New Beginnings Require a New You

     I've often wondered what percentage of educators heading back to school in any given year start the school year in a new position. There are numerous possibilities in this scenario:

• a teacher with a new prep, a new grade level, or a new leadership position (i.e. grade level chair or department chair)
• a new-to-admin administrator or an administrator with a new position
• an educator (teacher or administrator) at a different school than last year
• a teacher or administrator with some combination of these, such as an educator with a new position at a new school 

All of these scenarios qualify as new beginnings, and they all can be equally exciting and terrifying, even for seasoned veterans.

     Many educators who will be starting the school year in a new position or with new responsibilities earned their way there. Conversely, there certainly are many other educators who find themselves beginning the school year in a new position due to some other circumstances. Nevertheless, new beginnings are new beginnings no matter the "why" of the "new." Chances are that one of these scenarios applies to you or someone you know.

     Clearly there are numerous qualities, skills, performance indicators and past successes that might earn you a new position. They might include:

• distinguishing yourself as a master teacher
• demonstrating leadership skills and potential
• mastering new skills or competencies
• completing a training programs, certification or advanced degree
• consistently hitting or exceeding benchmarks or targets 

     Whether you earned your new position because supervisors observed these firsthand or because you demonstrated your excellence to an interviewer, the very things - both qualitative and quantitative - that got you there may, in fact, threaten your success in the new position. Seriously. This may seem counter-intuitive, so take a moment to consider that statement again but written in a slightly different way. The very qualities that made you successful in the past and helped earn a new position or new responsibilities might actually threaten your future success.

     What???
     It seemed all wrong to me, too, at first. Let's explore this idea, though.
     Your new position has "new" written all over it. You can count on new challenges to overcome, new problems and puzzles to solve, new relationships to build, new personalities to figure out, new culture(s) to learn, new social/political dynamics to navigate, new stakeholders to serve, new supervisors to please, new goals to set, new plans to develop and execute, and more. If, when you attack all these new tasks and challenges, you use only the arsenal and toolkit you brought with you from your former position, you will not be equipped to be successful.

     New beginnings require a new you. It's that simple. The more "new" that lies ahead, the more "new" you are likely to need in your personal inventory of qualities and skills moving forward. Perhaps you excelled at speaking to and addressing small audiences and now you will be addressing full auditoriums. Maybe you excelled at teaching pre-calculus and now you will be teaching AP calculus. It could be that you successfully served as an assistant to a principal who led a staff of thirty and you now will lead your own staff of forty. Perhaps you led informally and unofficially in your school and now you will be leading from a position that comes with your name and title on the door. You'll likely need new stories and anecdotes to tell, new ideas for meetings and conferences, new approaches to connecting with new stakeholders and maybe - brace yourself - new ways of thinking about things and looking at the world. The list of possibilities is endless but the same principle applies. New beginnings require a new you.

     The good news is that your new beginning does not require an entirely different you but rather a new, upgraded version of the successful you that exists already. In other words, you shouldn't plan to abandon the things that made you successful but rather focus, sharpen, hone, expand and improve those things. There's more good news. There are simple steps you can take to enhance the already-successful you and awaken the new you, the version of you that will be poised for future success. Let's take a look at few of the more important things you should do to start developing the new you that is ready to tackle the new beginning:

• Ask questions - learn as much as you can about the new culture, new systems, new procedures, new personalities, new expectations, etc.
• Read voraciously - from articles online to blogs to books, there simply is nothing you can't learn more about if you will seek out quality reading material.
• Be humble - do not pretend to know it all or have all the answers, but rather be vulnerable, honest and willing to seek counsel.
• Find partners - seek out people who you can go to for advice, to use as a sounding board and who will be a source of encouragement.
• Request feedback - ask for 360-degree feedback on how you are performing, how others feel about you, how you can improve, etc.
• Address shortcomings - acknowledge then attack your growth areas head on and work to get better in those areas.
• Be yourself - never forget who you are and the things you've experienced that make you who you are today, just don't become complacent and content with yesterday's version of you; a new you is still you.

