Ethics needs a Model!

see it directly at: Rhymes with Orange (http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/home.php?date=20061205)

Saw this a little while ago and couldn't help but think of how many times this happens! How many people just don't get it...people write, people create, people spend time, energy and effort and often they are taken for granted. Sometimes we're just too flippant...Even when we're trying to teach others we forget for ourselves...we follow that old adage "Do what I say not what I do!" Why/When will we change it to "you choose; do what I say OR even what I do!"

MODEL MODEL MODEL MODEL MODEL

Teach for America: The Recruiter: changing education today!

WOW! Just read this article from Fortune Magagine... "The Recruiter" by Patricia Sellers

You can find it at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/11/27/8394324/index.htm

The article explains how Wendy Kopp has been able to convince thousands of elite university graduates to train with her program "Teach for America", work in local schools and get paid a fraction of their future professional wages for two years in order to 'give back' to the community, to better America. WOW! She really did start the American Teach-Corps! Why don't we have this in Canada? One woman, one young woman is making a HUGE difference in the education of millions not to mention national pride, community giving, helping others, growth in empathy...

....just WOW!

Mentoring Toward an Exit: Which way to go from here?

Mentor has developed the department. She has invested many years to build an understanding of her domain, Technology in Education. She has worked with the community at large, school administrators, lay leaders, Ministry representatives, consultants, teachers, students, even parents to ‘get the word out’, to help people understand the importance of changing the learning environment. Her twist, her niche, her in-road is to use technology as a catalyst for change. Traditional education does not work with today’s youth and it is time for teachers, administrators and even parents to meet the students on ‘their turf’, to value the new world of work, one where teamwork and communication have replaced the old “3 Rs”. Technology is a tool to be exploited for this function. And that is her goal; to change education to meet the needs of students!

Life’s circumstances have changed for the Mentor and she is looking forward to new challenges. She would like to at least cut down the hours she works, the ideal solution is to hire someone, mentor that person with the understanding that the Mentee would learn “the ropes” and then replace the Mentor!

The mentorship began as an exit and succession strategy for the Mentor. The relationship developed, it enriched the life of Mentor as well as Mentee. The connection strengthened, the conversations between Mentor and Mentee deepened and the lines blurred…just who was mentoring whom? And what was the topic of the mentorship?

For the Mentee the content of the new position, the day-to-day functions, the short and long-term planning, the various projects, the relationships to be built with community members, even the departments’ long-term goals were explored. The U.S. Department of Labor’s SCANS (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) Competencies and Foundation Skills, lists five areas of competence:
• Resources. The ability to identify, organize, plan, and allocate resources.
• Interpersonal. The ability to work well with others
• Information. The ability to acquire and use information.
• Systems. The ability to understand complex interrelationships.
• Technology. The ability to work with a variety of technologies
(From http://www.icouldbe.org/standard/schools/schools_evaluation.asp )
These SCANS competencies are clearly the ones Mentee was working on!


For the Mentor the art of sharing information, resources, sharing physical space, truly understanding the motivations and context of the community members’ ideas and ideals, learning to strip away the ‘politics’ and understand different peoples’ motivations, worries, professional and even personal agendas was a challenge. Exhilirating! Motivating! Time worthwhile as Mentor and Mentee were developing a meaningful relationship with one another. After all as the people from Mentor.ca write; “At the core of virtually all successful and personally satisfying mentoring is a meaningful relationship with another person.” (http://www.mentors.ca/mentortips.html)

The shoe dropped. Mentee is unhappy. The reasons are real. The motivation is gone. In time the Mentee will leave. What will the Mentor do if and when this happens? This is an adventure, an adventure for your mind. Read on and choose your own ending for this adventure as you explore the Mentors’ options.

Ending One:
Mentor is disappointed. She reflects on the situation and understands that sometimes things just do not work out. The mix of people and relationships are not always clear. It did not work. Let us try again she says and looks forward to working with a new hire and beginning the process once again.

