Mindset

Perseverance Pays

Bret OlsonLeave a comment

This past week we saw an amazing performance of Peter Pan here at Academia Cotopaxi.  This play was put on by a mixed cast of Middle School students, Elementary School students, and staff members of both AC and the One Institute (we even had a local home-schooled student participate.)  One of the most amazing parts about this show was not the success it achieved but how they (the cast, directors, and everyone who helped) got there.  It was a long and winding road but by persevering through countless obstacles the cast and crew of Peter Pan were able to stand tall and rejoice after their successful performances.  

Perseverance:  steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Our cast and crew of Peter Pan demonstrated some amazing perseverance from the first day of tryouts until show time.  Cast members dropping out, main characters being replaced with only weeks to go, cast members missing rehearsals, forgotten lines and scene changes – the struggles continued right up until show time.  However, if you attended the full dress rehearsal on Thursday like I did, you wouldn’t have known that any of these issues had existed.  It was a brilliant performance, the energy in the auditorium was at an all time high, and the cast and crew nailed it!

When faced with obstacles many people tend to shy away and often times they give up completely.  Following through, overcoming obstacles, and achieving the final goal in the face of adversity are not feelings that many people experience.  Why do we give up though?  Why is perseverance so difficult?  I wish the answer was simple enough for me to understand, I could make a lot of money!  However, what it comes down to is practice and patience.  There is no switch or magic pill, perseverance isn’t easy and it doesn’t happen overnight.  We do know, however, that those who practice perseverance become stronger in the long run.

Grit:  Passion plus perseverance over the very long term.

As we grow and practice perseverance we begin to build our gritiness.  We become better at handling short term struggles for the long term gain.  It’s a skill/character strength that has been studied in recent years by Angela Duckworth.  Her work is more than fascinating and has tremendous amounts of application for educational settings.  

Whether you persevere, show grit, or just work really hard to achieve your goals, the successful result and feelings of pride that come with it are enough to keep you driving forward toward your next goal.  Commit, work hard, fight through the obstacles and succeed.

If you’ve never heard of Nick Vujicic…watch this!

Once you’ve watched that, you’ll want to see this one…his TED talk. He is inspiring!

And, finally, a few famous people who persevered to reach great heights.

Lessons From the Basketball Court

Bret Olson1 Comment

I’m totally fired up today and I can’t calm myself down.  See, the JV girls basketball team that I’m coaching got their first win of the year this morning!!  We played a team we’ve lost to 3 times already (most recently, last night!) and we played an outstanding game.  However, the biggest reason I’m so excited and pumped up isn’t even the win, it’s the amazing amount of growth these girls have shown since the beginning of the season (only 2 months ago).  With very limited practice time (we only had 8 practices of about 35-40 minutes each) these girls have gone from clueless to starting to understand some serious basketball concepts, it’s been awesome to watch!

As I’ve watched their growth I’ve thought a lot about all the connections to the classroom and teaching and learning.  I want to share a few of the things that I’ve slowly come to understand in more depth as I’ve grown as a coach and educator.  

  1. Rule Number One:  Ask any of my JV girls to tell you about “Rule Number One” for our team and there will be no hesitation, “Have fun!”  Even though they are choosing to participate on the basketball team, I have to make sure that the experience is positive for them.  As a measure of whether I’ve achieved that or not, I consider the fact that I started the year with 15 girls and finished the year with 15.  No one has quit, for any reason and despite being 0-8 before today (it’s not easy losing all the time!).  Applying the concept of “Rule Number One” to a classroom, imagine that your kids aren’t always choosing your class and therefore may not be super excited about showing up every day.  Essentially the opposite situation I faced this season AND they may not be very good at your subject.  So, what do you do?  How do you ensure that those students who may not want to be there and/or aren’t very “good” at your subject still have a positive experience in your class?  In my mind, which might be obvious based on “Rule Number One”, creating a positive experience for your students is easily the most important thing you can do as an educator.  
  2. You might have to “change the message”:  Many years ago, when I was just starting to help my father coach my sister’s basketball team I had my very first coaching epiphany.  My dad was yelling some direction or another at the girls but it wasn’t getting through, they weren’t doing what he wanted.  He turned to me and said, “Why don’t they do to what I’m telling them to do?”  Immediately, and completely out of nowhere, I answered, “Maybe you have to change your message.”  I remember it like it was yesterday, he stopped and looked at me considering what I had said.  The light when on in his head and I realized I might have hit on something.  See, the problem wasn’t that the girls weren’t listening, they just didn’t understand what he was asking them to do.  From that day on, both my father and I began to simplify our basketball vocabulary/jargon to better fit our audience.  The same thing happens in all of our classes, especially with the vast ELL population we face each day.  Are your students struggling with a task, directions, or other verbal feedback?  Perhaps you need to step back and “change the message”.  My basketball vocabulary this year was very, very basic BUT my girls learned a ton because they could understand it and I didn’t have to keep repeating things.  What about in your classroom?
  3. Focus on the growth, not the result:  Look, up until this morning we were (as we say) “oh-for”…meaning we hadn’t won, we were 0-8.  However, as I touched on above, my girls were engaged and came ready to work hard every time they could.  Why?  I believe that the answer is in the growth, they could see it and who isn’t excited when they can see themselves improving?!?  Demonstrating growth isn’t always easy, I totally get that, and some of my girls didn’t grow nearly as quickly as the others, but that’s okay.  What is important is that they can see growth and feel success, even if the scoreboard (or test) doesn’t show it at the end.  After each game I make sure to bring the team together and highlight our growth and success, celebrating even after a loss 🙂  Maybe we played better defense today, or we scored more than our average.  Perhaps we executed (even once) on a play we had learned the day before.  Even today, after we won, I brought them together to celebrate the positive things we accomplished (other than the obvious one point victory!)  How do your students see, feel, or demonstrate growth in your classroom?  And how do you (and them) stop and celebrate that growth?  When we feel like we’re accomplishing something (growth) we are more likely to engage even deeper.  Growing is fun, it helps Rule Number One!  
  4. Baby steps work, perfection doesn’t:  My practices this year were very limited, as I mentioned earlier.  There was no way in the world that I was going to “fix” every “problem” that I saw on the court.  In fact, there wasn’t even a realistic chance that I would get to many of these “problems” at all.  For this group, it was about basics…and I mean basics!  One of the best parts about having so many beginner basketball players was that we had a lot to work on, never a dull moment.  However, I had to be careful, I couldn’t over do it with the coaching.  Our minds (especially those of our students) can’t handle too much input at once.  If I tried to coach every aspect of basketball that these girls needed to improve they would’ve overloaded and shut down in minutes.  So, we needed to grow with baby steps and couldn’t worry about perfection.  Mistakes were okay, they were celebrated and learned from.  If we aimed for perfection the perspective of growth would’ve been lost and frustration would’ve quickly set in.  The same is true in your classroom as well.  Perhaps you have one or two students who can realistically strive toward perfection but for the vast majority, growth and even slow growth, should be the focus and celebration.  This is a mindset though, the teacher needs to live this mindset and make sure the kids buy in.  
  5. Passion is essential, positive passion changes the game:  This one is simple.  If you asked my girls if I was living Rule Number One or if I was passionate about basketball, I think (actually I know) that there would be no doubt about the answer.  I tell the girls all the time how much fun I’m having and I’m not lying.  They can see it in my face, they can hear it in my voice but most importantly I tell them.  Sometimes we assume too much, we think our kids are getting a message when we aren’t explicitly stating it.  Tell them.  Say it out loud and let them know how much you care about your subject or why it’s important.  Passion is contagious and when you have a positive classroom (discussed above) your students will feed off the energy and buy-in to your passion.  

So, we’re 1-8 now.  We got a win.  It feels great and we’ll ride that emotion into the next game and the last two after that.  We may not win any of these last three games but it won’t matter.  If we end up 1-11 these girls won’t care and neither will I.  It’s not the final result, it’s the journey.  We’ve celebrated growth, we’ve focused on improving our skills (but not too many at a time), and, most importantly, we’ve had fun!  I’m confident that these girls will all be excited to play basketball next season, some of them on the varsity.  They’ll have a positive attitude about working hard and growing.  Best of all, I’m confident that they’ll do all of this without me there to coach/encourage them.  After all, it’s not about me, it’s about the lasting memories and positive attitude that these girls will walk away from this season cherishing.

