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#1MinCPD: Coaching Questions

Reading Time: 1 minute Have you ever coached another colleague? Coaches ask great questions. Coaching helps people to find a route towards their own

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3 Ideas for Dealing with “Pushback” on Your Ideas in Education

On the #Drawn2Teach book study happening now over on Instagram, Josh Stumpenhorst asked the following question:

Here was the response I gave on Instagram:

Instead of answering this question with the idea that had pushback (because I have had a ton), I want to focus more on answering what I have shifted my thinking on for this context.

First of all, assume positive intent of the other person you are working within education. If you think you are the only one trying to do good things for students, you already have a disconnect.  You can meaningfully move more people forward through “influence” than you can “power”.  For influence, people need to know you value them and their contributions.

Secondly, the best answers are usually somewhere in the middle. Not always, but rarely do extremes work for our students. Find the places where you agree and work from there.

Finally, try to find a solution moving forward that leads to action. Too often people hate meetings because they are all about talking and little about action. What are the things you are going to try and come back with to share with one another the next time you connect? There needs to be accountability in creating solutions, not just discussing them.

As my friend Joe Sanfelippo always says, we are all in this together.

March 12, 2019 4 Ideas to Help Improve Teacher Well-Being

February 3, 2013 4 Attributes of a Great Assistant Principal

June 15, 2012 Do we need (great) principals?

November 1, 2018 Immersed in the Present With an Eye on the Future

July 22, 2018 3 Ways to Help Move Your Boss Forward

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What Are Parents’ Perceptions of OfSTED?

Reading Time: 3 minutes What do parents think about our English state schools and how they are inspected? The Annual Parents Survey 2018 was

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10 Reasons Why Spelling Is A Step Too Far!

Reading Time: 4 minutes Children don’t need to know how to spell, do they? I am not averse to the teaching of spelling. I

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How Can You Bring Engineering To Life In Your Classroom?

Reading Time: 2 minutes How can we encourage young people to think like scientists and engineers? The Smallpiece Trust aims to inspire young people

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Does Personality Make You A Better Teacher?

Reading Time: 2 minutes Does your personality make you are a more effective teacher? Published in Educational Psychology Review, March 2019, the results showed

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What We Assess Often Drives Teaching

Thinking out loud so bear with me…

An important question that we should ask often;

What is the purpose of school? 

Is it a means to an end or is there a bigger purpose?

If you “teach to the test,” can some skills be learned in that process? Resiliency? Focus? Dedication? I have seen some posts on social media where the instruction is geared to how we do on exams and things like “pep rallies” getting students psyched up to do tests. Please know that whether I agree with this or not, I do know the intent of the teachers and schools doing this is something positive. My gut tells me that how much these classrooms focus on the “test” is usually a reflection of what leadership (local or state/provincial) is saying is essential, or communicating.

What we assess often drives our teaching, not the other way around. If you know your “effectiveness” is measured by how well students do on specific tests, you will probably place a significant focus on helping students do well, and the focus can be narrow.

So is school about doing well on tests or something more? I will always believe it is something more but if we were to ask students, what would they say? I know what many educators would say but do our students feel the same way?  I remember having a conversation with a student who was doing EVERYTHING they could to accelerate their graduation and get credits done as soon as possible.  They had no interest in staying in school and longer and saw it as a checklist to complete.

If you asked the following question, “what is the purpose of school?” to a group of teachers, students, parents, and community members, what would they say? Would their answers be aligned or close in nature or misaligned?

I am not judging, but I am asking. I have been thinking a lot about this lately and wondering where there are connections and disconnections in this question.

I would love to know if any schools or districts are asking their community the question and what they are getting back for answers. What are you doing with that information? How are you aligning what you do to those answers?

*After I wrote this post, I saw this post from Blake Harvard focused on a very similar topic where he asks “What is the purpose of education?” What is interesting to think about is what is the difference of that question and “What is the purpose of school?”  Are these different questions?

March 12, 2019 4 Ideas to Help Improve Teacher Well-Being

April 14, 2019 Invest in the People that Invest in Students

March 21, 2019 3 Questions to Help Leverage Barriers in Education

April 16, 2019 Human Disconnection

September 9, 2018 The Balance Between Struggling and Developing Strengths

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National Professional Qualification for School Leadership

Reading Time: 3 minutes How do you know what you are doing, if you are not supported or know what to do? It is

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Podcast 45: What Impact Can Charity Work Have On Education?

Reading Time: 1 minute What is it like to work for a worldwide charity, promoting, advocacy, communication and fundraising? Our 26th interview in the

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Leading With Empathy

This story from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is one that has always stuck with me and reminds me of the importance of understanding someone else’s perspective and experience:

Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed. The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing. It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more?” The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.”

This short story gave me perspective as a principal and teacher.  I remember as I progressed in my career, moments of misbehavior from students affected me less emotionally because it often had little (if anything) to do with me, and everything to do with what was going on with the student at the time. I just learned to breathe and calm down and get to the heart of what was going on.  It wasn’t that I didn’t care about what my students were going through; I just realized that it was often not a reflection due to our interactions.  Something else was often going on.

