Bucket Filling is Shepherd Leadership

This past week my staff gathered for our annual retreat where the theme of “Bucket Dipping” challenged us to reflect on how we interact with others every day. How Full is Your Bucket?  by Rath and Clifton provided us with the following theory of the dipper and the bucket:

“Each of us has an invisible bucket. It is constantly emptied or filled, depending on our daily interactions with others. When our bucket is full, we feel great. We are productive. We make a positive impact on our workplace. When it is empty, we feel down. We are deflated.  Each of us also has an invisible dipper. When we do or say things that increase positive emotions in others, we are using that dipper to fill their buckets. Conversely, when we are negative, we are using that dipper to decrease others’ positive emotions by dipping from their bucket.”

It was a well-organized day that provided each of us with many opportunities to think about the ways in which we approach our individual roles in the school. I’m sure every staff member will take what they learned and apply it in the future.

For me, as the school principal, my attention was drawn to shepherd leadership, something I learned about a couple of years ago. Bucket filling, I thought, was a lot like shepherd leadership. At that time, the presenter outlined the differences between bad shepherding and good shepherding:

Bad Shepherds take care of themselves while Good Shepherds take care of the flock.

Bad Shepherds worry about their own health while Good Shepherds strengthen the weak and the sick.

Bad Shepherds rule harshly and brutally while Good Shepherds rule lovingly and gently.

Bad Shepherds abandon and scatter the sheep while Good Shepherds gathers and protect the sheep.

Bad Shepherds keep the best for themselves while Good Shepherds give their best to the sheep.

Then, to connect it to our work in our schools he suggested 4 elements of shepherd leadership that I live by to this day.

1. Keep an eye on everything. (Know the heartbeat of your school.)
2. Ignore most things. (You can’t solve all the problems.)
3. Stand firm on a few things. (Choose your battles.)
4. Praise a lot.

The theory of the dipper and the bucket is a lot like shepherd leadership, don’t you think?

How Transformation Actually Occurs

PART 1

Last week I was going about my nightly ritual of checking student Kidblog accounts to moderate and approve any posts or comments that may have been submitted in the past 24 hours. I’ve been doing this since September when we introduced our grade 4-6 students to the concept of blogging, an idea that has been received by the teachers in my school to varying degrees. Some have embraced it with great enthusiasm while others are still trying to figure out exactly how it can support their daily teaching practice. That’s OK. The way I look at it, transformation is a curve, and some move along that curve faster than others. The students, on the other hand, have been highly engaged with blogging from the day we started.

So, while checking the student blogs I was quickly drawn to our recent 4DE class posts where 61 comments were awaiting moderation. I thought, “Wow! Where did these come from?” As I started to read (and approve) them I was not able to determine who wrote them, but they were appropriate and appeared to be written by other grade 4 students from somewhere. That’s the beauty of Kidblog. All posts and comments require administrator approval before anyone can see them. This allows us to open our blogging experience to the entire world. It was not until one of the last remaining comments that I was able to determine the source; and this only because the student gave the name of his school. Then the very last submission confirmed who was responsible for having the students comment on our 4DE posts; Mr. Groves. This made my day.

So what does all this have to do with transformation?

PART 2

Mr. Groves had been the grade 1 teacher at my school for the past year, covering a maternity leave that recently ended. While on our staff, he immersed himself in any capacity building experience that was made available to him. He spent time researching and experimenting with iPad apps, implementing a web-based guided reading program, and delving into the world of Twitter to make connections and improve his professional practice. This culture of ‘failing forward’ at our school enabled Mr. Groves to take the necessary risks which made student learning more relevant. Although individual blogging was a bit advanced for his grade 1 students, he did comment on the older student blogs from time to time and became familiar with the Kidblog program. 

At the end of March Mr. Groves left us, but spent only a few days on the substitute teacher list before landing a term position at a cross town school teaching grade 4.  And these comments I was approving were coming from his students. He was introducing them to blogging by having them comment on our student’s posts before creating posts of their own. I contacted him right away and thanked him for taking this great tool and introducing it at another school. He shared his class link and told me that other teachers at the school were already approaching him to learn more about blogging with students. (Insert pride here) He’s taking what he learned here and sharing it there. It’s like passing a baton.

