Today's Challenge: Find a solitary place, and slowly, quietly, count to 1,000. Without distraction. Without drifting.
I smiled when I read this challenge. For most people, it's a challenge to find a time and space where they won't be interrupted. For me, that's not an issue since I live by myself. Counting to 1,000 isn't hard. But, my desire to take on this challenge was zero. I thought I could skip this one. I tried to justify to myself that I spend plenty of time by myself. But, I didn't want to "break the chain," as Jerry Seinfeld would say. I wanted to stay consistent with the larger goal of completing every challenge.
Counting to two hundred was pretty easy. As I approached three hundred, my mind started to wander. I intentionally had to keep focused. "Keep counting. Keep focused." I told myself.
Four hundred. I sighed. Could I maybe quit at five hundred and call it a day? I was a little antsy. No, I wasn't going to quit. Five hundred. Quickly I reminded myself, "No celebrations. Keep counting. You're only halfway there." I visualized the numbers flipping like an old alarm clock that I had as a kid. The number 1,000 seemed far away. I couldn't multi-task and think about other things while counting. I had to focus. That was the point of this challenge.
600, 700, 800. "I'm almost there! I've almost completed this challenge. Oops! You lost your focus and stumbled on some numbers. Focus!"
997, 998, 999, 1000!
It was a deceptively, simple challenge. Those seventeen minutes of counting ended up being a little harder than I expected. It was hard to stay present, to stay on task, and to keep a steady rhythm and pace.
Most people have minds that are easily pulled in many directions. We are easily distracted by the noise of the world, demanding our immediate attention. And we are foolish to believe that we can multi-task.
There is value with this type of exercise. To strengthen our minds, we need to practice quieting the mind, seek to be in the present, and cultivate stillness. Cal Newport, in his book, Deep Work, discusses the benefits of focusing intensely without distractions to learn hard things quickly. Deep work pushes our cognitive capabilities to their limits. Batching hard but essential work into long uninterrupted stretches is key to high productivity. The implication for school leaders goes without saying.
There are other books, of course, that I've enjoyed reading about focusing and building mental toughness. All share a universal message. We can train our minds to focus, think deeply, and be still. It's a skill set to learn with consistent, deliberate practice.
Today's Stoic challenge was to take a 30-second cold plunge: commit to a half-minute of discomfort, and come out on the other side of it as a stronger person. Taking a cold plunge for health benefits dates back centuries to the ancient Greeks, Romans, and even the Egyptians. Every year in the US and around the world, communities support polar plunges for charity. But this challenge wasn't about the health benefits.
The challenge was about doing something hard and showing yourself that you're tough enough to handle any problem thrown at you. This kind of shock not only gets your blood flowing, but it also strengthens you.
I was excited to take on a challenge. I was NOT excited about taking a freezing cold shower! As a person that is often cold, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to warm back up after the frigid plunge. It's that "inner cold" that I was afraid of experiencing. However, the challenge was for 30 seconds. Thirty seconds? Anyone can take on a challenge for thirty seconds- including me! And, so I took my standard shower, knowing that I'd eventually have to leave the comforts of warm water.
The time came. Thoughts of dread flooded my mind as I turned the showerhead away from me, adjusted the water temperature to cold, gave myself a mental pep talk, and counted down 3...2...1!
I wanted to scream! Dancing around in a cold shower gasping for air was not my idea of fun! I definitely felt awake! My whole body was tingling. 12..13...14 seconds. Oh, my gosh! What was I doing? "I can do this," I told myself. I was not going to quit, not now, not ever. 28...29...30! I did it! Wahoo!
The "fear" of what the experience would be like was much worse than the actual experience. It was cold! Thirty seconds lasted forever, and yet it ended pretty quickly. It's incredible how a thirty-second experience can pump you up mentally and physically to tackle the challenges of the day. I think that was the whole point.
