MeTA musings

Five years ago, I made the transition from classroom teacher to district administrator.  Last year, I shared a four year reflection and it only seemed appropriate to share another annual reflection.

First, a summary of the action items I aspired to work towards last year around this time:

In no particular order...

Continue attending the quarterly area curriculum director meetings (Develop existing relationships and strengthen new ones)
I attended all four meetings this year in our area.  During the first meeting, a fellow curriculum director had a familiar facial expression...one that I knew very well: a desire to change the world in one year, but not knowing exactly how to maneuver the paperwork and wade through the acronyms well enough in order to stay ahead.  I invited this person to spend a few hours away from the office a few weeks later to share templates, ideas, success and struggles, and those other types of conversations about curriculum and assessment that curriculum directors get excited about!  A new professional relationship was gained and others were strengthened through these meetings.  My only regret is not following up with this rookie colleague more often to see how things are going on at her schools.

Seek out a leadership role in the area special education director meetings (Deeper learning in this area.  Consider finding an informal mentor)
I failed in finding an informal mentor, however I successfully co-facilitated an area special education director meeting this spring.  My co-facilitator and I have plans to continue these meetings next school year.  Dates are on the calendar!

Spend several hours observing and reflecting with district administrators in a similar role around Iowa.  (Establish a more formal learning community, face-to-face or virtual)
Major failure.  We have a Google+ Community setup around teacher leadership, but it didn't happen.  I appreciated the opportunities to network with district administrators around the state at the Iowa ASCD Curriculum Leadership Academy in April, however this was a one time event rather than an ongoing occurrence.  I plan to volunteer at the Iowa ASCD Summer Conference at the new curriculum directors' breakfast in order to meet fellow directors from around the state.

Pursue central office academic literature describing validated practices of central office administrators. 
Winner!  The longer I work in this role, the more I am realizing I need to pour into principals so that they can pour into their teaching staff. As I think about the Iowa educational context, I see others around me in a similar role: central office administrators in school districts with 1100 to 2500 students who may or may not have been principals themselves, trying their best to support principals' instructional leadership in a non-evaluative way. Through an early educational database search, I have read over twenty-five studies.  The urban central office administrators described in these studies typically play a dual role: supporting and evaluating site administrators. I have a hunch a gap may exist in the literature capturing the perspectives of folks like me: smaller district office administrators supporting principals' instructional leadership in a non-evaluative context.  It may turn into a dissertation topic!  Even if it doesn't, this academic literature exploration has been beneficial for me thus far.

--
Finally, I wanted publicly state how much I am excited for the upcoming school year.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses and I'm grateful the administrative team has allowed me to grow during the past five years.  Our superintendent is moving to a larger organization and I'm excited to learn under a new leader.  I'm also jacked to work alongside our district's first instructional coach cadre.  I've often felt my reach in the central office is limited in some areas.  I believe the teachers a committee has selected for this cadre are all well qualified and eager to learn.  I anticipate they'll push my often cautious outlook on systems change and I believe I'll look back one year from now and realize how little I really knew about instructional leadership.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I am thankful for a virtual friend of mine, Bill Ferriter, whose writing continually pushes me and most recently reminded me that blogging really does matter.  #whyblog

Prior to the beginning of the school year, I publicly reflected on my past four years as a district administrator.  In addition, I established several goals for the 2014-15 academic year.  In no particular order, they were...

• Continue attending the quarterly area curriculum director meetings (Develop existing relationships and strengthen new ones)
• Seek out a leadership role in the area special education director meetings (Deeper learning in this area.  Consider finding an informal mentor)
• Spend several hours observing and reflecting with district administrators in a similar role around Iowa.  (Establish a more formal learning community, face-to-face or virtual)
• Pursue central office academic literature describing validated practices of central office administrators.

We're now exactly halfway through the school year, so I thought it might be a good idea to provide an update on each of these goal areas. 

Continue attending the quarterly area curriculum director meetings
Looking back:  
Within my area of the state, we've had several curriculum director meetings.  I was able to attend both of them and met several directors new to the area or to their positions.  I invited one director who works within thirty miles of me to spend a morning together for the purpose of sharing ideas.  Although this director is shared between two districts, I felt our contexts were close enough that we established a lasting professional connection for years to come. 

