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Andy Greene is a transformative principal at Candlewood Middle School. We talk mostly about professional practice and professional development. Andy is a master at these two things. I learned so much from Andy, and I am so thankful he took the time to speak with me.

Here are some bullet points from our discussion:

How he ensures that teachers are continuous learners

How he ensures that faculty meetings are like miniature college courses.

How he uses backwards design for his faculty meetings.

How he ensures that teachers come to faculty meeting and make sure that they all get something out of it.

Mission and Vision Document

Professional Expectations Document

How he helps everyone see they are a member of a team.

What it means to bow low.

This:

How he has hard conversations with teachers and balances that with positive feedback.

When he decides to divulge information to teachers about how they are perceived.

The importance of having staff that can tell you how things are really playing out among the staff.

The intentional things Andy does to make sure his staff feels that they are in a comfortable learning atmosphere.

Seek first to understand before being understood.

How Andy would approach a staff that he needs to “clean up.”

He sent a bunch of stuff over to me, and sharing is caring, so here it is for you. First, he sent two files that I read from in the interview:

Expectations 2014 (Word Doc) - This document goes over the expectations he has for the staff at his school. Updated as often as needed, and discussed just as often. There are some great gems in this document.

Mission and Values (Word Doc) - This document discusses what the mission and values of Candlewood Middle School are. Again, there is some great information here.

PLCs (Word Doc) - We didn’t get a chance to discuss this document, but it includes a lot of great information about PLCs and some great quotes to get people thinking about them.

The following are emails that Andy sends out to his staff after each mini-university-course faculty meeting. You can tell that he spends time thinking about what to say to his staff, how to motivate them, and encourage a culture of learning. He pretty much never lets up.

    Good discussion on objectives yesterday…[refer to the packet from yesterday for other examples]

A personal example to help clarify!

Big Idea For the Year-Staff will understand that standards are not curriculum: curriculum needs to reflect best practice and user needs while also honoring standards. Essential Question-What is understanding? What follows for curriculum and unit writing? Faculty Meeting Instructional Objective-At the end of the meeting, staff will be able to identify the three types of “learning” for their upcoming unit: acquisition, meaning-making, and transfer.  

Big Idea: Student should understand that good readers employ specific techniques to help them make meaning of what the text says.

Essential Question-What do good readers do, especially when they don’t comprehend a text?

Lesson Instructional Objective-Student will be able to use identify the two persuasive techniques the author employs in  _____.

Let’s continue the discussion! A reminder…please have a manila folder for each faculty meeting so you can keep the handouts that are given out… Yesterday, there was a packet that we did not have a chance to get to but we will use it in October. To save paper, I do not want to make other copies!

Thanks

Andy

Good Morning,

As I start to look at some of the assessments that faculty members are sending in, I want to encourage everyone to use the verbs we have discussed not only as you ask student questions in class, but how you frame your questions on assessments.   Here are some suggestions:

Instead of saying “Which inequality is represented in the graph below,” add the word “Evaluate” at the start of the sentence [e.g., “Evaluate which inequality is represented in the graph below, and pick the best response from the choices listed.”

Instead of saying “Which is the best title for the series of maps at right,” add the word “Suggest” [e.g.,  “As you look at the graph to the right, what would you suggest would be the best title from the choices below.”

In music, tech, art, LOTE, etc, use sentences such as “What conclusion can you draw from the information presented?” “In measures 15–20, cite the key signature and dynamic levels.” “Summarize the information regarding the best tool for this particular job and explain why it is the one you would recommend.” “Distinguish between the choices below; which country is considered to be the birthplace of the Spanish language.”    I encourage everyone to plan your lessons keeping the vocabulary words “upfront and center.”

(:

Andy

Per our discussion at the faculty meeting…

Whenever you can integrate the cognitive and the conative skills identified below into your unit plans, please do so. In addition to the vocabulary terms we have discussed, these are skills that every teacher can incorporate [where applicable]. Use your creative juices to determine where-in your content area-these would work best.

Cognitive skills are traditionally defined as those needed to effectively process information and complete tasks.  Cognitive skills are required for tasks involving retrieval, comprehension, analysis, and utilization of knowledge.  The majority of the practice standard skills from the CCSS are best classified as primarily cognitive in nature.

Conative skills are traditionally defined as the skills that allow a person to examine his or her knowledge and emotions in order to choose an appropriate future course of actions.  A useful way to think about conative skills is in terms of interacting with others and controlling oneself.

Within the framework, Marzano and Heflebower (2012) identified specific classroom strategies that teachers can employ to teach cognitive and conative skills in their classrooms.  This category included key words and phrases such as: