A Beautiful Noise

It's a beautiful noise

And it's a sound that I love

And it makes me feel good

Neil Diamond

            I’ve been working a lot lately with educators in developing curricular units of study and talking about the learning skills necessary for students to experience success. As an aside, I’ve deliberately not used the label “21st Century” in front of “learning skills” as I think we all understand in 2014 that we are in the 21st century. It’s lost its cache or novelty. I don’t recall having a constant reference to 20th century learning skills when I was a student. I know that the learning skills necessary for students today are certainly different and, as a result, the teaching practices to support those skills, also need to be different.

It’s fair to say that we need to deepen the critical thinking skills of our students. It’s also important that we shift to conceptual understanding and away from understanding by an algorithm or rule. Both of these shifts will require more student “talk” time. As an offshoot of the advances in technology, it’s been suggested that kids today communicate more. While that may be true, I think it’s equally true to claim they actually talk less (see the recent cartoon below). They can spend an hour with a peer the previous night on their devices, but barely muster a hello the next day at school when they pass each other in the hallway.

Asking students to explain their solutions (not just the why but also the how) may be foreign to some. They might be used to simply providing a response as a regurgitation of a fact or a basic manipulation of information – a level 1 or 2 response on Webb’s depth of knowledge. Critical thinking will require levels 3 and 4 on Webb’s or the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Ultimately this will mean less teacher talk time (think of five minutes as your maximum before turning it over to your students) and more collaboration between students. It will mean more of the “beautiful noise” that is evidenced in classrooms where students are highly engaged and deeply involved in their learning. Educators know the difference between disruptive, non-productive noise and this beautiful noise. I know I’m enjoying the visits to the learning environments where there is that highly productive hum. It really is a sound that I love.

What Inspires You?

My wife and I took some time recently to go hiking in Sedona. It was an excellent few days of activity and relaxation. She took the photo above and asked me what inspired me. I gave the perfect husband answer and said, "You do"! I really wasn't trying to be flippant or cheesy as she really does inspire me to go beyond what I thought was possible and to be a better person than I might have been had I walked this journey called life, solo. Her question also got me thinking about other sources of inspiration in my life.

Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I enjoy running. This activity also inspires me and creates great thinking time. I love heading out in a new town with an idea I heard or a challenge that arose. The combination of exercise and an issue to kick around leads to some great thinking (at least I think it’s great!). My transition from a defined role in a school district, to a travelling consultant and author has allowed me the opportunity to connect with so many inspirational educators. I get to speak from my experience and context, which is familiar ground but hearing about their experiences and contexts is very motivating. Thanks to all who have filled my notebooks and memo pads with things to consider. It really does push me during the writing phase. Which, by the way, is another source of inspiration. Doing the research for the books I’ve crafted gets me into the thought processes of a lot of smart people. Working with co-authors stretches my thinking and inspires me to push further to refine my craft. The part I miss the most on the travels is the opportunity to interact with students. When I get the chance, I ask if it’s possible to have some time with students as they inspire me with how they process many of the changes that I think would have overwhelmed me when I was their age.

So, what inspires you? I’d love to hear your stories and have them added to the comments section below where I know they’ll inspire me, and I’m certain, any other readers of this post. Thanks for sharing!

A Tale of Two Cities

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

(but the best of time blew the worst of times completely out of the water!)

This oft quoted line from Dickens (with my additional bracket) summarized my last week on the road. The two cities are Fontana and Smithfield. For those unfamiliar with these two great places, they are in California and North Carolina respectively and are 4,072 km and three time zones apart. Therein the adventure began…

            I’ve been working with curriculum design teams at each grade level in Fontana as we create high quality units of study using Larry Ainsworth’s Rigorous Curriculum Design process. We’ve met about a dozen times and are focused on ELA and aligning with the new standards. I’m now sharing the work with all teachers and we’re meeting by grade level. I really enjoyed the energy level of the grade three teachers as we met all day on Monday. They asked good questions and were appreciative of the work their colleagues had put in to create the first unit. They made Monday feel like the best day of the week!

