Thanks for the Opportunity to Work with You

This is the final post on the Oregon GEAR UP Principal's Blog. I've enjoyed the opportunity to work with GEAR UP principals for the past four years, both on-site and through the Research Briefs and blog postings. I'm impressed with the quality of the GEAR UP schools and the commitment of teachers and principals to improving the educational experience, and college access and readiness, of students. I've learned a lot from each of you and you've enriched the learning of my students at Eastern Michigan University.

While this blog will not be updated you can continue to find resources, including new Research Briefs, at the following sites:
           http://gearup.ous.edu/research/research-briefs
           http://effectiveprincipals.blogspot.com
           http://ronwilliamson.com

Thanks again for the opportunity to work with you.

Ron Williamson

Building a PLN - Power of the "Tweet"

A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is one way to stay collected with trends and issues in your field and to work, and share, collaboratively. Social media is a great way to create and maintain your PLN. PLN's are really useful because you can connect with those individuals and groups that best meet your needs. The benefits include

• access to useful resources and information;
• ability to search for new tools and innovative practices;
• thoughtful suggestions and critique of your ideas;
• helping you to think more deeply about your work;
• meeting professional contacts for job growth.

A virtual PLN can be created using social media like Twitter. A recent article by Tom Murray, Director of Technology and Cyber Education for the Quakertown School District in Bucks County, PA describes the benefits of a virtual PLN using Twitter.

Howard Johnston and I describe how to create and maintain a PLN in our book The School Leader's Guide to Social Media from Eye on Education. We'd enjoy learning about how you use PLN's to improve your work.

Speed Geeking

I recently read a study about how educators are often reluctant to use new technology. Part of the reason is our comfort with what we currently do but other factors also impact the decision. For example, educators often don't want to look unsophisticated with technology especially if they're working with middle or high school students who may be far more savvy.

This week ASCD EDge introduced me to a new concept---speed geeking. It's essentially a speed dating model for technology. Faculty moved from table to table and learned from students about a new technology and how it impacted their learning. It reminded me of when my school had a group of students who worked with teachers on technology. They were basically the "geek squad" of Tappan Middle School.

It's an interesting idea for sharing, learning and growing. I believe teachers respect the knowledge and skills of their students and "speed geeking" is a fascinating way for teachers, and others, to become acquainted with how technology is used by students to improve their learning.

Free Resources for Flipped Classrooms

We're fascinated by the way digital technology is changing instruction. One of the more innovation approaches is the flipped classroom, a classroom where students spend time outside of class watching videos about new concepts while at home and then using in-class time for in-depth discussion and application of their learning.

Many teachers we've worked with understand the concept and would like to begin flipping their classes. But the prospect of developing their own videos and other materials is daunting. Fortunately, the May issue of eSchoolNews provides information and links to several free resources teachers can use to "flip their classrooms."

We'd enjoy learning from you about your experience with flipped classrooms.

Successful Principals Have Good Personal Skills

A recent study described Google's efforts to identify the characteristics of "good" bosses so that those skills could become part of their training program. It turned out that leaders didn't need great technical skills but instead good people skills, things like being a good coach, expressing personal interest and asking thoughtful questions (Bryant, 2011). A recent article in Educational Leadership's April edition discussed the parallels between Google's experience and that of school principals. It linked the high turnover rate among principals to that absence of some of these essential people skills.

Here's a link to the article about the absence of people skills and turnover among principals. I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts about the importance of people skills in your role.

Helping Students from Poor Families Achieve School Success

I recently read a report about the increasing number of school-age children who are raised in poverty. It's a real national problem and we know that students from families in poverty often struggle in school. They're more likely to be absent, more likely to change schools, and more likely to lack the materials and other resources necessary for school success.

The May issue of ASCD's Educational Leadership looks at the issue of poverty and provides useful strategies for teachers and principals to assure that students from families in poverty are successful in school. One of my favorite articles is written by a friend, Carol Ann Tomlinson, from the University of Virginia. Carol is best known for her work on differentiated instruction but in this article discusses her experience with poverty. She identifies the personal beliefs and attitudes that are present when educators help students from poor families create a better future for themselves. She describes it as "staring down poverty" and I find it a powerful way to describe the work.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about your response to Carol's suggestions and what you've learned about how to support students from poverty so that they are successful in school.

Digital Literacy and the Common Core

As states prepare for implementation of the Common Core standards the focus is appropriately on the knowledge and skills students will need for success on the assessments. The Common Core changes instruction. But an often overlooked need is to assure that students have the digital literacy skills they'll need to navigate the assessments. Students will need to complement their analytical and evaluative skills with operational skills like keyboarding and use of spreadsheets.

But it's not as simple as teaching keyboarding and use of spreadsheets. Students will need more advanced skills like creating and analyzing charts and graphs, using tools to communicate and present information, and using online tools to conduct research.

