All You Need is Love

Well, not quite, but almost. Love is a requirement, a foundation, the place from which we start when we form a community, especially a learning community.

As a leader I would start by letting each and every staff member and student know that they are loved, automatically, without having to earn it first. This is because in order for me to do the job I need to do, need to start with love for the people with whom and for whom I work.

Love is a scary word for many people. It's too intimate, too mushy, too touchy-feely, too insincere. But I don't think anything short of love will do the job. If a community accepts me, asks me to join, and most importantly asks me to lead, I'm going to love each and every member of that community.

That love will help me find the energy, the compassion, the perseverance I will need to help every person grow. Wherever they are, each teacher, each staff member, each student can grow and learn and improve, and they will do that best when they are loved.

This does not mean I will have less love for my family and friends. This does not mean I will have no other life outside of my job. On the contrary, if I also love myself, I must make time for me. Self-love includes taking time for yourself, doing the things you love, and staying connected to the very people who make your life worth living. But it does mean I will work hard, I will spend extra time, I will keep learning and growing myself.

At the center of it all is our students. Every adult needs to feel the same love I do for our students. For us to work as hard as we need to work, to recover from setbacks, to get past the overwhelmed feeling we all have sometimes, to care most about the kids who are hardest to care about, there must be love. Once the foundation is there, the community that is built can support each member on his or her learning journey.

Innovation Ecosystem Design

Just as no two students are exactly the same, no two teachers and no two schools are the same either. Because of varying experiences, people, and communities, leaders need to adjust their strategies for developing an innovation ecosystem to match the needs of the staff, schools, or districts in which they work.

As a new leader in a new district, my first order of business is developing relationships and learning all I could about my setting. What do people value? Where are people coming from? What are our shared goals? Who are our students? What are our challenges? Luckily, our district has a newly created vision statement which outlines the dispositions our stakeholders value most: self-direction, critical thinking, empathy, and perseverance.

As we work to clarify these dispositions so that we have a common understanding of what the dispositions look like at different grade levels and in different subject areas, teachers must feel empowered to develop these traits in our students and themselves - we cannot wait for consensus. These dispositions represent what students need right now. This development will require risk-taking and reflection which can only be encouraged in an environment of trust.

The use of professional learning communities will grow out of a need for collaboration. Our teachers can help each other examine student work and ask the hard questions about what students actually learned despite what we think we taught. This type of analysis will take us to the next level of self-efficacy, the number one teacher trait required to increase student achievement according to Hattie. In addition to PLCs within our school, teachers can develop their own professional learning networks to support their growth within their specific grade levels or subject areas or needs. Having a trusted, online or in-person community to which you can ask challenging questions and with whom you can share and self-reflect is critical for growth as a professional.

As we work on revising our curriculum, we can focus on building opportunities for students to create rather than consume. And I'm not talking about creating a project or an essay that students hand in to the teacher or present to the class at the end of a unit of study. I'm talking about creating every day. To do so will require us to design authentic tasks for authentic audiences. Blogs, blueprints, videos, art, poetry, and models are just a few ways students can create as they learn.

We will need to design professional development opportunities for teachers that is differentiated, personalized, and strength-based. This learning should address the needs of our students and teachers while also staying clearly focused on moving us closer to our vision. Self-reflection and feedback loops must be a critical part of our ecosystem, providing opportunities for growth for individuals as well as our entire system.

I'm a Believer!

In chapter one of Katie Martin's new book, Learner Centered Innovation, the author presents a graphic depicting "The Evolving Role of the Educator." Of course this role is multi-faceted and represents a Co-Designer of Powerful Learning, Partner in Learning, Community Developer, and Connector & Activator. To this list of descriptors, I might add: Believer.

Today's educator must be fueled by the belief that we can do better for our students. This belief will motivate us to persevere past the challenges and constraints to innovation that the structure of school often presents. There are some important ways educators can hold on to this belief that have worked for me as I have evolved.

Take Opportunities
When an opportunity for learning presents itself, take hold. For me, an opportunity came up several years into teaching 5th grade in a small elementary school in northwest Connecticut. The Head Teacher retired, and we needed someone to step up. Even though I was worried about the work and responsibility I was taking on in addition to the large job of being the only 5th grade teacher in a K-5 setting, I knew I had something to offer my school community. I took it on with a colleague in a different grade, and we learned a lot and gained valuable experience in our leadership roles. This change led to more opportunities as a Tech Champion, a Lead Teacher in a new district, and now to Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Innovation in an even different district.

Develop a Personal Learning Network
Reach out to your colleagues close by and also your colleagues far away. Social media has given us access to the expertise and experience that abounds among educators. For me, when I became a Tech Champion for my school, one of the first professional development opportunities that was offered was a trip to FETC. I cannot describe the world that opened up for me as I moved from session to session, listening to and learning from THE experts in the field of technology in education. My students were about to go one-to-one with Chromebooks, and I came back from Orlando ready to start. While at FETC, I joined Twitter at the recommendation of one of the presenters. I quickly found educators to follow and Twitter chats to join. When you find your people, the learning and motivation never end.

Be A Leader
Trust your ideas. Share them with your colleagues near and far. For me, as I stepped into leadership roles, I had the chance to impact the structure of school in new and exciting ways. I could plan professional development, suggest changes to the schedule, introduce new courses for students, examine homework practices, survey staff, students, and parents on school climate and then do something about the results. All of this took courage. I trusted myself to do what was right for students, ALWAYS. I made decisions and recommendations based on that value. More importantly, I believed we could do better for our students in school.

The opportunities that opened up for me, the PLN that I created, and the risks I took as a leader were all fueled by that belief.