Embarrassed: Teachers, Can We Talk About This?

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I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed to be in a profession where adults working with kids every day are negative, lazy, sarcastic, argumentative, etc. and get away with this type of behavior. I’m embarrassed when my veteran colleagues, who were once really great teachers, become cynical, disengaged, resentful and full of excuses. I’m embarrassed that in our profession there are those who complain about opportunities to improve their practice and take no initiative to seek out professional development on their own. I’m embarrassed by adults who raise their voice to degrade other colleagues. I’m embarrassed that there are bullies who intimidate other faculty and staff members and usually get what they want which reinforces their behavior. I’m embarrassed because these things happen to varying degrees in the subcultures of a school away from the administrator(s). But mostly, I’m embarrassed because I have not done enough to change these lousy attitudes and behaviors. I’ve tolerated it. I’ve avoided conflict. I’ve retreated to the safety of my own classroom. I’ve even taken on more duties just to shut up the complainers. I’ve “walked on eggshells” and done anything to have peace, and civility. What I’ve failed at is holding my colleagues responsible for their speech, attitudes, and actions.

I know that I haven’t done enough to support my school administration in encouraging the behaviors that a positive school culture/climate need. I’ve helped the school by volunteering for a lot of extracurricular activities, but what I’ve actually done is enabled those lazy teachers to be lazier. By trying to show some understanding, I’ve inadvertently encouraged some slackers to use even more excuses for not pulling their weight. By kowtowing to keep peace in the school, I’ve given even more power to bullies, cliques, and those who refuse to cooperate and collaborate. By remaining silent with the majority, my conscience has nagged at me. Have you fallen into the same traps? More importantly, what can we do about it? Where is the balance between doing your part to move a school forward and enabling bad behavior?

A building administrator simply cannot lead a school by him/herself. It takes every teacher being a leader in some capacity for a school to run smoothly. I choose to believe that most teachers are hard working, caring adults that have a passion for working with kids. But the bad behaving teachers often have a disproportionate amount of power and attention. They sap the energy from the school and administrators. Valuable time that could be used for planning and creating innovative experiences for our kids is used to put out fires and manage relationships between warring teachers and teams.

Imagine how our schools would change if EVERY teacher had the mindset that he/she was a leader? Would these leaders tolerate the bad behavior of adults who are dragging others down and most assuredly are also not a good influence on our kids? As teachers and leaders, we have a moral imperative to ensure that students can learn in a safe, positive environment. It’s time to lead up and hold our colleagues responsible. It’s time to break the silence, to expect our building administrators to lead alone, and to do our part in building a positive community of learners. We cannot have effective PLCs with grumps and dumps using their negativity to drag down everyone else. As teacher leaders, we need to learn effective skills to change the bad behavior in our schools. We can’t afford to waste any more time. Our kids depend on us, our administrators need our help and building a positive school climate benefits everyone.

There are two books that I highly recommend. The first is Shifting the Monkey by Todd Whitaker, a person who I admire and learn from daily. It’s a must read book. The second book is Crucial Accountability: Tools for Resolving Violated Expectations, Broken Commitments, and Bad Behavior by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler, which teaches skills for confronting tough issues with colleagues. Both books explain the WHY and the HOW. The risks and consequences for breaking the silence of the majority are lessened by learning skills for dealing with bad behavior. 

I have a few suggestions for teacher leaders (and I’m referring to all teachers) willing to step up and extend their leadership influence beyond their classrooms. 

SHARE the POSITIVE happenings in your school. If you're reading this blog, you're already using social media. Help your administrative leader(s) to brand the school and get the message out to the community. Use #CelebrateMonday and #EdBeat to trend the positive.

Find ways to celebrate your peers. Notes, treats, sticky notes, emails, tweets, etc. acknowledge the practices that your school wants to model for your students. Thank people privately and publicly.

Work on yourself first. Hold yourself accountable for high expectations. Don't get hooked in by negative people.