The next time you struggle with a student, colleague, or someone in your personal life, remember this Covey story.  There is probably a more significant side to the story that you are not seeing.

May 27, 2018 The Push and Pull of Leadership

December 13, 2011 Empathy and Emotion

May 16, 2017 5 Great Non-Education Books That Might Change Your Thinking on Teaching and Learning

May 28, 2015 Empathy for the Learner as a Learner

April 9, 2018 Focusing on 3 Layers of Education

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10 Apps To Aid Pupil Revision

Reading Time: 3 minutes How can we help students prepare for their exams? Teaching and support staff in our schools will be working very

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Teaching ‘Gay Stuff’ – Let’s Get This Straight

Reading Time: 4 minutes How can teachers challenge bigoted world views? Let’s get one thing straight: teaching kids that gay people exist is not

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People That Fill Your Bucket

Watch this short clip from “Jerry Maguire”:

This short clip, says so much about us as educators as well as our students.  This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately.

My friend Katie Martin shares three tips on the “The Science of Happiness: 3 Practices That Changed My Perspective” (I encourage you to read the whole post) after attending a keynote by  Dr. Tal Ben Shahar. The point on “gratitude” especially resonated with me:

3) Show Gratitude

This last one is so simple and complex at the same time- maybe that’s just me though. In a way, it requires vulnerability to express gratitude. I have a framed quote in my office that says, “start each day with a grateful heart.” But, to be honest, I am not always as intentional as I could be about this practice on a day to day basis even though I am so grateful for all I have and really appreciate when people share their gratitude with me.

I do my best to show gratitude to those closest me (I could get better), but I know that I have been bad at showing appreciation for things in my life.  It is easy to get caught up in deficit thinking, but I have been trying to start my morning off with thinking about three things I am grateful for in my life. It has helped me start on a positive note even when I am having a tough day/week mentally and emotionally.

But one thing I am truly grateful for is that I have people in my life that I can contact and say, “Hey…I need a pep talk.”  And they never fail me. Sometimes I don’t listen to what they say, but I always realize that I am grateful that I can count on them for saying it.

Surround yourself with people that fill you up.  As I have grown older, I have realized that a small circle of those people in your life who are willing to have your back and fill you up, is much better than a large circle that has no interest in doing the same thing.

May 20, 2018 Controlling the Solution

September 8, 2016 The #InnovatorsMindset MOOC Starting Soon! #IMMOOC

June 6, 2018 5 Ideas for Improving Professional Learning Experiences

October 15, 2017 Thinking About Research, Innovation, Test-Scores, and Creativity

October 18, 2018 3 Simple Questions To Shape Professional Learning

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Retrieval Practice For Revision

Reading Time: 3 minutes How can we support students in their revision? Retrieval practice is defined by Mark Enser as ‘retrieving something from our

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8 Ideas for Making Data Collection Work

Reading Time: 3 minutes What is your school doing to reduce the data burden? As part of my determination to better understand teacher-workload, I’ve

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Do You Have The Right People Around You?

Reading Time: 2 minutes When did you last evaluate the people around you and your team’s capabilities? Regardless of whether you are a head

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The Core of Innovative Teaching and Learning #InnovatorsMindsetUDL

The above image is a draft visual that is the basis of my next book, “The Core of Innovative Teaching and Learning” (working title) which connects “The Innovator’s Mindset” and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).  I am blessed to have Katie Novak writing this book with me as her brilliance and expertise is something that I know so many people will benefit from in reading the book, as I have benefitted tremendously in writing alongside her.  She takes UDL and makes it extremely accessible for all educators while providing practical strategies for teachers that they can use, iterate, or hopefully, spark new ideas.  This book is focused on providing strategies for teachers through Katie’s amazing examples that she weaves throughout, but since we focus on learners, we hope to see administrators see the value of mirroring these opportunities in their community.

The book is separated into parts based on the visual above.  Part 1 is on the first two circles. Those four areas are meant to “set the stage” for learners.  “Relationships” is listed in the middle because without a focus on it, the other three strands will not be as effective.

Part 2 is focused on “The 8 Characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset” (new visual below) and the UDL principles, and their connection to one another.  If part 1 is “setting the stage,” part 2 is about student’s “putting on the production.”

And in Part 3, we discuss some of the opportunities we have to lead from where we are and how important it is that we not only focus on the “whole student” but the “whole educator” as well.

We also discuss “Innovative Teaching and Learning” is not focused on only doing the “latest and greatest” for our students. It is about finding new and better ways to serve our learners, whether through a traditional practice or a new idea.

The book will be out soon, and I look forward to sharing more information as the release date gets closer.  I just wanted the opportunity to share the visuals out with the world.  Feedback is appreciated.

April 18, 2019 “Tell me what you need to ensure that every student in your class can learn.”

April 9, 2019 What do you do with what you know?

March 7, 2019 The Wisdom of Those Closest To Students

April 11, 2019 3 Important Questions Regarding “Success” in Schools

March 26, 2019 Why Teachers Love Teaching (As Shared by Teachers)

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