Lessons from the Happiest Place on Earth

“Happy New Year!”  As we enter into 2017, how many times have you heard or expressed these three words?  Like many of you, I have been thinking about my resolutions for the coming year.  Specifically, I started thinking about what would make this New Year “happy”? I couldn’t help but think of a recent experience that was joy-filled.  Last November, my wife and I took Max on a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico to celebrate his 3rd birthday.  Not just any cruise, but a Disney cruise. For those of us who have been conditioned by marketing, you know that Disney strives to create, “The happiest place on earth.”  As we set sail, it became apparent that the staff was purposefully attending to our joy.  As I reflect on the voyage, I realize that there are many lessons to be learned for creating a positive climate and culture in our schools from the folks at Disney.

     -     Maintain a relational focus over a transactional one.  They assigned us to a different dinner location each night of the cruise.  On the first night, we were greeted and cared for by a small team of servers.   They quickly learned our names and were spot on in attending to our needs.  We sat with a family with two children.  My surprise came on the second night when we went to a different restaurant.  The serving staff had moved with us!  Additionally, we were seated again with the same charming family that we met the night before.  What a great way to allow time for relationships to form!  The dining experience was not just about getting us fed; it was about making connections AND getting us fed.

How can we be purposeful about this in schools?  One way is to ensure continuity with people on the campus.  Assigning assistant principals and counselors to specific students by alpha, sets up this dynamic. Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to have three assistant principals and three counselors at my junior high.  Rotating them, as partners, through the grade levels gives three years for them to grow relationships.  They are able to serve the same group of kids and grow their professional relationship as well.

     -     Provide a range of experiences based upon interest and readiness.   Each day we were provided a paper copy of the day’s schedule of activities.  The “Navigator” was also available as an app for those who are tech-savvy.  It was easy and exciting to select which experiences we would engage in.  Disney clearly knows that differentiating experiences creates happy cruisers. 

As educators, we are wise when we use choice to motivate our learners.  Even though our learning targets may be dictated, there is no reason our students can’t demonstrate their mastery in multiple ways.  Moving beyond simply differentiating by choice, we need to level our classroom activities to meet the kids where they are.  Simply teaching everyone the same thing, at the same level, the same way, is a sure bet to disengage most everyone in the room.  Imagine if the folks at Disney only offered one standard type of arts and crafts activity that was appropriate for 12-year-olds all day.  There would not be many returning cruisers.  This type of standardization of activity happens in many schools, every day. 

  

     -     If something goes wrong, take responsibility and work to make it right.  On the first day in our cabin, we noticed a loud banging noise coming from the outside of the ship.  It sounded like the angry ghost of Davy Jones beating on the hull with his rusty chains!  I called the concierge to see if it could be addressed.  Within five minutes an attendant was down and in the room listening for the banging to repeat itself.  As you might imagine, Davy Jones decided to give his banging a break.  Much like the noise your car only makes when the mechanic is not around, we waited and waited.  After 10 awkward minutes, Davy began banging once more with wild abandon.  After hearing this, the gentleman left with a promise to investigate.  Shortly thereafter, we received an apologetic phone call from the concierge stating that they would not be able to address the issue until they were in port.  She offered us another room, on the other side of the ship.  Not only that, they sent an attendant to help us move our luggage, and gave us a $100 ship-board credit!  The final act of goodwill came in the form of a precious Mickey Mouse plush toy for Max.  Clearly the folks on this ship knew how to take responsibility for shortcomings and what steps to take to correct the issue.

Too many times, we fail to model ownership of issues with our students.  This is not just an issue in schools, it is widespread in our society.  The need to seem perfect and deflect responsibility for our mistakes is at the heart of many of our current struggles.  When we are vulnerable enough to say that we made a mistake, and work to correct it, we humanize ourselves and draw closer to our learners. The same is true when we work with parents.  Admitting a shortcoming and then demonstrating the courage to work through it builds respect and trust.  We only get what we model.

     -     Find joy in the journey, not just the destination. Of all the lessons that the Disney folks reminded me of, I believe this is the most important.  Because they attended to relationships, provided engaging experiences, and worked hard to make things right, we enjoyed each day.  When we arrived at that tropical paradise folks call Cozumel, it was wonderful, but not necessarily the highlight of the trip.  The trip was the highlight of the trip. 