     If you mistakenly believe that everything that has worked for you in the past will work again, you may be headed for trouble in your new position. Many of the intangibles that may have made you successful previously - flexibility, adaptability, people skills, emotional intelligence, humor, innovation - will still be valuable, so don't discount those. You likely will need to hone and refine one or several of those, though. Furthermore, your leadership style may need adjustments, your go-to methods for giving and receiving feedback may need to change, even the vocabulary you use daily might need revision. With some effort and a growth mindset, you can be every bit as successful moving forward as you have been in the past. Your new beginnings, though, require a new you. Your new beginnings, whatever they may be, provide you an opportunity - and one you might not have had otherwise - to create a new, improved version of you that keeps you moving toward the best possible version of you. Embrace your new beginnings and be proud of the new you that you're going to become.    

Going Back to Work

     Going back to work... There's more here than meets the eye. First, the new school year starts for me in two days, so I will be going back to work in the most traditional and obvious sense very soon. Second, I have taken a hiatus from posting here for some time but I will be returning the blog to record, reflect and share ideas, so this will be a different kind of work for me. Third, I have committed to take better care of me physically, emotionally and intellectually than ever before, and that is yet another kind of work.
     Allow me to make a confession. I love summertime as much as anyone else in education and I often find myself clinging to the last days of July, wishing they would pass by just a little more slowly. Don't get me wrong. I love being a high school principal and that's what I am meant to be doing right now. It's a tough job, though, and a job that requires a great deal of emotional and physical energy. Summer provides me the time I need to recharge to get ready to hit the ground running when the new school year arrives so I covet my summer days and nights. As I mentioned, my summer ends shortly and that time for me will be here in less than 48 hours. Gasp!
     Every year, though, something interesting happens a few days before I return to school, and it happened again this weekend. I woke up this morning completely energized and entirely ready for the year. Just like that, I'm recharged and ready again. Well, sort of... In truth, I never fully disconnect from the previous year and I never really keep the upcoming year at arm's length. While I don't spend hours during any given summer day reflecting or thinking ahead, I do spend mental energy doing both at least a few minutes each day. I read books, articles, blogs, tweets and more. I jot down ideas for calendar items, themes for the year, points of emphasis for the year, and topics for assemblies, faculty meetings, new-teacher in-service and more as they come to me, but I often don't dwell on them. Instead, I let these ideas swirl around, largely unsupervised, in my mind all summer and then - I promise it happens every year - I wake up one morning and I have concrete ideas and energy to spare. That morning was this morning, and I've spent a significant amount of time today thinking and preparing mentally for this week, the following week, the week the kids return and beyond. Let the record show that I am ready to go back to work.
     At least one of you has noticed (you know who you are and you may indeed be the last of your kind) that I have not posted here for quite a while. Most of the mental energy it takes to write has been devoted to a creative writing project. I won't bore you with the details here right now, but it has taken much of my spare time and creative energies. I'm only a fraction of the way through it, so don't expect any announcements any time soon. Nevertheless, I have been thinking for a few months now that returning to my blog might be a good idea. I think it will be healthy for me. I like (read need) to hash out ideas in writing and I certainly will be exploring new ideas and new perspectives in my professional life in the coming weeks, months and years. Additionally, my hope is that some of the things I share here will be helpful to you, too. My goal will be to blog and continue writing creatively, and that's going to require a lot of energy. Let the record show that I am ready to go back to work.
     As I wrap up a successful tenure at one school and begin a new chapter in my life at another school, I already know that the new job will require me to be at the top of my game. To prepare for that challenge, I have worked hard this summer (and the past several months, actually) to make sure that I am in the best shape possible physically, mentally and intellectually. I have devoted serious time and energy to taking care of my body, my mind and my soul recently. I can say without hesitation that I am in the best overall shape I can remember. In fact, I'm pretty sure my overall health right now is better than it ever has been. I am not finished, though. My commitment is to continue to improve. Why now? I know I have a responsibility to my new team, my new kids, and my new community, while I still have an ongoing responsibility to myself, my family and my friends. This is going to take a lot of effort. Let the record show, however, that I am ready to go back to work.
     I realize this post borders on reflective rambling so I am thankful you are still reading. The next post, though, will be substantive and will touch on each of these aforementioned ideas as I talk more about my new position, the new challenges it will present me, and - most importantly - how this new chapter will require a new improved version of me. I hope you will follow along as I share this and many other reflections and ideas, some of which I've been considering for quite a while and some of which I am sure will surprise me along the way.

