Kindness, Solutions and Passion

I attended an Administrator Academy yesterday. For those that aren't familiar with Administrator Academies, they are mandated professional development for each administrator in the state of Illinois. Every administrator in the state must attend at least one per year.

For the academy that I selected, Jim Burgett was the presenter. Jim is a former teacher, principal and superintendent. He has twice been named administrator of the year. The academy was entitled "Tools for Effective Leadership" and since this is something I've been studying in my doctoral classes I wanted to hear from a practitioner (to go along with the theory I have been studying). He certainly didn't disappoint.

While I learned a multitude of new things yesterday, I want to leave you with something that I felt was the most important and that's would be his 3-Step Guarantee to being Successful. I like simple and concise, and these certainly fit the bill. The first step is to Be Kind. Leading with compassion is not a weakness, it is a strength. It doesn't cost anything to be kind to one another. We certainly want others to treat us with kindness, but do we always treat everyone we meet with kindness? The second step is to Think Solutions. This step is so true and it's been something I've tried to focus on this year. There are so many difficulties in education at the present time. We can sit around and whine and complain or we can get together and work on solutions to make the situation better. Things go wrong and will continue to go wrong, but we need to focus our energy on fixing problems. If we work on solutions to problems we can grow as an organization (and community), no growth from whining and complaining. The third step is to Work with a Passion. What would a school system look like if everyone worked with passion? So how do you stack up against Jim's steps to being successful? It certainly gave me some food for thought.


As has been my custom this year during my blogs I want to finish by thanking someone within the school system . My thanks this blog goes out to Kevin McCleary and Kathy Walsh. These two individuals work together as coaches for the middle school scholastic bowl team. Kevin is the head coach and he reads the questions during the matches. He's is always positive with the kids. He gives as much positive reinforcement to the opposing team members as he does to his own team. If a student gets a question wrong, he tells them that it was a good try or it was a good answer and often follows up with why their question was wrong (teaching them in the process). Even though the setting is "competitive" Kevin always creates an atmosphere where both teams feel comfortable trying to answer the challenging questions. I knew that Kevin was a great classroom teacher but seeing him work with the scholastic bowl team has given me a new respect for him. Kathy isn't as involved with the students during the matches but she helps keep everyone (especially the parents) organized. My real thanks to Kathy is for her dedication to helping students find a passion for reading. She is beginning a project for a community-wide read on the book My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen. It was an idea that we talked about last year and she has taken the initiative to "get the ball rolling." More to come on the community-wide read, so watch the district website as this starts to unfold. My thanks to Kevin (for his kindness) and to Kathy (for her passion) in making CCUSD#1 a better place for students and adults.


Thanks for reading
Tammy

New Year - New Happenings

Happy New Year to everyone.

On January 4th many of us from Unit #1 were able to go to Reed-Custer to hear writer/speaker Alfie Kohn. Mr. Kohn has written many books including The Homework Myth, Punished by Rewards and Beyond Discipline. Mr. Kohn certainly challenges most of the widely held beliefs about education in regards to grades, standardized testing, and homework. In reality the classroom of today doesn't look much different than a classroom that my parents attended, or my grandparents attended (the calendar is certainly still the same--August through May). We employ many of the same practices that we as educators learned while we were students. Mr. Kohn challenged us to look at those practices especially in the areas of grades and homework. He cited a lot of research to stop the practice of homework, especially in our youngest students. What would parents think of a school district that the "default" was no homework instead of scheduled homework every night? What would parents think of a school district that stopped giving grades, but truly discussed with them what their children knew and did not know? It's certainly an interesting scenario to contemplate. I certainly welcome your comments on the subject.

For the first time we gave an online assessment to some of our 6th grade social studies classes. It was the same test that has always been given but we gave these students an opportunity to take the assessment on the computer instead of with a pencil and paper. It was fun to see how excited, yes "excited" the students were about taking the test. We hope to expand the online testing to other areas and other grade levels this semester. It will save time for the teacher in running copies of tests and we'll "save trees" by not using so much paper. The feedback is immediate and both the students and teacher can appreciate that.