            I hustled out of Fontana to make the drive to LAX where I had a 10:30 pm red eye flight to catch, with Raleigh, NC being my terminus and a 6:20 am arrival. Sounds like fun, right? I slept a little on the flight and arrived early, grabbed the rental car and set my GPS for the drive. Apparently, some rental car outlets are so concerned about smoking in their vehicles that they disconnect the lighters. This does not work well with keeping a GPS charged! Shortly after crossing into Smithfield, the screen went blank. The hotel sign made that part obvious but finding the presentation site was a different matter. I got directions and then proceeded to loop around the site (not clearly identified, in my support) numerous times before asking a friendly police officer about the location (just behind me as it turned out). The next eight hours flew by as I rode the energy of the group and didn’t have time to think about any latent tiredness. A disclaimer here – I am not the energizer bunny! As my wife can attest, I power down around 9 each night as my eye blinks get increasingly longer. It doesn’t make sense that I could be awake at 6 am Monday morning, work with the Fontana group all day, fly all night, and then work all day Tuesday. It is clearly the power of educators who are so engaging and committed that it causes me to be alert and focused on their work and how I might assist.

            To be clear, at the end of Tuesday I did get back to my hotel (after an early dinner with my local colleague Keith) and just needed to rest for a few minutes before tackling work for the next day. The minutes became hours and the work was minimal after that! I did get up early the next morning for my run and then had the pleasure of working with the group again before heading back to the airport at 4:30 for the flight back to Fontana.

            The weather moved in and made for some interesting moments. It was a case of emotional highs and lows as I arrived to RDU early enough to have a cold drink (high), get to my gate on time and see no plane (low), hear that the plane was on the way (high), but we ‘d be leaving late (low because I had a short transition window in Houston to my next flight), it would still work out to board (high), the weather had turned nasty with winds and rain (low), the incoming plane arrived (high), we got to board before the storm hit (higher), we left the gate (highest), we stopped after ten feet (low), the storm arrived (lower), we’d have to wait it out for 40 minutes on the tarmac (lowest because now my window to the next flight was lost), we took off (high but who cared now?), we landed in Houston just as my next flight was scheduled to leave (maybe a high?), my next flight was delayed by 15 minutes (now we’re talking!), I had to collect my gate checked bag (low as it took forever), I decided to abandon my bag to catch my flight (low), I was stopped by the agent and told I had to claim my bag (really low), but then informed that this was the gate for my next flight (wow!, high), and the plane was the one I just got off (high like winning the lottery!). I’m sure of the entire plane of passengers, I was the only one now not bothered by the late arrival and was clearly the only one who made his/her next connection. We left the gate but then stopped. The captain informed us we had a weight problem and it would take 15 minutes to burn off excess fuel (better than asking passengers to leave or taking baggage off!). We finally departed and landed at ONT close to midnight.

            The next morning was a little tough to roust myself and get to the site in advance of the second cohort of grade three teachers. I had my doubts about how effective I could be for them and really needed a cup of morning coffee to jolt me. I got to the site and the magic happened again. Teachers filed in with great energy and stories to swap even before we began. One of the participants from the Monday session came by with a coffee for me. I was incredibly touched and tremendously appreciative. She had listened to me sharing an anecdote about kids following their passion and how this would lead to satisfaction when they made the transition to life after high school. I shared about having coffee in the same shop in my small town and how the person that works there knows my name and my drink. This teacher remembered the drink and brought one to me! Awesome! The day flew by and I left for the airport tremendously inspired by the opportunities I am presented with each day to work with such magical professionals.

            The worst of times are all relative when the best of times are exemplified in such convincing fashion. Thanks to the strong teams in Fontana and Smithfield for your exemplary work and for the reminder that collaboration sustains us all. 

Your Mantra - The Velcro of Your School

One of my favorite book projects has been the current effort with Ken Williams as we look to address what we both feel is a huge gap in schools today, and is also reflective of our passion as educators – school culture. We are working on a process we’ve identified as authentic alignment and one of the key features of the WHY stage is the development of a mantra or rallying cry.

We describe the mantra as a powerful, energy infused chant that everyone inside your learning community can get inside their heads and feel through their core. Your mantra should generate answers to questions about your beliefs, goals, and your reasons for being an educator. Sounds like a tall order, right? We’ve gone on to suggest it should encapsulate these elements:

Memorable – find its way into your commitments, behavior, and decisions.

Simple – focus on one specific thing in three to five words.

