We recently heard from a principal with a serious concern about parents' "helping" their children in a blended learning (hybrid) course they were piloting at his school. He held in his hand, evidence that the IP address used to access the course was not one in the school, and the course was accessed during school hours in which the student was in attendance. He also shared, that there is "talk in the community" that this is happening in several cases and that other parents are concerned.

This is a leadership moment in which we can accelerate the teaching of ethics for our students (and their parents) who live in this increasingly digital world, or we can perpetuate our own lack of knowledge and confidence in the digital environment for learning and say, "We can't do this. Remember, I warned you." If we choose the latter, we will slow the progress these tools can bring into our schools. Be aware, however, we cannot stop this technology from infiltrating our walls. We can resist, fearful of all the control we lose but we cannot stop the world in which our students now live from its catapulting advance. We can introduce purposeful applications to serve our mission, open capacity to more students and, along the way, teach ethics.

First, we have to take a considered risk to see, objectively, what is the same. Haven't parents always helped students with their homework? Isn't that a traditional family image in America? The classic case is the diorama built exclusively at home. Teachers have always noted the ones that have been aided by an artistic parent who has lent a helping hand to the project. There have always been brilliantly conceived and composed essays that teachers knew were inspired by adult involvement at home. Sometimes, this is extensive, to the degree that students actually fail to learn the assignment and simply get the answer right. Don't we invite and hope for parents and other adults in children's lives who are invested in the learning in which their child is engaged? Do we know when that investment brings them dangerously close to cheating?

Ethical behavior must exist no matter the learning environment. The emerging digital learning environment requires that we develop a new approach to teaching ethics. Actually, we will have more indisputable data. Tracking access is available to us. We may not be able to be in the home to see who is actually building that volcano, but we can track the IP address and the time of the access to help us understand what is happening. Nevertheless, an IP address is not the single criterion upon which to pass judgment. This is not a case of "gottcha" but a leadership moment that we must grasp.

Before offering any digital learning opportunities for our students, we must become informed ourselves. We must consider what technology skills our students have already and what their parents know and understand. Knowing our communities is key, but we can assume most people, unless deeply engaged in the use of technology, have only some sense of the potential of the technology they use, and little sense of the ethical rules as they transfer into this environment. Most of us wouldn't think of copying directly from a book in print, but presently we see less concern about the cutting and pasting from a website into our own documents. 'Who owns the information?' resurfaces as a new question. We had this challenge when photocopy machines first became a common piece of equipment to which teachers had access. Taking a purchased workbook and photocopying pages without thinking about the legality of doing so was a challenge that was faced back then. The only difference is the difference in the tool. The lesson remains the same. It is not the fault or weakness of the technology. We should stand strong to make that clear.

So what are some common sense steps we can take to successfully lead the implementation of this necessary and valuable learning tool? First, we must investigate its capacity ourselves. We must become familiar with its potential and its vulnerabilities. We cannot leave it to the teachers who are using it. Often, enthusiastic, forward thinking teachers leap into its use without themselves knowing the implications that we would see. We encourage them and we must learn with them. We must both learn the technology and engage the ethical deliberations central to the successful implementation. Presentations to parents and students on the use and value of the tool, why it was chosen, how to use it correctly, and consequences for using it incorrectly are essential. Posting all of this on the district's website, in newsletters, in classrooms is always important. As always, getting it into parental hands via social media targets those who need it most.

More than all of that, let technology remind us that we have a responsibility to be models and shepherds of ethical behavior in our schools. The use of technology should not be accompanied by threats of consequences should it not be used correctly. The introduction of its use should be accompanied by lessons in ethics and expectations. We all should feel the responsibility that accompanies the wonder that technology offers. It is a responsibility and a tremendous gift to society to fully prepare our students for their lives, to bring essential human behavior along with the growing technology.

We love our technology and we take it for granted. A cleaned up version of a bit by comedian Louis CK demonstrates how we sometimes use our technology without appreciation for how amazing it is and without understanding truly, what it does. He comments on our willingness to complain about sitting on the tarmac at an airport for 40 minutes before taking off. He replies, "and then what happened? Then did you fly through the air like a bird incredibly? Did u soar into the clouds impossibly? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight and then land softly on giant tires that you couldn't conceive how they put air in them? ...YOUR FLYING! You are sitting in a chair in the sky!" The wonder of the technology in our lives must be understood, appreciated, and respected.

The parent who logged in to their child's work may have simply been interested to see what their child was doing, or if their child had begun the assignment. Conversations with the parents are still the best options. Those interactions help build ethics in our schools and ripple out to our communities. They diminish the power of "talk in the community." Technology simply cannot be ignored; it will change the way we work and the way we learn. We must take it into our hands, experience the wonder it offers, and use it to its fullest potential to close the gaps and to open doors for all. In this case, its potential is also helping us to teach, expect, model, and maintain ethical behavior. That can't be a bad thing.

