FarBucks

Group Dynamics 101

So my wife and I recently joined a new social organization.  The primary reason was because our participation in many activities at the previous location were too far away to drive to on a regular basis.

After literally months of visiting other locations, we came across an organization that appeared to meet our needs.  An easy drive, 10 - 15 minutes away, extremely friendly group of people, and (despite the point I am getting to) what still appears to be a highly efficient organization.

We were made to feel welcome by a huge variety of wonderful people, but we were curious as to why the Head of the Organization (HTO) never contacted us.  At one point there was supposed to be a meeting that the HTO invited us to.  But it was canceled via a letter from someone else on the staff.

Despite never being contacted by the HTO, we decided to formally join the organization.

The day we joined, another couple joined ahead of us.  They were welcomed by the HTO while my wife and I were taken off by another staff member to sign their papers.  OK.  We still thought the HTO would come out eventually and at least welcome us.  Never happened.

Now my experience in past organizations has been that new members stay and are introduced to the rest of the organization by the HTO.  We were removed from the meeting area, signed some papers, and when I pointedly stated that I certainly hoped we would meet the HTO, was told, "Well, he's a very busy man."

Too busy to meet us?  New members?  If this were an organization that filled every seat, I might understand some degree of indifference.  But frankly, there are a large number of empty seats at every meeting.  For the sake of building membership alone, I would expect the HTO to at least send us a letter, an email, or call us and welcome us.

It's been a week now and we haven't received anything from the HTO welcoming us.

Oh! But we DID receive envelopes within 2 days of joining in which we are invited to make weekly donations of money to the organization.

That's a concern.  From appearances, it would seem this organization - when all else is said and done - REALLY just needs our money.  Fortunately, we know better.

Yes, we will continue attending.  And I have already set up an on-line account to make regular donations. 

But one piece of advice I would offer my new organization: no matter what else, every person in this organization should have a minimum of two personal contacts with the HTO during the tenure of their membership.  One while they are still visitors, and one when they actually become members.  This is basic Group Dynamics 101, if members of a group are not made to feel personally significant to the leader of that group, first their loyalty is lost, followed by their interest, and eventually their support and involvement.

This organization has some ambitious plans for the future.  Good for them!  But unless the current HTO learns how to reach out and make everyone feel personally welcome, there will continue to be empty seats at every meeting and unfulfilled plans well into the foreseeable future.

Learning by Accident or Design - Should Computer Tech Classes Be Required in High School?

The Texas Legislature has agreed to allow individual districts to decide whether to continue requiring credits of health, PE, and computer applications for graduation. The issue of whether or not computer literacy should be a requirement to graduate from high school raises interesting issues.

One argument for the elimination of the requirement is that today's students are so immersed in technology - starting in kindergarten - that by the time they take a basic computer class in high school the content is already mastered.

Is there a problem assuming students will learn everything they need to know simply by progressing through school and acquiring tech skills by applying them to various assignments? From a curriculum design perspective, this "learn as you go along" approach would appear to leave a great deal to chance. While the major pieces of knowledge might be picked up along the way, unless it is an organized and planned sequence with adequate assessments, too many gaps in the learning are likely to occur.

Complicating the issue is the fact that there are various definitions of "computer literacy". In addition, there is the point that computer literacy is very different from proficiency in the use of various applications. Nonetheless, there are basic competencies that every student graduating from high school should have. Today's success (survival) in nearly all colleges and businesses requires a basic ability to use various tech applications to retrieve, manipulate, appraise, and apply information.

Eliminating the high school credit requirement also assumes that all students have access to a sufficiently wide range of basic hardware and software technologies and applications outside of the campus. For many, their only access is whatever is provided at school.

Any district considering dropping the credit requirement should consider establishing a competency measurement of some type. Along with a high school diploma arguably representing that students have demonstrated competencies in language arts, social studies, math, and science; a diploma should also represent competencies with basic computer literacy and technology application skills.

Until schools can guarantee equal access to appropriate technologies for every student and a systematic scope and sequence of teaching computer literacy and application of various technologies, it is inappropriate to consider dropping the credit requirement from the high school curriculum.

"Help! I'm Surrounded by Teachers!"

My grandson is surrounded by educators.

Poor kid.

His father is an elementary school teacher.  His mother is an elementary school teacher.  His grandfather on his mother's side is an elementary school teacher.  His grandmother on his mother's side is a school principal.  His grandmother on his father's side is an elementary teacher.  And I, his grandpa on his father's side, am a school principal.

I don't know the exact total...(Meme has been teaching kindergarten in the SAME CLASSROOM for 33 years)...but I know that if you combined all the years of experience, Ethan has the benefit (or curse) of being heir to over 100 years of classroom teaching...

...meaning everything becomes a learning experience.

He can't just play with his truck.  Oh no.... 

He has to ask for his YELLOW truck.  And when it honks the horn, he needs to know that Beep Beep Beep starts with the letter "B".   