Ending Two:
Mentor is disappointed. She reflects on the situation and understands clearly the challenges and disappointments the Mentee faced. She sympathizes with the Mentee as she realizes that those same challenges were hers and she was unable to overcome them herself. While she was in that position her coping mechanisms were basically to ignore the shortcomings of others, to turn the other cheek and focus solely on the goal of the position: to change education to meet the needs of students! Further, the Mentor realizes that these challenges, these personal relationships will not change and she feels helpless in her ability to assist anyone else to overcome them. She has always believed and lived by her personal rule of not asking anyone to do anything she was not prepared to do herself. And, if she herself couldn’t successfully live with and work with these difficult situations she could not possibly stand by, train and work with someone else and then leave them to fend for themselves. She just could not leave someone else in the difficult environment as it stands and since the Mentor cannot change the environment she chose to leave the department, move on to her new life’s challenges and chalk it all up to experience!

Ending Three:
Mentor is disappointed. She believes that in order to maintain her personal integrity she must follow her heart, make a statement and end with Ending Two. However, this Mentor was always an idealist. This ending is just not right. Challenges remain; she built a department that will more than likely die if she were to leave it like this. Her initiatives will fall by the wayside and most importantly the work that she accomplished, to date, will be lost! Who will continue? What type of legacy did she leave? She feels like a failure! And so, full of disappointment but ideals intact the Mentor stays to fight the fight.
The Mentor realizes that her role of leader has been informally changed to not only leading change with her own succession but also to lead the change of her supervisors and the larger department where she is a team member. This will be messy. This may even be considered by others as unprofessional but this Mentor sees it as her only solution. She will call a meeting with her supervisor’s supervisor, and move higher and higher up the chain of command to people who will finally listen. At the same time she will bring the issues to the attention of the lay leaders, the board that oversees the department. All this in an effort to bring about change of leadership styles and put into play processes for accountability, openness, honesty and integrity! She will do all that she can do to not only mentor a new Mentee (or even perhaps the original Mentee) but also to change the work environment and leave the legacy that she believes in. In this process the Mentor will not only accomplish her original goal to change education to meet the needs of students but also her new goal to assist in the development of a Educational Services Department whose core value is to work with integrity, understanding and the value of others. She will finally be able to leave knowing she helped to create the ideal work environment, where others will clamor to learn, work and be involved. Where her legacy lives!

Which ending will our Mentor choose? What will be her legacy?
Our Mentor did choose Ending Three, she spoke with her supervisor’s supervisor, the Chairman of the Board of the department and even a community director. Mentee stayed in the department and continues to work with Mentor although their interactions are less frequent but none-the-less intensive. Mentor took her retirement and although she made it known to her supervisor, her supervisor’s supervisor, the Chairman of the Board as well as the community leader that during ‘retirement’ she felt it necessary to give of herself to a community not one of these individuals asked for her assistance. As a matter of fact her old supervisor has even snubbed her by not even acknowledging her presence at both professional and social events…another incident indicating a lack of understanding of the importance of human resource management abilities.
I must admit that as the Mentor (I’m sure you guessed it by now!) I am VERY PROUD of my behavior. I stood up for what I believed in. I tried to work with the system and yet work outside the box by bringing new and innovative policies and procedures to my work. I created a department (albeit of one!) that works with a team of teachers and created a community of learners amongst the technology educators from the schools of the Association. I really did try to use positive human resource management! The leadership of our community continues to disappoint me. I brought a very difficult situation to their attention. They, at first, seemed to be supportive and interested in helping to make change. After all they realized that it was not only me who was leaving, other key individuals in our department have also left. I’ve heard that the working conditions in this department remain the same. I have moved on to work in other organizations that seem to better understand the importance of human resource management, organizations that acknowledge the time and efforts of others, supervisors who value the knowledge, skills and interactions of team members as they work together. Perhaps Mentee with a new vision and voice will be help to augment the human resource management skills of the community.

The Red Shoes

Appearances can be decieving...that's one of the lesson learned in The Red Shoes. We learn that differences can/should be celebrated, that there is often more to something than meets the eyes. My five words for what I learned from this unbelievably moving, heartwarming, story were:

misplaced treasure escape or rescue?

What does this mean you ask?

