Tenet #3 - It's Not About Arriving. It's About Striving.

   
     I have had the opportunity to spend time with educators in every province and territory in Canada as well as the majority of the states in the United States of America. I've worked with people in every role in the system and with folks who cover the career range from first year teachers to those about to retire. The vast majority of these people are making a difference in the lives of the students they serve.

     My message in tenet #3 is simple. You have been recognized for the contributions you can, or have made which has resulted in you holding the great job you currently have. I believe we hire the best and the brightest to be educators. But here's the point of this tenet - keep making those great contributions. Don't stop pushing the envelope, leading the charge, or whatever metaphor drives what you do. Don't rest on your accomplishments but instead continue to be the inspirational educator your students and colleagues need. While it may be your twenty-fifth year as an educator, it's the first year the current students have you and they deserve the best version of you.

     The low hanging fruit can be reached by anyone. It takes a special talent to get to the good stuff.

Tenet #2 - Every day provides a new opportunity to exert a positive influence.

     It is an unreasonable expectation that we get every aspect of our lives perfect every day. As I reflect on my time as an educator I know there were days when I was not the best teacher my students needed that particular day. What provides me solace is the notion that I tried to not let one bad day become a bad week. I tried to follow MY struggles with a much better effort the next opportunity I had with that class. I choose to emphasize my responsibility as that's all I really have control over. But here's what my reflections of those moments tell me - each time I chose to come back with a positive approach, the better the overall environment was for others. Contrast this with an approach that carries the bad vibes forward on successive days. The result of this action is a furthering of a negative environment where fear of reprisal rules the conduct of all. 

     We are all only human and we all have our unique buttons that can be pushed. We're also subject to the trials and tribulations that are part of our daily lives. It's a given that we'll have tough moments and they don't only schedule themselves apart from our interactions with others. I know I'm not always the best educator, best spouse, best parent, best friend or best in any of the other interactions I have. I also know that the dawn of each new day provides an opportunity to exert a positive influence and shape some of the future outcomes.

Tenet #1 - Learning Does Not Take Place in Ten Month Segments. It is Continuous.

     The school year runs for approximately ten months and at the end of that time teachers are charged with the responsibility to provide a mark or some form of final grade. However, the learning (or , the for some the learning loss) continues after the teacher-student relationship has ended for that school year. What are the impacts for educators in this scenario?

     First, students will return after each break at different places on the learning continuum. Some will have returned from environments where their learning is enhanced and enriched by additional experiences. Others will return having lost the gains they achieved with you and may be further behind in their peer group than previously. There are numerous articles that speak to summer learning loss (http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/8057/) that impacts our neediest learners.

     Second, learning is not static. Opportunities to learn exist all around our students, and the extensions they make from the information we share in our instruction, varies from student to student.

     Third, we are not the only contributors to the knowledge gained by our students. This is even more pronounced with all of the advances on the technology front. A generation ago teachers held the knowledge and shared out a new packet daily. That was life B.G. - before google. Today, access to knowledge is ubiquitous.

     Fourth, the end of the year (or course) can't be simply viewed as an all or nothing result. What about the gains made by the student during the time they were with you? Where do we reflect those gains made despite the standard not being achieved?

     The active learning our students engage in occurs both in and out of a place called school. How we acknowledge, recognize, and validate this learning is part of the challenge. The Chinese proverb that resonates with me as I wrestle with recognizing the learning that occurs beyond my ten month window with students is this:

The one that plants the tree rarely gets to enjoy its shade.

Tom's Ten Tenets

     Over the course of my almost thirty years in education some themes have emerged that have guided my work over time. What's really interesting for me is that they continue to be relevant with the work I do with educators today. These ten tenets frame my beliefs and are part of the message I share today. Over the next few weeks I will write a separate post about each one and share some of the significance I think they play as we continue to refine what we do to produce the best outcomes for students and all educators. Here's my top ten list (in no priority):

1. Learning does NOT take place in ten-month segments.  It is continuous.

2. Every day provides a new opportunity to exert a positive influence.

3. It’s not about arriving.  It’s about striving!

4. When we eliminate hope, we create desperation.

5. Dreams should come in size XXXL so that we can grow into them.

6. What we focus on expands.

7. Every student represents a success story waiting to be told.

8. Are you looking for a Code of Conduct or a Code of Consequence?

9. If we don’t model what we teach, then we are teaching what we model.

10. First with the heart, then with the head.

     I'm looking forward to sharing my thinking on these ten tenets and hope they provide a spark for you to take forward to ignite a conversation with your colleagues.

