Area 2 ALT Program

Collaboration and Success

There is a strong connection between success and how we work with others.    Research in social cognition reflects that cognitive function emerge at the social level before the individual level (Mevarech & Susak, 1991).

Education and learning spring from interpersonal settings.  Individuals, working together, construct shared understandings and knowledge (Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1991).  Through social learning situations in the form of group discussions, learners can operate at higher levels of cognition than they can individually.  When we work in collaboration we can take advantage of the strengths while overcoming the weaknesses of each individual. 

Following these principles, Area 1 and Area 2 Lead Teachers combined efforts working in collaboration to develop an Item Bank that will soon be available for teachers as they develop common assessments to use with their students. 

Under the lead of Area Assistant Superintendents Dale Gaddis and Phillip Lanoue, the group of Area Lead Teachers set off on a journey of shared knowledge and collaboration to add to the list resources already available to our teachers in Cobb County School District.  Joining efforts with the already committed group were Amy Krause, Jan Hollis, Margaret Moss, Dianna Denton, and Michelle Mikes from the Curriculum and Instruction Department; and Pat Jackson from the Professional Development Department. 

When working in collaboration, we are responsible for our own learning and the learning of the other members of the group.  We become active participants and resources to each other.  Collaboration is keeping in mind that we don't succeed until we all succeed.

References:

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., & Smith, K. (1991) Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom, Edina, MN: Interaction Book Co.

Mevarech, Z. & Susak, Z. (1991) Learning in different mastery environments. Journal of Education Research 84, pp. 225-231.

Submitted by Damaris Cortes

Lessons from Geese

Effective leadership teams share a common direction, build on each other's strengths and support each other in weaknesses.  During one of our ALT meetings, our colleague MaryJo shared Lessons from Geese with our team.  As this encouraging and inspiring piece of writing gave us some "food for reflection," we would like to share it with you, since we all have a leader within that can learn from the lessons nature brings to us.

In the fall when you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in "V" formation, you might be interested in what science has discovered about why they fly that way.

As each goose flaps its wings it creates an uplift for others behind him. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71percent greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

People who are part of a team and share a common direction can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the flock.

If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position.

It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each others skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.

The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Words of support and inspiration help energize those on the front line, helping them to keep pace inspite of the day-to-day pressure and fatigue. It is important that our honking be encouraging.  Otherwise it is just -well... honking! 

When a goose gets sick, or wounded and falls out, two geese fall out of the formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it is able to fly or until it dies. Then they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.

If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

Next time you see a geese formation, remembemer their message:

"It is indeed a reward, a challenge and a priviledge to be a contributing member of a team"

Submitted by Damaris Cortes

Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes

Participants of the Summer Leadership Summit had access to a number of Dr. John Maxwell’s books. The display included the hard covers, audio CDs, and kits with which many of us took advantage of the discounts. One of the books, which I bought on CD, was Failing Forward. According to Amazon,

The major difference between achieving people and average people is their perception of and response to failure. John C. Maxwell takes a closer look at failure-and reveals that the secret of moving beyond failure is to use it as a lesson and a stepping-stone. He covers the top reasons people fail and shows how to master fear instead of being mastered by it. Readers will discover that positive benefits can accompany negative experiences-if you have the right attitude. Chock full of action suggestions and real-life stores, Failing Forward is a strategic guide that will help men and women move beyond mistakes to fulfill their potential and achieve success.

I am wishing I bought the book since I am finding many noteworthy steps to share. Specifically, as I approached my destination today, the CD reached an interesting point. Instantly striking a cord, I believe it is a great pledge with which to lead a class of young people. The pledge-like sagacity aligns, not only with the GPS, but allows for easy, unobtrusive connections to real life application. What do you think?

A goal shapes a plan;

A plan shapes an action;

An action achieves results;

Results bring success.

