“Leave today focusing on what you can do to grow yourself.”

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From Brene Brown:

“Courage is contagious. A critical mass of brave leaders is the foundation of an intentionally courageous culture. Every time we are brave with our lives, we make the people around us a little braver and our organizations bolder and stronger.”

I thought of this quote after working with a group of administrators and we were talking about the hopes for the day. I shared the following; “Do not leave today thinking about what you are going to get other people to do. Leave today focusing on what you can do to grow yourself.”

It is easy to tell others what they should be doing; it is tough to model.  But our first step could be the moment that inspires others to join in the journey.

Embrace Humanness

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In my upcoming book, “Innovate Inside the Box“:

Our imperfections and failures are often what make us relatable to our students and the people with whom we work. As my good friend and brilliant educator Meghan Lawson says, “We don’t have to be perfect to make a difference. We need to care deeply about our impact on kids, care deeply about our words, and we need to embrace our humanness.”

When Meghan first shared this with me, it struck a cord.  The conversation we often hear with social media is how people often only share the “good,” and I think that can create unrealistic expectations for ourselves when we only see the
“highlight reel” of others.  But to me, what we share as individuals is up to us, and although I struggle (often), I am not in a space to share it with others on a larger platform.  What I can do though, is realize that no matter what another person shares, I can understand that we all have our struggles whether we make them visible or not. This TikTok video about what happens “off screen” was a powerful reminder of the difference between our perception versus someone else’s reality.

We all have struggles, whether visible or not.  To always err on the side of positive is a safe bet and as Meghan reminds us, it is about not only embracing our own “humanness” but learning to embrace the “humanness of others as well.   Perfection is impossible, but making a positive difference in the lives of others is always within reach.

 

The Importance of Gratitude

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The article, “The Most Important Way To Measure Your Day” by Tim Denning, focuses on two simple questions as a way to measure a successful day:

1. Did I learn one new thing today?
2. Did I help or inspire one person?

These are two questions I hope I can answer daily in a successful manner. But as I am putting the finishing touches on my next book, I realize how many people that I come into contact with are regularly doing these things in abundance.  Every day, I learn so much from others, and I have stopped to realize the positive influence, inspiration, and support others have provided for me.  Whether it is listening to me when I am struggling or supporting my growth, I have learned to stop and make sure that I am doing my best to show appreciation to others.

With that in mind, I would like to add one question to the list:

1. Did I learn one new thing today?
2. Did I help or inspire one person?
3. Did I show gratitude to someone who has had a positive impact on me?

According to the article, “Is Gratitude Good for Your Health” by Summer Allen, the impact of showing gratitude goes beyond those who receive it, but those who are willing to share it as well.

After 15 years of research, we know that gratitude is a key to psychological well-being. Gratitude can make people happier, improve their relationships, and potentially even counteract depression and suicidal thoughts.

If we can learn something new, help someone else, and share our gratitude for others, that seems to be a pretty full and successful day.

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Relationships at the Core

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My friend and an educator that I have incredible admiration for, Bill Ferriter, recently wrote a post titled, “The Best Innovation Ever” where he discusses the importance of relationships in his classroom environment. He wrote the following:

It was a different kind of year for me for one simple reason:  I stopped scrambling to find the “latest and greatest innovation” to integrate into my classroom instruction. 

I didn’t try to flip my curriculum.  I ignored efforts to make digital portfolios a priority in my room.  I met — but never tried to exceed — my school’s expectations that I integrate complex text into every lesson.  I ditched my own efforts to make short videos demonstrating places where you could see my required curriculum in the real world.

And instead, I focused on making sure that all of my students felt recognized and valued and appreciated.  I wanted them to feel noticed — something that doesn’t always happen in schools.

Simple, right?  Maybe the key to improved learning and engaged students DOESN’T depend on access to new technologies or pedagogical strategies.  Maybe it depends on remembering that kids are the most engaged when they feel appreciated.

Love. Love. Love.

I agree with Bill, but I also know that it is not just about relationships, yet they are the core of what we do. Without them, in our schools (for students and staff) we won’t be able to do the “next big thing” or even the “current thing” with any depth.

In my upcoming book with Katie Novak, entitled “Innovate Inside the Box” (due out August 15, 2019) I share the “Core of Innovative Teaching and Learning” and how relationships are at the center of what we do.

 

I think all of the aspects on the outside are important, but they are better developed when relationships are at the core of what we do.

Can you learn from people you don’t like, and there is no relationship present? Of course. I contend that you can often learn more, and when you trust people and know you are cared for, much more can be accomplished.  Bill’s post is an excellent reminder of where education needs to begin.

