Monday, January 8, 2018

Creating a Culture of YES!

Retrieved: http://www.chicagonow.com/quilting-sewing-creating/files/2014/04/say-yes.png

The idea: What if we had all the kids take a handful of confetti and throw it into the air?

The resistance: What if it makes a big mess? 

Well, it will.

The resistance: What if it makes some people uncomfortable? 

Well, it might.

The resistance: What if a kid gets confetti in his eyes? 

Well, I hadn't thought of that.

The resistance: What about the janitors? Doesn't this make their job tougher? 

I'll help clean it up. My family will help too.

The resistance: You know this isn't how we normally do things?

But is that such a bad thing?

You might be familiar with the idea of a children's message during a church service. I'm sure at some point that was an innovation. But for all of my years attending services, I remember it being a thing—a really good thing. 

All of the little kids are invited down to the front for a short message/story that is intended just for them. It's usually an object lesson or story that conveys a Biblical truth in an interactive way. As much as it's intended for the kids, I think the adults often get a lot out of it too. 

Well, on Christmas Eve, our whole family went to church together, all six of us. And during the service, all of the little kids were invited to the front. I teased our youngest daughter Emma who is 15 and told her she should head down front. She gave me the "Really dad?" look. There may have been a little eye-rolling too.

There was a huge crowd at church for the Christmas Eve service, and the entire stage was filled with little kids brimming with energy. I mean, it's Christmas Eve! Kids have a lot on their minds this time of year.

Our children's minister planned a lesson about how joy comes from God, and we should share that joy with others around us. Of course, it included the story of how the shepherds, in particular, shared the news of the birth of Jesus with great enthusiasm. When you have true joy, you can't help but share it.

A good message for sure. And then the truly unexpected part of the message was about to happen. The children's minister explained how when we are excited and celebrating something great, sometimes there is confetti.

"Let's all get some confetti and celebrate the birth of Jesus. And then together we are all going to throw it into the air. Let's share our joy for everyone to see."

It was a beautiful thing. And memorable. And a perfect illustration.

There was joy in the congregation. There was certainly joy in the kids. And I'm pretty sure the joy went home with the kids and probably went with them wherever they went. After all, several were stuffing confetti in their pockets. It was a beautiful thing.

But it was risky. 

And to be sure, our children's minister had asked our pastor ahead of time for permission. 

And he said, "YES!"

And I'm pretty sure he didn't ask all of those questions that might come from the resistance. 

He just said, "YES!"

What kind of culture are you creating in your classroom or school? Are you missing something truly memorable and remarkable because you aren't willing to take a risk?






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Sunday, January 7, 2018

Why “Innovating Inside the Box” is Crucial

I wrote about the idea of “Innovating Inside of the Box” in “The Innovator’s Mindset.” Here is what I shared:

Let’s not kid ourselves. In education, especially the public sector, schools are not overloaded with funding. Innovating in our schools requires a different type of thinking, one that doesn’t focus on ideas that are “outside of the box” but those that allow us to be innovative despite budgetary constraints. In other words, we need to learn to innovate inside the box.

In my conversations with schools, I have been thinking about this concept a lot lately.  Questions like, “What about the curriculum?” or “What about standardized testing?” often come up in reasons why we can’t do something.

Often our complaints are about things that are out of our control and are the decisions made by others (politicians, central office, etc.) for our schools.  If we see those barriers that someone else created the obstacles to doing great things, that means only those people that created the restrictions have the power to change what happens in our classrooms. I refuse to believe this and believe that teachers have more ability to do incredible things than they give themselves credit for.  This has been proven by educators all over the world, time and again.  When someone (or something) else is the problem, we too often give them the power as the only party to be able to fix it.

One of the best examples of “innovation inside the box” is the Fosbury Flop.  In the book, “Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results,” the authors highlight how Dick Fosbury changed the high jump competition with a change in how he would clear the bar.  From Wikipedia:

Before Fosbury, most elite jumpers used the straddle technique, Western Roll, Eastern cut-off or even scissors jump to clear the bar.

