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Our “Best of the Blogs” section includes thoughtful insights on school leadership being shared through blogs maintained by AASA members. This representative sampling of five bloggers, through an RSS feed, will change periodically to showcase other member blogs, so check back regularly. If you are aware of others, contact magazine@aasa.org.

• 4 Steps to Leaders Modeling Effective Use of Technology

  Promoting Student Engagement|5/17/2013
  You are a superintendent or principal who wants to promote students leveraging technology to improve the quality and amplify the impact of their work. As a superintendent, you want principals to model using technology to improve their work. As a principal, you want assistant principals, department chairs, grade level chairs, and other teacher-leaders effectively modeling how to leverage technology as well.  How can superintendents and principals achieve this?
  Step 1: Model and celebrate the behavior.
  ·         Meet with principals using videoconferencing technology, such as Blackboard Collaborate, to demonstrate using technology as a productivity tool.
  ·         During a workshop with leaders you supervise, model learning with outside experts by connecting with other educators via Skype.
  ·         Visit a classroom to watch students and teachers for using technology successfully. By spending time observing lessons that leverage technology, you communicate that those lessons are important.
  ·         Take digital photos and videos of students effectively using technology and share them at faculty meetings, principal meetings, and School Board meetings to celebrate and inspire.
  ·         Send kudos to teachers for successfully leveraging technology via Twitter. E-mail the tweet to the teacher if she doesn't use Twitter herself.
  ·         Share shout-outs regarding great lessons via blog posts.
  ·         Seek out examples of student and teacher blogs in your school or district and take just two minutes to publish a comment on their blog.
  
  
  Don't have the time or expertise for all these actions? No problem, start with a few.
  
  
  Often superintendents and principals who want to promote the effective use of technology stop after step one. They mistakenly think that by modeling and celebrating the behavior, that other leaders in their organization will adopt the same strategy. Our strategic thinking about growing leaders who model the effective use of technology needs to extend beyond our own modeling.
  Step 2: Communicate your core expectations to leaders relating to modeling the behavior.
  If you want your principals, assistant principals, department chairs, grade level chairs and other teacher-leaders modeling technology usage, tell them that. Don't stop at modeling and celebrating the behavior yourself. After you have taken steps in walking the walk yourself, share your expectations regarding modeling.
  In York County, Virginia, Chief Academic Officer Stephanie Guy and I worked with Instructional team members to articulate core expectations relating to several instructional areas. We shared these expectations at our Leadership Academy in August. The document included expectations relating to modeling technology usage.
  All administrators will model the use of video-conferencing and video conferencing roles with staff at least once and will encourage teacher use of videoconferencing to enhance instruction.
  All administrators will model the use of Social Media/Web 2.0 Tools for professional learning with staff.
  In November, Stephanie Guy and I described our core expectations to Ginger Blackmon, a principal in Alaska who serves as an instructional leadership coach through the Microsoft Partners in Learning program. Ginger asked a disruptive question: "Are you dictating the core expectations or are your leaders articulating them as shared expectations that they hold as a group for themselves?" This question led us to step 3. To take a more collaborative approach, skip step 2 or integrate steps 2 and 3.
  Step 3: Ask leaders to articulate shared expectations relating to modeling the behavior.
  Chief Academic Officer Stephanie Guy then asked principals to reflect on the core expectations relating to modeling and other instructional topics prior to a principals meeting. Is each expectation reasonable, appropriate, and attainable?
  Prior to a principals meeting, Ashley Ellis, Coordinator of Professional Development, e-mailed a survey to our nineteen principals and six central office participants asking them to rate each core expectation via Survey Monkey, an online survey tool. During the meeting, the group results were displayed. When consensus was not obvious, the group discussed the expectation, making adjustments as necessary. For example, the group decided to delete the list of examples of Social Media/Web 2.0 Tools. Also, the group revised one of the other core expectations relating to technology which initially stated, "All secondary administrators will promote the appropriate usage of Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) to support student learning." Given our plans to expand our BYOT initiative to the elementary level, elementary principals stated that the word secondary should be deleted from this expectation so that it applies to them as well. After discussion and revision of each expectation, Stephanie Guy asking each principal to indicate their level of support for the shared expectation by holding up from one to five fingers, with the quantity of fingers raised indicating the level of support for the expectation. When this "fist of five" activity indicated broad support, an expectation became part of the shared expectations.
  Step 4: Facilitate learning relating to the expectations.
  If they are going to model using technology, leaders need time to play with it in a low risk setting. Recognizing the importance of play time, Kipp Rogers, our Director of Secondary Instruction, created Principals Digital Playground with the support of other members of his department. It eventually was renamed Digital Playground once other leaders began to attend as well. The Digital Playground is an optional event, held monthly, at which leaders focus on a specific topic, such as learning via Twitter, creating and editing movies using iMovie, or using Edmodo.
  Promote a culture of reflective practice. We loosely structure some of our reflective conversations regarding using protocols adapted from free resources available from the National School Reform Faculty. Even when we are not officially using a protocol, our conversations benefit from skills learned by using the protocols, such as asking questions that effectively clarify a dilemma and articulating probing questions that prompt new insight.
  Taking these four steps can increase the extent to which leaders in your organization effectively model how to leverage technology. Please join the conversation. What advice do you have relating to taking these steps? What other steps can be taken to encourage others to effectively model how to leverage technology?
  Follow me on Twitter at @EWilliams65.

