Recently I was in a meeting discussing risk-taking, change, and disrupting routines.  I recall stating dynamic learner-centered classrooms will always be lead by dynamic teachers.  You cannot have an old-fashioned rigid teacher leading a progressive and dynamic classroom. The same parallel is true for a school. Progressive schools have principals who empower staff and students to take risks and grow as learners and thinkers because these principals value:

• curiosity;
• creativity;
• Innovation;
• taking risks;
• relationship building; and
• view making mistakes as information that can support positive change.

 

Why do some schools and classrooms appear so different?  One reason is that through their actions and beliefs, leaders can demonstrate how purposeful risk-taking is important for staff to grow as professionals.  This leading by example can give teachers permission to take risks. A risk can encourage teachers to try something small such as committing to reading aloud every day. Or they can risk disrupting a significant routine by moving from a teacher-centered to a student-centered approach.   Risk-taking can break a cycle of repetition. Permission to take risks is how we grow and become better. It will only happen if staff feel safe and observe you taking risks, missing the mark, but continuing to work hard until you reach your goal.

 

Disrupt what you do.

 

The school principal sets the tone for a school.  A tone of intentional risk-taking and innovation or a tone of rigid compliance.  It is the principal who can stifle creativity, imagination, and risk-taking or empower staff to find their greatness.  Leadership matters. The world we are preparing students for is far different than what we experienced in school. And we educators need to prepare our students for this changing world and the uncertainties and unknowns of the future.

 

Here are my top five ways for a principal to set a tone where taking risks and disrupting routines is part of the school’s culture.  Use these to reflect and then to change. Staff and students deserve it.

 

Model: I have known “leaders” who attempt to communicate appropriate risk-taking, but when staff observes them they don’t see congruence between words and action.  If the principal wants to create a culture where taking risks is acceptable, staff must see the principal doing the same.

 

What are you doing to show staff that you too are taking risks?

 

Define: Taking risks is broad. Effective principals communicate what risk-taking means in their school.  They build understanding through discussion groups and book and article studies. Risk-taking merely to take a risk may not create changes in learning.  However, purposeful risk-taking, evidenced through improved learning, is right on target.

 

Encourage:  Effective school leaders give specific positive praise to staff who are taking risks and growing as teachers. This type of feedback makes a difference.  Specific positive feedback will encourage teachers to continue to try new methods, to take risks, and know if they make mistakes, they can always remedy them.

 

How are you encouraging change using specific praise?

 

Empower:  In the world of business empowered employees bring innovation to a company and can improve the bottom line.  In education, staff who are empowered to take risks and innovate impact student learning. Empowered staff will be more invested in what they do and most importantly why they do it.  Smart risk-taking helps develop empowered teachers who can impact student learning.

 

How do you empower staff to take purposeful risks to improve their practice?

 

Safety: Staff needs to feel safe to take risks, and they need to understand failure is part of taking risks.  If you scold staff for taking a risk or they hear of another staff member admonished for taking a risk, the entire initiative to change can fail. On the other hand, if the principal communicates that failure is a part of risk-taking, he or she lets staff know they can learn from failures and move along the path pointed towards success. When staff have bad experiences and the principal meets trying something new with understanding, they will try again. How you treat staff will spread around the school.

 

Do staff in your school feel it is safe to take risks?

 

Risk-taking involves creativity, innovation, and disruption of routine.  Embrace intentional risk-taking, model it, communicate it, and celebrate it.  Empower staff and give them permission to try. Lead the change. Collaboratively create a culture celebrating creativity and innovation.  Staff and students need and deserve innovative schools. Be the leader who allows this to happen!

Website: Robb Communications

Blog: The Robb Review Blog

Twitter: @ERobbPrincipal

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Many years ago my principal asked me to attend a conference and then train the staff at our school. I tried to learn more about what training the staff meant. Was this a common practice? It seemed intimidating to me. The train the trainer model, taken from the business world, was becoming a popular term in education. It did not work for me.

