Sentiments On Common Sense

This has been cross posted to www.leadertalk.org.

Sometimes work gets tough.

We have tough days, tough hours, tough meetings and tough conversations.

It ain’t fun.

Nobody likes conflict and sometimes things happen that make you wonder if it is really worth getting up and putting on that nice Dolche and Gabana tie and pretty pinstripe suit to get insulted, slammed and put down.

Yes… sometimes that is exactly what happens and we all hate it.

A few years back I stumbled upon a book in an airport that caught my eye.  The book titled “Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments, Finding Personal Meaning in a Crazy World” soon caught my imagination and a bit of my heart.  The author Kent Keith outlines the 10 Paradoxical Commandments in a clear, easy to read document that made me really dig down and think about my work, my life and my approach to challenges. You can see the commandments at the bottom of this post.

But, this is not why I am writing tonight. Tonight I am writing about the real challenge we have in schools.  The real challenge is facing the facts that schools, private, public and charter face an identity crisis of sorts.  We are struggling like adolescent kids trying to figure out what we are and we have so many people telling us we should be this, that or the other.

The fact is though that we have a set of clients that don’t really care what we are. To them we are THEIR school.

We are required to deliver the best to them that we can offer and no matter what people say. What board members, politicians, other administrators do, we must do the best for those kids in the rooms waiting with hope and fear and excitement and boredom and interest and… (well you get the point)… we must do the best for them despite the issues.  No matter what happens they deserve the best education we can provide ANYWAY.

I want to thank my colleague Alan Knobloch for the inspiration to this blog post.  Today we were venting and complaining and he piped into the conversation and reminded us all that tomorrow the kids come back to school and they deserve the best education we can provide. It does not matter what the adults do or say or vote. They deserve the best anyway. Thanks Alan.

Now… introducing the The Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent M. Keith.

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

Technorati Tags: Anyway, Paradoxical Commandments,

This just in off my smartbrief update from ASCD. This is an impressive list of ASCD Scholars representing educational leaders from around the world.

School Leadership in Theory and Practice
ASCD Conference Scholars — a group of teachers and administrators from across the U.S., Canada, Singapore, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates — are blogging and tweeting about school leadership in theory and in their own practice before, during and after ASCD’s 2010 Annual Conference in San Antonio. Readers can follow them and join the discussion on the ASCD blog and Twitter.

This looks like a great set of conversation starters! Share the link and dive in and participate!

Technorati Tags: ASCD, ASCD Scholars, Blogging, Twitter, ASCD2010

I am not sure how old I was when my Dad put a 9 iron in my hand in the back yard with those annoying little plastic whiffle balls to hit around, but I can remember whacking those tiny balls around the yard back and forth, to and fro…. later in life that same nine iron was the tool used for my first “real” shot on a golf course, hitting a green from about 110 yards, sticking that ball about 6 feet from the pin and gaining great praise from my Dad.

That was the shot on that course in Ontario, Oregon- Shadow Butte Golf Course, on the back nine (see photo above).   Over the past few years, I’d lost my glee of the game a bit.  My wrists ached, my back hurt, the walk was so long and I was just plain bad company the whole round.  I could occasionally hit those shots, but they didn’t seem to stick like they used to do so.  I am sure you know the feeling.  No joy. No glee.  No fun.  My clubs sat in the garage in my house in Shanghai looking out over the 15th tee of the Jack Nicolaus golf course. A kid in a candy store with no need to even take a taste.

Then at the end of the year, I took a few hours after school and decided to play a round with some guys at work.  As I stepped to the first tee, I decided I would change my mindset.  Instead of swinging with hesitation, trying to guide the ball, I would revert to that 9 iron I hit from 110 when I was 13 years old.  Afterall, how hard can it be.  The game is about putting the ball in the hole.  Just do it I thought.  I relaxed my arms.  Stood above the ball, took the club back with rhythm, my wrists relaxed, and swung down on that ball like I did 32 years ago.  No fear, no regrets, just a decisive, direct and rhythmic swing.  Even the bad shots felt good again.  My wrists stopped aching.  My elbows no longer were painful for 3 days after a round.  More importantly, my mind was able to concentrate on putting the ball in the hole instead of worrying about striking the ball. What was taking 5 or 6 strokes took 4 or 3… even sometimes two strokes.  I was able to think ahead.  Look two, three and four shots ahead.  I read putts and ROLLED putts rather than pushing them toward the hole.  When the ball rolls toward the goal they go in a lot more often!  The game has become fun again.