How do you ensure that your students are enjoying their journey as a member of your classroom or campus?  Engaging students through clubs, and extracurricular activities gives them the strong sense of belonging that creates emotional engagement.  I believe that it is the job of every adult in a school to cultivate relationships.  It starts with a smile and acknowledgement every day. 

All this leads me back to how my resolutions can bring about a “Happy New Year”.  I have recommitted to my own personal health with the typical focus on diet and exercise.  Upon reflection, I realize what will really make this year happy is to bring joy to others, specifically the students and staff that I lead.  This is at the heart of happiness for me, as a servant leader.  

Cursed! 8 Roadblocks to Success

I am a people watcher.  My wife and I enjoy this hobby together and refer to it as “visiting the human zoo.” Although the appearance of folks can be entertaining, I find the most joy in watching behavior.  I am especially fascinated by how beliefs, perceptions and values play out in our behaviors.  Many people will point to student behavior as the most driving factor in a school’s success.  This simply is not true.  Adult behaviors drive school success.  I can clearly visualize one teacher who almost bounces down the hall during passing, engaging everyone with eye contact and a smile.  The way he carries himself says, “I am so happy to be here and glad you are too!”  A minute later, another staff member passes walking with purpose clearly not interacting with anyone.  The flat affect of their body language communicates disengagement and despondency.  How is it that two highly-educated, well-meaning professionals can respond in such a dramatically different way to their environment?  How can one teacher find success with a group of challenging kids when another cannot?  It is as if some educators have been cursed.  One can define a “curse” as the source of trouble or bad luck.  Let’s take a look at some of these roadblocks to success.  I challenge you to identify specific people that come to your mind as you reflect on this list.

1)      The Culture of Complaint Curse – I am saddened by how often conversations between people start with a complaint.   Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand that one of the quickest ways to build an ally is to find a common enemy.  But to be emotionally healthy, this can’t be our only relationship-building strategy.  As educators, we need to hold ourselves accountable to model positivity for our students and one another.  Those who suffer from this curse fowl the nest that is our school culture.

2)      The Curse of Knowledge - The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads better-informed parties to find it extremely difficult to communicate concepts at the level that a novice learner needs.  Students can become intimidated and reluctant to ask questions for fear of looking less than smart.  Educators who suffer from this curse often make inaccurate assumptions about their learners.  They believe their students are disengaged and “just don’t care.”  Teachers carrying this curse lack the skill set necessary to meet the learner at their current level of mastery and bring them where they need to be.

3)      The Curse of Invulnerability - This curse drives educators to not allow themselves to be truly seen.  The focus for those with this curse is concern of appearing to be smart, strong and capable.  It is often masked by what people describe as “professional distance.”  This curse interferes with relationship building, transparency, and true connection to others.  Shame leads to blame and true discourse about real issues never happens.  If you are not among the 24 plus million people who have watched Brene Brown’s TED talk about vulnerability, do yourself a huge favor and do so today!  (Click here to view)

4)      The Curse of Complacency – This curse manifests itself as a quiet voice in the mind of the individual that whispers, “I have arrived personally and professionally.” It kills the drive to receive feedback or seek further growth.  Author Jim Collins captures it perfectly with the quote (below) from his book, Good to Great.  Acceptance of the status quo is the order of the day for those afflicted.  This can be a huge issue for leaders working to transform “high performing” campuses as measured by standardized testing.  Teachers in these settings are especially susceptible to the curse since their current practice seems to be effective based upon test scores. The insidious nature of this curse keeps these teachers from actively seeking best
practices. 

5)      The Curse of Standardization – This curse has reached epidemic proportions in education.  It is a sly curse disguising itself as high expectations, clear direction and tradition.  Whether it is the federally supported Common Core, or state-based standards such as our Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, our learning targets are too numerous to be truly learned at a deep level.  In an attempt to fully cover the wide breadth of standards, teachers fall victim to the curse by providing the exact same instruction for rooms full of learners with a great disparity of competencies.   Despite the obvious need for differentiation, the Curse of Standardization keeps us in a traditional lesson cycle of lecture, independent practice, homework, test, grade and move on.  In an effort to create "well-rounded" individuals, creativity is killed and students disengage.  What a tragic curse that directs us to standardize rather than build student’s strengths, support them in following their passion, and ultimately owning their learning. 