The challenge is that students often have more knowledge, and greater comfort, in the digital environment that their teachers. They are often more familiar with the digital tools that can be used for these tasks. But it would be foolish to assume that every student has those skills and is comfortable with their use.

We'd enjoy hearing from you about how you, and your school, are preparing students to be successful in this new digital environment.

Principals and School Improvement

Schools are being held to higher levels of accountability for student learning. That's not a bad thing. We should accept responsibility for the learning of our students. But what's emerged is a trend to micromanage teachers and their work. That's not such a good thing. One example is the nationwide trend toward more intense supervision and more complex evaluation systems. Again, evaluation is not bad, but it should be part of a system that promotes growth and engages teachers in thoughtful analysis of their work and implementation of strategies to continue strengthening their performance.

There's lot of evidence that simply telling people what to do doesn't get the required results. You may get short-term compliance. But rarely do you get long-term change. While many of the mandates may be well-intentioned, they are often imposed on educators without engaging those affected in a discussion of the problem and possible solutions.

A recent article by Rick DeFour and Mike Mattos discussed this paradox. They suggest some common-sense strategies that principals can use to positively impact student learning in their school. They also share the results from a comprehensive study of school reform that found an increase in student learning when teachers participated in professional learning communities (Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008).

I'd enjoy hearing from you about your experience with PLC's and their impact on student learning.

Advice for School Leaders Entering or Leaving a Job

I've always been sensitive to the transitions that occur when there is a change in leadership at a school. If you're a new leader it's important to respect those that preceded you. It's important to build relationships with teachers and the community. You'll want to make changes but don't do so brashly. If you're moving to another school or leaving education you'll also want to exit gracefully. It's never helpful to "burn" bridges on the way out.

Last week I read a blog by Peter DeWitt, an elementary principal, about these sorts of transitions. I found his advice to be really helpful especially if you're making a transition in your work life. I'd enjoy hearing from you about what you've learned about navigating these changes.

Trust - An Essential Leadership Skill

I just finished a new book, The Trust Factor: Strategies for School Leaders, available from Eye on Education. It discusses perhaps the single most important factor in the success of any leader---trust. Trust can accelerate your work improving your school or the lack of trust can be a real impediment to your success. The authors, Julie Combs, Stacey Edmonson and Sandra Harris provide real-world strageiges that leaders can use to creating a trusting and respectful school.

One skill the authors identify is developing good listening habits. They describe eight listening habits to avoid if you want to create trust.

• Do not say how you handled similar situations or how you would feel in their shoes.
• Do not change the focus back to you. Avoid telling them about the time you had the same problem. Remember, this is not about you.
• Don't try to start giving them resoruces or solutions unless they ask you for ideas. Active listenign does not mean you are there to solve their problems.
• Don't judge them. Statements such as "What were you thinking?" or "That's awful!" imply they did something wrong. Avoid saying whether they are right or wrong. Judgment can increase their fears about sharing and cause them to withdraw.
• Let them finish. It is easy to interrup or jump in, but these behaviors disrupt the conversation and change the focus of the conversatkion as well as your role as a listener.
• Be comfortable with silence and pauses. These gaps are healtny; you do not have to fill all of the spaces with words.
• Give them your undivided attention. If your mind wanders, grab it and bring it bac.
• Do not think about your reply before they have finished talking and had a chance to say what they want to say. This action is ingterrupting without opening your mouth. Again, your role as the listender has been disrupted, and you are no longer focused on what they are saying or on their need to be heard.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about trust and the strategies you use to build and promote trust in your school.

New Social Media Tools

Social media technology continues to transform how teachers, students and leaders do their work. We're amazed at the creative tools that have emerged to support our work individually and with one another. Here are a few of our latest finds.

Popplet - http://popplet.com

This tool allows you to gather and organize ideas much like a concept map. It allows you to examine resources from different sources and organize an assignment or presentation. You can invite others in your group to add to the web/map. 

Educreations - www.educreations.com 

This tool allows you to create amazing presentations on a recordable whiteboard. It captures your voice and handwriting to produce short video lessons that you can share online. Created as an iPad app they're working on an app for Android devices. Public lessons can be embedded on blogs or websites. Ron uses it all the time in his online courses.

Idea Sketch - http://www.nosleep.net/ 

This app allows you to draw diagrams and create mind maps, concept maps or flow charts. There is an option to convert from text or to text if desired. It's a great tool for brainstorming and illustrating concepts. Apps are available for iOS and Windows devices.

We also want to include a tool that's been around for a while but just keeps getting better.

Prezi - www.prezi.com 

This presentation tool allows you to organize and share ideas on a large whiteboard. A wide selection of templates makes it easy to get started. Once you begin you'll find Prezi easy to adapt to a whole variety of presentation needs. It allows you to embed photos, audio, video and links to all sorts of information on the web. 

