Courageous Serenity: The Digital Era of Instructional Innovation

 The first week of reopening school went really well.  It seemed like a long, short week.  It was a first in my 20+ years in education in the fact that we had two 1^st days of school.  Students and staff complied with mask requirements and we worked through all hiccups as a team.  The night before we opened school, we sent a video out to staff that we made entitled “What It’s About!”.  The video gave the answer from administration as to the “why” of all the changes we had last school year and what we are about to face.  In all that we do in education, we serve a purpose much larger than we could ever fathom.  The music in the video was from the “Courageous” soundtrack, which was fitting in what our staff and students were about to do in reopening school.  Courageous not only referred to the potential safety concerns, but also courageous in changing the way we do instruction and finding a way to reach all children. Moving into the digital age of instructional innovation is scary to many teachers and principals.  While we know technology will never replace a great teacher, technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational and almost magical in engaging students regardless of location.  One of the things we reminded everyone of plenty is patience and support.  Teachers don’t fear change, but everyone fears change without support.  It’s important that administration supports teachers, teachers support each other, and we all support parents and students. 

  In the weeks leading up to reopening school, we focused on the things we could control in our preparation.  The Bible talks about serenity in multiple verses.  One of the first ones that come to mind is Proverbs 3:5-6 that says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”  Many times, people want to make excuses or come up with reasons for failure. Serenity tells us to focus on the things we control.  Hattie’s Visible Learning calls this often disruption in focus “The Politics of Distraction”.  We can’t lose focus of the task at hand and make excuses because failure is not an option, students and parents are counting on us to keep students safe and provide the best possible learning outcomes.  As we focus on what we control, we realize that we have the power to win in keeping students safe in school and transforming teaching and learning. 

            “The Digital Era of Instructional Innovation” began this week and I was very impressed by the work of our staff and how they’ve embraced virtual, blended, and digital learning.   This fundamental shift in how we facilitate instruction and take accountability for results is a strategic mindset.   Principals, who should be the instructional leaders of the school, should embrace this mindset and model the way for the rest of the staff.  Several years ago, as part of the NCDPI School Turnaround program, I was blessed to have worked with Eric Sheninger and get a million ideas about digital learning and especially digital leadership.  Sheninger says digital leadership and learning “takes into account recent changes such as ubiquitous connectivity, open-source technology, mobile devices, and personalization to dramatically shift how schools have been run and structured for over a century.  Leading in education becomes exponentially powerful when using technology to your advantage.”  Eric Sheninger, aka"Principal Twitter” shared his Pillars of Digital Leadership for principals that  includes the following: 

 

·         Transform school culture by initiating sustainable change

·         Use free social media tools to improve communication, enhance public relations, and create a positive brand presence 

·         Integrate digital tools into the classroom to increase student engagement and achievement

·         Facilitate professional learning and access new opportunities and resources

 

One the great things about this shift we are currently experiencing is that we determine how successful we are and determine our learning outcomes.  We know this isn’t going to be perfect on Day #1, but a school should be a learning organization that continuously grows and improves.  
            Whether you are a district office administrator, building level administrator, or teacher, the time is now to boldly move schools forward in the digital age.  We are in the middle of the storm of instructional innovation and this is a fun process in reinventing teaching and learning through virtual and blended learning, technology integration, and being connected educators.  This requires us to be courageous in being willing to embrace change and also requires serenity in focusing on the factors within our locus of control. 

Model the Way: Like We Have Ice Water in Our Veins

     As this week comes to a close, we are within 48 hours of teachers and staff being back on campus to open schools for the 2020-21 school year.  As I reflect on the preparation for opening and the upcoming uncertainties we face in education, I’m reminded of Kouzes and Posner’s “The Leadership Challenge” and the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.  The first exemplary practice is to “Model the Way”, which includes clarifying and setting the example for the rest of the organization.  As we go back next week, it’s important that staff and students see leadership as confident, competent, and calm.  Staff follow the example of leadership, which is basic Social Learning Theory from Bandura.  If leadership goes back and seems anxious or on-edge or quick to react to small things, it will create an unsettledness and possible panic, which will filter down to the students.  This could actually exacerbate the situation and intensify the stress people are feeling and the fear that they have in returning.  If staff see us as calm, competent, confident, and collected there’s a much higher probably of reducing anxiety, which will already be high.  I’m reminded of Tom Osborne, head football coach at Nebraska, and his demeanor on the sidelines in the most stressful situations.  Players and coaches believed in him and had confidence he would lead them in the right direction partly because of how calm and collected he was under pressure. He was described as having the demeanor of an old farmer, who never gets rattled because they’ve weathered plenty of storms and are confident they can weather the next one as well.  

     Next week and the weeks to come will be stressful, staff and students coming back will have much anxiety and stress in returning, parents will be worried and stressed about their children returning, administrators will be worried and probably even fearful to a point.  All these are givens in the uncertainty of the situation we are about to face.  We also need to remember that administrators are both tired and stressed at this point from all the work they’ve done the past few weeks to prepare, which often makes our tempers a little shorter and our reactions a little quicker or sharper.  Patience and seeking understanding will be critical to our success.  Sometimes when we know we are about to say or do something that is uncharacteristic of our leadership or evidences the stress we are under, it’s a great time to take a pause and catch our breath before we speak or act.  The reactions of leadership that succumb to stress or pressure can damage or destroy relationships and/or confidence/trust, can disempower people,  weaken instead of strengthening others, create divides or friction, and hinder our progress.   

