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Providing you, the K-12 leader, with the help you need to lead with clarity, credibility, and confidence in the ever-evolving world of education.
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In Your Corner, Student Learning
We Are So Much Better Now – Really
The pandemic has at times both bewildered and humbled us. Occasionally, our confidence waned and uncertainty haunted us. Meanwhile, our circumstances also pressed us to learn and grow as educators. We found ourselves in places where much of what we relied upon to organize our work and engage our students was no longer available. We had to decide whether to persist as though nothing had changed or shift our attention and efforts to develop new strategies, create new learning environments, and nurture new relationships with our students.
Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of us chose to engage, learn, and grow in response to the challenges we faced. It wasn’t always easy and the path was often not clear. We weren’t always successful, but one thing is clear: We grew, added skills, and expanded the strategies and approaches we employed to connect with students and nurture their learning.
Now is a good time to pause and reflect on how far we’ve come and what we have accomplished. Of course, there is more to do and ways to still get better. Yet, if we fail to take stock of our progress and appreciate our successes, we risk losing our momentum and stalling our growth. To help us start our reflection, here are five key areas worthy of note and celebration.
We developed a new appreciation for and command of technology tools and developed crucial skills and strategies for using technology to nurture and support learning. Prior to the pandemic, technology often served as an option for and enhancement of the experiences we offered to learners. It quickly shifted to a primary vehicle for reaching and teaching students. As we look to the future, we now have available to us a rich and expansive set of options on which we can call to support our instruction and nurture the learning of our students.
We learned to lessen our dependence on compliance to manage student behavior and developed strategies to gain their commitment and engagement. When we shifted to remote learning many of the tools and much of the leverage to control student behavior disappeared. In response, we increasingly relied on intrinsic motivation and self-discipline to create conditions to support learning. As we make the transition back to full face-to-face learning, we can bring this expanded set of skills and strategies to build classroom communities and culture that are less reliant on compliance and coercion.
We learned to instruct with less dependence on presentation and more reliance on exploration and experience. Whether synchronous or asynchronous, lessons had to include variety, opportunity, and purpose, or we risked losing the attention and engagement of students. We developed an ever-widening set of options, opportunities, and experiences to keep students connected with learning while maintaining a focus on standards and benchmarks. In short, instruction became more learner-centered and the learning experience became more customized.
We spent more time and energy focused on developing self-regulation habits to help students become more skilled and independent learners. We have always aspired to have our students become more independent, self-regulating, and self-motivated. The pandemic has magnified the importance of self-management as a learning skill well beyond where it was in the past. This set of skills has consistently determined the success of students during remote learning, but they are also, increasingly, core skills for success in the workplace.
We also expanded our skills and strategies to assess learning. We were pressed to move beyond assessments that were vulnerable to students Googling answers or conferring with family members. We migrated to assessment practices in which students explain their learning rather than supply a single answer. We gave students opportunities to demonstrate competency rather than rely on selections from limited choice responses. Of course, long before the pandemic, students often defaulted to finding answers over developing understanding. However, we now have a better developed repertoire of assessment strategies, practices, and frameworks to support deeper, richer learning.
The past months have certainly been challenging, and at times, overwhelming. Yet, it has also been a time of important growth. As the pandemic subsides, we have a wider, more flexible, and useful set of instructional, relational, and assessment tools we can tap to nurture learning. Indeed, we are much better from the experience.
Communication, In Your Corner
Building Trust and Transparency in Uncertain Times
Whenever there is a gap between the occurrence of a problem or incident in your organization and when the facts are verified and disclosed publicly, along with information about what is being done about it, bad things can happen. This truth is especially important to keep in mind as we bring students back to in-person classrooms. In today’s environment, social media makes the situation even more challenging. Rumors spread with lightning speed, especially when people are working remotely and may be feeling isolated.
There is a leadership law that speaks specifically to this issue. It’s called The Law of Real Truth and Time and it states: In problem situations, during the process of discovering and sorting out the real truth regarding attitudes, opinions, and beliefs of those being led, the passage of time can magnify the problem.
Every leader must be cognizant of the fact that people form opinions during a time lag. Worse, people get personally committed by word and deed to courses of belief, worry, and action during these delays. Because there is often no leadership communication or action until all the facts are known, this reality is intensified. Unfortunately, once an individual or even an entire group gets committed to certain beliefs about a situation, changing their attitude may be difficult. In truth, student, staff, parent, and community attitudes formed during the time lag are often arrived at without all the information and may be formed about situations not fully understood. Often, people can’t find a way out of the attitudes, beliefs, and opinions they expressed to others during this time. They then hold to their opinions later, even if they no longer feel that way. In addition, many varied individual commitments about an issue can develop during the time lag, and a leader may be forced to deal with several problems rather than just one.
That’s why to build trust and transparency, leaders must have a communication plan that encompass the following four concepts: timelines, frequency, facts delivered by credible sources, and priming about what to expect next.
Timing: In order to avoid negative attitudes and beliefs from forming, we must keep the time between problem identification and our first communication to those we lead as short as possible. Rumors and misinformation spread quickly, especially through social media platforms. Therefore, even if we are not yet in command of all the facts, it’s essential that we communicate what we do know as quickly as possible.
Frequency: During an ongoing problem it’s equally vital that we communicate to those we lead frequently. One and done communication during a problem simply won’t cut it for many reasons. First, not everyone we need to influence will receive our communication initially. Second, not everyone who receives it will be in a position to fully listen and understand it. Third, problems are usually dynamic and those we lead will need continuous updates about our progress as well as additional facts as we receive them. Fourth, without a continuous flow of information, negative attitudes and beliefs always emerge.
This is also why we must be prepared with an email and social media plan to counter rumors that spread when problems occur. And we must update our websites with the most current information.
Facts delivered by credible sources: We must supply those we lead with all the facts that are known about a problem situation. And these facts are best delivered and best received when they come from those who are knowledgeable and have credibility in the area in which the problem resides.
Priming: The best leaders prime those they lead by telling them what the next steps will be and when they can expect their next update. This relieves fear and anxiety on the part of those being led. And it creates trust that the leader has a plan and is on top of the situation.
Problems do not go away—even if they are unmentioned or people seem to have forgotten them—unless they are resolved. Rather, problems have a way of intensifying. Also, the cumulative effect of such situations, even if the problems are small, can result in a complete breakdown in the acceptance of leadership. That’s why a leader can never delay gathering and sharing truth about a problem. When we delay, omit frequent communications, fail to deliver the facts, and forget to let people know what to expect next, we are likely to end up dealing with several problems rather than one.
In Your Corner, Teacher Learning
In Your Corner, Student Learning
In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
Share Your Tips & Stories
Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.
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In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
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We do not have to rely on technology, take medications, or modify our genetics. By adopting and regularly practicing a few habits, we can experience significant benefits for our brain function.
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