• Another special evening . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/16/2013
  
  
  
  
  This evening we brought together 100 people to assist us in a review of our outcomes and indicators.  We had representatives from parents, city counselors, local and regional business, higher education, staff, board members, and students spend almost four hours in conversation and feedback to support our work.  We want to ensure that the Outcomes and Indicators capture what young people need to know and be able to do for success in post high school learning and work.  We did a cafe style process where each participant engaged at three different table groupings with a focusing question at each table.
  
  The following questions were used to initiate each conversation.
  
  
  • In what ways do the district Outcomes and Indicators, as currently written, propel students to future success?
  • As we think about the essence of "future ready", what, if anything, is missing from the district Outcomes and Indicators as currently written?
  • In what ways might we enhance the district Outcomes and Indicators to capture the realities of a global community?
  
  
  
  
  We ended with the following question that was posed to job alike groups.
  
  
  • What is one bold step our job alike group could take to support the future ready vision becoming our reality?
  I'm excited about the answers to this question and to the recommendations for possible revisions to our document.  I'll share the results once we have an opportunity to process the information, but will share one from the students that particularly resonate with me.
  • Rewrite them using kid friendly language.  By the time we get to high school they are over used and begin to lose their importance.

  This is why we need to ensure that we have student voice in ALL major decisions impacting their learning in our system.
  
  
  I want to thank Connie Hoffman and Dawn Wakeley for the quality lesson design and facilitation of an effective and efficient meeting.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Creating a broader context . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/15/2013
  
  The Education Specifications Committee met again this evening to continue conversations about a new comprehensive grade 9-12 high school.  I blogged about the work of this committee here and here that is designed to alleviate the over crowded conditions in each of our buildings.  It is a generative process where individuals share ideas designed to provide the architects with direction and a framework to begin the design phase.  Tonight was focused on designs to meet specific functions identified in prior discussions including core classroom spaces, project and applied learning spaces, media/library, administrative, fitness, and other spaces.
  
  We started the meeting this evening, however, trying to create a broader context for the work.  Yes, we are bringing an aspiration to life, but the driver behind this effort is the need for additional student housing capacity.  As we continue this effort, it will be important for the Committee and for all of us to keep this broader context in the conversation.  We shared the slide below to visually capture the number of students we are currently housing in our schools compared to the designed capacity of our buildings.  Though the graph shows we are over capacity, it does not convey the tension it is creating in our school system.  As the work continues it will be important for us to identify vehicles to share stories that truly capture the tension and stress that over crowding brings to our learning environments.  In the absence of addition capacity, we will be forced to make difficult decisions with significant program implications.
  
  
  
  
  The remainder of the meeting

• Agnew Middle School Chosen for Programthrough New George W. Bush Institute

  Mesquite ISD Superintendent|5/13/2013
  Agnew Middle School  is one of eight middle schools chosen by The George W. Bush Institute to participate in the Middle School Matters Institute. The institute, designed to improve school outcomes in the middle grades (grades 6-8), leverages the best available research and practices to support student improvement.
  Some of the program features include:
  ·      Targeted support through the first Middle School Matters Institute Summer Conference in Austin. Agnew’s leadership will attend development sessions with researchers and practitioners.
  ·      Help in developing an implementation plan tailored to Agnew’s strengths and areas of growth.
  ·      Continued support efforts with researchers throughout the year.
  
