Introit

Right-Brained Thinking...In Song

Two years ago, when we were reading Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, I was inspired to create myself...in song. Why not? It forced me to be creative in a way that I wouldn't normally undertake!

I wanted something that would emphasize my "sunny disposition," highlight the rhythm of my work day and work habits, but also provide the listener with an audible shift to a moment when all my synapses are firing - when I do my best work, when I am most "harmonious." In other words, what Pink might term "symphony."

I contacted a friend of mine who creates music and performs in clubs at times, and I verbalized to him the aforementioned qualities. I had received plenty of training in literary intertextuality, but never in music! He did a fantastic job setting me to music, which you can listen to by clicking the link below.

Download 01 Track 1

Emerging Technologies and Your School

Google Wave (click for preview) will be launched later this year, according to a June 8 article in eSchool News. Another great Web 2.0 offering, Google Wave is an online collaborative tool that combines email, instant messaging, and file sharing in real time.

Joe Corbett, online community manager for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), writes in his blog: "I think having many users collaborating on the same project/document at the same time in multiple languages across multiple platforms opens the door for some amazing cross-cultural learning," he wrote in a reply to other comments.

"Teaching about France? Plug Google Wave into your wiki and invite French students to work with your students in real time with translations on the fly for both groups. [I'm] sure that can be done now, but not as close to real time as this is and not without a tremendous amount of preliminary communication. It will be easy to jump into collaborative learning sessions anywhere you find them … the possibilities are endless."

Implications for Independent Schools

What might that mean for your school? Inasmuch as it's a great tool for student work (i.e. partnering with other schools - even in other countries), it's also a tool for teachers, allowing them to collaborate on projects with other teachers, whether in their own school or elsewhere.

There is another question here, though: how does your school encourage (or discourage) the use of emerging technologies? Why?

In terms of professional development, how might you provide the appropriate PD for your faculty in a cost-efficient manner?

How might you involve parents with these technologies? Are some of your parents using them in the workplace? Could you co-innovate with them?

Preparing for the Challenges of FY 10

Tomorrow is the end of fiscal year 09; my office has been in planning mode for FY 10 for several months. I have gone out of my way to re-forecast revenue projections from the advancement office, and I've pushed all of them downward in an effort to be realistic for next year.

FY 09 had its share of challenges, to be sure. The fall was downright ugly. However, despite the challenges of this fiscal year, my deepest concern lies with the forthcoming fiscal year, FY 10. We need to think strategically about the challenges that it will bring.

I read with great interest an article in this week's The Chronicle of Philanthropy entitled "Worst Case Scenarios," by Ben Gose. He focuses on the need for us to create contingency plans with these steps:
1. Set priorities
2. Forecast your financial future
3. Identify "trip wires" (those areas that mean cuts)
4. Put specific people in charge of carrying out the plan
5. Don't expect miracles

As state and local governments "grapple with deficits, and foundations hit hard by endowment losses cut their giving," we need to plan "for an even worse environment - fund raising is likely to weaken before it gets better" (27). To buttress that point, Gose cites Fiscal Managment Associates, the spokeswoman for whom states, "We are suggesting to charities that they plan for a worse year in 2010 than they've seen in 2009" (27).

I'm not out to cry wolf or to instill fear in the hearts of my blog readers; rather, I simply want to point out the fact that it's prudent to prepare for the challenges of FY 10.

Focus on the compelling stories of your schools and stay positive, but assess your downside risk and plan accordingly!

My gut tells me that FY 09 was not the make-it-or-break-it year of many independent schools. FY 10 will be more challenging, and FY 11 may be the point where we begin to see the clouds break.

Differentiated Instructional Strategies

I'm reading Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All, by Gayle H. Gregory and Carolyn Chapman (2nd ed., 2007).

In my own experience, plenty of independent schools are talking about learning styles, but there hasn't been enough action on implementing instructional advancements.

Here's a great quote from the book: "When we want to 'catch fish,' we bait the hook with what the fish like, not what the fisherman likes." (34)

Too often, we bait the hook with what the fisherman likes. In other words, we continue to see teacher-centered instruction more often than not, when all the research shows that that kind of instruction has become increasingly ineffective (apart from the 30% of students who learn in spite of ineffective instructional methods).

This is not about condemning one particular method; it's about pointing out the obvious - change has occurred - and moving toward a more effective instructional model that benefits our students. This change, however, has caught lots of folks by surprise, especially those who haven't engaged in regular professional development.

It's about baiting the hook with what the fish like.

That's a big shift for a lot of people - to which schools must be sensitive. But just because it's a big shift doesn't mean that doing nothing is an option!

Au revoir, status quo!

The Paradox of the Middle of the Market

Is your school busy trying to continue to meet "the middle of the market"? Here's a post from Seth Godin today on this topic.