This summer I had the pleasure of enjoying a cruise on the Baltic Sea. We visited the port city of Gdansk, Poland. As we toured the city with a WWII survivor, a worker who fought for Solidarite (and had the scars to prove it!) we entered the market place. Our friends had just purchased a new home in Montreal and wanted to check out the antique stores. I had my reservations. I, being Jewish, with relatives from Poland who escaped the Holocaust was very uneasy. I expressed my concerns as I said to my friends that I was afraid to find "my family's treasures" in the antique stores. We continued. We entered the first antique store and lo and behold as I looked around I saw a silver Passover seder plate engraved with the Hebrew words for the six items we use to commemorate the Jews' escape from Egypt during the Passover seder. I was shaken. I showed the plate to my husband and our friends and proceeded to exit the store. Upon returning to the ship that evening I could not wait to share my "find" and my unease with my mother. I called her at home in Montreal and recounted the story and my horror at viewing "my family's treasure". My mom, who was never a teacher but remains the best educator I've ever known, exclaimed, "WOW! So I hope you bought it! You did, didn't you?" When I sheepishly replied that I ran out of the store, that I had felt the need to escape she said that next time I should think about buying it to "bring it home where it belongs!"

The Red Shoes:
...perception
...different ways of seeing
...the whole story
...understanding differences
...or simply:

misplaced treasure escape or rescue?

Culmination

Joanne Rooney in The Principal Connection/Finding Our Voice tells us that "Learning for all students was the goal of our profession long before that goal morphed into a jumble of high-stakes testing...Our conversations have always aimed at creating and sharing the wisdom of practice. As principals, we need to affirm, support, and communicate how we want to reimagine schools for our students." Ms Rooney continues to outline her fantasy:

On a Sunday morning, I open the newspaper read by thousands in the urban area where I live. Prominently placed is a full-page statement listing the beliefs that practicing professionals hold dear and the pledges they make as educators:

• All children can and will learn.
• Learning is a lifelong activity.
• Problem solving and creative thinking are paramount goals.
• Learning cannot be measured solely by psychometric data or single-day assessments.
• Schools must nurture each student's talents.
• Schools must be a safe haven for students' minds, hearts, and souls.
• Graduates must be prepared to face the challenges that life presents and be filled with respect for the majesty of the world of which they are the custodians.

Thousands of school leaders will have signed this statement. My fantasy expands to envision every major newspaper in the United States publishing this statement on the same day. On this day, our common voice will state that we—the education professionals—must determine what students need to learn, how we should assess them, and how we can deal with the ever-expanding diversity of our schools.

This may not be the best or the only way for us to speak. Perhaps it is time for radical action, to march in the streets until we are heard. Whatever we do, we can no longer afford to sit by as our profession is hijacked and sold to the highest bidder.

Mine is just one voice, but I believe many principals agree. It is time for our conversation to rise in a collective voice that demands a response.

WOW! Ms. Rooney count me in! Why can't we sent this to all the newspapers? Why not!

Developing a Vision of Leadership and Accountability

I find the notion of accountability a very powerful notion for while proving myself accountable I find value in what I do. By reviewing my own work, by proving my own accountability I validify my own accomplishments, I feel proud of what I've done and have a clearer view of where I am going, my future goals and objectives. So, with this in mind, I found it very interesting that accountability is often thought of with negative connotations (K. A. Sirotnik, (May 2002). Promoting Responsible Accountability in Schools and Education. Phi Delta Kappan, 83 (9), 662-673.) Sirotnik goes on to talk of the need for "PRAISE not punishment" isn't this the notion behind our (Quebec) reform? To think of what/how our students are competent not the mistakes they make but how they move forward along the continuum? Or, as Sirotnik puts it "demonstrate publicly who students are, what they know, what they care about and are able to do, and what they can become.
When we do take the "moral stance that requires the courage to operate on the principle that equal is not necessarily equitable, that more resources will have to be distributed to the least advantaged schools and communities" as Sirotnik suggests I smile to myself and realise that this is the way my husband and I have tried to raise our children. Since they were very young we've told them that each of them gets what they need when they need it... for example, just because it's winter not everyone needs a new winter snowsuit or new skis, if last years fits then good. But, if one has outgrown or worn out their previous things then they will benefit from new 'stuff'. Schools also need different equipment and resources at differing times and some need more than others. The notion of equity is not equal but one of creating equity for all "in the long run" hence Sirotnik's comment that "responsible accountability systems will require a long-term focus." This notion of accountability can only be accomplished once we truly believe that "children have unlimited potentioal, capacity, propensity, and capability to become. The task of political infrastructures and school systems is to create environments within which this "becoming" is possible."
Hhhhmmmm....after over 20 years of professional employment in the education system in Quebec, after being an administrator and consultant for nearly 15 years I am embarassed to say that I was thrilled to read the Canadian Teachers' Federation's stance on accountability as published in the bilingual brochure "Canadians Talk about Schools and Accountability". I was not aware of thiese resolutions and agree with ALL!

