Inside today's K-5 division meeting

Sharing the agenda from today's K-5 division meeting.

1. Review ground rules (1 min)

Start & end on time

Be present and engaged

Maintain a sense of humor

Assume good will

2. Mindfulness practice (10 min)

Audio file of body scan from Kate Jenke’s website

3. Kyla and Kate: recess agreements and concerns (15 min)

4. Lisa and Julia: Sharing portfolios from 3^rd grade (10 min)

5. Parent/Teacher conference prep (10 min)

Review goals

Share "collective wisdom"

Steps to take for prep

Exit slip

7. Site expectations cont.: gallery walk (20 min)

Gallery walk thru the rooms, examining the three criteria from last month.

Gather by room to share appreciations and ideas

8. Kate: types of listening (10 min)

CAIS Regional Meeting at Head Royce

The California Association of Independent Schools held the Northern Regional Meeting at Head-Royce School yesterday. Attending from TBS were Sima Misra, Mike Sinclaire, Kim Headlee, Kate Klaire, Mitch Bostian and myself, along with around 2000 other teachers and administrators from independent schools throughout northern California. This year we linked attending the event to submitting a proposal to present, and all four of the faculty presented the following workshops at the conference:

Using Visual Patterns and Thinking Routines to Deepen Mathematical Understanding (Mike and Sima) : Math has been described as the science of pattern-finding and relationships. Visual pattern finding and manipulatives allow students entry points into deep thinking and mathematical conversation. We will describe patterns with the language of mathematics (equations, order of operations, variables), and connect to upper elementary concepts like factors, multiples, and growth patterns. We will offer thinking routines the presenters learned from Harvard Project Zero that provide a framework for developing student understanding. 

Affinity Group: Student Council (Kate): Student councils are a wonderful opportunity for your school to develop service learning, community building, and establishing a voice for all students. This affinity group meeting is intended for those currently facilitating a student council and/or for those interest in how to get started. This will be a generative workshop focusing on a range of ideas and possibilities for overseeing student councils, including common constraints, and how to problem solve. Please come share your wisdom and curiosities.

Affinity Group: Performing Arts in Elementary School (Kim): Attention K-6 music, dance, theater teachers! Are you in need of new ideas to implement in your program? Do you have successful activities you love in your own classroom and would like to share? Come join us to share, learn and get inspired from fellow teachers. Bring at least three activities to share: movement, games, songs, etc., and be prepared to describe or lead each one. Fel free to bring handouts or activity instruction copies to distribute.

A sample of the workshops the six of us attended includes, by title:

Books, Rehearsal, Action!: Tools for Disrupting Gender Role Stereotyping in Elementary School

Building a Positive School Culture

Head's Session with CAIS Executive Director Jim McManus

Never Enough Time! Creating a Comprehensive, Effective, and Engaging Math Program

Ukelele - Strum and Sing

What are Little Boys Made of?

Heart to Heart & Hand to Hand: Singing and Movement Games from Many Cultures

As the Administration representative on the committee that helped plan the event, I spent the morning at the presenter check-in table, helping people get their name tags, figure out where  they would be presenting, and problem-solving the various issues that arise in any convention (signage, room changes and cancellations, etc). I greatly enjoyed doing this, to the point that I took an extra long shift at the table! I was also responsible for cultivating the selection of workshops specifically for administrators from among the submitted proposals, which was very enjoyable and also informational -- especially because I have begun to submit proposals to present at various conferences lately.

Stay tuned for a write up and newsletter with pieces and perspectives from each of the TBS attendees  coming out soon!

NAIS in Philadelphia

The Liberty Bell hangs just a few
blocks from the Convention Center

I feel so lucky to be supported - nay, expected(!) - to attend to my professional development here at TBS. This past week I attended the NAIS Annual Conference in Philadelphia, where I was able to attend several workshops, network with other school administrators from around the country, catch up with members of my cohort from the Fellowship for Aspiring Heads, and have the thrilling opportunity to present a workshop for the first time.

The best general session of the conference featured Jim Collins, author of the Good to Great books and coiner a number of notable organizational metaphors, including "the bus" (as in, who is on it) and "hedgehog" (as in, know and be yourself). Jim is a fantastic public speaker and he inspired the crowd to forgo good in the pursuit of greatness.

This copy of the Declaration of Independence is the one
that was read aloud to the citizens gathered in the courtyard
of Independence Hall immediately after the signing event.

