When being in school sucks the life out of you....

Typically, I love being in school.  I love learning, I love reading and I love thinking about things from a new perspective.  But today I'm not feeling it.  I'm sad to admit that my doctoral program has sucked the life out of me over this winter break.  The shame of it is that I'm not even officially in class yet.  The even bigger shame of it is that these two classes are the reason why I selected this degree and they are very interesting to me.  I should LOVE being in these classes.  My 'spring' classes start on Friday.  But, just to be prepared for our first class we had to:

• Read 3 books as well as (large) parts of other books
• Read lots of articles
• Write three papers (2 have to be precisely 6 pages and written to the exact specifications inside the professors head that aren't clear on paper but she's given us three pages of 'suggestions to 'help' us understand what she wants; and one that is a 5 page summary)
• Watch a 2 hour movie, plus a clip of another movie.

We received all of this information maybe the week before Christmas.  Then we started the mad dash of ordering books and planning how to accomplish all of this while also trying to enjoy the holiday and do other household projects.  Enter the HUGE calendar and an awesome friend to support me through this.  I've been plugging away at it, but I don't feel like I've made a tremendously amount of progress.  The big set back was the revision to the paper description that came AFTER I'd written my first draft of the paper.  :-(    So last night as I was reading and reading and reading, I must admit, I started to get really bitter about all this and found myself feeling like this just isn't worth it.  And then I realized that this is a very sad statement about education.  It's not alright for being in school to suck the life out of any student.

I believe strongly that every student, no matter the age -- prek-doctoral studies-- deserves:

• A relationship with their teacher/professor...at least the person knows their name and shows that they care about your learning
• A reasonable work load
• Meaningful tasks that are engaging, memorable and assist in learning important concepts
• Meaningful feedback to confirm and expand learning

By providing these things, not only are students more excited about learning they actually learn more.  At this point, I'm reading to complete the to-do list, but I don't have the luxury of really thinking about the material. 

I will keep plugging through and I'm sure I'll get it all done by Friday.  I hope that my impression of the professor and the course changes upon officially beginning the class because I really want to learn this content and enjoy it. 

Either way, I think it's important for all teachers to consider these notions on behalf of all students.  Let's resolve to do everything possible to keep learning as a meaningful, enjoyable process!

Reflecting and planning/dreaming

With one day left in 2013, I am finding myself deep in thought both reflecting on the past year and thinking about how to make the new year even better.  I'm not a fan of New Years Resolutions, but I do value reflection, planning and dreaming.

So, 2013 flew by but was amazing.  My school year in numbers:
    4th year as Principal at SSES
    Member of 1 new district level committee (social media)
    4 amazing teachers hired to join our team at school
    Attended 4 professional conferences (responsive classroom, ASCD x 2, NAESP)
    Accumulated over 1400 tweets on school account
    1 school blog started with many entries (SouthShoreAACPS.edublogs.org)
    6 doctoral classes, 18 credits accomplished (1year down!)
    4 entries posted to my personal blog (excursionsineducation.blogger.com)
    Co-launched 1 new twitter chat (#mdeschat, Thursdays at 9pm)
    Read too many professional books to count (a few favorites: The Smartest Kids in the World, Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind, Professional Conversations, David and Goliath- ok, just started but 1/2 way done)
   
I'm sure there's a lot more details and successes from the year to include.... and i will as i continue to reflect on the year, but for now this is a start.

One of the most impactful for me has been starting the doctoral program at with an emphasis on educational leadership and policy.  6 classes and 18 credits later... I'm definitely surviving (I think).  Being a student is making me think about education with a fresh perspective.  It makes me grumpy at times because it reminds me that we are doing education all wrong!  My goal is to channel that grumpiness into positive change as we move into the new year (especially with regard to how we think about assessment, inquiry, student ownership of learning, and mastery).

So, as I think about what I was to accomplish in 2014 professionally, educationally and with regards to school.... Here are my early ideas:

 -Spend as much time as possible with students, get into classrooms and be better connected to learning.
- Continue expanding our embrace of innovation by joining global projects, inspiring kids to dream big by tackling real world problems, and encouraging risk-taking by colleagues
- Challenge status que and 'the way we've always done things in education,' both at my school and at a bigger level.
-Embracing blogging as a professional tool to allow me to think through my ideas a more and to elicit conversation from colleagues near and far. (ie more than 4 posts next year!).

