Impacting Culture Through Leading Deep

One of my goals this year is to be around the district often enough to get a good feel for the culture of each building.  The idea was than to do what I can to support the culture from a curricular standpoint. With that goal in mind, I recently re-read an article from 2008 titled “Are you Coaching Heavy or Light?” written by Joellen Killion (@jpkillion) which, as the title indicates, was originally directed toward academic coaching.  However, as I was re-reading, I realized that the concept of coaching heavy or light really applies to instructional leadership in general.  Instructional leadership, in my mind, is not limited to the positional authority of an administrator or even a department or grade level chair, but should be thought of more universally as dispositional.  (see “The Power of Dispositional Leadership”)  According to the article, coaches  whose main purpose is to build and maintain relationships more than they want to improve teaching and learning are considered to be coaching “light” and coaches who are committed to improve teaching and learning are considered coaching “heavy”.  If you make the shift, like I did, to expand the term coaching to include all types of instructional leaders (positional and dispositional) than the terms “leading light” or “leading heavy” could be substituted in for coaching. However, “leading heavy” carries a negative connotation with it, so I prefer to use the terms “leading shallow” (light) or “leading deep” (heavy) when thinking about instructional leadership.  

Examples of leading shallow include sharing best practices with colleagues through articles or discussions, but not holding an expectation that they apply the learning in their classrooms.  These leaders tend to tread lightly and limit their interactions to praise in order to build or maintain relationships. They are most comfortable giving feedback to the teachers that describe the teacher’s behavior rather than the learning by young people taking place in the classroom (intentions vs. actual learning).  Of course, it is important to have strong relationships and build trust with colleagues as a leader, especially in the beginning, and teachers do feel supported by this type of leadership, but if that is all the deeper the discussions go then the leader is leading too shallow.

Leading deep, on the other hand, includes conversations about beliefs and how they influence practice with a focus on how it improves teaching and impacts young people learning.  To be fair, from the teacher’s perspective, this type of leadership does feel a little heavy. However, the sense of weight comes from the collective responsibility and commitment each teacher devotes to the success of every young person through dispositional leadership rather than from the single authoritative positional leader.  This shift mainly takes place because leading deep includes “asking thought-provoking questions, uncovering assumptions, and engaging colleagues in dialog about their beliefs and goals rather than focusing only on knowledge and skills”(Killion, 2008, p.3). This type of leadership builds a culture of learning where “teachers feel a heightened sense of professionalism, excitement, increased efficacy and satisfaction with teaching” (Killion, 2008, p.2).

Leading deep can take place through conversations between principals and teachers after a walk-through as easily as it can between teachers in a PLC (Professional Learning Community) meeting.  The key is to ask the deeper questions focused on learning. Teachers who are aware of what young people are thinking, who can put them in situations based on that thinking, and who have proficient knowledge of how young people build on their understanding can provide appropriate feedback. We have to help each other to reflect on such scenarios and support each other if we are not there yet.  Therefore, reflections such as this can not take place in a silo. Providing a safe environment to discuss teaching and learning, encouraging reflection through video review, and asking each other questions that focus on reaching all young people are a few examples of leading deep.   We all need to resist the urge to stay too shallow in our conversations with each other and be willing to lead more deeply.  In the end, it will create a culture that supports young people learning and teacher growth which will ultimately lead to the improvement of our schools.

Nurturing a Community of Readers

I had the pleasure of participating in this year’s new Community of Readers Book Discussion at Aurora High this past week.  This discussion was designed to promote more of a culture of reading as staff members shared some of their favorite books with mixed groups of young people from our high school.  There were over 40 summer reading options available for selection and each of the young people read their selected book over the summer.  How the book was discussed differed depending on the facilitator, but one of the more important pieces of this activity was that there was no mention of points or grades.  This was about having conversations about a book that everyone chose to read.  

As you can see from the list, there were a number of works of fiction, so I threw out a non-fiction book and held my breath to see if anyone would actually sign-up.  I was glad to have eleven young people select the Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor as their summer read.  It’s a great book about the power of positive psychology, but I won’t get into the book here other than to say there are seven researched based principles that have shown to positively impact how our brain handles situations.  In our group we went through a short introduction of each other to be sure everyone knew who was in the room. This group was a mix of sophomores through seniors. I then brought up the Copernican revolution this book addressed which is to say that happiness doesn’t follow success, but actually precipitates it more than we realize.  After this short, less than ten minutes, intro the young people then jotted down on a post-it which of the seven principles stood out to them, why they thought that way, and what page of the book contained a quote, statement, or story to demonstrate their thinking. Five minutes later they were discussing their thoughts with a partner and soon after that sharing with the group.  It was really exciting to hear what stood out to each of the young people as they both shared with each other and with the group as a whole. In reflection, I would have changed a couple of things up because it felt a little more like ping-pong than ultimate frisbee. That is to say the discussion kept coming back to me as the facilitator and though I would try to direct it back to the young people the conversations felt a little more “teacher centered” than I would have liked.  With a little bit of a different set-up I think we could have had young people driving the discussion more and sharing their thoughts based on each others comments just like teammates pass the frisbee between each other as they move down the playing field. However, in the end, everyone was able to share something about their thinking in this short 30 minute period.  