Read, learn and develop the skills that will help you as a teacher leader. Learn to ignore. After a chronic complainer starts listing their woes, wish them a good day and move on. Don't engage them by showing sympathy, arguing, volunteering to take on some of their work, etc. 

Treat everyone (bad teachers included) as if they were good. Read Shifting the Monkey for a complete explanation of why and how.

Leading a school is a difficult job which is why so few are willing to take on the challenge. I’m grateful to know some of the most amazing educational leaders in the country. Voxer has helped me to connect on a deeper level. I know and feel their passion for education and working with kids. I’m embarrassed that their incredible talent and energy is sapped by bad teachers. I certainly pledge to play a bigger part in school leadership. We all can. Teachers, with a leadership mindset, can make a huge impact on building a positive school culture and climate.

H.E.A.R.T.

H Humility: "Being humble means recognizing that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others." Gordon B. Hinkley

E Empathy:  "Empathy is about standing in someone else's shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place." Daniel H. Pink

A Authenticity:  "What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful." Brene' Brown

R Respect: "re" Latin prefix for "again and again" "spect" means "see" You respect someone or gain respect from others according to what is seen over and over again. 

T Team:  "If you really want to be a successful leader, you must develop other leaders around you. You must establish a team of leaders!" John C. Maxwell

Brain Candy!

I'm finally caught up in my #leadupnow Voxer group! Of all the weeks to not be on social media at all, I picked a doosey! There was so much that happened while I was away! I'm still not caught up on the blogs and Twitter, but I'll get there.

It took me several hours to catch up and the whole time, I was just thinking of this PLN Voxer group being brain candy!

I'm usually impressed with all of the great insights from my PLN. Honestly, there have been some discussions that have just blown me away. Every day is a treat! But this past week was special. Maybe it was a blessing to get behind because I was able to savor every tidbit of sweetness, replay, take notes, and pause to reflect on my thinking.

I'm making a sketchnote of all of the greatness from this week. But, for this blog post, I want to share a couple of highlights.

The topic was Friction-

First of all, this was a week of quotable quotes and metaphors! One minute I was geeking out with my love of science and the next, I was learning a music lesson! I loved it! I'm not an accomplished musician, but I do (or did at one time) play the piano. While listening, I was laughing out loud one minute and in deep self reflection the next. I was touched, inspired, and moved. The resources, pictures, and thoughts are treasures. I've starred almost every Vox!

What I'm happiest about is that #leadupchat is expanding and is starting another Voxer group to include anyone that wants to join.  This will be such a great opportunity to connect with more like-minded educators and learn even more! I'm so grateful for this tribe. I missed them this week.

Amping Up Student Energy and Enthusiasm- House Sorting!

Tuesday was my first day back to school after the holiday break. I wanted to amp up the student engagement for this next block of time. We go off-track in April for a month and return in May for all of the end of year testing. So, THIS is it! I have three months to see how far I can take the kids.

I'm not a Harry Potter fan, but the kids love the books, and so I'm a fan because they're a fan. To engage the kids at even a higher level, I planned a House sorting ceremony. Initially, I was trying to figure out how to make sure that the houses ended up with an even amount of students, boys/girls, and academic ability levels. Decide Now is an app that is a spinner. (Think Ron Clark) I wanted an even number of kids in each house, and so I nixed the spinner. Instead, I cut some paper strips for each house color and had the kids draw out a card. They put on the magical glasses (sunglasses) and drew out a card.

The ceremony was a BLAST! I found this playlist of music from another teacher's blog. When the kids came to school, they heard blaring music coming from my classroom that piqued their curiosity. (I'm in a portable classroom.) The kids came dreading starting school again, but the minute they walked in the room, their eyes lit up.

We danced around for about 10 minutes. Honestly, the only reason we stopped is because of tech issues. For some reason, Air Play stopped projecting from my computer, and that stopped the music. It was a bummer! But, we're very used to just going with the flow. I took the opportunity to take care of attendance, pledge, etc. Next, I explained that our class was going to be sorted into three houses and the significance of the name, color, and animal mascot. These were brief overviews. We'll talk about each one in more depth later. The fourth house (Arete) in the picture is what I'm introducing this next week. I decided to make the fourth house include our whole class.