Looking ahead:
I plan to attend the remaining curriculum director meetings as well as several other meetings that may be geared towards central office administrators.  Our district was awarded nearly $400,000 grant for next school year to implement a teacher leadership system (more about this in a future post), so I anticipate reaching out to several area curriculum directors who have previously established similar teacher leadership systems to learn the ins and outs of a new area of education for me.

Seek out a leadership role in the area special education director meetings
Looking back:
I've emailed and talked on the phone with a person who is well respected and well-versed in special education.  I had hoped to have at least one special education director meeting under my belt by now.

Looking ahead:
We're co-planning the first special education director meeting, however it will likely not take place until February.  The realist in me believes two quality meetings will be a success for this school year and hopefully enough momentum to build on for future years.

Spend several hours observing and reflecting with district administrators in a similar role around Iowa.
See comments above describing the curriculum director meetings, morning planning and anticipated time that will be spent discussing the teacher leadership system.  I have also made informal contacts with several district administrators from other areas of Iowa to throw out the idea of a virtual meeting every month or two to bridge our physical distance travel constraints.

Pursue central office academic literature describing validated practices of central office administrators. 
Looking back:
This is a goal area I have not much progress, if any at all, since the summer months. 

Looking ahead:
Beginning in a little over one week, I will begin a graduate course entitled "Instructional Leadership that Facilitates School Improvement."  I am hopeful the readings and discussion will director or indirectly point me in the right direction.  The first snow day we have this year, I plan to do some serious EBSCOhost and ProQuest searching!

I welcome your accountability and look forward to posting another update around Spring Break as well as another at the end of the school year.

Four years ago, I made the transition from high school math teacher to district administrator.  It was bittersweet, because I felt energized teaching high school students, very much enjoyed interacting with my co-workers, but at the same time felt like I couldn't pass up an opportunity in the same district to possibly have an even bigger impact on students.

I am now enrolled in my second graduate program in four years.  (More about that in a future post)  As I reflect on the past four years in the district office, one statement from a book I recently finished entitled, The Human Side of Change: Reform, Resistance, and the Real-Life Problems of Innovation comes to mind:

"The most dramatic change in moving from a staff position into a [formal] leadership role is the loss of peers" (Evans, 1996, p. 151)

While I continue to enjoy quality relationships with teachers in my district, the distance between us has naturally widened.  I now have responsibilities beyond classroom walls.  Rather than working with twenty-five students at a time on a daily basis, I am charged with helping nearly one hundred adults that I can only gather together several times per year, see, feel, understand, share, and implement a common vision.  I don't think I realized how close I became with the other high school math teachers during the three minute hallway conversations in between classes, spontaneous after school meetings and carpooling to the annual state math teachers conference.  There were three or four of us in the math department, depending on the year.  I thought we worked well together.  Looking at the team now, I think they're even tighter as a team!  The teacher who replaced me is wise beyond her years as an educator, so I feel really good about leaving a group of educators who have improved since my departure.

Don't get me wrong.  I enjoy working with my current administrative team and I couldn't imagine starting my beyond-the-classroom career with a better group.  We are fortunate enough to meet together on a nearly weekly basis for several hours.  While our roles all include positional authority, three of them are charged with leading buildings, one the entire district and me...well, I wear quite a few hats (mentoring and induction lead, professional learning coordinator, special education director, technology director, Title 1 director, gifted education director, curriculum director, etc.) that often overlap with the rest of the team.  While I feel a definite part of the team, I do not have a "hallway discussion" confidant anymore.  As Evans (1996) suggested, it has been a dramatic change.

This year, I am interested in connecting even more with district administrators in similar roles.  Here are a few action items I plan to pursue during the 2014-15 school year.  In no particular order...

• Continue attending the quarterly area curriculum director meetings (Develop existing relationships and strengthen new ones)
• Seek out a leadership role in the area special education director meetings (Deeper learning in this area.  Consider finding an informal mentor)
• Spend several hours observing and reflecting with district administrators in a similar role around Iowa.  (Establish a more formal learning community, face-to-face or virtual)
• Pursue central office academic literature describing validated practices of central office administrators. 

3 days + 1 smartphone = 5 minute video documentary quenching your curiosity

"District Administrators: What do they do all day?"

(inspired by a session at EdCamp Iowa)

This is a 3 post collaborative effort between Russ (classroom teacher), Eric (building principal) and myself (central office admin).  Full disclosure: Eric is also my brother and Russ is also my brother-in-law.

