Moving to the Sunshine State!

Well- here we go again!  More change.  My stint as an administrator is over and I am returning to the classroom...in the Sunshine State of Florida at Fort Pierce Central High School.  I won't say I am making this move on a "whim" - that is not quite true, as I have gone back and forth with this idea for the better part of 9 years as some of you know.  Whenever I come south to visit my family - I think about moving; when the snow hits New England hard - I think about moving; when I find myself on the job hunt - I think about moving.  The last reason being the most recent case, (and let's face it - it wasn't exactly a snow-free winter) as my contract at Central Catholic was not renewed for the upcoming school year, for a host of reasons, the catalyst had once again been put into motion to seek a job.

 Having no luck in the Northeast, as I am pretty much priced out of the market and I am competing against my own former students for prime teaching positions & of course they are much more affordable than I am, I decided to try my hand in the south.  Two years ago I had applied for and received my Florida teaching license (well, eligibility letter stating I can have one if I can find a job...the process works in reverse down here) and since it was due to expire in May 2014, I decided I may as well get some use of it since it did cost me about $150 at the time.

Hence the application process got moving.  It is not a fun thing in this state.  We are spoiled with the "one-stop shopping" method of SchoolSpring in Massachusetts - in Florida each county has its own on-line system, each requiring hours of time to input all the appropriate information, upload all the required documentation and or send originals of documents, and in some cases each requiring their own forms for references to respond to and email back...so much for all those advanced letters of recommendation!  I apologize to those of you who had to fill out multiple forms for multiple districts, and under the a time crunch to get it all completed.  After the online application is completed it must be reviewed and rated in order for the application to "go active" to be interviewed, or in some cases, to even apply for the job.  Then there are all the "charter school" jobs that are posted on "Teachers-Teachers.com" which, luckily is similar to SchoolSpring - one stop shopping.  This is not exactly something I find fun doing, especially at this stage of my life and my career when most teachers my age are settled into the groove and just working towards retirement.  It's not a bad thing, but its not very fun.  One thing I do know is that I interview well and there have not been many jobs that I have interviewed for that I did not get, so I am pretty confident with the package I am selling, but it's getting in the door to sell it that's the hard part!

Finding myself in a time crunch - as school begins in Florida the second week of August - once I had filled out the online applications I also emailed each principal of each high school I was able to apply to, or learn of openings, and included my entire application packet of materials - cover letter, resume, philosophy, letters of recommendation, sample lesson plans, transcripts, licensing information, etc.  In the end the direct emailing was the key to my success in landing a position.

I have to admit that during the time I was applying to jobs in Florida, I was also applying to jobs just about everywhere in the country through various other websites - National Association of Independent Schools, ASCD, Teachers - Teachers.com, SchoolSpring, Carney & Sandoe placement service... I had resumes just about everywhere... from Massachusetts to Colorado and Texas, to Maryland, DC and North Carolina!   Towards the end of June I got my first phone call and email for an interview at a small charter school group in St. Petersburgh, Florida; within ten minutes after hanging up, the principal called to set up an in-person interview for July 9 and so the fire had been lit.  Soon I was arranging for a road trip south with Micaela in the co-pilot seat,  and trying diligently to make the trip worthwhile and fill my calendar with other interviews.   Shortly after arranging for the July 9 interview I received an email from the principal at Fort Pierce Central High School (actually within ten minutes of my emailing him all the above named information) and I had interview number 2 - which so happened to need to take place at the same time I was scheduled to be across the state...so more juggling and I was arranging for a 10 a.m. interview at FPCHS on July 9 - this would be the first interview of my trip, and as it turned out the only interview of my trip.

Prior to my interview I did a "drive-by" of the school and I was pretty impressed with what I saw.  It appeared to be a fairly new school, and indeed I learned it is only six years old.  FPCHS is not exactly known for its history of safety or being a highly rated school, but I immediately felt at ease when I entered the building and met the principal, Mr. Todd Smith.  He was dynamic, friendly, spoke of education innovation and before I left his presence I knew I wanted to work at this school.  It is the one thing decision I am confident in, that I chose the right school.  In the five years he has been principal the graduation rate has increased from 61% to 85%...that is an impressive feat!

So the journey begins on August 1 when I head south to Jensen Beach -where I will live with my little sister and her family until I can get my feet firmly on the ground and settle myself in.

Always Go With Your Gut... Lesson Learned.