In my continuous effort to be "part of the solution" and not "part of the problem," my thanks this posting go out to Celeste and Karen. My mom was in the hospital during the holidays and had major surgery. Celeste and Karen made meals for my family during this very stressful time. It's nice when we are reminded that people can be so very generous and caring. I certainly appreciate these two amazing women, and "thanks" seem inadequate.

Thanks for reading
Tammy

Local 150

On December 2nd I had the opportunity to participate in the open house at Local 150 in Wilmington. Local 150 in conjunction with the Wilco Area Career Center will offer an opportunity for 10-15 high school seniors to learn at the Wilmington facility during the 2010-2011 school year. During the open house the guests were treated to a tour of the building and an overview of the heavy equipment program. Eligible students are required to apply to get into the program and must meet GPA requirements and attendance targets. Once they make it through the initial application process they will be interviewed and go through a mechanical exercise at the facility.

During the tour the instructors at the facility talked about the curriculum that the students would be learning. It was amazing to hear all of the very complex mathematics and physics the students would be learning, things such as Ohm's Law and Pascal's Law. Of course these students will be learning largely by "application" and not just the theory of the laws. Everything that I heard that night from the professional laborers confirmed the same research that ACT recently published. In their report they stated that students going to college and those going to the workforce need the same skills to be successful. It seems that even though the evidence is very clear, we too often (in education) lower the bar for students not going to a 4-year university.

Many of the students that attended the open house that night were very excited about the opportunity to try and participate in this program. Some even remarked that it would give them a new focus to try and improve their grades so they would be eligible. That should always be our goal as educators, to try and get our students to reach their maximum potential--whether they be college bound our work place bound.

My "thanks" in this blog posting goes out to Dave. I learned this week that Dave will be leaving our school community to return to Washington. Dave has made a huge impression upon all of us. I have never met a kinder or more humble person. I will miss Dave tremendously but I'm just a better person for having met him. Best wishes Dave-God Bless.

Thanks for reading
Tammy

Homework Myth and Alfie Kohn

Last night I finished reading Alfie Kohn's book The Homework Myth. It has been a very interesting read, one that has certainly challenged my thought processes. While I don't agree with everything that he states in his book about the subject of homework, I certainly do think that he makes some very valid points.

I encourage you to read what Mr. Kohn has to say about the subject of homework. A short article that was included in the Principal in 2007 is attached. While it doesn't include all of his points from his book, it does include some of the main ones.

I think it's safe to say that homework has become what he calls the "default" setting. As teachers, parents, students and administrators we just expect to have homework assigned. What would school look like without homework? Does questioning the value of homework go against raising standards for our students? It's a very interesting subject and I certainly welcome your thoughts on the subject.

To continue with my theme this year, my thanks this posting goes out to Michelle. Michelle is one of the most energetic individuals that I know. She is never afraid to "stir the pot" to see how things can be improved for our students. (Even if it means more work for her!) She's a very positive influence for our middle school students and for the teachers, staff and administrators that get to work with her. It's really impossible to be in a bad mood after spending a few minutes with her. We really are so lucky to have her as a part of our school community.

Thanks for reading
Tammy

EXPLORE/PLAN/ACT -- Preparing for success in college and the workforce

In November we will be testing four of our grade levels using ACT's EPAS -Educational Planning and Assessment System. We will be giving our 8th graders the EXPLORE test on November 17 and 18. We use the test to help structure high school planning and career exploration. It also gives us another piece of information to help monitor academic progress. ACT has determined college benchmark standards to help determine if a student is on track to be prepared for entry level college coursework or career readiness. Too many students are not prepared for entry level coursework and end up taking remedial courses at the college level. Remedial courses cost the same as regular college classes but they don't count toward a student's degree. Some studies put the number as high as 2/3 of community college students that need to take remedial classes before they can start their studies. By implementing the EPAS system we are hoping that our students will have a clear understanding of what they need to work on academically before leaving CCHS.

On November 3rd we will be testing the 9th graders with their 2nd opportunity to take the EXPLORE. We will compare their scores to those they earned as 8th graders, looking for growth or areas of concern. The 10th graders will be taking a PLAN test. The PLAN is also used for planning and career exploration, it is also used to help predict success on the ACT. Our juniors will be taking a retired ACT and a practice writing sample. The information from the assessments will be shared with the students and their parents as soon as the results are available. I encourage all parents and students to spend time going through the reports from the EXPLORE and PLAN tests. If there is something that needs clarification, please don't hesitate to call and make an appointment to speak to a guidance counselor.

