EXCELLENCE & ETHICS

Updates from February, 2011

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  The Power of Revisions: Part II

  Mark Schumacker posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 8:09 pm on February 22, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: performance character (4)

  As most teachers do, I always look at what I am doing and analyze the success of my work.  I want to make sure I am doing the best I can and if I am not, I want to figure out what can I do to improve my product.  The work ethic, drive, passion, effort, and academic achievement of my students are the means to my analysis.  The revision policy, as well as our goal system, has allowed many of my students to achieve success more aligned with their actual ability (and beyond in some cases).  This has been a true joy to personally witness.

  An area I have struggled with, since my first year teaching, is motivating the kids that seem to not care.  Every year I have a group of kids who refuse to work for me, accept failure, and seem rather apathetic towards turning this vicious cycle around.  And every year I bust my tail trying to motivate these kids.  I contact their parents, I offer help, I give second and third chances, but by the second semester I am ready to give up.  Have you been here before?  Can you relate?  We don’t want to give up, but we feel as if we have given so much and received little effort in return.  It is frustrating.  We begin to worry about the other 110 kids in the classroom who ARE willing to work.  Have we now neglected them?

  I have tried everything!  Have you ever said that?  Did you ever think that?  For a moment, reflect and consider this thought:  This is the same feeling the parents of these kids probably feel, though my guess is much more desperate by this point.  Maybe these kids feel the same way.  My guess is the kids feel as if they can’t do the work, regardless of their effort.  Failure is much easier to deal with when it is self-inflicted.  When you choose to fail, you have some control.  I can’t imagine the level of frustration the kids feel from trying their best and not seeing much success.  Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ~ Thomas Edison

  What can we do about this?  How can we stop the cycle?  I think I have stumbled upon a solution, though it does take some work and a lot of perseverance and patience.

  Up until this year, I have always made revisions an option.  I wanted the kids to make the personal choice to better their work.  I wanted this choice to have intrinsic value to the kids.  I have discovered that the kids who tend to be my higher level thinkers usually revise most of their work with little prompting from me.  The kids, who would most benefit from the revision policy, typically avoid revising their work.  I decided that I needed to intervene.

  What did I do?  I used an idea I heard from Matt Davidson, this past October, and applied it to my classes.  The idea I secured is called “F or D and You See Me”.  The premise of this idea is that I will no longer accept F’s and D’s from any of my students.  The kids no longer have the choice to revise assignments of this quality.

  F or D and You See Me:

  1. If you earn a D or an F on any assignment, you have 5 days to revise it at your pace.
  2. After the 5^th day, you will be invited to join me for lunch to revise said assignment(s).
  3. You will be asked for the revision the following day, and if you still don’t have it revised you will join me for lunch again.
  4. We continue this process until the assignment has been revised to a C or better quality.  The student still receives the grade change in the grade book (at this point).
     1. If the assignment was an incomplete, I will simply check it off in my grade book once it is revised to a C or better quality, though the grade will remain a zero.  The understanding of the material is the goal – not the actual grade.
  5. Once we come to the end of the chapter, revisions can no longer be submitted for grade changes.  Students that still have D or F papers must still revise their work though.  The only change is that I will enter a check in my grade book once the revision is to a C or better quality.

  This new process is a true testament of perseverance and endurance.  Many of my kids didn’t really think I would go through with this process.  I did.  I do.  I will.  I have made laminated passes for the kids to help reduce my time involvement in this process.  I hand out the passes before lunch each day.  If the said students have the revisions prior to lunch, they can turn them in to me and return the pass.  Is this a lot of work?  You bet it is!  Has it made a difference?  Absolutely!  The vast majority of my students figured out that I won’t quit.  My hope is that my students will learn how to “not quit”.  Most of my kids now revise the D and F papers prior to the 5^th day.  I do still have a few that fight me on this, though my team and I are trying to come up with new strategies with them.  It is an ongoing effort!