Sorting Ceremony: (I was going to bring my fog maker, but forgot it as I was rushing out the door.) Oh, well. I had music playing, kids dancing and cheering. Each kid came up to the front of the room, put on the magical glasses, drew a card out of the hat, was rewarded with a necklace of jewels (dollar store) and sat at a desk in their house. Everyone was full of energy and enthusiasm! It was fun! Kids welcomed each other into the respective houses with cheers, claps, high-fives, and fist bumps! As a teacher, I could see the positives of forming smaller families right from the start.

Once everyone had a house, kids moved all of their belongings to a new desk. The only rule that I made was that they had to mix up where the boys/girls sat at each table. I let them sit where they wanted to sit. All of my worries about kids being evenly distributed were for naught. Probability worked in my favor! I have all academic abilities represented in each house, the boy/girl ratio is pretty even, and even behavior issues were dispersed among the three houses. Whew! The simple solution if it had not worked was to have different seating charts for various subjects. (It's an idea from my kids last year.)

The houses compete against each other for points. They earn points by turning in their work, getting a personal best score, positive behavior, volunteering, and all of the soft/leadership skills that I'm trying to reinforce. Kids earn tickets for an end of the week drawing and each ticket is also a point for the house. (The little containers for tickets are from the dollar store.) I also add points for the whole house for having quick and quiet transitions, performing their house cheer with passion, or other team building competitions. The E on the table is a special award for demonstrating "Excellent Effort". Each week, the students vote for someone from their house who shows extra effort throughout the week.

Dividing the kids into houses was one of the best things that I've done. I've always done a lot of team building as a whole class. I've also always had kids in groups of 4-5 students. I'm still doing that for class management reasons. But, I saw a lot of instant "house" bonding. For my three kids that have an especially hard time making friends, belonging to a house is really positive!

One thing that I did to amp up the energy was focus more on bigger celebrations for individuals. I've always done some classroom cheers and songs for brain breaks and a little fun. But, I wanted to level up a bit.  A quick Google search helped me to find more easy cheers and chants. I changed the words to some to fit our school and classroom. I taught the kids to cheer for their classmates based on my verbal cues. For example, if I say a generic "good job" to someone, no one will stop working. But, if I say, "Lindsey, that was an awesome question you just asked!" then the kids spontaneously cheer for 3 seconds. We had to practice cheering "loud and proud" and then sharply stopping and going back to work. They LOVE it! I LOVE it! (If you haven't done this before as a class, make sure to spend time practicing. We practice at the beginning of the year "being wild" and then in 3 seconds, on a quiet signal, to be back to work and focused. They end sharply at the quiet signal so we don't waste any time.)

Our favorite cheer this week was "I Believe!".  I let the kids stand on their chairs, move around the classroom, etc. while another student leads the cheer. It's fun! (We say it 5 times and then it's silent!) It cracks me up! Why are we saying that we'll win? I needed a rival- a target for some competition- and so I looked up the testing scores from a neighborhood school. They are also a magnet school for the gifted and talented. Their scores are always some of the highest because a fourth of their students are enrolled in the gifted program. They don't know it, but according to my kids, they are "the enemy" and we have a "secret plan of attack"! Academically, my students are MUCH lower, but we're improving! I also have the belief that kids will meet whatever expectations that you set. I wanted to raise the bar a little higher. If you want to read about my philosophy about student expectations, go here. Why not let my kids work and try to get a higher score on the end of level test than the magnet school for the gifted? My kids know that testing scores are not our focus, but the competition adds a fun element.

