I'm behind in my postings, so I'm going to post twice today.  This post will catch up on Thursday and Friday.  The following post will be my weekend update.  I think I have a good song to sign, so be sure to check out the next post once you've finished this one!

Day 17 was a Snow Day and a slow day.  I spent the day cold, fighting the desire to ignore the things that needed to be done while constantly staring out windows to see how much snow is falling and how the wind is whipping up the trees.  Schools were closed, so the day was spent mostly playing catch up on work that was backed up.

Friday was a much more active day.  It was COLD, but we were energized.  My team is reading Creating Cultures of Thinking by Ron Ritchhart together.  I am really enjoying sharing ideas about what we are reading.  We had a really intense conversation, and we were only talking about the first 2 chapters!

My biggest question that I want to share came out of our conversation about common language.  As a team, we are talking through what we mean when we use specific terms.  Our first piece of language that we tackled was the word "Learning".  On Friday, we turned our attention to the word "Success".  What does that mean to us?  How are we defining success in District 1?  And my question that will start to frame my conversations a bit moving forward was:

This is going to be an important conversation for our school leaders and teachers to have with their community.  And I believe that students and their families should be included in this conversation.  When families share their expectations that students should be, I imagine their answers will not include things like:

• "They should sound like an A/B/C."
• "They should look like a 95%."
• "They should be able to raise their hand to speak."
• "They should be able to sit in rows and take a 3 day examination that is the entire basis for their progress to the next level."

​
I would expect what most parents will likely expect:

• They should be appropriately literate and numerate.
• They should be problem solvers working to improve the lives of themselves, their families, and their community.
• They should be curious and creative.
• They should know when to ask for help, and when to offer it.
• They should be comfortable taking the lead and following a strong leader.
• They should be able to work with others in meaningful ways.
• They should be citizens (talk about a word that could use some common language!).

What do you think a graduate should look like?  

Another day of rest and recuperation as I try to rid my body of the flu that afflicts me.  The biggest benefit to days like these is that I get to read more.  There has been a book that I have been working through for a little while as part of one of my special "rituals".  

Some people say I'm a little OCD.  I like my rituals and routines.  I have been trying to start some new ones this year - especially around learning.  Some have taken, like my desire to learn ASL; others have floundered, like my desire practice one new thing every day from a selection of six new skills to learn (ASL, building Raspberry Pi projects, Spanish language, 3D CAD design, painting, and banjolele).  Honestly, how do kids do this every day?!?  I can barely take 30 minutes on something new and making in meaningful enough to remember, but six just seems impossible.

One new ritual of mine is taking time on the weekends to make a cup of coffee, and stay in the kitchen, sit in a bar stool, and read a book by the window to the landlord's backyard garden.  Normally, I'd find myself in front of my computer within 5 minutes of the first cup.  This was a habit I wanted to break.  So I picked a good book that I had been wanting to dig into, set it on the counter top, positioned a chair at the ready, and spent some quiet time to myself with coffee and the morning sun reading a book.

Beyond my desire to use @CarlosAGLive 's work as a basis for my work with young people, it also took me on a journey through my own stories.  The questions I wrote to ask students, I also asked myself in that quiet moment with my coffee and sunshine.  I remembered the first time I realized what "race" was.  Moments when "manhood" was defined in positive ways and negative ways.  I was reminded of stories where I presented myself as a male role model in positive and negative ways.  I looked inside myself:  at my stories of who I am, where I came from, where I have gone, and the steps and missteps I took along the way.  There were tears and giggles.  There was awe and shame.  And there was some really good poetry.  I must re-read and dig even deeper next time.

On this day, I think what speaks to me most is the idea of forgiveness.  Thinking about all the reasons you must forgive yourself for your mistakes and regrets, and all the others you must forgive for the wrongs they may have intentionally or unintentionally visited upon you.  We are imperfect creatures.  I am happy to be more aware of myself, how much I've changed and grown, and an awareness that there is still more to do.  The work continues...

