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Shawn and I sat down for a few minutes to discuss our impressions of the NMSA  conference. We’ll go into more detail about the individual sessions in up coming shows.

I had to take the early bus to the airport this morning, so I have a little time to spend making a post. There are lots of folks here waiting for flights to many destinations.

Troy and I got together with our colleagues for dinner and reflection after the conference was over. I think that exchange is one of the most important sessions I attend at an NMSA conference. The enthusiasm is infectious and gets us excited to head back to our own classrooms. Always in life there are opportunity costs. At NMSA you can’t see every session you want to go to and the dinner at the end of the conference extends my conference experience by hearing about the best parts of the sessions I couldn’t attend.

If you went, what sessions did you attend? Here’s my list. You’ll notice that it differs from my plan on the podcast. Where I could, at this point, I’ve put a link to the presenter’s website so you can get the benefit of their resources also.

1. Why Try? I’m Going to Fail Anyway! The effects of Teacher Expectations on Student Achievement.
2. Cooperative Learning that Works in a Differentiated Classroom.
3. Ready, Set, Write: Supportive Steps that Engage Students in Composition, Ross Burkhardt
4. Planning 6th Grade Survivor Camp, Marcia Sewell, Centre Middle School
5. Please Sit Still, Pay Attention, and Get Your Homework Done!, by Dr. John F. Taylor
6. Project LEAD (Leadership Education and Development), COE Texas Tech University
7. Confronting Hard Facts, Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense in Education, Keynote by Rick DuFour
8. Middle Grades Teacher Program Assessments
9. Response to Intervention Through Middle School Electives
10. Incentive Press, Make-and-Take at their booth. (Thanks for the coupon!)

My group is planning to sit down and go through the Rick DuFour presentation again back at the school and share the things we gathered at the “brain buffet”.

What kind of things are you planning to do for reflection post NMSA 07?

Day two down here in Houston, TX.  Lots of wonderful sessions and great information.  Rick DuFour had a very informative keynote on Professional Learning Communities called “Confronting Hard Facts, Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense in Education.”  A couple of sessions on teacher prep and writing filled out the day.  Look for a podcast coming probably tomorrow.

Excitement is building. We’re looking forward to meeting lots of fascinating people. It’s almost time for lift off.

What is it that we are looking forward to?

1. Anything that address the issue of student’s doing homework.
2. Methodologies for address the wide ability of student’s on a school wide basis.
3. Successful strategies for helping kids develop reading skills.

What are you focusing on?

Our excitement over the upcoming NMSA Conference can’t be contained. In this episode, we discuss conference attendence strategies and our picks for breakout sessions. Be forewarned, this is our longest podcast yet. We also announce our first ever give away – you could win an iPod. Listen to discover how.

We also discuss where to get Rick DuFour’s notes prior to going to the show (here) and some dining tips:

Houston discounts:

http://www.restaurant.com/ Has dining certificates that can reduce the price of eating out in Houston.

(Specific regions in Houston: http://www.restaurant.com/search-map-region.asp?PageSize=10&Page=1&VicinitySearchLevel=REGION&StateID=19&SearchID=&DistrictID=0&RegionID=32&rgid=32&nv=1&rn=TX) Use special code: SWEET

I took a walk through the Success in the Middle Act of 2007 this afternoon and noticed a connection to the PLC discussion.  The House bill proposes at least 20 million dollars in a grant to the states (as long as they provide a percentage of matching non-Federal funds).  Among the details (103.g.7) is a provision to fund the development of professional learning communities.  Competitive grants up to $50,000 can be awarded based on a number of criteria including a school improvement plan.  

This show takes a look at the next two building blocks of a good PLC – Values & Goals.

Third Building Block:
Values:
One method, create a representative task force and challenge its members to:

1. Carefully review the school’s vision statement
2. Identify attitudes, behaviors and committments that must be demonstrated by the group in order to move the school closer to the vision.
3. Develop a draft of a statement of these attitudes, behaviors and committments (limited to no more than 10 statements)
4. Arrange small-group meetings with collegues to present task force findings, solicit feedback and answer questions.
5. Revise initial draft
6. Small group meetings until there is strong consensus for the statements.
7. Present findings to the entire staff to obtain endorsement of the final product.