  

   

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  Attitude+Effort=Improvement (and honest reflection)

  Kyle Baker posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 9:53 am on February 10, 2011 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assessment (5), impact (2), improvement (2)

  Yesterday Rich Parisi and I spent some time at LaFayette Jr. High here in Central New York talking Power2Achieve.

  Before I tell you what happened, here’s a bit of the backstory…

  LaFayette is a relatively small Jr/Sr. high school just outside of Syracuse.  They have a diverse student population and face many of the resource and funding challenges that are (all too) typical of many rural schools across the US.  We’re able to work with LaFayette Jr. High thanks to a generous grant from the Community Foundation of Central New York.  The grant also includes Cathedral Academy at Pompei, an inner-city K-8 Catholic school in Syracuse and Bishop Grimes High School, a suburban Catholic high school that includes many working class families.  Pretty cool mix for one project, right?

  The project entails initial professional development training on a batch of Power2Achieve Tools along with other work depending on the schools needs.  For example, in November I spoke to the faculty at Bishop Grimes about how to use the Power2Achieve Integrity-in-Action Checklist to discuss the issues of cyberbullying & sexting with their students.  (you can read more about that here).  Today Rich Parisi will be at a Cathedral faculty meeting to work more with the teachers, counselors, and aides on using Power2Achieve Tools with students.  Again, pretty cool mix of work within one project.

  So what’s happening at LaFayette?

  In January, the entire Jr. high faculty came to IEE for an afternoon session to learn more about the  P2A Compact-4-Excellence, the P2A Portable Compact-4-Excellence and the P2A Attitude-Effort-Improvement Rubric.

  One of the plans hatched during that session was to have the entire 7th and 8th grade, 94 students total, get together and develop a Jr. High Compact-4-Excellence.  Great idea!  The challenge was who would facilitate it…and that’s when all eyes turned to me.

  So two weeks ago I found myself at LaFayette Jr. High in front of a room full of Jr. high students. (Just before starting, one of the teachers came up to me and said, “I’ll pray for you.” While being in front of 94 middle school students for 3 hours is a somewhat intimidating thought, the students were awesome and we had a great session).

  The students started off by answering a question on index cards:  What do you want out of this (your experience at this school)?  I had volunteers share a few of their answers, then collected the cards.  Later in the day someone at the school typed them up into a list.

  We talked about everything from Google to the Superbowl, but mostly we talked about what kind of school they wanted to have.  The students worked in small groups of 5, in teams of 20, and as an entire group to come up with a Compact-4-Excellence, which the students then signed in Declaration of Independence style.

  Want to see what they wrote?  Here’s a doc that shows how they answered the question that started off the day (it needs a bit more editing, but you’ll get the idea) and then shows the Compact they came up with.  Check it out by clicking here!

  That’s not all though…

  Yesterday we found out that the Jr. high teachers have come up with a system to have students self-evaluate for every subject area using the P2A Attitude-Effort-Improvement (AEI) Rubric!  The students sit down with at least one, usually multiple teachers, talk through a self-evaluation as they plot their current state of performance on the AEI Rubric, then flip their sheet over to identify goals for the semester and steps they need to take to achieve those goals. Another really cool tidbit—the teachers are reporting that the the students are exceptionally open and honest in sharing their reflections on attitude and effort. In other words, teachers are hearing things from Jr. high students like “I know I’m not trying that hard, and I know I can get better.” Turns out that when given the opportunity and a guided way to reflect, students can often point directly to the root cause of their academic challenges, and will follow that up by setting up steps to improve!

  Incredible work by the teachers coming up with this, and such an awesome impact their work is having on entire school community!

  Stay tuned for a blog post coming soon from a LaFayette teacher describing exactly what they’re doing, and the “how” and “why” behind it!

