Osler Residences – Live Large in South Vancouver

Elegant traditional exteriors meet modern interior design with Osler Residences – 18 new townhomes set for a 2017 completion in the ever-more-popular Marpole.

These homes will be popular for a number of reasons. Large and spacious – with a natural gas hookup and hose bib on the patio to connect your barbecue – each unit has no restrictions when it comes to rentals and pets, making it truly feel like your home. The location, too, is tough to beat: Quiet, shady streets, parks, schools, golf courses, and community centres combined with excellent public transit, boutique shopping, and groceries ensure relaxed, city-living at its best.

 

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Breast Lift – Mastopexy for Drooping Breasts

Breastfeeding, aging, or even gravity can leave your breasts hanging low. The breast lift is one of the most common plastic surgery procedures for women who desire a more youthful appearance and firmness to their breasts. The procedure is also known as mastopexy. During mastopexy, the breast is raised by the removal of excess skin […]

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How do you tell your story?

This is something that I have heard several times in education…

“Standardized tests do not tell the story of what we do in education.”

But here are two things I think about that.

1. If it isn’t the story, why do some schools that do really well on standardized tests really focus on making sure everyone knows that?  (This is not a statement but a legitimate question because I have noticed this more and more lately.)
2. If that isn’t your story, then what is?  What are the ways that you share student learning in your school that goes beyond a number or letter?

I really believe that no standardized test could ever tell the story of what happens in a school, so it is more important than ever to make sure that we share that story with people around the world.  We should not only focus on bringing expertise into our schools, but sharing our expertise (of both educators and students) with the world. We have more ways to tell that compelling story but it is up to us to do so.

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Culture is the Heart of our District

Our culture is the heart of our school system. It makes Hilliard Schools a special place to learn and work,and it gives us a unique advantage. Building and sustaining the Hilliard culture requires intentional effort from everyone in the district. The VBO is part of that effort.

Values Behavior Outcome (VBO)

The VBO is a blueprint for our culture. It makes clear the specific behaviors & results we want from each of our values. The behaviors outlined in the VBO are essential to how we engage students in the classroom, and how we operate our schools. Our goal is to create an educational environment where everyone consistently engages in behaviors that produce exceptional outcomes.

What is culture and why is it Important?

Culture is not a document that hangs on the wall. Culture is what we believe, how we behave, & the experience our behavior produces for others. It is the foundation on which our education community is built. Written statements help clarify the culture, but documents don’t build culture … our actions do.

Our core values provide the standards for how we behave toward each other, our students & our community. Because our culture shapes behavior, it determines how effectively we execute our strategy. Culture eats strategy for lunch. Our success depends on the ability to collaborate and execute in a constantly changing environment. Culture aligns everyone in the district around a common set of values & behaviors that ultimately determine how we prepare our students for success.

Hilliard VBO

Dr. Marschhausen is the Superintendent of the Hilliard City School District in suburban Columbus, Ohio.

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Purpose & Positivity, part 2

I shared these paragraphs with my staff in their weekly “Get Whitt it!” today…(See my other weeks here.)

A blank calendar. A fresh start.

It’s the perfect time to evaluate where you’ve been, where you’re at, and where you’re going. It’s a time for us to bring back that September enthusiasm, relentless joy, and excitement for what we get to do as Whitt Wolves.

This month, I encourage you to look at what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what your heart truly desires in this moment. Maybe you’ve been skimping on self-care and establishing a new routine that encourages you to think of you is what you need. Maybe you’ve been so wrapped up in work that you’ve forgotten how important what you do really is. Call a friend you haven’t checked in on in a while. Evaluate what you’ve accomplished this year so far, and how you want to feel by the time the clock strikes the end of this school year in June.

There will be challenges in the coming months, of course, and the stress of this semester will bring all kinds of highs and lows. But if we shift our perspective to refocus our minds, refresh our hearts, and renew our commitments, there’s no telling what kind of miracles the rest of this year has in store. Pick out your outfit, grab your backpack, and let’s get take this semester’s journey together. That’s what our Wednesday staff meetings are going to focus on…purpose & positivity.