As I mentioned, there were over 40 different discussions taking place and therefore 40 different ways books were shared.  The one common piece is that these discussions were all about the books and the story within them rather than the points and how to prove what was read.  At the beginning of each school year we have struggled with “students” and their summer reading. In the past we have had them come with a report written over the summer, tested them with a multiple choice test on day one, required them to respond to a cold write, etc.  The only things these were successful at doing was to deliver the message “points are important” and “we must hold you accountable to your summer reading.” This year’s Community of Readers discussions set a very different tone for the start of the year and I hope it continues.  The messages of responsibility over accountability and empowerment over compliance were clear. Although there is still room for improvement, and I already have heard several ideas based on our staff’s reflections, this is a great way to nurture a community of readers.

Day 1: Creating A Culture or Setting Expectations?

I woke up this morning as a reluctant participant for a 6:30 a.m. bike ride with some of the Aurora folks and walked outside to a flat tire.  Apparently, I picked up a tiny shard of glass in my last ride which created a slow leak. No worries, I carry a spare inner-tube and began to change the tire with plenty of time before meeting the crew at the AHS parking lot.  Two minutes later I managed to carelessly pinch the spare while putting it on the rim and as a result created a new hole which put me out of the ride for the morning. Not a great way to start the day. It’s 6:10 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I am now wide awake because I’m mad at myself for being careless with the inner tube.  I grumpily sipped my coffee when a thought popped in my head to use a little cognitive jiu-jitsu (see also Cognitive Jiu-Jitsu in the Classroom) on myself and redirect that energy to something a little more productive.  No better time than now to start this year’s weekly blog reflections...it’s gotta be a sign.  :)

     One of our district’s five main focus areas this year is school climate.  We believe that to truly be empowered, people need both ownership and autonomy.  This is true for both young people and adults, so instructional leaders must promote and support environments in the school that will lead to empowerment.  A student centered school which believes in shared leadership can create a school climate which is empowering for all. One of the best ways to get a feel for school climate is to get out into the classrooms on the first day and listen.  There seemed to be two messages that most of our young people heard on day one.

     The first message I heard, which I will refer to as a more traditional approach, focused on school or classroom expectations.  “Students” were told what they should bring to class, what they would be studying, where they should sit, how they should organize their binders, what are the rules for class, etc.  This is not to say that laying the groundwork for expectations is not important, but done in this way seems to promote a school climate of compliance more than empowerment. These “expectations” were also apparent during our first set of open house visits in which parents heard the message:  “We need to get your child ready for “x” grade or "x"school next year which means this year your student needs to be more independent.” or “In order to earn points your child will need to do “y” at home.” It is true that these examples, which are real by the way, do set the expectations for the upcoming school year, but I am not sure they are positively communicating the school climate we invision.

    The second message I heard, which thankfully occurred in many classrooms, was one less centered around rules and expectations but instead focused on building a positive school or classroom culture with the young people.  As an example, a teacher new to our district used Harmon’s “Do the Right Thing” motto to ask the young people in her class what does “Do the Right Thing” mean to you? Young people wrote their ideas down individually and then shared with others near them.  Questions like, “I have 15 examples is that enough?” or “Is it OK that I only have three?” were redirected by a simple comment of, “you tell me, these are your ideas and thoughts.” After sharing, these thoughts were then discussed as a group and they eventually became the “norms” of the class rather than the “rules”.  These conversations sounded very different than the traditional expectation conversations because they were more about building the culture of the class. A second example was set not by asking questions, but simply giving an answer. The answer, by the way, was “36”. The young people had to come up with the question.  When given the chance they began to wonder what could the question be and came up with all kinds of formulas, angles, diagrams, and other thoughts which were all generated by the young people in the room.  

It led to a number of great questions as these mathematical discussion took place (see photo above), but none were the “right” question which was “What is my room number?”  Of course it wasn’t about the answer or even the question, but instead building a culture of questioning, curiosity, and thinking. These two examples send a very different message than those established by a more “traditional” approach to opening day.  Thankfully, there were a number of these types of “culture” focused messages, but I will say there were a number of “expectations” discussed in our district as well.  

      Believe me, I am not throwing stones.  I remember handing out a syllabus and “covering the rules” in class as well:  1. Do your best 2. Do what is right. 3. Treat others as you would want to be treated. However, I also tried to make sure that we quickly moved into “playing” with the crayfish I captured over the summer because I wanted to establish this class was about being hands-on and noticing things about the world around us (Biology).  Luckily, if you started your year out a little more traditional, there are 183 more days to shift the focus from compliance and efficiency to one which will nurture a culture of thinking and therefore ultimately nurturing our young peoples’ roots. (see also Adopting a Greenhouse Philosophy for Schools).  Culture can be thought of as the “beliefs, assumptions, expectations, and habits that constitute the norm for the people throughout the (organization) school” (DuFour, 2005, p. 11).  What we do on day one is a window to the culture of the classroom and young people see right through it. However, just like this morning for me, there is no better time to hit reset and redirect your energy if you were more traditionally focused because culture is also built each day through interactions, relationships, and rapport rather than just expectations set on day one.  As a result, we are blessed to have the opportunity each day to create a school climate which nurtures young people of all ages to be empowered over being compliant. It will help them to prepare for life much more than preparing for the next grade level, school, or exam.

I hope you have a great year!

References

DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & DuFour, R. (2005).  On common ground: The Power of

Professional Learning Communities. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.