Let us not become complacent about the potential of the technology this generation of learners can access. Technology gives us a 21st century motivation to teach ethics. Thank goodness. We have only to look around, pick up a paper or open a home page to be face to face with how badly that lesson needs to be taught.

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Posted by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

New personnel evaluation systems are in place across the nation. They are an attempt to move away from a subjective, comment-based document, to one that is comprehensive and research-based. In the best of cases, leaders have been trained for a few hours on the use of a specifically selected document to capture teacher and principal performance and evaluate all aspects of each teacher's and principal's work throughout the year. Then a calculation results in a word like ineffective, developing, effective, or highly effective.

There are cases where teachers and principals are asked to provide evidence themselves. These evaluations have often been added to the work of the spring. Principals and teachers are focused on the culmination of the learning that took place during the year. Schools are alive with concerts, spring sports, proms, field days, preparing for finals, recovering from the AP exams, and reviewing portfolios and projects and papers. Amidst these rituals of spring, another is now added. The word will come, the label that describes how well each is doing.

The rules have changed. To some degree, evaluations had taken place previously but they were often more casual than substantive. So here we are, in yet another place where we are regulated to do something that we agree needs to happen. This year, not only is the process new to many, but in some instances, the results will become public information. The label is not private between the employer and the employee. It will be known by parents and by students, by our families and friends. Is there a reasonable positive outcome that this might serve, especially now? The systems are new to us. The results can be publically shared. And we are still developing our expertise.

In these early years of implementation, with all the other changes being instituted, meaningful methods for implementing good evaluation are rare. Just like good teaching, formative feedback throughout the year helps steer the teacher's or principal's work toward maximizing their successful practices and minimizing or transforming their less successful practices. Evaluation at the end of the year is not good for students, not good for teachers and certainly not good for principals.

Can an argument be made that a learning institution can be successful in a climate rife with worry, disappointment, disillusionment, helplessness, and stress? We have not seen the book or research to support such a contention. Principals struggle to create environments where children and adults experience success. Confidence begets more success - not an unfounded or dishonest confidence but one supported by data, shared with honest feedback and deliberately engaged dialogue. Yes, evaluation is a confidence builder or breaker.

After a year of work with children, parents, colleagues, professional development that demands the learning of Common Core Standards, shifting topics, and diminishing resources that includes the loss of colleagues, teachers and principals are feeling diminished. Leaders attempt to keep morale high, but wait, the same thing is happening to the principals. They, too, are now measured, in part, not only by the student achievement scores, but by a similar, new, evaluation system that their supervisors just learned...in most cases, for a few hours over the course of the year.

Teachers and principals should be evaluated for their performance and success. It is a worthy use of resources to develop those attributes of our staffs and ourselves that can grow and improve. That is not the challenge. As with everything else we do, the process counts. Since we do not have the time to implement slowly and learn how to do it effectively, the process falls upon the shoulders of the leader (who is also being evaluated in this new way) to conduct the process with compassion and understanding and to establish and maintain the focus on teaching and learning in the building.

Because this process is new, and we are not experts at it, stress has befallen our buildings and districts. Dealing with this stress is not a job for the building leader alone. There is a need for all leaders to show up on the scene. There are teacher leaders who understand exactly the emotional temperature of the building. There are teaching assistants, monitors, secretaries, and even custodians, who know how the building feels and what it needs. This is a time to call upon everyone - a moment in which leadership in its most distributed form must be called upon. No one can do this alone. The waters are uncharted and turbulent. We need all hands in the effort. Our buildings must remain positive and energized in spite of this stressful time.

After all, what we want is for all teachers and leaders to deserve and receive positive recognition as this year ends. Maybe we can add new words of our own "deserving" and "recognized" for their contribution to children. The faculty and principals should be launched into their summer rest, vacations, or work at a different pace, feeling appreciated, while knowing what they do well, what they want to improve, and having time to plan how to accomplish that improvement. Evaluation should not the measure of what we don't do well, it should be a reflection of what we do well and include what we want to do better. Evaluation should be formative, offering assistance along the road to continuously improving our practice. If we leave it to the end, to a word laden with value, we will have spent inordinate hours and days on an activity that is meaningless. Let us make a commitment, that if evaluation is to be done, it should be done well, and that means doing it all year long, not just in May and June. Celebrate what is done well, recognize strengths and target areas that will improve student achievement. But no matter what needs improvement, always remember to recognize the deserving educators who contribute to the lives of children each and every day.

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Posted by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Policymakers and leaders have determined what's wrong with our educational system and how to fix it. Either part of that equation could be fraught with errors. What is wrong with our schools? How do we improve them? We guess the underlying question is: can schools be improved by those in the system or does pressure and mandate need to come from outside?

There is growing field support for the Common Core standards as a reform movement, less so, for the assessments associated with them. At last, recognition has come that a connection exists between teacher and leader performance and that of students. Can student achievement be improved by better teacher and leader performance? There is much debate on the ground about how to do this and how it is going.

