Letter from a Teacher - Need for Transparency

Good Morning Editor,

Excellent article in Sunday's paper by Sharon Noguchi on problem teachers.

I'm a "second career" teacher after having served as a Navy pilot, currently teaching 4th grade in Los Altos.  Teaching has been a tough job but presents a lot fewer risks than landing on a pitching / rolling deck at night in the middle of the ocean.

I've always been of the opinion that my classroom is open.  The principal or parents are welcome anytime - they never need an appointment.  There is nothing I do in my classroom that is ever "hidden" from public view.  Want to learn about H.A.W. Tabor and Chicken Bill?  How about Charles C. Fremont and how his ranch was stolen but it resulted in his becoming California's first Senator and stupendously rich?  How about the fact that the only reason we're not part of Mexico today is that John Sutter and James Marshall kept their mouths shut until the Treaty of Gualalupe Hidalgo was signed?  Come on down.

We learn multiplication but in such a way that we're given the "Keys to Quadratic Factorization."  We study art but also use it to write stories about going fishing with Winslow Homer or trekking with Hieronymus Bosch.  If we use a video it's never more than 8 to 10 minutes and ties directly into the lesson we're teaching.

What I do is public.  I'm standing in front of 20 to 30 people (4th graders though they may be) and presenting materials, guiding activities, helping them learn to work together, maintaining classroom discipline (mostly), and hopefully inspiring students.  

The last thing I teach is the most important - inspiring.  What did you learn the most about?  It's something you WANTED to learn about.  Inspire a student and then get out of their way.  They'll learn more than you could ever teach them, all on their own.

I consider that duty my most important.  Every single human has a specialty.  As a teacher it's my job to help them find it and point them in the right direction.  

The rest of teaching is an overview of data - learning something about many things and, most important, learning how to "go and find out."  The motto of our classroom comes from Rudyard Kipling's story, Rikki Tikki Tavi.  "The motto of the mongoose is 'Go and Find Out.'"   That's the motto of Room 9 at Gardner Bullis School, where I am very proud to help young men and women learn a little more about the world and how they fit into it.

ciao and best

jim

James Thurber 

4th Grade - Room 9

Gardner Bullis School

Los Altos School District

Do you need a coach or a consultant?

Do you need a coach or a consultant? 

A good question – one we like to ask and help clients answer often because there are distinct differences and justifiable needs for both.  The key is in knowing the difference and assessing your needs as an organization.

A simple way of distinguishing between the two is to think of a consultant as a way of adding staff capacity and a coach as building staff capacity.  Here’s how it looks:

Many organizations need a task completed for which they lack adequate staffing.  This could be a numbers game (everyone’s busy) or a capacity issue (nobody knows how to do this).  Often it’s in the best interest of everyone to bring in an expert to complete the task and hand it off, particularly if the expertise needed is likely to be sporadic or very specialized – such as strategic planning.  This calls for a consultant: someone who comes in from the outside to do internal work, temporarily adding staff capacity….and then departing.

A coach, however, is called for when there are ongoing needs within an organization, yet the skills are not present within current personnel. This is where an organization would be better served to build the capacity of existing staff so that they are able to take on the task into the future.  This might be a completely new area (such as a new approach to literacy or numeracy that calls for an instructional coach), fine-tuning practice as might be the case with a leadership coach, or preparing and implementing a major change initiative where there is anticipated resistance.  For more thoughts on who needs to be coached, see our web site post, “Oh to be Coached!”

We see very few schools and districts that would not benefit from additional support.  The trick is to make sure it’s a good match for the task at hand.  Coaches teach you to do the work.  Consultants do the work for you.  It’s as simple as that.

From Abeo Partner, Harriette Thurber Rasmussen

Online Teacher Professional Development – What do we do?

At the iNACOL conference this last fall, I encountered many professionals asking the same question. “What does Professional Development for online teachers look like?” Many sessions addressed the topic, but most of it was around processes that were in place to train and evaluate teachers. These were great sessions and highlighted many ways to create effective systems, but many participants were disappointed. They wanted to see content. What were teachers being trained in? What do online teachers do when they participate in professional development? Great questions all. They were looking for modules to take back to their schools and districts. iNACOL recently put out a report around professional development and it too gives great indications of what online teachers need. Since we lack a plethora of content to distribute, we need to think about ways to create an effective professional development program for online teachers. As a teacher and teacher trainer in the online education world, here are some important steps I believe one must take in order to create an effective professional development.

