the most common length of time allotted for planning was 45 minutes per day,” (American Progress). Not much time at all, and certainly not for collaboration. What can we do? There are many innovative scheduling models out there. Check them out! Visit those schools or hop on a call with educators who teach in or lead those schools. Seeing what’s possible is a great start. You can find links to several examples at the end of my Make Time Quick Guide freebie. Here are some specific ideas to consider that can increase teacher planning time: Step 1: Early Dismissal/Late Start Half-Day PD days or early dismissal Thursdays are becoming more popular (e.g., MA) Step 2: Reallocate Tasks Hire community members to do recess, lunch duty, or other circular 6 tasks. Administrators, teach one class! Step 3: Intervention, Enrichment, or Club Time Blocks Staff an enrichment/intervention block with paraprofessionals/aides, social workers, media specialists, instructional coaches, or community partners. You can also use this time for clubs, projects intensives, internships, or community service. Example: Urban Academy’s Community Service Block on Wednesday afternoons
Step 4: Project-Based Intensives Example: Generation Schools’ secondary schedule gives teams 2 weeks of professional collaborative time staggered throughout the year when students are in intensives with the college and career intensives team.
Example: Urban Academy’s twice per year intensives.
Step 5: Leverage Existing PD Time for Collaboration & Peer Learning Peer Visitation Time Vertically Align Rubrics & “Norm” Expectations Invite Teachers to Share a Promising Practice as the Staff Meeting Final Tip Invite teachers, students, families, non-instructional staff to creatively brainstorm scheduling ideas. Give them the legal parameters, and let them dream. To help you implement one new PD structure within teachers’ schedules, I’m sharing my Peer Visitation Starter Kit with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 158 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about my student experience data strategy here:
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We’re kicking off a mini series of episodes focused on transforming the systems that uphold inequity in our schools. In this episode, we are specifically exploring the structures that enable us to meaningfully partner with students and families on a regular basis. We’re grounding the conversation in a powerful theoretical model which directly addresses the common barriers to success in our student voice endeavors.
Why are structures needed? In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker writes of how adaptive leadership professor Ron Heifetz starts his class without speaking for 5 minutes. She points out that when we step back and don’t facilitate at all, we are not democratizing the space, but instead handing control to someone else in the space—perhaps the loudest, confident, or extroverted person. (We can democratize the space with skilled facilitation.) When we step back from our intentional facilitator role, we also are likely to create confusion and anxiety for the participants of our gathering. Many students will respond to an open invitation to share their ideas and experiences with understandable skepticism, confusion, and perhaps anxiety. Consequently, you may get zero student responses after extending the invitation. Certainly, we need to develop trust in relationships with students (and families) before real sharing will happen. However, we also need effective structures for how and when we can listen to folx share their experiences. Student voice scholar, Laura Lundy (2007) developed the Lundy Model of Participation, which includes four features that are required to enable students to authentically share their ideas: SPACE: Children must be given safe, inclusive opportunities to form and express their view VOICE: Children must be facilitated to express their view AUDIENCE: The view must be listened to INFLUENCE: The view must be acted upon, as appropriate How do we provide students with each of these features at a school level? Create Spaces: In addition to creating the relationships necessary to make this happen, we want to design our school schedules to provide students with as many opportunities as possible to share their ideas. From co-constructing curricula to co-creating school policy and all the things in between. Possible ideas to explore include:
Facilitate Voices: Use discussion and listening protocols such as Circle in all levels of school/district life (e.g., classrooms, school committees, after school clubs, advisory, family nights, staff meetings). Co-create community discussion agreements. Use them regularly. Normalize this way of being in community and listening deeply. Gather an Attentive Audience: If anyone (particularly adults) struggle to do this, do some adaptive work. Invite them to share challenges and interrogate deeply held beliefs that may be holding them back from partnering with students. Sometimes, inviting the adults to share their experiences is enough to build trust that listening is a community experience that is not unidirectional. They feel valued and cared for, and this may give them the capacity to do the same for others. (This has certainly been true for me in relationships! Everyone wants to be valued and listened to.) Partner for Influence: Invite students to attend relevant meetings or discussions about their proposals so you can work collaboratively to make the idea happen. Commit to respond to each suggestion or concern by a specific date. If it’s not possible to implement the proposal, clearly explain why to the students and invite students to brainstorm additional ideas to address the underlying issue. Final Tip You don’t need to implement a ton of structures tomorrow. Keep Lundy’s 4 principles in mind as you engage with students and ask them to share their ideas and experiences with you. Commit to building up structures and practices as you continue this work. To help you implement one structure for amplifying authentic student voices in your community, I’m sharing my Setting Up Structures of Shared Leadership worksheet with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 157 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about my student experience data strategy here:
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Teaching is demanding, and questions arise throughout the day, every day. Improving teaching practice is best with a thinking partner—which might be you—but you can’t be in every teacher’s class all the time. So, how can you offer instructional coaching when your teachers need it (without overworking yourself)? One strategy is to set up an asynchronous coaching option.