We have lower than desirable standing in the global market. It is probably true that our students are not graduating college and career ready. Too many of our students cannot compete in the math, science, and technology fields; they cannot read, write, create, or solve problems as well as they should. It has been determined by concerned policymakers that this is a result of our failure to teach the right things in the right way under the leadership of properly skilled leaders. There is some truth for us to own.

We haven't been proactive in assessing and responding to the shifts in knowledge and skills our students need. We haven't made major changes to our pre-service programs in colleges. We haven't retrained the teachers already in the field in any way that becomes successful or systemic. While we celebrated our many successes, we have allowed some to fall behind and some to fail. We have created such an insular and circular mode of thinking, that we, ourselves, cannot see the way to improve our systems. This myopia allowed the forces "from away" to take over. How much energy have we wasted in pushing back? Perhaps our greatest challenge now is to decide how much time goes to resistance and how much to moving forward, albeit following someone else's plan? We often create our own Catch-22's.

No matter the potential within the reform initiatives, they will fail to improve student achievement and teacher and leader performance unless we own them. Why? Because the solutions are "from away." The term 'from away', as it is used in Maine and parts of Canada, refers to a person who was not born there. The inference is, if you weren't born there and haven't remained there, "You can't understand why we do what we do. You cannot know who we are and how we live our lives, our mores, and our culture. Simply, you can't know us." Guided by this "Down East" wisdom, we must take hold of the mandates "from away" and make them meaningful in every one of our schools. So we propose three actions we must implement to regain control of our profession and lead.

It is essential that our mental models change and that those of our communities do also. No longer can we be complicit in perpetuating the message "It was good enough for me and I turned out ok." The world is changing faster than it ever did, accelerated by the use of technology. There is no turning back.

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Posted by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Educational leaders continue to face challenges of unprecedented proportion. Facing these challenges cannot be done with integrity unless we do so with a keen sense of ourselves. Too often in our race to get everything done, we fail to listen to our inner voice. In failing to do so, we allow that rush to prevent us from leading our organizations forward. Knowing ourselves involves knowing how to listen to our inner teacher. When we do listen, we must invoke our courage, and take our risks. Leaders must be the teachers who set the tone for learning, engaging learners, leading a culture of continuous learning, and developing new leaders from within the organization. "The crucial first step toward creating a strategic and agile teaching organization is engaging learners so that knowledge is retained, applied, and cascaded throughout the organization"(p.4). This might describe the work we do yet it was actually written by Jeff DeSmet in an article for Harvard Business Publishing. The article, "Tapping The Inner Teacher: Delivering High-Impact Learning Through Leader-Led Development," calls for business leaders to become teachers in their organizations.

In the article, he references Noel Tichey, author of The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders: "Winning companies--those that consistently outperform competitors ... [have] moved beyond learning organizations to become teaching organizations. That's because teaching organizations are more agile, come up with better strategies, and are able to implement them more effectively" (p.1). Our business is leading teaching and learning organizations. We should be the experts to whom others look as they try to encourage their leaders to be teachers. Why isn't it so?

This is a conversation that will take us on a circular journey. So, let's just pull a few threads of the fabric to explore more deeply. One might expect to find discussions of the inner teacher in religious or spiritual literature. Harvard Business School's attention to it instructs us that leaders' knowing themselves is not simply for personal religious or spiritual growth. Leaders cannot only know their business, they must know themselves.

The article compels leaders to tell stories. How interesting. Often, educational leaders work in environments where storytelling is only for children. Ours is fast becoming a world of facts and data. Business leaders are discovering exactly what we are losing. The Inner Teacher article reminds us "A good story can drive home a message more effectively than just about any other means of communication"(p.4). The leader's teachable point of view should be the basis for a dynamic, compelling story to share with others. Listening to the story of how a leader struggled early in their career offers teaching moments that are far more effective than receiving advice. We all learn from stories.

"At the end of the day, words and ideas presented in a way that engages listeners' emotions are what carry stories," writes Peter Guber, author of the article, Four Truths of the Storyteller. "It is this oral tradition that lies at the center of our ability to motivate, sell, inspire, engage, and lead" (p.7).

Yes, indeed, we wholeheartedly agree. So, let's share one remarkable story about how listening to his inner teacher, Hamdi Ulukaya, grew a successful company, returned employment to a community, and invested in others.

Hamdi Ulukaya was born in Turkey, raised on a dairy farm along the Euphrates River, and came to this country to study business in the mid-1990's. Now in his early forties, he is president and CEO of Chobani, Inc, the largest producer of Greek yogurt in the country. He recently joined the Forbes' list of billionaires. He was named the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year for 2013. Finalists from 47 countries had been in competition for the prestigious honor.

He owned a company in upstate New York that produced Euphrates feta cheese, named after the river along which he was raised. A real estate flyer arrived by mail one day announcing the sale of a yogurt plant in central New York. He discarded it as junk mail.