      When it’s 4^th down and 1 yard to go with no time left on the clock and you’re going for the win on the last play of the game, players and coaches want a quarterback that steps into the huddle and leads with ice water in his veins because he’s so cool and collected and confident in the most stressful situations .  The last thing the team needs is a quarterback or coach that’s rattled or shows signs of cracking under pressure or creates more fear and anxiety because this will spread to the rest of the team.  I think about Franklin Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” of the 1930s and Winston Churchill’s speeches in World War II and how they brought calm, collectedness, and resolve to a tremendously stressful and challenging situation.  It’s also important to realize the impact of leadership around you and their influence on you.  Do they create a calm confidence, exude competence, deliver with honesty that builds trust, and treat others like they would want to be treated?  Do they handle things that take stress off of you or do they shift the monkey to create more stress and pressure on you?  Depending on the things they do and their attitudes/actions, you might not have the right people on the bus with you that can help you win.  Stress and pressure isn't necessarily a bad thing, they're often required to help us find the weak link in the chain or magnify a weakness or crack in the armor.  Even in the medical field of cardiology, stress tests are required to show where there's a blockage or weakness.  We need to be that quarterback and coach that steps in and gives the play call with confidence and tells our team we are going to find a way to win.  Whether you like it or not, modeling the way is part of leadership and you are the person the rest of the team will look to and follow.  Remember that while stress and pressure can break some people, they can also create a diamond that shines bright!

“Sit and Get” Don’t Grow Dendrites: It’s Time for a Fundamental Shift From Focusing on Teaching to Focusing on Student Learning

Students in today's classrooms learn very differently than the way most of the people teaching them were taught.  Students today need and want to be actively engaged for effective learning to take place.  The fundamental shift has to be from a focus on teaching and what is the teacher doing to a focus on student learning and the impact each activity and action in the classroom has on student learning. 

For many decades, observations and the assessment of school classrooms were on the actions of the teacher: “The Sage on The Stage” with long lectures and possibly note taking.  Brain research contradicts this approach as being the most effective.  Research tells us that the person doing the work is the one doing the learning.  In many classrooms that person doing all of the work is the teacher, it shouldn’t be. If we are still doing lecture and having students take copious notes, which muscles are we really exercising?  and what’s the impact on student learning?  Contrary to what people think, the brain can’t really multi-task either, so we can’t 100% concentrate on listening to a lecture and taking notes at the same time.  A more effective way to do this activity would be to listen intently for short periods (1-2 mins.) and then do a quick write to process and review what was just said. Then the student and/or teacher needs to review or use that content one more time before the brain will comprehend and retain because three is the minimum number of times something must be taught before brain research tells us the brain will retain.  Doing those things and in those ways are grounded in brain research and the way that all brains learn more efficiently.  21^st Century Learners’ greatest retention rates come from reciprocal teaching, collaboration and classroom talk, creation and project-based tasks, inquiry and problem-based approaches, learning by doing….activities where they are actively engaged. 

One of the best solutions to classroom management problems is to have a classroom where students are engaged, one of the best ways to reduce tardies and students skipping class is to have a classroom where students want to come to learn, and one of the best ways to increase student achievement and reduce discipline is to have a classroom that’s fun.  Wouldn’t everyone learn more if instruction was both rigorous and relevant, including an element of fun and enjoyment with learning?  Everyday students and teachers should be greeted, should hear something positive, and laugh and/or smile.  Research tells us that it takes 47 facial muscles to frown and only 13 to smile, laughing reduces endorphins and chemicals in the body that reduce stress, your body can’t tell the difference in genuine laughter and fake laughter so either way it helps reduce stress, and reducing stress not only helps you to live longer but also makes a learning environment more effective.

The pandemic and reopening of schools is an excellent opportunity to reinvent and redesign learning through shifting our focus to student learning instead of teacher actions.  The most important part of teacher actions are the impacts they have on student learning.  The transition to virtual or blended learning shifts the focus to the teacher as a content creator and facilitator of learning.  By nature, assessments will be more authentic and both scaffolded and differentiated.  This will change the focus to a priority towards learning and mastery of standards with multiple methods of students being able to demonstrate their learning and have a self-reported grading or assessment approach.  The title I chose for this post was “Sit & Get” Don’t Grow Dendrites, based on Dr. Marcia’s Tate’s research on student engagement and brain-based learning.  It’s fact that worksheets and lower order activities aren’t the answer to increasing student achievement.  If students can do the worksheets they don’t need them, they need to accelerate and move forward.  If students can’t do the worksheets it won’t help them anyway.  Yet, many teachers think students filling in worksheets qualifies as learning.  If you look at student achievement rates nation-wide and especially in classrooms driven by worksheets and “sit and get” instruction, you’d have to borrow a line from Dr. Phil and ask “How’s that working for you?  Has it every really worked for you?”  

Research demonstrates that schools with high levels of music and arts are also the most academically successful.  Why?....Because those schools engage both hemispheres of the brain in learning, decades of brain research and data on student performance fully supports this approach. The pressing questions is….why don’t all classrooms in all schools do that?  Learning isn’t complicated, but it’s both an art and a science.  Great teachers know how to use both the art and science of teaching and learning to make learning rigorous, relevant, and most importantly FUN!  It’s not a revolutionary concept, but it works!

         Obstacles or opportunities.....it's up to us! As we enter the 2020-21 school year, we need to embrace the opportunities that we have as educators to work with children and impact future generations.  We need to create a safe, supportive, engaging, and fun learning environment.  With all of the school choice options, we are lucky that students and parents choose us for their education.  Without students, they wouldn’t need teachers, principals, or schools.  It should’ve always been about students and their learning, never about adults and what’s easiest for the adults in the building!  Let’s remember who our customers are and focus on service with gratitude in creating an engaging and fun learning environment for ALL students!