Banjo and the Beach (A Metaphor for 2012)

     I feel very fortunate to live where I do with the pacific ocean one hundred meters outside my front door. It's great to be able to walk along the beach and take in all that nature has to offer. Lately the high tides have mad it virtually impossible to walk along the beach forcing Banjo and I to take the greenway for our strolls. Banjo is our six month old Springer Spaniel and never was there a more aptly named breed. She has boundless energy (the photo below is a rare shot of calmness infrequently seen) and loves the beach walk replete with chasing waves and seagulls.

     The walk this morning looked like it was going to be relegated to the greenway once again but Banjo was itching to get down to the beach. The other problem with the high tides of late has been the deposit of numerous logs making the beach walk more of a challenge. Banjo was not to be deterred today and about a third of the way along the path she yanked hard on the leash to draw my attention to the right and in the direction of the beach. It looked like there was enough sand for us to go down and continue the walk. The other aspect of the beach walks I enjoy is picking up pieces of beach glass. I'm not really sure what I'll do with the collection (and that is a challenge to ponder at a later time) but it's fun to find odd shapes or colors.

     As we continued our walk we got to a spot where the logs and the high water suggested a return to the greenway but Banjo had other ideas. As mentioned earlier she has boundless energy and simply bounded over the logs picking a route that allowed for the walk to continue. I, with considerably less energy and enthusiasm for the route, picked my way over the logs clearly questioning where my leader was taking me. It was interesting that when I looked at the logs as a whole, it seemed impossible. Tackling each log as an individual challenge reduced it to a more manageable task. After some scrambling we got to a clear stretch and I was happy to have made it through the difficult part. I found some great pieces of glass and, at the extreme end of the walk, made the best find.

     The walks always provide great thinking time and I began to wonder how often I may have missed out on something because I ended the journey a little too early or stop pushing when it got a little too hard. Further thinking led me to the point where this seemed almost too simplistic - that is I didn't want to reduce this to the naive belief that simply hanging in there would always guarantee the best piece of glass would be waiting for me at the end. Sometimes the struggle is just that and there are no tangible rewards at the end. What I did realize is that often it is just about the journey and that journey can be a fabulous reward in itself. Especially when you are taking it with a great companion.

     Best wishes to all who read and follow this blog for a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2012!

Greet Them With the Gift of You!

     I read with great interest a recent blog post by Josh Stumpenhorst (@stumpteacher) that spoke about the concerns for some of our students as they headed off for the Christmas break. He listed some of the challenges these students might face (http://tinyurl.com/6qp72w6) and reminded educators to "remember when those students start acting out there might be a reason behind it. They might be afraid of leaving the safe, calm, and loving environment that is school."  My experience tells me this is equally a challenge for students when they return to school. For all of the same reasons listed, some of our students return from a world that may function in direct opposition to many of our expectations in the classroom and they may have spent many days in a much more chaotic realm. Their return to school tends to be a bit uneven and fraught with frustration for the teacher who felt significant progress had been made prior to the break.


     How best then, to make their return as positive as possible? The first few days should be devoted to reviewing routines and expectations. Not with an eye towards issuing consequences but to ensuring that all the gains realized before the break remains the focus and the foundation for future growth for all students. Teachers might want to think about planning a field trip or a classroom activity that involves a lot of visual or hands-on stimulation and student interaction during the first week after the break. This would engage all of the students in a positive and pro-social event that will allow a quick return to the old, familiar, and desirable routines. The more negative the experience the student might have had, the more effort required on the part of the educator to reconnect that student to some of the positive attributes. Many of you represent the sole positive role model your students might have in their lives, Never underestimate the difference you make. As I was watching my favorite holiday classic ("It's a Wonderful Life"), I imagined George Bailey as a teacher. The significant and profound impact that educators have for all of their students becomes even more so for those students that teeter on the edge. Not to suggest to any readers of this post to be either macabre or egotistical, but take a moment and reflect on what might be if you were not a significant adult for so many of your charges.  

     The Christmas holiday and New Year's celebrations produce a lot of emotion and do create many positive memories. I'm not suggesting that we avoid interacting with those students for whom this is a blessed time but merely suggesting that we recognize that some of our students come from the other extreme. Rather than getting frustrated or disappointed that there appears to be a loss of all that was gained pre-break, take a moment to realize what was achieved and recognize the path to achieving that might be a little easier to tread the second time around. The best gift we can ever give our students is the gift of ourselves. Perhaps we should all wear a bow on our first day back. 