The authors noted how Fosbury went from the “scissors jump” and created something better within the rules of the competition:

The most common problem with the scissors is that the jumper knocks the bar off with his or her buttocks. To compensate, Fosbury tried lifting his hips higher, which forced him to simultaneously drop his shoulders when he jumped. He continued to raise his hips until he eventually cleared another six inches, which allowed him to place fourth in a competition, setting a new personal record. No one noticed what Fosbury was doing, because he was tweaking the old technique, one tiny step at a time. Each attempt was only marginally different from the previous one. When Fosbury slowly began overtaking the competition, however, coaches for opposing teams noticed that he was doing something different. Checking the rule book, they could find no evidence for anything illegal in his hybrid technique. Fosbury was simply applying incremental improvements to an existing one.

Dick Fosbury changed how the high jump is done to this very day by creating something new and better within the constraints of the competition by doing and thinking differently about his approach.

No matter how long you have been in education, can you point to the year that schools seemed to just not know what to do with all of the money they have? It has never happened, and it never will.  This is part of the unfortunate truth about education.  I have seen some schools with less money do more, and some schools with more money do less.  It is about their belief system more than anything.

I am not saying that educators need to stop advocating for what they know is right for students.  In fact, I believe they should continue to do so.  But I also think those big “system” changes take time, and if we wait for others to make those changes, we hurt the students that we serve today.  Figuring out how to best serve students while working within the constraints of education is what the best educators continue to do every day.  Their focus on innovating inside the box is their way of saying, “I have the power to make something incredible today,” no matter what obstacles are put in their way.  They don’t just identify the problem, they figure out how to make things happen.

Keep innovating inside the box. The students in front of you need you to figure out a better way now, instead of hoping someone will come along and do it for you.

Source: George Couros



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Creating a Culture of YES!

Retrieved: http://www.chicagonow.com/quilting-sewing-creating/files/2014/04/say-yes.png

The idea: What if we had all the kids take a handful of confetti and throw it into the air?

The resistance: What if it makes a big mess? 

Well, it will.

The resistance: What if it makes some people uncomfortable? 

Well, it might.

The resistance: What if a kid gets confetti in his eyes? 

Well, I hadn't thought of that.

The resistance: What about the janitors? Doesn't this make their job tougher? 

I'll help clean it up. My family will help too.

The resistance: You know this isn't how we normally do things?

But is that such a bad thing?

You might be familiar with the idea of a children's message during a church service. I'm sure at some point that was an innovation. But for all of my years attending services, I remember it being a thing—a really good thing. 

All of the little kids are invited down to the front for a short message/story that is intended just for them. It's usually an object lesson or story that conveys a Biblical truth in an interactive way. As much as it's intended for the kids, I think the adults often get a lot out of it too. 

Well, on Christmas Eve, our whole family went to church together, all six of us. And during the service, all of the little kids were invited to the front. I teased our youngest daughter Emma who is 15 and told her she should head down front. She gave me the "Really dad?" look. There may have been a little eye-rolling too.

There was a huge crowd at church for the Christmas Eve service, and the entire stage was filled with little kids brimming with energy. I mean, it's Christmas Eve! Kids have a lot on their minds this time of year.

Our children's minister planned a lesson about how joy comes from God, and we should share that joy with others around us. Of course, it included the story of how the shepherds, in particular, shared the news of the birth of Jesus with great enthusiasm. When you have true joy, you can't help but share it.

A good message for sure. And then the truly unexpected part of the message was about to happen. The children's minister explained how when we are excited and celebrating something great, sometimes there is confetti.

"Let's all get some confetti and celebrate the birth of Jesus. And then together we are all going to throw it into the air. Let's share our joy for everyone to see."

It was a beautiful thing. And memorable. And a perfect illustration.

There was joy in the congregation. There was certainly joy in the kids. And I'm pretty sure the joy went home with the kids and probably went with them wherever they went. After all, several were stuffing confetti in their pockets. It was a beautiful thing.

But it was risky. 

And to be sure, our children's minister had asked our pastor ahead of time for permission. 

And he said, "YES!"

And I'm pretty sure he didn't ask all of those questions that might come from the resistance. 

He just said, "YES!"

What kind of culture are you creating in your classroom or school? Are you missing something truly memorable and remarkable because you aren't willing to take a risk?