CONCLUSION

Transformation is not an easy process. I’ve often wondered how we will ever make the necessary systemic shift with so many fixed mindsets out there. As school leaders, we can easily get frustrated and lose hope when ideas we perceive as forward-thinking are embraced by few and shunned by many. But then I think of individuals like Mr. Groves and am reminded of how transformation actually occurs. Not usually in large numbers but one individual at a time. Eventually, a critical mass forms and we find ourselves at our destination without even knowing it.

Whether or not you are a person of faith, this prayer is a great metaphor of our work as transformative educators. Creating the Church of Tomorrow. Keep going.

Reflecting on Reflection Through Professional Conversation

This past week my Associate Principal and I met individually with each of our teachers. As is the case each year, the purpose of these meetings is to review their professional growth plan and discuss a possible placement for next year. New to this process was an opportunity for us to engage in a focused conversation about their daily practice in relation to this Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (KSA) rubric which aligns perfectly with Alberta’s Teacher Quality Standard, a document by which a teacher’s professional practice is guided. During the year they were asked to revisit this rubric periodically and through reflection determine where they would place themselves on the rubric in relation to each element.

Powerful conversation took place during each meeting. There was no expectation that the completed document be returned to us, nor were individuals asked to disclose all of it’s content. Instead, we invited each teacher to share one aspect of their practice they considered to be a strength as well as something they saw as an area for growth. Interestingly, each one of them found it difficult to toot their own horn, but easily came up with a number of areas in which they could improve. This gave us the opportunity to reinforce the wonderful elements we had observed during our classroom visitations this year and, through their lead, suggest ways in which they could continue on the path of lifelong learning. It was definately a worthwhile exercise.

Upon debriefing after these meetings, my Associate Principal and I have decided it would be a good idea to take this process one step further next year.  We plan to distribute the rubrics in September and, as a staff, select one KSA to reflect on each month. At the monthly staff meeting, we will be setting aside time for teachers, in small groups, to engage in professional discussion on each element of the KSA for that month. Our hope is that the powerful sharing (and growth) that has taken place at our meetings this year will be further enhanced by adding this collaborative piece.

The reflection and conversation will hopefully lead to future action as we continue the capacity building PD model that worked so well at our school this year.

An Evening at the Marble Slab Creamery

This past week, along with members of my school staff, I spent an evening scooping and serving gormet ice cream at the Marble Slab Creamery. I was lucky enough to be one of what our parent council dubbed “celebrity scoopers”, with 25% of the evening take to be donated back to our new school playground initiative. In the week leading up to the event a great deal of interest developed as notices were sent home and students announced it over the PA system. It was such a unique fundraiser that even the local radio station was happy to promote it periodically throughout the week.

When 4:00 p.m. arrived on Thursday I was not surprised to see a great many parents being hand led to the door of the ice cream shop by lip smacking children who were more than happy to do their part in this important fundraising endeavor. I thought, “Well done parent council. This is going to raise some good funds.” But I soon realized there was a lot more going on that night.

Throughout the 4 hours positive energy filled the air. Staff laughed and joked together as they honed the craft of scooping tasty ice cream sensations. Students beamed with pride and excitement, calling out the names of their teachers upon entering. Parents and other family members welcomed the opportunity to see the school staff in a different light with many smiles and nods being handed out. Other members of the community who stopped by got to see all of this interaction going on and by 7:00 p.m. a large group had formed on the sidewalk outside the Creamery. The evening was a resounding success and a great example of community spirit and relationship building, not to mention that nearly $1000 was raised toward the playground.

Events such as these are an important part of the education transformation process. By bringing the entire school community together we provide a platform for relationship building. When trust is built through relationship we are better able to enlist others in joining us on a journey; and those of us involved in education are entering the journey of a lifetime. We can’t go it alone. We need the support of students, teachers, parents, and our community.