Relationships, Politics, and all that Jazz

Susan and Louise facilitated an activity where we were asked to answer questions about our workplace with one-word, they collected the answers and arranged them visually on a scale of positive through negative. Even though we all work in different places it was eye-opening to find that although many of us enjoy our work most seemed to be uninspired or even unhappy in the workplace. Is this because we have high expectations? Is this because we prefer to do our work in isolation and not in teams? Is this because the structures of our workplaces are not keeping up with the expectations of our personal-professional goals and objectives? This activity was truly engaging, eye-opening and deserved much more time for I wish I could begin to answer these questions but know that they will remain unanswered!
After this week's session I read this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, U.S. Poet, essayist and transcendentalist (1803-1882), "People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character" (Friday, Nov. 24, 2006, The Montreal Gazette) and found it extremely interesting. We had been asked our opionions of our (work) world and many of us found much of our world lacking or not meeting our expectations...many of us are unhappy with our work-world. Could our unhappiness reflect a negative outlook on life? If so, I wish to change...I want to be more positive! I was told a long time ago that it is easier to smile than frown, it is easier to be happy than sad. My husband, when I complain, tells me to look at the positive.

A short anecdote:
One of my sons, when in grade 7 did not like his drama class. At the student-led parent-teacher interviews the teacher practically ignored my husband and I and interviewed our son. She noted a decline in both his work and most importantly his attitude. He had become disruptive in class, walked in late (often with a group of friends) and did not complete his work. The teacher proceeded to let this 13 year old boy know that he was very capable of the work. She told him that she knew he was a leader and that leaders had much responsibility and that the most important choice any leader has is to choose to lead positively or negatively ...it was up to him to choose.
Today, I choose to look at life positively, to realise that I am responsible for my own feelings and actions and have the power to change!

Responsibilities Under the Education Act

Responsibilities Under the Education Act

Roles and Responsibilities

1. Principals and Administrators
2. School Board (AJDS schools) or Governing Boards
3. Students
4. Parents

Message from the minister is “an act of sharing” with the public. The Minister started “sharing” with other professionals simply by writing and publishing the “New Provisions on the Education Act.

Schools 3-fold mission: to Educate, to Socialize, to Qualify

Education project now based on the analysis of the situation (needs of the students, challenges tied to student success and characteristics and expectations of the community.

1. Success Plan:

• Approved by the governing board
• Include measures to be taken
• Methods for evaluation

2. Accountability to parents and community

• Educational project and success plan to be made public
• Report on the evaluation of the implementation of the success plan

Sharing Responsibilities: A Professional Story

Committees, Boards, Administrators, Educators
and their responsibilities
A professional story

An educator was asked by her children’s school to be the chairperson of a sub-committee of the education committee. Wanting to help the school, its students and especially her own children she accepted the responsibility. She pulled together a group of interested and invested parents, teachers and administrators. The committee met regularly. They conducted a survey to look at the current activities offered students, the methods and practices of the teachers as well as the parents’ expectations. They conducted research into different methodologies, processes as well as classroom and school-wide organization for their domain. They visited other schools both in-person as well as virtually (on the web). They consulted academia at the local university and through readings from professional magazines, news media and books on the subject. From all their work the group created a document outlining a series of recommendations and suggestions for improving the education and socialization of their students in the particular domain. One could also say that implementing (most if not all of) the recommendations would help to qualify students for both further study and ultimate employment. The committee presented their report to the school principal, administrator, school board representatives as well as the would-be affected teachers (at least one of whom was on the committee). The presentation went extremely well. The committee was commended on its hard work and the principal stated that most of the recommendations would be implemented the following school year while others would take up to three years to implement. The committee chairperson was thanked and felt that all the work was worth it, that change would be forthcoming. Summer was here and it was time to enjoy the sunshine and time off with her family.