6)      The Curse of Experience – There is an old adage that says, “Experience is the best teacher.” I agree with that statement.  I also know that experience can be a killer of the creative problem solving needed to be successful.  People carrying the Curse of Experience are incapable of novel problem solving.  They seek to apply the same set of processes to new problems.  They become frustrated when they have different results from before, not recognizing that different variables are currently in play. Frequently those carrying this curse suffer from “mistalgia.”  Beware the educator that always starts the conversation around problem-solving with, “At my old campus….” This individual might be suffering from this curse.

7)      The Curse of Low Expectations – This curse kills our ability to help students reach their potential.  When afflicted, teachers no longer believe that certain students can be successful.  They will actively seek new instructional strategies, but nothing works because the real issue lies with the teacher himself.  One can sometimes detect those who suffer from this curse when they judge entire groups (class periods, grade levels, etc.) of kids as incapable.   If you hear a professional make the statement, “Bless his heart.” you can be assured that the Curse of Low Expectations is raising its ugly head.

8)      The Curse of Hypocrisy - This is the darkest and most dangerous curse. When afflicted, the curse bearer engages in the same behavior or activity for which he criticizes another.  At its onset, the individual simply lacks self-awareness.  Once the curse has reached its apex, the individual is aware that they are passing judgment on others while demonstrating the behavior they are judging.  Despite this awareness, they lack the self-honesty or motivation to change.  An example of this is the principal that reprimands the teacher who does not differentiate, but provides no differentiation for his teachers during staff development.  Another example is the man who attends church and while processing the sermon, sees the sins of others and never recognizes them as his own.  For this reason some refer to this as “The Church-goers Curse.”

At the beginning of this post, I challenged you to identify specific people that came to your mind as you thought about each curse.  Did you ever identify yourself?  If not, you might be suffering from the Curse of Hypocrisy yourself. :-0)

As a reflective leader, I have spent time lately trying to understand the factors, biases, and distorted thoughts that interfere with our success as educators.  It is easier to recognize these problems than it is to ameliorate them.  How does one go about curing these curses?  Here is what I recommend:

·         Start with self-awareness.  We all have fears, biases and prejudices that influence our actions.  Becoming aware of those that potentially limit us from being our best self is critical.  Reflect on your curses. Perhaps you will want to identify a curse that is a roadblock to your success listed in this post.

·         Once identified, be intentional with how you guard yourself against the curse.  Shift your self-talk. Mind what you do and say when interacting with others. Model what you expect.

·         When you see others who are afflicted by a curse, be willing to have a courageous conversation with them.  Help them with their journey to become the best-of-the-best.  This is at the heart of what it means to be a servant leader.

What other “curses” can you identify?  Please comment and add to this list.  I would love to hear your voice!

The Devil is in the Differentiation

Public education is in an engagement crisis. One of the most common concerns I hear from teachers is that their students are not engaged. If you gather a group of experienced principals together and talk to them about their top roadblocks to transformation on their campus, a lack of teacher engagement will be at or near the top of the list. According to Gallup research in 2012 only one in three U.S. teachers, K-12, are engaged in their job. Principals and district level leaders are not immune to disengagement. At almost any meeting or professional learning session all one has to do is look around the room and see a variety of folks engaged with their electronic device and not in the topic at hand.  Disengagement is a killer of learning and productivity at every level! How do we turn this around?

Some would argue that we could address this through punitive measures. Teachers continue to take points away for late work, record zeros for undone assignments and keep disengaged students after school. Principals document teachers who are unmotivated and not taking care of students and other professional expectations.

Others would argue that we can motivate others best through reward systems. Many schools, including mine, have token economies and prize structures to recognize positive behavior. Teachers give bonus points or extra credit for students who scramble at the last minute for a passing grade. A jeans pass for teachers is the order of the day for staff rewards. Some school systems offer staff members merit pay for what is seen as exceptional performance based upon test scores.

What we do know is that these external motivators do increase the level of behavioral engagement or compliance. This is not enough. Quiet classrooms and cooperative employees are no guarantee for student achievement or staff engagement. We must move beyond mere compliance if we want to maximize everyone's potential.  What we need is cognitive engagement. Creativity and critical thinking live here. So how do we reach people so that they are motivated intrinsically to engage at a meaningful level?

Daniel Pink does a fine job of shining a light in the dark places surrounding what motivates people. He shares research that shows that extrinsic motivators, like money, increase performance for linear tasks and those that require mechanical skills.  The same does not hold true for high level thinking tasks. 