I'd love your advice and input about how to make these things happen consistently in 2014.

Democracy and Truth

This will be a short entry.  I am wrestling with big topics, topics that don't have easy answers. Somehow I suspect that this torment is the desired result of my professors and others I've been conversing with about these topics.

The topics I'm wresting with are Democracy and Truth.  Both arose from my doctoral class this weekend.  It was the first week of my two new classes, Comparative Group Analysis (Stats 2) and Issues in Education.  As with most math classes, no controversy in the stats class....but the Issues class got me thinking.  Our theme for this weekend was Democracy in Schools.  Originally, I was good with it and came up with several applications that model democracy for students at my school allowing them to truly experience democracy and learn at a you age about the benefits of being an involved citizen...but them it got deeper and less 'easy' to process and resolve.

Some of the questions running through my head are:
       - When history writes our story, who gets to be remembered as 'right'?
       - If everyone interprets the world through their own experience, traditions, beliefs, etc ...how can one 'true' version of history ever be documented?
       - How can one know they are being told the truth about events, history, etc...?
       - Is our democracy truly representing all?
       - Is democracy open to all citizens in our country?
       - How do/can schools prepare children to inherent and better our country, society, and world?

These are HUGE issues in our country and in our world.  But they are not easy and they may not have answers.  At this point, I'm settling with the resolution that there's benefit in at least wrestling with the issues.  Avoiding them would be the true harm.

Why educators need to be students too

Being in a doctoral program is teaching me so much.  But it's not just the content of the classes that I'm learning. I'm propelled into deep reflection about teaching and learning during each class weekend.  After this weekend's marathon session of classes, I am reminded that it is vastly important for teachers to be students themselves frequently.  I need to make a strong distinction here: I am not advocating that educators be life long learners (although I do believe that this is also an essential requirement for educators); rather, educators need to be enrolled in someone else's class as a student and be in the role of the learner frequently during their career. Here's why:

As a professional educator also engaged in the role of a student, you:

* Develop empathy for your students -- you remember what it's like to learn something brand new, what it's like to feel clueless, you do everything you can to try to sit and listen with perfect behavior for 7 hours straight, remember what teamwork/collaboration feels like, recall how much you strive for a great grade but often times feel like its out of your reach (yes, tough day in my stats class!!)

* Insight deep reflection on practice --  is a traditional grading system fair, is it good enough to cover the content or do students need to learn it, how do visuals/technology/collaboration enhance learning, how do formative assessments inform instruction, how do you measure learning, what makes content memorable and meaningful

* Remain current, fresh and alive in your practice by 1) seeing the strategies another teacher employs, 2) feeling the impact of those strategies as a student and 3) importantly, taking the time to reflect on both to adjust and improve your practices

Specifically, as a student again since January, there have been several huge areas that have become of major interest to me because of my experience as a learner.  They are:
* the need for physical movement
* the importance of collaboration
* the difference that true feedback makes on understanding, learning and development
* the value of formative assessment and student input/feedback regarding instruction
* assessment and grading practices and policies (including the supreme benefit of re-do policies)

With these thoughts, and more importantly, experiences fresh on my mind, I plan to actively advocate for what's best and what's right for students with regard to these topics when we return to school in the fall.

Brain fog resulting from working in silos

It's not often that I have an experience that reminds me distinctly of high school, but around midnight tonight I did.  Throughout the day today I did several things all related to my growth as a professional and as a learner, including:

• Worked on a paper for my educational planning class
• Completed a module for an online class about the CCSS Math standards
• Read two chapters in Essential Questions by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
• Investigated the NBCT renewal process and started planning my journey
• Read and tried to comprehend chapter 7 of my stats class 

As I was finishing the chapter in stats and muddling through the practice problems, I realized that 1) it was beyond my brain's optimal work time and 2) all of the concepts and thoughts were swirling randomly in a fog of unrelated learning.  In that moment, I remembered high school...working on Algebra 2 problems followed immediately by some AP European history mixed with a little chemistry and lets not forget a novel study of the Grapes of Wrath.  No connections or relationships, just a series of tasks that had to be done before school the next day.

Unlike yesterday, where I blogged about experiences coming together, today there is no overlap. No commonality, and no break through of thought.  And, no application or way for me to use all this new knowledge.  Learning skills in isolation doesn't work too well for me. And, it certainly doesn't work very well for our students.  But yet, it is still common place in schools from elementary school to doctoral programs. 