We hope you enjoy trying out these social media tools and would enjoy hearing from you about other's you've discovered.

Success of Early College Programs

One trend during the past few years has been a increased number of alternatives for students---charter schools, and alternative schools. Perhaps one of the most successful has been the early college movement. Early college programs are most often located on community college campuses and students learn college-level content and early college credit. Early college graduates earn an average of 36 college credits for free which is a substantial part of the credit needed for a Bachelor's or Associate's degree.

Early college programs are very successful. A new report from Jobs for the Future (funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation) looked at early college programs and found that 93% of early college students graduate high school and 76% immediately enroll in college. Both indicators are far better than national public school data.

Early college programs serve many underserved students. More than half of student are from low-income families and more than 77% from minority families. What's most noteworthy is that early college programs prove that all students can be successful at college-level work regardless of their background.

More information about this report on early college programs can be found at the Jobs for the Future website and at the Jobs for the Future blog.

Effective Teacher Evaluation

In almost every state there are changes in the teacher evaluation system. Some are very directive. Others  provide districts with options. But in nearly every case the focus is on improving accountability for student learning and providing more defined criteria to measure teacher performance. But changes in teacher evaluation are not the only changes. Similar laws are being adopted to change the evaluation system for principals and other school leaders.

I'm always looking for helpful resources that can inform the work of principals and recently found an article on eSchoolNews that identifies six steps to effective teacher development and evaluation. Three ideas stand out from the others.

• include evidence of teaching and student learning from multiple sources
• use information to provide constructive feedback to teachers, not shame them
• adjust the system over time based on new evidence and feedback.

While principals legitimately struggle with the mandates around evaluation, it is critical that we recognize one of a principal's most important roles, to hire, nurture and retain high quality teachers. Sound evaluation systems support these efforts and include a way to recognize the incredible contributions that most teachers make to student learning.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about how your state or district is dealing with the changing expectations about teacher evaluation. 

Mentoring and Coaching Tips

Nothing a principal does impacts student learning more than having good teachers in every classroom. One of a principal's most important roles is cultivate a high quality teaching staff. Too often we get distracted by the unexpected events that occur in any school---an unplanned visit by a parent, a discipline problem, a request from the superintendent. But it is important to intentionally focus on the role of mentor and coach. But some of the most effective mentoring relationships are between colleagues---teacher to teacher. In a recent blog by Sheryn Waterman for Eye on Education suggests four important tips for maintaining a close, supportive mentor relationship among teachers. They include:

• Proximity - Close physical proximity makes it easier to get together. But for school leaders more frequent visits and interaction can create proximity.
• Frequent Contact - Talking with each other regularly helps to build a relationship that is central to successful mentoring.
• Quality Conversations - Assure that the interaction is high quality, about teaching and learning.
• Classroom Observations - Learning from observing and co-teaching deepens the relationship and the conversation. 

Additional information about how to nurture a supportive mentoring relationship is in the blog and in Sheryn's new book Mentoring and Coaching Tips: How Educators Help Each Other.

Using Social Media with Students

Social media has become an useful instructional tool and is used by more and more teachers to interact with their students and by principals to communicate with families and community. A recent report found that more than 70% of Americans have an account.

But there are legitimate concerns about how teachers and other employees use Facebook and other forms of social media with their students. In a recent post, Lisa Nielson provided five best practices for teachers when they use Facebook with students. At the top of the list is the importance of maintaining a professional demeanor and not mixing your personal site with your professional one. Nielson says, "You can create a page or group that students can "like" or "join" without being one another's friend or seeing one another's feed." That's really important. Nielson's other tips are equally useful.

In The School Leader's Guide to Social Media Howard Johnston and I share other ideas about how teachers can use social media like Facebook to improve instruction and how school leaders can use social media to improve communication. We'd welcome your thoughts about the use of social media in schools.

Social Media Policy: Current Trends

Social media is a term used to describe a lot of things. For many of us we associate it with Facebook or Twitter and we never think about the countless other ways we use social media technology in our professional and personal lives. Our most commonly used social media device is our phone, often called a "smart phone." Cell phones are no longer used for just making calls. They are now used for locating things on the Internet, sending short messages to friends or family, watching television shows or even movies, reading books, and locating a good restaurant or a nearby coffee shop. In other words, for many of us, our social media device (our cell phone) has become indispensable.

I work a lot with principals, superintendents and people who aspire to those roles. When I mention social media they often describe the perils of its availability and use in their schools. But more recently the tone of these conversations is changing from "how do I ban them" to "how do we use them effectively." That's a monumental shift and recognizes that social media technology and social media devices are just not going away. Some schools have adopted BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies that encourage students to bring and use their social media devices for instructional activities.