This coming year, I hope to play more golf, and will carve out time in the early mornings on weekends to do so.  I will also take my lesson of relaxing my local intent and thinking about the 3rd, 4th and 5th steps more carefully. Long term, I need to think like a golfer and remember the intent of my work.  Mark Shead wrote in his post “Leading on Purpose” on the blog Leadership 501 back in February, 2007 that leaders should examine each action from a leadership perspective.  He states:

Many people get put in a leadership
position and just lead by accident. They do whatever seems good at the
time without viewing each action as part of an overall plan. Sometimes
they do great things and sometimes they do things that really hurt them
from a leadership standpoint. Leading on purpose means making decisions
as part of an overall strategy to make it easier for people to follow
you. Whenever you get ready to do something, ask yourself if it will help
or hurt your leadership influence. For example, the evening you are
asking everyone else to stay and work late, probably isn’t a good time
to announce that you are head off to see a movie.

He goes on to write:

Leading on purpose means taking the long term approach to
leadership. It means thinking about how current actions will impact
your leadership ability 4 or 5 years down the road. In many situations
leaders don’t think like this. They expect to move on in 2 or 3 years,
so they only think about short term impact.

The problem with this approach is that the leadership legacy that
you have built will follow you beyond your current job. The world is
getting smaller and it is very likely that you will be working with
someone in the future that you’ve worked with before, or who is best
friends with someone you’ve worked with before. If you haven’t done a
good job of making long term decisions, it will come back to haunt you.

I guess, in reflection, this is what I am looking to do more effectively.  I need to play my game (both on the course and in my work) with the mindset of leaving a legacy.  In golf, my legacy should be to look to the next shot and then next shot and the next, all honoring the placement of the one that came before it.  In my work, I will strive to think about my next steps as a way to honor and follow the completed tasks of the past, building a legacy of consistency, intelligence and long term thinking.  In both cases, when it comes to the completion of a job, I can confidently step up and roll the final stroke to the goal knowing that my past work will more often than not have a positive result, and if I miss my mark it won’t be by much.

One of the things I forgot to do when I was not enjoying golf was look out on a hole that stretches out before me and admire the work of the course architect and course superintendent.  It is the challenge of the game that makes it fun.

The green grass, the wind, the occasional rain or the unbearable sun, it all contributes to the experience of the game.

You put your ball down.

Take a deep breath.

Maybe you take a practice swing.

Aim.

Relax.

Breath.

Rhythm.

Backswing.

Slight pause.

Weight forward to the left.

Turn hips slightly pulling the club down the line and watch the ball fly microseconds later.

Through the club feedback is given. Did I hit? Where on the club? How solid? Which direction?

Smile- no matter what.

I bend down to pick up my tee and start thinking about the next two or three shots.

Planning, thinking, breathing but living in the moment and laughing with my coworkers and friends.

This is my lesson from a game I forgot how to enjoy.

Golf Course Photo from http://www.oregongolf.com/ontario/ontarh09.htm
Swing photo from http://bnewman2000.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/inil01_jjhenry2.jpg?w=470&h=312

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Walking down the stairs of the Canadian International School of Hong Kong with my colleage @chinaleish- and if you have never been to this school let me tell you… THERE ARE LOTS OF STAIRS!! @chinaleish had a few things to say about the stairs and I was complaining about @adecardy getting up at 6-dark-thirty this morning to twitter about twittering! (There is probably more of a story there!)

That is when the question came:  “Andy…. How do you have time to twitter?”