Several hours later, yogurt and the plant were still on his mind. He retrieved the flyer from the wastebasket and the next day called to inquire and get details. A trip to visit the plant and the small town in which it was located somehow further hooked him. With no knowledge or experience with yogurt production, with advice against what he was considering, he purchased the plant in 2005. He hired workers laid off by the previous owners and spent time developing the recipe for perfection. Two years later the first shipments of yogurt were made. Now, sales are about a billion dollars annually. A second plant opened in Idaho last year.

The rest of the story is equally inspiring. His work is associated with a generous heart. Chobani, a word meaning "shepherd," represents giving yet asking nothing in return. So, while the yogurt bears this name, the Shepherd's Gift Foundation, was established to give 10% of the company's profits to individuals working for positive, long lasting change.

The inner teacher, which he calls "gut", would not let his mind or heart rest. Had he ignored it, played it safe, listened to advice from others rather than his own truth, there would be a different story. With pride and humility both, Ulukaya tells his story. He is teaching leader.

Additional Resource:
Tichy, Noel. (1997).The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level. HarperCollins Publishers:
 New York.

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Posted by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers at 6:14 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The school year has, or is soon ending, everywhere across the country. For some of us, this is our last year in public education. Those are the ones who have chosen to end their careers and retire. Retirement means open days, without uniforms ...dark suits and laced shoes or dresses and heels... which we don each weekday morning. It is a disorienting time, allowing for new work, or golf or travel or volunteering or grand parenting. There was a period in the history of our profession when leaders stayed a long time in service to one community, much like teachers still do. Retirement invites us to look back over a lifetime of work and get out the scales. Did we make enough of a difference for enough children? Were we appreciated and respected? Has our legacy been creating possibilities or shutting down dreams?

Recently, we discovered a letter written twenty years ago by a retiring superintendent. He had served as superintendent of one district for eighteen years. His letter made June 1992 seem not long ago and far away. It has caused us to pause and wonder if we rail and rally too much. Is it that for each of us, our present time is the toughest and the most remarkable? We bring you his voice, looking back and forward, the soothsayer leader whose vision was not limited in time nor impeded by nets of change surrounding him.

He begins with a salutation that describes relationships. His own unsatiated thirst for knowledge and attraction to creativity accompanied him and became his reputation. Euphoric times had passed. He observes that politicians were now in charge, searching for quick fixes. How prophetic this was; we would say the same today.

It is the ending of the letter that distinguishes it for us. Dismantling all the stereotypes of white, male leaders, he is unafraid to let his heart speak. As if he were speaking to us in 2013, he challenges us to care deeply, saying it is the only way we will prevail. "The more we care about our students and what happens to them, the more well respected we will be and the more well fixed we will be. It is that simple." Let us not forget that all of our sophistication, knowledge and expertise are meaningless if we are not opening our heart's ability to care and show it.

He implores us to "dare to be different. We have to be willing to be more bothered. You and I are the only souls out there who can give our kids a choice and a voice. In giving them the choice and voice, we will prove that the American public school still is the best answer for our society. " Shame on us for those moments when we resist giving children choice and voice. It is our job to develop their capacity to use both well. It is fundamentally why American public schools have laid the strong foundation for this American democracy, with all its flaws still the most magnificent way for a nation to govern itself. And if educational leaders cannot dream dreams, how do the children? If we cannot engage each other with love in our hearts for our work and for the children, how do we inspire hope for the future? It is from knowledge, from innovation, from care, from daring to be different, from love, that leadership arises. It is June, the time to remember why we are in this work is now. The summer to renew our calling is before us. Thank you, Mr. Woolley for the reminder to be all we can be.

Dear Colleagues:

Respectfully yours,
Richard D. Woolley

Resource:
We thank Richard D. Woolley who granted us permission to print his letter.

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Posted by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

At this time of year, teachers, counselors, principals and superintendents are presented with the challenge of dealing with students who have failed to meet the criteria for moving on to the next grade or course. Often, difficult decisions must be made. We have to face upset or disengaged students and angry parents. In most cases, as experienced school and district leaders, we speak with the students, help the parents understand, and discuss summer school or next year's options. There is an opportunity lost if we don't do one more thing. These failures can offer important information if we are data gatherers, seeking causes for failures and patterns for the student and for the school.

The question of a child's failure is a complicated one. Why did a student fail? When did we know this was going to happen? Is it a matter of ability? Is there a problem at home? Have there been deficits that we have left unaddressed? Has the student connected with any adult in the building? Has the student been absent often? Has the student failed to do the daily work of the class or course? Was the student unprepared to take this class or course? If so, why? Is this a transfer student? Does the student come to school hungry? We all know the questions but do we seek the answers or apply our judgment? The time to really study this as a collective systemic problem is now. The opportunity is to answer those questions, not only for the failing child, but for all the children like her moving forward. "Where did we miss the mark?" needs to be the overarching question.

