What if We Coached School Like Football?

With fall comes football. Football everywhere. Friday night lights, College Game Day on Saturday, the NFL on Sunday, Monday, and even Thursday. It's a huge part of American culture. While watching a few games myself this weekend, I couldn't help but wonder what school would be like if teachers and administrators "coached" school like football. What would that look like?

1. Practice before Performance. Players never play in the game before they have had either a certain number of practices completed successfully or before they are "ready" to play the position. What if in school, we ensured they had practiced until they are "ready" for the big test or project?

2. Data-driven. Every week before a game, coaches pour over performance data from the opponent as well as their own team. What adjustments need to be made in practice to make sure everyone is ready for the game? Plays are changed, players work on new skills and adjust others. What if used student performance data on a daily basis to adjust our instruction and insure students are ready for the game?

3. Collaborative leadership. The head coach is ultimately responsible for the team success or defeat. But coaches have specific areas of expertise and areas of responsibility. They meet constantly to game plan and strategize for success. Coaches meet with position groups, offense, defense, special teams, etc. - all with the common goal to win football games, collaborate on ways to improve, and analyze how to fix problems. Everyone is accountable to the main goal. What if every teacher and principal collaborated daily or even weekly with various grade levels, contents, etc.. with the ultimate goal of improving student learning as the only focus?

4. Communication. When you look at the sidelines of any football game at any level, there is a group of coaches working feverishly to control the flow of the game. They wear audio headsets to communicate with other coaches in the press box. They hold laminated sheets full of strategies and resources to direct players during a game. They send explicit directions to the quarterback through their voice inside his helmet while other players watch hand signals. Players are constantly calling out to each other to let their teammates and coaches know what is going on with each play.

Obviously, there are many aspects of coaching football that are drastically different than education. I've always believed that coaching is the purest form of teaching, however. I can't see what would be wrong in drawing from one of America's favorite past times to help improve our profession. If kids could "score" in learning, that would be a win in my book.

3 Things I Learned as a Mom & Administrator on a College Visit

For the past eight years, I have worked in high school administration. My daughter was in third grade when I turned the page on this stage of my career. Now, she is a senior and I have just started a new chapter in central office administration. There have been many lessons learned over the years, but some of the best professional learning for me came this summer on an official college visit to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Here are three things I think all educators and parents need to know and understand about high school preparation for college and careers.

1. Grade point average is practically meaningless in the determination for college acceptance. With student applications from all over the world, the methods for calculating grades are infinite and uncertain at best. As educators, we have to realize that our version of excellence, above average, average, and so forth are vastly different than others around the world. Without close examination of the course content that makes up a grade, the grade itself has virtually no implication for determining a student's academic standing or ability to be successful in college. Let's be honest, how many "straight A" students have we known that end up living in mom and dad's basement after the first semester as a freshman? Grades are NOT an indicator!

2. The rigor and challenge of courses taken are given the highest consideration. In other words, a B in an Advanced Placement course says a lot more about a kid than an A in a less challenging course. This is hard for kids and parents to understand and accept. We're too busy playing the weighted course and class rankings game. And, for goodness sakes, we can't show weakness or any indication of a struggle. WRONG. Admissions reps are looking for students who push and challenge as well as grow as learners over time. Not "4.0s". Students with a 4.0 are a dime a dozen. 

3. We (educators and parents) must raise the ceiling. We can't tolerate a "fun senior year" schedule of courses any longer. We can't accept or embrace students looking for the easy "A". We have to constantly challenge students to push past their comfort level and understand that overcoming failure is a natural part of learning and personal growth. It's hard as a parent to hold back from trying to make those after-the-deadline schedule change requests for an easier choice. But, all of us are doing a disservice if we don't hold fast to supporting our kids through the process of enduring and overcoming challenging courses in high school.

After 20 years of being in secondary education, I still have to resist the urge to make the path easier for my daughter. Lucky for me, she pushes herself harder than I do at times. As I finish this post, she is working on AP Calculus! Who would have thought?

Leaning In!

On August 1, 2005, I "leaned in." I didn't know I was "leaning in" at the time. I had never heard of Sheryl Sandberg or FaceBook. After eleven years as a teacher and grant coordinator, I became an Associate Principal for a small, suburban high school 30 miles from my home.