One of the big keys is to remember to involve Parents, Support Staff and Community members.

Mature vs. Immature PLCs-development of values/vision and implementation.
Some keys:

• Keep them few in number
• Link the statements directly to the vision statement
• Be direct
• Focus on behavior, not beliefs
• Focus on self, not others

Fourth Building Block:
Goals:
Which steps will we take first, and when?
Need to create some small victories. Thus, some short-term wins are necessary. In order to accomplish that, design some goals that are:

1. Visible – large numbers of people can see for themselves whether the result is real or just hype.
2. Unambiguous – There can be little argument over the results.
3. Clearly related to the change effort.

Things to avoid:

• Taking on too many initiatives at once. (Some schools have started 10 different task force intitiatives)
• Identifying goals that are too general. Goals must be specific and measurable if they are to be effective. Effective goals will specify:
  • Exactly what is to be accomplished.
  • Specific steps that will be taken
  • Individual or group responsible for intiating/sustaining each step toward achieving the goal
  • timeline for each phase
  • Criteria in evaluating progress.

The big NMSA national convention is coming up soon. Held in Houston, TX on November 7-9, this is one terrific conference. We are getting “geeked” up. Literally. We’re hoping to record some podcast segments while at the conference. Learning and soaking up information will come first, but we do plan on getting some “work” in as well.
Are you going to the conference?
If you are, drop us a note.
If not, what would you like to hear about?

Podcast #8 continues our conversation about Professional Learning Communities. Specifically, we address two of the foundations of PLC’s- Mission and Vision. PLC’s are currently the happening movement in education. One of the best parts of PLC’s is that they are based around the classroom. They also call for all teachers to be involved and part of the process.

The first topic of discussion is the Mission.

Mission is the first building block: Basically, this asks the important question:

Why do we exist?
All schools currently have mission states. All of them sound very similar, this is OK. Next we take on the All kids can learn conumdrum.

This is based upon everyone agreeing that All kids can learn. However, we may have different definitions of what that means. DuFour points out four different possibilities:
All kids can learn
…..based upon their ability. Learning is fixed and educators have little effect. Educators create multiple tracks (pathways) to address the differences in learning. Future is predetemined.
…….if they take advantage of the opportunities. Educators must present things in clear and engaging ways. In the end, it is up to the students though.
…….and we will accept responsibility for ensuring their growth. Educators are responsible to help students grow but the extent of that growth is determined by the student.
……..we will establish high standards of learning that we expect all students to achieve. We create work that results in high level of achievement. We are prepared to work collaboratively with colleagues, students and parents to achieve this shared educational purpose.

The second Building Block: Vision
What do we hope to become?

Vision should present a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organization.

5 scenarios of implementing a vision:
Telling
Selling
Testing
Consulting
Co-creating

Although not the most efficent way, co-creating is the most likely to result in a shared vision.
Which level? District needs to be guiding the schools.
All stakeholders should be engaged.
How long? Some say once it’s done, it’s done. Some say that it should be done annually. These authors suggest a 5-7 year cycle.

Benefits:
Motivates & Energizes people
Proactive orientation
Gives direction to people within the organization
Establishes specific standards of excellence
Sets a clear agenda for action

Everyone must be ready to wrestle with 2 important questions:
What is it that we expect all students to learn?
How will we respond when they do not learn?

What are your thoughts?

One of those things we practice and hope we never have to use, a District Disaster Plan.  Today we had put ours into action and the kids pulled through nicely.  We had a chemical spill upwind from us today and had to evacuate to another location.  We were fortunate in that the rain in the forecast today held off and kept the situation from being worse than a precautionary evacuation.  The kids followed the plan like we practiced and although excited by the evacuation, kept their cool, followed directions and showed the news that middle schoolers can pull together.  Huge thanks to Baker College for hosting the evacuation site!