  
  We are proud Agnew was one of the lucky eight chosen from 44 applicant schools of varying sizes from across the country. We look forward to great things to come from this consortium of great minds and best practices.
  
  
  

• Standing out in the crowd . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/12/2013

  Sunday is a "normal" post day for me so I have spent the last few minutes going through my blog folder to choose a topic and there are plenty to choose from.  I want to share the video of Bill Gates TED talk last week that I blogged about here, but thought I'd share a more personal reflection on our young people and our school system.
  
  Our schools, teams of students, and individual students have recently received local, state, and national recognition for achievement.  I have blogged about many of these achievements, but I am more proud of who we are individually and collectively.  As I told our We The People Team, placing seventh nationally is an exceptional honor, but I am also as proud, if not more, for the stories that Gretchen shared about how other teams became our biggest boosters.  Our kids are competitive, but they are also collaborative and supportive of others.  They don't resort to smack talk and game playing.  They do their thing with confidence and humility that results in respect by others.
  
  

  
  I believe that this respect is a byproduct of our work in the system focused on our Outcomes and Indicators and our deep belief in collaboration and consensus.  Another example with students is Bear Metal our robotics team receiving the Chairman's Award, the highest award in the First Robotics world.  The award is given to teams that support the mission of the organization and that demonstrate collaboration and support in a competitive environment.
  
  Please consider sharing with me and those that follow the blog other stories about young people and adults that demonstrate this important characteristic of our culture.

• Simply unbelievable . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/10/2013
  
  I just sent Melissa Corby and Ken Riggs an e-mail thanking them for a thoroughly enjoyable evening watching Les Miserables.  The singing and acting were so good that I can't believe I was watching students.  Their voices were amazing and the acting of a professional quality.  The young people in the starring roles are truly impressive, but what struck me the most was the quality of talent across the whole cast that also included students from our elementary schools.
  
  It was for me one of the most impressive high school performances of any kind that I have had the privilege of attending and is one that I will remember.  Thank you to Melissa and Ken for creating a stage for our young people to showcase their talent and for the memories that they will take with them forever.  Tonight was one more reason to be proud to be associated with the quality young people and adults that make up our school system.
  
  
  

• A new experience . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/9/2013

  Today brought a new experience for me that took place at the Issaquah Community Center this afternoon that was shared with about 1200 others.  I may have been the only one in the room from the Tahoma School District as it was the Issaquah Schools Foundation fifteenth annual luncheon fund raiser, Nourish Every Mind.
  
  

  
  How did the Tahoma Superintendent end up at an Issaquah fund raiser?  I was invited to join the table sponsored by Cedar Grove Composting, an organization that this year will sponsor a $2500 scholarship for a Tahoma student and that also sponsors student attendance at Camp Snowball. I had previously met the Foundation Executive Director when I presented last month at an Eastside Business event and wanted to follow-up with her on an offer to assist our foundation effort.
  
  The Foundation is impressive and the event was truly inspiring.  They raise over a million dollars annually and provide the school system with support in multiple areas.  A focus for this year is to create a fund that will annually put $100,000 into the school's art programs and $360,000 into purchasing a writing program.  They sponsor rocketry and robotic programs and a four week summer school program for ELL students.  And, the list goes on.
  
  What did I learn?  I learned that systems like Issaquah and Mercer Island whose foundation can raise over $500,000 in a breakfast meeting have resources that create opportunities for their young people and staff out of reach to most other systems in the state.  There is no level playing field when systems have this capacity and can also pass maximum levies and $200 million bond measures that result in lower taxes for their home owners. Though it concerns me that our current reality does not include these flexible resources or ease at passing levies and bonds, I do not fault their system for this incredible support.
  
  Today also reinforced for me the tremendous job that our teachers and staff do without this additional support.  I left the meeting with increased tension to grow the capacity of our foundation to replicate the success in Issaquah.  We will be meeting with their Executive Director to learn from their journey what we can transfer to our school community.
  
  Oh, in case you are wondering, I did make a contribution.  It did seem a little odd when they passed me an envelope with my name on it as I had not given any thought to the possibility of needing to contribute until I walked in the door without my check book and little cash.  It was a good thing that they took credit cards.