So as we continue to venture down that path let’s not forget to bring our people together, for no particular reason other than to get to know one another a little bit better.

Don’t Just “Cover” Curriculum

In our province the English Language Arts curriculum is loaded with numerous outcomes at every grade level. While looking through these outcomes last week my attention was drawn to the concept of  clarifying and extending thoughts and ideas, which is included throughout the K – 9 Program of Study. In grade 5, for example, students are expected to be able to clarify and extend by:

1. seeking others’ viewpoints to build on personal responses and understanding

2. combining ideas by using talk, notes, and personal writing to explore relationships among their own ideas and those of others, and

3. extending understanding by searching for further ideas and information from others.

Not only are teachers expected to “cover” these (and all other) prescribed outcomes, today we are wanting them to do it in such a way that 21st century competencies are being built at the same time.  I blogged about the difficulty with this earlier. What follows is a simple yet innovative example of how these outcomes are being met through competency based learning.

Earlier this year our grade 5s connected with Mrs. Gray’s grade 5 class in Canton, Michigan through our school Twitter account. We got to know each other by tweeting our daily experiences and commenting on blog posts as both classes used Kigblog. Shortly thereafter a Skype visit was set up and the students were able to introduce temselves face-to-face. The level of engagement throughout these experiences was extremely high but the curricular component was missing.

Our current project, I believe, takes care of that. We are writing a story together using a Google Doc. Our students came up with a title and wrote the first part of the story. That alone was an exercise in creativity, collaboration, digital literacy, and problem solving. We then sent the link to Canton, where they edited and illustrated our writing, then extended the story by a couple of paragraphs. They have now returned it to us and the students are highly engaged in illustrating and writing again. This is what I call authentic literacy, calling upon students to utilize higher order thinking skills and build important competencies they will need in the future. Here is a link to the shared story as it currently exists.

I think we have effectively addressed the outcomes listed above, and made them relevant to the students. A number of these learning opportunities are out there for our students. As teachers, we just have to go looking for them.

The Kids Want to Cover Our School.

This year a very keen intern teacher has started a global justice club at my school. I love the idea because it gives the students an opportunity to build the important 21st century competency of Cultural, Global and Environmental Awareness, which I have blogged about earlier. The thought of my students developing a better perspective on global issues makes me down right proud. And when nearly 40 grade 3-6 students showed up at the first gathering I was reminded how young people today are more globally connected than ever. My thoughts were that maybe they’d come up with some really good elementary school projects such as recycling plastics or raising money for a 3rd world foster child. Perhaps they could even write letters to peace keepers or maybe explore global warming. Yea right. Not a chance.

Many of them had already been following the Kony 2012 story and discussion quickly turned to how they could get involved. By the end of the meeting a powerful wave of concern had formed and the students were ready to make a difference. The next day they started hanging posters and distributing bracelets, bringing awareness to other students. They also asked permission to fundraise (which I gave them), selling various trinkets and small bags of candy. Many club members have even shared their thoughts by blogging and here’s Taila’s post and  Jessica’s post. The most impressive part of all this is that the students are taking the lead in everything, with the teacher simply guiding them and supporting their efforts.Their big event is scheduled for this coming Friday, April 20th. On that day the actual Kony 2012 campaign is planning an event called “Cover the Night” and our global justice club has decided to “Cover the School.” Club members will meet after school on Thursday and plaster our school with posters. They want to bring awareness to our entire school community about what Kony is doing. Reluctantly, I have even agreed to them inviting the local press. Have I allowed this to get out of control? Is this something that is better left to junior high and high school students. Maybe it’s not the best idea for an elementary school to get involved at all.  Or perhaps I should be limiting the type of content that can be explored by clubs in my school.

But maybe these are the experiences we should be exposing our students to. After all, they researched Kony themselves, developed opinions, and then were moved to action. They are inquiring, leading in their learning, collaborating, practicing digital citizenship, and becoming more culturally and globally aware. Am I off base here? What do you think?