Some days you just need to play catch up - whether that's for work, for personal projects, or just for rest.  We all need to take "Ketchup Days" every once in a while.  And that was my day.

I happily spent the day lazing around the couch, watching Netflix/Prime/Hulu/Crackle, cooking, resting, healing this nagging cough, and catching up on some reading.  A story I read in Team-Ups of the Brave and the Bold has me thinking.

There is a story in this volume about a homeless guy, very down on his luck, who is about to take up with the Clown Prince of Crime and begin his life of dastardly deeds.  Upon breaking into a house, he finds a magic token that was being used by a kid that turns the user into a superhero.  He steals the token and uses it to become a super-powered hero called The Star.  He was even lucky enough to team up with the Bat and foil the Joker's deadly plans for chaos in Gotham.  Batman lived; the Star died in a moment of glory.

There were a few lessons form this story.  The kid who had used the token before was a hero that could see the future, and he knew that the next person to use the token would die.  The young man knew it would get stolen, and he knew the next user was doomed.  He felt terribly guilty.  Batman assured him that there is never a good reason for a young person to have to die.  

Lesson 1:  Young people should not suffer or die for the right thing to be done.

The man that stole the token was given a chance, perhaps his only chance, to do something good in his life.  It was better to die a hero saving others than on the streets as a drug user or criminal.  He redeemed his life.

Lesson 2:  We can be redeemed if given an opportunity to be a hero for someone.

This story also has me thinking about another statement I have heard over and over again in my time as a teacher and education leader:

Doesn't that sound like a statement made by a supervillain who is making a hero choose between the death of a friend and the death of a group of strangers on a train? 

We educators are not superheroes.  But we are heroes to some.  Being unable to save every child from the unfairness of the world we are a part of doesn't make me want to stop trying to bring a little light and understanding to their lives. 

We don't need to be saviors and superheroes to give people understanding, kindness, and forgiveness.  

​I think this is all the catching up I needed for one day.  I'm feeling stronger already.  Time to get back to the work.

I reached out recently to students, and parents of students, to answer questions about their school experience.  Student voice is a critical part of the conversation about innovation and it's place in school.  How are we trying to listen to the young people we serve?  Are we challenging our assumptions of what they want and need in their learning experiences?

I have been following the work of my niece through her high school and college years on social media.  She is an accomplished artist, and she even talked about wanting to learn Astronomy (a science-teacher uncle's dream).  Particularly, I was proud of the work she did as part of her school's GSA (Gender & Sexualities Alliance) Club to promote acceptance for all students.  Then I asked her some questions about her experience, and I was taken by surprise:

From the mouths of babes, folks.  We just have to ask.  Thankfully the news from her and others isn't always bad.

All of the students that have responded to my survey have all shared a story or thought that speaks to the impact of relationships on their learning - for good or for bad.  As a leader, I am going to listen to their stories, hear what they have to say, and use that to ground my learning and innovation for the schools I serve.  I will listen to young people to show them that I trust them to help guide my work.  

​I hear you.  And I want to hear more.  

"If we want meaningful change, we have to make a connection to the heart before we make a connection to the mind."  #InnovatorsMindset

Innovation is all around us.  I'm a former science teacher, and I love to run pseudo-scientific investigations on myself.  This week, I decided to try an "innovative" product - Active Charcoal Toothpaste.  It is definitely new; I've never seen it on the market before.  So, if nothing else, it's new to me.  It claims to be better by both reducing bad breath and removing stains.  I drink a TON of coffee, so I thought, what the heck.  Let's not take their word for it - Try It!

Claims of better remain to be seen.  But early results are promising.  And I never would have learned any of this had I not taken a chance to try something new.  In schools, there are definitely ideas that claim to be innovative.  As leaders, we have to ask ourselves a few questions:

• Is this "thing" really newer and better for students and staff?
• Have I set a stage that allows for teachers and students to take a risk and try something new without fear of evaluative consequences?
• Have I considered, really thought about, how this new thing will affect the students and best teachers?  Who might be made uncomfortable with the change?  (From my other current read, Todd Whitaker's What Great Principals Do Differently)
• What is the anticipated impact on student and teacher learning?  What is the anticipated impact on the school?
• How am I going to share the journey of trying this new thing?