While these end of year meetings focus on what to do for a specific child, we need to be concomitantly planning to reduce the incidents of this particular failure happening again for any student. The student before us becomes a case study for where and how we failed. These meetings are surely different in an elementary school than they are in a high school, but, just the same, somewhere in this situation we are discovering how we lost a student this year. And, the conversation in its extreme form becomes one about retention.

Evidence abounds that retention opens a student to a myriad of paths diverting them from graduating as college and career ready. According to the National Association of School Psychologists, it is one of the most powerful predictors of high school drop outs. They report that grade retention had a negative impact on all areas of achievement and social and emotional adjustment.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have recently enacted policies requiring that students who do not demonstrate basic reading proficiency at the end of third grade be retained and provided with remedial services (Rose, 2012). Other states are discussing similar policies. Hence, there is a likelihood that retention will increase in the early grades. A Harvard study of Florida's third grade retention policy noted that "roughly 10 percent of American students are retained at least once between kindergarten and eighth grade, with the incidence of retention concentrated among low-income students and traditionally disadvantaged minorities" (Planty et al., 2009). Nonetheless, their data demonstrates some short term gains for those retained as measured by the state tests.

Surely, we have excuses for ourselves, but, the truth is, every student failure is ours also. Failure is an embarrassment for the student; it should be the same for us. This requires courage and thoughtful planning because it often involves examining currently held beliefs and behaviors. This does take time, but more than time, it takes a change in thinking and practice.

Author Alfie Kohn writes that the expectation children will learn from a failure is flawed. "..because failure can engender a feeling of incompetence (if not helplessness), future levels of achievement are compromised. Indeed, a bundle of research suggests that kids who fail at something are less likely to succeed the next time--even if they're perfectly capable of completing the second task" Kohn continues, "perceived competence comes from success experiences" (Kohn, 1999, pp.39-40).

So the idea that a failure is a learning experience that will contribute to a child's future success leaves out the essential ingredient - having the accumulated confidence and resilience to move from failure to success. We are not suggesting that students who fail should be simply moved along. We are suggesting we take the time to systemically study those who are failing, one course or a grade level, and make the changes to meet a goal of greatly reducing the incidence of these failures. That's a worthy summer project.

Daily, we are pulled toward putting out fires and managing issues. Surely, that is not what called us to assume leadership roles in the first place. Leadership is a matter of asking the right questions, at the right times, of the right people. It involves willingness to hear answers we don't like or that are contrary to our currently held opinion. It requires that we act upon truth, following through and following up. Leading is a forward motion, even though it comes accompanied by a rear view mirror. It might not take as much time as you think and it might produce a result we all want. Someday, wouldn't it be rewarding if we were not having meetings about students' failures, but about the celebrations for everyone's success.

Resources:
Kohn, Alfie. (1999). The Schools our Children Deserve - Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and Tougher Standards New York: Houghton

Planty, M., Hussar, W., Snyder, T., Kena, G., Ramani, A. K., Kemp, J., Bianco, K.,
and Dinkes, R. (2009).The Condition of Education 2009 (NCES 2009-081). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S.
Department of Education.

Rose, S. (2012). Third grade reading policies. Technical report, Denver, CO: Education
Commission of the States.

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Posted by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Testing the students' ability to demonstrate their accumulated knowledge has been the focus of everyone's attention. The skills and knowledge being tested are only part of the work we do and our students need. Sunday's guest blogger Dr. Susan Madsen addressed three valuable insights about how to develop leadership in students. Today, we continue...

Gabrielle Giffords delivered the commencement address to graduates of Bard College. She said, "...be bold, be courageous, be your best." When we think of those three words, certainly we can think of her; Gabrielle Giffords, shot, brain damaged, and in relentless pursuit of regaining her capacities. It most certainly must have been inspiring to all those graduates watching her unsteadily walk to the podium and struggle to give a compelling speech.

But if we dial back the clock to the days when those Bard graduates to whom she spoke were in elementary school, middle and high school, they likely sat next to students who did not read or write as well as they, who could not master their math skills, and who were challenged by thinking and problem solving. Those children, now also young adults, probably are not walking across a college stage this spring to be handed a college diplomas. Children of both kinds are in our schools...those for whom the path is clear and those for whom is laden with obstacles and burdens.

We are busy trying our hardest to help them learn how to read and write better, how to develop their math skills, and how to ask and solve problems in a grand effort to make them college and career ready. But Giffords' advice reminds us of another essential consideration. Where do they learn to "be bold, be courageous, and be their best"? Is this an awareness that we hold? Or do we expect this is something that comes naturally for some and others simply don't have the capacity or desire to do any of the three?