I have plans for a staff meeting, just 30 minutes long, each Wednesday in January. Here are the plans thus far, and I will edit this as the month progresses. Keeping that p & p focus this month is my focus. Spring in Texas is pretty much about as stressful as it gets. You have all the normal school stress, no long breaks, and our state testing. While my campus has done well in the past couple of years,

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our focus is not on being “successful” but proving “mastery”.
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We want to maintain the standard we have here, not just reach it every so often.

May your January be as purposeful and just as positive!

Amber

 

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4 Reasons Why Referencing Others Is a Good Thing

Recently, I have seen a lot of people frustrated with others “stealing” their stuff and using it as their own.  This has happened to me as well, and to be honest, it is extremely frustrating.  Personally, I put a lot of work into my posts, writing, and presentations, and when someone just comes along and claims it as their own, it is extremely deflating.  Even when I think that I have an original idea or quote, I google it just to make sure that it is not someone else’s.  People are exposed to so many ideas that it can be confusing to differentiate between what originated with you or someone else. People make mistakes.

But instead of writing a post on why you shouldn’t do that, I wanted to share why it is better to reference the work of others.

 

1. It shows that you are well read. In my presentations, I do my best to show the work of others, even though it is my presentation.  I actually try to differentiate my slides between quotes from others (I usually add images to them) and what is mine (black slide, white text, very simple).  I never see sharing the work of others as making me “less than”. I believe it actually shows that I have done a lot of research and thinking in what I am discussing.  The way I see it, there is no negative in sharing the work of others; it shows that you are passionate about your learning and you will look at what others are doing as well. Stealing the work of others though, has huge risks and will only categorize you as a “thought stealer”, not “thought leader”. This leads me to my next point.
2. It raises up the profession as a whole.  The narrative of education and many educators, hasn’t always been positive.  The way I see it, the more we can share the work of others, the better.  In my book, “The Innovator’s Mindset“, many people are sharing ideas and quotes of others that I wrote about in the book.  The book was never solely about my ideas, but hopefully sharing the best ideas. I really wanted to highlight there is a lot of great stuff going on in education all over the world, and that together we are better.
3. Great leaders give credit. If you are in a leadership position, and hate giving credit to the work of others, this will create animosity amongst those you serve.  Sometimes, giving credit to others, even when it is not 100% deserved, helps build up the entire community.  No one wants to be an environment where one person takes credit for everything.  Highlighting the work of others does not only build up that one person, but also models that we should do that for each other as a community. Leading to this last point.
4. It is an honour to be referenced by someone else. Pay it forward. I have a lot of people who follow me on Twitter, read this blog, and maybe have read my book.  No matter how many people have connected with me, it is a tremendous honour to be referenced at any point, or have my work shared. Whether you have one follower or one million.  Having your work shared is an amazing feeling, and I have been the recipient of this, and I try to share the work of others.  Again, there is only positives when you do this.

There is obviously ethical reasons why you shouldn’t take credit for the work of others.  But the way I see it, the positives far outweigh the negatives (if there are truly any) when we share the work of others. When we go out of our way to highlight the work of others, it lifts up individuals as well as the profession as a whole.

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3 Ways to Rethink the Education Interview

Innovation in education should not be limited to what happens in the classrooms, but is needed for leadership. This means that we need to relook at what we do as organizations and ask questions on whether what we have done ultimately serves what we want to do.  One of those areas that I really am interested in is the interview process.  Are we expecting something different while hiring the same?

