November Staff Dev. Newsletter

I am very fortunate to get to travel between buildings and see all of the wonderful work you are doing every day. Our students and staff will certainly be impacted by this pandemic for years to come. However, you are providing your students an opportunity for an education that will enable them to access all that life has to offer down the road. You are maintaining high expectations for your students in an environment that recognizes the great difficulties this pandemic has presented us. Below you will find some teacher affirmations, I believe these things about you and hope that you believe these things about yourself.

• My classroom is a positive space.
• I am calm and in control at all times.
• My students trust me.
• I look for the good in the most challenging child.
• First and foremost, I start with kindness.
• Everyone is doing the best they can, including me.

1) A crisis will reveal who you are.

Just as lemon juice comes out of a lemon when you squeeze it, what comes out of you when you are squeezed under pressure reveals what's inside you. In all transparency when I lost my job during the dot com crash in 2001 the pressure revealed that I was filled with fear, anxiety, anger and stress. I didn't like who I was and I failed miserably during that time. But I also found my faith then and that would prepare me to be an encourager during this time. So when I looked in the mirror during this crisis I knew who I was. I was here to be an encourager for others and all the actions my team and I have taken since March was the result of knowing who we are and what we are here to do.

How about you? Who are you? And what actions will you take? If this time has revealed you have work to do that’s okay. Decide who you want to be and start working on becoming that person.

2) A crisis will reveal what you value.

How you spend your 24 hours during a day reveals what you value. How you spend your money reveals what matters most to you. Where you invest your energy demonstrates what you are focused on. During a crisis, when resources often become more scarce, what you value becomes even more clear. Like a lot of people during this time, I realized that I valued my family and relationships more than anything. While this has been a difficult time for many, I know I'm not alone when I say that my relationships with many people have been strengthened during this time.

What do you value most right now? Where are you investing your time, energy, money, and resources? Do you need to make any changes?

3) A crisis will reveal what you believe.

You may think you believe something but only through a crisis will you discover if you truly believe it. There were so many moments since March where I was tested and discovered during the uncertainty, in the face of adversity, and through the challenges and choices that my faith was real and I truly believed in the power of positivity. I know from the countless people I've spoken to via virtual keynotes, Zoom meetings and social media that positivity is essential, especially during a pandemic. I've seen people, companies and teams thrive during this time because of the work we have done together and as a result I am more passionate than I have ever been about developing positive leaders, teams and schools. I believe in this work. I believe in you and I believe the best is yet to come.

What do you believe? Is it serving you? Do you need to change what you believe in order to create a better result?

Practice Should Be Deliberate

According to Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson (b. 1947), experts (and people on their way to expertise) practice their craft differently from the rest of the population. Instead of going through the motions and practicing what they already know they can do, high achievers set small stretch goals for themselves, such as swimming a second faster than the day before or focusing on 16 bars of music until they can be played flawlessly. When that goal is met, another is created. Ericsson calls this deliberate practice, and Duckworth believes it is one of the things that separates gritty people from the rest of the population.

Deliberate practice isn't easy or fast, but it works. "Even the most complex and creative of human abilities can be broken down into its component skills," be it surgery, writing, or managing others, Duckworth writes. Anything can be mastered with consistent and deliberate practice.

What are the implications for us when it comes to student learning? Are we having students do the right "deliberate" practice in order to build expertise? How do we help students monitor their learning an set small "stretch" goals?