 

Yes, I attended the conference, had a good time, and learned some. What was not good for me? The faculty meeting I had to lead a month later where I was to “train” the staff on what I learned.  A horrible experience. I was not confident in the new information I learned while attending the conference and less confident to train a faculty where most were more experienced than me. Does your school or Division sing the praise of “train the trainer” models?  I hope not. I have rarely seen them work. Many times staff can be great in front of 25 students but not comfortable at all in front of peers who they need to teach. I propose a new method, well not exactly new, I propose ongoing professional development. Professional development meeting the needs of the school, occurring at the school, and for all staff in the school.

 

There are two ways to start ongoing professional development in a school: hiring a paid consultant or a school-wide book/professional study.  I will address both in two posts. In this post, I will give tips for using a paid consultant.

 

Assuming your school has access to professional support, the first step is to figure out what your faculty needs.  This can be accomplished through conversation, data analysis, and observation. Pick one focus area all staff can benefit from in all disciplines. As an example, in my school, our year-long focus is differentiating instruction.

 

Tips for successful year-long professional development:

• Know what you want to focus on and work with staff to build a commitment.
• Secure an educator who can meet with your staff at least six times during the school year. Add the dates and times to your staff calendar, so staff knows when each session is over the course of the year. I like to focus on professional development days or use time in the place of regular faculty meetings.
• Along with several staff members, meet with the presenter to grid out what topics will be addressed during each session. Know what the outcome should be at the end of all sessions and communicate this to staff throughout the year.
• I am a stickler that a consultant will let staff know at the start of the session what they will learn. Also, there must be collaborative opportunities during the sessions, and a task staff will try in preparation for the next meeting.
• It is critical for the principal and other administrators to be part of all sessions.  In my school all teaching staff, guidance staff, and administrators attend.

When reading this, you might think, O.K. it’s great, but it could be expensive.  My counter, it is not if you cut back on sending staff to conferences and training.  It is not costly if you consider the gain of all staff in your school receiving training instead of a few, or replacing “train the trainer” models which I do not feel are very successful.  Bringing on-going professional development to your school it is the best way to generate excitement and energy for a full year.  It is a positive and significant shift away from the one and done sessions and the false expectations that this method can bring change to a school.  You want positive change to impact students and staff. Choose a school focus that is inclusive and work on it all year long through purposeful professional development.

Website: Robb Communications

Blog: The Robb Review Blog

Twitter: @ERobbPrincipal

Facebook: The Robb Review Facebook

Podcast, The Robb Review Podcast

 

To foster an environment of independent reading in a school, you have to love reading. I do. But it was not always that way.

As a child, I was an expert at avoiding reading. Every trick—from pretending to read a book to finding summaries of books—I was versed in them all. I was fortunate to have parents who supported and encouraged me to grow as a reader, and the encouragement worked. But the question to ask is, what about students who do not have families or teachers supporting their growth as readers? Many never develop a personal reading life. I have learned that in my school I can foster and create an environment to support independent reading. Knowing the avoidance tricks has guided my collaborations with staff, and helped me communicate what needs to be in place in a school to get everyone on board with independent reading.

As an adult, my personal and professional reading lives have sustained my desire to continually learn and to read for pleasure. I value the fact that I can choose what to read, reread passages that speak to me, and talk about books and articles to friends and colleagues. To foster an independent reading culture, the principal must help teachers feel comfortable setting aside time for independent reading at school. Also, the principal must model how much he or she values reading by enlarging classroom libraries and making the school library an inviting place with comfortable spaces for students to read.

Research supports the benefit of independent reading, and it remains important for educators to make decisions consistent with research and best practice. Through reading, students enlarge background knowledge and vocabulary. But more important, students derive pleasure from their reading—pleasure in entering and living life in different worlds and cultures, as well as in stepping into a character’s life. The pleasure students experience is obvious when I visit a class and observe independent reading. However, I often wonder if schools are embracing independent reading and making it an integral part of their school’s culture.