Ryan Holiday wrote in today's challenge:
All these fears we have, all these things we play up in our minds that cause us to tremble—like the cold plunge—we quickly realize,that wasn’t so bad. “We suffer more in imagination than in reality,” Seneca said. He understood that the cold plunge makes this observation so much more tangible, so much more real. The point of exposing ourselves to discomfort like this is not self-flagellation, or to prove something to others. In Stoicism, we do these exercises to inure ourselves to difficulty, so that when life threatens us with involuntary inconveniences or forces us into scary situations, we have no hesitation in facing them down. We can simply do what needs to be done. Because we know we can take it. And we should do it today, while the year is young. “It is precisely in times of immunity from care,” Seneca said, “that the soul should toughen itself beforehand for occasions of greater stress.”
Most of us live in fear of inconvenience, of even the slightest physical discomfort. And when we are matched against something unfamiliar, uncomfortable, uncertain, we panic, we meltdown, we get frustrated and angry. The whole point of this shower is shock and disquietude—to teach the body and the mind an important lesson about what life is really like and who is in charge. You are training the mind to lead the body, not the other way around.
When you practice pushing yourself to (and through) the point of discomfort, you grow mentally stronger, you begin to build resiliency. Everyday annoyances begin to feel less disruptive. They less frequently threaten your ability to remain in control. That’s what it means to be a Stoic: controlling the things you can control, not letting menial external inconveniences derail you.
This morning and this evening, I was very intentional to "watch" the sunrise and sunset. (It snowed today. Although I have the pleasure of seeing many fantastical sunrises and sunsets, today was not one of those days.) But, I wanted to mark the dawn of a new day and a new decade both physically and symbolically.
Observing the cycle of another day symbolizes the renewal and rejuvenation process that is so important as we reflect and ponder our personal progress. It's far too easy to let one day blend into the next or even one decade into the next decade. Time can seem to blur when we are not intentional about our progress. We take it for granted that we will always have another tomorrow. And that is a mistake.
Marcus Aurelius wrote that "You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think."
"Memento Mori" is a Latin phrase which translates to "remember that you will die." It's an ancient philosophical concept that dates back to the age of Socrates. It is not about being depressed and thinking about your mortality all of the time. It's more about treating life as a gift and thinking of time as being a precious resource. We should live our lives with purpose and meaning.
"Let us prepare our minds as if we'd come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life's books each day...The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time." --Seneca
In the stillness and dark of the early morning, I reflected on both my personal and professional journeys.
I chose GROWTH for my one word as the year 2016 began. I blogged about it here.
The video about watering the Chinese Bamboo was inspiring then and still is today. I certainly feel like I've been "watering the bamboo" for the last five years.
Although I've grown personally and professionally in many ways, I am mindful of how much more I need to grow and learn. In many respects, I still feel like a novice. I am trying to improve my skills and character every day. Some days I feel more successful than others. However, I keep picking myself up and keep going despite the challenges that come my way. I feel stronger and more prepared for the future than I have in a long time. That's a great feeling to have as we start another day and a new decade.
Background:I’m an instructional coach at a Title I elementary school. I love what I do! However, sometimes, I miss being in my own classroom. When the opportunity to work with the same group of kids every day presented itself, I jumped at it. The 5th-grade classes are large at our school. Many of the kids are struggling in math. To reduce the class size and give more individual attention to the kids, about 7-8 kids from each of the other classes formed our fourth class. For about an hour a day, I'm teaching those kids math. Most of the kids in my class are ELLs who often wear the “low” or “bubble kid” label. In truth, they don’t deserve to be labeled. They need a learning environment that will support their unique needs. (Topic for a different blog post.)
In the perfect world, I’d be teaching social studies (American History) or science instead of math, but I’m so excited that the content doesn’t matter. I know that being in “my own classroom” for a little over an hour a day will make me a better coach. Since 5th-grade math is mostly during everyone else’s lunch block, I’ll still have time to do what I usually do.
Anticipation. Every educator can relate to having those first-day jitters when school starts. It was no different for me except for the fact that it was the middle of November. Introductions, setting expectations, and teaching procedures were in the past for other students and teachers. But I had a new group of kids. I still had to do all of those beginning of the year tasks like making name tags, notebooks, etc. I still had to think through the procedures that I’d teach the kids. The actual physical space would not be my classroom. I had to think about how to be somewhat mobile. Planning and problem-solving heightened the anticipation of teaching every day. I was excited!