We are planning to lead a session at EdCamp Eastern Iowa in a few weeks.  The three of us spend countless hours on Twitter, on the phone and at family get-togethers talking about our differing perspectives on education based partly on our current roles as teacher, building administrator and district administrator.  We don't claim to have all of the answers, but I think we're pretty confident we have lots of questions about what school leadership can and should look like from the perspectives of our roles.  A few of my questions follow.

1. What is leadership?  
• a person with influence?  
• a person with a specific title? 
• a noun?  a verb?
2. What does a leadership structure really look like that values teachers as leaders?
3. Beyond 140 characters, what does "teacher leadership" look like in practice at the building level?  district level?
4. How might a building administrator's actions "in the name of giving teachers leadership experience" actually abdicate his/her responsibility as a leader?
5. What are examples of district and building administrators giving teachers a false sense of influence and voice?
6. As a teacher, in what ways can your principal realistically utilize you as a leader in the building that still allow you to focus on your day-to-day role with students?
7. As a building principal or teacher, what are you looking for in a central office administrator?

Cynthia McCabe said that:

Until one is hoisted into the high-pressure role of school administrator, there is no way to comprehend the complexities and competing interests that assert themselves into the myriad of decisions made within the course of a day.  It's easy for an observer to judge a school leader for decisions that seem to be made for the purposes of efficiency and peace in the faculty lounge.  I know I did my share of judging while in the the classroom.  However, that ended when my first administration position began.  By the end of my first week of crying kindergartners, complaining parents, voluminous paperwork, restrictive policies, tight budgets, and stressed out teachers, I completely empathized with all of my previous administrators and the decisions they had made.  My eyes were opened to the realities of the role. (p. 2)

I've had a few days lately when Cynthia's thoughts were real close to home.  Then I snapped out of it.  To use Cynthia's phrase, my eyes were opened to the tasks at hand that truly mattered -- providing feedback through classroom walk throughs; meeting with teachers in small groups to talk about what's going in their classroom; investing in the lives of my former students; encouraging classroom teachers;  and writing notes of appreciation to colleagues.

Our actions illustrate our values.  Sometimes I choose to value the management tasks.  Other days, I choose to value students and their learning.  It's not easy.

Context:

I taught high school math for six years.   No doubt, it was challenging.  I grew frustrated with the generalizations that teaching was an easy occupation and that the solutions were simple.

Here are a few fictitious examples that aren't necessarily related to pedagogical strategies learned in teacher prep programs:

• motivating Suzie who doesn't see the need to graduate high school
• helping Johnny learn the three big ideas he missed while he was out sick for two weeks
• working with Amanda, a student who is having difficulties focusing in school because her parents are going through a divorce at home.

Thank you to Dr. Tom Buckmiller for inviting me to share some of my thoughts on the role of technology in education with his class of aspiring principals.

"Think back a few years ago when no one in our school was using standards-based grading.  Now, look at how many teachers are moving in that direction!" - a teacher from our high school.

I'm in my second year as an administrator in a district of approximately 1300 students.  The administrative team consists of me, the superintendent, and three building principals.  On any given day, I wear one of many hats: technology director, curriculum director, mentoring and induction facilitator, special education director, and also the guy who completes many of the state and federal reports.  I'll be honest in saying there are days when I wonder if central office folks can really make a difference. A few experiences I had today, including the conversation leading to the quote above, helped set me back on the path of feeling a part of this thing we call education. 

I tell myself almost weekly that I don't want to lose sight of what it's like to be a classroom teacher.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my current job and its challenges, but there are days (weeks?! months?!) I wish I still was teaching full-time.  When I taught high school math, it was easy to describe what I do on a regular basis to those outside the field of education, "I teach kids geometry and statistics."  Because school is a part of nearly everyone's upbringing, the life of a high school math teacher doesn't seem too mysterious.  When I decided to step away from the classroom, I quickly learned that I needed a "non-education" description of this new job.  I describe my role as a person that "helps teachers become better teachers so that more students can learn at a high level."  Pretty vague, eh?  Let me try to explain. 