Student Voice – Are We Really Listening?

In November 2008 Speak Out - our provinces Student Engagement Initiative was launched. During that time thousands of Junior High and High School students have attended Speak Out Forums, Annual Speak Out Conferences, or been part of the Minister’s Student Advisory Council. They have also been encouraged to share their thoughts through the Speak Out website. In recent years it is quite impressive to look at the wide variety of opportunities students have been given to ‘have a say’ in the how, what, when, where, and why of their schooling. Rarely is there a public consultation on education without students being invited to the discussion table. And they have some excellent, innovative ideas about what leaning should look like. Adults almost always leave these forums agreeing that listening to the students was the most impressive part of the evening. But is anyone really listening?  

Isn’t student voice an opportunity for them to share their experiences and ideas in order to help the people who make decisions understand the issues that are important to them, then take action. It seems to me that there is a lot of listening and very little action.

Later this month our grade 6 students will be visiting the Junior High School for an orientation. On that day they will tour the school, meet their grade 7 teachers, and be introduced to the school community. Leading up to that time we have decided to give them an opportunity to write blog posts, asking questions and informing their eventual grade 7 teachers of how they prefer to learn. This year, under the watchful eyes of two amazing teachers, they’ve been exposed to Kidblog, Edmodo, Collaborative Learning, Layered Curriculum, Glogster, Twitter, Skyping, Voki, Email, Moodle, Destiny Quest Library, Student-directed Learning, and a variety of other 21st century tools and competencies. They want to let their next teachers know that this is how they want to learn. They want their voices to be heard. Once their blog posts have been completed we will send the links directly to the Junior High School and await their comments. They should be posted soon. http://kidblog.org/6GE/ http://kidblog.org/6YI/.

I guess the big question is: Will they really listen?

The Difficult Struggle of Letting Go

I recently read this post by Will Richardson where he described the bold 21st century transformation of a Nevada charter school as one “…not fully understanding the shift to self-directed, personal learning that technology and the Web support.”  He went on to describe true transformation being one that shifts the balance of power to the learner. I fully agree with Mr. Richardson and have recently completed action research on this very topic. I also blogged about student-directed learning a few weeks back.

As the principal of an elementary school I am reminded every day how difficult it is for teachers to let go of control of the learning process.  Moving from being the distributer of content to the guider of learning is not that easy for teachers who were trained to ‘deliver curriculum.’ This shift is even harder to understand for elementary school teachers who work with the youngest of our students.

Two weeks ago I found myself in a position where I experienced first hand this struggle of handing over control to the student. As an administrator who teaches grade 4 library I was quite happy with the new experiences I had been exposing my students to. Early in the year I introduced them to our library Twitter account and in turn they were given an opportunity to compose Tweets and respond to other ones. After that I got them blogging through a Kidblog account and write books reviews with our Destiny Quest software, allowing them to share their views beyond the walls of our school. Blogging helped us to connect with a wonderful grade 4 class from Wellford, South Carolina and a face-to-face Skype visit was arranged shortly thereafter. Epals were set up and our students started ongoing conversations with their new global friends. I was on a roll, feeling that through the use of these Web 2.0 tools my students were starting to take charge of their own learning.

Mrs. Witherspoon, the teacher of the class in South Carolina was interested in giving the ePals an opportunity to visit by setting up individual Skype sessions so I jumped at the opportunity and my students started preparing questions in anticipation. Under the watchful eyes of adults at both ends the first two visits went off without a hitch. The level of engagement was amazing and the students themselves led through the entire experience.

Now to my struggle. The next ePal Skype session was arranged between Makayla from our school and Chandra from theirs. On the day it was scheduled I didn’t realize until 45 minutes before it was to start that Makayla was home, not feeling well. I decided to make a quick call to see if Makayla’s mom would consider bringing her to school for the Skype call then take her back home. She informed me that Makayla was upset that she would not be able to Skype with her ePal but was not able to come to the school. She did however suggest that Makayla participate in the Skype call from home as she has her own account. It was then that I experienced first hand this struggle with letting go. Up until now I was directly involved in the learning that came from Twitter, Kidblog and Skype. This was different. I would have to trust that Makayla would be responsible and represent our school appropriately. I would have to trust that she knew what she was doing. I would have to step aside and let my student take charge of this learning experience for herself. It was at that moment that I clearly understood why this shift is so difficult. I decided to let it happen.