At dinner, he cannot just eat his green beans...nope...he has to say "Please", and ask for his beans...then tell us the beans are "GREEN"..."that's the letter 'G' "...and he has to know how many he has..."let's count, Ethan"..."look, you have 1, 2, 3 beans"..."count your beans, Ethan"..."good"...now say "Thank You". 

Counting green beans was easy.  He did get a little upset with me the other day about his macaroni and cheese.   We argued over the color - he says it's not really yellow, it's a yucky orange...and it took awhile, but he finally got everything counted.  (Who knew the bowl could hold 157 pieces of macaroni??) 

Poor guy - I suppose we should leave some things for him to learn when he starts real school. 

Avoid Mixing the Missions

Our district recently released a new Mission Statement:

"We engage and encourage students and staff every day through meaningful work in a safe and caring environment."

Excellent!  The group that came up with this spent a great deal of time on it.  Literally every word was recommended, discussed, debated, and agreed upon before inclusion.  This end-product of a deliberate process of defining as succinctly as possible the mission of our district is perhaps as focused and on-target as any I've seen. 

I like that it is verb-driven.

I appreciate the key words: ENGAGE, ENCOURAGE, MEANINGFUL, SAFE, and CARING.

I love that it avoids cliches like "reaching one's potential" or "creating contributing members of society".

Everything I have stated so far is exactly why I am going to recommend to my staff that we adopt and implement it as is, at all levels, without blurring the mission by layering others on top of it.  One of the initiatives we implement in our district is the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP).  In fact, CIP will be the focus of this year's professional staff development on my campus.  Unfortunately, one of the components in the process is for each campus and classroom to write its own individual mission statement.

While I understand the reason writing individual statements is included in the process, I believe it runs counter to what we should do in order to embrace and infuse the district's mission statement throughout the system.  Why should each campus and classroom spend time trying to identify and create an individualized mission when we have already been provided with an excellent, all-encompassing, all-inclusive statement?  We run the risk of muddying the ultimate district mission if every campus and classroom has some type of side-mission.  In the case of some high school students, they could spend each day within an environment of nine separate mission statements: one for each of seven periods, one for their campus, and one for the district.

I plan to proceed by spending time with the staff discussing the new mission district mission statement in depth.  We will discuss how it was developed, the key philosophies and beliefs behind it, and how it applies to this campus.  As we study and implement the continuous improvement process I will be recommending one in-house modification to the training.  Rather than each class or program developing its own mission statement, I will ask that - instead - they develop two to three MISSION SUPPORT INITIATIVES.

Each class and program will be encouraged to develop and post two to three practices or procedures that can be implemented within that classroom which materially supports and addresses the overall mission statement.  Ideally, these MISSION SUPPORT INITIATIVES will be observable/measurable practices (goals?) that can be followed within individual classrooms and which directly influence and affect the ultimate outcome of meeting The Mission Statement.

What are some types of Mission Support Initiatives will I be looking for?  The range is huge.  But a couple of examples targeted on key terms might include:

Engagement: "In Chemistry A every student will come prepared and actively participate in the day's labs."

Encouragement: "Our Algebra class agrees that we will help mentor and assist each other collaboratively until everyone understands the concepts being taught."

Meaningful: "This History class will be committed to open discussion and exploration of each lesson's importance and relevance to the individual learner."

This will be a work-in-progress with the entire staff.  The ultimate goal will be buy-in and infusion of the Mission Statement into every classroom.  There will be no mixing of missions, but rather, an attempt to build ownership of the one over-riding mission of the district:

"We engage and encourage students and staff every day through meaningful work in a safe and caring environment."

Even When You’re Lost, You’re Someplace (The Importance of Building Situational Awareness with At-Risk Students)

[This is a copy of an article I wrote for Silhouettes, the e-journal of NAREN...the National At-Risk Education Network.  It was published in this month's edition.]

 

 

 

Here at the Shannon Learning Center, every student who seeks to enroll is required to fill out an application, sign a contract, and have a personal interview.  After eleven years of holding these interviews, I have noticed a very significant and consistent trend in the characteristics of highly at-risk students.

I believe there are four characteristics which highly at-risk students manifest. I refer to these characteristics as:

·         Unresolved Security Issues;

·         Feelings of Insignificance;

·         Academic Frustrations; and

·         Situational Unawareness.

My observation is that at-risk students have difficulties in at least one, and more often, a combination of these characteristics.  Most traditional At-Risk Programs are familiar with, and have interventions that help students address issues of security, significance, and competence.  The first three of these characteristics are the most common and are components of almost all at-risk programs.

1.      Security.  These are students who may be homeless, victims of some type of abuse, or any number of other circumstances that create issues of insecurity in their lives.  Of course they have a hard time focusing on school work when they don’t know where their next meal is coming from or if they will have a place to sleep tonight.

2.      Significance.  Everyone needs to feel accepted, loved, or important to someone.  We all know at-risk students who lack feelings of significance.

3.      Competence.  These are the at-risk students who are academically frustrated.  They have fallen behind academically for any number of reasons ranging from absences to intellectual ability.  If they perceive themselves as academically inferior, they are at-risk.

