What are you excellent at?

I throw a great knuckle ball. I will even go as far as saying I'm excellent at it, especially with a softball. But saying that I'm excellent means I'm confident that I can show you, on command, consistently. It sounds a little arrogant. But it feels oh so good. :)

Admitting you're excellent at something means you'd better be darn good.Being excellent requires knowing what excellent looks like, how to get there, followed up with relentless, unwavering, exhaustive work.

Our goal at John Campbell Primary is to be striving, everyday, towards excellence. We can be excellent at being fun and we can be excellent at celebrating students. But until we are excellent at helping students make academic growth, we are not excellent.

Our teaching staff has created a Compact of Excellence. This compact includes two components that focus on our Best Self, and our Best Work. Teachers identified two key statements that if we hold ourselves and each other accountable, our students will achieve excellence in their academic growth. One statement focuses on what we can do as a individual, the other focuses on the work our teams are doing. And interestingly enough, both statements are very similar.

Best Self: I will frequently evaluate my impact, that I can change my instruction so ALL students can learn to their full potential. When I need help I will ask for help.

Best Work: We will reflect on, share, evaluate, and change to improve our instruction in order to increase our impact so ALL students can learn and grow.

Grammatically, they're not pretty. They don't provide a lot of details of how, which was not a requirement. But I think the teachers are on the right path. These statements signify their willingness to look at data and be transparent if they did well or need to do better. As teams, they'll identify how to support the students of teachers whose scores were not the best, at the same time helping that teacher learn and improve.

This requires a great deal of trust. This requires interdependently and teams of 13, 14, and 15 teachers working as one.

There is a poster in our staff lounge that reads:

You are not a TEAM

unless you have goals that

require you to work together,

collectively and interdependently

to achieve them. 

You MUST NEED EACH OTHER

to be a team. 

This is our definition of excellence.

School and Love, part II

The power of the love of a teacher

This phrase might sound strange, as though the juxtaposition of "love" and "school" seem contradictory and unrelated.

But as I wade through the tangible array of emotions that waft out of classrooms it is very easy to identify those teachers who love teaching. And it's not because they are great teachers and love being in front of a class. They love the kiddos they work with. They give their heart and souls for students and students move  mountains for those teachers. My teachers whose students show the most growth are those teachers who give of their time and efforts for students out of love, not duty.

If a student is sad, they don't just tell the student they are sorry, they truly are sorry and help the student work through the sadness. This is the difference between sympathy and empathy

Example: I had a teacher on Friday who was visibly sad because it was a student's last day. During that school day the student went around the classroom and started crossing her name off any lists or places it was written. This broke the teacher's heart. In her mind they still had one final day with this kiddo and couldn't bear the thought of her leaving.

The best gift your student can receive is being in the classroom where they know their teacher loves them. This doesn't always mean brightly colored walls or lovely newsletters. I have no way of quantifying "teacher love" but I only need to be in a classroom for a few minutes to know. It's those classrooms where you just want to sit and watch because every student believes they are irreplaceable and valuable.

No, those teachers aren't always sappy sweet and super nice. In fact, some of my teachers with the most love are some of my more no-nonsense teachers. But they give their heart and soul for every student. And I'd put my child in their classroom in a heartbeat because my child will learn so much more than just academics. My child will leave school every day KNOWING that their teacher believes in them and loves them unconditionally. That's powerful.

1.5 days with Rick Wormeli left me exhausted and rejuvinated!

Robin Williams and Steve Martin made a baby. 

Meet Rick Wormeli. 

 

(http://www.middleweb.com/6850/crazy-good-teaching-stuff/)

He dances, sings, conducts, celebrates, all in the name of elevating education. 

But what I think he does best is makes some of the most brilliant, accomplished, veteran educators SQUIRM. They shift in their chairs. They look about and roll their eyes. They search their inner-self to find something that proves he's wrong. But he's not wrong. He's been relaying the same message for 30 years and we are finally listening.

