B.Y.O.T Bring Your Own Thoughts
The latest on all student-centered models, leadership development, strategic planning, teacher retention, and all things innovation in K-12 education. We answer questions before you think to ask them.
Blended Learning | Classrooms | Return Planning | School Leadership | Virtual Learning
Through most of the spring and summer, we at Education Elements have intensely focused on helping school districts prepare for returning to school. As we’ve gotten closer to the start of school, and school leaders return to prepare their campuses, one of the most common questions we get is how to think about instructional staff assignments when some students will be learning remotely and some will be onsite. To explore this topic further, we convened a group of school and district leaders in Texas to participate in a design sprint. Here’s what we learned:
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How to Leverage Sprint Plans and SEPAD to Bring a Sense of Accomplishment to an Ambiguous Year Ahead Working in a school has a way of making late August and September feel like the official start of the new year. While coffee cheers replace the clinking of champagne glasses, one thing stays the same: the desire to set (and hopefully keep) a New Year’s Resolution.
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Classrooms | Equity | Teachers
After I wrote the first blog in this series, I received a call from a close family member wanting to talk about what I had written. Their initial reaction was offense and confusion-- why did I think all teachers were “white supremacists”? It caught me off guard because I hadn’t written that--what I did write was that the American education system is built on a foundation of white supremacy, and we as teachers should work to dismantle that system. Through this conversation, it was reinforced that there are severe misconceptions around language, especially language we use when discussing race and racism. I’m hoping we can align on language here and question the reasons we feel defensive when certain words are used in relation to us, our jobs, and the role we play in upholding systems that oppress BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color).
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Return Planning | School Leadership | Teachers
“To admit uncertainty is to admit to weakness, to powerlessness, and to believe in yourself despite both. It is a frailty, but in this frailty there is a strength: the conviction to live in your own mind, and not in someone else's.” -Tara Westover, Educated How do you set a vision when the only certainty is uncertainty? How can you lead a staff team or a cohort of students without knowing where you are headed? The return to school this fall presents a chasm of uncertainty for teachers, students, families, and administrators. This can be perceived as a loss of control over our schools and classrooms - and contribute to anxiety and fear. While I don’t have any answers to the and can’t assure you that this year will go fine and dandy, I can provide two exercises to help you envision and mentally prepare for the upcoming school year.
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At the age of five, my shyness was taken for lack of understanding and I was tested for English as a Second Language (ESL). At eight, I was pushed into gifted math and made to feel defeated and stupid. At twelve, I was told I could not “handle” taking a foreign language, despite being in an advanced English class. At seventeen, I repeatedly heard my teachers attribute my academic success to my race rather than the countless hours I put into my school work. For eighteen years of my life, I was called by the wrong name. These are just a handful of instances in which the biases and beliefs of my teachers and the underlying systems within my school failed to serve me as a student of color.
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Crisis Management | District Leadership | Organizational Leadership & Change Management | School Leadership
If you are anything like me, you are at a loss for how we are suddenly in the last week of July and barreling straight towards the new school year. After a spring spent in crisis triage mode and a tumultuous summer filled with political and social unrest, there haven't been many opportunities to recharge our batteries and reflect in the ways that we may have in past years. If you are feeling tired, you are not alone. If you are feeling afraid and overwhelmed, you are in good company.
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