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Why “Innovating Inside the Box” is Crucial

I wrote about the idea of “Innovating Inside of the Box” in “The Innovator’s Mindset.” Here is what I shared:

Let’s not kid ourselves. In education, especially the public sector, schools are not overloaded with funding. Innovating in our schools requires a different type of thinking, one that doesn’t focus on ideas that are “outside of the box” but those that allow us to be innovative despite budgetary constraints. In other words, we need to learn to innovate inside the box.

In my conversations with schools, I have been thinking about this concept a lot lately.  Questions like, “What about the curriculum?” or “What about standardized testing?” often come up in reasons why we can’t do something.

Often our complaints are about things that are out of our control and are the decisions made by others (politicians, central office, etc.) for our schools.  If we see those barriers that someone else created the obstacles to doing great things, that means only those people that created the restrictions have the power to change what happens in our classrooms. I refuse to believe this and believe that teachers have more ability to do incredible things than they give themselves credit for.  This has been proven by educators all over the world, time and again.  When someone (or something) else is the problem, we too often give them the power as the only party to be able to fix it.

One of the best examples of “innovation inside the box” is the Fosbury Flop.  In the book, “Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results,” the authors highlight how Dick Fosbury changed the high jump competition with a change in how he would clear the bar.  From Wikipedia:

Before Fosbury, most elite jumpers used the straddle technique, Western Roll, Eastern cut-off or even scissors jump to clear the bar.

The authors noted how Fosbury went from the “scissors jump” and created something better within the rules of the competition:

The most common problem with the scissors is that the jumper knocks the bar off with his or her buttocks. To compensate, Fosbury tried lifting his hips higher, which forced him to simultaneously drop his shoulders when he jumped. He continued to raise his hips until he eventually cleared another six inches, which allowed him to place fourth in a competition, setting a new personal record. No one noticed what Fosbury was doing, because he was tweaking the old technique, one tiny step at a time. Each attempt was only marginally different from the previous one. When Fosbury slowly began overtaking the competition, however, coaches for opposing teams noticed that he was doing something different. Checking the rule book, they could find no evidence for anything illegal in his hybrid technique. Fosbury was simply applying incremental improvements to an existing one.

Dick Fosbury changed how the high jump is done to this very day by creating something new and better within the constraints of the competition by doing and thinking differently about his approach.

No matter how long you have been in education, can you point to the year that schools seemed to just not know what to do with all of the money they have? It has never happened, and it never will.  This is part of the unfortunate truth about education.  I have seen some schools with less money do more, and some schools with more money do less.  It is about their belief system more than anything.

I am not saying that educators need to stop advocating for what they know is right for students.  In fact, I believe they should continue to do so.  But I also think those big “system” changes take time, and if we wait for others to make those changes, we hurt the students that we serve today.  Figuring out how to best serve students while working within the constraints of education is what the best educators continue to do every day.  Their focus on innovating inside the box is their way of saying, “I have the power to make something incredible today,” no matter what obstacles are put in their way.  They don’t just identify the problem, they figure out how to make things happen.

Keep innovating inside the box. The students in front of you need you to figure out a better way now, instead of hoping someone will come along and do it for you.



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2018

As the first days of 2018 arrive, any reflections on last year seem to contain an uncomfortable rawness because of the events continuously populating our devices – the immediacy, brutality and complexity of a world fueled by- “FakeNews?”, each one of us trying to construct a context in the “Filter Bubble” choreographed by algorithms from which we build a sense of the world we live in.

As International School educators, we straddle between the walled garden of “school” and the outside “world”.  The reality is that we are surrounded by constant change and ambiguity. But there is a gap between the accelerated rate of change and our capacity to adapt to it. For some, the gap is wide. For others, the gap stays the same, and for a few, the gap is narrowing. How we interpret and engage with the gap and our own capacity to keep up influences many of our feelings and emotions. These in turn fuel the perceptions, opinions and behaviors with which we express ourselves.