When a decision is made to make a change, we should also be sure to give that change enough time so we can observe and really determine it's effectiveness, and not brush it off as a flavor of the month.  This requires resilience on the part of the school leader, the teachers, and the students.  We have to have resilience in the face of early stumbles, and be reflective enough to try different iterations until we find one that works.  Or find that we have enough data to decide it doesn't work, and cut it loose.

I also get cautious when I find myself calling for resilience or grit.  We should promote resilience in the face of tough problems that need attention.  Real stuck points.  Not because of poor planning or poor tasks assigned.  We need students and teachers that embrace the mindset that allows them to create their content together and learn together.  I want a school where, as the leader, I would want to be both a teacher AND a student. 

When I think about the purpose of education and why it's important to innovate, I think about the behemoth of an educational institution that I am part of in New York City.  This system has been in place for a LONG time, and without educators trying to innovate their classrooms and schools, we would be left with the long-standing problem of perpetuating the status quo.  If we aren't working to help kids learn how to embrace their creativity, how to become Problem Seekers, not just Problem Solvers, how to network for better answers than they can come up with alone, and how to share those answers with a global audience, we are selling them short and denying them their future.

In the Youtube Live video from Week 1, there was talk about how student-directed learning can take students from a problem-solving "recipe" to being Problem Seekers.  Teachers can take steps, however small in the beginning, toward this end.  Begin with PBL, and move toward student-found problems.  Create curriculum maps that are used to show destinations for learning, and even a potential path to get there.  But, as Seth Godin talks about in Linchpin, we need students that can see multiple paths and are confident in choosing one that makes sense for them to reach that learning destination.  Even better, find a path beyond the expected destination.  This goes for teachers and leaders, as well.  "What does it take to lead?  The key distinction is the ability to forge your own path." (Godin, 2010)

I find myself trying to embrace and share the message of innovation through my work in my school district and in my city-wide meetings and connections.  Just talking about innovation can spark change in someone's view of their own work.  In a recent meeting for professional learning of science teachers, there was a big discussion about how science and literacy are connected.  And, of course, there were the typical connections to lab reports and science notebooks, reading non-fiction articles, and responding to test questions with claims and evidence.  But we have to speak out for more than this.  There are Modern Literacy Skills that need to be expressed by students (I don't like calling these 21st Century skills anymore - it's 2017, 16 years in the 21st century, and it's about more than technology being incorporated).  I love the summary of these "21st Century" skills from NCTE.  In particular, I like to help teachers think more about the need to work with multiple streams of media simultaneously, presenting to a global audience (which we are all learning to do with our #IMMOOC blogs), and how to evaluate multimedia sources of information.

In a Utopian setting, I could create a school with open learning spaces filled with tools for digesting information, for investigating problems, and creating solutions.  The spaces would be flexible and open to learn from each other, including teachers as learners.  Families could also be part of the learning environment, and would be invited to do so.  It would be a Constructionist environment (thank you Seymour Papert).  This is a big vision, and one that would take time to establish in an existing system like mine.  Through small steps - newer and better steps - a new learning environment can begin to take shape and unfold over time.  It has to start somewhere.  

Building off of these thoughts, I keep thinking back to an idea about an open space for kids to pursue their learning.  I see in my mind a room with couches and tables, rolling chairs, and rugs.  Movable furniture in a dynamic space.  Just one space like this in a school where kids can go to pursue their own ideas, or to take a mental break and let ideas percolate, to change the setting, would be a nice step to take.  Benedict Carey talks about the importance of percolation time and distraction in his book How We Learn:  When, Where, and Why It Happens.  In the Live video, someone mentioned how important it can be to watch a "cat video."  I take these mental breaks all the time (thank you @EmergencyKittens on Twitter).  I'm about to take a break now before we meet online later for the Twitter chat just to let these ideas stew for a bit.