Truthfully, during a busy working day, I do not have time and tend to just keep tweetdeck open during my day to check on the people I follow during a lunch break or during a lull in a meeting.  Very seldom do I tweet at all during a day unless there is something noteworthy.  My secretary does the tweeting for the school, but she generally does this in advance on tweetlater. In the evenings at home I often will do a little multitasking (TV, email, twitter, perhaps a blog post, some RSS reading, etc) after my kids are in bed.  It works. It keeps me connected. It keeps me informed.  I learn a little, laugh a little, and relax a lot. It is a little bit of “me” time embedded in my homework time.  Perhaps it may keep me a bit more balanced.

I have often linked posts to the Blue Skunk Blog. Doug Johnson is one of the best educational bloggers out there and if you don’t have this guy on your RSS list, you should link to him today.   He responds to some blog chatter about the issues with being “hyper connected”, which is certainly a concern of mine as well. He links out to Darren Draper(another strong educationally focused blog).  Darren has some issues with Twitter, and fair enough I say.  I would warn all readers that even broccoli will make you sick if you eat too much of it!  ALL things should be used in moderation!

Doug’s post about a PLN Bill of Rights and Responsibilities provides a nice framework for digital leaders to use for themselves, but also to be shared and pushed to their faculty and their students.

Doug’s of R and R’s for PLNs is:

Personal Network Member Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

1. I have the right not to be social 24/7 – either online or in person.
2. I have the right to time for reflection and responsibility for doing so.
3. I have the right to use only the tools that suit my learning style.
4. I have the right to stop using a tool when it is no longer useful.
5. I have the right to not be on the cutting edge all the time or feel I need to always know all there is to know.
6. I have the right to choose those with whom I learn in my personal learning network and responsibility to learn from those with whom I don’t always agree.
7. I have the right and responsibility to disagree and the responsibility to do it professionally.
8. I have the responsibility to become familiar with a tool before sharing it with others.
9. I have the responsibility to share my knowledge with others in my network.
10. I have the right and responsibility to not let online activities keep me from my friends, my family, my workplace, or my community.

So… What did he miss?  What needs to be considered as we look through the eyes of our children? Our family lives?

Thanks Doug for the great post and the help in maintaining our balance!

Doug Johnson, PLN Bill of Rights

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Sigh….

Through my Diigo in Education group link I received a notice of a blog entry titled “Top 10 Tech Skills Your Teen Needs Now”.

Wow… that sounds like a great link to put in front of my community to focus them on some of the skills our school will be developing next year.  This will be great. With great glee I clicked the link and the number one thing list is: KEYBOARDING.

My common sense tells me that yes, keyboarding is important. I think back to my 8th grade year and my horrible experience in typing (manual typewriters and dull boredum of aaasssdddfffjjjkkklll;;; over and over again) where I earned some very bad grades!  I think to the hours that I have spent with elementary school kids teaching them “good” typing habits.  Was it time poorly spent. My answer is no, but my point is that KEYBOARDING is not a tech skill. It is a life skill.

After a quick search on the very same site I found this article which defines literacy (I read tech skills here) as:

• Using digital technology, communication tools and/or networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge economy
• Using technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information, and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information

One would argue that keyboarding is a part of this list above, but frankly, without beginning the conversation at the most macro level, we will forever be stuck in the logistics of keyboarding instruction and morass that focuses on the skills of operating common applications.  Never will we be able to drill down deep in our conversations about higher level thinking, collaboration, problem solving and content creation.  If we continue to focus on the whys and hows of social networking and computer maintenance, then we will never be able to concentrate on using the machine as a ubiquitous tool.  You teach students only that using a database is about maintaining password security and using web searches to find and secure information then our kids never will understand the use of the deep web of informaiton that lies beneath a Google search, and will forever be doomed to simple information analysis.

No offense to the author, but I believe she has missed the point.  Basic skills are good, but focus these skills on deep, meaningful and pertinent application in content study will create stronger more flexible, capable thinkers.

Image from Flickrstorm CC http://www.flickr.com/photos/21814877@N00/3363073562

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Author’s note: I wrote this post about a year ago and updated a little here for Leadertalk. I stumbled upon it the other day while cleaning out my hard drive. It hit home with me as we all are facing some tough community issues right now and I decided we really need to get our PR machine running at 110% capacity. Thanks for reading. This post is also is cross posted on LeaderTalk. Thanks for reading this post! Andy

—————————————-

We need to do a much better job of self promotion or we will be run over by our own failures and lack of progress.

