Principal Matters: The School Leader's Podcast with William D. Parker

A few years ago, I had the privilege to participate in a ten-day tour of four cities in China. On one leg of the trip, I sat by a Mongolian woman who was fluent in English and on her way home after completing graduate studies at Boston University. We enjoyed trading stories about our families, home, schools, and studies. Toward the end of our conversation, she turned to me and asked poignantly, “Why do U.S. schools not measure up to other nations on standardized tests?” This was a fair question. After all, I’m sure she had seen the statistics commonly discussed in higher education about the comparison of U.S. public school scores to students in other industrialized nations. I also knew she came from a situation and background that allowed her access to higher education, so she had seen first-hand how helpful her own education had been. As a good teacher tries to do, however, I answered her question with some questions of my own. “Before I answer your question, can you tell me something?” I asked. “At the schools you attended growing up, how many students did you know with disabilities?” “What do you mean?” she replied with a serious expression. “Anyone in a wheelchair?” She thought for a moment. “No,” she responded. “Did you know any students who struggled with reading or dyslexia? Did you attend school with anyone who required an interpreter? Did your school service students who were seeing or hearing impaired? Any pregnant girls at your school?” She shook her head each time. “No. Not that I know of,” she said. “You see,” I explained. “In U.S. public schools, we accept every student: the ones who struggle and the ones who excel. Our test scores reflect all their outcomes, not just select groups.” “I never knew that,” she said with a surprised look. We had a good conversation with a perspective she had not known before. A Perspective Check As school leaders, we know that we are ultimately held responsible for the wins and losses of our schools. At the same time, you have to keep your school’s outcomes in perspective with the realities each school faces. Let me be clear. This is by no means an excuse for mediocre expectations or outcomes. On the contrary, I believe all schools, especially K-12 public schools face similar challenges that require a common mission: helping our students overcome serious obstacles so that they perform well in spite of, not in absence of, those difficulties. This is true no matter whether you’re serving in public or private. But public schools, unlike our private or charter counterparts, have an especially unique setting where seats cannot be reserved and children cannot be denied services. That is why I believe comparing our U.S. public schools to our international counterparts is often like comparing apples to oranges. And I feel the same about conversations involving school choice or portability. I talk about this in more length in a post where I reviewed Rick DuFour’s great book, In Praise of American Educators, where he catalogs the false assumptions many have made about public schools. In short, his research shows that when you compare the highest achieving subset of students in U.S. schools–even ones from diverse national or economic backgrounds–the U.S. students outscore every comparison group around the world. Yet if you compare all students from America’s public schools to international scores, we fall below others. DuFour is making the point that scores from most other industrialized nations are based on the highest achieving students who have been selected to progress onto their next levels of schooling. This is what happens in many Chinese schools, for instance. Many of these comparison nations are only testing their brightest students.

Yesterday John Wink hosted a Twitter challenge called #LoveMySchoolDay where he invited educators across the country and around the world to celebrate their schools and share out moments, ideas, photos, etc. of why they love their schools. In many ways, educators have lost the battle of public relations when it comes to our schools. Part of the blame rests with the insatiable appetite of American media outlets for negative stories about schools. In Rick DuFour’s In Praise of American Educators, he catalogs the relentless assault on public schools by media outlets that portray schools as havens of failure and low expectations. At the same time, part of the responsibility for what others think about our schools rests with us, the educators who are responsible for them. Yes, failing schools exist. But thousands of thriving, safe, and productive schools serve students everyday too. The problem is that so many of those wonderful moments are never shared beyond the walls of our schools. Although any school or organization has its weaknesses, the assumption that most are failing is not only false, it is also a dangerous one. When our community members lose trust in the integrity and products of our schools, we are fighting an uphill battle in caring for their children. The good news is that we don’t have to sit back and let others determine the opinions about our schools. First of all, when we are making strong decisions and developing best practices, we set the tone for the kinds of schools we want to brag about. Second, with the growth of social media, we have the capacity to consistently showcase the amazing moments we see in our school everyday. Like never before in history, each of us has the capability of bolstering confidence in the teachers, students, lessons, activities and outcomes we have the privilege of observing. These thoughts have motivated me to this past year in working on my next book: Messaging Matters. In the next couple of months, you’ll hear more about that, but today I want to give some practical examples of how to brag on your school. Cool Cat Teacher’s 10-Minute Teacher This week Vicki Davis interviewed me on her podcast, 10-Minute Teacher, about the Movement of Kindness our students have embraced this school year. (You can see a previous post for all the details.) Here’s a copy of that interview, if you’d like to hear it: After sharing our story, Vicki asked me to explain how other educators can encourage this kind of movement among their school community. 6 Takeaways from our Wall of Kindness I shared six takeaways with Vicki that anyone can use to consistently share the positive messages coming from their schools. Here they are: 1. Carry an iPhone or Camera To Capture Moments Assuming your students and parents have authorized sharing images of students per FERPA guidelines, you should be capturing and sharing out positive moments everyday from your school. Snap photos or take short videos, and then email them, post them, Tweet them, or whatever it takes to have others see and celebrate great moments. Just two days ago, we shared out four congratulations emails on teams or individuals who recently won awards or recognitions for Drama, NHS, FFA, and Choir. All of this, and it was just Monday when these were announced! 2. Increase Your Social Media Shares If you district allowing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, then spread the news. These social media outlets are free publicity for your school.