One of the biggest reasons I took this job was to see if it really is possible for a school to move beyond "sit and get" professional development that lacks follow-up and a connection to student learning, to something meaningful**.  I realized that no matter how often I volunteered to teach or observe in classrooms, I would likely be seen as someone who has lost touch with what it's like to be a classroom teacher.  The key would be to to enlist the assistance of classroom teachers in planning professional development.  Our district leadership team (DLT) consists of building principals, two or three classroom teachers per building and me.  Here's an outline of the process we've used over the past 14 months or so.  First, we meet a week before school starts for a full (paid!) day together and begin outlining the big picture for the year.  We look at our activities from last year, several staff feedback surveys, and a self-study of our progress related to long-term targets we've set.  During this day, we also plan the first day of all-district professional learning.  Here continues the cycle of plan - execute - reflect. 

1. Execute the professional learning activities with DLT classroom teachers leading as often as possible.
2. Ask each staff member to complete an anonymous feedback survey, including a question along the lines of, "What do we need to do next?"
3. I send out the survey results district-wide so that we all have time to reflect on the feedback.
4. I use the results from the feedback survey and our outline for the year to create activities for the district leadership team to experience.  I'll call this the "mini PD" for the sake of further discussion.
5. Before the next professional development day, the DLT meets for a half day and participates in the "mini PD" that I've planned. 
6. We spend the rest of the afternoon or morning planning the next all-district professional learning activities using an outline I've created ahead of time.  Typically, the "mini PD" is an activity or two that might fit into our next all-district professional development day.  By trying it out with the DLT, it gives them a chance to experience it first hand before deciding if/how we should use it with our entire staff.
7. The DLT executes the professional learning activities with classroom teachers leading as often as possible. 
   (Repeat feedback, reflection and planning based on that feedback)

Today, the DLT met.  The meeting started off with the usual "mini PD."  It's pretty typical for the team to tweak or even slightly overhaul my learning activities outline during the planning process, but today something extraordinary happened.  The learning activities outline was completely overhauled, proving my plan to be mediocre at best.  Even though it created some deep conversation about current practice, the "mini PD" the teachers experienced was quickly removed from the outline and postponed until a later date.  The plan we came up with is differentiated by building.  The teachers in this team made it clear by saying...

"I like the idea of doing .....but based on our feedback, we need to spend more time on...."

and

"We can't overwhelm our colleagues with...but we need to provide additional guidance with...."

It's a great group of teachers to work with, because they're not afraid to speak up when our planning does not look "teacher friendly," but what's really impressed me lately is the team's willingness to seek progress rather than procrastination - sometimes at the expense of pushing the limits of themselves and their colleagues.  For example, after sticking to a previously set staff deadline (when I initially suggested we provide more grace), the team shortened yet another deadline.  This team of teachers and principals is stepping out on a limb to avoid Parkinson's law, believing that more time isn't always needed to complete a task. 


The story I've shared here may not be incredibly memorable for those outside our district, but I hope it begins to illustrate the point that teachers play an important role in planning professional development.  Without their input, those of us without classrooms full-time are often left with a mediocre plan at best.  

How are teachers being used, if at all, in your district to plan professional development activities? 


**This year, our anonymous feedback survey data indicates we're trending in the right direction.

In my district of ~1300 students, the administrative team consists of three building principals, the superintendent and myself. I oversee curriculum, staff development, special education, technology, new teacher mentoring, many state/federal reports, and countless other smaller projects. I'm in my second year in this role after teaching six years of math in the high school setting. Today, we finished our second day of school and I'm now reflecting on the diversity of activities and responsibilities that filled up these two ten hour days. The following brief narrative is more for my own personal reflection, but it also may answer a question that I used to ponder every once in a while,

"What does a district administrator do on the first day(s) of school?"

-Visited all three buildings to see the nervousness and excitement of the new and veteran teachers.
-Video taped an assembly featuring a cover band of high school teachers literally get kids on their feet to show their excitement to be back at school. (Did I mention the high school principal sang a solo?)
-Assisted one middle school student and one high school student find their way to their new classes.
-Sought out teachers during their prep times to ask them what they were most excited about for the upcoming year.
-Responded to several emails from staff members looking for quick responses to IT requests (Goal: alleviate the work load of our short-handed IT staff!)
-Discussed next steps for our district's staff development with teachers who played a role in designing our before school in-service day.
-Started recruiting new community members for our district's school improvement advisory committee.
-Brainstormed ways to continue supporting our second year teachers.
-Met with an extended learning program teacher to brainstorm new and improved ways to serve our brightest students.
-Sent an all-staff email communicating upcoming changes to our assessment schedule for the year.
-Assisted Kindergarten students in opening their milk cartons during their first snack time.
-Gave high fives to first grade students in the hallway.
-Consulted with a teacher and our IT specialist on modifications to our students use of Google Apps for Education
-Replied to emails from staff members inquiring about a setting that needed to be changed in our student information system.
-Encouraged elementary teachers who have put in a tremendous amount of extra time getting their classroom ready for the first day in the midst of an ongoing renovation project.

