Some Sunday Links

1.  This article contains some great information for educators on how to build relationships with students and some tangible ideas on how to better manage the classroom.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct12/vol70/num02/Eight-Things-Skilled-Teachers-Think,-Say,-and-Do.aspx

2.  This blog post by Elena Aguilar contains great information on possible sources of underlying conflict in schools.  Moreover, her blog contains ideas on how to address these issues constructively and work more effectively as a team.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/educational-beliefs-collide-teachers-elena-aguilar

3.  This is a blog post from the American Enterprise Institute by a former professor of mine, Mark Perry.  It contains some interesting information about the growth of administrative positions in our nation's public schools.  As an administrator,and as an employee of a system that is certainly top-heavy with administrators, I am almost reluctant to include this link, but I believe our administrative positions in SABIS serve very useful purposes and are an integral part of our academic success.
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/01/chart-of-the-day-public-schools-bloated-with-bureaucracy/

Have a great Sunday!

What All Kids Want

Houston Nutt, former coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Ole Miss Rebels.

According to Houston Nutt, it is really quite simple.  All kids want two things: they want  be loved and they want to be disciplined.  Moreover, one without the other is worthless.  I heard Coach Nutt make these statements in an ESPN podcast a couple of years ago while I was out for a run.  I immediately stopped running and sent a text message containing this insight to some friends in education.  For the rest of my run that morning I thought about this statement and how it related to my experience with young people.  In a nutshell, I agreed completely with Coach Nutt.  Both elements are essential for a positive relationship with students.  Although my 14 years of experience with young people are not near as extensive as Coach Nutt's approximately 30 years of experience working with young men, my life experiences tell me he is right.

Kids need to know you care about them.  They want to know you love them, that they are more than just a face in a seat or a number on a uniform.  In my experience the more they are sure you love them, the more they will do for you and the greater their effort will be in whatever they are doing.  One of the best ways to demonstrate you care about someone is to spend time with that person.  Time is one of our most valuable commodities and one that is essentially non-renewable.  As such, most of us tend to spend time with people we care about deeply.  Thus, spending time with someone is a very tangible way of demonstrating to that person that we care about them and are invested in their well-being.  Go to their events and activities and make sure they see you there--catch their eye or make sure they hear you cheering for them!  An hour or two invested in attending a sporting event, concert, or some type of performance will go a long way toward building a positive relationship with a young person and showing them you care about them.

Young people need to know there are boundaries and they need to know where they are located.  Establishing clear boundaries or parameters for conduct eliminates some of the ambiguity of life for young people.  Combine this with appropriate and consistent consequences for violations of expected behavior and you create an environment in which young people feel safe.  Initially this may seem to be counter-intuitive as it seems as if young people are always testing the boundaries we establish, but this is almost always developmentally appropriate--even for very young children.  They are checking for consistency in our behavior; they want to be sure of us.  This probing behavior helps them make sense of the world in which they live.  This reminds me of a passage from Winnie the Pooh when Piglet comes up behind Pooh and say "Pooh?"  Pooh replies, "Yes, Piglet?"  "Nothing," says Piglet taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."  Often kids will test us because they want to be sure of us; they want to be sure that we mean what we say and that we are who we claim to be.  Therefore, perhaps the best thing you can do when working with young people is DWYSYWD, or Do What You Say You Will Do, especially when it comes to discipline.  Not only does this eliminate uncertainty in their life, but it also builds trust in the relationship.  The more we practice this behavior, the more they become sure of us and the more trust they have, and place, in us.

Love and discipline are the two most important elements in a positive relationship between an adult and a child.  One without the other will result in a relationship out of balance and lead to a lack of respect or even resentment.  However, combine these two elements and you have the building blocks of a positive, fruitful, and mutually beneficial relationship.

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence

Two former students, Ashley Hamilton and Dylan Luna, who certainly possess emotional intelligence.