A few nights ago, I was sitting on the couch with my wife, Missy, when our four children slowly made their way into the living room. Our lives are so busy with three teenage girls and an eleven-year-old boy that we rarely find time to all be together these days. Emily, our oldest, came and sat on the floor so she could get “mommy scratches” while she played on her iPhone. Mattie, our second oldest, was across the room. She had placed her laptop on the piano bench with a video of dancers from the musical Beauty and the Beast, and she danced along practicing moves. Katie, our third girl, was on the opposite couch with her guitar. She was playing a version of Hello from the Other Side while Emily was humming harmonies along with her. And then there was Jack with a snack of cheese crackers on the table. With a cracker in his mouth, he was everywhere: sometimes carrying his basketball, moving it between his legs or bouncing it. Or he’d sit on the couch and hum along with the music and then jump back up for another cracker. Somehow each one of them was in his or her solitary world while sharing the same moment. I just sat back, holding Missy’s hand, soaking in the moment, and feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Older parents tell me to savor these times because they won’t last for long. The Power of Mindfulness Later as I thought about this sweet moment, I was reminded of a recent conversation I heard between Tim Elmore and Britt Andreatta on The Growing Leaders Podcast. Dr. Andreatta is the author of Wired to Grow as well as her newest book, Wired to Resist, which was just published. Her first book explores the ways learners thrive when adopting patterns that encourage brain engagement. But her second book looks at the instinctive resistance that happens in our brains when confronted with change. In her interview, she explained how organizations that implement change face pressures and difficulties that come with any change initiative. Her research has shown ways leaders can help their teams through change by the following practices: 1. Acknowledging that change is disruptive 2. Nurturing by dialing up self-care 3. Creating a team experience for change 4. Practicing mindfulness I just ordered Dr. Andreatta’s new book so I’m looking forward to exploring each of those takeaways. But I was especially intrigued by her comments on mindfulness. She explained that mindfulness helps you keep perspective and maintain a positive outlook. As a result of her own research, she has begun mindfulness practices (like meditation) that have changed her own outlook on change. Mindfulness is a common topic in the psychology of human development. The dictionary defines it like this: mind·ful·ness ˈmīn(d)f(ə)lnəs/ noun 1. the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something. 2. a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique. In a 2015 Psychology Today article, What Is Mindfulness and How Does It Work? Dr. Gregg Henriques, says, “It is readily arguable that the single most significant development in mental health practice since the turn of the millennium has been the widespread emergence of mindfulness-based approa...

The other morning, on my drive to school with my daughter, I was listening to a story on NPR called The Scarcity Trap: Why We Keep Digging When We’re Stuck in a Hole by Shankar Vedantam. Researchers have determined that when people find themselves consumed with trying to simply survive, they often instinctively operate with tunnel vision. Sometimes they have poorer judgment. They tend to have a harder time thinking long-term. The urgent often overwhelms other important priorities. In fact, one study looked at farmers in India who are paid only once a year after harvest. When their behaviors were observed before and after, their ability to make rationale, wise choices dramatically changed when their scarcity was replaced with abundance. Vedantam reports that other research has found that IQ scores actually lower when people test while experiencing scarcity than when experiencing stability. Scarcity comes in a lot of different forms. For some, it is lack of money or resources. For others it may be lack of time or support. Maybe some people experience emotional scarcity. This doesn’t automatically mean that those who struggle with poverty or other scarcity issues are always less prone to good decisions. But it does shed light on the challenges that scarcity creates for our brains and mindsets. As school leaders we can see its effects in our own practices or the learning of our students. In my own practice, I can think of ways I’ve seen these forces play out. Even as an experienced administrator, I can still become so overwhelmed with present or urgent requests that I have a difficult time looking beyond the moment and remembering important long-term priorities. A Quick Look at One Morning Let me give a quick example from one morning last week when I found myself pinched for time: * 8:00 AM–I met with a student who needed follow-up from a bus incident. I had already contacted the parent; we resolved the issue, and I sent him to class. * 8:10 AM-8:50 AM–I visited a classroom and completed a formal teacher observation. * 8:55 AM–I returned to my office and was reminded of a parent meeting I needed to attend. I was not leading the meeting, but I needed to share some input before moving on to another observation. In the meantime, I signed purchase orders, finished thank you cards, checked email, and talked to two teachers who stopped by. * 9:30 AM–I stepped into the teacher/parent meeting and then came back to my office to grab notes for my next observation. * 9:40 AM–I was told about a situation where a teacher needed assistance. I communicated with the teacher and we coordinated a game plan. * 9:50 AM–I stepped back in the office and saw an email from another teacher with a discipline referral needing admin assistance. My admin team members were not available, so I went to the classroom. This situation required escorting a student to my office for a discipline meeting. I contacted a guardian and completed the necessary paperwork. * 10:10 AM–I stepped into my next teacher observation late. * 10:30–While I was writing down notes, I received a text that the guardian in the student discipline had arrived at my office. I ended my observation early and made it to my office. After meeting with the parent, I finished entering more notes in our student information system. * 10:45 AM–The track team was competing, and I wanted to attend to watch my daughter run, so I grabbed my bag and headed out the door. When I arrived at the track meet, I was happy to see my daughter run her race. Later, however, when I checked my iPhone, I saw an email from the last teacher I had observed. She thanked me for the visit but told me I had accidentally shared notes with her from the fir...