In total, my email program says I sent 87 email messages over the past two days. Not sure if that's a record, but WOW.

It's going to be another great year!

Nearly seven months ago, I mentioned that my role would be changing.  It's been an eye opening experience at times sitting on the "other side of the table" as a district administrator after serving for six years as a high school math teacher.

I've been serving in my new role now for a little over four months now and have learned (at least) four lessons about schools, education and the change process.  Without further ado...

1. Just as it is impossible to please every student in the classroom, it is also impossible to please every adult staff member at a meeting or professional learning time.  One staff member may want to meet in the room with the comfy chairs while another realizes the room with the not-so-comfy chairs is better suited for the day's agenda.  What makes sense for the music department may be the decision that puts three other departments in a difficult situation.  Shifting to see the big picture or as one professor calls it, the "balcony view," takes some time and adjustment...and it is bound to ruffle a few feathers along the way.
   
2. The same classroom idiosyncrasies are present in administration, too.  Students don't always come to class prepared; adults don't always come to professional development ready to learn.  Students want everything to be fun, exciting and new; adults get frustrated when meetings and in-services aren't as exciting as their favorite hobbies.  Have you ever had that student that thought they already knew it all or wasn't plain interested in learning, despite your best dog and pony show?  Surprisingly, classroom teachers have been known to exhibit some of these same qualities.  Creating activities that are interesting, valuable and engaging for a large number of adults is just as challenging as it was for me to create lessons for my high school math students
   
3. There is not enough time in the day/week/month to solicit input from classroom teachers before every decision is made.  As a teacher, one of the ways I felt valued as a professional was to be a part of decisions that impacted students at the building or district level.  I cheerfully served on and chaired various building and district committees.  Shortly after I moved to the "other side of the table," I realized that the system is not setup to solicit enormous amounts of input from classroom teachers.  Bill Ferriter blogs about this topic from time to time.  Bill calls it "influence by proximity," administrators lending a listening ear to their teachers on an ongoing basis.  Let's say I spent all of my time visiting teachers before school, during their prep periods and after school on a regular basis.  This means the teacher must be willing to give up his/her time to do this as well.  This is the problem I see.  In order to adequately bring teachers on board for many of the decisions they want to be a part of, they would need to participate in meetings on a weekly (and sometimes more often than that) basis.  Sorry, Mrs. Jones...there goes your prep time; please take twice as much work home to do all in the name of increased input from you, the classroom teacher. In times like these when budgets are tight, I'm not able to hire subs regularly to pull out teachers to play a greater role in the decision making process.  Here me out - I don't bring this up because I devalue input from the staff in my district, but the reality is teachers only have so many hours in the day and those hours tend to be reserved for reflecting, planning and grading for the next class, day, week or unit.  Asking our best teachers to take more work home doesn't sound like a winning strategy, which brings me to the last lesson...
   
4. Educators, just like students do not always know/realize what is in their best immediate interests.  A quality teacher knows the activities that will lead students to deep levels of learning.  Initially, students may groan and verbalize their unwillingness to engage in the activity, but after the fact, learning has taken place and the best students look back and realize the value of the activity.  The same is often true of initiatives, professional development, and top-down rules/regulations.  Initially, adults may not feel valued because XYZ is being forced upon them, but a few days, weeks or months later, it becomes apparent to the good teachers that XYZ was necessary and beneficial.  In the interim, Joe Administrator fields plenty of questions and fields some heat for forcing XYZ.  When Joe sticks to his guns (because he knows XYZ is worth supporting), it may seem like he is stubborn or unwilling to listen to his subordinates, but in hindsight Joe made the right decision. 

These four topics are the ones I think about regularly as I reflect on my new role.  At times, it feels like I'm starting over as a first year teacher fresh out of college.  Other days, I feel like this is the job I've been trained and preparing to do for years.  Compared to teaching, my gut tells me the rewarding experiences are even more rewarding, however the difficult days are even more difficult.  Classroom teachers, where have I misrepresented you?  Administrators, what have I missed so far in my limited time serving in this capacity?  Feel free to leave your comments and questions below.