Basically, targeting the middle of the market is one of the most challenging ways to keep your school afloat in today's marketplace. "The middle" is not the leading edge of the market, but rather the realm of complacency and "good enough" attitudes. Think of the implications for your school if this is your target audience...

Four Different Approaches to a Turnaround

Great food for thought for independent schools, as we envision what life at the end of the Great Recession will look like. Are we just hunkering down and slashing budgets, or are we looking for new ways to grow? Has our marketplace changed for good? What is our response?

The Rule of One

From Judy Schechtman at Triangle Associates in Saint Louis comes this very timely blog post on the power that one individual can have, especially within a school. Judy points out that a person who uses that power wisely has a salubrious effect on the institution, but that a person who uses power negatively has a deleterious effect on the school. That person, as Judy points out, doesn't have to be the HOS! It could be a division head, a marketing director, or an assistant head. If all your decisions are made in respect to how that person runs the tables, then your school will suffer.

I would add the following (if Judy doesn't mind!). If that person is not the HOS but is a senior administrator who rules the roost to the detriment of the HOS and everyone else, the only way (it seems) to ameliorate the situation is to have a new HOS who is willing to clean house. In my experience, chances are, if this person has infected the admin team, s/he has infected the faculty and staff to some degree as well.

On Net Tuition Discounting

A thoughtful post on net tuition discounting, something many of the independent schools in my area have employed for the 09-10 academic year. I have been uneasy about it too. I would rather shrink the size of the school, as I'm concerned about setting ourselves up for another severe cut-back in the space of just a few years.

I'm not opposed to net tuition discounting, per se, but I am opposed to over-using it.

Introducing Online School for Girls

Are you even talking about the reality of virtual schooling? Time to engage in the discussion, at the very least.

Personally, I will be curious to see whether the eventual graduates of this school identify themselves as feeling the ethos that so many single-sex schools exude.

Blogging Promotes Higher-Order Thinking in Lower School Students

Great article by Lisa Zawilinski in a recent issue of The Reading Teacher. The article, "HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking", is a refreshing read on how to proceed with meaningful blogging activities for our lower school students.

She explores how blogs can support literacy programs, "especially to develop higher order thinking while reading and writing."

Zawilinski cuts right to the chase, pointing out that "Some [educators, administrators] believe that we simply need to place computers in the hands of our students, and they will learn what they need" (652), citing the work of Negroponte in 2006. As she points out, there is limited accuracy to that statement, but "simply using these tools does not predicate effective and efficient use."

One interesting point is that "a blog does not simply develop communication skills. Instead, online communication has become an essential aspect of online reading comprehension (Castek at al, 2007)." In other words, communication now includes reading comprehension; they co-exist! She goes on to say that, "As online readers gather information to solve a problem, they frequently analyze information, critically evaluate, synthesize across multiple texts and communicate with others using instant messaging, e-mail, blogs, wikis, or other communication vehicles (Leu, Kinzer, et al, 2004; Leu et al, 2007)."

A blogger myself, I take much of this interplay for granted, but I'm glad that Zawilinski has taken the time to write about it in a refereed publication! She, like many others, refers to blogs (and the like) as the "new literacies," even distinguishing between out-of-school literacies and in-school literacies. She underscores the fact that student writers now have a truly authentic audience for their writing - and it has moved beyond the classroom teacher. Anyone who can access a blog can read a student's writing! That's pretty powerful, don't you think?

Zawilinski highlights four common types of blogs found in elementary classrooms: (1) Classroom News Blog, (2) Mirror Blogs, (3) Showcase Blogs, and (4) Literature Response Blogs. Regarding the latter, it's basically a writing prompt that is done online. As she points out, though, an extension of this type of post is a collaborative post, which "require[s] students to negotiate [...] multiple perspectives about what is most important to share." She then notes that "this type of teamwork is necessary in our global economy."

Why not start it all in Lower School?!

She finishes the article by focusing on her concept of HOT blogging, one which "develops higher order thinking around the new literacies of online reading comprehension (Castek et al, 2007; Coiro, 2003; Leu et al, 2007)." It follows this simple formula:
1. bolster background
2. prime the pump
3. continue the conversation
4. make multiplicity explicit

Steps 3 and 4 lend themselves nicely to blogging, and she supports the collaborative blogging model, which makes great sense. The blog allows the teacher and class to "draw out the many interpretations [of an idea] that may exist. As students encounter multiple perspectives, they will also see how important it is to support one's perspective. To convince someone with a differing point of view, evidence and clear explanations become necessary."(657)

So, the next time you're wondering how and why you could incorporate blogging in your lower school classroom, I suggest that you take the time to study the strategies enumerated in Zawilinski's article. I think that you'll find her argument(s) persuasive!