Along with my belief in research, I also believe in good old-fashioned common sense. To develop skill and expertise at anything in life, you need to practice. Any sport from golf to basketball requires purposeful practice, and purposeful practice improves performance. If students want to become better readers, it makes sense for purposeful practice to be part of the improvement equation. A combination of independent reading and well-planned, differentiated instructional reading can improve reading skills. Being an excellent reader and writer are necessary for college and career readiness. Also, it’s important to remember students reading below grade level need to read more than their peers who are proficient and advanced readers.

I am a champion of independent reading. Are you? I believe the principal sets the tone through clearly communicated expectations and words of inspiration. Below are six ways a principal can encourage, promote, and foster independent reading for all, staff included!

1. Do a spot check, if you are new to a school. Are all staff encouraging independent reading? Is it being communicated to students? Are students reading independently in school?
2. Communicate the value of reading independently. I have known staff who feel they might get in trouble with administration if students are reading independently.
3. Invest in classroom libraries and your school library. Where we put our money communicates what we value. If we value books and reading, money from the school budget needs to be spent on enlarging classroom libraries and adding books to schools’ central libraries.
4. Have students self-select books for independent reading.  Do students have opportunities to “practice” the strategies and skills they’ve rehearsed during instructional reading and apply them to materials on their own?  Self-selecting books gives students control of what they read which in turn develops self-confidence, literary taste, and a desire to repeat the enjoyable experience.
5. Make sure independent reading is enjoyable! I have known staff new to my school shy away from promoting independent reading because they don’t know how to hold kids accountable. Some think I might view independent reading as a poor use of class time. Neither is correct.
6. Model-independent reading! Teachers who read in front of students send this powerful message to their students: as an adult, I place such a high value on reading that I read aloud to you every day.

Is your school making a concerted effort to promote independent reading?  I challenge you to work with your team to create a culture where all the students in your school are always carrying an independent reading book! By encouraging kids to read accessible books on topics they love and want to know more about, you develop their motivation to read.

Independent reading should take place in school and out of school. I suggest thirty minutes of independent reading a night, and that should be their main language arts homework assignment. During the school week, try to set aside two days a week for students to complete independent reading at school. Reading in a classroom is valuable because it builds students’ stamina, ability to concentrate and get lost in a book. The principal needs to communicate this!

Please remember: if staff focuses on how to hold students accountable for reading or how to punish students who do not read, your efforts will fail. Find different, creative, and motivating ways to increase reading. You can have students present a brief, monthly book talk and enter completed books on a reading log. If your staff is stuck in fixed mindsets of accountability for independent reading, work with them to find more positive solutions such vlogs, blogs, book trailers, or book talks.

I am asking for a commitment to reading. As a school leader, department chair, or classroom teacher, what you value, communicate, and prioritize is like a cold: catching. My challenge and the challenge facing all principals is to make sure students experience independent reading of self-selected books at school and home!

This post was originally published on Scholastic EDU

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Dear Educators,

Evan and I honor your hard work and dedication to your students throughout the 2017-2018 school year!  We both know you faced many challenges and dealt with each one, always keeping your students at the center.  You are the unsung heroes of our country, teaching new generations to read, write, think creatively, innovate, and problem solve.  We want you to know the depth of our respect for your diligence, for the classroom communities you worked all year to build, and for the support you’ve offered each child!  Now it’s time to take a deep breath, relax, and use your short break to care for your wellbeing and to continue to reflect and learn.

Evan and I believe that balance is the key to utilizing free time well.  Some of you will take classes relating to your discipline, others already have stacks of professional books on night tables and desks for summer reading.  All terrific goals! However, we both urge you to set aside time to read for pleasure, to do what you love—long walks, hiking, relaxing on a beach, catching up on missed movies, spending time with family and friends.  Though teaching is one part of your life, it can be all-consuming during the year.  So, yes, do continue to learn!  But also reserve time to do what you love and find difficult to fit into your daily teaching schedule.

#teachersdeserveit

We wish you a joyful summer break!

Evan Robb and Laura Robb