Pink describes three factors that lead to better performance. (Click here to see the video) These are autonomy, mastery and a sense of purpose. If you are struggling to engage others ask yourself these questions:

• How am I providing choice for those I wish to engage?
• How am I determining where people are in terms of their competencies and support them on their journey to achieve mastery?
• What am I doing to make this work tie into a larger purpose?

I believe that these three areas speak to the need to personalize learning.  When it comes to personalizing learning, the devil is in the differentiation.  I hold Carol Ann Tomlinson as my top influencer when it comes to understanding what differentiation is and what it is not.  She has produced a number of books and other resources that will support interested educators seeking to become more masterful.  There are two key characteristics that she identifies for instructional consideration that align well with Pink’s research.  Tomlinson describes “interest” as what the learner enjoys learning about, thinking about and doing.  If we can give the learner the autonomy to choose, we are drawing from what drives from within.  A second characteristic that Tomlinson describes is “readiness.”  Readiness can be defined as the learner’s current knowledge, understanding, or skill set related to the learning target.  Establishing readiness provides a starting point for us to begin growing others toward mastery.  Human nature tends to predispose us to enjoy the things we are good at.  When we support growing our learners from where they are toward mastery, we again draw on their internal motivation and increase engagement. 

In the paragraph above I was purposeful in choosing the descriptor, “the learner.” Many would assume I am referring to students and the need for teachers to personalize their instruction.  This idea is bigger than that.  It applies to all of us at every level in the education world.  It is the highest form of hypocrisy when leaders ask others to do what we are unwilling to do. This is not easy work, given limited resources, time constraints, and the factory model that constrains much of our system.  These constraints define the box that we must innovate within. 

If we hope to break the trend in which shifting demographics are the best predictor of student achievement, we must differentiate to personalize learning for our students.  If we are to ameliorate the crisis of teacher disengagement, we must differentiate to personalize their professional learning.  If we are to engage education leaders and empower them to model this practice, personalization is again a must. 

I am encouraged that the State of Texas is moving to a system that has the potential to support the type of personalization we all deserve as educators.  If used appropriately as a tool for reflective practice, the proficiency scales embedded within the teacher system, T-TESS, have great potential.  These rubrics will provide the structure to have instructional conversations that are deeper and more focused than ever before.  It appeals to me that, as a principal, I will have the same type of scale to give direction to my personalized learning through the T-PESS framework. It is so powerful when our practices and expectations align at every level.  

Like most growth that leads to positive change, this will no doubt create discomfort for us all.  Are you willing to do the hard work and lean into this discomfort as a teacher...principal...central office administrator?  We are all charged with becoming the designers of engaging experiences. I am committed to fully engage in this work for my staff.  Let's model what we want for ourselves, each other, and most of all, our students.  We ALL deserve it!  

Feel free to leave your comments/thoughts/ideas below.  This is a discourse worth having.  Let's talk!

Honoring Influencers

     I am a believer in the old adage, “Give credit where credit is due.”  In fact, this was a major issue that I grappled with when I first considered creating a blog.  The last thing I want others to believe is that I am attempting to be credited for their idea.  Professionally, I have been influenced by a variety of people inside and outside the field of education through conferences and various forms of media including books, articles, videos, blogs, etc. I think an apt descriptor for these individuals is the term, "influencer."  I am indebted to influencers for my success as a leader.   How do I honor those that have shaped my thoughts, opinions and ultimately my actions?  This post is an attempt to identify and celebrate a few of the people who have shaped my professional work.  I strongly suspect that as you recognize those on the list and my takeaways from each influencer, you will be nodding your head in acknowledgment of their impact.  

Roland Barth – influenced the way I look at professional relationships in the workplace.  It is critical that we move beyond mere congeniality toward collegiality to foster the growth of our organizations.

Brene Brown – influenced my understanding of the connection between shame, vulnerability, and their impact on relationships.  We must “lean into the discomfort” if we are to grow.

Camerer, Loewenstein and Weber – influenced me to be mindful of, “The Curse of Knowledge.”  This cognitive bias makes it extremely difficult for the experienced individual to think about problems from the perspective of the novice.  Many times, those with the deepest knowledge about a subject struggle the most communicating their understanding to others, especially kids.  Educators MUST beware this curse!

Jimmy Casas – influenced my view of what it means to be a “connected educator.” Without his influence, you would not be reading this post because it would never have been written.

Jim Collins – influenced the steps I use to transform my school.  He helped me to realize that there is inherent complacency when you are in a “good” organization.  The sequence of facing the brutal facts, focusing on getting the right people into the right role, and ultimately providing a simplified focus for your organization based upon passion, drives my work.  Leadership 101.