Education reform can't come quick enough for me!  I dream of the day where content is truly embedded in real-world, inquiry based problems and experiences, where content is carefully and meaningfully selected and organized to maximize the understanding and depth of learning for students.  

Unfortunately, my world will continue to remain in these silos for the next year. Perhaps my task needs to be to find the common, intersecting points between each of these long-lasting expenses I've gotten myself into.  One thing is for sure: a lot of reflection on the learning process awaits me.

Energized by excellent summer of Professional Development

With just about one year since I last posted here, I'll skip all the reasons why and jump right into the content of my post.  As always, I'll aim to post much more frequently and to actually develop a habit of blogging.

With the summer about 1/2 way done, my brain is shifting to the task of preparing for the fall.  For me, the biggest, most important task I need to prepare for is teachers' first week back, ... well actually teachers' first day back.  This is the day that I get to collaborate with my colleagues, establish our tone and purpose for the year and set the course for an excellent year.  While I've not yet come up with my theme for the year, many topics are swirling around in my head ranging form innovation, invention, excellence to global connections, deep learning and many more.  Eventually I'll find just the right theme to embed all of these ideas into one and it will all fall in place.

Along those lines, I'm finally at the place where all the wonderful PD opportunities I've experienced this summer are all starting to gel in my brain and shape my thinking for the coming year.  Here's a quick summary of the highlights of my summer PD experiences so far:

• Pasi Sahlberg, author of Finnish Lessons, visited George Washington University right after school let out for summer and really made me think.  My biggest take away:  the success of the Finnish Education system is due in large part to the country's firm commitment to education and a culture that truly values education. He also stressed the importance of having kids invent.  
• ASCD's Conference on Teaching Excellence held at the National Harbor Convention Center in Maryland. Where I had the opportunity to:
• Join Grant Wiggins for an extended session about his book Essential Questions.  Perfect timing for this book to debut as my school just started working with this and we need guidance!
• Delve into the Habits of Mind resources and ways of thinking
• NAESP's Annual Conference held at the Baltimore Convention Center here in Maryland.  My key takeaways from this experience were:
• Crayola's session about creativity in leadership (creating a new species from Model Magic was incredible!-- Go Team, Bunkie!) [Note to self, this experience made higher level thinking skills tangible]
• Eric Jensen's KeyNote session was an inspiring reminder about the impacts of poverty, chronic stress, and the need for strong early education, vocabulary development and caring teachers who hold students accountable while believing that brains can change.
• Numerous summer reads including,
• Elements of Assessment by Douglas Reeves
• Classroom Habitudes by Angela Maiers
• "We must be the learners and leaders we wish our students to be." pg. 13 
• Essential Questions by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (just started officially today)

This is the abbreviated list of excellent content that has been streaming through my head since mid-June.  I am so excited to finally have it all start to come together.  I'm in the beginning stages of planning the three 1/2 day sessions I'll have with my teachers to kick-off an incredible year and I'm so excited about it!  

To top it off, tonight I finally sat still long enough to learn Evernote.  I fell in love with it in minutes and don't know why I didn't start using it instantly when I downloaded it last year!  

I love the speed of summer since it allows time to digest and process information!  

Reframing the 1st day of school

My sister and her family live in Germany.  Everything happens 6 hours earlier there.

So, this morning, I woke up ready for the first day of school.  But, to be honest, that certain special level of excitement was missing.  I didn't necessarily notice its absence, until.... I checked my email before I got out of bed and saw my nieces and nephews posing for their annual first day of school photos and I remembered just how excited our students are for the first day.

I thought about this all day long as I greeted each student to our school this year and visited classrooms to start the year off of a great note.

The important part of setting aside all of the preparation, worry, and work of launching a new school year is remembering that our students, no matter how young, start today wondering how their year is going to go.  They may wonder:

• Will my teacher like me?
• Will my teacher help me make friends?
• Will my teacher pick on me?
• Will my teacher see how hard I try?

It really is all about them!  

Happy 1st day!

Quick afterthought... Saw a tweet by Joshua Starr, Superintendent of MCPS, asking if our students really forget the rules and need to spend the first day reviewing them every year....  Good question...  Definitely something to think about.  Maybe some of this is setting the tone, establishing boundaries, but how necessary is it?