My thanks this week go to Jennifer. Jennifer is our science department coordinator for grades K-5. Last summer she coordinated our first Camp Invention. This gave our students an opportunity to spend a week using creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It was a huge success and it is due in large part to the efforts she put forth. Jennifer really cares about kids and she demonstrates that on a continual basis. I'm fortunate to get an opportunity to work along side such a professional educator. Thanks Jen for all that you do!

Thanks for reading
Tammy

Common Core State Standards

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) have released the draft copies of the new common core state standards. The drafted standards are available for review and for public comment until October 21st. The standards and the rules for comment can be found on the Common Core State Standards Initiative Website. Illinois is working closely with this project as is 47 other states. State Superintendent Dr. Koch provided some specific information about the goals of the new standards as well as projections for where we will be in the future. I for one am very excited about the new standards, I think they will assist us in making our curriculum more meaningful and rigorous for our students. The standards were written to prepare students for "success in entry-level, credit-bearing, academic college courses and in workforce training programs." It is important that we understand that there shouldn't be differences in expectations between traditional college bound students and workforce bound students.

On my original post I discussed the problem of negative information coming from school employees and that my posts would always include something positive. So this post is a thank you to Jim, Josh, Sandy, Sandy, Jane and Cindy. I'm currently getting to teach six professional educators how to create a web presence for their classroom/office. It's a lot of fun to get to work together for a couple of hours each week trying to help them create their vision for parent/student/community communication. (Well at least it's fun for me). They have all worked very hard and their sites are going to be a wealth of information. Only three more classes and their sites will be attached to the district website. It's a tremendous sense of accomplishment to learn a new skill and then apply those skills to creating something that can be shared with a worldwide audience. I hope they feel the same way.

Thanks for reading
Tammy

Departments at Work

I hope everyone had a nice Labor Day, we certainly had beautiful weather.

It was very busy in the assessment office last week, and this week looks to be more of the same. Teachers are gearing up for the first round of assessments that will be placed into our Pearson Benchmark system. The system allows the teachers to work within their departments or grade level to analyze student, class and grade level performance. Results can be analyzed to determine weaknesses in curriculum, instruction or weaknesses of the assessment. Much of this work is accomplished during early dismissals on the first Wednesday of each month. On those days teachers work together to sift through the results to determine ways to improve learning for our students. This process is instrumental in our efforts to improve as an organization and as individual educators.

While I am currently reading several books for my ISU class, my "fun" read this week is The Homework Myth by Alfie Kohn and while I haven't finished the book, the first three chapters have given me a lot to think about. Kohn like many educational writers are asking us to question the common assumptions that we often perpetuate in education. Those items that we have kept in practice without testing the effectiveness or benefits of them. This specific book is about the practice of homework and whether homework is giving us the results that we expect. It's good to read authors that push us to think about change in our organization, however uncomfortable it might make us feel. I'm looking forward to finishing his book. If anyone has read it and has any comments about it, please post them, I would love to hear what others think about this book.

To continue with my theme from my first post, my "thanks" this week goes out to Carrie, Jessica, Tammy and Ronnie. I met with these four exceptional educators last week during department meetings. Starting a comprehensive Spanish program K-8 in the 2008-2009 school year was an enormous task. Not only did they get the program up and running last year, they have it flourishing. They work very hard to share best practices to help all of their students learn the language. The second year is going to present different types of challenges, which we discussed at the meeting. The difference is the attitude they take toward those challenges. Many people see challenges as something to sit around and complain about and people like Carrie, Jessica, Ronnie and Tammy see challenges as something that professional educators face, so they dialogue about ways to overcome the challenges. They know that complaining isn't going to help their students learn Spanish, brainstorming and coming up with solutions to fix the problems will. They are a great group of positive individuals, and we are privileged that they are a part of the CCUD#1 team, our students are certainly reaping the benefits.

Thanks for reading.
Tammy