Why? A meta-analysis found that instructional coaching had a greater impact on instruction than many interventions including teacher pre-service training, merit-based pay, general professional development, and extended learning time. They found instructional coaching has a greater impact on student achievement than “the degree to which teachers improve their ability to raise student achievement during the first five to ten years of their careers.” While resources can be a constraint to providing teachers with an instructional coach, the authors suggest virtual coaching as an option, given the “lack of any statistically significant differences in effect sizes between in-person and virtual coaching,” (Kraft, Blazar, & Hogan, 2018). How might I set this up? Step 1: Pick a platform. Slack is the one my co-coach Kara and I like and chose for our EduBoost coaching service, but teachers may be more familiar with a platform your school uses such as Microsoft Teams or Google Chat/Google Classroom. Consider accessibility and modality features such as the ability to type a message or leave a voice note. You may also consider whether the ability for teachers to access the platform via an app on their phone is important or relevant for your community. Step 2: Establish expectations. What can teachers expect from you with regard to response time? (e.g., You will get a response within 24 hours or by the end of the school day.) What types of questions are best for asynchronous coaching? Perhaps feedback on a worksheet they developed or a suggestion for a “text” to use in an upcoming lesson are great for this platform, but you would rather do a live class visit for a teacher working on improving their student-led discussions. Step 3: Build an FAQ space. You might create a simple Google Doc with common questions or categories of questions and your response(s) to those questions. If teachers look at the FAQ first, this will save you time answering the same questions and give the teacher an answer faster. If the teacher asks you a question that’s on the FAQ doc, you save time by copy and pasting your response. Step 4: Decide if you want to offer “leveled up” options. I love creating Loom videos for teachers to give in-depth feedback. Is this something you’d want to offer to teachers? Consider whether it would be fun for you and how much time it would take you (versus hopping on a Zoom call or visiting the teacher in person). Hopping on a quick Zoom call (e.g., 5-10 minutes) may also be an option you want to offer. Perhaps you only offer this during pre-determined “office hours.” Or you may want to stick to the messaging format. Step 5: Do a small pilot. Invite a handful of teachers who are really excited about this idea. Test what works and doesn’t, getting feedback from teacher participants. Also evaluate your capacity and adjust any boundaries or promises for response time that may not be feasible. Final Tip If you have a district-wide coach traveling to multiple schools, in addition to setting up an asynchronous coaching option, you may also consider recommending the coach meet with teachers virtually to reduce travel time and the associated stresses of travel as well as increase professional learning time for teachers. To help you implement effective coaching structures in your community, I’m sharing my Coaching Call Template with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 156 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
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3/18/2024 155. The #1 Structure for Sustainable Family Partnerships with Ari Gerzon-KesslerRead Now
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In this episode, Ari shares tons of insights on building Family-Educator Together (FET) teams. These teams aim to deepen the connections between schools and families, creating a dynamic and inclusive space where voices from historically marginalized backgrounds can share insights and drive transformative change. Ari shares practical ideas, specific examples from actual FET teams, and gives us a link to several of the ready-to-use resources in his book.
Ari Gerzon-Kessler leads the Family Partnerships department for the Boulder Valley School District (Colorado) and is an educational consultant working with schools and districts committed to forging stronger school-family partnerships. He has been an educator since 2000, having served as a principal and bilingual teacher. Ari is the author of the new book, On The Same Team: Bringing Educators and Underrepresented Families Together. The Big Dream To embrace an innovative spirit that honors the whole child, incorporates families more into the educational process, and reduces the overwhelm for educators. He envisions more connected school communities that are inclusive, equitable, and where trust is a key lever for change. Ari references Dr. Bettina Love’s words, "We have to actually trust the people we say we want to empower to make structural changes, not just tinker at the edges of injustice." Mindset Shift Required Move from a one-sided family involvement approach to one that truly values parent voices as experts on their children and partners in change. As Ari notes, "We shift the traditional paradigm of family engagement to a more collaborative and empowering model," where trust and psychological safety are paramount. Action Steps While many of the practices in Ari’s book are useful in many family partnership scenarios, he specifically shares ideas for creating and leveraging an FET team. Once you understand what FET teams are and the goals behind them (i.e., strengthen relationships, build trust, and co-create meaningful change) and you as the leader are ready to invest in one… Step 1: Build Your Team There are 5 educators (including the principal) and 5 family members. More are welcome, but the ratio should be even. Educators should not outnumber family members. Step 2: Prepare Ari suggests taking an hour to plan for each 90-minute FET meeting. Logistics to tackle include funding, organizing the meal, securing interpretation (typically meetings are held in the most common home language of families), determining dates/times/location of meetings, and securing child care. Step 3: Facilitate Your Meeting(s) Following a meal and team-building activity, invite families to share their experiences and ideas. There are many specific prompts in the book. It could be: What do you want us to know? After initial trust building, the team will decide on an action project and work towards that goal. Challenges? A significant challenge is the initial trust-building with families who have never experienced such a collaborative space in schools. Creating a comfortable atmosphere where families feel safe to share honest feedback is crucial. Additionally, educators must navigate how to bring family-driven changes back to the staff in a way that encourages co-creation and buy-in from all parties involved. One Step to Get Started For educators looking to make immediate improvements in family engagement, Ari suggests starting with simple yet impactful actions like making positive phone calls to parents to share good news about their children or asking families: How do you prefer we communicate with you? These examples are both energizing and practical, laying the groundwork for deeper connections and future collaborative efforts. Stay Connected You can connect or follow Ari easily on LinkedIn at or reach him at arigerzon@gmail.com. To help you implement FET teams in your school(s), Ari is sharing several reproducibles from his book with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 155 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. Quotes:
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Whether your teachers are developing their own curricula or adapting “off the shelf” curricula, all teachers need to figure out what it will look like to actually implement a curriculum. In addition to factoring in holidays and field trips and other school events, if you’re supporting teachers to create classroom cultures that prioritize student voices and personalized learning, you’ll want to help teachers consider how to embed flexibility and co-creation with students into their pacing calendars.
