Sticking Your Neck Out...I Want to be a GIRAFFE!

So, here is my new goal in life... to be a giraffe. About Giraffes: Here at the Giraffe Heroes Project, we have long honored the risk-takers, people who are largely unknown, people who have the courage to stick their necks out for the common good, in the US and around the world. This site will tell you more http://www.giraffe.org/ YES, I want to be a giraffe! Giraffes stick their necks out. We all have to stick out necks out if we want to create a better world. I am a baby giraffe right now. I do the recycle program at Pattimura School, I run the roots and shoots after-school program. I am Captain Code Green, reminding everyone about helping mother earth. I have encouraged service at school in many different ways. BUT...I still want to be a big giraffe with a long neck. What could that look like? I think I have to get my hands dirty and really get out there and do something. 
So...here I am at a huge crossroads in my life and I really could check out the me to we organization. I could send them my resume that I started on service and see what happens. Why stop here. Why not sent the resume to a slew of service organization world-wide and see what happens. Why not really stick my neck out!  

Senge, You Never Disappoint!

Everything that I have ever read by Peter Senge http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm has been enlightening. I enjoy his views of the world, that living and learning are inseparable, where there are no boundaries between work, school, learning and life. Senge does not look at school as walled in building but as a whole society. Just imagine a whole learning society! I decided to check out what he has to say about communication and was instantly drawn to his 592 page book called, SCHOOL THAT LEARN: A FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELD GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS, PARENTS, AND EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT EDUCATION (2000). A mouth full and full of great information about learning.
Senge takes the same view as the Dufours http://www.allthingsplc.info/and focuses his energies on learning and not on the practice of teaching. Many of his communication ideas are similar Rob Garmston's http://www.cognitivecoaching.com/rgarmston.htmmethod, but Senge writes about them in a much more emotional and "less academic" way. The five disiciplines are:
Personal Mastery: Your personal vision and the results you want to create in your life.
Shared Vision: Mutual purpose and commitment to shared images.
Mental Models: Reflect and inquiry focused around our attitudes and perceptions
Team Learning: Using dialogue groups transform collective thinking, to mobilize energies.
Systems Thinking: Learn to better understand change and interdependency
Using these disciplines Senge's goal is the re-create schools for our children that are relevant to now. (Yes, I could say to the 21st Century, but felt that we are here, NOW)
Some ideas about communication from this book:
In his chapter about Mental Models, Senge is asking that we attend to our perceptions and to become more aware of our thinking. Two methods to assist us in viewing our mental models are reflection and inquiry. The ladder of inference introduces the ideas about how we create our own perceptions and assumptions.

Here is our ladder: Start at the bottom!
7. I take action based on my beliefs

6. I adopt beliefs about the world

5. I draw conclusions

4. I make assumptions

3. I add meaning: cultural and personal

2. I select: "data" from what I observe

1. Observe "data" and experiences

Clear real life examples are shared in the book to make this all more real. What a great short PD idea to share with teachers and students.
I remember a high school teacher saying to me that she would never teacher elementary school because the children are young and so impressionable and it was such a big responsibility that you may damage their development. I had really never thought of that and only thought about what positives I could bring to a child's life. All perceptions!

Leadership, Leadership Everywhere!

For the last two days I did a workshop on Restitution which is a classroom management program which creates conditions for the person to fix their mistake and return to the group strengthened. We talked about creating the conditions for change from cognitive change to personal change to system change, etc. It all connected to what I have been reading about in Fullan's book. The chart that I was looking at was linear, but I knew that it needed to be a cycle that could recycle back during any period within the system. Not only was it not linear, but different division and even individuals can be on different paths at different times. It is an individual continuum for everyone in all initiatives.

We also talked about three types of organizations: Conventional, Congenial, and Collegial. This is something that I have read and worked with in Garmston's book: THE ADAPTIVE SCHOOL: A SOURCEBOOK FOR DEVELOPING COLLABORATIVE GROUPS. I have talked to our principal about the idea of our school being to congenial and that it is difficult to get constructive feedback face to face because we all want to be "nice". I would love to see our school engage in some rigorous cognitive conflict.

During this workshop we also talked about groups in the change process from the converted, open, fearful, to the resistant. This is also in the Dufour's book on Professional Learning Communities. The words are a bit different but the meanings are the same.

I am not sure why I am so surprised that there is so much overlap with leadership and management systems. Leadership is such a broad topic that I am sure I could find makes connections school-wide.

Learning, Leading and the CSU Forum:(

Collaborating, communicating and sharing our ideas are ways that we learn from each other. In ETL504, TL as Leaders, communication is said to underpin all collaborative efforts and endeavors.

