NAIS Annual Conference, day three

The third and final day of the NAIS conference kept up the same breakneck pace of workshops, general sessions, and conversations with new and old acquaintences the first two days. I began with a session on building endowments led by Kevin Ruth of Tower Hill School (DE) and Timothy McIntire of Carney, Sandoe & Associates that provided a soup-to-nuts approach to building an endowment that has intergenerational equity (preserving the purchasing power of the endowment so that future generations can have at least the same level as the current generation). The strategy has several layers, including having a spending plan that accounts for inflation and adjusts the draw from the endowment, allocating a percentage of the Annual Fund to the endowment, creating a tradition of Class Funds, and doing special fundraising such as an Endowment Campaign or pursuing planned giving. Also key are four dimensions of community preparedness: the school must be in a financial position to delay gratification, leadership at all levels must be committed to endowment growth, there should be full alignment within the school community about the philosophical reasons for having an endowment, and the school should be able to withstand the low time preference in which endowment building operates. The TBS Board has discussed the idea of launching an endowment in the past two years, and though I have supported the idea, I left with a much better understanding of how an endowment would help us work now for the benefit of future generations of students.

The morning’s general session was a series of three twenty minute talks, modeled on the TED format. The first talk, by Elizabeth Coleman (President of Bennington College), focused on the ways in which democracy is being eroded, and the importance of a liberal arts education in preparing students to become active and informed citizens in a well-functioning democratic society. Although the litany of social ills she named was depressing, her conviction and vision for the power of education to meet this challenge was deeply inspiring, In the second, “futurist” journalist Anya Kamenetz discussed her beliefs about the future of education in the context of “open source” technology, including OpenContent (what we learn), OpenSocialization (how we learn), and OpenAssessment (why we learn). In discussing the third idea, she mentioned the idea of assessment by network, and how some schools are having students put their work online for other people to comment upon; later in the day I was having a conversation with Andrew Davis, Head of Middle School at Crystal Springs Upland School, who said that the Stanford School of Business uses this model for student evaluations of teachers, which then gets used both by students in selecting classes, and even by the school in determining which faculty get placed on a tenure track! In the final segment, Salman Kahn of Kahn Academy narrated how and why he launched the site, and demonstrated the ways in which this disruptive technology can humanize the classroom. The data-analysis portion of the site can track how long a student spends on each problem in a set and the level of mastery that a student has reached in each unit, and provides an alternative to the use of snapshot assessments that biased towards moments in time rather than tools to help students achieve mastery. The analogy he used showcased the humor and wit of his presentation; if a child is learning to ride a bike, a parent doesn’t check back in two weeks to see how well he can do, and then move on to a unicylce regardless of the results of that moment’s assessment! I immediately emailed Mitch about this website – which is free – because I believe our pedagogy and approach can allow us to immediately begin incorporating the site into our classroom program at the 3^rd-8^th level. I encourage you to watch these videos of Elizabeth Coleman, Anya Kamenetz, and Salman Kahn!

For my last two workshops of the day, I selected ones that I thought would inform my own path towards aspiring Headship. Terrance Briggs of Bowditch and Dewey LLP spoke about negotiating Head’s contracts from the standpoint of both the school and the Head; key takeaways for me were the importance of seeing contract negotiations within the context of the developing relationship of trust between an incoming Head and a Board, and the need for a Head to speak up early about the critical issues in each compensation negotiation. Finally, Donald Grace of Touchstone Community School (MA), Matt Glendinning of Moses Brown School (RI), and Catherine Karrels of Stone Ridge of the Sacred Heart (MD) presented their unique and variable stories about how to balance the tension between a push towards action and a pull towards further study in a Head’s first year, and when and how to determine the right approach to a scenario. I (and many others) took some comfort from Don, who said “I’ve been a Head at six different schools over the course of the last 18 years, and I have yet to get the first year right.”

The closing general session of the conference featured Geoffrey Canada, creator of the Harlem Children’s Zone, an innovative “cradle to college” approach to providing services well beyond the usual role of schools to 10,000 underserved children who live in a 100-block section of central Harlem. This concept has gotten a ton of press recently; he has been interviewed on Sixty Minutes not once but twice, and he is also featured in the recent movie Waiting for Superman, and President Obama has allocated $150 million to create “presidential zones” in over a dozen other major cities using the same model. While his wit and humor made him a wonderful speaker, I was not engaged by the content of his talk, which was mostly a litany of the deeply troubling but well known issues surrounding the impact of race of educational opportunities (70% of African American males without high school diplomas are unemployed; more African Americans have died of gun violence in the last 30 years than in all of the lynchings in the history of the country; incarceration rates of African Americans outpace college graduation rates; etc). To be fair, we had to leave before the end of his talk, to get to the airport, so he may have been building up to something important or interesting. Fortunately, the ride to the airport did not disappoint; Mike Reira (Head of our Oakland neighbor Redwood Day School), Mohammad Kazerouni (TBS Business Manager) and I shared a cab to the airport, with a lively conversation covering many topics.