Tuesday morning, I made sure that I had everything ready for a fabulous math lesson. I had overplanned. Atypical of what teachers can usually do, I’d spent a good three hours (possibly more) preparing for one lesson. I recorded two parts for the flipped lesson, intentionally augmenting the lesson with vocabulary instruction. (The recordings weren’t perfect, but I had given up on making perfect recordings a long time ago.) I set up various accounts, printed off log in cards, and had class codes waiting. I checked and re-checked everything “techy” so that the lesson could flow, and I’d even double-checked to make sure that everything was accessible at school.
In addition to building a blended learning classroom environment, I had visions of children not only learning math but also learning language skills. I had a great picture book that tied in with the math concept, vocabulary cards, and plenty of visuals to help kids understand. I most likely wouldn't have time to read the story on day one, but it'd be available.
Furthermore, I wanted to track daily data in MasteryConnect. I made sure that I had a tracker set up and assessments ready to go. Formative assessments can also be the fun stuff, and so I created some games in Gimkit, Quizziz, and Quizalize. Kids were familiar with Kahoot, but I didn’t think that they’d be as familiar with these other classroom games.
Above all, I wanted to build stronger relationships with the kids. Luckily for me, I knew most of them. But, I still felt like it was essential to take time to build community. This group, after all, was a new class for them as well. I wanted them to know that I cared about them, their learning, and their progress. Building classroom culture and positive relationships are vital.
The bell rang and the kids came piling into the portable. After a few introductions and a tour of their new math class, we got ready to dig into the learning. I wanted to pre-assess their knowledge of fractions in a fun way by playing a game on Gimkit. Glitch Number 1: No Airplay, and even with hard wiring, I couldn’t get the projector and my computer to play nicely. My heart sank because it pretty much ruined the whole lesson that I’d worked so hard to prepare. There I was with twenty-two kids staring at me wondering if they'd like this math class with me as their teacher. I gave up on the projector and tried the next activity. But the next thing didn't work either! I could have cried but laughed instead. That got the kids laughing. We tried the next thing. Once again, it didn't work! I still don’t understand why, but everything “techy” failed. Kids had trouble logging in to one site. On another website, the interface looked different for some students. It caused some confusion for me as well as the kids. Students (and even adults) are patient with tech issues for a few minutes, but too much dead time invites misbehavior. I had to navigate between tolerating some of the tech “chaos," holding high expectations for behavior, and teaching kids how to troubleshoot.
Life and lessons go on. I always have Plan B, C, and D. Teachers become adept at thinking quickly on their feet. I had to keep the “lesson” moving forward. Luckily, I had my trusted mini-containers of Play-dough. A great go-to activity is to have students create something that represents them. Creating with Play-dough was not math, but it did give me time to walk around the classroom and talk with each of the kids about their interests. However, I failed to provide explicit guidelines. So when it came time to share, one student had morphed his Play-dough sculpture into a pile of poo to share with the class. Yes, he got attention and lots of giggles. Do you know the emoji that has the little avatar smacking her face? That’s how I felt. Sharing time ended up not being all rainbows and unicorns. Another girl shared something about her uncle and started to sob because he had recently passed away. After consoling her, another student shared about the death of his pet hamster. And so it went- with each student sharing a little bit about their life. The insights that I gained are invaluable. It wasn't math, but we did come to know each other a little bit better.
The "math lesson" was a complete failure! I forgot to write the objectives on the board. I’m even pretty sure that I forgot to mention them because I was too distracted by not being able to project my computer screen. There was plenty of talking but not the structured think on your own, share with a partner, share with a small group, discuss as a whole class format that so nicely scaffolds and engages learners. There were no DOK questions, no hands-on learning with math manipulatives, and there was no data to add to my tracker. Differentiation didn’t exist, and students didn’t collaborate or do any of the other C’s. There were no Hattie’s highly impactful strategies embedded in the day’s lesson. The super teacher cape was not tied around my neck and blowing in the wind. I’m a whole day behind and “somehow” I’ll have to catch up so that I can give the unit test on the same day as everyone else. This lesson failed, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort.