August was almost over and school began. The educator and her children went back to their respective schools. Towards the end of October (almost a full two months into school) the educator was faced with a very frustrated child. The class in the domain that the educator had worked tirelessly the previous year to improve frustrated the child. The educator called the school principal and asked if any of the recommendations had been implemented as had been discussed. The principal replied that at school’s commencement the classroom teacher felt them impossible implement.

What is the educator to do?
What should the principal do?

Budgeting and Financial Statements

School-based budgeting "shifts decision-making responsibilities from the district office to the principals, teachers and community members." School-Based Budgeting ERIC Digest Number 131...sounds like a very logican solution after-all who would better know the community's priorities and challenges better than the community! After reading about School-Based Budgeting we looked at Performance-Driven Budgeting: The example of New York City's Schools. Eric Digest and read of a very successful pilot project that once completed was not continued. Why? How could it be that after positive pilot the government turns back to centralization? Why bother do the pilot in the first place? Isn't it time for the governments to stop "playing politics" on the backs of our students?!
A very interesting read "How to Find, Raise, and Attract Money in Hard Times" by R.D. Ramsey (2001). My retirement (earlier this year) has allowed me the opportunity to demonstrate my thankfulness by giving me time to work for worthy causes, to help others. I am now on the Board of Directors as well as the Fundraising Committee for the Alzheimer Groupe Inc. At our most recent committee meeting I took the liberty of sharing some ideas noted in this article. Most important for us was the notion of "getting noticed". We all know that publicity helps but we often get caught up with "doing" something, even something very worthy that should be noticed and are then "put-off" when we are not noticed or, even worse, are jealous when another worthy cause or program does get noticed. We don't often think that WE could be the one to change that, that WE are responsible for COMMUNICATING our successes---even to the media!
This has happened to me professionally---Dr. Ken, you will read more about this in one of my Professional Stories.

Funding Education in Quebec

Reading through the document entitled "Funding for Education in Quebec at the Preschool, Elementary and Secondary School Levels: 2005-2006 School Year" I was intrigued to find in section 2.2.3 Method of Allocating Capital Resources that this "basic alocation is mainly used to acquire furniture, equipment and tools (FET) for general education and vocational training, to improve and refurbish buildings (IRB) and to develop computer systems." Although, I am quite certain that this amount is not large enough it does imply to me that there is an anual budget line for technology...and yet, most schools that I've worked with rely on other sources of income to "improve and refurbish" their technology assets.
Budgeting, I believe is a necessary evil...something we must teach our students, our children to do regularly as habit, to review and revise as course of action.
On a personal note, I watch with awe the negotiating powers and fiscal responsibilities our sons (16 and 19 yrs old now) have developed over the past 5 years since we stopped dolling out a weekly pittance (usually called an allowance) and began to use online banking to deposit into their respective bank accounts a monthly amount to pay for: school lunches, transportation, entertainment, special purchases (anything Mom or Dad deem as unnecessary such as expensive name-brand t-shirts etc.), savings and charity. Each of our boys is responsible to create a spreadsheet detailing his monthly spending, identify where he was over or under, look for trends, look for ways to save and understand the true value of the dollar. As the boys grow they add their own earnings and other expenses. The older one now budgets for his University expenses which include his dorm, food, transportation home, telephone, internet connection and more. These skills are lifelong and necessary.
School administrators and even classroom teachers should all have a notion of how much they spend and where the money comes from. This should not be a hindrance but perhaps if teachers knew more about the costs of what they currently do they would not be so quick to say "my school can't afford _____" but "if we saved on _____ perhaps we could buy _______"!

