Keep Your Friends Close

Active listening has become procedural. It is a format that is taught in just about every field where the public is involved. Sales, psychology, sociology, education, counseling etc… It has been relegated to the realm of (this is what you do if you want people to feel like they have been heard). Really listening is so much more. Married couples can either get good at really listening, or they get really good at tuning each other completely out. Teachers who constantly complain usually get the obligatory listen (and a roll of the eyes by everyone who is tired of hearing their rant.) The rub is that effective working relationships with parents, program staff, and students are maintained through actively listening, and communicating with all of the stakeholders. Caring about people is the key to working with them. Building relationships can be difficult, but if a parent feels that you care about their child, they are more apt to be happy and positive. Teachers want to be heard also, they want to feel like they are a part of the process, and they want their decisions to matter. Administration needs to actively involve all members of the educational community for the good of the students. I recently had a conversation with a member of the janitorial staff at a school. He reminisced of a time when a former Principal took him to dinner, and announced him as a part of the staff at “Back to School” Night. He told the story as though those days are long gone. He says that now he does his job and he goes home, without any connection to what is going on with the school community. He is one ally I would choose not to lose.

Leadership

Leadership is about the building up of others. It is about developing a team mentality. It is about building trust, and in most circumstances, putting others before ourselves. Transformation can only happen when the team makes it happen. A leader who is a genius, yet cannot build the team, will be the only person in the room with the vision. A leader who can motivate others toward the group goal is a person who will be followed, and thus a leader.

Love

Students learn best when they are respected, and guided in love by teachers who love what they do. When a teacher loves their subject, and can communicate that love, students are drawn in and take ownership. I am reminded of a new teacher that I work with who was hired a month in to the first semester. She replaced a teacher who had a difficult group of sixth graders, and the group dynamic revealed an underlying dislike of the grade level by the teacher. The students were often displaying behavior that appeared rebellious and frustrated. The new teacher built a climate of calm control, but also an interest in the students and a love for the subject matter. Within a month, the new teacher had students deeply involved in the subject matter, the students maintained a positive attitude, and that attitude was transferable to substitute teachers as well as support staff that came in to the classroom. The new teacher had given out responsibilities, involved the class in the governing of the classroom, and created a network of checks and balances to guide student behavior. The climate improved dramatically from that first month of the school year with the prior teacher.

reposting from Mr Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, December, 1862 to the second annual meeting of congress, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present, the occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion.”

Interesting choice of phrase 'rise with the occasion' since we think of an adversarial approach to meeting life’s issues. We think of problem solving like a tennis match and less like surfing. When we rise with a difficulty, it keeps us in a position of vision, where multiple options arise.  When we observe a situation as an obstacle that we are going to stand against, it becomes a defensive act, like defending yourself against a tennis ball that has been waged against your person. Abraham Lincoln’s presidency had it’s share of situations that he needed to rise with. An important lesson from an important person.

from Dan Meyer's Ted TV session

This is reposted from Dan Meyer's Ted TV session. Dan is a high-school math teacher.

Favorite Quote: "Math is the vocabulary of your own intuition"

Shaping neural pathways, getting students to interact with the information, and having them ask the questions of what is needed to solve the problems. Linear modeling..Having the students create the steps through discussion. They need to be involved in the formulation of the problem. Use real life video to create the question. Filling a water tank slowly. The students need to want to know how long they are going to watch the tank fill up. Students buy in to the question. Let students converse about problems. The tools (video cell phone) free from license problems. Use a self made video that requires the students to discuss the problem. Math makes sense of the world. We need to make more patient problem solvers.

a reaction to fast-food education

This is reposted from Sir Ken Robinson's Ted TV speech.

Human talent is tremendously diversified.  Time takes a different course if you are chasing what you are passionate about. When you love doing something, hours seem like minutes. Many leave education because it doesn’t feed their spirit.  Industrial/Manufacturing model, based on linearity and conformity and ‘batching’ people, to a model based on principals of agriculture, human flourishing is organic not mechanical.  Reforming education, customizing education to the circumstances of the people being taught. Customizing/Personalizing/Creating a movement in education.  People will develop their own solutions with external support based on a personalized curriculum.  We need to move from an industrialized education to an agriculturalized educational model.