In classrooms, teachers regularly call on students who have not raised their hand. Ought we not consider the amount of courage it may take for that student to offer an answer? How does that child, in that instant, overcome fear and reluctance to speak, not just to us but in front of peers as well? For some this must be a terrifying risk. Whether the answer is right or not, do we think about how our response will impact that child and the next time he might answer? What about social courage? Who is the child who joins the isolated in a lunch room or stops the "teasing" by their friends? The first acts of courage are often unnoticed and yet they are life informing.

What does it mean to be bold? Actually, haven't we taught children not to be bold? Children come to schools in which adults are in control of the environment. The scaffolding around all education needs to be creating environments in which children take risks, test their thoughts and pose their questions as they become confident seekers and creators of knowledge. Those bold ones will be college and career ready. They will also be life ready. And, they will know what it means to be their best.

Our lives may never ask us to confront the need for boldness, courage and doing our best in the way that Giffords, herself, has been required to do. Nevertheless, let's issue a call for leaders who are bold, courageous and do our best. Every day, we enter school buildings with the thought about doing our best; at least we hope so. But, as we brush our teeth in the morning, do we think about how the day will call us to act boldly and courageously or do we yearn for easy days when those aren't necessary? Of course, you chuckle, where have easy days gone? Each of us knows that every day now calls for us to live and model these qualities. It is how we will inspire children to trust them within themselves.

Later in the commencement day, Gifford's husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, was speaking about gun regulation and was heard to say, "What we have been lacking is someone with the courage to not choose sides on this issue but to choose a new path." He captures another undeveloped or unrefined skill for us to consider. Where do future leaders learn to work together, not polarize different perspectives into irreconcilable sides, but truly listen, deeply enough to find the common goal and a path to progress? If we, leaders don't know how to do that, we must learn, lest our purported sophistication break us apart societally and place us all in harm's way.

Skills such as these cannot be tested except in action. They have become diminished by being labeled "soft skills." We should be fearful of a society where learnedness is absent such human skills. As a nation, are crying out for leaders who have these skills. We have pronounced our frustration with the two-sided behaviors of our leaders. Solutions require new thinking and new thinkers.

We need to expect more from ourselves. We must begin to implement learning for boldness, courage, being one's best and listening as if this were a new math curriculum, systematically, vertically, and purposefully. We must expect of ourselves, and our faculty and staff, that we practice listening with an open heart, with patience and respect. How else will Mark Kelly ever have the opportunity to see what happens when someone sees and chooses a new path? Who knows better than he, the traveler in space who now watches, each and every day, as his wife struggles to do what used to come naturally. He deeply knows that investing in a tug of war does not demand wisdom and will not lead to a new solution. This is not a skill we can afford for only some to master. We must teach all of our children what leadership is, how to be courageous, bold, and do their best. This is essential curriculum.

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Posted by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Today's guest blog is written by Susan R. Madsen. She is Professor of Management in the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University and the Orin R. Woodbury Professor of Leadership and Ethics. Recently she completed directing the two-year Utah Women and Education Project for the state of Utah and continues to work with key Utah stakeholders on related efforts.

For the past decade I have been on a quest to explore the lifetime development of leadership in high profile women leaders. I have spent years interviewing top women leaders in a variety of sectors (e.g., government, higher education, and industry) and countries. In all cases, these leaders talked about the foundational leadership development influences during their elementary and secondary years. A host of themes emerged from the data that I believe provide valuable insights for K-12 educators; I will highlight three of them in this blog.

Teachers can help students develop a love for learning
John F. Kennedy once said that "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." Helping children develop a love for learning assists them in establishing a critical foundation for future leadership development. In my research, fifth and sixth grade teachers were often cited as "strong" and "positive" influences specifically because they helped their students develop this love for school and learning. For example, one university president said, "My sixth grade teacher was a woman who was passionate about education. She conveyed her own personal joy and passion in the way she taught us. In some ways I think these times made up special moments for me in (what we now call) the life of the mind. This includes being able to gain shared joy out of thinking, reading, and learning. I saw that in her, and I felt it in myself--the sheer joy that she felt was the joy that she ignited in me." Many of the leaders' elementary school teachers encouraged and inspired them to read as well as to appreciate the value of reading in their lives. In fact, all of the top leaders in my studies absolutely loved to read; each also believed that her love for reading led to a love for learning and that this love for learning was linked to an increased capacity to develop leadership competencies and abilities throughout her life. Many middle and high school teachers were also cited as influential in developing a love for learning as well--with English and math teachers leading the list.

Teachers can provide encouragement and opportunities for students to practice leadership
Nearly all of the women I interviewed reflected on the formal and informal leadership opportunities they had during their schooling, particularly at the secondary education level. These early experiences were formative in providing the practice and confidence they needed to proactively seek additional opportunities. The women in my studies highlighted teachers as critical forces in helping them see their strengths and then encouraging them to consider leadership roles for a variety of potential opportunities, including sports and debate teams, academic and service clubs, community groups like 4H and Girl Scouts, student government, and church youth groups. The acknowledgement of competence and capability from teachers was absolutely transformational for many of the women I interviewed for my studies.