  

   
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  The Power of Revisions

  Mark Schumacker posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 8:28 pm on January 26, 2011 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: performance character (4), Revisions

  As a young teacher, I always searched for ways to motivate my students to work to their fullest potential.  It wasn’t until I read The Smart and Good Schools report that I finally realized what I was missing in my teaching tool belt:  Revisions.

  The idea seemed so clever, yet so obvious, so necessary.  From that moment, I have allowed and encouraged my students to revise any and all of their work.  Since making this change in my class, I have seen what has worked well and what has worked amazingly well.  As Vince Lombardi once said, “Practice doesn’t make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect”.

  My students are given the opportunity to revise any problems missed on an assignment and resubmit it to me for a new grade – full credit.  The idea behind doing this is class work and homework should be considered practice.  We practice to become proficient.  Therefore, if we make mistakes along the way, we should be given the chance to learn from our errors and redo it mistake free.  My students may revise assignments multiple times; there is no limit on the number of attempts to produce a great math product.

  I do have some limitations with this process.  Revisions can only be done, for an improved grade, during the current chapter.  Once we take the chapter test, the assignment scores are locked and cannot be changed.  While I believe it is always important to continue the revision process, I found early on that a time limit must be placed or some of the students might be tempted to wait until the end of the quarter to revise the assignments in a last ditch effort to raise their grade.  My thought is the grade is the secondary reason behind revisions.  The primary reason for revisions is to understand the concept and the test date is the deadline to show full understanding of the concepts for the given chapter.

  There must be pros and cons for revising, right?  The answer is yes, though my belief is the pros heavily outweigh the cons.  The one con of revising is the extra work placed at the feet of the teacher.  We must grade assignments on a daily basis and have the graded papers back the very next day, to be effective.  I strongly believe that we should practice what we preach and if we are asking our kids to work to their fullest potential, we should model the same work ethic to the class.

  The pros for revisions are endless.  By using this process, you can expect more from your students and they know that it is ok to take risks because they will have a second and third chance if needed.  This process also promotes honesty.  Students know it is ok to mark problems when they are wrong because they are allowed to fix their mistakes and the benefit of the relearning far outweighs those for cheating.  The greatest benefit from using this process is the depth of understanding that occurs.  The focus of assignments goes from getting them done to learning the concept more deeply and completely.  The proof is bottom line.  Students that use this process actually test better and retain longer.  The benefit I enjoy most is the attitude changes.  I have kids every year that come back to tell me how well they are doing in math and how easy it is.  I contribute much of their success to this life choice.

  

   
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  P2A Constructive Criticism Tool the Key to Successful Peer Revisions

  Margaret Seidel posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 11:56 pm on January 23, 2011 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  

  Over the past few years I have struggled to have students effectively peer revise/edit as part of the writing workshop model. When given the opportunity to collaborate and make revisions to their work, I would often overhear students say things like: “I really like your piece!” or “You’re a great writer!” Although these comments were great for one’s self-esteem, they did little for improving the actual quality of student writing.

  Year after year I have remained hopeful that a new group of students and a new plan would in turn produce improved results. I have continuously revised my approach by adding check lists, allowing students to study “model” peer revision/editing sessions, while continuously praising students that were able to obtain any feedback, all to no avail. Although I knew that there was a way to have students at the center of their learning within the writing process, I wasn’t able to produce anything but courteous comments that had little or no positive effect on the final product.