Of the many workshops I attended, three stood out for their usefulness and applicability at TBS. Two were focused on the topic of faculty evaluation, and the third looked at models for developing an inclusive and diverse faculty body.

My workshop came during the third session of the first day of the conference, on the topic of "Changing School Culture at the Division Level".

This is thought to be the George Washington's
final proof copy of the Constitution.

The process of developing the Powerpoint presentation was an interesting one, as my first draft was overly reliant on images, in response to my concern that I not bore attendees by simply reading the slides. After a test-run with Kate Klaire, I reworked the slides to be more focused and less representational, as well as changed the order of some of the content for improved coherence. This work paid off in multiple ways; I felt great about the presentation, and the response of several of the attendees who came up afterwards to ask me for digital versions of the presentation offered a confirmation of my efforts.


The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall are just a few blocks from the Convention Center, so I made sure to nip over during a break and take in some amazing history.

NAIS Annual Conference, Day Three

The final day of this year’s NAIS conference began right at 8:00 am with the first of the day’s three workshops. Since the theme of the conference is innovation, I choose “Innovative Schools, Innovative Students” by Jonathon Martin, Head at St Gregory’s (AZ). I’ve enjoyed reading Jon’s blog and his posts to the Independent School listserve, and was excited to hear what he had to say about innovation. His presentation was essentially an overview of the concepts presented in some select recently published books on innovation, including Drive, Where Good Ideas Come From, and The Innovator’s DNA, which was useful from the standpoint of a data-dump on the concepts, but not in thinking about how these ideas are specifically applicable within schools. Unfortunately, as he ran short on time he accelerated the pace and volume of his speaking – choosing content coverage over depth.

For my next workshop I attended “Innovator’s Challenge Promotes Cross-Curricular Collaboration and Innovation”, presented by Penny Summers and Burn Jones of The Canterbury School (NC). They told the story of how they attempted to foster curriculum improvement through a specific project that arose from their leadership team’s shared reading of Curriculum 21 by Heidi Hayes Jacob (a book that has been on my reading list for some time). Listening to the narrative of the project was interesting, and I especially appreciated the constraints that they built into the project; that teachers work cross-disciplinarily with another teacher, that they connect with an outside organization, and that the project be considered within the context of the real work of the professionals in the field (biologists, writers, etc).

I had have a wonderful lunch conversation with Mary, Anne, and Mo Lan from The Trinity School in Menlo Park. I had been on their campus for a CAIS accreditation training in October, and Anne lives in Oakland and worked at both Bentley and Beacon previously, and we built on those connections to discuss a range of issues, from accreditation to enrollment to strategic thinking.

For the final workshop of the conference, I picked “Moving The Mountain: Changing Faculty Culture from Within” by Alice Moore at Marin Country Day School (CA) and David Colon at Collegiate School (VA). This workshop took a widely divergent pedagogic approach from the others, in that the presenters posed a series of questions to the audience, giving us time to talk in small groups and then report back our answers, before sharing some other considerations and moving on to the next question. I appreciated the attempt to provide a structure that would allow for active thinking and engagement, in contrast to most of the other workshops of the conference, though my hope for an increased understanding of, or even a few pragmatic nuggets about shifting faculty culture was not satisfied.

The conference’s closing general session featured Amy Chua, Yale Law School professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. After all the bad publicity her book had received, I was fully expecting to hear views that are widely divergent from my own, and thus was utterly shocked to hear how incredibly funny, self-deprecating, and thoughtful Amy actually was. Her perspective is far more complex than the media have depicted, and I found myself agreeing with many of the things she discussed, including the need to have high expectations for children, the importance of having them develop resiliency, the fact that genuine self-esteem comes from succeeding as a result of trying hard to do something challenging, the importance of balancing choice and freedom, and that happiness and success do not need to be mutually exclusive. Ultimately, her point is that Western parents have much to learn from Chinese parents, and vice-versa; that Chinese parents need to learn to nurture the whole child and cultivate the social and emotional lives of their children as well as the academic. In many ways, she was advocating for the exact sort of progressive education that we provide at TBS!