Note:  As I was writing this, one of my players came in and said “I’m going to draw, I need to get my creative energy out” and I realized how writing this post had calmed and focused me too.  I’m ready for game two of the tournament and a great long weekend when we’re finished, I hope you all have/had a fantastic weekend yourselves…only a few more weeks left, enjoy it while it lasts 🙂

Data Drives Us All

Bret OlsonLeave a comment

Summer is great.  Cheese, beer, and all-you-can-eat Friday Night Fish Frys…welcome to Wisconsin!!  It’s time to sit back, relax, and worry about nothing but enjoying time with family and friends.  Then reality hits…when I got back to Quito the biggest dose of reality that I had to face was the scale in our apartment, YIKES!  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised after a summer full of eating, drinking and not even looking at a scale.  Time to do something about this!

Fortunately I had the time to dedicate to fixing this problem and getting back on track.  Counting steps on my FitBit became crucial, 10,000 steps per day was non-negotiable now, more was better.  Additional exercise, at least twice a week, had to be done.  Tracking calories taken in, measuring input, was essential.  Gone were the days of attacking life with no plan, data was collected and goals were set.  It took time but it worked, I rectified a summer’s worth of damage…I was “caught up”.  

We all use data every day in our lives to make decisions and act on plans:  How fast are you driving on Ruta Viva, check the speedometer.  Wear that sweater today or not, check the thermometer.  Use the credit card or debit card, check the bank balance.  How much food to buy for the party, check the RSVP list.  Now, granted, there are a lot of things that we do without contemplating data but it’s the times when we really want to get it right that we consult data.  No one wants a speeding ticket, to be cold, overdrawn at the bank, or short of food while hosting so we check the data and make sure we get it right.  

During the summers I throw data out the window.  The only data I care about is on the golf course (mostly, my final score!) and what time we’re meeting grandpa for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings!  I go about much of my summer with very limited plans, scheduling things the night before and mostly just winging it.  That’s summer, that’s the way it should be…data free 🙂

The school year, however, is a different matter.  Data rules the day.  As educators we need to be making informed decisions.  What data are we using to decide our course of action?  We know the standards at the end and we know the general path toward getting there, but what about all the decisions in between?  Does a diagnostic at the beginning of the unit show us what we need to add or perhaps what we can move through more quickly?  After a bad quiz, do we use the data to make a decision about the addition of a period dedicated to reteaching?  The questions should be about how we regularly use data in our classrooms not about if we regularly use data.

I love data, I’m a bit crazy when it comes to digesting information and analyzing what it all means.  When it comes to data, I can get a bit carried away at times…just ask the people who used to be in the bowling league with me in Shanghai (that’s a whole different story though).  Despite my love of data, I realize that not everyone else loves data as much as I.  However, that doesn’t mean we can ignore it all together, it must play a role in our practice as educators!

I’ve been thinking about this post for the last few days and while doing so, Facebook (with it’s scary mind-reading abilities) shared a wonderful article with me.  It comes from the Center for Teaching Quality, which is one of my most frequented sites.  This article shares some of the lessons learned by a school that has been data-driven since day one.  One of the overarching things you’ll see in this article is that it takes time and energy to do this well.  This is not one of those things that you can just start implementing tomorrow, this takes planning and careful consideration.  That being said, take a look at the article as it really does a nice job of demonstrating the power of using data to inform educational decisions.  While you may not be able to implement large data-driven plans starting tomorrow, you can definitely get started along the path toward regular data use.  Dig deep into data about your students and before you know it, you will know them as well as Facebook knows me!  

 

Seeking Perspective and Finding It

Bret OlsonLeave a comment

I’ve had a lot of conversations this past week that have really given me reason to step back and try to appreciate other perspectives.  As part of the mindfulness work I’ve been doing I’ve learned more about the importance of being able to step back and give myself perspective about my own thoughts.  This combination of considering my own thoughts from a different perspective as well as trying to approach conversations with other people the same way has really begun to spin things for me.  

