Middle School Matters

Shawn and I sat down for a few minutes to discuss our impressions of the NMSA conference. We recorded this "live" from the media area. We’ll go into more detail about the individual sessions in up coming shows.

Our excitement over the upcoming NMSA Conference can't be contained. In this episode, we discuss conference attendence strategies and our picks for breakout sessions. Be forewarned, this is our longest podcast yet. We also announce our first ever give away - you could win an iPod. Listen to discover how.

Values:

One method, create a representative task force and challenge its members to:

1. Carefully review the school’s vision statement

2. Identify attitudes, behaviors and committments that must be demonstrated by the group in order to move the school closer to the vision.

3. Develop a draft of a statement of these attitudes, behaviors and committments (limited to no more than 10 statements)

4. Arrange small-group meetings with collegues to present task force findings, solicit feedback and answer questions.

5. Revise initial draft

6. Small group meetings until there is strong consensus for the statements.

7. Present findings to the entire staff to obtain endorsement of the final product.

One of the big keys is to remember to involve Parents, Support Staff and Community members.

Mature vs. Immature PLCs-development of values/vision and implementation.

Some keys:

* Keep them few in number

* Link the statements directly to the vision statement

* Be direct

* Focus on behavior, not beliefs

* Focus on self, not others

Fourth Building Block:

Goals:

Which steps will we take first, and when?

Need to create some small victories. Thus, some short-term wins are necessary. In order to accomplish that, design some goals that are:

1. Visible - large numbers of people can see for themselves whether the result is real or just hype.

2. Unambiguous - There can be little argument over the results.

3. Clearly related to the change effort.

Things to avoid:

* Taking on too many initiatives at once. (Some schools have started 10 different task force intitiatives)

* Identifying goals that are too general. Goals must be specific and measurable if they are to be effective. Effective goals will specify:

o Exactly what is to be accomplished.

o Specific steps that will be taken

o Individual or group responsible for intiating/sustaining each step toward achieving the goal

o timeline for each phase

o Criteria in evaluating progress.

Podcast #8 continues our conversation about Professional Learning Communities. Specifically, we address two of the foundations of PLC’s- Mission and Vision. PLC’s are currently the happening movement in education. One of the best parts of PLC’s is that they are based around the classroom. They also call for all teachers to be involved and part of the process.

The first topic of discussion is the Mission.

Mission is the first building block: Basically, this asks the important question:

Why do we exist?

All schools currently have mission states. All of them sound very similar, this is OK. Next we take on the All kids can learn conumdrum.

This is based upon everyone agreeing that All kids can learn. However, we may have different definitions of what that means. DuFour points out four different possibilities:

All kids can learn

…..based upon their ability. Learning is fixed and educators have little effect. Educators create multiple tracks (pathways) to address the differences in learning. Future is predetemined.

…….if they take advantage of the opportunities. Educators must present things in clear and engaging ways. In the end, it is up to the students though.

…….and we will accept responsibility for ensuring their growth. Educators are responsible to help students grow but the extent of that growth is determined by the student.

……..we will establish high standards of learning that we expect all students to achieve. We create work that results in high level of achievement. We are prepared to work collaboratively with colleagues, students and parents to achieve this shared educational purpose.

The second Building Block: Vision

What do we hope to become?

One of our most serious shows, we start the discussion of Professional Learning Communities (PLC's). Specifically, we use DuFour and Eaker's Book (Professional Learning Communities at Work - Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement) as a starting point.

Previous School Reform:

* 1983 -National Commission of Excellence Movement - Consistent direction- schools just needed to do more!

* Goals 2000

o All Children will start school ready to learn

o HS graduation rate will increase to at least 90%

o American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated compentecy in challenging subject matter (including English, math, science, history, and geography)

o US students will be first in the world in math & science

o Every adult American will be literate

o Every school in America will be free of drugs & violence and will offer a disciplined environment that is conducive to learning

* Restructuring Movement

o site-based management

o bottom up change

o too vague

* According to a recent report, most teachers believe that schools are doing as well as possible given societal problems and parental involvement. This would mean that school improvement must be made outside of school. This argument assumes that what happens in school is largely irrelevant.

Why has school reform failed:

* The complexity of the task

* Misplaced focus

* Lack of clarity of intended results

* Lack of perserverance

* Failure to appreciate and attend to the change process

Next we discuss the characteristics of a PLC:

* Shared mission, vision, values

* Collective inquiry

* Collaborative teams

* Action Orientation & experimentation

* Continuous improvement

* Results orientation

Change is difficult:

1. Allowing too much complacency

2. Failing to create sufficiently powerful guiding coalition

3. Underestimating the power of vision

4. Undercommunicating the vision by a power of 10

5. Permitting structural and cultural obstacles to block the change process

6. Failing to create short-term wins

7. Declaring victory too soon

8. Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the culture

Join us for an overview of common assessments.

A whole podcast about homework. Get ideas for homework efficiency.

A conversation revolving around Douglas Reeves and Rick Wormeli's work on grading and the effect of giving zeros for work not turned in. We also take a look at a couple of methods of addressing tardiness. Finally, we look at least one way to increase the amount of homework turned in.

Troy and Shawn discuss some of theories of grading at the Middle School level.

Take a listen to the different roles in preparing for the school year. We discuss some ways to personalize your classroom, the importance of personalizing and the different views of administrators and teachers. This week's news item revolves around test scores and rigor. Links and show notes can be found at http://middleschoolmatters.com.