NAIS Annual Conference, Day Two

The theme of this year’s conference is innovation. The opening general session this morning began with an address by NAIS president Pat Bassett that made me feel extremely good about the work that we are doing at TBS. He began by proposing that the work of independent schools is to teach students to be “critical, creative and inventive thinkers”, which ties directly to our school-wide learning outcomes. He then went on to proclaim ten promising innovations in education:

1. adopting backward design and mapping of curriculum around skills, rather than subjects

2. documenting student outcomes via formative assessments and “demonstrations of learning” and digital portfolios

3. connecting appreciative inquiry, the strengths approach, and growth mindset – all subsets of the positivist psychology movement

4. globalizing independent schools

5. stage II greening of schools

6. “STEM and beyond” signature programming – the great differentiator of your program

7. professionalizing the profession – 6 or 7 day schedules to get all teachers with an affinity free on a certain day; different teams (brain based learning, flipped classroom, differentiated instruction)

8. public purpose of private education initiatives

9. online learning consortia for independent school-branded courses

10. teaching and using design thinking

I’ve italicized the five innovations on the list that we are currently utilizing, which I think is a great starting point for TBS given the enormous change pressures that we have experienced in the last five years. I also believe that we’ll be in position to begin pursuing items #6 and #8 above in the next year, in explicit initiatives and programs.

Unfortunately, I was entirely underwhelmed the presentation of the keynote speaker, Bill Gates. His talk was centered on four aspects of technology that he believes can revolution education: reimaging textbooks as interactive, scaling our best teachers via online videos, connecting thru social networks, and personalizing learning. While there are tremendous possibilities in these mechanisms, Bill’s storytelling was flat and lacked humor, his visuals were overly simplified, and he essentially dodged the tough questions during the Q+A. Here’s an example:

Q: What skills do you think will be needed in the future?

A: The basic ability to use the latest software.

After the opening session came the first one-hour workshop period of the day. I selected a workshop titled Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, presented by Helen Landry and Laurie Reider-Lewis. I struggled with buyer’s remorse for the first twenty minutes; though this workshop connected directly to one of my personal PD goals for the year, I was also interested in a workshop on changing school culture, and the initial introduction by the speakers didn’t instill confidence that the conversation would yield substantive growth in my understanding of the concept of mindfulness. It was only when we did the first exercise – a “body scan” – that I was able to slip into a more mindful mode, and thus become content with the structure of the workshop and open myself up to the learning possibilities it could present – for which I was promptly rewarded with several nuggets about using mindfulness with students. Being in this mindful state carried over for the remainder of the day, and had a positive impact on my engagement with the other workshops of the day.

After lunch and conversation with Mohammad, and browsing the exhibit hall, I headed to a workshop on implementing design thinking with students, given by Kim Saxe at Nueva School (CA). In 2007, Nueva partnered with the Design School at Stanford to launch a design lab, giving over 3500 square feet to a design studio. Learning how Nueva implements and teaches design thinking to students, and used it in the development of their own program, was inspirational and exciting. Design thinking is the process that Laurie Schoeffler and I are using to improve our K-5 literacy program this year, and this workshop gave me several good ideas about how to integrate the approach with our ongoing curriculum review as well.

For the final workshop of the day, Mohammad and I went to hear John Medina, author of the book Brain Rules (about whom, and which, I’ve blogged before). I’d read the book earlier this year, so I was a little disappointed by his presentation, as it was a case of “read the book, or go to class, but not both”. He focused on two of the twelve brain rules in his book – exploration and stress – and you can get the basic ideas of these concepts by watching the videos below.

The day closed with a series of social and professional connections featuring a revolving cast. First I met with Nancy Foy, a member of my Fellowship cohort, for a conversation about her upcoming transition to a Head of School position in Richmond, VA. After this I attended a gathering of progressive educators hosted by Peter Berner-Hays, head of The Little School in nearby Bellevue, to discuss marketing and presenting the idea of progressive education in modern culture. Next, I gathered three Bay Area educators – Steve Bileca from Brandeis Hillel, Jon Kohler from Redwood Day School (another Fellowship cohort member), and Damon Allswang from Beacon Day School – for a Mediterranean dinner at Lola’s Restaurant. Finally, I met up with three members of my Aspiring Heads cohort – Andrea Kelly from Packard (NY), Rehki Puri from the School at Columbia University (NY), and Michele Williams from Stevenson (CA) – for drinks and reflective sharing about our learning from the day.

NAIS Annual Conference, Day One

The National Association of Independent Schools' annual conference is an extraordinary opportunity to get inspired, connect with old friends, and take time and space to reflect on the work that I do at TBS. I feel very fortunate to be supported by the school to attend this conference on a yearly basis.

Though Wednesday is a pre-conference day, with optional three-hour workshops available for an additional price, day one was fully taken up by the concluding meeting of the Fellowship for Aspiring Heads in which I am participating.