Why are realistic pacing guides important? Without considering pacing that creates intentional space for student voice and personalized learning (and all of the places those priorities can take a class), teachers are set up to feel pressured to just “cover” content in a rushed manner because our idealized pacing calendar is too unrealistic. When we strive for fidelity, what we often get is rigidity, which does not serve personalized learning and co-creation. Research on fidelity in “off the shelf curriculum implementation” suggests an optimal approach to curriculum implementation is a scaffolded one, in which teachers first focus on implementing a curriculum with fidelity before adapting it. To ensure adaptations are still effective, teachers should have deep knowledge of the theory(s) behind the curriculum. This is more likely “if the fidelity phase is framed as an opportunity for teachers to learn the program before adapting it, as opposed to being framed as the end goal,” (Quinn, 2016, p. 42). An additional consideration is that curricula may be more likely to be used over time when teachers are able to adapt them to their specific contexts (Dearing, 2008, cited in Quinn, 2016). I acknowledge this research and also recognize many off the shelf curricula could do a better job of embedding space for student voice and personalization within the curriculum and suggested pacing guides. For the purpose of this episode, I’m focusing on how to realistically pace a curriculum (whether your teachers wrote it or you’re implementing an existing curriculum). How to Create a Flexible Pacing Calendar:
Final Tip To account for the unexpected, I suggest building in even more “blank space” days. They can be named “Flex Days” or designated as Workshop Days if the idea is that it's okay to skip them when needed. This way, we’re decreasing the pressure to “cover” everything and concentrating on doing fewer things better while preserving a culture of student voice and co-creation. To help you effectively support your teachers’ curriculum planning, I’m sharing two resources with you for free. If your teachers are internalizing an “off the shelf” curriculum, try my New Curriculum Training Agenda. If your teachers are designing their own curriculum, try the Curriculum Planner I use in my Curriculum Boot Camp programs. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 154 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
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3/4/2024 153. Leading Equity Takes Belief, Vision, Systems, and Acknowledgement of Barriers with Dr. Don ParkerRead Now
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In this episode, Dr. Don Parker talks about the necessity of relationship-building, developing a robust equity-based vision statement, and policy alignment to systematically embed equity in your school.
Dr. Don Parker is a transformational keynote speaker and professional development provider. He specializes in SEL, supporting teachers to build trusting relationships with students, restorative practices, trauma-informed practices, and improving the culture and climate of schools to enhance students’ and teachers’ feeling of belonging. Dr. Parker is a former principal, frequent conference presenter, and the author of Building Bridges: Engaging Students At-Risk Through the Power of Relationships and Be the Driving Force: Leading Your School on the Road to Equity. The Big Dream Equitable schools and classrooms provide high-quality, equitable educational experiences for every student. Dr. Parker elaborates saying, "we can provide each student with a quality education, support their social, emotional learning needs and really truly help them reach their highest potential." Mindset Shifts Required To enact change, school leaders and educators must genuinely believe in the value of equity and the possibility of transformation, as this belief will drive their actions and commitment. Action Steps There are more concrete ideas in the book, but we discussed the following: Step 1: Equity-Focused Vision Statement Develop and adopt an equity-based vision that is robust and reflects actionable outcomes for historically marginalized groups. From there, it’s easier to determine if all school policies and practices are in alignment with the vision. Step 2: Systematize Relationship-Building One example is Dr. Parker’s implementation of dedicated time for student-teacher connections on Monday mornings through the school. There’s a dedicated hour built into the schedule just for this. Step 3: Consistently gather input from students Use surveys and action items to measure and drive improvements in school effectiveness regarding equity. Challenges The biggest challenge, according to Dr. Parker, is overcoming the "acknowledgement gap," where schools fail to recognize systemic inequities. Overcoming this requires a collective commitment to identifying and addressing these issues head-on. One Step to Get Started Engage directly with students, particularly those from marginalized groups, to understand their experiences and needs. This direct interaction lays the groundwork for developing targeted strategies to support student success, so go ask a student how you can better support them! Stay Connected You can find Dr. Parker on his website or send him an e-mail at DrDonParker@DrDonParker.com To help you implement equitable change, Dr. Parker is sharing his survey on Leading Equitable Practices with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 153 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. Quotes:
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In this episode, we’re exploring a mindset shift for when you feel like you can’t move forward because you don’t have all of the answers. If you’re feeling stuck, have a sense of imposter syndrome, or fearful of making a misstep because you (of course) don’t know everything there is to know, this episode will give you an action plan for addressing those challenges.