This is the third year I have been lucky enough to attend this conference, and I can't wait for 2012 in Seattle!

NAIS Annual Conference, day two

What an action packed day! Three one-hour workshops, two one-hour general sessions, and a long session exploring the exhibit hall; countless conversations establishing new connections and renewing old ones with peers and colleagues from around the country (including some friendly Bay Area faces, such as TBS Board Member Janet McGarvey); more time with TBS Business Manager Mohammad Kazerouni discussing the ideas and implementation for when we return to TBS; and a feeling of renewal and optimism about the reasons for the work that we do, and the beliefs that drive our educational practices.

I began the morning hopping from a breakfast with the other Fellows, where we shared our experiences from the first day of the conference, to the President's breakfast, where NAIS leadership reviewed the past year and discussed their vision for the next. From there I went to a workshop on managing retention lead by David Michelman of The Duke School in Durham, NC. The insight of his approach is that their action plan was not simply to do more internal marketing and retention outreach, though that too is important, but rather began by identifying the drivers of attrition, and then moved to enlisting various groups in the community to address those drivers in relevant and appropriate ways. For example, because half of their attrition was from families in their first or second year of enrollment, the administration worked with the Parents Association to strengthen the way new families are included in the school community. Professor Sheena Iyengar of Columbia then gave the opening session keynote speech, in which she explored the relationship of leadership and choice. Her view is that leaders must manage four elements; distributing and relinquishing control, understanding the influence of culture on choice, manage the limitations of choice overload, and developed informed intuition. These ideas are more fully explored in her book The Art of Choosing, which Mohammad promptly purchased. You might also want to watch her talk on the TED network.

After lunch (included in the conference fee) I headed to a session of personal relevance; Life Balance and Time Management for Heads, run by Ralph Davidson, a former 20-year Head of School who is now with Carney Sandoe & Associates. His talk reinforced my own understanding that if a school leader is to be the chief caretaker of a school and all the people in the school, s/he needs to take care of her/himself for two reasons - both to model that self-care for others, and to simply last through the incredible stressors that come with being a Head. Debbie Freed, a Bay Area consultant with whom TBS has worked closely in the last three years, was also there, and afterwards she and I had a lively conversation about the challenge of new Heads in managing and helping to grow the Board of Trustees. The last workshop of the day for me was titled Contemporary Marketing, facilitated by Jeffery Wack of JT Wack and featuring Karen Bowman of Webb School (CA), Kerry Shea of Greenhill School (TX), and Beth Reeves of Friends School Mullica Hill (NJ). The three Directors of Marketing and Communications all come from corporate backgrounds, and through an active discussion format addressed a variety of important questions such as, what is marketing in the context of schools, what are common misunderstandings about what contemporary marketing is, how marketing contributes to strategic planning, and many others.

The day's closing general session was a talk by Dan Heath, who with his brother Chip is the co-author of two books, Made to Stick and Switch, the latter of which was the topic of his talk. It is not a coincidence that Dan spoke on the former at the 2009 NAIS Annual conference in Chicago, where he gave out free copies of the latter! His talk was a wonderful distillation of the key concepts of the book; that in order to create meaningful and lasting change, one has to direct the rational part of the brain, motivate the emotional part of the brain, and shape the path to change by removing obstacles. This short video, which speaks to the idea of motivating the motional, contains some of the images were included in his presentation (though it does not come close to capturing the wonderful vibrancy of his live-speaking style).

NAIS Annual Conference, day one

Mohammad and I arrived in DC late yesterday for the NAIS Annual Conference, which kicked off today with a series of three-hour workshops. This conference is always a tremendous experience, for several reasons; the opportunity to meet other school administrators, hear their stories and ask questions - the deeply informative workshop sessions, from which I walk away with renewed excitement and enthusiasm about the possibility of growth and improvement at TBS - the provocative general sessions, which sometimes border on cheerleading - and most importantly, the time and space to step away from the intensity of day-to-day operations and have sustained, running conversations about important issues at school over the course of days in an unhurried and contemplative way, integrating the information that we are learning and developing our resolve on action steps for the future.