We need signs.  We need signs on the top of each our heads indicating our current mood.  Wouldn't this make the world a bit easier to navigate?  We would immediately recognize how we should treat each person we come into contact with on a daily basis based upon their current state of being.  How many times have you had someone snap at you or witnessed such an incident, and, at least to you, it was totally unexpected and perhaps even uncalled for based upon the situation?  Most likely we--or they-- failed to properly identify the emotional state of the person exhibiting such behavior.  Unfortunately we do not have glowing LED signs on our heads (at least not yet) indicating our current emotional state, so in the meantime we have to rely upon our emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth. (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).   I use the following as a working definition for EQ: The ability to read a person or situation and to respond appropriately.  Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, was popularized by Daniel Goleman (http://danielgoleman.info/) in his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.  Based upon my professional experiences in the field of education over the past 14 years, I agree with Dr. Goleman that EQ is equally important as IQ in today's world.  In fact, a very strong argument could be made that EQ trumps IQ in our present-day world.

Each and every person we know, encounter, and interact with is fighting some type of battle.  It may be major, it may be minor, it may be apparent, or it may be hidden, but we are all struggling with something.  Moreover, many of us do a very good job of hiding or camouflaging our true emotional state for numerous reasons.  Perhaps we do not want to burden others with our problems; maybe we are trying to "fake it until we make it"; or we may not want to project an image of weakness--we want the world to think we have it all under control.Whatever the reason, many of us have become quite adept at maintaining a poker face, so the world is often unaware of what is lurking beneath the surface.  This presents a potential problem as our greatest challenge on a daily basis is to get along with one another.  You may disagree with this assertion, but I would challenge your disagreement  by asking the following question: If our social interaction was not such a potential problem, then why does every culture that ever existed have some variation of the Golden Rule in its book of knowledge/wisdom or in its oral heritage?  Put simply, respectfully interacting with one another certainly appears to be our greatest challenge.

Today, and for every day of the rest of your life, you are going to come into contact with people fighting internal and external battles, so be gentle with others.  Go beyond treating them as you want to be treated, rather make the effort to truly understand them and treat them the way they want to be treated (HT to Jeff Londraville).  Trust me, there is a difference.  So as you go forth this weekend, go easy and be gentle with those you see.  You never know the struggle they may be dealing with and how your words or actions may alleviate or exacerbate their emotional state.  We have in our power the unique ability to brighten or darken another's day, so let's choose wisely.

Elements of Effective Leadership

For the past few weeks I have engaged in an ongoing discussion with some very good friends about the absence of leadership in many areas of our society.  Leadership is so often discussed, so often praised, but so seldom taught or nurtured.  I consider myself very fortunate as I have been witness to great leadership throughout my life and blessed to call many leaders my friends.  Moreover, as an educator, I have been very privileged to watch many young people develop character traits essential to effective leadership.  With that in mind, I thought I would list some key elements of effective leadership based upon my limited experience.

1.  Leaders have a vision.

Just like Martin Luther King, Jr., you must have a dream.  If you are going to lead, you must have an idea of where you want to go or what you want to accomplish.  This is your vision; this is your dream; it is the map off which you operate.  Often times, your vision is what will attract people to you, and you want people on board.  A leader without followers is just someone taking a walk!  Think about what it is you want to do or where you want to take your organization and work on being able to articulate this vision to others.  The ability to do so will draw people to your team and, remember, it takes teamwork to make the dream work!

2.  Leaders have passion for what they want to accomplish.

Passion for achieving something, much like attitudes, can prove to be contagious.  However, people need to see this passion in what you do and you need to be able to convey your passion for your vision to others.  In my opinion, life is far too short to waste time on anything we are no committed to accomplishing.  If you are not "all in" then keep looking.  Your passion will attract others with a similar passion, which will allow you to achieve what many would deem to be impossible.