It often times gets very difficult to stop and consider other people’s perspectives when you are in the midst of a (heated?) conversation.  I mean, really, when you’re right why consider other perspectives?!?  Well, the thing is, a lot of times when we think we’re right (and we are) so is the other person!  It’s true, it’s possible, people can disagree but both be right!!  It’s all about perspective…

Last week I had a conversation with a student, I approached it from a closed perspective but luckily caught myself mid-way through.  See, I was right, had to be.  He was disrespectful to a bus monitor, arriving to the bus late and then screaming foul language at her.  Not okay, anywhere, anytime.  BUT, he was ‘right’ too…only I wasn’t allowing myself to see this because his behavior was so intolerable that it needed to be addressed, now!  He wasn’t too keen to agree with me, in fact he felt like there was a great injustice being exacted upon him.  This is when it hit me…perspective.  I stopped talking, I listened and asked questions to begin to understand his perspective.  He had felt wronged and unfairly treated…so to him, he was the one who was right.  At the end of the conversation we realized, together, that his understanding of the situation had actually been skewed and he acknowledged that his behavior was unacceptable.  Perspective allowed this conversation to resolve successfully.  I realized I needed to see his and he came around to seeing mine after I gave him the courtesy of listening and understanding his perspective.  

This happens all the time at school, especially in interactions between students and teachers/administrators.  We’re the adults and therefore, obviously, can see everything clearly.  In fact we often operate without all the information and still believe that we have to be right…which, sorry to say, might not be fair.  Now, I will concede that it is often the case as I shared above; the students have a different version of reality than us.  When this happens, even if we believe that we are seeing things clearly, we still need to stop to understand their perspective.  If we don’t, when they (inevitably) tuck their tail between their legs and ‘agree’, they will still hold animosity because they feel wronged.  However, by taking the time to understand their perspective and giving it the respect they feel it deserves we can better resolve any situation without (or at least with less) lingering animosity.

The lesson I’ve learned through my mindfulness work is, during meditation, to allow our mind to have thoughts but instead of chasing them to sit back and acknowledge them without any judgement.  By doing this you take a perspective on your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that you previously may not have had.  I’ve realized that we must approach more of our conversations, especially the difficult conversations, with a non-judgmental perspective.  By doing this we will begin to see how other perspectives might actually make sense, even if we don’t particularly agree.  Rising to this level of understanding can lead to calmer, less stressful conversations, interactions, and lives.

So, give it a shot.  Try to release judgment from yours and other people’s perspectives, step back and watch the cars go by instead of chasing traffic!  I bet you’ll appreciate the results!!

 

Mindfulness: Getting Started

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I began my personal experience with Mindfulness by researching the concept of Mindfulness and, to be honest, it was a bit overwhelming!  Type in “mindfulness” on Google and you’ll find enough to read for a million lifetimes.  I, needless to say, don’t have that kind of time on my hands.  In fact, I was struggling to find any time for researching Mindfulness.  I think I was having a hard time prioritizing this pursuit because I was so overwhelmed with everything that was out there.  Finally, I decided that it was time to just do something and commit to the journey.  

Having previously reached out to my PLN on Twitter about “good mindfulness apps” I had a place to start and headed to the app store.  What I found in the app store was once again overwhelming.  I found the app I went for but I also ended up downloading 10 other free mindfulness apps, yikes!  Mindfulness is certainly a hot topic these days and it shows in the amount of material available to download for free.  Despite downloading all these apps I decided that I needed one place to start, not 11!

The recommendations I received all pointed me toward Headspace, so this was going to be my starting point.  I had no idea what to expect when I opened the app.  My research led me to believe there would be some element of meditation but also that there were different types, three or four popular varieties, associated with Mindfulness.  Thankfully, Headspace has been super user friendly.  In fact, they have a 10-day starter series for people like me (well, for everyone really.)  This series includes a short two-minute introduction animation that walks you through some helpful tips for getting started, exactly what I needed!  

Tips for getting started:

  1. Find a place to be undisturbed for 10 minutes (silence isn’t required but to start out, peace and quiet might be helpful.)
  2. Research has shown that creating a new habit is easier when we do it at the same time each day, so find a good place in your schedule to plan this exercise (also doing it in the same place each day is even better.)
  3. Time of day isn’t important but Headspace strongly recommends trying to complete this exercise at the beginning of the day (more on this later).
  4. Some days this exercise will feel easy and other days it will be hard but sticking with it is important!
  5. Sit comfortably before you begin (you don’t have to sit cross-legged on the floor unless that’s what you’d prefer!)  