I have been using the CSU Forum for 2 years now in my distance learning classes. I have found that there is so much potential for the CSU Forum in the name of communicating and learning but it is generally used for questions about assessment, assessments and assessment. If you look at our different avenues to share in ETL504 we have 10 categories. Six of these categories relate to our leadership topics and two are about assessment and one was introductions. The number of hits on the assessment categories is 834 (that is excluding the out of office repetitions from Roy) and the hits related to actual leadership topics is 56. This leads me to believe that there is a ratio of 15 to 1 of assessment questions to topic questions. You could say that the assessments are real and meaningful and what gets tested, get taught. I would agree with this if the actual questions about assessment were probing, thoughtful, and reflective in relation to our readings. BUT...I am not finding this to be true. For example, twelve questions were asked about word count for our assessment. Someone had stated that LAST year's students were asked to write 6000 words. On our assessment document it says 2000 words. I am not sure why we would be looking at the past and not moving in the present. It wastes everyones time and energy where this process of sharing should be energizing and revitalizing.

Here is an interesting story about the Forum. In my last class ETL402, I wrote the instructor privately about my Forum concerns. I got back an email that mentioned the fact that we were no longer new students to CSU and that the professor guessed that these experienced students no longer needed the "crutch" of sharing as much on the forum. I think she was telling me to "grow up". I guess my feelings of always being able to learn from others was not relevant! I would never view sharing as a crutch. So...during ETL504 I wrote to Roy about the use of the Forum and was there a way to increase relevant sharing. His response was that many of the students in this class were new to CSU and therefore much of the sharing had to do with assessment. Moral of this story: OLD or NEW students need to be encouraged to create relevant, meaningful, reflective comments and questions. I think that we would all agree that it is not the answers we are interested but can we ask great questions. I know this is what I expect from my students and I would hope that CSU would also expect better.

  

Dhaka???

October 10th and we landed in Dhaka, Bangladesh last night at 2am. These are some photos outside our hotel window.

My husband and I are here interviewing for jobs. He is applying as a head of school. I am still unsure if there is a job for me, but I will be interviewing with the elementary principal.

Over the last week I have been reviewing questions and reflecting on leadership skills to help my husband prepare. I have referred to Michael Fullan's book often and read bits and pieces to him. He has been discussing strategic plans, financial budgets, and leadership attributes with me on a daily basis. How interesting I find my studies when they become so relevant to my existence.

My husband has created a power point that is relevant to him as a leader. The visual images are powerful and the wording if brief and to the point. He is talking about keeping the end in mind, commitments, and transferable assets. His commitments are family, community, learning focused, service, collaboration and relationship. His transferable asset are as an innovator, problem solver, compassionate, empathetic and patience educator, a deep thinker, and student centered. He has been asking himself questions that challenge his thinking and forcing himself to reflect on his style of leadership. An example of a question is: Tell us about some examples of how your educational leadership and vision have bought about positive changes in the school curriculum and instructional program in your last school? Or what about this one: Describe your desk as you left for this interview and what are the most important tasks that will be waiting for you when you get back? If I was to answer that question, I would say that my desk was neat and orderly, only because our plane was delayed and I had the time to clean it off. A task I will be returning to is an exciting inquiry unit in grade 5 called, JAVA, FEEDING THE MILLIONS.  I have created a wiki for this unit and it needs some rewording and some new sites added to it. I would like to create a BIG 6 questionnaire that the students will use before they start the project and reflect back on as they work. the students have already done work these last few weeks on evaluating websites and knowing how they are:

R-ead the URL-Evaluate the content

E-valuate the content

A-uthor and who are they?

L-inks, do they leave the site to other relevant pieces of information?

We practiced on sites like the Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus, Robots of the 1800's, Lobster Liberation, Velcro crops in danger due to drought, and a study of how hamsters react to bearded men. The kids were immersed in this learning and I was lucky to note that they were asking great questions instead of finding the answers!

As we move through the process of the next few days it will be interesting to note how all the reading that I have done over the last few months will help me with my hour long interview on Monday.

Till than we need to ask the BIG questions, like...is Dhaka a place we would want to live for the next 4 or 5 years. It use to be that 4 or 5 years seemed like nothing, but they all become more relevant as you hit your mid 50's and know that you are zeroing in on 60! Life is never boring!

Running at the zoo this morning, I commented to my husband that since I have started studying two years ago I know longer have a social life. I feel lucky to work a full time job, study and get in some exercise. And there in lies my life!
This week I have been looking at the situation analysis (Welch) and wondering what to do. I know that this is not my interest and I will have to plow through it. I am thinking of surveying our parent community to see how we can best serve them. Creating meaningful questions is not an easy task. It might look some thing like:
1. How often do you use the library?
2. Do you use the library for your own reading needs?
3. How often do you access the library catalog from home?
4. How often do you use atomic learning?
5. How often do you use United Streaming?
6. How often do you use Webpage?
7. How often do you read the parenting magazines in the library?
8. How often do you read a book from the parenting section?
9. How can the library
My guess is that most parents rarely do any of the above.