The ONLY Way to Do School Right

Let me be clear: there’s no such thing as the only way to do school right. It does not exist. I’ve been reminded of this three specific times in the past few weeks, and I think it’s worth discussion.

Not long ago I had a conversation with one of my colleagues about some of the unique cultural aspects of our school. She commented that some of these aspects seemed puzzling, even strange. I replied that strange may not be the right adjective but perhaps they simply were different, even unique. I went on to explain that every time I visit another school, I discover things that seem different, unique or even strange. The more contact I have with other schools, the more I believe this to be true.

Just this past week, a principal and an exec-level leader from a school in another state visited my campus. As school leaders do when they get together, the three of us talked shop. We compared notes on everything from schedules to hiring and firing to admissions testing to curriculum. We shared things that had worked for us and things that hadn’t. We asked probing questions, offered opinions and shared insights into the business of doing school. At the end of the afternoon, we each took away from the conversation some new ideas about things we could try on our own campuses. However, at the end of the conversation, we each were reminded that our campuses, our students, our faculties, our leadership and our circumstances varied in numerous ways.

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to Kansas State University with college guidance directors from Texas to learn more about the university. Over the two full days I spent with the counselors from schools around the state - and some truly outstanding schools, at that - I once again was struck by the notion that we can do school in myriad ways yet still have a similar outcome: well-prepared, successful kids. As a group we talked specifically about schedules, course offerings, extracurriculars, grades, transcripts, curriculum alignment, college placement, testing and more. There hardly were two schools represented in the group that approached any of these things in the same way. Nevertheless, we all send well-prepared kids into the world each year.

I will be the first to argue that there are non-negotiables in education, things every school should do or emphasize, things every teacher should incorporate into classrooms, things every principal should promote and expect. I also will be the first to argue that there’s no such thing as the only way to do school right. Even when we all are driven by the notion of “what’s best for kids,” we have to approach this notion from different perspectives. We have to keep in mind the varied backgrounds and futures of our stakeholders. We have to consider everything from geography to demographics to socio-economic standing to facilities to school mission to available financial resources when considering the right way to do school for our kids.

While educators can find great ideas and inspiration from collaborating with and learning from others - and in fact should do so on a regular basis - educators must remember that what works for some may not work as well or in the same way for others. The way we schedule the day or generate transcripts or teach grammar at my school may not be ideal for your school. The way you incorporate technology or organize extracurriculars or manage gradebooks at your school may not be ideal for my school. The fact that the ways of doing school varies so much, however, does not mean your way or my way or someone else’s is right or wrong. Just because something we do is right for us does not mean it is the only way to do school right. Education is not as simple as that. We can think in terms of good, better and best, instead of right and wrong, but even those descriptors tend to be relative.

The cautionary lesson to be learned about doing school right is this: when you encounter someone who insists there’s only one way to do school, that everything must be standardized, stop and think for a moment. “The only way to do school right” can’t exist because schools vary as much as the stakeholders they serve. One size absolutely cannot and does not fit all in education. The challenge is to remember how liberating and invigorating education can be when the shackles of standardization and one-size-fits-all are broken. There’s no such thing as “the only way to do school right.”

Note for the grammar police: I am perfectly aware (as evidenced by my proper use of the adverb perfectly) that I have used an adjective as an adverb in the phrase  “the only way to do school right.” Let’s face it. “The only way to do school correctly” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Give me some latitude here. Just saying.

School Leaders' Perspectives on What Teachers Can Learn from Sports Coaches - Part II

In my research for What Teachers Can Learn from Sports Coaches, I had the opportunity to interview numerous high-profile, highly successful coaches at the high school, NCAA and Olympic levels. As I began getting feedback on the book from educators, I realized there were plenty of school leaders with wisdom to contribute on this topic. Inspired to seek more expert advice on the topic, I asked a number of former coaches who now serve in school leadership positions to weigh in on the following question: What lesson or principle about teaching that you learned while coaching do you most frequently emphasize with your teachers? 

If the wisdom below strikes a chord with you, be sure to reach out to the individuals and let them know. I'd also to encourage you to build your PLN by following them on Twitter.

What lesson or principle about teaching that you learned while coaching do you most frequently emphasize with your teachers?

Brett Howard @brethoward33

If you are average, you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top. Who wants to be average?