Now that I’ve started I’m happy to report that the overwhelming feeling of “where do I begin?” has finally subsided and I’m able to sit back and reflect a bit.  I’m three days into my 10-day series, and wouldn’t you know it I received a supportive email from Headspace today reminding me that “three is the magic number.”  I’m not exactly sure what their point was with that title to the email but I think they’re encouraging me to keep going 🙂  I was going to do that anyway but it sure feels nice to get the reminder!!  Although, to be perfectly honest it’s not as easy as it sounds!

I’ll leave it there for this post, I’m off to a good start and I’m already starting to see changes but I will wait to complete the first week before I say too much about that.  Next time I’ll share my challenges in the early days of my meditation cycle as well as some of those changes I’m beginning to see.

A Cinderella Story for Every Student

Bret Olson2 Comments

cinderella-bracketAs I mentioned a couple weeks ago, it’s March Madness and I can’t get enough of it!!  Last night while I was watching eight straight hours of basketball 🙂 I was contemplating how these games related to my day-to-day life.  I think inspiration hit as the second 12 seed of the night upset a 5 seed, in double overtime none the less.  The Trojans of small University of Arkansas-Little Rock upset a Big Ten team (Purdue) and they did it in an impressive fashion…one that got me thinking about some of our students and how we reach them.

There are a few different types of teams in the NCAA tournament and they all approach their situation differently.  Their coaches approach the games differently based on the team they have fielded in a particular year.  The fans have different attitudes about the team based on the relative strength of the players and how well they work together, as do their opponents.  The approach for each player, team and coach is situational.  It varies from season to season and game to game, it can even vary from minute to minute in certain games.  The same is true about our students and how we approach their education, flexibility is key.

A lot of people might call the Trojans or any other low-seeded team a “Cinderella story” or the “underdogs”.  However, the fact of the matter is that all of the teams in these tournaments are capable of winning any given game at any given time.  I won’t argue the fact that odds are long for some of these teams to be successful in some of these situations (for example a 16 seed has never, in the history of the NCAA tournament beaten a 1 seed).  However, just because the odds are long doesn’t mean that these teams don’t show up and try to win the game…THAT has never happened, the 16 seeds always show up for the game and they always give 100%.

The players/teams step on the floor and work to be successful, except for when they don’t.  It’s true, sometimes players/teams aren’t totally focused and their effort isn’t at the level necessary for success.  When this happens the coach needs to get involved.  Depending on the coach and situation, this can look very different – from screaming and hollering to quiet and calm words of encouragement.  The coach is responsible for their team’s performance and when they’re not living up to expectations the coach needs to get involved.

Coaches for the low seeds more often than not need to build confidence in a team that doesn’t necessarily have a realistic shot at winning the championship.  However, what kind of coach would they be if they just showed up and said, “Well, we’re going to lose, so have fun and take it easy tonight…don’t work too hard!”  Even with a team that faces long odds, coaches show up with a well thought out game plan, in game strategy, and motivational speeches ready to prepare their team for a shot at success.  The game changes for coaches who have better teams, or rather teams who face better odds.  It’s a different perspective but the same goals apply, lead your team to success.

Last night was a perfect example of the success achievable by an “underdog” who has a good plan, works hard, and never gives up.  Arkansas-Little Rock was a heavy betting underdog before the game but it didn’t take long for Trojan fans to start believing their team could possibly win that game.  They fought, tooth and nail, for a full 40 minutes (a full regulation game) and made a crazy hard shot to tie the game and head to overtime.  There was no let-down in the extra period, and in fact, they continued to play hard into the second overtime period of the game.  Eventually their hard work and patience wore down a much more (on paper) talented team and the 12 seeded Trojans upset a 5 seed.  It’s become a classic story in NCAA tournament history, the 12 seed beating the 5 seed, it happens every year.  These hard working teams who are considered underdogs by many come out on top and achieve the success many thought was impossible…we’ve got these students too, a lot of them.  Kids who face long odds but are willing to work (sometimes with proper motivation) to achieve the success that many believe they will never reach.  What kind of game plans, strategies, and motivational tactics are needed to help these students reach success?