Despite all that went wrong, I left the classroom laughing! How could so many things go wrong for one lesson? Honestly, I wish that I’d had a video camera recording everything that happened! (But I’d add in confessional video snippets from the kids and me into the episode.) It’d be hilarious!
Sometimes, we get so wound up in all of the “gotta do's” that we forget that we’re human, that we all make mistakes, that tech doesn’t always work (even for the techiest of people), and that learning is a journey and that we should celebrate the joy of getting to work with or for kids every day.
It’s true that on the technical side of this lesson, it failed miserably. But, it wasn’t a complete failure, and I’m not a failure. I learned some things about my kids, and I learned some things about myself. It's so important to maintain a positive attitude and for kids (and other teachers) to see us fail once in a while. We share and see the highlight reel of ourselves and others. Maybe we should share and see the outtakes more often.
There is a lot of shame, embarrassment, and regret when you're expected to perform at a high level and you......crash! Not only do you crash and burn but you wonder if you can ever fully recover from such a devasting fall in a competitive world of one-time chances and opportunities.
I felt prepared. I had done my homework and had even practiced. And yet when I walked into the room and faced my esteemed colleagues, a feeling of "You're not worthy of being here" washed over me. The voice in my head screamed negative self-talk. "You're not qualified to be here!" "What makes you think you could actually do this kind of job?" "You're not a person who can lead and inspire others." "You can't do this!" "You don't belong here." It was almost an out of body experience as I watched myself spin down a funnel of failure.
I don't remember the words that spewed out of my mouth. That most likely wasn't the worst part of the interview. It was more about how I presented myself- lacking confidence and unprepared. There was no logical reason why. Unfortunately, I wasn't in a very healthy place. It took that crash and burn experience to wake me up and admit that I was fighting burnout. But, recovery doesn't always come quickly. It takes time, reflection, and grace.
Prior to this nightmarish (at least in my head) experience, I had just come out on the other side of some family trauma. My mom had nearly passed away and was still in recovery. (I am the only daughter and the eldest sibling. Much of the responsibility of taking care of her fell on my shoulders.) I was finishing up my schooling for an administrative license and teaching full time. I was exhausted! My cup was empty and yet I was in complete denial. Teachers like me do not experience burnout! Of course, we know that's a myth. But it's the story that I told myself as I continued to burn the oil at both ends of the day. I knew that I was not taking care of myself and that it was taking its toll on me. But I kept depriving myself of sleep, exercise, and healthy eating.
Luckily for me, an opportunity of moving to a different school and of working with one of the most respected principals in the district came my way. I was excited! Despite being a little depressed about not getting an administrative position, I looked at this opportunity as a chance to really learn from one of the best. My resume and reputation spoke for me. I didn't even have to interview and was hired on the spot. My ego told me that my new principal was excited to have someone like me join his staff. The expectations were high. The expectations for myself were even higher! But remember, I still wasn't in a healthy place. And so although I really fought to be myself- the high energetic PIRATE kind of teacher that kids loved, at least in my mind, I failed miserably! I had my moments. But I was crying inside and the GUILT of not living up to my own expectations was almost more than I could bear. I needed to prove myself and had absolutely no energy to do what I would normally do as a teacher. I felt paralyzed! The opportunity to have a principal of such high caliber vouch for me was slipping away and I felt unable to do anything about it. Other outstanding administrative candidates in the school had his attention and I felt that I just couldn't measure up. This was the story that I told myself.