He's not saying anything out of the realm of common sense, here are a few examples, though not always direct quotes:

• The consequences for NOT doing the work is doing the work. Do not accept "zeros" from students. Make them accountable for the learning. Every profession in the world holds their employees accountable for doing their job. It becomes really uncomfortable when your boss has to ask you over and over to do something and eventually you will have a different boss that probably pays less. Natural consequences. But giving a student a zero, a pass, a get-out-of-jail free card if they don't do the work teaches them the work wasn't worth doing. Stop penalizing students' multiple attempts at mastery.
• Let them know what's going to be on the test so they can actually learn it before the test! The driver's test isn't a pop quiz. Doctors don't show up to take their boards without a clue what success looks like. The "real world" gives us the answers before we take tests. And then we learn the material and turn it into knowledge. But many teachers hope their students can memorize the material on Monday long enough to regurgitate it on Friday. They label them "A students." But there was no actual learning going on. 
• Just because colleges/universities model terrible teaching practices doesn't mean K-12 should do the same. Teaching students how to learn while we have them is the most valuable gift we can give them, and better prepares them for the factory model they'll experience in higher ed. 
• Grades don't teach or motivate students, but observation-based feedback helps them improve. Once something is grades, the learning stops. Educators must become experts in age-appropriate motivation. 
• "Nobody knows ahead of time how long it takes anyone to learn anything." (Dr. Tae). One size does not fit all. 9 months may not be long enough for some. Teachers have the obligation to let students demonstrate knowledge for as long as it takes, because, after all, isn't that why we call them teachers, to teach?! Why can't we let a student come by, anytime, and demonstrate they finally got it?
• Using an average to grade does not reflect what the student learned. Just because it's mathematically easy to calculate doesn't mean it's pedagogically correct.  
• Grades should ONLY be an indication of what students learned, not their attitudes, effort, ability to follow a dress code, amount of homework returned, or if they stayed awake in the classroom. 
• We can learn without grades, but we can't learn without feedback. 
• If we make learning the goal AND the reward, there's no reason for students to cheat. 
• The list goes on....

I listened to him for 3 hours on one afternoon and 6 hours the next day and felt like I drank from a fire-hydrant. But as I sat and listened to others in the room mull over what he'd presented, listened to some justify why their way was still correct, murmur about the potential impact this would have on their work, I realized he is doing exactly what needs to be done. That is, he's telling people hard truths about their education malpractice, from an national and international pulpit, backed by data, research, and a mountain of other experts. 

The message that most resonated with me was this: 

Kids learn from recovering from the mistake, not being labeled by it. 

We must teach them how to fail

Your best teacher was your last mistake. (the internet says many different people are the author of this quote, pick your favorite.)

When you make a mistake often times you have immediate data, immediate feedback. Having spent 7 years as a pavement maintenance contractor, I have to admit that I made mistakes when striping parking lots and roads, but nothing as ironic or visible as this:

Sometimes our mistakes are very public. Sometimes we don't realize they are mistakes until some time later. But I bet the gentlemen (sorry guys, but I'm assuming a lady didn't make this one) who made this mistake will never misspell a certain word, ever again!

As an adult, the success of my professional life (and my parenting and husband-ing, for that matter) hinges on minimizing my mistakes. The way I do this is by using all of my knowledge and experience to make the best decision I can, in the most timely manner possible. Much of that knowledge and experience was gained by doing it the wrong way, many times. Hopefully I have remembered all of the wrong ways I did it in the past, or the wrong ways I've seen others do it to make sure this decision/action is better than before. 

The phrase "Well, I'll never do that again!" is powerful. You did something wrong, and you learned something valuable from it. 

From a child's perspective, their whole growth process hinges not on whether they make mistakes, but how they learn and grow from them. And our reactions to their mistakes and failures play a key role. This is connected to a quote in my previous post: If the brain is unrewarded or punished for curiosity, it learns to hide, avoid risks, and stick with what is familiar and safe. (Cozzolino) If our students (children) do not feel safe enough to make a mistake, it is devastating for them when they do. They will shut down, close off, and hide.

Imagine how your child's world will be, how their learning and imagination and potential will flourish, when they know that they were free to make mistakes because they are a necessary part of learning! Imagine how much they will change the world because of the risks they are willing to take!

So, what's my point? Please let them fail. And when they do, teach them how to learn from it. And when the do it right or better the next time, praise their effort, their grit, and point out how it was because they learned from their mistake that they showed this growth. That is an amazing learning lesson they can use the rest of their lives.