3.  Leaders possess a certain amount of humility.

Don't worry, if you do not possess humility, trying to lead others will often serve to quickly and effectively humble you!  You will quickly find out that it is not about you; if it is, you will not be leading very long.  Leadership, at its essence, is about mobilizing and motivating others to achieve a common goal or objective.  To do so, you must like people; to like people you must possess a certain amount of humility.  

4.  Leaders have a thick skin.

Leaders are biased, they can't help it.  They have a certain goal or objective they want to achieve and they probably also believe there are certain methods that will allow them to achieve this goal.  Naturally there are people who will disagree with them not only in regard to the methods they utilize, but also in the goals they pursue.  Thus, leaders, by their very nature open themselves up to criticism from others.  Moreover, those unable to develop a cogent argument against your goals, strategy, and tactics will attack you personally.  In particular, they will look for inconsistencies between what you say and what you do and they will exploit any possible character flaws--past or present.  Opening yourself up to this type of criticism comes with the territory when you choose to be a leader

5.  Leaders care about and believe in people.

Leaders need people.  Moreover, leaders need people to sacrifice their own agendas, to subjugate their respective egos for the good of the team, organization, group, etc.  This is a monumental task, but one made easier when the people you are trying to lead know that you care about their welfare and believe in them.  I would argue that in order to lead you must care about and believe in people or you will be a total failure in leading others.  Leadership is all about people: it is about bringing people together; building people up; and appealing to their better nature in an effort to create synergy to accomplish some specified goal.  This takes time, effort and, most importantly concern for others.

I am curious as to what you think about leadership.  Is there a critical shortage of leaders in today's world?  What elements of leadership do you believe to be most important?  Who is your favorite leader?  What is the most important leadership lesson you have learned?  Please feel free to leave any comments or feedback you deem appropriate--I think this is a conversation worth having.

Creative Destruction

Anybody want one of these?  Of course not, they were made obsolete by newer, better products.

Creative destruction is a term I learned in a Business Economics course taught by Professor Mark Perry at the University of Michigan-Flint.  Put simply, creative destruction is the act of a newly created product destroying its predecessors.  We can look at the history of innovation and see how the creation of a product eliminated the need or usefulness of existing products.  Well, we are in the midst of such a "revolution" in education at the moment.  Charter schools are acting as the agents of destruction as families run from failing schools in an effort to provide their children with the best possible education.  An education that will provide them with the skills necessary to be competitive in a global marketplace.  Unfortunately, many of our traditional public schools are failing to offer such an education, but thankfully our nation's students now have a choice; they are no longer relegated to 13 years of a sub-standard education.

The great thing about this shift is that charter schools themselves are held to an incredibly high standard.  Whereas traditional public schools have been allowed to fail their students for decades, charter schools receive their charter for a finite time period and may not be renewed if they fail to demonstrate academic progress or sound financial oversight.  Thus, charter schools may act as the agents of creative destruction, but may also be the very victims of creative destruction if they fail to live up to the promises they make to the families and students they serve.  Creative destruction reallocates resources to those organizations best positioned to make use of these resources.  How many great teachers are trapped inside a failing school?  How many students are serving time at a school that consistently fails to meet their academic needs?  How much money is being shoveled into school systems that fail to graduate even half of the students entering their hallways and classrooms?  The destruction, or closing, of these failing schools will reallocate these vital resources to schools demonstrating the capability of meeting the educational challenges of today and tomorrow.

This is a good thing for our country.  We need competition in education and for far too long many of our nation's most marginalized students have been confined to prisons of low standards and low expectations in some of our nation's drop-out factories.  The creative destruction taking place in education will once again allow our nation's graduates to compete with graduates from all over the globe for admittance to the top post-secondary institutions in the world.  Once there they will be prepared for the rigorous academic programs they encounter.  We need to work quickly to close historically failing school districts while doing our best to replicate those schools meeting the challenges presented in today's dynamic education environment.  Finally, we need to reward those educational entrepreneurs pursuing innovation in this field in an effort to better serve our nation's children.