Every human being is a role model. It is an inescapable fact of life…. You are either a good role model or a bad one
As you know this past week we celebrated Patriot’s Day. I was grateful to Mrs. House and Dr. Brady for allowing me to share my 9/11 story with their classes. (I am happy to share this and other lessons with classes when asked). I am sure many of us have a particular story as we remember where we were that day and how it impacted us. Mine was unique in that my father was scheduled to be at the World Trade Center that day, at that hour…. As I was sharing my story and the survivor story of my dad’s colleagues I realized that our students don’t have a 9/11 story. My prayer is that they never will have to experience something so traumatic, but chances are they will have a 9/11moment... When the lenses of their lives comes into focus, that moment when their utopian self consumed bubble burst and they are faced with the unfortunate realities of this world. As we grow forward I hope that we are able to focus our student’s lives in a safe environment, sharing from our experience to help give them an informed opinion of the world. Speaking of environment, I would like to speak to our collegial environment. Every night as I tuck my son into bed he asks “Daddy what did you do at school today?” though this an attempt to avoid sleep, most nights I indulge him. I usually say, “I helped teachers teach better”. And while this is an answer to suffice a sleepy question, it is the absolute truth. I have pursued educational leadership and administration to help teachers teach better. This does not mean I am a master teacher, (not by a long shot) it does mean that I am about a collaborative effort, and that I am about working together to make one another better educators. As you are now receiving your feedback from our administrative team, please understand where we are coming from. 1. We are in this together 2. Personally, I try to give feedback in the form of a question ex. “ Do you think the rigor was at the appropriate level?” This is not to challenge you but rather to make you think and to promote reflection. It is an effort to generate collegial conversations and dialogue. With your response we may ask for justification. Once again this is not to create contentious experiences and defensive conversations. What we are trying to do is model the type of accountable talk you conduct with your students in your class when you ask a student a question and then ask him to go deeper to explain why he/she thinks that way. That is all we are trying to do with this. Remember the summative is what counts, walkthroughs and formatives are used to grow both teacher and leader. I so wish the scoring could wait until the summative. In fact I wish that all you could see on the platform was the feedback we try to give you. Who knows perhaps that will be the case next year as the state moves toward more of a coaching model. As always I welcome and encourage you to ask clarifying questions when it comes to feedback and it is my intention to begin that feedback face to face. Unfortunately, sometimes critical and urgent issues prevent this from happening but you are always welcome to catch me and or schedule an appointment to discuss. Again the main thing we have been looking for this past round has been planning and making sure that those lessons and lesson plans are tied to the state standards. I realize there has been a lot of talk of anchor charts, which will be discussed in further detail in quality circles.