Fast forward another year, another school and the position of being an instructional coach and things have drastically changed for me. I feel healthier than I've been for a long time! I'm happy and really excited about the work that I'm doing. I'm genuinely grateful for not being an administrator quite yet. I have a real purpose and mission to complete. The need here is so great! This is the perfect time for me to learn more about working with and inspiring adults to be their best selves. I'm learning to be a better communicator, listener, and to ask better questions. This time is so valuable to me. How many aspiring school leaders actually have the chance to focus only on being an instructional leader? I know that I have talents that I can tap into to serve others- especially with so many new teachers in our school. I'm grateful for this opportunity to learn more when the stakes are not so high.
This year will be a test for me. Can I really be a leader that I hope to be?
Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the office of First Lady as well as how many people viewed the role of women in public life. She was an outspoken public figure, author, and champion for human rights. Through her life’s work, she continues to inspire people from all backgrounds to strive for the greatness within us all. No one would describe Eleanor Roosevelt as an apathetic, meek, or weak leader. Nor would anyone describe Abraham Lincoln, John Wooden, Rosa Parks, or Mahatma Gandhi similarly. They did, however, have a quieter, introverted disposition. Furthermore, they would be in great company! These leaders, and others like them, succeeded because of their quieter temperament, not despite it.
Quiet confidence is not an oxymoron. Confidence does not need to be loud. It doesn’t need to be the center of attention and take all of the credit for success. Those characteristics stem from insecurity. Real confidence comes from self-trust. Self-trust is the embodiment of living your values, as evidenced by your actions. It’s “practicing what you preach” and “walking the talk.” People gain self-trust and real confidence by developing their skills and healing past wounds. Self-trust empowers people to be vulnerable, courageous, authentic, and to listen to their intuition. This quiet confidence is the foundation for success. Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking said, “These leaders embody the strengths identified by the research of today’s top leadership experts who have found that when introverts draw on their natural strengths as leaders, they often deliver better outcomes than extroverts.”
According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, these leaders “are often quiet and unassuming but win the dedication of others through their own hard work, strong principles, and inspiring ideas.” In other words, they lead by example. Quiet leadership comes from a position of strength, not weakness, and it serves as a counterweight to the loud voices competing for attention, power, and position.
Quiet leadership enables the leader to listen actively and empower others. These leaders are secure enough not to be the loudest voice in the room. They see value in giving others a voice and letting their talents and skills shine through. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.
How can quieter leaders use their strengths to make a difference?
Be accessible. People appreciate the fact that you are visible and approachable. It makes it easier to ask a quick question or to share an idea.
1:1 relationships are important. Nourish them by showing appreciation. A quick personal note or conversation can make a difference.
Both Adam Grant and Jim Collins have found that introverts are more likely to allow proactive employees to run with their ideas. Encourage innovation.
Dig into the work with colleagues. Lead by example and always be willing to do whatever you require others to do.
Make good decisions with courage and conviction.
Share your vision, talent, and experience. Encourage everyone to learn and grow together.
Use your energy strategically so that you can step out of your comfort zone when you need to.
Admit your mistakes. Apologize for lapses in judgement.
Focus
Value collaboration.
Tap into your natural ability to show empathy.
Listen
Express gratitude
Always stay a learner.
During the last five years, in particular, my leadership journey has led me to a place of self-discovery, reflection, and learning. As I’ve learned more about myself as a leader, my competence, confidence, and self-trust have also grown exponentially. Experience has also been a great teacher, and I’ve been extremely fortunate to be in a position where I’ve been able to learn about school leadership when the stakes are low. I’ve always been highly confident as a teacher, but I wasn’t quite so comfortable taking on a formal school leadership role. Now, that has completely changed! I still have a lot to learn, but I’m confident that when the time is right, I can genuinely make a difference on a larger scale. It’s uncomfortable for me to tout my own accomplishments, talents, and abilities. But, I am a leader. I have a quiet confidence in myself, and I’m driven by a deeper purpose and mission to fulfill.
And I'm super excited about the release of Tamara Letter's book, A Passion for Kindness! (Published by Dave and Shelley Burgess) Tamara walks the talk and has been promoting kindness for a long time. February is the perfect time of the year to focus a little more on being kind.
