Don't Close That Shop Door

Don't Close That Shop Door

In my opinion one of the most exciting things as educators we can do to help students find growth is to implement or have an intervention in place to help those students who struggle to find their "light switch". That moment of A'HA! is personally one of the biggest reasons I and many others want to be in education. Recently, if you follow me on Twitter ( NigelJHorton) I had one of these moments after an independent read. It was powerful and filled my tank for my own energy bus for at least the next year.

At times though as educators we find ourselves asking the question of "where to turn next" when what we are doing just isn't working. We as professionals know, hear and agree that we want "all students" to be successful. It's ingrained into us and is why we as teachers come to work everyday with that being our goal. With that said, imagine being a car-mechanic in today's age with all of the computers, gidgets & gadgets and trying to solve every problem by closing your shop door and getting to work. It can't be done; car mechanics have to rely on constant training, peers for help and research from people who are smarter than them.

Teachers are the same - we can't rely on shutting our shop door and getting to work. We have to rely on tons of help to be successful. These include our peers, our social learning network, blogs, tweets & shares, #edchats, conferences and research to help guide us when we need some new ideas or help to back all of these ideas up.

Recently through the help of Tina Wahlert at our Green Hills AEA we were introduced to a very simple, comprehensive website that helps us find research on many of these thoughts and ideas we are introduced to. It's called the "What Works Clearinghouse" (Link below)  and is put out by the Institute of Education Services that uses research to give us educators outcomes and results for how well the different interventions work and then grades and scores them.

For me personally, it was great to find research not being provided to you by a company, or author but instead someone independent. As this compares it to all interventions that have been submitted to them. It also helped guide me in making those hard choices of "what to do next".

As an educator, I challenge you to go out and look at it and reflect back on your teachings, maybe you'll find something you didn't know about. With that challenge, I encourage you to not be afraid of change because that "light switch" moment is right around the corner!

What Works Clearinghouse

#REPresent - It's about something bigger than you

REPresent 

 "It's about something bigger than you"

What in the world do beatboxing, break dancing, an ex-BYU mascot and a harmonica have to do with the education of our youth?  That's what I was wondering when I heard Josh Drean would be coming to Treynor and boy did he answer that question.

Today, after many months of work from our district OLWEUS team and training by the entire district we had a kick off assembly for both the Elementary and Middle/High School students. The premises for our kick-off was to raise awareness, and get kids excited for the implementation of our district-wide OLWEUS anti-bullying program that is being rolled out the second semester of this school year.

With that said, it's more than just an anti-bullying program that we are working on implementing at TCSD. Our true goal is to make all students love coming to school. We know that when a student can trust the people around them to care and respect them` their potential for growth is limitless.

• As @joshdrean says it is about always taking time to REPresent your community, your school, and your family. 
• As a 4th grade so graciously told me after the assembly: "we are learning to remember that it's about something bigger than you".  
• As our district leadership always reminds us, it is about making sure our students feel safe and secure. 

And after today's message from Josh we all believe that when you remember to always REPresent yourself in a way your community, school and family can be proud of you will make a positive impact in your school and community for years to come.

What can you do in your school?

To start with, if you get a chance to have Josh Drean at your school, DO IT. I can't say enough about his level of engagement with the students. Not to mention the entire day the kids talked about his message. One kid even came back into my room and just said, "Wow...... Wow that's all!"  And if you don't get a chance to have him in your school, remember the little acronym he uses for REPresent.

Report
Extend a hand
Play nice
R
E
S
E
N
T

Time With a Great Leader

Over break I had the opportunity to spend time with someone I truly trust, respect and admire. Kim Kazmierczak, as always, opened her doors and her arms to me and allowed me to come in on her day off to simply let me listen and ask. With that said, knowing her passion for students I would bet she would have been there regardless. :)

A little background - Kim hired me for my first job in the education world as a para-educator while she was the principal at Carter Lake Elementary. She allowed me to question, ask, make mistakes and learn in a building that had such an incredible climate. It inspired me daily to keep pushing on to finish my undergrad degree even though at times I thought I'd never get there. Most importantly she believed in me enough that when I made mistakes, she allowed me to learn from them.

Back to my recent learning from Kim and some things I'd like to put into writing for future reflection.

1. Nothing is more important than creating a safe and orderly environment; somewhere students feel safe and expect to be treated consistently and fairly. 
2. Leaders fail when they try to go off on their own. 
3. Leaders should become experts at data - finding what the data tells you and fixing it. 

First: When I think of any building I've been in, any classroom I've had the privilege of leading, no true learning happens until the students feel safe and secure. A perfect example is Treynor Schools providing training too all of their teachers in the Capturing Kids Hearts program that works to "develop safe, trusting, self-managing classrooms". When a student feels a part of something bigger, other than just traditional instruction, that's when true student learning takes place. 

Second: "Leaders fail when they try to go off on their own". When I heard Kim share this with me, I felt so in-line with this statement. For the last two years, we have lived this statement through our Doane EDL learnings. I think if you were to ask our Cadre what one thing they would take away from our time together many of them would say that leaders can not possess all of the skills to do it alone. Doing it alone is certain to lead to failure. Through school improvement plans, professional development plans, leadership teams and so on, it's a principal's job to incorporate everyone into doing what's best for students. It reminds me of this picture we've shared in our Cadre many times.

Lastly: "Data". My biggest nugget of knowledge I gained over break was one of those things that always seem so simple, but yet once I heard it worded this way, my understanding was so much clearer. "Leaders need to find what the data tells you and fix it". Kim shared this belief and it's a simple statement that should be one of the core beliefs of helping students, buildings and districts grow to help students. 

With all of this information, what should we take away? For me, it's about continuing to learn from the people around me so that I can help all students be succesful.