Then you have the “favorites”, the top level achievers who’ve been successful all year and have reached the tournament with lots of praise coming at them from all levels.  They should win it all, they should be the ones setting the pace, outscoring every other team and just plain embarrassing the lesser teams.  However, as is so often the case, it doesn’t always go to plan.  The top seeds lose to teams they probably “shouldn’t” lose to.  They come out flat, they aren’t motivated, and they let opportunities pass them by.  Is it a lack of preparation?  Are their coaches overlooking the current opponent?  Are the players overlooking the opponent?  I’m sure there are lots of reasons why the “favorites” don’t always succeed.  Malcolm Gladwell will tell you that sometimes they get stuck in their routines and don’t adapt to the situation, they’re not flexible.  The classic “David and Goliath” situation happens all too often.  Overconfidence, unwillingness to adapt, sitting back in the comfort zone, and ego all play a part.  We have these students too…how do we ensure that they don’t fall into these traps?  

What can we do to make sure that EVERY student is working as hard as the “underdog” and ends with their own personal “Cinderella story”?  We’ve got every one of these students, in every class we teach.  The “favorites” who are (perhaps) overconfident, the middle seeds who see a chance but know that hard work is needed, and the “underdogs” who may believe they are doomed to fail.  How can we bring the mindsets of all of these different types of teams/students together?  What’s the magic recipe that gets every kid to have the confidence of the “favorite”, the work ethic of the middle seed, and the will and determination to overcome like the “underdog”?  

We’re the coaches…it’s our task to identify the skills of our players and bring out the best in each and every one of them to help them achieve the success that they deserve.  It’s March Madness year round for educators and frankly, I love it!  

One of the most famous and inspiring coaches of all time, Jim Valvano said it best, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up!”  Watch his extremely famous speech at the ESPY Awards here, awesome stuff.

Thanks for being the best “coach” possible for our students!!

What 6th Graders Know, That We (Adults) Have Forgotten

Bret Olson1 Comment

This past week I spent four days with the 6th graders on their “Week Without Walls” trip.  Being outdoors, in the fresh air and away from the day-to-day rhythm that life naturally falls into gave me a great chance to step back and think about a lot of things.  While most of my time was occupied by 30 11-year olds, I also had the chance to be inspired on a number of occasions by these dynamic pre-teens.

Believe it or not, one of the most inspiring moments of the trip came thanks to some good old fashioned 6th grade dramatics.  In brief, a couple kids were “in a fight”, there was a misunderstanding that had blown out of proportion because each side felt they were right.  After a long mediation session each of these young adults was able to see the other’s perspective.  They resolved, for the future, to better communicate and seek to find a resolution before reaching such elevated levels of conflict.  At the end of the day this interaction could’ve been any two 6th graders, anywhere in the world…there was nothing particularly special about the interaction.  However, it seemed special at the time and it got me thinking…

Why is it so easy for our students (the younger ones in particular) to forgive and forget?  How do they so easily move on from such interactions?  After thinking about this and watching with a more focused eye, I think I saw some hints as to what might be the real secret – it comes down to their relationships and their flexibility.

One fact is simple, they’re malleable.  These young minds are fully aware that they, in fact, don’t know everything.  They can step back and admit that they were wrong or that they could’ve handled a situation better and they grow from it, they truly are reflective creatures (even if that doesn’t always seem to be the case!)  I often wonder, as we go along the road to adulthood, does this skill fade…do we become the “old dog” who can’t “learn new tricks”?  Or does our Mindset change as we age and, supposedly, grow wiser?

They’re empathetic as well.  It’s one thing to be malleable, but if you can’t see the other side then how can you grow?  It hit me like a ton of bricks how empathy just oozes out of these kids.  As adults I expect that many of these kids will brush off such “childish” issues in the future, but right now they have a superhuman ability to truly feel the emotions of their friends (and even sometimes their combatants).  This can prove difficult when ten kids are reacting to one friend’s pain/heartache/perceived injustice, but when it comes to conflict resolution this empathy is a true superpower!