As a school leader how do you manage social media technology among your students and your employees. What sort of policy might you consider? What type of policy would be appropriate given the prevalence of social media devices and the powerful tools that social media provides for communication, collaboration, and teaching and learning? 

One of my favorite online journals is THE Journal, a publication about current and emerging issues involving technology. Ruth Reynard wrote a really insightful article discussing current policy trends that try to control social media. She offers really useful ideas about how to shape policy so that social media is used appropriately and not in a harmful way.

In The School Leader's Guide to Social Media Howard Johnston and I discuss many of the same issues and provide examples of tools and strategies for using social media in schools. We'd really enjoy hearing from you about how social media is shaping your school and its instructional program.

Tips for Flipping Classrooms

"Flipping" a classroom is a new trend designed to provide more time during class for discussion of concepts, to work on gaps in learning to clear up misunderstanding and for the teacher to work more intensely with students who need additional instruction or support. for a teacher to work individually or in small groups with students needing extra support. When a classroom is “flipped” students’ homework is introduction to new learning through reading materials and watching online videos and other content prepared by their teacher. Labs and other application of learning occur during class when the teacher is available to respond to questions, provide clarification and assist and support students.

In flipped classrooms students take more responsibility for their learning. They watch videos or online lessons, read online material, and complete assignments and assessments outside of class. Specific instructional activities vary based on an individual teacher’s style and preferences.

Edutopia (www.edutopia.org), a site sponsored by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, reports that “flipping” the classroom results in far more individualized learning for students. They described how students move at their own pace and teachers have more time for one-to-one work with students in need of greater support. Students who are absent find it easier to catch up because they can watch lessons and access other materials online. Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams (2012), among the first teachers to "flip" their classroom found that students demonstrated deeper understanding of course content, assumed greater responsibility for learning, and became far more self-directed.

Flipping the classroom alters instruction by shifting from in class delivery that is often very teacher centered to a class that involves far more discussion and analysis of student learning. The model shifts the role of both teacher and learner as students assume greater responsibility for completing learning activities outside of class.

Useful tips for how to "flip" a classroom were provided by eSchoolNews in a recent article. They include the importance of beginning with two or three things and expanding as you become more comfortable. It's also important to recognize that almost everyone who "flips" their classroom experiences some discomfort because the role of the teacher changes. Finally, they discuss the challenges when students have limited access to the Internet outside of school. Two websites provide other resources on flipped learning. They are http://flippedclassroom.org and http://www.techsmith.com/flipped-classroom.html. 

Assuring Greater Diversity in Honors/AP Classes

One of the most persistent issues in American education, and one of the least discussed, is how to address issue of lack of diversity in accelerated, honors and AP classes. While we talk a lot about the achievement gap, we rarely look at how admission to these classes does not reflect the ethnic and gender diversity present in ours schools. The College Board reports (2012) that while increasing numbers of high school students enroll in AP classes, the admissions/enrollment gap persists.

A recent column in edutopia examined how accepted practices in many school perpetuate these gaps. The gap may be the result of the criteria used for admission to high-level classes. It may be a misperception among students and their families that these classes are for certain kinds of students. Regardless, the admission gap continues despite our knowledge that there is no inherent "ability" gap because of one's gender or ethnicity.

In her blog tweenteacher.com Heather Wolpert-Gawron, a middle school teacher describes the plan her school developed to address the need for more diversity in honors classes. She provides a candid, but thoughtful analysis of the issues involved in addressing this issue. Her post ends with the question we all should be asking---what do you plan to do about this issue in your school?

Last "Backpack Generation"

Technology is becoming far more prevalent in classrooms. Some schools have adopted BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) programs that encourage students to bring and use their own tablets, Smartphones, and other technology in school. Rather than being a distraction, technology has become an indispensable tool for both students and teachers.

This morning I read an interesting article in the ASCD SmartBrief about teaching today's students, often referred to as the last "backpack generation." Zachary Walker captures the excitement about mobile learning and provides three really useful reminders for teachers. He emphasizes that mobile learning is not about the tools, but all about student learning. They are important reminders.

We'd enjoy hearing from you about technology is shaping your work and impacting your students and they're learning.

Principals and the Common Core

Every principal of a GEAR UP school has talked with us about the Common Core and how they're working with their teachers to be ready for the implementation. As many of you know implementing Common Core standards will change the way many schools and classrooms are organized. An emphasis on greater rigor, higher-level thinking and authentic assessments may challenge some of your teachers and may not be well understood by families.

This week I read a thoughtful eduptopia blog by Erin Powers How Will the Common Core Change What We Do. It's a really helpful summary of the anticipated changes and how to plan for their arrival.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about how your planning for implementation of the Common Core.