~ Dr. J. Maxwell

How to Achieve R.E.A.L. Success

Members of the Cobb County School District, as well as local community and business affiliates, had the fortunate opportunity to hear Dr. John Maxwell, world renowned best selling author, entrepreneur, and orator. Dr. Maxwell’s keynote, How to Achieve REAL Success coincides beautifully with CCSD fostering relationships and cultivating tremendous leaders to Unite Cobb.

Dr. Maxwell, dedicated to building quality leaders with veracity,  provided attendees of the first Cobb Leadership Summit with sage advice, a little comedy, and the opportunity to access his resources, his books, as we all look to develop personally and professionally. Within his keynote, Dr. Maxwell detailed/defined/explained several beliefs, such as success, and being R.E.A.L.

Here are a couple of tidbits Dr. Maxwell shared with his captive audience…

Success – What is it?  How do you get it?

Think about the following:

(1) Know your purpose in life. Purpose, you ask?  What’s your passion? Once you know/realize your passion, your energy will show through unconsciously as you work within your strength zone and develop your natural talent.

(2) Grow to your maximum potential. Get better!  Commit to developing “self”. But, know that your growth is not an automatic process – it has to be intentional. Think about your daily routine.  Are you preparing each day, or repairing? Think about it… Are you preparing or repairing? Why does it matter? Preparation positions your talent and when opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.

(3) Success is sowing seeds that benefit others, for success cannot be self-contained. Think – How can I add value to others? [Don’t worry – he told us…]

• Value People:  Give your best to others, don’t take the best from others.
• Make yourself more valuable.  Get better.
• Know others and relate to what they value. Go to them – meet them where they are and grow from there.

Blogger Personal Thought: Imagine if every teacher and administrator put #3 in effect each and every day in our schools?

When wrapping up this portion of his keynote, Dr. Maxwell said something that struck a cord, and I wouldn’t doubt if it stuck a cord with every Area 2 ALT. Great leaders are great listeners.  Proceed slowly. (Mr. Gaddis, anyone?)

The second portion of his keynote addressed the R.E.A.L. in R.E.A.L Success.

R elationships

E quipping

A ttitude

L eadership

For more of John Maxwell, check out his wonderful array of best sellers (also available as audios):

The Difference Maker: Making Your Attitude Your Greatest Asset

The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization

Your Road Map for Success: You Can Get There from Here

The Maxwell Leadership Bible: Lessons in Leadership from the Word of God

Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success

Talent Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will Take You beyond Your Talent

Developing the Leader within You

Why Students Drop Out

April’s  Educational Leadership’s focus was on The Prepared Graduate. In a special report, Why Students Drop Out, the reader is met with a shocking introduction.

Approximately one-third of all high school students in the United States  fail to graduate. For blacks and Hispanics, the rate rises to 50 percent. 

According to The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts, five major reasons for leaving school are the following:

· bored with school (47 %)

· missed too many days and could not catch up (43 %)

· spent time with people who were not interested in school (42 %)

· had too much freedom and not enough rules in their lives (38 %)

· were failing (35 %).

Hopefully, you’re thinking that the reasons listed are not only applicable to high school. It would be a positive response if both high schools and middle schools teamed together to try to disintegrate, or at least thin out, these reasons.

As educators we have to ask tough questions.

Why is boredom occurring? How can we assess/measure this statistic? How can we work to change this issue?

Are there additional things we can do, within county parameters, to help these kids catch up….especially with excused absences? Are there additional things we can do to deter the students from making the wrong choices? How can the kids interact with the school to take ownership and then choose positive avenues over not-so-positive. Can we offer additional after school clubs of interest?

Do schools need to pick up where home leaves off? How do schools address those students who encounter too much freedom and not enough rules in their lives? Are we caving when kids say adults are too hard on them? Could we be forgetting, with all that we have to do ourselves, the media, and society itself, that they are still kids even at 16 & 17?

Failing? Why? Is it that the students truly cannot know/do/understand the GPS? Or, is the grade splattered with zero grades? Are we consistent across the board with truth in grading? Are be making sure that we are not grading behaviors but only GPS related work?

