scottmcleod's Blog

What's preventing your school from restructuring how it thinks about instructional 'time' other than a massive mindset shift?

Not in most schools of ed. Sorry.

What are next steps? What are our big takeaways from the book and our discussions? How are we going to apply our learning in our organizations?

Moving away from the monitoring side of things to the empowering side of things, I would add that these things called 'computers' and 'the Internet' allow students to work independently and accomplish great things, not just do independent reading or worksheets. That's another resource we have now that we lacked before...

Ahhh... gotcha. Yep, the district assessments sound pretty poor. =(

Thanks for the additional info. I might use this (anonymized, of course) as an example in my DDDM workshop for Arkansas teachers/principals in September!

Sarah, I agree with you that we should be tapping into teacher expertise much more when it comes to assessment. That said, it's unclear to me why the district assessments you describe are bad and why the teacher's assessments are good. What is it about each that makes one better than the other? Can you give me more detail so I can opine appropriately? ;)

The title of this post is from page 222 of the book. I don't think we pay enough attention to the physical world of schools...

1. I’ve done a great deal of work with schools, helping them to ‘uncover the invisible’ through effective and creative uses of data. I appreciated the authors' emphasis on changing people's cognitive maps using data. We don't do this enough in schools. We're still so focused on data for NCLB compliance that we miss a lot of opportunities to use data analysis for more meaningful school improvement. Innovative data collection and presentation can go a long way…

Example story: I worked with a high school assistant principal who was concerned about one teacher, Teacher C, who sent students to the office nearly every class period. The school had smaller learning communities (like middle school teams); a group of teachers shared the same pool of students. She and I made a chart that displayed the discipline referrals for every teacher on the team (remember, they all had the same students) for the past three months. The height of Teacher C’s bar was four times that of any other teacher on the team. No names on the chart except for Teacher C. The assistant principal slipped the chart into the teacher’s box with a note explaining the chart and offering to help. Surprise! The number of disciplinary referrals dropped dramatically and immediately! This is the kind of creative use of data we need to do more of…

2. The physical environment of schools gets in the way of meaningful collaboration and interaction. The teacher’s lounge is often a poisonous place but may be the only place where teachers bump elbows. What can schools do to increase the likelihood of positive, productive elbow-bumping?

3. I liked the emphasis on MAKING THE CORRECT BEHAVIOR EASIER (and, eventually, UNAVOIDABLE). Our paperwork and other bureacratic structures / regulations / procedures usually make the correct behavior more difficult, not easier. I think this is an area that more principals and superintendents could (should) pay attention to…

Add it in this discussion space or at the wiki:

http://uceacastle.wikispaces.com/maxfieldquestions

Principal intervention also would have been a great help to you back then! =(

Here's a post I did a while back:

http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/06/change_diagram__1.html

I wonder if we could somehow rethink how we work with those teachers that need help...

Mike (and everyone else who might have dropped back in), thanks for rejoining us! We're glad to have your voice in the conversation!!!

I liked this chapter, but I'd interpret your statement a little differently, Rob. Instead of:

Improve our math instructional program, which will be evidenced by a 10% increase.

I'd say, for example:

1. Collect ongoing progress monitoring data on important student learning outcome(s)
2. Enter and analyze those data
3. Meet every month with your PLC to review the data and alter instructional strategies based on the data
4. Implement those revised instructional strategies in your classroom
5. Which should lead to a 10% increase.

It's the specificity of the vital behaviors that I think was missing from your statement. We can't be too vague. We want our staff implementing those vital behaviors so those are what we should be rewarding (instead of the results), I believe.

Just my 2 cents...

Cory, what percentage of the faculty believe this? Is "most" 51% or 91%? There is strength in numbers. How can all of you, not just some of you, approach your principal with this issue? And, even more importantly, how can you as teachers help your administrator deal with this issue rather than just leaving it to him to deal with? Has the staff ever collectively confronted the principal or the "bad" teachers?

Re: #2 and #3, the most powerful learning I took away from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point was that you have to focus on people that others will listen to. They may or may not be in positions of formal authority. In schools we usually pick leadership teams based on role (i.e., we need the counselor, the dept. chair, the assistant principal, etc.) rather than on influence. That's gotta stop.

What if the people that others listen to in your organization are naysayers? Well, you've still gotta get them on board because otherwise their influence will work against you every step of the way. That's a guaranteed loser...

Um, thanks, I think?

I just think there's too much work to be done to just keep doing what we've done. Someone's gotta stir up the pot and get things moving. That's what leadership's all about, right?