Capacity Building

Capacity: How much can we hold? What is the capacity? Can we really increase the amount we can hold/the capacity? OR are we to re-phrase and say shift or change the content...when the glass is full must we spill out a bit to add something new or different? Click here for some interesting ideas on Capacity Building in Education.

Remembering Forward an intriguing notion (Carson, 1992) that implies that perhaps with practice we can accomplish more; that by imagining the end-product, what is to be accomplished we can create the road-map to successfully attain the goal(s). hhhhmmmm lots here to think about, essoteric and yet tangible, simple yet complex ...my mind is cycling dizzily and I must leave these thoughts for now, hopefully return later with more.

Learning Communities: funny how for most of my professional life I've tried to build professional learning communities where people (mostly teachers) would share, collaborate and learn together and yet finally as I read "How Are Professional Learning Communities Created? History Has a Few Messages", by Bruce Joyce (Sept. 2004, Phi Delta Kappan) EUREKA! It hit me... Who wants collaborative work? NOT teachers, "many people selelct teaching precisely because schools are workplaces of high isolation." WOW I've been trying to change people who don't want to change! This actually validates my constant frustration as I've often felt less of an educator and more of a sales and marketing person trying to sell my ideas. Not very encouraging however, knowing that the true challenge is not to educate others on HOW to create & nurture Learning Communities but to ENCOURAGE and MOTIVATE teachers to a shared belief that the creation Learning Communities will help them accomplish the universally shared goal of better student learning. hhhhmmm add to this the finding of Michael Huberman and Matthew Miles as cited by Bruce Joyce in "How Are Professional Learning Communities Created? History Has a Few Messages (Sept. 2004, Phi Delta Kappan) that "commitment follows competence" that "many teachers need to experience cooperative professional inquiry before they will commit to it." NOW, knowing that my challenge is to change someone's belief and culture AND that "selling" it to them will not work before they have the skills necessary to conduct themselves in the "new culture", how am I to accomplish my goals???

Decentralization and Centralization

School Based Management or School Based Decision Making is the inherent philosophy in all of the schools of the Association of Jewish Day Schools (in Montreal) as these schools are considered private schools. Each school has its own Board of Directors which oversee many committees that strive to implement change and growth through shared decision-making. Each school follows its own philosophy and implements academic activities it believes best benefit students.
Often parents participate in committees and even on the board. They work tirelessly to support the school administrators by conducting research (surveys, academic searches, looking for latest and best educational practices...), making suggestions and recommendations to better lead the school through the ever-changing times we live in. These suggestions and recommendations are then submitted to the administration who usually appreciate the work and yet too often, when these recommendations are to be moved to implementation they are stopped.

There seems a disconnect between what the admin said and what the teachers will do. But why? Why does this happen so often? Is this problem with administration? Does this mean that teachers are resistent to change? How does the Board and its sub-committees ensure their work is not for naught? How can one ensure that SBDM is followed by the school staff?

Leadership vs. Management

Managers
manages
models
sets standards
has foundation of knowledge in management or administration
controls

Leaders
leads
models
motivates
knows & understands education, guidance
creates links/connections
provides information, resources
creates trust
fosters experimentation/creativity ensures task completion
let's go


As I created this list I couldn't help but remember my job as manager of management training at a large company. The frustrations of that position, the difference between management and leading was and is clearly embedded in my mind. I struggled to EDUCATE, to TEACH, to LEAD the managers but the job required one to manage to train. I was frustrated and ultimately returned to the field of education where we work to lead, to facilitate learning.

My Common Place Book

The Common Place Book is what finally pushed me to create this blog. I've always had much to say and do with regard to education and learning and like the traditional teacher (I've claimed NOT to be!) I have never published my own reflections, feelings, dreams, dissapointments or challenges. I've written some but never on the world-forum. Here I am, participating in the second-to-last course I must take for a Certificate of Leaders (not even sure the title) that I began as part of a previous employment when the professor assigns the task of creating and maintaining a Common Place Book. As I begin to understand the concept, I realise with all my Educational Technology background that this is the PERFECT opportunity for me to begin blogging....here we go!

For this Common Place Book I will reflect upon the class readings and discussions as I make sense of them in my personal context--with my background, my life -- hhhhmmmm now isn't that what we educators call differentiation?