International Schools have to juggle the fine line between ensuring students and parents are pleased and ensuring that they feel safe, challenged and cared for. In the unique world of International Schools, a percentage of parents come from a comfortable socio- economic environment. Often times, their education is a contributing factor to their current positions. This education provided the opportunities for their successes and their economic prosperity.  Living with this becomes a strong marker in what International School parents believe their children should get from an education and an International School.  This pedagogic reference point in many cases 25+ years old. The world was a very very different place then. However we try as schools to innovate, change and adapt, we do this with a level of caution and reservation. At the end of the day, the invisible mandate between parents and international schools, is “provide my child with stability, continuity, what I remember from my school days and more certainty then I have in my life today“.

As educators, we fall into a similar narrative. We have a desire for of stability, continuity, and more certainty than in the outside world we interact with. We do innovate and change in our schools, but the presence of the invisible mandate between our parents and schools influences the level by which we break the status quo.

Today the level of stability, continuity, and certainty that we were once used to has eroded. Uncertainty, ambiguity and volatility are an unavoidable part of the day. The complexity of this change permeates into everyone’s lives, and often not by choice.

2018, is an opportunity to embrace the world’s uncertainty, ambiguity and volatility, not as something eroding our past and challenging our present, but as an opportunity to re-frame the possibilities in front of us as a unique and rich learning journey. We have a responsibility to take this on in our roles as mentors, facilitators and educators. We bring a wisdom, resilience and care that has served us well and can continue to serve us today. Many of our students will one day be International School parents or educators who look back at their education as a point of reference for their own success. The measures will be different.  We live in a world where uncertainty, ambiguity and volatility are part of our lives.  We should not depend on reference points from our past to give us stability, continuity and certainty. The gap for many will still get bigger and more uncomfortable. But hopefully, in 2018, we can work to bridge that gap as well.

 

John Mikton @beyonddigital.org



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Twitter EDU – The Twitter Guide

Twitter EDU :: Your (FREE) One-Stop-All-You-Need-To-Know-Guide to Twitter

I have been working on this book for over a year and a half, and it’s finally done!

Get your free copy here.

Here is a brief description of the book:

Your One-Stop-All-You-Need-To-Know-Guide to Twitter.

“The hardest part of Twitter is that it does not have a friendly entry point. Until you develop a network, it actually takes a bit of work to make it meaningful and rewarding.”

Filled with ‘live’ links to help you Tweet and Retweet as you read the book, Twitter EDU makes learning to use Twitter an engaging experience!

The excerpt below is the book’s introduction. If you are wanting to start using twitter, or wanting to resurrect your dormant twitter account, or wanting to use twitter more effectively, then I’m sure you will get something out of the book. Please share with people you think might be interested and as always, I appreciate feedback.

—–

Twitter EDU

Your One-Stop-All-You-Need-To-Know-Guide to Twitter

Introduction:

I started Twitter in November of 2007. I jumped in rather unenthusiastically. Why the lack of enthusiasm?  Because at the time I wasn’t updating my status regularly on Facebook and I thought to myself, “Why would I use a tool that only did one part of what Facebook did, when I already don’t use that part of Facebook?” However, I was blogging regularly and several educational bloggers that I admired were blogging over and over again about ‘the power of Twitter’. So, while November of 2007 may make me seem like an early adopter to you, I was dragged in late in comparison to my blogging friends.

What happened next was amazing. Suddenly I found that some very interesting people were sharing resources that I would never have found had I not been on Twitter. This wasn’t the era of smartphones, and so I’d often read tweets early in the morning and then after working all day as a Grade 8 teacher, I’d go home and search for the last tweet that I saw in my twitter stream, and make sure that I didn’t miss a single tweet from the people I followed. I can remember the early years when twitter would be overloaded and the whole site would go down. There would be a picture of a ‘fail whale’ up instead of my Twitter stream and it would be agonizing to wait until Twitter came back up so that I could see what I missed.

Eventually, the whale disappeared, and Twitter became much more stable. Eventually, I stopped trying to read every tweet that came my way, my twitter stream got way too big. And, Eventually, twitter became a resource that fed me far more than I could ever feed it, and it continues to satisfy my appetite for learning over a decade later.

I recognize that not everyone will use Twitter the same way I do. Your reason for wanting to use twitter may range from learning, to networking and connecting to people in your industry, to self-promotion, to keeping up with the news, to entertainment, to some personal way that I simply haven’t thought of. No matter what your reasons, I’m pretty sure this book will help you. Just remember to help yourself and to ‘play’ along on Twitter as you go.