Why? There is a lot of research on the value and organization of learning communities pursuing a common goal, including the connections to shared leadership, ongoing data collection and analysis, and learning in partnership with one another, both from failures and successes (Harvard). John Hattie’s work has highlighted Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) as having the largest impact on student learning when compared with 251 other influential factors (visible-learning.org). I propose we treat not just school committees and teacher teams as learning communities (e.g., communities of practice, PLCs), but also majority-student spaces such as classrooms and student groups. How do we create a culture of learning (in pursuit of justice)? Step 1: Recognize you literally can’t do it alone. The answers to adaptive challenges lie in the community, not with you or any one person (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). Step 2: Form power-sharing structures and processes. At the school level: Bring students and teachers together to lead school committees. Clarify the decision-making processes for each type of decision. For decisions that will be made collaboratively, specify the process. For example: options are created by the leadership team, shared with grade team committees, shared with all students and staff in that grade, grade-level feedback is collected by grade team committees and shared with leadership team, leadership team shares final plan for approval via consensus voting. This episode contains several concrete ideas for shared leadership at the school level. At the class level: Teachers identify regular opportunities to gather feedback from students about what’s working, what’s not, and ideas for change. This data can be specific experiences students have in class. Consider a range of modalities for how students can share this information. At the peer group level: Co-create group working agreements. Determine how decisions will be made (e.g., consensus vs. majority vote). Specify at least one time point to check in with all members about how the group is functioning and how each member is feeling. Step 3: Regularly practice inquiry cycles Ground it in a search for positive deviance (where things are going well) and experiential data, centering people and perspectives that have not been/are not being served by the current way of doing things. Step 4: Systematize experiential data collection Identify who data is collected from, in which formats, how often, and by whom. Consult Dugan and Safir’s book Street Data for some excellent ideas for implementation. This month, I reviewed several of these ideas on my YouTube channel in 5 minute videos. Step 5: Practice building skills of critical discourse. Identify when and for which topics the group avoids talking about or deflects responsibility. Name the type of discourse being discussed (Bridges Patrick & Lyons, 2022)—namely, polarizing, silencing and denying, intellectualizing, or generative mobilizing discourse. The latter is the ideal form of discourse. Final Tip No one can know it all. The best you can do is to surround yourself with brilliant people with diverse experiences who can help you and the community learn and grow. And once you create this culture, it helps address a wide range of challenges! To help you implement a culture of learning in your community, I’m sharing my Leadership Bundle with you for free. It includes my Diagnosing Adaptive Challenges Mini Workbook, a series of culture building agendas you can use for staff meetings, and my Learning Walk protocol. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 152 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
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In this episode, we delve into the intricacies of school leadership and the transformation journey. We talk about equipping students with necessary skills, navigating staff dynamics, and the importance of self-awareness and emotional intelligence in leadership. Beth shares practical ideas including how to collect perception data to get the lay of the land and gain clarity on what to do next.