• A heartfelt thank you . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/7/2013

  kidsinthekitchenblogspot.com

  Though there is not much time left in National Teacher Day, I want to join the many others thanking teachers in our system and all teachers for the commitment that they make to support the learning of our most important resource, our young people.
  
  I always struggle with finding words on these celebratory days that adequately convey my feelings for teachers.  It seems too easy and impersonal to do a blog post or to send an email conveying my appreciation, but that is what I find myself doing.  So, thank you for creating learning environments that produce outstanding results and for doing this in overcrowded schools and at times under less than supportive conditions.  Thank you for contributing to a culture that embraces collaboration and views change as an opportunity for growth.  Thank you for sharing your experience, expertise, and passion with our young people.  Most of all, thank you for choosing us and for your role in contributing to a good school system seeking greatness.
  
  Thanks, Mike

• Finding agreement . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/6/2013
  
  It is not often that I find myself in agreement with Bill Gates, but in this TED Talk preview of a new show he shares his views on giving teachers what they deserve.  I find myself in total agreement with his view that what teachers need and deserve is feedback.  The show premieres on PBS this Tuesday, May 7, at 10 p.m. Eastern/9 p.m. Central.
  
  
  For my part, I talked about what I think is the most powerful idea in education today: getting teachers the feedback they deserve so they can improve their practice.
  
  It’s amazing to think about how much coaching is given to, say, professional athletes. I have a coach who gives me feedback too. (You’ll have to watch the show if you want to know why.) But most teachers get almost no feedback at all. And the vast majority of countries that outperform us in education have some formal way to give their teachers feedback. So this is an area where innovation and investment can make a big difference for teachers and students in this country.
  
  
  Providing feedback to teachers has been a focus in our leadership work for a number of years.  We know that changes to instructional practice will not sustain in the absence of feedback, one of the reasons that we developed the feedback protocol that I shared in this blog post last week.  The protocol supports using data from the observation to reinforce behavior aligned with the proposed change and to identify areas for further growth.  The leverage in the protocol comes from the capacity to ask clarifying and reflective questions, another critical component of providing effective feedback.  It is good to see that a long standing practice in our system is being promoted by one of the critical players in the education reform movement.
  
  Once again, here is our feedback protocol.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Is Mesquite ISD’s KEOM-88.5 FMthe Best Radio Station in Dallas?

  Mesquite ISD Superintendent|5/6/2013

  
  

  KEOM (88.5 FM) attracts many listeners outside the Mesquite ISD community, even though it is owned and operated by our district. So many fans in fact that the D Magazine editors chose our station as a finalist in D’s Readers’ Choice Poll. KEOM-FM is competing against eight other popular stations in the “Best Radio Station” category.
  
  
  We know how the station gives wonderful learning opportunities to our high school students interested in pursuing communications-related fields. We know KEOM is the best source to learn about weather-related school closures and to hear broadcasts of our sporting events. But it’s nice to be reminded that KEOM benefits the Dallas Metroplex and beyond, too. Not only do listeners enjoy its nice mix of music, but also Texas news, community interviews and much more.
  
  
  Please vote for KEOM-FM in D Magazine’s Best of Big D: Readers’ Choice Poll. You can vote once a day, every day through Sunday, May 12.
  
  
  

• Common Core concerns grow . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/5/2013

  This Education Week article about a Nashville, Tennessee panel discussion on the Common Core is just one of many taking place across the country.  What once looked like a slam dunk is being questioned by some in many of the 45 states that have adopted them.  One of the main issues is captured in the statement below from the Nashville panel.
  
  
  The panel held Tuesday was among a growing number of such events being held nationwide. One main allegation is that the federal government is regulating education and allowing little input from local school districts.
  
  "School choices, school curriculum are best established at the local level," said Casey Preston, a mother of two who attended the panel in Franklin. "I don't feel that the national government or the state of Tennessee should dictate what all children are studying or learning."
  
  States such as Indiana are reviewing their adoption at the legislative level and have decided to put implementation on "pause" while they continue the conversations.
  
  The state legislature approved and sent to the governor a bill to "pause" common core implementation, which had started in grades K-1, pending more study and state board of education hearings. From a practical standpoint, this may or may not mean a whole lot (except maybe a whole lot of confusion). The state is teaching only common core in grades K-1, and common standards alongside Indiana standards in all other grades. So the "pause" just means that Indiana standards will stay around for at least a while longer, according to Glenda Ritz, Indiana's superintendent of public instruction, who talked to me about education issues in general for a wide-ranging story I'm working on.
  
