Summary: I’ve been reading an excellent book by Tim Elmore and Andrew McPeak, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073VWV563/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Marching Off the Map: Inspire Students to Navigate a Brand New World</a>, and it has sparked a lot of thought. <br> The first half of the book is what educators know intimately: the changing cultural trends in technology, relationships, politics, and information – and how these affect the ways students learn, think, grow, and behave. <br> Did you know, for instance, that the average attention span of today’s youth is 6-seconds? It is a challenging mission to reach children so pressed by distracting images, not to mention the social/emotional or intellectual challenges or issues students bring with them each day. Elmore covers many current trends and data on how youth today face challenges we adults never knew at their ages.<br> Changing Winds<br> The second half of the book is more application. Elmore and McPeak explore the question: How do we adjust and adapt so that as leaders and teachers we remain timely and timeless our work with others? In chapter five, Elmore uses a great analogy in the story of his niece who sails. She has been sailing all her life, and never once has he heard her complain about the wind or weather. She simply adjusts and adapts to meet the changes. <br> I’m not a sailor, but when I was in high school in college, I spent my summers diving for mussel shells in the Kentucky Lake area near our home in West Tennessee. Diving was a job that also required a lot of dependence on the weather. When I would dive, I would attach my line to the boat because I did not float and swim like a tank-diver. Instead my air tank was in the boat, and I would be attached to it by an air hose and rope while crawling along the bottom of the lake searching for shells. If the winds were low, my task included pulling the boat along with me. If the winds were high, the boat would often pull me along instead. The wind often dictated which terrain, depth, or direction would be chosen.<br> Often when people face resistance or change, they react as Tim Elmore explains:<br><br> 1. Complaining about the state of our present reality<br><br> 2. Giving up and leaving the journey all together<br><br> 3. Adapting<br> Adapting doesn’t necessarily mean compromising on what we believe is essential and true. Instead it means we stay open to learning, to growing, and to innovating. Sometimes our schools can be like boats in an ocean or lake. We are responsible to navigate the channels ahead, but we have no control over the weather or unexpected challenges.<br> I am becoming more convinced that adaptability is a common strength in all examples of great learning, teaching, and leading. And as I visit schools across my own state and as I travel throughout the country, I have realized that adaptable school leaders seem to have a combination of innovation, entrepreneurship, and organizational leadership. <br> Two School Leadership Examples<br> #1 Guthrie High School<br> Let me give you some examples close to home. A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Guthrie High School, just north of Oklahoma City. Principal Chris LeGrand and Assistant Principal Dusty Throckmorton gave me a tour. <br> With approximately 1,000 students, Guthrie is a combination of bedroom community for Oklahoma City as well as a community of many working-class families. The buildings are older but well-maintained. As traditional as their school appears, the learning options there are far from traditional. Yes, students have the core subject offerings, electives and Advanced Placement offerings you would expect from a high school. But they also have many offerings for students interested in non-traditional options. <br> For instance, Guthrie offers college courses on campus with adjunct professors who travel to the high school to teach.
