Twice In One Night? Viagra's the BOMB!

There were two types of responses I thought Jay's and Greg's posts required. One philosopical (the previous) and one practical (this one).

"We're never told why we're doing anything except for we have to."

I think that's a little unfair. I think you can say, "Leadership really sucks at explaining things," or "You guys use crappy examples," or simply, "You've never convinced me," but I don't think what you said is a true statement.

Take the Standards Wall for example. You accurately state that it was something we did years ago and went away from. However, I distinctly remember Ursula and Cy conducting both whole school and department workshops to help teachers understand how to use it and why it can help students. Focus walks and in-class support was provided to help teachers. Similar training was done at the beginning of this year, and Ellen tried to provide an additional explanation on Monday. You obviously don't agree with the rationale, but it's inaccurate to say one was never presented. In fact, you actually call the reasons 'textbook bull$hit.'

If you look at Student Work Review, Formative Assessment (which you helped on), the Vison and Mission, co-teaching, and teaming, time was devoted to explaining the rationale for each of those initiatives. Now, they may have not all been effective, connected into a single cohesive message, and follow-up has been a HUGE issue, but not ONCE in any of those instances was the staff ordered to simply 'Just Do It' in the manner you state.

I also think it's unfair to say, "Let's be honest here," and then dictate what that 'honesty' means. Is it impossible to think that the Standards Wall could actually help students? That it could help teachers collaborate? I accept that teachers can perceive the Wall in the manner you state, but doing so doesn't make the other reasons untrue or false. By calling the presented rationale for the Wall 'textbook bull$hit' don't you reveal an automatic and unfair disregard for ANY possible rationale that could be presented other than your own? Why does lesson review and the Wall have to be about judging? Why can't we just collaborate and offer suggestions in the manner you suggested in your blog?

I addressed the "We're changing too much" issue in my previous blog. But to add to that, what exactly has changed too much at our school? I would contend that you've changed far more as a result of the collaboration you've had with Deena than through anything the school has demanded. Also, if you look at our school day, how much of our actual teaching experience is that much different than three, five, eight years ago? Did the old Vision and Mission impact your instruction that much? Is writing the standard on the board illogical and time consuming? Did the Student Work Review (which occurs during school time) negatively impact the collaboration that existed prior to it? With the exception of the Standards Wall (which does take some time and effort) what exactly is making you work harder in a way that seems illogical?

In theory, these things are great. I think it's unfair to say that the effectiveness of practices like the Standards Wall, regular teacher collaboration on student work, inclusion of SpEd students with the general education population, providing effective feedback, and using formative assessment are theoretical. They're not guaranteed, like practice is not guaranteed to equal success, but there is a lot of strong evidence to indicate that they do work.

But until we pull back on the reins and let teachers figure out for themselves that it's effective, no one will do it for the right reasons. How 'bout we just tell people the truth and just let them figure it out for themselves. No force. No manipulation. Just plain good ol' honesty. THE TRUTH.

What would this look like? What would we tell people and what would they need to figure out? This sounds logical, but I don't understand the specifics. Are you saying we shouldn't do anything except teach and attend parent meetings? No faculty, no waiver days, no dept. or team meetings? That a few years of independent work time would lead to our students learning more? And are there 'right' reasons we would connect with now or are they only available after we figure it out for ourselves?

Lastly, the hostility and frustration implicit within the beliefs that LT is manipulative and just coming up w/ $hit to look good, seem busy, or just do the next new shiny thing, creates a lot of dissappointment for me. If the general perception is that we have nothing better to do than think of meaningless busy work for the staff to do, then we have truly failed the staff and our students. I really mean this, and I am not being self-pitying in any way. Maybe the people who are there have been doing this for too long. Maybe we're not the right people and never were. If the feeling of the staff is that LT and the school improvements we're trying to make are counter-productive, then we've definitely failed at identifying, communicating, and monitoring what we need to do, how we need to do it, and whether we need to do anything at all.

So where do I go from here? What should I do now, peeps?