Credible – walk the talk, alignment needs to drive our words and actions.

Positive – affirmative tone aimed at what you’re seeking, not what you’re avoiding.

Uniquely Yours – it should be unmistakably about your site.

Following the development of your mantra, staff members should develop a commitment statement or I message based on the context of their individual role at the school. We list some examples in the book and here’s my personal favorite (and accompanying I message):

Act As If…

I operate each day as if we are already the ideal school we described.

I’ve been sharing the work with schools and districts that I’ve been working with lately and am appreciative of how quickly they are taking hold of this and diving into the work. A recent afternoon with a school yielded this as their first effort on creating a mantra and I message:

Every Name, Every Need

I will know every student by his or her name and

work with them based on their need.

It’s also an activity that resonates with all departments in a school district. A recent leadership workshop included the Facilities department and they crafted this as their mantra:

Providing Educational Spaces That Work

This has all served to remind me of the power of having a compelling WHY to drive all of our work on behalf of students. It also serves to pull us together as a true learning community driven by our beliefs and commitments. The mantra needs to be more than a catchy slogan. The commitments behind the mantra need to permeate the work. You should be able connect the dots between your collective commitments and the mantra.  When off course, the mantra should help guide you back on course.  It's your litmus test, your North Star. I look forward to continuing this work with others and seeing the benefit of aligning the work with the actions and commitments.

Running to Jog My Thoughts

I got home this weekend after a twenty-day road trip and was really looking forward to as much laziness as I could pack into the 28 hours I had in my house. I was reminded that I had agreed to take two 13 year-old boys out for a training run. These two are grandkids of a friend of ours and were excited about the possibility of running with a marathoner. I had my doubts about them getting much out of the experience and even more doubts about me getting out FOR the experience. However, I am so very glad I did!

While we talked about the mechanics of running and worked on pace on the track and strength on the hills, our time together was a great learning (or relearning) experience for me. Keegan and Carter shared the perspective of young teenagers and did so in an unvarnished fashion that is the hallmark of youth. It also reminded me of the importance of listening to the stories our student tell. They spoke of the disappointment of not seeing the floor in a basketball game, the pressure of being members of a team in a sport where lots rode on their performance, and of the need for adults to see beyond the current moment as far as the potential for kids.

That really got me thinking about the work we do with kids in school today. Do we look at the potential or the current reality? Can we find a way to incorporate both? The twin boys are both slight but were quick to let me know that their Dad is a strong 6’ 4” man. In thinking about their love for sports they recognized that, while they are waiting for the physical growth to arrive, it’s important to hone their skills and work on refining their mental approach. They are works in progress. Shouldn’t this be how we look at school? Why is it that we think all 14-year olds can do grade 9 math? Won’t some hit their stride earlier, while others may hit it later? What’s our end goal in the school life of a student? Can we accept that some of our students will hit their academic maturity along the same lines as kids hit their physical maturity? What changes will we need to embrace if the end goal is success in those areas that educators deem to be necessary in order to make the transition to further school or the world of work?

Ultimately the morning of running did more than exercise my tired legs. It kick-started my tired brain and reminded me once again that the solutions are often there right in front of us. Listen to your students, believe in their potential, and provide them the guidance to overcome the hurdles that are presented.

Thanks Carter and Keegan. I’m looking forward to our next run together. I’ll just plan my nap a little better!

A Grinning Streak

A long time ago I noticed something when I looked in the mirror.  Devoid of any effort to smile, I looked unhappy, concerned, troubled, and a person to avoid. Hard to accept when you consider yourself a “people person” and you expound on the value of relationships and connecting with others. In that moment I realized I needed to change how people could perceive me with something that was readily in my control – a smile. It takes practice if that’s not your normal state. No one wants to see a forced smile through gritted teeth, or a maniacal grin. But here’s what else I noticed. When my mouth smiled, so did my eyes (stop reading here and go try it with your mirror). I instantly became more approachable.

In our profession as educators, we encounter many situations where we can reduce tension or fear by simply having a warm, inviting smile. As author William Arthur Ward reminds us, “a warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” I’d like to propose that we all practice this important skill and remember to do it every day, and especially when we’re in the company of our students. Go ahead get on a grinning streak. It will improve your face value and generate benefits well beyond that.