Archive for the ‘Leadership Books’ Category
Monday, February 12th, 2018
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink takes on the hidden science of timing and how it impacts our lives. There is solid advice here that applies all of us at work, in school, and in our leisure time. Be sure to get your own copy and consider giving one or more as gifts. Also see my summaries of Dan’s other fine books Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others.
Introduction
- We all know that timing is everything, but we don’t know much about timing itself. Our lives present us with a never-ending stream of when decisions. Rather than being a how-to book, this is a when-to book. For content, Daniel and two other researchers analyzed more than seven hundred studies in the fields of economics, anesthesiology, anthropology, endocrinology, chronobiology, and social psychology to unearth the hidden science of timing. Get ready for a lot of science.
Part 1. The Day – 1. The Hidden Pattern of Everyday Life
- This chapter focuses on our biological clocks or circadian rhythms. The research assembled here shows that about two-thirds of us are morning people (larks), while the rest are more productive later in the day (owls). There is a test here that can help you figure out which one you are. The message here for bosses and teachers is that the type of work or problems you expect workers and students to engage in should be dependent on their chronotypes and the time of day. No matter which type you are, you are likely to experience peaks and troughs. At the end of this chapter is the first Time Hackers Handbook. Each chapter has its own version. Here Dan discusses when to exercise based on your goals and tips for a better morning.
2. Afternoons and Coffee Spoons: The Power of Breaks, the Promise of Lunch, and the Case for a Modern Siesta
- There is a lot of research that shows that we perform worse just prior to lunch or near the end of the day. The answer is to take periodic breaks away from your desk. This is especially true for low performing students. Breaks should involve movement and detachment from your work or study. Having conversations about non-work topics with others helps as does walking outside.
- Although we often hear that breakfast is the most important meal, it is not well supported by research. There is evidence that how you do lunch can make a difference. Unfortunately, too many people eat lunch at their desks. Like other breaks, your lunch break should involve moving to somewhere else and detachment from your job. Naps are also an excellent way to ramp up productivity, but not just any nap will do. The optimum length is between ten and twenty minutes. One way to promote this is to take caffeine in some form prior to your nap. It won’t kick in for about twenty-five minutes so it will help you get back in the game. Innovative companies are creating nap spaces for their employees.
- The hackers handbook here offers advice for schools. 1. Schedule recess before lunch. 2. Don’t structure recess. Let kids negotiate it themselves. 3. Include mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks where students move about. 4. Make sure teachers get breaks too. 5. Do not deny recess as a consequence of bad behavior.
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Monday, February 5th, 2018
The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip and Dan Heath makes the case that we all experience moments that make a huge difference in our lives and that there are things we can do to make them happen. You need to be aware of moments in your life and look for ways to make them happen again for yourself and those you serve. This is a must-read for any leader.
1. Defining Moments
- We all have defining moments in our lives. This book has two goals. One is to examine defining moments and identify the traits they have in common. Two is to show how to create defining moments by making use of these traits. When we reflect on an experience, we do not average our feelings over time. Rather, we focus on the high and low spots, the peaks, and the pits, along with the beginnings and ends.
- One or more of the following elements are involved. 1. Elevation: Something happens to elevate the experience from those surrounding it. 2. Insight: Here is where you suddenly realize something about yourself or the world that makes a difference. 3. Pride: This is when you accomplish something special. 4. Connections: Defining messages are social. Special moments become more special when you share them with others.
2. Thinking in Moments
- There are three kinds of situations that stand out as moments in our lives. They are transitions, milestones, and pits. The goal is to mark transitions, commemorate milestones, and fill the pits. Here the Heath’s tell some stories of how employers can make transitions like the first day on the job special, how banks can help commemorate savings and mortgage milestones, and how service providers can fill pits as soon as they show up. At the end of this section and each section in the book they include a clinic, which demonstrates how the book’s ideas can be put to use.
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Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018
The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better by Daniel Koretz covers the unintended negative consequences of the test-based school and teacher accountability system forced on schools by federal legislation. In addition to outright cheating, he also points out how test prep leads to bad teaching and how non tested subjects are given short shrift. As policymakers remain in denial about the failure of this system, it is works like this that give us hope.
1. Beyond All Reason
- Pressure to raise scores on achievement tests dominates American education today. In this book Daniel Koretz shows how it has lead to cheating, cutting corners with test prep that features bad instruction, and failure. Teacher evaluation is a mess with some teachers being judged by scores from students they didn’t teach. Test prep has lead to score inflation that is not echoed on NEAP tests. NCLB was a train wreck waiting to happen and it’s replacement, ESSA, is only a small step in the right direction. This book should help us all redouble our efforts to fight a system that has had a large negative impact on our national education system.
2. What Is a Test?
- Achievement tests are like political polls in that they only test a small portion of the domain represented by the course or grade level. Most of the domain remains untested. Tests focus on factual knowledge as it is easy to test. Some things like critical thinking and problem-solving can be assessed, but not by standardized tests. Sampling content to be tested has three consequences. First is the error or uncertainty of the resulting scores. This can result in scores varying wildly from year to year for a given teacher. Second is that the sample skills tested are not fully representative of the entire domain.
- The final and biggest consequence is that even the test makers warn that test scores should only supplement all of the other assessments teachers use. Unfortunately, such warnings are ignored by policymakers or never heard in the first place. This leads to many teachers only teaching the tested content while depriving students of other useful instruction.
3. The Evolution of Test-Based “Reform”
- In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation At Risk, that viewed our education system as containing a rising tide of mediocracy noting short school years, a weak teaching force, and undemanding curricula. This seems to have initiated the push toward state-mandated testing. This shifted the focus away from holding students accountable for scores to using students’ scores to hold educators accountable.