  This all changed this year as I introduced the P2A Constructive Criticism tool to my class. I began by having my colleague and co-teaching partner model the tool using a piece of art. As an accomplished artist, I allowed him to be the person giving the constructive criticism while I was on the receiving end. We began by having him take a look at one of my sketches that I had done on the chart paper for the class to see. Although most students know that destructive criticism is harmful, rude, and not helpful we made sure to start there. As my colleague looked over my artwork he started to laugh at the house I had drawn. He told me that the door looked foolish and that it was drawn in the same proportion as the windows and therefore looked like a “doggie door.” When we asked the students what they observed as they watched our conversation, they were quickly able to identify that the criticism was not helpful, but in fact they were hurtful and only created negative feelings towards my work and abilities. We asked the kids to observe once again as we continued our conversation. As I started to describe my drawing once again my colleague listened carefully. When the time came to critique the drawing he explained that he liked the colors I had chosen for the flowers in the yard, he told me house was pretty-good, and that he thought the overall picture was nice. When we asked the kids what they saw, they were able to articulate the fact that the information provided was polite, but it wasn’t truly effective in helping me to improve my drawing. As we started the final session it was clear that the students knew where we were going. As they watched our conversation they noticed clear differences from the first two examples. This time my colleague listened, nodded, and showed his interest by asking questions. When I finished the explanation he let me know that he liked the colonial style house I had chosen for my drawing. He continued by explaining that I might consider increasing the size of the house, the size of the front door, and moving the windows up in order to help with the overall proportions of the house. He continued by explaining his fondness for the trees and that if I wanted them to appear behind the house I could set them higher on the paper so that they would appear further back. We stopped our conversation to ask the group what was different about the third conversation that was just modeled. Over and over the students continued to talk about the specificity of the feedback that was given. The students were able to articulate that the information that I was provided with was useful, specific, and helpful. They noticed that the compliments were coupled with specific ways that I could improve my drawing.

  So how does this fit with writing? When given the opportunity to peer revise/edit students now understand what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to give constructive criticism in a way that will actually improve the overall quality of the writing. They are giving each other feedback that is helpful, specific and useful. Now when I circulate around the room during a peer revision/editing time I hear things like: “You might want to use a simile in this sentence; it would really help your audience see what you are talking about in this part.”, “You might consider making this a new paragraph because you have changed to a new scene.”, and “This section is so good; you might want to slow down your writing because it feels like it moves really fast.” Finally, students are giving each other feedback that can actually have an impact on their writing! And for some reason, not only is the feedback seeming to stick, it is generalizing into all areas of writing at a much faster rate than when it came from just “the teacher”!

  

   
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  Thriving in a Knowledge Economy

  Kyle Baker posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 9:42 am on November 22, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: collaboration (2), communication (2), Critical Thinking

  In his NY Times column Teaching for America (originally published Nov 20, 2010), Thomas L. Friedman writes the following:

  Tony Wagner, the Harvard-based education expert and author of “The Global Achievement Gap,” explains it this way. There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate.

  Whether looking from the perspective of character development, 21st century skills, intervention, academic/behavioral improvement, or any number of other angles, the 8 Focus Areas of Power2Achieve and the Power2Achieve teaching & learning tools are relevant now more than ever.

  Check out the Power2Achieve 8 Focus Areas for School graphic here:

  http://excellenceandethics.com/programs/P2A_8_FocusAreas.pdf

  

   
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  Intermediate and Primary CEEA Surveys Available

  Institute for Excellence & Ethics posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 11:52 am on November 19, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assessment (5), elementary schools (4), middle schools, school climate and culture

  Over the last several months IEE has been working with our partners at Allen Creek Elementary (Pittsford school district, NY) to modify the original CEEA student and faculty surveys for the elementary schools. After several rounds of reviews by ACE and IEE teams and some pilot-testing with students in local schools, we now have two versions ready for full-scale field-testing. Pittsford schools will be the first to roll them out!

  The two versions are Intermediate and Primary. With school districts having varying configurations of elementary and middle grades and varying levels of reading skills among students, we thought it would be helpful if schools could choose what they would see as most appropriate. Thus, the intermediate version can be utilized in a broad range from upper elementary grades (5-6) through low middle (6-7), and even for all middle grades, if consistency of content is deemed important. The primary version is designed for lower elementary grades, and depending on the reading skills of students could be used from grade 1 through grade 5.

  Both versions of the CEEA survey have corresponding faculty surveys where items about student competencies, culture and climate, and teaching practices are completely matched.

