Born Again | Husband | Father | Assistant Principal @wcpioneers | Former History Teacher | Education Coach | Ed Tech Guy |
McMinnville , TN
Joined November 2007
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Clocks fell back last night, and I'll take that extra hour. Most days I'm trying to find teachers a little more time, and this morning God just hands one to all of us. Spend it on rest, on church, on your people. Monday will keep. Have a blessed Sunday, y'all.
Halloween on a Saturday around McMinnville. Porch lights on, leaves in the yard, and little ones in costumes running ahead of their mamas and daddies. I reckon small towns still do this one right. Y'all be safe out there tonight.
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What an amazing week it's been at Warren County High School! Tuesday night, the Tree City Choir performance set the tone for a great week. One of my favorite highlights is when we let our students trick or treat in the halls and hold our costume contest. Pioneer pride all week long. 馃巸
Teachers, if you're bone tired this Friday, you're not doing it wrong. You've poured into kids all week, and that takes something out of a person. Go home. Leave school at school tonight. Hug your people. Monday you'll be right back at it, and the kids will be glad you are.
Every brainstorm ends with more ideas than a team can do. Sort them on two questions. How much will it help? What will it cost in time and energy? High help, low cost, start Monday. High help, high cost, plan it on purpose. Low help, high cost, let it go. Think big. Act small.
There's a lot of talk about scripted lessons. When I started in 2008 as a non traditional teacher, my textbook came with scripts. I didn't like them, so I wrote my own. A script can give a new teacher the words. Coaching gives them the why, and the why is what lasts.
The Tennessee Education Research Alliance put out a summary this month on teacher retention. One line stuck with me. Teachers who plan to leave often point to school culture and leadership. Teachers who plan to stay point to those same things. That's on us, leaders. (1/4)
Tennessee teachers are also less satisfied with their jobs when more of their time goes to student discipline. A clear, steady discipline system that admin backs up every time is teacher care, plain and simple. It gives teachers their classroom back. (3/4)
None of this takes a grant. It takes attention. Check on your new teachers this week, and ask your staff what's eating their time. If your leadership team wants to work through it together, I'd be glad to help. [email protected] (4/4)
I've told teachers for years, and I'll keep on telling them: you make more of an impact than you think. Somebody is carrying something you said this week, and you may never know it. I thank God I get to spend my days in a school. Take your Sunday, teachers. The kids need you rested more than they need you perfect.
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If the same problem keeps coming back, you're likely pulling weeds and leaving the root. Try a Root Dig. List every possible cause, then ask why five times down the likeliest one. Keep asking, how do we know? Evidence keeps it honest and keeps it from turning into blame.
Tennessee Firefly reported this week that 103 of 144 comparable Tennessee school districts lost students over the past ten years, while a few fast growing Middle Tennessee districts carried the state total. That hits close to home. A few fewer kids per grade doesn't take away a bus route, a building, or the need for a good teacher. Rural schools have to run what they have mighty well, and I reckon most of them do.
When I walk into a classroom, I'm not hunting for a perfect lesson. I'm looking for two things. Did students pull something out of memory today? And did the teacher check who has it before turning them loose to work alone? Those two habits do more for learning than any fancy slide deck. Look for them this week, and say thank you when you see them.
O is Out Loud Modeling. Think through the task in front of them, step by step, so they can hear how an expert works. T is Try Together. Practice with support and check quick. If fewer than about four in five have it, reteach right then. (3/5)
E is Exercise Independence. Now they do the thinking on their own, with some productive struggle and an older item mixed in. D is Debrief and Check. A short exit check tells you what tomorrow needs before tomorrow gets here. (4/5)
R is Retrieve. Open with a few questions pulled from memory, including one throwback from an older unit. O is Orient. Spark a little curiosity with a story or a source, and make the goal and what success looks like plain to see. (2/5)
Most schools I know don't have a lesson planning problem. They have a coherence problem. Every new initiative hands teachers another template, and kids feel the difference from one room to the next. Here's the six step structure I built from fourteen years teaching social studies. I call it ROOTED. (1/5)