The traditional process of the interview has been one that has not made much sense to me.  In education we talk about things being more than just about the right answer while also having a huge focus on relationships. Yet so many interviews that I have seen involve inviting people into stale environments with several people firing off questions to someone they barely know, and looking for the “best answers”.  There is obviously more to an interview than what people say, but when would educators ever be in this type of high stakes environment again in their career?  Even worse, sometimes the interviews are conducted for teachers by people that do not even work in the school (ie. central office staff).  Interactions between one another in the process are crucial for both sides, not just the person applying.  If we truly want the best people in our organizations, they will have choices. Do you create an environment where they come out of the process wanting to work for you?

Here are three things ways that we can really create a much better interviewing process, not only in education, but in all areas.

 

Make Them Comfortable 

I remember one interview process where I walked into a giant boardroom and there were twelve people sitting around a table and I was sitting at the head of the table by myself.  It was one question after another, simply fired at me, while they took in what I said and wrote notes.  I went home after and felt violently ill, and although it seemed coincidental, the process had given me such anxiety, that honestly I felt there was a correlation to the process and how I felt.

Another interview I had was the polar opposite of this experience.  The two administrators of the building invited me in early, and gave me fifteen topics that I could discuss during the process.  I didn’t have to do all fifteen, but where I felt I had something to offer.  I had about thirty minutes before the process, and I walked in, and it was a conversation for an hour. When it was over, I wondered where the time had gone, and although I felt nervous at the beginning, it seemed like a conversation between colleagues and friends.  What was interesting about the process was that we all had the chance to get to know each other in a way similar to if we were in a staff room talking about education, which is what we would experience after the fact. It was more real than the firing squad process of questions.  It also allowed them to find out where I was strong, and since they left some openness on the position (middle school teacher) the focus was not on hiring the best grade six teacher, but the best person, and shaping a position around them, instead of the other way around.

If a person is too scared to show their strengths in an interview, you never know what you will lose in the process.

Creating Conflict

As someone who has interviewed many educators, one of the important points of this process is how do people handle when someone disagrees with what they are saying?  As discussed prior, making them feel comfortable is crucial to this component, but simply listening to an answer and writing down notes is not something we typically would do in schools.

One of the things that I would do in the interview process was challenge people on their answers and get them to dig deeper into why they were saying what they were saying.  There are multiple reasons I would do this. For one, I wanted to see if someone went beyond the “carbon copy” answers and really knew what they were sharing.  The other, much more essential, was seeing how they would deal with conflict.  Would they defend their answer with evidence, would they be open to hearing different insights, or would they just adapt to saying what they thought I wanted to hear.  The last one was a big red flag for me.  I wanted to know that I was hiring someone who was a critical thinker and would make all of us better, not just simply bend to someone else’s will. How they handled conflict was crucial as well, but again, if you do not make people feel comfortable, of course they will just tell you what they think you want to hear, not necessarily what they believe.

Leave People Better Than When They Started

The tough thing about the interview process is that usually only one person will get the job.  If that is the case, what about the others in the process?  Did they become better teachers in the process and did we create a learning experience that would raise up the profession as a whole, or was this just an interview for a job? I would choose the former over the latter each time.

After the interview, I would call each candidate and I would go beyond simply telling them whether they get the job or not, but talk about specific components of the process, and ask them to look deeper into some areas, so that they would become better teachers.  I remember one candidate who did not receive a job with me, calling me a month after telling me that she received another opportunity and that the interview with my school was one of the best learning experiences she had, and it really challenged her thinking about education, and helped her to become a better teacher.  If you think about this logic, you never know who might end up leaving your school or teaching your child.  If we look at the interview as an opportunity to help someone become a better teacher, whether they get the job or not, we all win.

Concluding Thoughts

 

If you are about to partake an interview, and use this post as a guide, you might be in trouble.  There are still many people who look for “yes” candidates who will simply do what they are told, and to me, if we want our kids to ask questions, why would we not want our educators to do the same?  But if you are the one who is giving the interview, hopefully this helps you think about it in a different way.  We do not simply have to do what we have done, and if we want the best educators in our schools, we have to really rethink the process of how we hire them in the first place.

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