  You can review the student forms on IEE website:

  Intermediate Student CEEA Survey
  Primary Student CEEA Survey

  These surveys will be fully available for schools to use in Spring 2011. Interested schools can also participate in the field-testing in winter 2011. Please give us your feedback and let your colleagues know about this new assessment option from IEE.

  

   
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  Youth-to-Youth Success in Iowa!

  WHavemann posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 8:56 am on November 16, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  

  The Young Leaders of Character is a high school character development initiative in Des Moines, Iowa. Sixty-two youth have been trained in moral character, performance character, facilitation skills and presentation skills. They work with middle school and high school youth in Iowa on leadership and ethical decisions making.

  For the first time, members the Young Leaders of Character (YLC) presented a youth-to-youth Power2Achieve training for 30 Creston High School student mentors.  The purpose of the training was to build healthy relationships among the mentors and increase their understanding and buy-in for the Power2Achieve curriculum they are experiencing.  It was a great morning!!

  In the 3-hours we had together, the group grew in community building and their communication improved. Angela Bolinger, counselor at Creston High school, says, “I am anxious to see how my students use the information they learned. The student presenters did a fantastic job!”  This is a great approach to helping high school youth understand the ‘why’ of Power2Achieve and discover ways to become better school leaders.

  We discussed the Iowa Business Councils’ support of education and the systems that will “promote excellence and ethics in all aspects of performance and moral character strengths needed for 21st Century skills, e.g., effort, diligence, work ethic, positive attitude, self-discipline, honesty, respect, dependability, integrity” (http://www.iowabusinesscouncil.org) Other subjects discussed were: team-building, modeling, being an advocate for good choices, and healthy decision making.

  We are looking forward to replicating this training in the all P2A schools.

  Wendy Batten Havemann

  Youth Involvement Director

  Character Counts In Iowa

  

   
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  "What's the Right Thing to Do?"

  Kyle Baker posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 7:59 am on November 16, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  

  When you’re faced with a difficult decision, one in which the “right thing”  isn’t clear, what do you do?

  For centuries philosophers ranging from Socrates to sidewalk seers have attempted to tackle this topic, often through the discussion of moral dilemmas; scenarios in which a character must choose from two or more courses of action, each of which appears to present a moral conflict.  Moral dilemmas cause us to think through seemingly straightforward options that are in reality incredibly complex.

  Discussions of moral dilemmas tend to occur with higher frequency the closer one gets to a university lecture hall, but as Harvard professor Michael Sandel points out to students in his “Justice” course, we are challenged daily to answer the question of “What’s the right thing to do?” not with theoretical or philosophical discourse, but with real thoughts, words, and actions. (Sandel’s book, Justice:  What’s the Right Thing to Do? is based on his course and video of his lectures are available here).

  Most adults can come up with some kind of answer for the question posed at the top of this post.  We learn to incorporate our experiences, beliefs, and opinions into the act of making “good” decisions…or at least that’s the idea; a quick glance at the front page of a daily newspaper is all it takes to see that this isn’t always the case.

  Or, if you’d really like to get shaken up, ask a young person if they know of anyone who has ever been a victim of cyber-bullying.

  Just last week I watched a gym full of middle school students answer this very question when it was posed during a presentation on “Sexting & Cyber-Bullying.”  Students were asked to respond with a show of hands, and they complied…every single one of them.

  What I would have found even more interesting is if the presenter had asked the question “How many of you believe that cyber-bullying is wrong?”  My guess is that the vast majority of hands would have stayed up.  So if our students know that this behavior is not only improper, but more accurately defined as crude and violent, then why do so many participate in it?

  While bullying and harassment existed long before the concept of cyber-anything, we’re learning the hard way that the emotional toll students bear from facing these acts is significant, and it would be unwise to assume that those exhibiting manifestations such as self-harm, violence against others, etc. are the only ones being affected.

  So if we as educators believe that this is not right, that this kind of harassment should have no place in our schools and our classrooms…What can we do about it?