In spite of the uncertainty, the uncomfortable feelings, and loss of control I encourage every teacher to take that first step and let it happen. Our students are ready.

Who’s Teaching Who?

I’ve been noticing some interesting happenings around my school this year. The long-standing relationship between teachers and

DIGITAL NATIVE

students is starting to change. In a slow way and in small amounts it seems as though there is starting to form a notion that the teacher is not the only source of wisdom, knowledge and information around here. As I walk through the school observing teaching and learning it is not uncommon to see student as teacher and teacher as learner. I believe this is because as teachers risk new approaches they look to these digital natives who have a whole different level of comfort with 21st century learning. Here are a few examples of what I’ve witnessed:

1. Our grade 2 students were learning about a cool new App called Phototangler. I watched as the teacher started explaining how to use it, step by step. Within seconds students were getting ahead of the teacher so she changed gears and just let them play. They soon started showing her parts of the App that she had not figured out herself.
2. One class was learning about Twitter. The teacher had recently set up a Twitter account herself and was using the school library account @stmarylibrary to show the students how to connect with others. One particular student was very knowledgeable about Twitter and the teacher allowed her to control the smart board and show the class how it worked. The student explained all about follows, hashtags, and chats and in the end the teacher asked even more questions than the students.
3. A couple of weeks ago I sent the link to our grade 6 blogs out to my PLN to assist the students in receiving some quality comments. I’ve been very impressed with their posts and wanted to share them with others. Low and behold, a college professor from New York  @SocialAcademic responded to my Tweet, suggesting that perhaps our students could motivate hers to start blogging. In the following days many of her students submitted wonderful comments on our grade 6 blogs. Many of them, we hope, will start blogging as well. 11 year olds showing college students how it’s done. Wow!
4. Aren from grade 6 has become our resident iPad expert. He knows and understands settings and configurations better than any adult on staff. Whenever we are experiencing a glitch with the iPads he either already knows how to fix it or he figures it out. Of course, our division techie is a bit leery about this. lol       

These digital natives that come to us every day are simply not wired the way we were as students.  We didn’t do much problem solving, decision-making, or leading in our own learning.  Those skills weren’t seen as important because when we left school and went to work most of us expected to be told what to do.  This is no longer the case. In today’s world there is more scope for autonomy and decision-making and our students are naturally put together this way.  We need to be sharing learning with our students, not just delivering it to them. I am happy to see that things appear to be moving in this direction.

Be All In

A few days ago our staff participated in the Holy Spirit Schools Spiritual Development Day.  It was a great day of reflection and learning about our Catholic faith and our own Mme. Boras is to be commended on her fine work as part of the organizing committee. As a Catholic school system we are called to live out our faith through our daily work and experiences like this provide us with some added knowledge and understanding of how to go about doing that.

 The day was highlighted by the opening and closing keynote address, which was delivered by 29 year old Michael Chiasson through his organization called All Access Ministries. His message was simple yet powerful: to reach out to people with encouragement and hope, and inspire them to dream big. He talked a lot about never giving up on our students and challenged us to be “all in” with everything we do. When we do this, he said, amazing things happen.

 As parents, support staff, and teachers we owe this to our students. To encourage them every time we have a chance. To never allow them to give up on themselves. To be ‘all in’ with everything they do. And while doing so maintain the right attitude.

ATTITUDE

by: Charles Swindoll

 

The longer I live, the more I realize the importance of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.

It is more important than the past, than education, than money,

than circumstances, than failures, than successes,

than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.

It will make or break a company… a church… a home…. a school.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the

attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people

will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that

is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me

and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.