David Cottrell – influenced my thoughts on increasing the rigor of hiring staff and being purposeful in celebrating the “Superstars.”

Stephen Covey – influenced my thoughts on what to focus on as a leader and the best means to do it… through collaboration.  Love the proactive plea of, “Begin with the end in mind.”

Rick DuFour – influenced the way I see teams working as Professional Learning Communities. His four PLC questions move teams from simple delegation of tasks to collaborating about student learning.

Carol Dweck – influenced my understanding of how one’s mindset put us on a path to grow, or fixes us in our current level of proficiency.  She fundamentally changed the way I praise.  “You are so smart” is no longer in my vernacular. 

Eric Jensen – influenced my understanding of the plasticity of the brain as well as how we best support students that come from poverty.  Our economically disadvantaged students need language development much like an English language learners. 

Patrick Lencioni – influenced my understanding of how trust is the foundation of high functioning teams.  Enemies to our teams are a lack of vulnerability, artificial harmony, an unclear purpose, and ego. 

Robert Marzano – influenced my knowledge of research-based effective strategies. More recently, his work on the development of proficiency scales has been central to our work with standards-based learning.

McTighe and Wiggins – influenced the way I see lesson planning to focus on student understanding.  The concepts of backward design, essential questions and enduring understandings have become so common to PLC planning, many have forgotten where the terms were coined.

Alan November – influenced the way I see technology as a tool.  He led me down the path to Twitter which has fundamentally changed the way I learn professionally.

Malichi Pancoast – influenced how my assistant and I work in partnership to support the school.  Shifts in how my time is managed have put me in more classrooms than ever before.  Breakthrough coaching in a MUST for any new principal/secretary partnership and will even benefit veterans.

Ruby Payne – influenced my understanding of the effects of poverty on students.  An awareness of how the hidden rules of economic class translate into our need teach the ‘unwritten’ rules for success in school came to light through her work.  The concept of language registers and the need to work with students to develop an ability to see the need to move between registers was a big take away. 

Rita Pearson – influenced the way I deescalate argumentative parents.  She reminded me to always start with what the student can do, even it is at a very low level because, “Every child needs a champion!”

Daniel Pink – influenced my understanding of what motivates people intrinsically.  External reinforcers are great motivators for low level tasks.  For high level tasks, autonomy, mastery and a sense of purpose drive us from within. 

Sir Ken Robinson – influenced my views on how we need to adapt our current system to move away from the factory model of education and embrace personalized learning.  Real talk about what we currently DO to kids and what we should be doing FOR students.

Simon Sinek – influenced the way I start conversations to innovate or initiate change.  Focusing on the “why” instead of the “how” engages people.

Randy Sprick – influenced the way I viewed structuring classrooms and lessons.  CHAMPS and elements of this approach are common place throughout classrooms on my campus because of his work.

Carol Ann Tomlinson- influenced how I see differentiation as a means to provide opportunities for success with a range of learner competencies. Her teachings hold the keys to much of the personalized learning that we all seem to struggle to bring into classrooms.

Todd Whitaker – influenced the way I view “greatness” in a variety of educational roles.  Additionally, he has informed my skill set that moves responsibility from one staff member to the appropriate staff member.  Shifting that monkey!

Rick Wormeli – influenced the way I view assessment and grading.  He has created the moral imperative for me to work with a standards-based approach to instruction.

Harry Wong – influenced my understanding of the importance of clear expectations and routines to manage my classroom when I began teaching.  More importantly that is was OK to tell your class, “I Love You.”

     As I am drawing this list to a close, I am smiling at how incomplete it truly is.  Imagine throwing a fistful of gravel into a still pond and trying to find which individual pebble created a unique wave that impacts the shore among hundreds of waves.  That task would be easier than identifying our influencers.  With that in mind, let us as connected educators, not stress too much with “giving credit where credit is due.”  I strongly suspect if you were to interview any of the influencers listed, they would be quick to name those who influenced them to develop the ideas they have shared.  Instead, let us focus on becoming more connected as we act as superconductors of ideas and information.  What are you doing to multiply your influence and number of voices you are influenced by?  