  Many schools (often as a result of local, state, or federal mandates) host presentations on a) why cyber-bullying is bad and b) the kind of trouble you can get in if you do it.  There may be a place for this kind of presentation, but we’re fooling ourselves if we believe that the ‘inform-then-scare’ strategy is a viable solution to any problem.  In addition (or perhaps even instead), we must focus on teaching students strategies for making decisions that are “good” and “right” ones.  That’s not to say that we need to force them into abiding by our view of right-and-wrong acts, but rather that we must empower them with the skills and abilities to reason through those decisions in depth.

  One tool you can use with students to help them develop good decision making skills is the Power2Achieve Integrity-in-Action Checklist, which provides 9 “tests” used to evaluate a decision.

  • The Golden Rule Test
  • The Fairness Test
  • The Truth Test
  • The Conscience Test
  • The Parent Test
  • The Front-Page Test
  • The What-If-Everybody-Did-This-Test
  • The Religion Test

  (Click here to download a PDF of the Power2Achieve Integrity-In-Action checklist to use w/students)

  By creating opportunities for students to practice using the Integrity-in-Action checklist with hypothetical and real life scenarios, challenging students to use it in their own decision-making, and following up with discussions about how the checklist helped them think more deeply about their decisions (and hopefully led to making good ones), we can help them develop the skills needed to face now-issues like cyber-bullying, cheating, and deciding what to do on a Friday night with their friends; as well as issues they will face in the future as active community members, voters, parents, etc.

  As educators, we are charged not only with teaching content knowledge and “hard-skills,” but also with preparing students to face the most fundamental of questions: “What’s the right thing to do?”

  After all, typing a message to a classmate that reads “I HATE YOU,” takes the same number of keystrokes as typing one that reads “THANK YOU.”  Helping our students develop the skills used in determining which kind of message to send is at least as important, if not more so, than teaching them how to type it.

  note:  you can also see this blog post and others @ New Teacher Camp (ntcamp.org)

  

   
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  Start with a small change...

  Kyle Baker posted in Character Blog, Excellence & Ethics in Business, Power2Achieve Community at 4:39 pm on November 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ntcamp

  Check out my new post as guest blogger for New Teacher Camp , “Stick to Just 1″.  The group at New Teacher Camp is doing some really cool things, including hosting several “unconferences” each year, one of which is this February in Burlington, Mass. which I’m tentatively planning to attend!

  Maybe I’ll see you there!

  http://www.ntcamp.org/2010/stick-to-just-1/

  

   
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  So throw your hands in the air, and wave them like you definitely DO care!

  Kyle Baker posted in Character Blog, Power2Achieve Community at 4:03 pm on November 5, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: collaboration (2), communication (2), math (2), problem solving

  Yesterday I read a great post on an EdWeek blog by Ryan Bretag called “Raise Your Hand…”

  Join me in a little experiment won’t you?  Here’s the first paragraph of Mr. Bretag’s article:

  “Raise your hand if you spent time exploring, challenging, refining, and enhancing your professional practice today? Now, raise your other hand if that professional learning took place in a collaborative context with other professionals?”

  How many of you have both your hands up?  (or could have raised both hands if you weren’t fully participating in the experiment!)

  I’m extremely lucky because I could have both hands raised today, and I did raise both yesterday when I first read the column (yes, I actually did raise them, and yes, I’m a little ridiculous, I know).  Why do I consider myself so lucky?  Because I know too many  colleagues outside of our office that are unable to answer in the affirmative to these questions.  I also vividly remember what it feels like to not be able to raise either as a struggling young teacher.

  I often share the story that during my first year of teaching 5^th grade at St. Paul Catholic School in San Antonio as part of the ACE program, I spent the entire first semester failing math…I was failing to give my students the thoughtful teaching and guidance they deserved.  Remember the show “Are You Smarter Than a 5^th grader?”  Well Mr. Baker was not.  Well at least not smart enough to figure out how to effectively teach the 5^th grade math curriculum….STOP.