Last Wednesday I presented for the first time to the full faculty at my school.  I was a bit nervous, but my public speaking skills are typically a strong suit, and I practiced at home with my PowerPoint and also in front of the Curriculum & Instruction committee on Monday, so I was fairly confident that I would present in a dynamic and friendly fashion.  My presentation to the C&I resulted in some feedback about refocusing and restructuring my presentation and planned learning activities to communicate the idea of developing a new type of course guide - aka course syllabus.  

I had developed this idea of creating "Learner Centered Course Guides" to replace traditional course syllabi.  These course guides are developed using best practices and research to support involving students in what they are learning, why they are learning it and to what end a course guide can be beneficial as a tool for instruction.  They are formatted using a basic "Understanding By Design" template with a few added bells and whistles to meet Catholic Identity standards and to document assessment strategies and learning experiences designed for that course that students will participate in, all focused on clear and measureable student learning outcomes. 

Trust me when I say, this is nothing new - at least in the public school arena...conversations about learning outcomes, essential questions, what students will be able to do and know are all daily jargon among teaching professionals, but in this particular teaching & learning environment, everyone is at a different learning curve with their knowledge base about these things, so introducing this course guide concept required building some background, and establishing and answering the "why"& "how" of the process. 

Through initial planning I was supported by fellow administrators and about four one hour meetings were going to be used to gradually introduce and cover the topics of "What is a Learning Centered Course Guide and why is it important and useful?"; "What are Essential Questions and how are they developed?"; "What are Measureable Student Learning Outcomes and how can we create them?" and ultimately -"How does this LCCG become a useful tool to the students throughout the entire course?" In my desire to establish some exemplars of this type of course guide I created a course titled -"Designing a Learning Centered Course Guide" and wrote a course guide, complete with goals, essential questions, student learning outcomes, Catholic Identity standards, what teachers would know and ultimately be able to do as a result of taking this class.  I developed a grid with outcomes, assessments and learning experiences.  I developed a teaching and learning plan outlining the course of the four days and the learning experiences I would provide so people would become comfortable and feel supported with moving towards this type of course guide.  I also provided a rubric for a course guide AND a second exemplar for a mock course. 

 IN SHORT - I invested a lot of time and effort into this project!  I was excited to introduce it and even though I knew it looked like designing this course guide would be a lot of work, I was eager to get a project going of my own that was truly curriculum centered.  Afterall, I've been on the job for over two months and I felt like it was time to get this show on the road!   I was hired to move CIA forward and focus on student engagement and learner centered culture so this was the first piece to assembling the big puzzle.

After my presentation, which was plagued with technology trouble, as the Apple TV was lost numerous times, thus my PowerPoint through my Ipad did go as smoothly as I had hoped; I felt that, for the most part, the presentation had been successful.  I received feedback from my C&I committee members that I had done a good job at incorporating their feedback – but somehow I still felt a little uncomfortable that I had “lectured” for an hour, and did not have a chance to incorporate any of my hands-on activities that I had wanted to introduce.  I had been advised on Monday to eliminate those for the sake of time and to focus on the “buy-in” and the rationale for the idea.  I did indeed hear negative feedback, albeit through roundabout means, regarding the fact that I was contradicting myself with a focus on student-centered learning, but yet presented with an instructional style  - first lesson – GO WITH YOUR GUT! Do what you know is best for good instructional techniques and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise...first point of epic fail.

I was also excited because I was trying to incorporate the use of the “backchannel” by using Twitter and Socrative for feedback on –going dialogue in the presentation.  I wanted to use Today's Meet, but due to lack of access points I was worried not everyone would be able to log in.  I was trying to incorporate something I had learned at my own conference the day before and was so positive and inspired to use.  As it turns out, while some people were excited about incorporating Twitter into the PD, others were angst ridden and didn’t understand what I was attempting to do – “Why are we using technology for the sake of using technology?”– were the mumbles behind my back that I later grew aware of – second point of epic fail.       I was enthusiastic coming off my own conference that I assumed everyone would be excited too.  I attempted something too new, too soon.  So, lesson learned – time to introduce the concept of communicating through the “backchannel” slowly and then give it a try.

In the end, I know that when presenting to 100 people, there will always be 20 whom you can’t please, whom you may offend with your new fangled ideas, who will be unkind behind your back (Catholic school or not, gossip will still abound) and who will find fault with every line of every email or PowerPoint presentation. What bolsters my spirit, is that for every 20 of those people there are 80 who are enthusiastic, self-reflective, encouraging with open dialogue and craving discussion about curriculum and instructional ideas that are student-centered and forward thinking.

