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.
The team was sitting together after the final workshop for the final wave of schools jovially enjoying the moment with a sense of accomplishment. We did it. Teams and plans are in place and the momentum is palpable. As we focused on the task for the next hour we had set aside for strategic planning, the question surfaced immediately…What now? The flood gates opened and the previous celebratory moment became distant somehow as we stood staring at the warp speed status…warp 8, warp 9. What did we need to maintain a steady-on course at warp 10? We are a rural, Alaskan district the size of West Virginia with an impressive amount of diversity within our realm. Our challenges are significant, but this point in our growth is not unique to us. Our Education Elements partners had seen this before. In the Kenai, we navigate our waters with practiced skill, but we are talking about changing our paradigm…We are now operating under the belief that everyone in our organization deserves their learning and growth to be personalized. Can we personalize professional development for teachers? Is it possible to build leadership opportunities for teachers who don’t want to leave the classroom? Can teacher leadership impact the culture of professional growth in schools? Yes! This IS possible!
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“I found my people!” “This is like church!” “I feel so energized!” “Can we do this in our district?” These are just a few of the exclamations we heard at our National Leadership Institutes in 2019. We envisioned these events as a place to bring together leaders from across the country focused on similar problems of practice, but never imagined the depth of collaboration, learning, and friendship that would result.
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There are many avenues you can take when making change in your organization. Change can be made at the structural level by redesigning the way teams are organized. Change can be made at the team level by refining the way collaboration happens. Change can be made at the individual level by evolving personal habits and practices.
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Erica Williams Simon, founder of Snapchat’s Creator’s Lab and one of my favorite millennials on a mission, wrote in this tweet that the best career advice she can give is to never attach yourself to a person, place, company, or project, but rather a mission, a calling, or a purpose. I’ve been a teacher, a policy researcher, and an EdTech leader, and my purpose guiding me through each of those roles was to create equitable experiences and opportunities for all learners.
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Leadership | Personalized Learning
Personalized learning has captured the attention of many education reformers. Much of the conversation is around utilizing a personalized learning approach to enhance student engagement, and thereby, increase student achievement. I believe that many school districts are confusing personalized learning with offering programs that constitute personalized pathways. Pathways can be viewed as magnet programs, innovative programs, career technical education programs, debate, dual enrollment, international and global studies, dual language programs, and advanced placement. Although these programs provide school choice to students, by offering them a wide array of schools to attend where they can pursue a passion or program of interest specifically to them, this does not address the necessary changes in instructional practices inherent in personalized learning.
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To create the schools children deserve, we must coach educators and leaders for equity. It isn’t an option for coaches to be neutral on issues of justice — and there are injustices occurring in almost every school, every day. It’s our moral and professional obligation to lead and coach in a way that surfaces and interrupts these inequities.
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