Beth founded the charter network Chicago Collegiate and served as Chief Executive/Academic Officer. Prior, she led a team to train 650 new TFA teachers. She deepened her people and instructional leadership skills at KIPP, and first started teaching in Washington Heights with TFA. She's GallupStrengths-certified and is now a coach-sultant for leaders. The Big Dream Schools that act as microcosms of society, preparing students to live the lives of their choice and contribute positively to the world. Schools that actively support and empower students by equipping them with academic, social, emotional, and interpersonal skills and all kids have the opportunities they want. Alignment to the 4 Stages: Mindset, Pedagogy, Assessment, and Content Adult mindsets and culture within the school is a priority for Beth. She emphasizes the importance of creating a culture of partnership, ensuring clarity of roles and responsibilities, and aligning around common goals. Moreover, she stresses the need to use tools like surveys and focus groups to gather data and inform decision-making. Mindset Shifts Required Shift from focusing on issues to taking a broader view that includes understanding the dynamics of the school community. Action Steps Context as relevant… Step 1: Gain a clear understanding of their school dynamics. This could be done by conducting anonymous staff surveys and using the data collected to inform decision-making. Step 2: Be transparent about the limitations and constraints of decision-making. From there, you can involve others in the process and share the decision-making power, which can help build trust within the team. Step 3: Invest time in self-awareness and emotional intelligence. These skills help you become more effective! Challenges? One of the major barriers to transformation for leaders is the lack of clarity and alignment. Beth suggests leaders be clear about what they believe in, what they expect from their teams, and what they consider important. One Step to Get Started One practical step to start addressing these challenges is to take Beth's two-minute leadership quiz. This quiz helps identify what you need most as a leader and provides a starting point for addressing your needs. It's a quick, easy, and fun way to gain some insight into your leadership style and the areas you may need to work on. Stay Connected You can find Beth on the following platforms:
To help you get started with what we talked about today, Beth is sharing her 2-minute quiz to help you figure out what you need most as a leader for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 151 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. Quotes:
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I go over a year long support plan for teachers:
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In this episode, Coach Carlos, explores the concept of performance-based relationships in education and highlights the importance of fostering a positive and healthy classroom environment for the success and well-being of both teachers and students. He delves into the pressing issue of teacher shortage and emphasizes the significance of parental partnerships in overcoming these challenges.
As a professional speaker, trainer, and author, Mr. Johnson, AKA “Coach Carlos,” is locally bred, but his work and research on culture and engagement have taken him national and international. His training and strategies have helped to change school culture and increase parental engagement, student enrollment, and staff and student retention. His driving belief: a highly engaged culture is the mother of high performance. The Big Dream Education is a holistic experience that goes beyond the traditional classroom. He dreams of creating a culture where performance-based relationships rule and teachers view themselves as life coaches who aim to bring out the best in each student. This transformative approach would pave the way for an inclusive, equitable, and fulfilling learning journey for all students. Alignment to the 4 Stages: Mindset, Pedagogy, Assessment, and Content Coach Carlos believes that the foundation for effective teaching and learning lies in cultivating a growth mindset that values relationships, embraces equity, and fosters resilience. This mindset should then guide pedagogical approaches, shape assessment methods, and inform content creation, ultimately resulting in a learning environment that prioritizes student well-being and success. Mindset Shifts Required One of the most significant barriers is the belief that some students are genetically incapable of succeeding, a misconception that can hinder teachers from building meaningful relationships with their students. Another barrier is cultural biases, which can prevent educators from connecting with students who have identities, experiences, and beliefs that are different from their own. Action Steps Once we address our biases, here’s what we can do: Step 1: Foster Healthy Relationships Coach Carlos encourages educators to cultivate healthy, performance-based relationships with their students and create a welcoming classroom environment that promotes student success and teacher well-being. Step 2: Involve Parents Involve parents in the solution and create a partnership between families and schools. Start by defining what “meaningful minimum” engagement looks like from families and school stakeholders. Step 3: Optimize Stress There is a specific kind of stress that is healthy: eustress. “That's the one we want. That's the basis for accomplishment, that is what gets us moving, that's what changes and that's what transforms.” Teachers can act like a “master chef in the kitchen…this kid over here, oh, I can turn the flame up…and here I better turn the flame down a little bit.” To do this well, we have to know each student well. One Step to Get Started Examine your biases and beliefs about their students' abilities and help your teachers do the same. Once we recognize and address these barriers, we can implement effective teaching strategies and create a positive learning environment for all students. Stay Connected You can find Coach Carlos at www.carlosjohnson.org and on YouTube. To help you identify some of the deeper culture pieces we discussed in this episode, I’m sharing my Diagnosing Adaptive Challenges Mini Workbook with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 150 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. Quotes:
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Time for Teachership is now a proud member of the...AuthorLindsay Lyons (she/her) is an educational justice coach who works with teachers and school leaders to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice, design curricula grounded in student voice, and build capacity for shared leadership. Lindsay taught in NYC public schools, holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the educational blog and podcast, Time for Teachership. Archives
January 2024
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