Teachers can help students look at challenges as opportunities to learn
One of the most important skills that successful leaders possess is to be able to effectively learn from mistakes, failures, and challenges--their own as well as others around them. The leaders in my studies often discussed their challenges during K-12 years. These included such things as moving with their families to new towns and thus new schools, serious disputes with and lose of friends, being cut from sports teams or cheerleader squads, losing student leadership elections, deaths of people close to them, and school and/or community tragedies. Although parents were nearly always highlighted as the most influential individuals in helping these leaders work through issues, trusted teachers and administrators also played an important role in their lives when dealing with these challenges. Helping students look at mistakes, failures, or other types of challenges with a "learning lens" can help them develop powerful habits for life. Examples cited in my studies involved teachers 1) pulling them aside one-on-one, listening, and then provide perspective and encouragement, and 2) opportunities for class reflection and discussions after a school or community tragedy. When teachers help students build their skills and abilities to reflect and learn from all experiences--positive, negative, exciting, dreadful, joyful, and painful--they are building and strengthening the leadership capabilities of these students as well.

Leadership scholar and expert Warren Bennis said. "There are lessons in everything, and if you are fully deployed, you will learn most of them. Experiences aren't truly yours until you think about them, analyze them, examine them, question them, reflect on them, and finally understanding them. The point, once again, is to use your experiences rather than being used by them, to be the designer, not the design, so that experiences empower rather than imprison" (p.92). Assisting children and teens understand this can be transformational for them. To be honest, as a former middle school teacher and mother of four children, I wish I would have better understood this much earlier in my life!

Resources:
Bennis, Warren. (1989). On Becoming a Leader. Basic Books.
Madsen, Susan R. (2008). On Becoming a Woman Leader: Learning from the Experiences of University Presidents. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Madsen, Susan R. (2009). Developing Leadership: Learning from the Experiences of Women Governors. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

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Posted by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Paying Attention to the Important
Schools are in a sea change. Perceived failure and federal and state regulations are providing an opportunity. The frenetic speed of the change movement is creating a vacuum in which innovation has room to enter. We must lead the moment. Too often we get consumed by the urgent and the important falls to the side. The pressure for that to occur is great now. What is the dynamic that causes us, as educators, to know so much and do so little of it? There exists a gap between what we know and what we do. Why is that? Encountering children, their amazing energy, their need for learning and guidance, experiences and mentors, our daily work is both uplifting and exhausting. Is there a belief system problem among us?

We Must Not Surrender
Too often, too many of us live as gerbils running on a wheel, powerless to do anything but run. Our words reflect our condition. The power resides outside of us. Those with legislative and regulatory authority are making decisions that affect our work. That's why we can't get off the wheel. Those of us who take on the fight, under the illusion that they are getting off the wheel, take part in our own version of Wack-o-Mole. Yet, the resistance also puts someone else in charge; our countering distracts us also but makes us feel better. We must shift our belief system. Otherwise, even if there are granules of truth in it, it is not serving us well. It is preventing us from taking hold of our own destiny and the destiny of our students. Survivors of terrible times never surrendered. It kept them in hope against all odds. So, it is our time.

We Must Finally Bring the Issue Home
Those of us in leadership roles must be found doing something other than responding well. Outsiders become the locus of control for both those on the wheel and those resisting it. Leaders for this time will see the opportunity and step out of the wheel sphere altogether. Then, power returns to us.

All the Creativity of Teachers and Leaders Gets Poured into Daily Work
In an immediate way, children benefit and we feel justifiably good about our work. But, who is holding the long view? Who is remembering that, while we become experts in common core and new assessments and newly engaged learning, we are more than the technology of education. We are the experts in children and learning. Where are the places for research about children, neuroscience, and the social sciences to meet to inform our decisions? Metaphorically, if we were gardeners, we are spending our time planting, monitoring growth and tending the plants. The garden will only be as productive as the ground will allow. We need to prepare the earth before our efforts as gardeners really pay off. Even then, we deal with the forces of nature. Sometimes there will be floodwaters that destroy the newly planted or a late frost or a drought. But every gardener or farmer begins again at the ground level. Let's learn from them about forces beyond our control and hope and perseverance.

We Know What Our Schools Need
Ask most any teacher what they need in order to be more effective with their students and they will say, without a moment's hesitation, that they need more uninterrupted instructional time, less pull-outs, smaller class sizes, more collaborative time to work with colleagues, more time for learning for themselves specifically in differentiation techniques, the new standards, and the use of technology. They would add that they need less time and focus on standardized testing and more time spent on encouraging and nurturing their students to become whole, productive human beings.

Ask most any leader what they need in order to be more effective and they will say, without a moment's hesitation, that they need more resources, of time, money and faculty. They also want collaborative time in which they can work with the professional staff to assess the current state of the school and thoughtfully plan forward, learn together, and meet the needs of the district and its children. They will say they value an accountability process that helps each and every one of their teachers to get continually better.