In act one, scene two of Julius Caesar, Caesar asks a soothsayer what the future holds.

Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music
Cry “Caesar!” Speak. Caesar is turn’d to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.

Let’s face it. Common sense would tell anyone that no school is perfect. In fact, by nature of the school improvement process, we honed our knives of self improvement by becoming very, very good at self criticism, and ultimately it is also deemed cathartic to announce our own weak points out loud and with robust vigor and valor. Alas, this time of year people get cranky and irritable. The ides of March saying often comes to my mind.

Such announcements like,

“Our school has progressed just 10 percentage points on the nationally normed test in the past three years, missing our target by 2 percentage points. We are disappointed in missing our target despite the tremendous progress we have made.”

The newspapers and online networks out there are all over this stuff, and the fuel for the school critics’ fire is among the worst in journalism falling just short of the criticisms and interrogations meted out on Meet the Press and Jerry Springer combined!

Sigh… why do schools insist on focusing on the negatives? Must we be so self critical? Is it a deeply held community expectation that we be negative about ourselves?

Would be appear to be a cover up if we instead said,

“The progress that our school has made in the past three years equates to 10 percentage points, and has moved our school to within 2 percentage points of our target. The school will reevaluate their academic targets and continue with our aggressive school improvement progress to ensure our students continued success.”

Much nicer if you ask me.

Alas… things do go bad in schools sometimes and black and white honesty is the best policy for sure. We seemed to have our share of them lately, and sadly some are really out of our control, although that is NOT the message a school administrator wants to send. To take responsibility and not being able to truly implement mitigating steps is certainly frustrating. I won’t make the laundry list of things that go awry, as I suspect you have two or three on your mind right now.

Instead let’s turn this coin over and I propose some positive communications that will rebuild the interest and confidence in the school.

Taking the old motto “Ten to glow on, one to grow on”, I figure that we must provide 10 or more quality examples of positive results in our schools to counter balance the single quality result.

Guiding factors for these include:
• Always tell the truth. (This should be easy)
• Do not exaggerate. (This is harder than you think)
• Make the message understandable. (This is the hardest thing to do!)
• Recognize your experts. Show them off to your community. Quote them frequently.
• Any school event or school personnel recognized by an independent source (i.e. newspaper, professional organization) should be published and republished. Theses events and people should be your poster children.
• Focus on direct implementation steps taken by the school, and not just mere happenstance occurrences.
• Student learning data must be targeted and not over generalized
• Over reliance regarding co-curricular (sports, after school, clubs, etc) for positives should be avoided.
• Concrete, real life celebrations of school events connected to learning are most efficient.
• Be visible with your positives and the positives will make your visibility less negative even when bad things happen.

My other suggestion is to think ahead of the curve. One area that I need to do a better job of addressing. Perhaps a weekly “devils advocate” session with some trusted colleagues will squeeze out those negative thoughts to address, change and squash in the public setting. My favorite recently has focused on a proposed program change in our school. The critics have come out in vocal fashion, spreading rumor by email and by voice to anyone on a mailing list.

What are we to do? My suggestion is the truth should be spread. Accurate, factual, research-based information and “on-the-ground” examples that share the positives. The mere thought that your veracity and honesty are being questioned hit hard with emotional impact. One must step forward professionally and let those attacks roll off your shoulders to the floor where they belong. The fact is, we may not always win the battles that we fight on these issues, but if we stay true to our beliefs about putting children first and focusing on what is best for our schools, we will most likely always triumph in the long run.

Seth Godin writes in his post “Do you deserve it?” about moving from the idea that we should question whether we “deserve” the luck we have, as he says….

“Deserve” is such a loaded word.

And instead ask….

“what are you going to do with it now that you’ve got it?”

Don’t you think we all should just step back and think about what we have, what we are doing, and what the goal of our aspirations really are day in and day out??

Remember…

You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. — Ziggy

Photo taken from Portland, Oregon Rose Test Gardens, the day of my wedding, June 29, 2001. Chicago Peace Rose.

positive attitude, deserving mentality, personal growth

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Let’s apply a little common sense to our blogposts!