Mike Zavada @mikezavada

You have to be persistent and positive in your language.  Best teachers and coaches will have students who are able to repeat back language used to describe certain skills 20 years later. These catch phrases repeated over and over ingrain a mental picture of the outcome expected.  This is an essential teaching/coaching skill.  Also, the more consistent you are, the better teacher or coach you will be.

Jon Bosworth @bosworth.jb

Organization and communication need to happen first.

Lucas Leavitt @Lucas_Leavitt

The importance of explicit instruction and repeated practice is vital. As a tennis coach, initial explicit instruction is mandatory to be able to help players learn the correct mechanics of each stroke. Without repeated practice, the muscle memory will not be able to take place and these strokes will not become second nature to the players. This is exactly the same in teaching. Teachers must be taught explicitly how to use specific strategies or methodologies and then need to be provided opportunities for repeated practice where corrective feedback can be given.

Michael McDonough @msquaredbhs

I learned that fair doesn't mean equal. John Wooden wrote about that. If you are working with a student or having to discipline then you should have a fair reaction. It doesn't mean that it's equal to another person who may have done the same (or similar) action. A coach handles different players differently, motivates differently, yet is fair.

Excerpt from What Teachers Can Learn from Sports Coaches - The Game Has Changed

Below is an excerpt from my newest book, What Teachers Can Learn from Sports Coaches, to give readers an idea of what the book really is about. I hope you enjoy the excerpt and I hope you'll consider picking up or downloading a copy of the book.

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What Teachers Can Learn from Sports Coaches
by Nathan Barber
Copyright 2014, Routledge/Eye on Education
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“Athletes and people are happiest when they are improving… You are either getting better or you are getting worse… I find it really tough at any level, but especially with an Olympian that’s no longer getting any better and not improving… we have to deal with some tough stuff. We do whatever we can – with technology, with feedback, with multiple coaches coming from different angles – to keep them improving, because that’s when they are performing at their best.” Marv Dunphy, member of the Volleyball Hall of Fame, Five-Time NCAA National Champion as Head Coach of Pepperdine University Men’s Volleyball, and Gold Medal Winner as Head Coach of the 1988 Olympic Team

The Game Has Changed…

            The game has changed. What game, you ask? Well, virtually every game in the modern sports world has changed since its inception. For some sports, rules have changed, gameplay has changed, equipment has changed, scoring has changed and even the length of the season has changed. The three point line in basketball, the designated hitter in baseball, and the forward pass in football each have irreversibly changed their respective sports. For other sports, the players today are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before, and the very nature of those particular sports have been forever altered because of the changes in the athletes. Usain Bolt in track and field, Lionel Messi in soccer, Tiger Woods in golf, Michael Phelps in swimming, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Brittney Griner in basketball have elevated the level of “excellence” to new heights in their respective sports. Additionally, many nuances of the major sports have changed.

            To be a successful in the sports world today, a good coach must understand change. He not only must acknowledge that his sport changes but also must take measures to keep up with the changes. He must be willing to change his practice approach and his game plan. He must be willing to approach players differently. He must be willing to approach every aspect of the game differently. If there is a coach today using the same approach, same game plan and same practice plan he did twenty years ago, chances are that his program ranks somewhere other than at the top. Because rules, equipment, scoring and even players have changed through the years, no good coach would stubbornly resist change and refuse to stay current. Imagine a basketball coach running the same plays he used before the introduction of the three-point line.

A good coach works hard to stay on top of how his particular sport continues to change or he simply gets passed by. An NCAA or National Football League defensive coordinator better put in extra time to understand how the New Orleans Saints and the Baylor Bears, engineered by Sean Payton and Art Briles, respectively, have changed the game of football offensively. A National Hockey League coach better work hard to find a way to approach Ken Hitchcock’s frustrating, defense-first style of hockey. Coaches who do not keep up with other programs’ innovations will become obsolete very quickly.

            As with the world of sports, the world of education has changed. Historically, education has changed very little until very recently. The stand-and-deliver model of teaching by lecture dominated education for centuries, dating back to the advent of universities hundreds of years ago. Even late into the 20^th century and beyond, such obsolete pedagogy has managed to hang on for dear life in some schools even though the world outside the classroom walls has been changing at an incredible rate. In recent years however, the rules of education have changed, the art of teaching has changed, scoring and assessment have changed, the length of the days and years have changed, and even the students have changed. Imagine a teacher teaching science the way she taught it in the 1970s, or history, or art. Inconceivable! For a good teacher, these changes present opportunities to change with the times and explore new and exciting best practices.