Knowing Your Students As Individuals to Help Them Grow Forward

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Elisabeth Bostwick, author of “Take the LEAP; Ignite a Culture of Innovation,” recently shared this post on “behavior charts.” She opens her post with the following:

Early on in my career, I didn’t realize that spending an abundant amount of time creating behavior charts was unnecessary. I also didn’t realize that it was a waste of money to purchase all those marbles used to fill a jar when the class demonstrated “quality” behavior- to earn an award. And the pizza I bought as a result of when students all complied? Nope, that also wasn’t what affected how students chose to behave. Fifteen years ago, although I was completely missing the boat, I was simply doing what I knew to do. In fact, I had learned about “classroom management” and all different strategies to “manage” a class. Like most educators, I had the best intentions.

Little did I know at the time that what I was doing was counterproductive. Fortunately, I realized a different or better way to help learners make positive choices. In fact, much of what I now know was influenced as I watched both of my children go through the education system in combination with 15 years of classroom experience.

I encourage you to read the entire post, but I wanted to share this because it sparked two memories for me, early in my career with “behavior charts.”

I used to use a “sticker chart” in my first year of teaching, and here is how it worked. There was a space for a sticker for every day of the month, and if you had a good day, you got a sticker. If not, you got the dreaded “x” mark. At the end of the month, we had an afternoon party that you could attend if you had no more than 3 x’s.  This was a strategy I was taught in university as a good way of classroom management.

The first circumstance I remember was one student who did get into trouble quite often.  He would get a couple of “x’s” early every month, and then, the 3rd “x” was something I would hold onto for dear life because once he got that third, he knew that he wasn’t going to get to the party so who cares anymore.  I hated it, but I was told this was a good strategy.

The second circumstance was a student who was amazingly kind and supportive of everyone having a bad day or moment, and losing their only sticker for the year.  It was devastating, and being honest, I feel like it was something that stuck with her way past that day.

Both of these examples are terrible reflections of my early years of teaching, but anyone reading this involved in education could go back and share stories of things they would do differently today.  About six months into the year, I ditched the charts and focused more on relationships and figuring out the root of the problem with each student as an individual.  When I look back, the “sticker chart” almost ensured that I wouldn’t take the time to build relationships because it was a type of “carrot and stick” reinforcement of compliance in my classroom where knowing my students and recognizing their strengths and what brought out the best in them was not necessary.

From Dan Pink in his book “Drive”:

…carrots and sticks can achieve precisely the opposite of their intended aims.Mechanisms designed to increase motivation can dampen it. Tactics aimed at boosting creativity can reduce it. Programs to promote good deeds can make them disappear.

It is not fair to summarize all “classroom management” strategies as being the same and label them as techniques focused solely on enforcing compliance. Yet, the way I used this strategy was focused more on bringing “order” to my classroom but not necessarily learning.  I know better today.

With the Support of Others

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From Wikipedia:

Derek Anthony Redmond (born 3 September 1965) is a retired British athlete. During his career, he held the British record for the 400 metres sprint, and won gold medals in the 4×400 metres relay at the World Championships and European Championships.[1]

I don’t know what brought me back to the story of Derek Redmond, but it is not because of a race he won, but a race in which he finished dead last.

Watch this video from the 1992 Olympics, which is still my favorite Olympic moment ever.

Who is cutting onions over here?!?! It is so emotional when Redmond gets back up, but when his dad comes on the track to help him, that is the world. No matter how old or accomplished a person is, they are always someone else’s child. That is something I think about all of the time.

A few other things I love about this video:

1. I can’t tell you who won the race, but I still remember Derek Redmond. Sometimes finishing the race is one of the most powerful things we can do.

2. When tough times come, support from loved ones can mean the world. Look for people in your life who want you to succeed, and are there when you stumble. Do the people in your life kick you or cheer when you are down or are they there to help you get back up?

3. This story is almost 30 years old, and I still remember it. This is a reminder that our stories of dealing with adversity are ones that can resonate with others for a lifetime.

Just something I wanted to share with others and revisit myself.

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Time is Short

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From the article, “4 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person”, Eric Barker shares some humbling ideas that make you think about how you approach life. He summarizes the article with these four ideas:

These are four harsh truths that will make you a better person:

  • You’re going to die: You have a deadline. Literally. So focus on what matters. And make sure to celebrate the good times. I’d rather have a shorter awesome life than a long, lousy one.
  • Anything worthwhile takes more work than you think: Ever futz around an entire Sunday, not truly having fun and not truly accomplishing anything? And then you say, “What the heck did I do all day?” Well, you don’t want to be saying that about your life. Embrace the challenges and find meaning.
  • You will never be perfectly happy: And you don’t need to be. Insisting on complete happiness is the surest way to stay unhappy. Be grateful for what you have and gently reach for a little more.
  • People will let you down: You’re allowed to insist others be perfect the day you become perfect. Which is never. People will cause you problems — but they’re also the biggest source of happiness. Five-to-one is plenty good.