1)      Identify what good online teachers do – Take time with teachers to identify and discuss with them what online teachers do. You will hear comments like “They are in constant contact with their teachers,” or “They give useful feedback in a timely matter.”  You will end up with many topics to cover.

2)      Identify critical components of the school framework – Schools have a vision, and this vision is articulated in its framework which includes, of course, structures and curriculum. Perhaps your school has an iRTI structure. Perhaps you focus on PBL. Perhaps you focus on competency –based pathways. Regardless, teachers will need coaching in these areas of the school framework.

3)      Analyze what teachers need – Through both feedback from teachers and things noticed while “walking the halls,” identify what teachers need to know. There is no use in covering everything, and frankly, there is not enough time. You may find that only some teachers need a certain topic, while other content will need to be pushed out to all teachers.

4)      Create modules or trainings based on each of these needs – Use a competency-based pathway model to create modules based on needs the teachers.  Some of these modules will call for synchronous and asynchronous learning. On a side note, ensure that if a PD session is synchronous, keep it sacred. Don’t crowd it with logistics, announcements or other pieces that might distract from focused, deep learning.

5)      Show teachers what it “looks like.” – Teachers, like students, need specific models and examples. If they need help with effective communication with students, play them a recording of a model phone call. Have teachers look at a model welcome email. Show them paragraphs of ideal feedback for student work. Again, examples and models speak volumes.

6)      Continue to monitor and set goals with teachers – Be authentic and transparent with teachers with the quality indicators for evaluation. Don’t do “drive by” evaluations, but instead, create a culture of continuous feedback and improvement.  Partner with teachers to set goals and improve.

While all of these pieces may seem obvious to many, I see many professionals skip to step 4. Professional development should come from authentic needs and quality characteristics of online teachers. This is just a starting point in the conversation around professional development for online teachers. A major next step in this world of professional for online teacher is to create open source training resources. Although there will specific components unique to individual schools that teachers must be trained and coached in, there are some common pieces all teachers will need in the future. 

From Andrew Miller, Abeo New Media Innovations

Who is sponsoring the change you want to see?

In any change initiative, there are distinct roles to be played. In education, the ones we pay attention to the most are the roles of sponsor and agent.  Who are these folks, what are their roles, and why do they matter? 

A quick primer:  A sponsor is an individual who has authority over those responsible for implementation – line authority to be exact.  In schools this is often the principal but it could be someone several rungs above the principal, such as the principal’s supervisor, or the superintendent.   An agent is someone whose job it is to support the change. This could be an internal position (such as a staff developer) or external support (such as a school improvement coach).  You’ll know you’re an agent if you have the responsibility to make something happen without the authority to mandate it.

Why do we pay so much attention to these roles when we know that sustainability requires broad-based ownership and that top-down mandates generally fail?  We’ve found that oftentimes change initiatives need a jump-start (“just try this”) and that successful implementation is then dependent upon an ability to focus.  Permission to choose one activity over another comes from a sponsor, someone in authority such as a supervisor.  Much of our education system is organized in ways that separate sponsors and agents so that those supporting the work are unable to either require it or allow it.  At the building level this might be an instructional coach who may (or may not) report to the principal but does not supervise those he or she is coaching.  Another prevalent example is the way in which most central offices are structured, with a curriculum department (often incorporating professional development) that does not include those able to call the shots on use of time or who supervises those that do (such as the principal or principal supervisor). We call this phenomena responsibility without authority. And when we point this out in coaching venues (most often with agents), we see huge ah-ha’s and recognition of what’s missing in their efforts.