I look forward to learning with everyone in #IMMOOC and sharing much more in the weeks to follow.

I recently finished reading Linchpin by Seth Godin.  There were so many Tweets from so many people about the ideas in this book, I knew I had to check it out.  I'm curious to hear what you think about this book or any of the ideas that struck me:

• "No one is a genius all the time... But all of us are geniuses sometimes."
  • Everyone has good and bad days, including our students.  Within each young person, is a moment of genius waiting to be set free and celebrated.  Within each teacher, paraeducator, school aide, custodial engineer, security guard - anyone who interacts with students - is a moment of genius, a gift of art to share.  As an education leader, I want to celebrate the moments of genius in everyone, but I have to set a stage that allows our students and staff to share their inner artist. 
• "Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done."
  • Art is more than paintings/sculpture/music/theater.  It is a student taking extra time to present their knowledge and passion in a way that catches you by surprise.  It is a moment of dedication from a teacher that makes a student feel connected to anther human being.  It is my friend Bernadette making her patients feel heard as they get posed for painful radiologic imaging.  It is the guy behind the deli counter telling me a funny story about falling off a horse on a beach in his home town in Jordan and the reasons why I should visit his beautiful country the while I wait for a sandwich.  Find these people, listen to what they have to share.   
• "Depth of knowledge combined with good judgement is worth a lot.  Depth of knowledge combined with diagnostic skills or nuanced insight is worth a lot, too,"
  • This quote speaks for itself.  Content knowledge is important for students to have a base of fundamental literacies, but it is not enough in and of itself.  We need students (and teachers) that can take existing knowledge and think about it in new ways, making new connections.
• "Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth."
• "Linchpins are able to embrace the lack of structure and find a new path, one that works."
  • Being a linchpin means you have chosen to embrace your art and passion and to bring that into your work.  You become indispensable to your organization because no one does your work like you do.  Our workforce, economy, and society are changing in dramatic ways.  We don't need factory workers any more than we need schools that educate factory workers.  We have to help students to think like linchpins.
• "Emotional labor is the task of doing important work, even when it isn't easy."
• "Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient.  The medium doesn't matter.  The intent does."
• "The only purpose of starting is to finish, and while the projects we do are never really finished, they must ship."
  • This has been on my mind a lot lately.  I am making concerted efforts to start projects that matter (like my Studio Learning research).  I am going to create a space for teachers and students to learn in a Studio-style environment.  I have let Maker projects sit unfinished for long periods of time.  Once I get to work on them, I feel invigorated and have a lot of fun.  I am mindful to stop the resistance inside from making excuses about why now isn't a good time to work on something and finish it.  Persistence really does pay off.  As does just taking a chance and "shipping" something that isn't perfect.  Get feedback and make it better.  But get moving.
• "The challenge, then, is to create an environment where the lizard snoozes.  You can't beat it, so you must seduce it."
  • Oh lizard brain, you and I fight constantly.  I notice it all the time.  In students, in teachers, in myself.  See the quote below.  When I hear the inner resistance voice telling me not to take a chance because it's a risky move, I constantly remind myself that it's okay to take the risk.  Fight the lizard brain.  Take a chance.  Enjoy the ride that follows.
• "Don't listen to the cynics... For them, the resistance won a long time ago.  When the resistance tells you not to do something, read something, or attend something, go.  Do it."​
• "What does it take to lead?  The key distinction is the ability to forge your own path."
  • I want to model being a linchpin by forging my own path, taking the risks, and moving forward without a map to guide me.  Lead by example.  Embrace the linchpins in your organization and try to recognize when they are pursuing a path that is unmapped.  Allow the freedom of that pursuit in staff and students to see what is created and shared.

-Bryan