But it has also been my observation that there is another characteristic which is common to all at-risk students and yet is often over-looked.  This final characteristic can be referred to as Situational Unawareness.

My argument is that most At-Risk students cannot identify their starting point or enough mile markers to adequately track their journey toward a degree.

When someone calls you and asks for directions to your office, what's the first thing you typically need to know? 

"Where will you be coming from?"

Before anyone can be given meaningful directions to any destination, it is important to know where their starting point is.  I define and apply the term Situational Unawareness to students who are unable to answer basic questions about their current status in school. I am convinced that the starting point for recovering at-risk stop-outs is for them to develop an awareness of where they are at any point on their journey toward their diploma.

You begin to grasp the significance of this when talking to at-risk students who typically classify themselves in whatever grade their age or number of years in school equals. That is, I ask Sue or John what grade level they think they're in.  John's been in high school three years, so he says he's a junior.  Sue's been in high school two years, so she answers that she's a sophomore.  Of course it comes as a shock when I explain that since they both have only 5 credits, they are both still freshmen.  I have had both students and parents sit and argue with me when I explain this. 

"My son cannot still be a freshman, he's 17 years old and has been in high school 3 years!"

Within the first few minutes of the interview, the student's unawareness of his/her status as far as credits and class standing become apparent.  However, it is the next level of questions and what they reveal that is also of significance.  At-Risk students consistently lack awareness of past and current testing status.  In Texas, all students must pass EXIT exams in order to receive their diplomas. If they fail any one or more of the tests on the first administration, there are numerous re-test opportunities.  As critical as these tests are, virtually every at-risk student I interview for initial entrance into Shannon does not know which, if any, of the tests they have passed or failed. And even if they acknowledge they have failed any test, they most certainly cannot identify the areas in which they need remediation.

They lack any real sense of where to start in their renewed efforts to obtain their diploma. 

In more practical matters, as the interview progresses and I discuss other issues with the students, it quickly becomes apparent that at-risk students are equally unaware of how many times they were absent or tardy to school and classes.  Likewise, they tend to "forget" if they had many referrals to the office for discipline.

And it is not just credits and test results that students are unaware of.  There are the day to day details that can hurt you the most if you lose track of them.  Namely: grades, absences, assignment due dates, and deadlines for make-up work.

We began years ago the process of calling students in and discussing their attendance. They were genuinely surprised by the numbers – and consistently unable to accurately state how many days they had missed. When asked if they knew how many days they missed, they consistently “guessed” low.

As I sat and visited with students in the lunchroom, or in the hallways, or just out and about in the school or community I would consistently find myself asking basic questions which I would expect any junior or senior in high school to be able to answer.  Here are the TOP FIVE QUESTION GROUPS that every high school student should be able to answer in order to establish and maintain Situational Awareness:

1)      GRADUATION: When will you graduate? What month and year?

2)      CREDITS: Which graduation plan are you on? How many credits do you need to graduate?  How many do you have now and how many more do you need to graduate?

3)      TESTING: Have you passed all sections of the TAKS Exit [Appropriate State-Required] exams?  If not, what sections do you still need to pass?

4)      ATTENDANCE: How many days can you miss and still earn credit in a term? How many days have you missed this term?  How much time do you have to make-up?

5)      GRADES: Are you passing your classes? Do you owe any teachers any assignments? 

So here’s our situation: the most common of the four observed characteristics of at-risk students who apply to Shannon is what I refer to a Situational Unawareness.  Highly At-Risk students, for whatever reasons, truly lack awareness of where they are in the system.  They typically cannot tell you what grade level they are in, how many credits they have, what critical (i.e. required) tests they have passed/failed, or what type of attendance or discipline records they have.  Aside from programs which address the other three characteristics, a critical need within any drop-out prevention program must be a mechanism that helps highly at-risk students remain current and aware of their status in school at all times.

We have a program here at Shannon called the Personal Improvement Process (PIP) Period. PIP is held during a 15 minutes period just before lunch every day.  Over time, students track their grades, absences, discipline referrals, test results, and graduation plans.  Students keep folders which contain copies of critical information, graphs of their attendance and Action Plans to address areas of concern. We encourage our students to become situationally aware – that is, able to tell - when asked - what their current status is.  We help them track their status on a daily basis.  This tracking process inevitably builds competence that strengthens their view of significance in a secure environment.

In a recent survey taken on-campus, students were asked to rate the statement:

“PIP period has been very helpful in keeping me informed and up-to-date with my progress at school.”  65% of the students agreed.  22.5% of the students disagreed.

Keeping a calendar, tracking absences and grades, writing action plans, monitoring their graduation plans, and tracking test results are not activities that at-risk students necessarily enjoy.  However, anecdotal observations and personal interviews convince me that the majority do participate and over time eventually understand the purpose and appreciate the results.

I believe the most successful programs for at-risk students are those that deliberately address the basic needs of security, significance, and competence of each individual.  I am increasingly convinced that the eventual success of any program will also be affected by how well it helps students remain aware of where they stand regarding their progress.