This reality simply means attention to roles so that necessary sponsorship takes place.  For those in positions of authority, be certain that you are visibly supporting the work.  Make it a public priority.  Be present at high leverage events, if only to kick off and affirm the work underway. Make it a public priority.  By doing so you will give those responsible for actual implementation permission to focus and a little nudge that this is important.  If you are in an agent’s role, you’ll need to be strategic in how you make sure the work is sponsored.  An agent operates through influence and relationships; he or she must determine which are the most important relationships to cultivate if the work is to be adequately sponsored.  Sometimes an agent’s responsibility is not a priority of those needed for sponsorship and the agent will need to become the sponsor’s new “best friend.”   In rare cases, it may be necessary to carefully move up the ladder of authority for adequate sponsorship.  Delicate? Yes, but we can almost guarantee an initiative will fail without sponsorship.

Known as organizational alignment, establishing roles in any change or improvement effort is essential.  So if implementation is not going as expected, one of the first questions we would ask is, “Who is sponsoring the change you want to see?”

Abeo Partner Harriette Thurber-Rasmussen - Abeo Partner

Hiring Instructional Coaches: Getting the “Right” People on the Bus

In the classic book Good to Great Jim Collins says, "...to build a successful organization and team you must get the right people on the bus."  His focus is to get the right people in the right seats.  Most of us would agree that one of the shifts that need to happen in education is stronger support of teachers’ professional growth.  If good things are happening in the classroom, many of our plaguing problems such as lack of engagement and discipline fade or disappear.  This thinking has prompted many districts to build in regular collaborative time and hire instructional coaches to provide professional development.  All good moves! 

Now that you have allocated time for improvement, do you have the instructional coach who can actually lead that work?  Often, my experience is that coaches move up through the ranks of teaching and land in the position with little or no training.  Though many coaching skills can be developed over time, some entry capacities and dispositions should already be in place.  This is where a hiring framework can be helpful.  It is critical that district leaders know what they are looking for in a good instructional coach.  When you get the “wrong person on the bus” then you have an eager, good individual leading others down the wrong path.  The results can be devastating.  Teachers get confused, disillusioned and start slamming their doors shut!

Our Instructional Coaching Framework helps leaders sort out what beliefs, dispositions and capacities must be present in a candidate and which of those things can be learned. 

First and foremost, a good coach must be a good teacher.  The only way to know for sure is to actually watch a candidate teach!  I would only hire a coach after watching him facilitate an adult learning session where he models strong instructional practices.  In addition, I’d watch him teach students.  Being a powerful instructor is essential to good coaching.  A coach has to be able to “walk his talk” in multiple settings.

Equally important is the belief system a coach brings to the job.  District leaders must ensure that a new coach fully embraces the district’s vision.  Furthermore, you will want to know a coach’s beliefs about learning.  For example, do they believe all kids can learn at high levels?  Do they believe that each and every student should be prepared for college?  How do they think people learn best?  I once watched a coach unintentionally undermined much of the district’s goals by coaching for inequitable practices, curriculum and design principles in a school.  The result was painful for the coach and her leaders.  The interview questions must bring beliefs about learning to the forefront.    

Another entry capacity is a coach’s ability to connect and communicate well with adults.  More importantly, he must have a knack for helping teachers build relationships with each other.  Some of this capacity naturally emerges as you watch small group facilitation.  I also like to see how a coach might provide written feedback to a teacher’s lesson plan or idea as well.  A humble, reflective partner is what you are looking for—not someone to come in and “fix” another teacher.  A “deficit based” disposition doesn’t work very well in coaching.    

Finally, a coach must be nimble enough to weave in and out of roles such as model teaching, facilitating discussions and offering resources.  Coaches wear many hats and juggling those roles with intention takes a special person with a fairly thick skin.  Again, you don’t have to have every skill in place, but certain entry capacities and dispositions are essential to good coaching.  Our framework offers leaders specific guidelines for hiring coaches and interesting ways to see them in action.  If coaching is one of your key initiatives for improvement, then you want to get the right people on the bus!

Katy Karschney is a partner with Abeo School Change. 

Abeo Professional Development Tool - Inquiry Circles

Inquiry is "buzz" word education, and thrown around often, but this it not because of bad intent. We really do want our students to engage in inquiry, but what does it look like? More importantly, how do we get educators to internalize the process. One of the best tools that teachers can use to not only internalize inquiry, but also DO inquiry on topics of their choice is the Inquiry Circle.