            A good teacher understands that both teaching and learning have changed. Whereas classrooms once were cutting edge with one Apple IIe for students to share, many classrooms today have tablets or laptops in every student’s hands. Classrooms of days gone by used sticks of chalk with chalk boards or black boards, while today’s classrooms often boast interactive whiteboards. Blended classes, digital textbooks, state standardized testing, increasingly competitive college admissions, scores of proprietary curriculum choices, Advanced Placement courses and more have changed not only what teachers teach but how they teach. Similarly, what students learn and how they learn have changed. Research has shown repeatedly that the one-size-fits-all assembly-line method of educating students used so much throughout the 20^th century leads to disinterest and disengagement with 21^st century kids.

A good teacher recognizes that today’s students differ even from students ten years ago. Today’s students are more plugged in than ever. Today’s students have different life goals than students a generation ago. Today’s students face a future that is more uncertain than ever before and employment statistics that are far from encouraging. As a result, what students need in the classroom varies greatly from what students needed in past generations. A good teacher changes her game plan, or lesson plans, to accommodate these changing needs. Because students’ needs have changed and because the ways students’ learn best have changed, a good teacher stays current on changes in teaching and learning by reading, researching, observing others and experimenting with new approaches.

            A good teacher, unafraid to change with the times, rewrites his game plan as often as necessary in order to stay current with best practices. In terms of teaching quality, experience can be priceless. As recent research shows, however, there exists no direct correlation between teacher experience and teacher effectiveness. This largely results from career educators’ inability or desire not to change and update their game plans to give todays’ students what they need. The best teacher in any given building may or may not be the most experienced teacher. The best teacher in the building, though, will not be the one using the same yellowed notes he used three decades ago. The best teacher in the building will not be the one using the same exams he used back when mimeograph machines with purple toner were all the rage. The best teacher in the building will not be the one who has memorized all the lectures and can deliver them with no notes or outlines in front of him. As with coaches who hold on too long to the old ways of doing things, quite possibly, the game of teaching has passed some of these teachers by, thus rendering them obsolete in the 21^st century classroom. The best teacher in the building, regardless of years of experience, does what all good teachers do: he evaluates his game plan often and rewrites his game plan as often as necessary to accommodate the changing needs of the students and the changing landscape of the real world and does not cling to obsolete pedagogies.

            Perhaps baseball coach John Cohen of Mississippi State University sums this up best. Having led his Bulldogs to not only the College World Series finals in 2013 but also to the most wins in program history in a season, Cohen understands that change and evolution are crucial to continued success. He says of his own coaching and teaching journey, “… the six most dangerous words in the English language: We’ve always done it this way. That’s dangerous because the world is changing. If we were doing it the same way that I was doing it as a young coach 20 years ago, we’d be doing the program a huge disservice. It’s a challenge to make sure you’re constantly evolving.” As Cohen will testify, the challenge certainly is worth it, for you and for those you teach.

Keeping mind that the game has changed, and will continue to change, the obvious question is, “Will you?”

Education News Resources from Around the World

Looking for current news about education? Check the resources below for news outlets' education pages from around the world. I'll be adding additional links in the coming days. If you have an additional link to suggest, contact me via Twitter at @_nathanbarber.

USA

New York Times - Education

Los Angeles Time - Education

Washington Post - Education

The Huffington Post - Education

NPR - Education

Fox News - Education

PBS News Hour - Education

U.S. News and World Report - Education

Education Week

The Chronicle of Higher Education

U.S. Department of Education - News

AUSTRALIA

Sydney Morning Herald - Education

Herald Sun - Education

The Guardian - Australian Education

CANADA

The Globe and Mail - Education

Education in Canada News

The Huffington Post - Canada Education

FINLAND

Helsinki Times - Education

Finland Times - Education

Finnish National Board of Education - Current Issues

INDIA

The Times of India - Education

India Today - Education

Indian Express - Education

IRELAND

The Irish Times - Education

Irish Mirror - Education

The Independent (Ireland) - Education

JAPAN

Japan Times - Education

NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Herald - Education

UK

The Guardian - Education

BBC - Education

The Independent - Education

The Telegraph - Education

The Herald Scotland - Education

Belfast Telegraph - Education