Doing it Right the First Time

     As the principal of a Title I eligible campus, I have the privilege of working with a wide variety of kids.  They come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and represent multiple cultures.  We have great kids here at The Ranch!  For a myriad of reasons, our students sometimes have conceptual gaps.  High mobility, language barriers and family dynamics are just a few of the battles many of our kids face.   Because of these gaps, it is easy to get swept up into a variety of interventions designed to move them to where they need to be academically.  As an Instructional Leadership Team, we recognized how important it is that we provide quality instruction the first time.  It makes me think of this quote from Steve Jobs:

With this in mind, we began the work of describing some of the elements we believed were fundamental to quality first time instruction. 

      Bell-to-bell engagement - Our time with students is fixed and it is imperative that we maximize it.  We were purposeful in not describing this as bell-to-bell instruction.  We did not want to imply that teachers should stand and deliver, in a lecture format for a full period.  Even the best orator would struggle to keep folks engaged for this amount of time.  I would recommend the text, “Eight Myths of Student Disengagement” (Fredricks) to anyone seeking to gain a deeper understanding of how engagement influences learning.  Specifically, I appreciate the differentiation between behavioral engagement which is low level, on-task compliance and cognitive engagement.  Cognitive engagement involves those activities that cause our students to be challenged and think at higher levels.  Just because students are working in a quiet compliant manner, does not mean they are being stretched to think and learn.

     Clear objectives – Sometimes the most obvious and basic things get overlooked.  A clearly-stated, overtly-shared objective is one of those basic elements related to effective teaching.  Our collective campus expectation is to have the objective written as an “I can…” statement.  Without this clear direction for what is to be learned, even the most active lesson can become little more that entertainment.  Entertainment does not always equal learning.

·       

    High level questioning – Questioning that leads to learning is an art.  Initially, this area of our model was focused on moving toward more open-ended questions that promote high cognition.  In an effort to make this work come to life, we did a study of the verbs in our standards (TEKS).  We pulled the most common verbs and organized them according to Bloom’s Taxonomy.  We then created posters that are in all our classrooms that have this information.  We call these “High Side” posters.  These are a reminder to our teachers of this expectation during lessons and in planning. Over time we have expanded our focus on questioning to include wait time and randomizing who answers the question.

      Technology as a tool – What an amazing time to be alive!  Technology that was once science fiction is readily available and has the potential to bring us together like never before.  At times, we can get more focused on how amazing the tool is rather than what we need to accomplish that might involve the use of the tool.  I think about how I love to stroll through Home Depot and look at new hand tools.  I have a recent memory of purchasing a drill and then looking for something that needed a hole in it!  Historically, purchases have been made for schools in a similar fashion.  After the purchase, teachers are made aware of the latest hardware or software and then look for what to do with it.  Our belief is that we should identify what we want to do instructionally and then look for the best strategy to reach our goal.  This may very well involve a technology tool.  We are delving into the SAMR model and trying to move to more transformative uses of these tools.

             Differentiated – This is one of the great challenges for teachers is working with a group of students who have a variety of background experiences and competencies.  If you want students to be motivated from within, differentiation is key.  Dan Pink’s work on motivation is a solid place to start to understanding the "why" for differentiation, Check out the video, “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us.”  He identifies 3 areas that drive an individual’s intrinsic motivation.  These include autonomy, mastery, and a sense of purpose.  Two of these three are reflected in a differentiated classroom.  Central to autonomy is learner choice.  Masterful teachers find ways for students to have locus of control within a framework that targets a standard.  As humans, we sometimes avoid things that we don’t feel competent at.  I am not a good dancer… yet! Because I don’t feel very masterful at the art of dance, I avoid it.  This same issue abounds in our classrooms.  Students choose not to engage because they are not masterful at the level of activity we put in front of them.  The challenge is to start at a level that they can find mastery and bring them to where the need to be.  It is great for us to promote high standards, but we must provide a scaffold to those who have a large instructional gap to leap.  This is why differentiation for readiness level is so necessary for many students.  Central to our understanding was Carol Tomlinson's work.

     Assessment guiding instruction – So often it seems that assessments are more like an autopsy than a checkup.   Of course it all about how we use the information.  Retests and do-overs after focused post assessment instruction support the use of data in a formative way.  Rick Stiggins does an excellent job of helping us understand the difference between assessments OF and FOR learning..  Summative assessment has its place for reporting but formative assessment is what drives student growth and learning. 

     With these areas identified in our Accomplished Teaching Model, we began our year-long staff development focused on these areas.  My next blog will discuss how we worked to identify what a passionate educator looks like.