Although I'm not writing a blog post of my own, I'm happy to share the blog posts and books of the edurockstars in my PLN. They have great advice and hints for beating the wintertime blues.
Perhaps it was the way in which "data-driven instruction, PLCs, assessment analysis, etc." was introduced to me a decade ago along with the resulting climate of more "testing and accountability" that left me uninspired and unmotivated to see the value of having discussions about data. At the time, I was teaching 6th grade with a powerhouse team of teachers. One day we were told, "You're now required to have a PLC meeting to talk about testing data." That was it! There were no explanations or answering of questions, no modeling, no inspiring message about the WHY, no higher purpose set or vision cast. I remember us looking at each other and asking, "What does PLC even mean? What are we supposed to do with the data that we're not already doing?" Luckily, one of our team members had her MBA degree and was skilled in reading and interpreting data. And so we half-heartedly looked at the student math test scores and did our best to be compliant. We had no direction, no real purpose, and honestly didn't understand why another mandatory meeting was needed since we already had daily conversations about our students and their academic progress. I attribute our confusion to poor school leadership and my lack of understanding because I'd become somewhat complacent in my own professional development.
Fast forward nearly a decade and that four-letter word, data, has a whole new significance to me. Data (and the vocabulary associated with it) is not my enemy, a gotcha, a cold prickly or something I dread. It's not anything new. Teachers have always had plenty of data! The shift for me was a mindset and a focus. I had to change from using data primarily for grades to using data to improve my practice and student learning.
Word choice conjures up emotional responses to educational jargon. Some call it simple semantics. I think it makes a difference. At least in my head, data-driven, seems a little harsh and impersonal. It's another word like rigor that is loaded. I prefer thinking of data as information. Specifically, data is information that helps the teacher guide the student. It may be a test or quiz score, but it doesn't have to be. It easily could be anecdotal notes about a conference, a picture of student work, an exit ticket, or observations about student behavior. Data is the information, the evidence, that tells a story.
When we look at data, ask questions, and take action based on the results of the data, data becomes meaningful and personal. Instead of a focus on numbers only, we can bring into line our attention on the children. We can consider the social-emotional factors that may be supporting or impeding academic performance. We can tap into our professional judgement and expertise. Numbers are indeed part of the discussion, but we also recognize that as Einstein said, "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." As we look at the evidence before us, our driving question is simple: are our students learning?
An in-depth discussion of data, assessment, research, analysis, culture, etc. is beyond the scope of a simple blog post. There are hundreds of books, webinars, podcasts, Twitter chats, courses, blog posts and other resources for educators to use for their learning. The purpose of this post is to share a few thoughts about data that I've learned on my journey that will hopefully answer the questions that my colleagues have asked me. I am NOT an expert! I'm still learning and growing. My thoughts seem to shift and change just a little as I learn more. However, I'm happy to share where I am now in my thinking.
Be Inquisitive-"When in doubt, observe and ask questions. When certain, observe at length and ask many more questions." George S. Patton Jr.
There are undoubtedly formal ways of doing "Action Research" in the classroom. However, I think teachers who are passionate learners, who intentionally seek ways to improve their practice, are implementing action research all of the time. In simple terms, teachers start with a question. For example, one year I asked, "I wonder how student understanding/mastery would be affected if I used the Math Reps EduProtocol and focused only on a few standards?" I made a simple plan, implemented my ideas, collected data, reflected on the evidence, tweaked, and kept going. The more success I saw, the more motivated I was to keep going! Data was my friend! My students became more confident in math and the energy in the classroom was palpable. There were many positives- some were measurable, and some were not. Perhaps the largest gain was the fact that my students realized that they could learn and do hard things and that we (our class community) were going to do whatever it took to make sure that everyone understood those "big rocks!" If we could all learn those, then we could continue and learn and master a few more standards.
The data, those green squares, challenged and inspired me. I kept asking myself questions about how to tweak my instruction to reach those kids who were failing to understand. I had to be creative. I sought the advice of other educators. It was hard work! I had to ask a lot of 'Why' questions. Honestly, at times, those questions changed to "Why? Why? Why?" as I pulled out my hair in frustration! Was I able to help every student achieve mastery of those standards before the benchmark test? No. But the process was enlightening, and I'd recommend it to any educator seeking to present material in a way that ensures that all students learn and move forward.