The Inquiry Circle replaces the "book club" or "book study" model with a more authentic and inquiry modeled process so there is voice and choice for teachers in terms of learning targets, but also a better understanding of inquiry. It is modeled after the PBL process as well. Here are the steps for an inquiry circle:


1) Craft a Driving Question: This question can either be created by administrators, or co-created with faculty and staff. Perhaps it is something like: "How do we make culturally responsive curriculum?" or "How do we create tasks in the classroom that truly make students college and career ready?" You can even have groups create their own questions and jigsaw the faculty and staff appropriately.


2) Entry Event: Engage participants in a intriguing video, provocative reading or similar. It can help to frame the future exploration and get participants excited about next steps.


3) Research Questions: Have teachers or groups of teachers generate questions they want to know about the topics. After generating, have them share out with other groups to help build transparency and interest.


4) Expert Groups: The DQ question is the big umbrella question of the Inquiry Circle model, but from the research questions, sub topics are formed. Have teachers choose into a subtopic group.


5) Product: How will each group share what they have learned by the end of the process. Give them a list of possible products and allow they the flexibility to choose how they are assessed and to pick a product that will be authentic and useful.


6) Facilitate Inquiry: After these initial steps, teachers must choose literature, books, and other resources to explore. Teachers will meet periodically over an extended period to share learning, engage in reading selections, and generate further questions to explore. Participants will need to find more resources and continually draft and revise their final product.


7) Present Products: After an appropriate amount of time, teachers should present their product to the entire faculty and staff. These presentations should be done by the whole expert group. Encourage creativity! Have the entire faculty, after seeing presentations, generate ideas for next steps and implementation.


In order to rethink how we use professional development time, we must have the tools to do it. The Inquiry Circle is one way to allow for collaboration, voice and choice, and focus in professional development that teachers need.


Andrew Miller
New Media Innovations - Abeo School Change

Graduating Each Student Prepared for College: What Does It Mean and What Does It Take?

How does a school know its practices will graduate EACH student ready for college? How does a teacher design equitable and rigorous instruction to prepare each student for college? Many people talk about college readiness as the next civil rights movement. Each student deserves to graduate from our schools ready for college. But what does that really look like and how do we get there?

First, let’s look at what our organization believes to be the definition of college preparedness.  The BERC Group uses the following equation to define college readiness.

By and large, educators and schools would agree that they’re doing a good job of helping their students understand the first two parts of the equation: college awareness and college eligibility.  Many practices are in place in schools to help students know about post-secondary options and the steps to get there.  Where schools often fall short on the college ready promise is in preparing students to enter college and remain in college without the need for remediation – that’s really where the rubber meets the road.  So how’s that work done?

The What & How of College Preparedness

With the work of researchers like David Conley, our relationships with higher ed partners, and action research from teachers whom we support, the what of college readiness is becoming clearer.  College readiness standards, college level assignments and student work provide clear benchmarks and indicators for college preparedness. Comparing these standards to those of K-12 helps teachers clearly see that there is a serious gap in what students are asked to know and do to be prepared for the rigors of college – without remediation.  Identifying the what of college readiness is a great first step but still only gets us so far.  It’s helpful to know what is expected of incoming college freshman but how do we prepare them to be successful once they’re there?

Using Fred Newmann’s research on Authentic Intellectual Work, we’ve discovered that this framework aligns well with college standards. The AIW framework provides a lens for educators to determine how students are asked to construct knowledge and use disciplined inquiry to produce products or performances that have value beyond school. The three criteria—construction of knowledge, through disciplined inquiry, to produce discourse, products, and performances that have meaning beyond success in school—provide a foundation for the more complex intellectual work necessary for success in contemporary society and college level studies.

So what does it take to prepare students for college without remediation?

At GEAR UP West’s 2011 Conference “Innovation for Academic Excellence”, Chris Hoyos and Joe Hall from Abeo School Change will work with educators to tackle this complex concept of college readiness for all.  Educators will work together to address questions around post-secondary success.

o   What does student work look like at the college level?

o   What are students asked to do at the college level?

o   What does college-prepared work look like?

o   What kind of assignments do students need to graduate college-prepared?

o   What teaching practices help students do this kind and level of student work?

From Abeo Partner, Chris Hoyos