  That last statement is false, and it was then too, even though at the time I absolutely believed it to be the truth.  It’s not false because I’m some beacon of mathematical brilliance, I surely am not (although don’t let my mother get a hold of you or she may try to convince you otherwise), but because I was perfectly capable of teaching 5^th grade math, I was just leaning too hard on the wrong set of skills.

  Every day after school I would sit at my desk, stare out my window, and while listening to the hum of my gigantic air conditioner and the pigeons that roosted above it, I would hunch over and try to fight back tears of frustration, shame, and failure.  All I wanted to do was teach these students, to help them learn and grow and develop…and I was failing.  I could barely remember how to perform the basic mathematical skills and processes that I was teaching (while we did take a 4 week “teaching math” course before departing for our schools, my last math class before that had been as a freshman in college 6 years prior, and while that professor, Jack Oberweiser, has had a profound and continuing impact on my life, I probably should have sought out a bit more of a refresher before stepping into teaching students).

  So how did I resolve the situation?  I started relying on a different set of skills.  One day after school, on the brink of a breakdown, I sulked down the stairs to the classroom of my mentor teacher, Mrs. Carla Berryman.  In her classroom there were a group of elementary and middle school students participating in an after school art-club.  The students invited me to join them in making friendship bracelets, and so I did.  As I fumbled with braided the tiny threads into a bunch of knots beautiful creation…hey, this is my memory, I can edit it if I want to….I talked to the students, some of whom were in my class, about math.  I also talked to Carla, who the previous year had been named the Archdiocesan Educator of the Year.

  —

  It was the first time I had talked to my mentor teacher about ideas that might help me teach math more effectively, and it was the first time I took the time to have an out-of-classroom conversation with real students about math.

  And it was almost Thanksgiving (if you’re counting at home, that’s about 3 1/2 months of not asking for help).

  –

  The next day I taught a math lesson…and I didn’t feel like I had failed.  And then I taught another, and another, and another…and while I didn’t always teach fantastic lessons, and I’m sure I didn’t reach every student as effectively as they each deserved…it was better, and not just for me, but more importantly for my students.  I wasn’t feeling like I was failing them, because they were actually learning more…and having more fun doing it!

  How did I make this change? How did I sustain it?  I walked out of my classroom.  I stood around with students before school, I took walks around the playground with them at recess, and I sat with them at lunch. I visited teacher’s classrooms, I watched them teach, I asked them questions.

  You see during that first semester, I was relying on the wrong set of skills….I have moderate (at best) math skills, and extremely refined stubbornness skills…which is not a naturally outstanding combination for a math teacher.  But I had also been part of elite teams for most of my life; I knew that no success came purely from a single individual, but rather as a result of working together as a team…so I just started talking with my teammates…relying on skills like collaboration, problem-solving, and communication to better work with my students and colleagues.   I may never have become an exemplary math teacher, but maybe I became something even more important…better.

  —
  Read Bretag’s column, it’s excellent, and do yourself (as well as your students & colleagues) a favor:  Don’t operate in isolation like I did, and if you currently are, start working to change it.  Here are 6 action steps Bretag recommends.  Give them a shot, you won’t miss those days of fighting back tears while staring out the window one bit, I promise

  1. Dedicate a portion of your day to honing your professional practice both locally and digitally

  2. Establish a professional learning network

  3. Establish and maintain a virtual professional learning space that fosters shared knowledge and resources

  4. Make professional reflection, scholarly work, and learning a priority and make it public.

  5. Model professional learning for colleagues, students, and parents

  6. Take a risk, rethink your norm, challenge your assumptions, and embrace the idea of being disturbed.

  (i)

  Quotes from “Raise Your Hand…”, written by Ryan Bretag, originally posted on Ed Week’s Leader Talk.  November 4, 2010

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