This morning I attended an introductory workshop for the Fellowship for Aspiring Heads, in which I am lucky to be able to participate. Besides some logistics and organization, the 50 or so Fellows began the morning discussing five stepping stones in our lives that have brought us to the place where we are considering moving into a Head of School position. These key points ran the gamut from people, places, jobs and schools to experiences and emotions, and we shared them in small groups, finding similarities and differences among our journeys (my own stepping stones included the summer camp I attended as a child and worked at as a college student, where my love for experiential education was ignited; the support of my wife through the hardships I have faced in my work; my work at TBS as a teacher; my graduate work at Mills; and the three heads I have been fortunate to work with at TBS in the ten years I have been here). The facilitators then made the suggestion that according to 50 years of studies on leadership, what makes NO difference in leadership are intellect, charisma, strategic thinking, and a bias for action: most individuals working towards headship are going to be intelligent, or they wouldn't be on that path; charisma might be helpful in getting hired, but not in doing the actual work of leading; strategic thinking is best done in collaboration, not alone; and action without reflection leads to impulsivity, which leads to mistakes. What DOES make a difference in leadership, they proposed, are self-control, integrity, empathy, teamwork, self-confidence, and an achievement orientation. Already I see that the Fellowship will provide me with, and push me to find both now and once I am a Head, the space and tools to understand myself and to be a reflective leader.

The afternoon session I attended was run by Mike Conner of Conner Associates Strategic Services, titled Creating Resilient Schools: Strategic Marketing, Enrollment, and Budget Management. The presentation provided a seven-part strategy for increasing institutional resilience (which he offered as an alternative to the idea of "sustainability", reasoning that the latter suggests trying to keep from falling apart rather than having the capacity to capitalize on opportunities - a fertile ground for discussion for another time), each of which was broken down into component steps:

1. Communicating value – the value proposition

2. Tuition and financial aid planning

3. The mindset of marketing as resilience: goals, budget, curriculum, communications channels, inquiry development, retention

4. Planning ideas for resilience

5. The moving part of your overall spending plan

6. The intersection of policy and operations – how to take an operational snapshot and plan from that

7. Planning calendar for the moving parts

The very first topic was one that Mohammad and I had been discussing the day before, so it was interesting to hear one view on how to have a process for defining the value proposition of a program. Mike proposed that to prove a value proposition in an independent school, you have to show a) demonstrate you make a difference in the lives of those you touch (return on investment); provide unique solutions to each individual's needs; push the envelop of current educational practices; and run an efficient organization. I'm excited to take this back to the administrative team for further discussion, as I think we are well positioned to more clearly communicate the tremendous value proposition of a TBS education.

2/18 Professional Development Day

Parents often ask what faculty do during our in-house Professional Development days, such as the one we're having tomorrow, so I thought you might like to see our schedule for the day. As is often the case, we're trying to balance time in classrooms, time in levels, and time as a whole faculty; space to work on ongoing projects as well as upcoming projects; and attention to both theoretical and pragmatic issues.

8:30-9:30 Classroom time.

9:30-11:00 ECC division meeting; K-3 reading instruction meeting; 4/5/6 planning for collaboration; 7-8 level meeting.

11:45-1:00 All-faculty lunch (provided) at the University Campus, and conversation to follow up on the 2/16 Faculty Meeting on the role and approach of TBS teachers.

1:00-2:30 Looking at Student Work Together groups.

2:30-4:00 Advance planning sessions; Math Night, Readathon, Art Show, ECC Yard, University Campus Recess.

Math is not linear

Enjoy this Prezi presentation by Alison Blank on how to approach teaching math.

Here's one on the relationship of play and learning.

Deepening Your Relationship with Your Child

I'm reprinting a write-up of last Wednesday's parent ed event, written by Moira Kenney:

"Anne Brozinsky held her last Parent Education event for the year, this one focusing on Deepening Your Relationship with Your Child, at the Depot on Wednesday night. Over the course of two conversation-filled hours, parents explored a series of techniques for connecting with their children in ways that improve family dynamics, reduce conflict, and, most importantly, lead to deeper conversations with children about the challenges they face. Anne provided a number of ideas for activities and conversation-starters, all based on the idea that you need to meet your child where they are, before you can help them move to where they are headed. Anne talked about the power of role-playing as a way of working through stuck family dynamics, and at least a few in the group seemed willing to try. One example that seemed particularly intriguing (and worth trying on a slow weekend) was the role-playing around morning routines, letting your child (or children) pick which parent they want to pretend to be and letting parents role-play the child's typical routine. There was much joking about what the breakfast menu might include, and what your kids might do to get you out of a cozy slumber. As always, parents appreciated the chance to talk in small groups, meet new parents, and share stories of struggle on the parenting front lines. Thanks, Anne!"

Our new neighbor: REALM Charter School

After many years, the BUSD buildings at the corner of University and Bonar are being renovated for occupancy. The site, which is called West Campus and was once a junior high and then the 9th grade of Berkeley High, has been vacant since the Berkeley Adult School moved to the former Franklin School on San Pablo at Virginia back in 2004. Much of the building will be used as the district headquarters of BUSD, which is leaving its current site at Old City Hall.