These points resonate I wanted to post them in this blog not only to share with others but for my future reference.

Based on this, here is something I am writing for myself.

“Time is short. Use it to make a positive impact on others, knowing you will struggle along the way, and so will others that you encounter, but ensure that those closest to you know their impact on your life. Time is short.”

I would love to know your takeaways in the comments. You can read the whole article here.

Purposeful Change That is Focused on Depth and Time

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In the leadership blog, “Lead Change,” the article “Addicted to Change” starts by discussing exactly what the title suggests; leadership is often addicted to continuous change.  As indicated by the author, purposeful change begins with why you are changing, but it takes time and a focus on depth for any critical change to be meaningful to the growth of an organization.

Make sure you know why something should change. You will need to remember the why when the going gets tough. And it will get tough.

Give it time.

Give it time to work through all your systems. Big change affects everything. You won’t be able to plan this. You must dive in and discover what’s needed as you go.

Give it more time. Give it time to embed itself in your culture.

Although the title of my blog is “The Principal of Change,” I have been very aware (I still have work to do) of focusing more on the idea of “change” as a concept focused more on depth rather than continuous, surface level changes.  In “The Innovator’s Mindset,” I discussed the idea of “Less is More” as crucial to the journey of a school or district, where we focus on fewer things and doing them better.  I learned that through my trial and error as an administrator that inundating my staff with overwhelming amounts of choice led to more issues than they solved:

During my first year as a principal, I was pretty excited about all of the opportunities that technology provided my staff. I saw all the awesome websites and tools that were out there and thought we would be crazy not to take full advantage of all of that free stuff. I passed on to my staff anything that I could get my hands on. Twitter supplied countless links with articles about how to make education better, as well as tips and techniques that could be implemented in the classroom right away. I felt it was imperative to share the tips and tweets with my staff; I wanted to light a fire under my team so we could use all those resources and ideas.

Bad move.

The more I shared, the more I noticed how overwhelmed my staff seemed. The more choices I provided them, the less they did with each one. It was too much. I also noticed that the staff members who did embrace everything I shared were only scratching the surface of how these tools and ideas could impact the learning experiences for their students. Our school started to seem “garden variety.” The practice had made us knowledgeable in all but masters of none. This was no one’s fault but my own. I had simply given my team way too many options without a clear focus.

So basically, don’t do what I did. Actually, do the opposite.

Change is not a bad thing if it is done with intentionality and is given time not only to flourish, but we encourage working through the ups and downs of the process. As learning organizations, we need to be comfortable with the discomfort as this is essential to learning. But if we continuously focus on the “next thing,” we will never see the full potential of the “current thing.”

Technology Is Only Transformational If We Choose to Use It That Way

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If you do not read Catlin Tucker’s blog, you should.  I love the work she does, and her blog is a balance of posts on big-picture thinking with practical ideas and strategies for things that can be done in the classroom.  It is one of the top blogs in my reader, and I get excited every time she posts.

On a recent post, titled “Using Computers in the Classroom: Shifting from Consumption to Creation,” she shares ideas on using technology to create purposeful opportunities for learning in education. This quote at the end resonated with me:

If technology was used to encourage social learning, foster collaboration, and nurture creativity in the classroom, I believe more people would be excited about and supportive of technology in education.

Often when I hear pushback on technology in education, the connection is focused on (whether we want to admit it or not) if it improved test scores. As Catlin shares, the ideas of what we can do with technology are much bigger than only doing well on a test.  Will the big ideas she alludes to (social learning, collaboration, creativity) be easily be measured by test scores? Not at all.  But can technology accelerate those ideas? Only if we use technology in a transformational manner, allowing us to do things that we could not do before.

Think of it this way…If I get into a plane and all it does is drive me from point A to point B, not only is this not a transformational use, we know there are better tools for doing that specific job. Only when we choose to fly in the plane does that technology become transformational.  It is on people to use technology to it’s fullest potential.

If we throw technology into an environment and measure only by the old standards, we are choosing not to use the technology in a way that is transformational to learning.  If we focus on what we can do better because of the introduction of technology into the environment, as Catlin says, more people will be excited about the opportunity we give our students to soar to new heights for learning.

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