Funny thing is – if people had just ceased speaking in hyperbole, it would have been revealed that there was a folder on google drive with almost the exact same type of course guide that had been sent out in template form by my predecessor, that a majority (not a minority, as I had been led to believe) of teachers had already completed last summer!  Since both templates are based on sound research of what illustrates good teaching and learning practices, it is no wonder they are extremely similar. Not one to get in a power struggle over which template is better (which of course is mine, lol), I let it be known that those teachers who did indeed complete the other template had no work to do, and those who did not must make it a goal.  We can work with the current format and gradually add pieces to it that are missing from my planned template, and so we make some progress with a good idea and hopefully reduce angst and stress over more work to do at a busy time of year.

You can’t please all of the people all of the time, change is a slow process and you must go with your gut about what constitutes good teaching and learning.  If it works with students in a classroom, then it will work with teachers at PD!   Find every opportunity for good modeling. 

Change is a Process....

I began this job mid-year - joining the team at this school in mid-February.  I left my classroom of AP juniors in my past school and decided to further my experience in the areas I truly love - writing, reviewing and improving curriculum, implementing innovative instructional strategies, creating assessments, designing professional development and coaching teachers!  This position offered me the opportunity to work in all these areas without the added burden of attending more classes to get "certified" on a public school level, and to prove that my experience of the past 16 years has given me the tools I need to succeed in such a position.

I have spent the past two months building relationships, reading everything I come across about CIA, attending professional development conferences for myself  - probably more than I have ever attended in the past 10 years all combined - and assimilating into the culture the best that I can.  I have observed classrooms, looked at assessments, met with teachers in one-to-one sessions, attended meetings with groups of teachers and tried to learn about what is done, how it is done and most importantly why it is done in this school.  I truly believe that in order to bring about change, strong working relationships are key to being successful.

One of the most exciting things about this school is that an "Ipad Initiative" for the Class of 2017 is being implemented for the fall.  Much discussion has been had, and multiple PD sessions have been given to prepare teachers to use various ipad apps in their instruction and in their classes, not just for management purposes of student work, but also for implementation into the classroom.  With all the focus on global, digital and media literacy in the current standards and 21st C expectations it is an exciting initiative to be a part of.

While I have taken part in various extra-curricular activities - such as attending athletic events (winter sports were very exciting here this year), chaperoning the Jr. Prom, attending Freshman Retreat - there are just as many I have not been able to attend and mostly due to personal commitments at home and also due to the extensive commuting distance - which has hampered my ability and my wishes to be more involved in the student community.  Becoming an administrator has removed me from the student sphere and I do miss the interaction and the relationships with the young people here.

Becoming an administrator has also removed me from the teaching staff and I do feel that there is a barrier to creating friendships with the staff and getting to know people on a personal level.  The location of my office is part of this issue.  I feel a bit isolated in the corner wing of the library - albeit a wonderfully large and comfortable space - I do feel remote.  I also don't quite know what level of relationship is expected here - I know in my past schools teachers and administrators were quite friendly, socializing on Friday afternoons and at backyard gatherings.  It is a piece of the culture I have not quite fully sorted yet.

What I truly love about the culture of this school is the "quiet.  Not solitude - but a quieting of the soul type of quiet. A calming quiet.  I feel I have become internally quiet.  I feel like I have relaxed and calmed my "passion" - it is not quite so stressful, but rather focused and deliberate work.  I am not working 24/7 - I take a break from checking and writing emails on weekends and I don't have folders and bags full of student work to correct while at home.  My brain is working, but my body can relax and enjoy time social activities on the weekends. My time management skills are kicking in and I feel very productive with what I accomplish during the day in the school building - I don't feel overwhelmed and overworked.  This is quite a change from my former public school life.

Two months into this position I have formed a "mind-map" for forward progress with CIA!  There are wonderful things being done in these classrooms, with caring and dedicated professionals and the task at hand...sometimes seemingly overwhelming...is to document, document, document!  To brag about and provide details on the truly wonderful learning experiences that are happening and to coach some teachers on how to improve and enhance what they are doing.  Student success and what is best for all students is at the heart of this strategic plan and it is time to get it off the "wall of post-it notes" and into some concrete action plan.