The West Campus site is also going to house a new charter school called REALM, which stands for Revolutionary Education and Learning Movement. The school has an admirable list of skills and outcomes, including intellectual openness, analysis, inquisitiveness, reasoning/argumentation, interpretation, problem solving, creativity and innovation, critical thinking, collaboration, ICT literacy (information, communications, and technology), and media literacy. The program will have four core elements; project-based learning, immersive technologies, Mindfulness in Education (transformative life skills), and participatory action research. They will open with 100 6th grade students and 100 9th grade students next fall, and grow to a full enrollment of 100 students per grades 6-12. We look forward to welcoming REALM to the neighborhood, and the opportunities for collaboration that may arise!

Planning for Child Visit Days

One of the most exciting parts of the year is when new applicants visit the school. It's incredible to meet the children (and their families), learn who they are as learners and people, and get a sense of how they will fit into our existing classroom populations. Holding these visits is a major project that involves all of our faculty and most of the administration in a variety of ways; at three grade levels we hold weekend events, and at three others we integrate children into the classrooms for a half day.

The three grade levels that have weekend visits are the Early Childhood Campus, the K/1 program, and the 6th grade program. At the Early Childhood Campus, families will be coming on Sunday the 13th, between 9-11. These young children, some of them new to school for the first time, are paired up 1:1 with a faculty member, who spends 20 minutes engaging with the child in carefully selected works and activities that provide data on the child's physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. Parents and administrators have a chance to talk outside the classrooms during this time, and talk about everything from the child to the setting to the program, and more. At the K/1 level, students will visit campus on Saturday the 12th between 9-10:30. This year we are expecting 34 students; we'll split them into two equal groups and send them into the K/1 classrooms for a morning of activities and play that, like at the ECC, are designed to help us gather information about the children on areas such as their gross and fine motor control, collaborative play, and early literacy and academic skills such as letter recognition and pattern making. Julianne will be hosting an art making class for parents in the atelier during this time, and current parent ambassadors will be available in the Depot for conversation about their experiences at TBS. At the 6th grade level, our 4/5 and 6th teachers will lead the students through a 2.5 hour session on Saturday the 12th that includes a powerful self-image activity called Grow Your Garden from Positive Discipline, math and language arts classes that will engage the kids socially as well as intellectually, and artistic and team-building activities. As you can imagine, the time and energy put into designing these visits - and the process of discussing the data that we gather during them, as well as reviewing the files of all of the children - is a major undertaking for faculty.

Why do we hold weekend visits for ECC, K/1, and 6th? For the youngest students, because schooling can be so new, giving them time to have the space to themselves helps build a feeling of comfort. At the K/1 and 6th grade levels, it's simply a matter of pragmatics - the impact of 30 students visiting the class over the course of the nine days we do child visits would mean averaging more than 3 student applicant visitors a day for two school weeks! Because the 2/3, 4/5, and 7/8 levels are not natural transition points, we tend to have fewer applicants at those levels, so having students visit in the classrooms for half the day is much more manageable. Applicants not only get to experience life in a TBS classroom, they also eat snack and/or lunch, and begin to forge social connections through the structures of the work as well as time at lunch and recess with host "buddies".

At some schools, the teaching faculty do not participate in the admissions process in the deep way that they do at TBS. Instead, the administration hires outside teachers to come in and run the assessment day, and makes the admissions decisions without consulting teachers. We believe that by including teachers in every step of the process, from reading files to working 1:1 with student applicants, our faculty is empowered in the process, and thus feels ownership of the school in a unique way. They are also able to begin to form the teacher-student connections that are so important to the work that happens in the classrooms. When a child shows up at a new school in the fall, the presence of even one familiar face can make a world of difference in how s/he transitions into the day.

Parenting Styles and Children’s Emotional Intelligence

An interesting article from the most recent issue of The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families. Come see me for a copy!

Parenting Styles and Children’s Emotional Intelligence: What Do We Know?

By Alberto Alegre

Abstract

The theory of emotional intelligence has elicited great interest both in the academic and the nonacademic world. Therapists, educators, and parents want to know what they can do to help children develop their emotional intelligence. However, most of the research in this field has investigated adults’ emotional intelligence. This study reviews the scarce research literature in the area of children’s emotional intelligence. It also reviews the way in which parenting styles and practices predict children’s emotional intelligence in similar or different ways that they predict other developmental outcomes. Based on the parenting literature, four main dimensions of parenting are identified that are relevant to the study of emotional intelligence: parental responsiveness, parental positive demandingness, parental negative demandingness, and parental emotion-related coaching. Parental responsiveness, parental emotion-related coaching, and parental positive demandingness are related to children’s higher emotional intelligence, while parental negative demandingness is related to children’s lower emotional intelligence. Additionally, social–emotional intervention programs used in schools have succeeded in improving children’s emotional skills. Implications for practitioners are discussed.