I am sure I am preaching to the choir but…  let me make this clear. You really have to be careful what you write!  It can get you in big trouble and could possibly ruin your career.  On my recruiting trip I found this article in the February 9 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle with this lead:

(02-08) 17:04 PST –
The Web 2.0 movement, which ushered in an interactive Internet, sought to put power in the hands of the people by tapping the so-called wisdom of the crowds to change the world – and to keep such a digital democracy in check.

This is all pretty heavy handed languague for some common sense if you ask me.  Doug Johnson has written about this, I have have even tip-toed down this path as well.  The fact is that our professional reputations and now our POCKETBOOKS are on the line when we decide to take on a individual or an organization.  Libel, as defined means:

An untruthful statement about a person, published in writing or through broadcast media, that injures the person’s reputation or standing in the community. Because libel is a tort (a civil wrong), the injured person can bring a lawsuit against the person who made the false statement. Libel is a form of defamation , as is slander (an untruthful statement that is spoken, but not published in writing or broadcast through the media).  Thank you Nolo.com

The Cronicle article notes:

Just last week, Juicy Campus – a Web site that was banned from some colleges for its postings of vicious anonymous gossip – abruptly shut down, its traffic redirected to a site called College Anonymous Confession Board, whose owner said he hosts “a higher level of discourse.”

One has to wonder what will be the result of these measures on those websites out there who slander international schools. I won’t name any names, but those of us who wander the circuit know what and whom I am speaking about. All these so-called professionals, cloaked behind avatars, and citizen’s band radio-like handles slamming schools, administrators and their colleagues.  How long will it be before these websites are taken to court or asked to edit and review the content of their own site which was posted “anonymously”.  The definition of “anonymous” in the Web 2.0 world also probably needs to be defined.  I am pretty sure just about anybody could be tracked down with the right resources.  Kinda makes you think doesn’t it?

The key concept here: Stick to the facts.  Just the facts.  The words of Jack Webb in Dragnet need to ring in your ears.  “Just the facts ma’am. Only the facts”. And then you need to be careful whose facts you are using.

Perhaps Thumper‘s words should really stick here…. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• JuicyCampus Dries Up (techcrunch.com)
• Why Wikipedia’s Policy to Blacklist Blogs is Outdated and Wrong (readwriteweb.com)
• Does a Negative Online Review Constitute Libel? (inquisitr.com)
• The Cloak Of Invisibility (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• How To Use Your Web Influence Wisely (confidentwriting.com)

c

This just found in my email box from Education Week:

The time U.S. teachers actually spend in professional training largely
continues to take place in isolation, rather than in school-based
settings that draw on teachers’ collective knowledge and skills, the
report says.

Furthermore, the authors go on to quote Linda Darling-Hammond a Stanford University professor who co-wrote the report Professional Learning in a Learning Profession, with four colleagues at that university’s School Redesign Network saying,

“We still see teachers engage in really short one- and two-day
workshops rather than ongoing, sustained support that we now have
evidence changes practices and increases student achievement.”

So… here is some strong research-based information that tells us that these one-two-three day seminars are not effective UNLESS there is sustained and continous follow up.

The key question that comes to my mind though is when will leaders be held responsible for the follow-up for their entire organization and when will we as learning professionals take on the sustained follow-up ourselves.  Isn’t that what a PLN created to do for me?  Can we not sustain our own learning?

If not, the answer is clear.  No more conferences. They don’t work. Build in staff development in the context of the school setting. Focus all financial and human resources for that purpose.  Period.

I guess the choice is ours a Learners in a Learning Community!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Who Should Be the Nation’s Next Education Chief? (usnews.com)
• U.S. Lags Behind with Isolated Teacher Training (smhc-cpre.org)
• Chicago Schools Chief to Be Education Sec (time.com)
• LeaderTalk now on Education Week! (angelamaiers.com)

Shanghai from days gone by… 1947.  I love to read about history of this amazing city, and this is the first time I have seen this video attached.

I have had some time to surf the net a bit the last few days, and found this on Clarence Fischer’s blog Remote Access.  As I looked at this it seemed like some things have changed and some have remained the same.  Enjoy!