My son was entering Kindergarten as I began learning about evaluating teachers, imposing consequences for adolescents' poor choices, supervising endless school sporting events and activities - and finishing up my administrative leadership degree. My daughter was in third grade. My husband, who works in home health care, took on a bigger role.

Things like having a clean house and a home-cooked meal on the table every night got moved down on the priority list. Mommy guilt set in and I relinquished any hope for "mom of the year" accolades in my future.  My first mommy failure was school picture day. No one remembered. As a result, my kindergarten child's yearbook premiere came sporting a Power Rangers muscle t-shirt, a bad case of bed head, and a temporary tattoo on his bicep lef tover from a birthday party favor. I was mortified. Needless to say, when that picture packet arrived, it got tucked away in a drawer.

Two years later, I was promoted to Principal. That same, sweet boy said, "does this mean you're going to be a REAL principal Mom?" I believe this was his way of telling me he was proud of me. He couldn't care less about the school picture fiasco. His mom was a REAL principal.

There is no doubt that choosing to be a "career-loving parent" has its sacrifice. There are more stories like the school picture incident. Plenty more. But after reading Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In - Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (released in March 2013), I have a new sense of peace. As a woman, mother, and professional.

I feel a sense of vindication that my childhood play days of emulating "Charlies Angels" and playing "teacher" didn't make me "bossy."  Sandberg prefers the description "possessing executive leadership potential." Enough said, right?

There are plenty of great takeaways from Sandberg's book, but my biggest are relief and thanks for affirming what I've been hoping since the day my first born arrived in to this world. I'm doing just fine. Not perfect by any means, but just fine.

I'm getting ready to "lean in" again. I've accepted a district-level leadership position in a new school district beginning in July. I'm excited to begin a new chapter in my career and I'm really glad I read Sandberg's book. I hope my daughter reads it too. It has amazing messages for women and men of all ages. When I finish this blog post, I'm heading out to buy a frame for a special picture to be displayed in my new office.

Photo Credit: LifeTouch



3 Ways Advisories Get to the "CORE" of the Common Core

As I see it, the Common Core at its "core" is increasing rigor so that students are college and career ready when they leave the school house doors as graduates. So, what part do student advisory programs play in successful common core implementation and achievement? An advisory program that is thoughtfully planned and executed with genuine investment from teacher mentors can help cultivate and sustain a rigorous academic culture. Here are three ways I believe advisory programs can get to the "core" of the common core:

1. Long-Term Investment in Student Relationships. Advisories that follow the looping concept where small groups of students are placed with a teacher who serves as an adviser throughout high school have great capacity for long-term impact. Similar to a college advisers, teacher advisers are responsible for assisting students with all aspects of high school and post-high school planning. A four-year advisory structure builds trust and connection for teacher-student relationships that endure. 
2. Advisers insure that all students take a rigorous and challenging course of study. No "easy senior year" here. When students meet with a teacher adviser twice a week four straight years, there is  no getting off the hook by taking an "easy" academic route to graduation. Teacher advisers are accountable to 20-25 students versus the counselor's load of 250 or more. Schools where students are invited to be challenged academically are not enough. They must RSVP. Advisers make sure they show up to the party. Push first. Then support students through their academic struggles and challenges. No student in an advisory is left behind.
3.  Teachers gain a vast knowledge and expertise in mentoring students for success beyond high school. The traditional teacher in a high school is a content expert as well as a teacher. Helping students reach proficiency in the common core standards and content is the primary goal. But, advisory is the map to guide students to the next stop on their post-high school journey. Advisories are also an avenue for a unique and high-impact professional development opportunity for teachers. There are few rewards greater than when a teacher adviser plays a key role in helping a student get accepted in to an elite college or university or assisting a student in obtaining a scholarship that makes a dream possible. Professional growth is the by product of the research and work behind helping students realize these opportunities and options. Serving as an adviser takes the teaching profession to a new level.

Building an advisory program is not easy. The costs are time and commitment. Teachers must buy in and genuinely invest in the structure and process. Planning, evaluating, revising, and delivering the program is demanding for everyone involved. Support from administration is essential.  

The Common Core at its "core" is increasing rigor so that students are college and career ready when they leave the school house doors as graduates. I believe investing in a student advisory program will help us get there.