The morning consisted of two ninety-minute sessions. Session one was lead by Mark and Judy at Triangle Consulting, who lead the fellowship work this summer in Atlanta. The agenda covered time management, mastering the school environment, resilience and patience, and staying calm in crisis. Session two was a conversation among four sitting heads about meeting the needs of various school constituencies: internal, external, self and family. The heads included Donald Brace at The Blue School (NY), John Barrengos at Independent Day School (CT), Rafael Castillo at Seattle Country Day (WA), and Kate Windsor at Miss Porter School (CT). After an overview from each person about one thread, we broke out into small groups for focused discussions on a specific thread. I joined the group lead by John, which quickly veered to the topic of navigating the search for a head position.

After lunch, three one-hour sessions provided a crash course in various topics. Session three, lead by Debra Wilson, NAIS’s in-house lawyer, focused on the legal issues and tax ramifications to understand when negotiating a salary and benefits package as a new head of school. Session four was a discussion of Boards and governance by Donna Orem, NAIS staff. And session five was an overview of the responsibilities of a business manager by Paul Ibsen, Business Officer at Providence Day School (NC).

Though there was a huge amount of information to capture and digest, the best part of the day was seeing the other members of my cohort, hearing the stories of their lives and work, and having the chance to slow down and think about how I have been using the ideas that I’ve learned in this fellowship to aid my work this year.

10/26 Elementary Division Meeting

We began yesterday's Elementary Division meeting by reviewing our ground rules, and then had a brief check-in. The check-in took the form of an "emotional thermometer"; each person wrote his/her name on a popsicle stick, and then put it in a cup bearing a number from 1-10, where #1 represented feeling very low and sad, and #10 represented feeling joyous and excited. This thermometer made our emotional states visibile to each other and ourselves, and allowed each person the opportunity to have his/her emotional needs acknowledged by the group. We then discussed how a tool like this could be used in the classroom by students, including when and why a student might want or need to switch his/her emotional status, and the benefits (and need) to have emotions be recognized, and their impact on our actions understood, by students. BTW, this was one of the little tips I picked up while at the EQ conference a few weeks ago.

Teachers then completed the Faculty Culture Profile that is part of the Meaningful Faculty Evaluation tool developed by ISM. We did this because I am continuing to think about the question "what does it mean to be a division?", and the need for us to have a shared basis of data (not just narrative perspectives) from which to make decisions about what topics to discuss. My hope and intention is that a small group of faculty will work with me to analyze the results and decide on areas of focus for future division-wide culture work.

The next phase of the meeting centered on the creation of professional development goals for the year. I began by relating the incredible experience that I had this summer at the NAIS Fellowship for Aspiring Heads in Atlanta, and the nature of the feedback that I received. I then moved on to sharing the four goals that I had come up with based on that data (two of which I've already blogged about on this site), as well as the action steps and criteria for success that I had identified. While 3/4 of my goals are centered on personal growth, rather than professional practice, I acknowledged that faculty can decide if they want to include any personal growth goals within their professional goals,and that it is totally appropriate and acceptable if they choose to keep them all closely related to activities in the classroom. However, no matter the goal, it is important that faculty differentiate between means and ends, and that they determine how they'll know they are moving towards their goals before they begin their action plan, which is the same approach that is involved in determining criteria of growth for assessment before planning instructional activities with students.

The fourth section of the meeting was a conversation led by Kate Klaire on the ongoing work of the student council, and the social facilitation work that she is doing across the school. Topics for future iterations of the council are beginning to emerge, so the planning for those councils is beginning, and the social facilitation work is in full swing, but needing feedback from faculty on the frequency and the degree to which is can/should be based on pre-planned ideas compared to emergent needs in each class.

The meeting then moved into 15 minutes of preparation for the Parent/Teacher conferences that occur next week. To capitalize on the decades of teaching experience around the table, I asked the faculty to share tricks, tips, and approaches that they have found help lead to successful conferences. Not surprisingly, every single teacher had something worthwhile to share with the group, and afterwards people felt more secure about the intention with which they will approach planning for conferences. If you're looking for a great book to check out about conferences, please read The Essential Conversation by Sara Lawrence-Lighfoot.

The meeting concluded with short conversations about the SST process, the redesigned approach to assemblies that I blogged about last week (sign-ups to present a 5-minute "showcase of learning" at each assembly went out digitally after the meeting), and planning for on-going child visits over the next two weeks.