- In the 1990s the pay-and-punish approach became popular where schools were rewarded or punished as a result of test scores. In 2002 NCLB made this system national in scope. Schools were required to make Adequate Yearly Progress for all student groups of significant size. Obama’s administration made things worse by tying test scores to teacher evaluations. Due to gridlock in Washington, NCLB wasn’t updated until 2015 with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This gives states more flexibility, which may make things better at least in some states. The focus on test scores will most likely remain.
- The system fails for three reasons. 1) It focuses on a narrow slice of practice and outcomes. 2) It is a very high-pressure system. 3) There is no room for human judgment. Teaching is far too complex a job to evaluate without any judgment, and many things we value in schools aren’t captured by tests. If expectations were too low prior to 1983, it’s clear that today expectations are unrealistic for many of the students the laws were designed to help.
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Tuesday, December 19th, 2017
Counting What Counts: Reframing Education Outcomes by Yong Zhao and friends takes on the current system with its focus on standardized tests and their sole focus on cognitive skills. Chapters are devoted to defining a variety of non-cognitive skills that are connected with success in life and the current status of how to assess them. They make a case for a new paradigm that would move the system towards more personalized learning and assessment with more focus on non-cognitive skills. Be sure to add this fine book to your professional development library.
Introduction – The Danger of Misguiding Outcomes: Lessons From Easter Island – Yong Zhao
- Yong uses the story of how the natives of Easter Island overexploited the resources in a race to build ever bigger statues. He compares this to the current race to produce students with excellent tests scores. Here he makes the case that the obsession with test scores has and will continue to damage our education ecosystem. It has resulted in cheating, teaching to the test, focusing on students on the pass/fail border, and limiting the focus on subjects not tested. We are destroying teacher autonomy as we ignore real challenges like poverty, unsafe neighborhoods, and unequal access.
- We are striving to produce a homogeneous population rather than supporting diverse talents. Routine knowledge and skills are stressed and they can easily be outsourced or automated. There are many negative side effects that are not considered unlike drug companies that must evaluate and publish side effects of their products. Creativity and non-cognitive skills are ignored. Students good at taking tests might not be good at anything else.
1. Numbers Can Lie: The Meaning and Limitations of Test Scores – Yong Zhao
- Humans are too complex to be reduced to a single number, and such numbers should not be used to make life-changing decisions. Research indicates that IQ tests have limited predictive power. Personality variables like high and stable self-esteem appear to be decisive for life success. SAT and ACT tests are much less predictive of college success than a student’s high school GPA. After many years, the Common Core Standards don’t appear to make students college ready, while motivation, time management skills, and awareness of postsecondary norms and culture do.
- A look at international tests shows that U.S. students have been bad at test taking for a long time. Such scores would suggest that by now the U.S. would be an economic backwater, but the facts suggest otherwise. It’s possible that countries that obsess about tests more than we do have discouraged the cultivation of creative and entrepreneurial spirits.
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Friday, November 10th, 2017
Peer Feedback in the Classroom: Empowering Students to be the Experts by Starr Sackstein tells the story of how she introduced peer feedback and all of its benefits into her classroom and how it can be applied in other subjects. If you try this, not only will your students develop knowledge and skills better, they will also learn vital collaboration and social skills. Buy one for your school now.
Part 1: The Power of Feedback – 1. The Rational for Teaching Students to Provide Peer Feedback
- Every student has the potential to be an expert in something. Step one is to get to know the students so you can identify and expand their strengths. This can allow the students to share their strengths, perspective, ideas, and preferences. This shows students that there is no one right way to learn or teach. Today it is common for students to know more about some topics than teachers do. This should be exciting as students can share expertise. Technology is an area where this often happens.
- The big idea here is to build trust and enthusiasm, which may not be easy and will take time. A key is to teach students self-advocacy. This will make it easier to address specific needs as students will bring them to you. This should start in kindergarten. This will also serve students throughout their lives. In short, students need to know when they need help and how to get it. Asking peers to help can be a great way to grow. Like all chapters, this one ends with reflection questions for teachers.
2. Developing a Supportive Classroom Culture
- Your initial focus is to develop a welcoming respectful learning environment that supports risk-taking and honest sharing. Students need to be comfortable sharing their work and gain confidence in providing feedback. You have to know your students if you are going to develop rapport so start by finding out what you can about their lives and outside interests as you share some of yourself. Respect can’t be assumed; it must be taught explicitly and modeled continuously. Starr suggests you use surveys to learn about students and provides some samples.
- Rituals and routines are essential to developing rapport. You don’t want to be too flexible and you must establish clear expectations. It might help to have students produce things that are intentionally inferior. They should feel safe correcting these items and see that it’s ok to be wrong. The teacher needs to model feedback intentionally so students can see what is expected. This will include praise and questions that should prompt students to think about how to improve their work. Be sure to share errors you have made. Once your rituals are in place you can give students more control as you facilitate from the side. Starr gives examples from her student newspaper class and another teacher’s fifth-grade class.
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3. What Meaningful Feedback Looks Like
- Step one is to set clear goals and criteria for success. For each assignment, you need to ask is this worthy of feedback? Use questioning activities and discussions and connect work to prior and future learning. Align learning objectives with standards and the big picture of the lesson. Make sure students see exemplars so they know what mastery looks like, but not ones that are identical to the current assignment.
- Feedback needs to be specific, timely, and delivered in a way that works for the receiver. Focus on one or two points at a time. Rather than saying good job, let them know how they have improved their ability to do something specific. When you are critical, provide suggestions for how to improve something. Limit your feedback to the material covered. Avoid giving feedback too soon as you will end up owning the work yourself. Feedback from teachers should be private. Look for nonverbal cues as you give feedback and adjust your tone accordingly. If a student is shutting down say something encouraging and revisit the issue later.
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