Here’s another interesting and quite telling statement from the report.

A majority of students said that they were not motivated to work hard, but that they would have worked harder had their teachers demanded more. Seventy percent believed that they could have graduated if they had tried.

It is our job not to give up on motivating these kids to want to try. We are cheerleaders, and that’s okay. These kids educational future is in our hands.

Close to three-quarters of the students (71 %) indicated that they started becoming disinterested in high school as early as 9th and 10th grades. Students noted that they would often go to school late, take long lunches, or skip classes or school entirely.

We have our work cut out for us in Area 2. Our kids have lives outside the school walls many of us couldn’t begin to understand. This is not to say other areas don’t have issues and their own work cut out for them. We are just distinct. Transiency and SES are not the sole reasons our kids may not perform to the best of their ability. A wise professor said, in my first doctorate course, There are dilemmas and there are problems. We cannot fix the dilemmas but we can repair the problems. Dilemmas are those issues we, as educators, cannot wave a magic wand to, like transiency and SES. But think of all the problems we can help to repair. It’s a great discussion to have post planning, then continue preplanning.

 

Breakfast Still gets Top Billing

While perusing through my weekend online article & blog reading, I stumbled across the following headline

Top 5 Reasons Breakfast is a Must for kids

Well, seeing that kids are our business....I checked it out.  And what do you know?  The number one reason, according to this article (and I would have to b et many more) was ....drum roll.....

Do better in school.

The other reasons are key, as well.  Really, all five(5) reasons should be tied for number one.  But, since kids today think coffee, soda, and sugared cereals are the way to go first thing in the morning, maybe we should think about what we can do.  Now, I know many schools offer free/reduced lunch.  But, what about the schools that don't?  What about the families that aren't sure how to get out of the "morning is crazy - grab whatever" routine.  Maybe add something to Open House/Curriculum Nights or Conference Week - a booth or something?  Enlist the efforts of our PTSA and our community partners?  What are our schools doing?  What are your thoughts?

Ruby Payne (Part 3)

A hidden rule of poverty is the noise level in homes of poverty is higher, & more people living in smaller spaces. Students coming from poverty have a tendency to be loud. In middle class there is the concept of the 6-inch voice. Have you ever told students to use their inside voice? Another hidden rule is important information is given non-verbally. Often students of poverty will miss a lot of information because they aren’t paying attention to words, they are paying attention to the non-verbal cues. In poverty, your value to your group is your ability to entertain. What, then, do you do with an entertainer? Ruby suggests not to put them down but to contain them. Give them two minutes at the end of class to tell a joke or story.

Could you survive in poverty? Do you know which grocery stores’ garbage bins can be accessed for thrown-away food? Can you physically defend yourself in a fight? Do you know how to move in half a day? How about surviving in wealth? Can you read a menu in French, English and another language? Do you have several favorite restaurants in different countries of the world? If you know how to get the best interest rates on a new car loan or you know how to get a library card, then you could survive in middle class.

Ruby Payne also talked about the 5 “Registers of Language”.

• Frozen Register – Language that stays the same; wedding vows, pledge
• Formal Language – The standard English of work and school, has complete sentences, correct verb tense, and specific word choice.
• Consultative - Formal language when used in conversations, not quite as direct as formal register.
• Casual Register – Language between friends and is general. Often sentences incomplete with word choice general. Often used with non-verbal cues.
• Intimate Register – Language between lovers or twins.

Kids from poverty get kicked out of school because they use the wrong register. They are not exposed to formal language which is the abstract language of papers, applications, bank accounts, taxes, contracts. When you don’t have formal language you have a hard time resolving conflict. Often kids will fight about something you think is trivial, but it’s not. It’s just that kids from poverty don’t have the right words to communicate it.