Use Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Instruction- Have you heard of the poem, Melinda Mae, by Shel Silverstein? She ate a monstrous whale one bite at a time.
Using evidence of student learning to improve instruction is the "whale" in my opinion. This is the hard work of a PLC.
Data tells a story. Sometimes the story is not all rainbows and unicorns. It's hard to hear. It's easy to place blame or make excuses. There is a danger in attributing students' difficulties to the students themselves. Rather than listing all of the deficits of the students, educators need to address what they can do collectively to improve professional practice. We need to ask each other questions. Why do you think this strategy worked/didn't work? What strategy might help these kids understand the concept better? We shouldn't teach in isolation. We should be ceaselessly collaborative, welcoming the scrutiny of other colleagues as we all learn about how students learn best.
Effective PLCs are about conversations that matter, collective commitments, accountability, taking action, and a dedication to continuous improvement. They require trust and respect for our colleagues. Educators must be vulnerable and have a willingness to take risks, be open-minded, and courageous enough to step out of their comfort zones. Teachers are more likely to engage in the PLC process if there's strong school leadership. Leaders must cast a vision, set the course, build a school culture of trust, and walk the talk.
Use Technology As A Tool-
Technology has been a huge part of my journey in using data to improve my practice and student learning. I could write a whole book about how technology transformed my classroom. I continue to be fascinated by how teachers have so much real-time data available to them during instruction and can adjust a lesson in the moment to better meet student needs. It's equally fascinating how easy it is to visually see through any number of graphs, charts, and diagrams where understanding is breaking down and which students need remediation, which students are approaching mastery, and those who need their learning extended. Almost every web tool that I know of includes analytics or are working towards that end. It's an exciting time for educators who embrace technology in the classroom!
Start With The End In Mind- Students can hit any target they can see and which stands still for them. Rick Stiggins You can't talk about data without discussing assessment. Begin by asking yourself what mastery looks like. What is understanding? Learning more about assessment is a whole journey of its own. I've had to unlearn and relearn much of what I thought was good practice. (I'm still learning!) How many educators are still planning units like, "I have to teach a unit about _____. What activities can I do in this unit?" A quick Google search displays Pinterest boards and resources to purchase on TPT for the busy teacher. I use these resources too and the allure of cuteness is sometimes overpowering. (That's a topic for another post.) Instead, we should be thinking, "These are the things that my students must learn and here's where they are already (based on data). What experiences do I need to provide for them to master the material?" The summative assessment is designed first. The pre-assessment is based on the summative evaluation and assesses students' readiness for content and to guide instructional decisions. Formative assessments are done frequently and provide ongoing feedback. They are the checkpoints. All three types of assessments offer valuable data for the teacher to use.
Let Data Inspire Action-
Most teachers enter the profession because of a desire to make a difference in the lives of young people. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They want to share their passion for learning with their students. There is incredible joy and a sense of fulfillment when our students succeed.
Data can be a teacher's best ally by providing valuable insights into a student's learning journey. As a teacher differentiates learning for her students, data can guide instructional decisions. A teacher can monitor progress and facilitate learning by choosing the strategies which potentially will have the greatest impact. Perhaps of even more significance, teachers learning together can use data to support one another and build collective efficacy. We're in this together. Teachers need to believe that they can make a difference in the lives of their students. Hope and optimism are contagious!
Keep Learning-
We're all on a journey. We may be at different points along the road, but we all get better when we learn together. My "data journey" is comprised of many shifts in thinking over time. I cringe a little when I think about where I was a decade ago. Moreover, I'm proud of all that I've learned so far. I have "many miles to go before I sleep." Alvin Toffler said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." A lot has changed since I began teaching. One thing has remained constant- my love for kids! They deserve my best! If data can help me become better at what I do, then I have no choice but to embrace and use it.