But whether we are the running gerbils or holding the mallet waiting for the next mole to pop up, we cannot lead from that place. If we do not figure out how to take charge of our belief system and of our own actions and words, we will find our treasured system deteriorate into an exhausted one that does children no good.

Seize the Opportunity Buried in this Moment
We tend not to discover it. Too much of our time is spent talking about the problem and not enough time is being spent creating the architecture to lead toward the solutions we intuitively know. Otto Scharmer, the MIT author of Theory U, argues that change cannot happen until leaders make the journey through the U, opening their own hearts, minds and wills, seeing with their own eyes and those of others, while silencing the insidiousness of fear, cynicism and judgment. Only then, do we arrive in a place of reflection and creativity, with others who have taken the same risky journey. From there, solutions arise that are transformative. Leadership becomes inspired and leaders certain of what they know, who they are, and what needs to be done, seize the opportunity buried in this moment.

We may not have all the answers, but we will have some. We will remember that children are our work and we are the experts. If we remain reactionary and obedient or resistant, we will lose the very heartfelt drive that brought us to and keep us in this profession. We will turn from being compassionate teachers and leaders into cogs in a wheel. There is nothing good about this for children. We must learn how to lead in these times so we can guarantee all of our children a growing and invigorated system. We must remember the ground is the source of all good harvests. Otherwise, what is the point?

Resource:
Scharmer, Otto C. (2009). Theory U. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler

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Schools exist for children. It is difficult enough to create environments in which five year olds can enter and feel welcomed and safe, where they can become excited learners. We do it in all of our schools . We create safe environments in which students can do the hard work of learning while growing up. It begins when a five year old first begins Kindergarten, they enter a large unfamiliar building, without parents, filled with students older and bigger than they are. It has new people, new sounds, and smells that are foreign to them. They are ushered down long hallways and finally arrive in the room in which they will spend 10 months learning, next to children they probably never met before, from a teacher who will become their touchstone for the next 10 months. Then a room change happens during the day. They are taken to art, music, gym, or library, or lunch in which another teacher leads them for less than an hour and then the class is led back to the main learning room to return to their touchstone teacher. All the while, the child is unaware of what is expected by her parents, and the rest of us - those teachers never take their eyes off of them, watch them, and are sure to keep them safe.

Teachers are the educators who work the closest with our children. It is they who continue to act as touchstones for our students. Now finally, after Newtown, Connecticut and Moore, Oklahoma, we hear the public talking about teachers as heroes. It has been a long time coming. Both tragedies put a spotlight on the extremes that a teacher will go to protect their students. That is fundamental. It is at their core. Keep the children safe. We acknowledge and applaud them for lifting the daily work in a crisis so that others can see a piece of who they are and what they will do. In those moments when they act with courage to protect the children, they are revealing a capacity for leadership. It is a courageous moment and it is a leadership moment.

Teachers have become recognized as the first responders in schools. They embrace the responsibility to keep our children safe. Simultaneously, they are teaching them how to maneuver in a large social networks, how to read and write, think like mathematicians, scientists, and historians, express themselves music, art and dance, and become athletes. They do it every day, and always with some sense that their first responsibility, to keep the children safe, is a given, that there will be no challenge to the safe environment in which we all have become accustomed to live.

As the school year comes to a close, we prepare for summer. Attention turns away after the crisis fades or the next one comes somewhere else. Still, we wonder about the children from Sandy Hook Elementary School who lost classmates, teachers, and a principal. What do we know about those teachers who lost colleagues and students, and their principal? How are the families of those who lost loved ones that December day? We hope summer brings continued healing. Sadly, they now have a lot in common with the people of Oklahoma. Teachers lost students at Plaza Towers Elementary School, ripped out from their space by one of the strongest forces in nature. The school building turned to rubble, everything gone. What did those teachers think as they heard the sirens and the deafening sound of the tornado as it destroyed their town and their school? We know what they did. As at Sandy Hook Elementary School, they protected the children.

But when the news moves its focus to something else, Newtown, Connecticut and Moore, Oklahoma will go on, struggling as communities of families who have suffered terrible, unthinkable loss. It will be summer now. The burden of putting lives back together will rest upon the shoulders of the families. In both communities, offers of social services, counseling will surely remain. Who among us is truly prepared to deal with tragedies such as these on our own? When the fall arrives, and children return to school, it is expected that the teachers will know how to handle it. Somehow school and district leaders will stand with their teachers and welcome everyone back. In these two places, the 2012-2013 school year will always be remembered. It is the year when the communities' hearts broke open. It is also the year we saw teachers and leaders put their lives on the line to protect children. We salute those educators who work with children each and every day, prepared to put their own lives on the line, to protect the children. But that isn't enough. Educators deserve ongoing respect and recognition. They are the people who, if danger arises, will give their lives to keep our children from harm. We need to take care of them so they can best take care of the children.

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