What implication does this have for educators? Many! Just maybe Johnny didn’t do his homework last night because he really didn’t have a pencil. And, his mother is very interested in his being successful in school but she doesn’t have a way to come to the school. Be patient and help these students learn how to survive in your school, in your classroom.

~ Mary Jo

Ruby Payne (Part 2)

Twelve Key Points to Remember

for Understanding Poverty

Ruby Payne’s presentation, A Framework for Understanding Poverty was a powerful and inspirational journey into the lives of students facing the unpredictability of poverty. During her presentation at Georgia State University on February 22^nd, Ruby Payne referred to the Twelve Key Points to Remember about Poverty, which she has written for educators on methods of understanding and encouraging students facing this devastating reality. I must say Ruby Payne’s presentation has truly helped me to understand that before we are able to teach a student, we must understand the student and the challenges they face that may prevent or impede how they learn.  

 

Twelve Key Points to Remember:

1. Poverty is relative - Poverty only exists in relationship to known quantities or expectations.
2. Poverty occurs in all races and in all countries  - The percentage of the population that is poor is subject to definition and circumstance.
3. Economic class is a continuous line, not a clear-cut distinction – Individuals are stationed all along the continuum of income; they sometimes move on that continuum as well.
4. Generational poverty and situational poverty are different – Generational poverty is defined as being in poverty for two generations or longer. Situational poverty is a shorter time and is caused by circumstance (i.e., death,illness, divorce, etc.).
5. This work is based on patterns – All patterns have expectations.
6. An individual brings with him/her the hidden rules of the class in which he/she was raised – Even though the income of the individual may rise significantly, many of the patterns of thought, social interaction, cognitive strategies, remain with the individual.
7. Schools and businesses operate from middle-class norms and use the hidden rules of middle class – These norms and hidden rules are not directly taught in schools or in businesses.
8. For students to be successful, we must understand their hidden rules and teach them the rules that will make them successful at school and at work.
9. We can’t neither excuse students nor scold them for not knowing; as educators we must teach them and provide support, insistence, and expectations.
10. To move from poverty to middle class or middle class to wealth, an individual must give up relationships for achievement (at least for some period of time).
11. Two things that help one move out of poverty are education and relationships.
12. Four reasons one leaves poverty are: It’s too painful to stay, a vision of goal, a key relationship, or a special talent or skill.

Ruby Payne’s key points are valuable tools that will help all educators better understand poverty, and how we, as educators, can support and improve our effectiveness in working with students of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

 ~ Denise

 

A Framework for Understanding Poverty: Part 1

A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne, Ph.D.

Presented on February 22^nd at the Georgia State Student Center Ballroom

Once again Ruby Payne did an excellent job assisting with the understanding of students in generational poverty. In her presentation she explains, “If you really want to understand your students, you not only have to understand the economics, but you also have to understand the race and culture they come from. That’s because all learning is related to relationships, and you can’t have a relationship with someone you don’t know anything about.” What a great message for all educators!

The book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, is a useful tool for all educators when working with children from poverty. “There are hidden rules that govern how each of us behaves in our social class. Those rules, because they are hidden and only known to those within the group, prove to be a major stumbling block for individuals trying to move to a new social class. Students from poverty often languish in classrooms run by members of middle class because those are the rules that govern” ( Payne, 2007).

If you ever have the opportunity to hear Ruby Payne, I absolutely recommend it!

~ Sharon

What Makes a Teacher 'Effective'?

William Lloyd Garrison Elementary School and one of its teachers, Zakia Sims were the jumping off point of an online article, What Makes a Teacher 'Effective'?

One section in he article says plenty when Sims commented on her classroom routines and their smoothness.

"That took a long time," she says. "A very long time."

But, should only the teachers be held responsible? 

"All the stakeholders need to be involved," she says. "It can't just be teachers."

How can the comments of this national board certfied educator be connected to another query within the article?

So what makes a teacher effective? And should teachers' jobs — their careers, really — be pinned on a couple of pages' worth of bubble answer sheets their students fill in each spring?

What do you think?