Most importantly, however, these 6th graders know each other and they know each other well.  They’ve built relationships consistently for a long time (some of them for years).  Some are better friends and have more positive relationships than others but there is a certain level of understanding that exists amongst all of these kids.  They know each other’s secrets and they know each other’s buttons (and how to push them!)  As 6th graders, these kids are in the beginning stages of learning to interact successfully with their peers provided all of these new-found interpersonal insights.  For some it has opened doors, they’ve built their friend circle and are enjoying the fruits of such understandings.  The relationships they’ve built can withstand misunderstandings and “fights”.  These kids can fully engage in a disagreement, resolve the issues and go back to being best friends within minutes…it truly is a superpower.

As educators, and people in general, I believe that we have a lot to learn from these young minds.  While watching and learning from these mini-adults I realized I needed to work harder myself.  It dawned on me that I didn’t know these kids as well as some groups of kids I’ve worked with in the past.  I was forced to consider how this could impact my interactions with them.  Had I built up enough of a positive relationship with each of these kids?  Enough to withstand a difficult conversation and still come away with a mutual level of respect?  Since so many of my student interactions tend to be related to behavior or academic discipline I grew concerned.  Luckily I’ve been down this road and I feel confident in my ability to build relationships…I jumped right in and began connecting with students – it turned out to be the best part of my week!

How have you worked to connect with your students?  Have you built the level of relationship that is strong enough to withstand those difficult moments and come out the other side strong?

Take a step back and think about the relationships you’ve built…could they be strengthened?  I know I’ll be working hard to (re)connect with students over the coming weeks, especially those with whom my connections are weakest.  Building the positive couldn’t be more important and it’s never too late to jump in!

“Feedforward” not back!

Bret OlsonLeave a comment

Making the transition to a new teacher feedback tool, while slow and often cumbersome, is an exciting process.  As a new member of this community I have no previous experience with teacher feedback at Academia Cotopaxi.  However, over the last couple years I’ve made the supervision and evaluation process a professional focus of mine.  It’s an incredibly powerful tool for improving student learning and the conversations that come from frequent classroom visits and follow up conversations are, honestly, one of my favorite parts of my job.

As a former Language Arts teacher, I often equate the process of teacher supervision to helping students with the writing process.  Being the outside observer, there is only so much one can do to push the process forward.  Just as I was never the one doing the actual writing, I can’t dictate where the classroom (or story) goes.  The goal of the supervision process is much the same as guiding a writer; through observations and conversations we hope to lead a teacher through a reflective process that allows them to grow and improve as a teacher…leading to an overall better story of success in the classroom.

At the end of the day the process of reflecting and growing as a teacher shouldn’t really be any more work than normal.  Through reflective conversations we hope to help teachers think about their classroom and the teaching process on a deeper level by providing ‘outside’ observations and feedback.  Similar to how you might guide a writer through the reflective process of revising a piece of writing, the aim of teacher supervision is to take something that is already well developed and help move it to the next level.  We’re all working every day to grow and be better at what we do, having someone along to help with the reflective process shouldn’t create more work but rather ensure that the process of reflecting is an even more valuable use of your time.

We’re currently at the beginning stages of the reflective process (as far as our school year is concerned) and have been asked to self-assess and set some goals for professional growth.  I recently read a fantastic blog post about the concept of “feedforward” as opposed to the over-used “feedback”.  The concept is simple, instead of focusing on the past, look forward instead.  The concept of feedforward is rooted in the idea that growth should be driven not by the supervisor looking from the top down but rather from our own goals and desire to improve.  In the context of “feedforward” the goal setting process becomes even more important, as the goal(s) you choose will have a direct correlation to your growth throughout the school year.  Have a look at this fantastic post, it’s not too long and written with educators in mind (it’s from edutopia.com)  As you go through the self-assessment and goal setting process please keep the idea of “feedforward” in your mind; the power of growth comes from within.  

This great quote from the blog post says it all (and sounds very similar to what we hope to see with students in the classrooms):

“Feedforward means that teachers are not simply empty vessels waiting to be filled, but change agents waiting to be launched.”