And finally, before we get started, have a look at the fail whale again. If you feel like things are going too fast, or thinking ‘I don’t get it’, then find a friend to help you. People who understand twitter are always looking to ‘lift up’ those that are just getting going. On several pages of this book I suggest finding a (local) Twitter mentor. Ten to twenty minutes with a friend helping you can go a long way to make your initial experiences easier, and will probably make this book easier to play along with.

If you enter this learning experience with a ‘Growth Mindset’, you will become a ‘Super Tweeter’ in no time.

~~~~~

“People with the growth mindset know that it takes time for potential to flower.”

? Carol S. Dweck, Mindset

(Tweet this Quote http://2di.me/superquote1 )

~~~~~

There is great potential in how Twitter can work for you… enjoy this book and watch your twitter skills blossom!



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Saturday, January 6, 2018

The Problem With "I Already Do That"


A couple of years ago, I wrote a post Eight Things Successful Educators Never Say. In the post, I explained how words reveal so much about our attitude and mindset. 

Our words reflect our thoughts. And our thoughts often become our actions. And then our actions determine our destiny. The words we use tell so much about who we are and what we value. 

Words matter.

In that earlier post, I was thinking about things that I could never imagine hearing from a highly effective educator.

I'd like to add one more phrase to that list. 

"I already do that."

Over the years, I've heard this phrase quite a bit, but rarely if ever have I heard it coming from the most successful educators. Let me unpack the context where I've heard the phrase used.

After a teacher/administrator shares an idea they tried that worked in their classroom/school, a colleague replies, "I already do that."

After a day of professional development that involves learning about a practice or method, an educator boasts, "I already do that."

When an administrator or instructional coach suggests a change that might be helpful for a classroom, a teacher responds, "I already do that."

Often the phrase is followed by an explanation of ways the educator is already doing that practice. And it could be that the educator has done something similar, or maybe even something almost exactly the same. Maybe it's true.

But regardless of whether the educator already does that or not, these words seem very dismissive to me. It seems to imply that I already know what you're talking about, and there is nothing more I can learn from you on this topic.

Like many seasoned educators, over the years I've had hundreds if not thousands of conversations about teaching and learning, and I've participated in untold hours of formal and informal professional development.

And even when it was not my choice to attend the workshop or session, I tried to have the attitude that I might learn something from this. 

There were times that I didn't fully engage, but I always tried to take away something. Sometimes I even learned what not to do. We've all been to bad PD sessions or uninspired training. But there can be learning nonetheless.

At other times, I heard ideas being expressed that were very familiar. Some of the themes in education remain the same. It's been said there is nothing new under the sun. And at some level I think this holds true. Even our most innovative practices are built on fundamentals that might be familiar.

But even when I encounter ideas that are not new to me, I try to remind myself not to be dismissive or think, I already know that or I already do that. Hearing good information again and again is not a bad thing. It reinforces knowledge and ideas that are important.

And it can help us to feel validated and confirmed in the good work we are doing.

Sometimes I will share information on Twitter or even in my blog that may seem obvious. For instance, I occasionally share that "kids learn more from teachers who smile" or "every child in every school should hear an encouraging word every day." Sure, these are simple truths, but they are also important reminders.

Recently, I had someone on Twitter push back, "Why are you talking down to teachers? Surely you don't intend this for experienced teachers. Do you even know what teachers do?"

Sigh.

Certainly my intent is never to talk down to anyone, especially teachers. I have the greatest respect for teachers. I may be a principal, but I identify as a teacher too. I'm not teaching lessons day in and day out, but I always want to lift up teachers and make the teaching profession stronger.

Even if an idea may seem obvious, sometimes it's still helpful to put words around it and help bring it to the surface again, to make it fresh, to shine a light on it, to celebrate it. 

Some people may encounter even a simple idea and be validated, encouraged, or inspired. Others may encounter the same idea and think, "I already do that."

I think those are two very different kinds of people. Which kind of person are you?

Do you hear this phrase often? How should we respond when someone says, "I already do that?" Leave a comment below or respond on Facebook or Twitter.

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