The other day I was talking to our high school choir teacher, when she told me about a fascinating brain study involving music. MIT neuroscientists have discovered that music triggers an auditory cortex of the brain that doesn’t appear to respond to other basic auditory sounds like speech. If our brains have portions that only react to sounds recognized as music, this leads to an important question: Are we really engaging the brain most effectively if we aren’t exposing it to both left brain (facts, patterns, figures, and information) and right brain activities (creative, imaginative, inspiring ideas)? The Power of Music Memory A few years ago when my mother-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she slowly began losing the ability to track time. Ironically, when I sit down with her at the piano, she can almost perfectly recall the tunes and verses of her favorite hymns. Her short-term and long-term memories often get jumbled, but her music memory is so much more precise. As an amateur musician, I remember many times when playing the piano has prompted my own creativity in solving problems. In fact, after decades of playing, I can sometimes move along the keys almost instinctively—often feeling like I’m playing with one part of my brain while thinking about something else with another part. The Art of What You Do For a long time, we have heard that visual artists engage the right side of their brains more than their left sides when creating, like lessons taught in Betty Edwards’ famous drawing book. The left side of the brain seems more engaged when you are reasoning or problem solving. The discovery of how music triggers a specific part of the brain reinforces how engaging both sides of the brain may help us with teaching and learning. I often remind new teachers that good teaching involves both science and art. On the one hand, you implement the processes, strategies, and steps necessary to accomplish a task (best practices). On the other hand, you exercise the passion or connection necessary to inspire (creativity). Music may be one other way teachers can engage learners in stimulating understanding, but highly effective teachers always find ways to teach with both sides of the brain. I believe it’s what you observe in master teachers but can’t always put your finger on–the mix of process and passion often described as “the gift of teaching” or “magic in the classroom” or “light-bulb moments.” It happens when a math teacher is so entranced in the wonder of the Fibonacci sequence, she not only explains the predictable patterns found in nature but also inspires questions and discussions over the possibilities of intelligent design. It happens when a teacher of Shakespeare not only helps his students decipher Elizabethan verse until they begin to understand the language but also enthralls them with captivating plots and unavoidable drama so that they keep turning the pages. It happens when a music teacher trains her students in sight-reading and scales but also teaches them to listen and blend harmonies until they’ve combined sounds into something beautiful that triggers unique parts of the brain. The Art of Storytelling One of my favorite pedagogies for engaging both sides of the brain is storytelling. One evening my wife and I had dinner at a restaurant in Tulsa that is run by a local culinary school. The dinner was a gift from when I spoke at their December graduation commencement. After we finished a great meal, we chatted with the head chef who is also an instructor at the school. He said, “Oh, you are the principal who wrote a book and tells stories. I remember the stories you told.” And then he began telling back to me the very stories and points I had made so many ...

PMP: Encore 05 Caution Lights for the Leadership Journey

PMP 057: Why Self-Reflection Matters (Questions to Ask Yourself)

PMP 056: Reaching Generation iY and iGen Students

PMP 055: Spring Semester & Beta-Testing

PMP 054: 7 Tips on Rest & Rejuvenation

PMP 053: 3 Tips for Responding Under Pressure

PMP 052: Starting a Movement of Kindness

PMP 051: The Shocking Truth About Your Decision-Making

PMP 050: The 5 Marks of a Learning Culture

PMP 049: Why Self-Control Matters–5 Benefits for Leaders