     Merry Christmas and best wishes for a healthy and happy 2012.

Stepping in it Again (Rewards Redux)

     The discussions around rewards and motivation have produced numerous perspectives, blogs, books, and guest columns over the years I've been in education. It's a topic that can be polarizing for those who remain rigid in their views or enlightening for those who value the insights shared by colleagues. I'd like to think I fall in the latter category as I know my views on this topic continue to evolve. I'm not the same teacher I was 29 years ago; I've learned from the brilliant educators who have gone before me, beside me, and after me. Having said that, it's also important for me to state that I'm not prepared to firmly plant both feet in the camp of those who would advocate for an absolute absence of any extrinsic motivators. And here's why: I firmly believe that extrinsic motivation is a pre-cursor to intrinsic motivation for some of our students. Two examples, one quite recent and one from a lifetime ago, illustrate why I have held on to this belief. 


     A recent visit to the DSBN Academy (see my recent post on this school at http://tinyurl.com/7uhdr3f) and conversations with the students resulted in a student quite honestly stating to me and his peers that he hates school. I was not surprised given his experiences up to that point - a lack of success and a greater lack of engagement with future prospects looking quite dim. He is now in a new environment where the focus is on what he is capable of doing going forward with a group of adults committed to helping him achieve his potential. As I debriefed with the staff afterwards, we could all see that this youngster would need some overt efforts and some extrinsic motivators before he starts to get the sense of experiencing success and recognizing his talents. This example reinforced for me two key points; first, not all kids start with the same skill set or tool box and second, and even more troubling to me, is that we sometimes magnify the differences through ineffective practice or a deterministic view that not all will be successful.

     The second example is a personal one. I grew up a child of poverty and abuse who followed five older siblings to school. School success was not a priority for any of them and the expectations for the sixth Hierck child were not high. It was not likely, nor fair to my teachers, that I was going to be intrinsically motivated or do the right things for the right reasons. In fact I probably was motivated but my motivation was towards those things that would be viewed as anti-social, and that I was well versed in. I can recall teachers who I simply wore down and pushed to the point where they had little energy left to salvage anything for me. It's not that I was unaware of the right things or didn't see what success created for my peers. I just didn't see how that was a possibility for me nor did I have any examples at home that would have made it seem attainable. The details of the changes that occurred for me are beyond the space a blog permits but one of the key pieces for me came in the form of extrinsic motivators. When my family moved across the country and I arrived in a new school, opportunities appeared that allowed for a significant change to happen. One of the first forms of extrinsic motivation came in the form of math contests that spurred a confidence level in me that allowed me to view things differently. I will remain forever grateful to Mr. Huberman for identifying a skill in me and setting up a forum that provided acknowledgement for that skill. I had not had much experience with that feeling and built on that experience. It was one of numerous external pieces that shaped a new direction for me. As is the case with many of our students, I didn't need the external forever but it was the kick-start that allowed for change to occur. This view is summarized in our recently released book:

“Over time, the goal is to move to more intrinsic and less extrinsic 
reinforcement, when students make good decisions for the sake 
of satisfaction it instills instead of the rewards it brings."

     While I know that my practice has been enriched and improved over time, I also know that some things I did early in my career have stood the test of time. One of these that also fits my notion of external motivators is an activity I called post cards from school. Each student in my Science class was given a 4 x 6 index card and asked to draw a picture on the unlined side of any science related theme. I used this as an early indicator of what appealed to them in the course. I collected the cards and on the right half of the lined side I wrote the parent/guardian name and home address. These then became post cards that I sent home at some point during the school year. Post cards always contain only positive messages and that was the challenge for me. I needed some authentic, descriptive feedback that I could share about each student. This could have been a challenge for my struggling learners but instead focussed my attention on looking for the good news. On some levels it was a bigger challenge to create a message for my most able learners that went beyond some of the standard comments they have received throughout their school careers (a pleasure to have in class, a commendable student, outstanding achievement, excellent work) and also carried some meaning. The impact of this extrinsic reward was palpable throughout the school year as both students and parents appreciated the recognition.


     Moving forward, I remain open to my thinking continuing to evolve around this topic. I do want to avoid the creation of a dependency on reward before the exhibition of expected/accepted behaviors. I also want to remain committed to helping those students who aren't connected to their intrinsic motivators make those connections. Even if it takes a little external magic to make it so.