And why aren't you calling me Scott? =)

I LOVED the banging pans story. I'm trying to think of ways to effectively bang pans around here. I've got a neighbor who yells way too much at his kids, teachers and professorial colleagues who are blah at best, etc. What's keeping us from banging more pans - even when we know it's the right thing to do - other than fear of social rejection?

Some of you may be interested in this podcast by Dr. Richard Elmore about teacher culture (63 minutes):

http://www.scottmcleod.org/2006UCEAElmore.mp3

Still one of my all-time favorites!

Tony, how about classroom cameras? =)

http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/02/classroom_camer.html

Skip, if you haven't yet read it, you'd like Clayton Christenson's new book, Disrupting Class. He echoes the same themes you do above. I'm now reading The Innovator's Dilemma...

Hmmm... not sure where the second image went. Here it is again!

From my blog...

http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2008/01/convergent-v-di.html
http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2008/04/four-charts.html

I think the solution for many of these 'softer' or more ambiguous skills is to pick one, try to break down and identify what effectiveness in that area might look like, and then repeatedly practice that skill in front of others, getting feedback after each iteration (this is what Japanese lesson study looks like in my head). There are 'life coaches,' 'presentation coaches,' and other types of non-athletic coaches that do this kind of stuff. We can learn from them how to think about this stuff...

Hang tight, Greg. More to come on this topic later in the book!

The authors say that, as change agents, we need to…

a. identify a change that we’d like to see and/or make happen,
b. identify some vital behaviors that would lead to that change,
c. identify some recovery behaviors for our change initiative, and
d. identify a setting in which we can test our results.

In Chapter 3, the authors state that changing people’s mindsets is essential to any change initiative. In short, we need to help others answer two key questions:

1. Is it worth it?
2. Can I do it?

For your desired change, how can you help others positively answer these two questions? Do you have evocative, persuasive stories (as the authors suggest)? Do you have other ideas or techniques? What’s in your arsenal to change others’ minds - to create cognitive dissonance with the status quo? What hasn’t worked so far?

Hi Skip. Does that mean you're not finding the book very valuable so far? ;)

I said 'It’s possibly the best leadership book that I’ve read in years.' I did so because - rather than including a bunch of trite leadership maxims - the book does a nice job of presenting a structured approach to facilitating change in a way that's readable and accessible. I've read a lot of good and bad leadership books in my life - this is an awfully good one. Plus I think it's going to turn out to be a great book for a book club!

As we get further into it, be sure to share your own opinions on the book!

In order to get the most out of the rest of this book, try to do the following…

1. Identify a change – personal, professional, or organizational – that you’d like to see and/or make happen.

Be specific!

2. Identify some vital behaviors that would lead to that change.

Make sure they’re behaviors, not outcomes!

Can you even identify what these specific, high-leverage behaviors are? From research? From positive deviance (in your setting or others)?

This is one of the biggest struggles in K-12 education. As Elmore, Christensen, and others have stated, there is little agreement about what constitutes ‘best practice’ for particular educational issues. Or, if there is, educator knowledge of those practices is rare (e.g., how many of you had heard of Dr. Ethna Reid?). Do you even know what are the best practices / vital behaviors for your change initiative?

3. Identify some recovery behaviors for your change initiative.

What should happen when you get off track?

4. Identify a setting in which you can test your results.

Where (and with whom) can you test your vital behaviors (and recovery behaviors) to see if they’re truly ‘vital?’

I encourage you to try and answer these four questions. They’re the starting point for the rest of the book and, if you wish, the first components of an action plan to address the issue that you’ve identified (more on this at the end of our book club!). Post your responses here as a reply!

Page 9 notes that ‘the vast majority of our efforts go to after-the-fact treatment.’ Although the authors were talking about AIDS, do you think that’s also true for the serious issues that we face in K-12 education? If not, why not? If so, what are some examples?

One of the essential premises of these first few chapters is that many of the issues in our lives – both large and small – can be impacted if we begin to see ourselves as influencers. In other words, they are things that we can do something about if we so choose.

Do you normally think of yourself as an influencer? Is your answer different for either your professional or personal life?

Do you think educators see themselves as influencers? If so, how does this manifest itself in their behavior? If not, why not?

We'd have to talk about what you've taken so far, see what will transfer in, what you want to do with your life, etc. =) Drop me a note sometime: http://www.scottmcleod.net/contact

Kathy, it's time for you to come to ISU next (for your CAS and/or doctorate)!