  AFT President, Randi Weingarten, recently called for a moratorium on implementation of high stakes Common Core testing beginning in 2015.  Russo shares his agreement with her suggestion in This Week In Education post.  I share Russo's concern with the issues that will emerge with the inevitable drop in scores across the country with these new assessments.  It would have made much more sense for the assessments to be implemented over time as our students and teachers are given the opportunity to teach and learn the standards.
  
  I am including in this post other recent articles about issues with the Common Core in this Education Next article, and others here, here, here, and here.  So far I am not aware of any issues in our state, but believe that it is only a matter of time as the push back on both the standards and the accompanying assessments grows.  We continue to move forward with creating teacher understanding and preparing curriculum and assessment materials for classroom use in our system, an important and resource consuming initiative.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Seeking leverage for support . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/2/2013

  Today was one of those days that I was able to be in classrooms with principals, days that are energizing for me and that always result in much reflection on my part.  My goal is to support principals as they gather data and search for the one point of leverage to support teacher reflection and growth.  Our time together is spent sharing the data that we collected, referring to 5D+ and our learning target documents, and then discussing possible leverage points.  In this process, we discuss clarifying questions and make decisions on a course of action using the protocol below.
  
  

  
  
  With experience, we are refining the process, gaining deeper understanding of 5D+, and increasing our capacity to support teacher growth.  We know that feedback is an essential component of growth and this protocol is designed to identify feedback that reinforces and feedback that leads to growth.  The process is easy to describe but more complex to implement effectively as there are many additional variables to consider before determining the leverage point for support.
  
  I believe that through this process I am increasing my capacity to ask questions of principals and provide feedback that leads to meaningful interactions between them and teachers.  As we move into a new teacher evaluation model we must continue to grow in our capacity to support teacher growth and this is one process  supporting that growth.  Perhaps one of our principals or teachers receiving feedback would consider sharing their experience in a comment to this post.

• High school students shine . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|5/1/2013

  Once again there is so much to be proud of as our young people at the high school continue to achieve honors at the state and national level.  Though you may have already read about these in other places I also wanted to recognize their achievements and thank them and their adult mentors for their commitment and success.  So, congratulations to our We The People Team, to our state music competitors, and to our Robotics Team for their recent success.
  
  

  
  
  Tahoma High School's We the People team placed seventh in the national finals in Washington D.C.  The team coached by Gretchen Wulfing, finished in the Top 10 for the second consecutive year and had the highest finish in school history.
  
  
  Tahoma competed against teams from 45 other states and the District of Columbia. The teams participate in simulated congressional hearings, in which the judges test the students’ knowledge of the Constitution.
  
  
  On the music front, three Tahoma High School vocalists and one instrumentalist placed in the top three in their respective categories at the state solo and ensemble music competition, held April 27 at Central Washington University.  Tyler Johnson won the Tenor category, the first Tahoma soloist to win the state contest in at least 17 years, vocal music director Ken Riggs said. Katie Duffy placed second in the Soprano category and Elizabeth Zosel placed third in the Mezzo-soprano category. Stephen Shin placed third in the Euphonium category for instrumental music.
  
  
  Last week, members of the Tahoma Robotics Club participated in the FIRST Robotics World Championship at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Bear Metal Competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) which is reserved for high school students. Tahoma’s 120 pound Frisbee gathering and throwing robot played much better than at regional events, but did not make it into the finals this year. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

• A celebration . . .

  Seeking Shared Learning|4/30/2013

  In this post on April 4th I shared the news that four of our schools had earned Washington School Achievement recognition for 2012.  The chart that I shared identified the area of achievement and the small number of schools being recognized across the state.  Overall, there were 381 schools that achieved this honor.
  

  
  Today, each school received their banner and trophy in a ceremony at Kentwood High School.  It was an honor to be in attendance and associated with this outstanding group of educators.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• What Are The Most Important “First Steps” A New Superintendent Should Take?

  G-Town Talks 2.0|4/30/2013

  Here’s another question from the NYS Superintendent Development Program. Anyone else out there want to add a few bits of advice for our new colleagues? What are the most important “first-steps” a superintendent should take in a new district? First position? Is it enough for me to just say “shut up and listen”? That’s largely [...]