Good luck and happy reflecting 🙂

It’s Who We “Be”, Not What We “Do”

Bret OlsonLeave a comment

Talking with our students often brings my mind back to things that are important but for one reason or another I’ve lost focus of.  The other day I was reminded that if we aren’t living up to the standards expected of us we won’t be tolerated and the same goes for our students.  However, and here’s the really challenging part of all of this, we have to do it ALL the time!  It was that conversation with a student the other day that opened my eyes to something that I think is really important…it’s not who we “be” in the good times but who we “be” in the face of adversity.  Can we “be” the person we want to “be” when faced with people we don’t respect, like, or have patience for?

Our best can only be measured by our worst.

I had a great conversation with one student in particular the other day.  He is a ‘frequent flyer’ in my office and we were speaking about why he was there on this particular day.  He started off with “I didn’t DO anything!”  Which is how our kids think 99% of the time  – they think about what they “do”.  I, however, didn’t want to hear about what he did or didn’t do.  Rather, I wanted to know who he was “being” instead of what he was “doing”.  It took him a minute to go along with my questions but eventually he explained that “when he is my age” he wanted to “be nice, respectful and kind”.  He acknowledged that he was not “being” any of those things during class that day.  I asked him if he thought he’d just wake up one day and “be nice, respectful and kind” which really made him stop and think.  As we continued to talk he mentioned that he was very upset with a few classmates because they weren’t “being” very nice and this is why he was “being” mean and rude.

This is it, this is the point where we need to meet our kids beliefs head on and help them grow.  They need to understand that who we “be” isn’t something that we flip on and off and find excuses to “be nice, respectful and kind” sometimes and “be” a jerk other times.  We can’t “be” the person that we strive to “be” only in good times and resort to some lesser version of ourselves when we encounter people we don’t respect.  In fact, it’s for these people that we need to “be” even better, to rise up instead of come down to their level.  If we don’t change that in ourselves first and then guide our kids to this understanding through modeling, conversations, and consistent reflections, then we can’t expect to see them become the kind of adults who we and they want to “be”.

This change can’t happen over night but as I’ve written before it starts with us and who we “be” for our kids, as their role-models we have a HUGE responsibility to always “be” awesome!!

What Are You (Not) Saying to Your Students?

Bret OlsonLeave a comment

By now we are all well aware of the essential role that feedback plays in education.  We create tremendous opportunities for our students to both give and receive feedback which allows them to improve their learning and drive them toward success.  The feedback we give our students is extremely valuable in their development as middle school students and budding academics.  However, this is formal academic feedback I’m talking about.  What about the informal feedback your students are receiving from you throughout the day?

Our students are receiving feedback from you whether you intend it or not.  Maybe you laughed at their joke as they walked into class…feedback (my teacher finds me funny).  Perhaps you compliment their new shoes or haircut…feedback (my teacher notices me AND thinks I have style, yay!)  Consider the other side of the coin.  Feedback (my teacher thinks I’m stupid)…the teacher only calls on a couple kids for the ‘hard’ questions.  Feedback (my teacher doesn’t notice me)…the teacher focuses on the “loud” kids.

What feedback are you sending without even thinking about it?

As I’ve been moving around the school this last week I’ve tried to think about the potential feedback that our students are receiving from the (un)intentional messages we are sending.  Some are AMAZING, some leave room for growth.

Some of the positive feedback kids are receiving that may or may not be intentional includes:

  • My teacher really likes this class and group of kids.
  • My teacher has high expectations for all students.
  • My teacher knows me and cares about who I am outside of school.
  • My teacher values SSR and enjoys reading!
  • My teacher enjoys working at SCIS.
  • My teacher is happy 🙂

All of these things are impressions that can be implied from the way that we engage with their students.  I’d like you to think about how a teacher may be sending the above messages.

Take a few minutes to think about the feedback your students are receiving from you.  What are the positive messages?  Is it possible that you are unintentionally sending any negative feedback?

I think you’re all amazing educators and wonderful people.  We all work very hard and as I’ve mentioned before, we’re all at least 90% awesome 🙂  I believe strongly in looking in the mirror and working to grow each and every day.  Thank you for all that you do for our students and our community.  We have an amazing middle school and we get better each day!!