For one of my math lessons this week, I used ixl.com for practice. Our goal all year has been to make it to the Smart Goal of 80. I upped the challenge to make it to 90. Every time someone made 90, we all paused and did our 3-second cheer. The energy was palpable! The kids worked so HARD!!! Not only were they working hard, but they were coaching everyone in their house. My three lowest math students didn't quite make it to 80. Without me prompting, one of my students started the cheer, "I Believe" only changed it to "you" and the kids encircled these three students with their cheers, high-fives, and gentle slaps on the back. These three kids were grinning from ear to ear! I pulled them aside at the end of the day to tell them how proud I was of their efforts. They let me know that they were going to go home and try their hardest to get to 80 or higher. And you know what, they did! I was able to see their time/answers online at home that night. I can't even express the happiness in my heart! The next morning, we celebrated the success of these kids! They had each earned a score of over 80! Wow! This was huge!

We had to take a math test this week, but kids were confident. Our starting class average for the district math benchmark was 7% and on the test this week, our class average was 79%! I am tickled pink and so proud of my kids! We have really worked!

Our closing ceremony for the week on Friday was awesome. I chose one ticket from each house for a special treat, but everyone and their effort throughout the week was celebrated! According to the reflections that the students shared and the 5 min. journal entries, mission accomplished for this week! I raised the bar and the energy! I know that it's only been a week, but I have the momentum in my favor, and that's a good feeling!

**I used some of the House names from the Ron Clark Academy and one of my own. The words, colors, animals, meanings have personal connections to me and are some of my values and passions. Some are personal connections to me because of this particular group of students.

There are deeper meanings/symbolism but in short:

Amistad- Spanish for Friendship Mascot: Hummingbird 
Reveur- French for Dreamer, Creative, Innovator Mascot: Dolphin
Isibundi- Zulu for Courage Mascot: Tiger
Arete- Greek for Excellence Mascot: Falcon (school mascot)

A Few Things That Work

I've been asked many many times to share some of the things that I do in my classroom over the years. BUT, I'm not a cutesy Teachers Pay Teachers/Pinterest kind of teacher with cute downloadable resources. (I sometimes wish I had the talent to make cutsified units.) There is nothing here that is especially creative or Pin worthy. I'm just sharing a few things that work.

 I assign partners for the day- mostly for math. Even though I teach 5th grade, a lot of my teaching is from the carpet area. Kids sit on the floor next to their partner. They decide who is Partner A and who is Partner B. The math problems on the board are a short spiral review. I have all of the kids' names on a half of a 3x5 card on a ring. One year my class named them the "Cards of Death" and the name stuck. It puts everyone on notice that they'll be responsible to answer a question. I let the partners discuss how to solve a problem. Then, I let a kiddo "cut the deck" and I call on a person to go to the board to teach the class how to solve the problem. They can't say that they don't know. They can get some coaching from their partner. (I spend a lot of time teaching kids how to coach each other.)

If there's a chance to teach some vocabulary/spelling during math, I always jump at the chance.

 Whenever there's an opportunity to use a picture book for teaching a math concept (especially for introductions) I use them. There are many books available now that do an excellent job of teaching math through a story. It helps the kids make connections. And...I also use the stories to help teach reading/writing skills.

This particular lesson that introduces division is found here


Schools everywhere are building Makerspaces. My school is not to that point. I certainly can't fund building a Makerspace. I'm starting small.

The cupboards are deceiving. It looks like I have a ton of storage, but in reality I have none. The counter is barely as wide as a piece of paper. I could go on but...

My makerspace items are tucked away in the bench, the stools, and the wicker chest. There are little items in the boxes on the counter. I have a file cabinet to store a few more supplies. I was able to get some grants. With that money, I purchased some MakeyMakey kits and Sphero balls. It's not much, but the whole point is to give kids a chance to create, right? Paper, markers, cardboard, and glue goes a long way.

Epic Fail 2,001 And What I Learned

Today I was the guest moderator of #satchatwc. I was excited to be asked! Unfortunately, I put off until the last minute to plan and prepare. (story of my life) I thought that I came up with a good idea: Moving from Good to Great with the theme/ graphics etc. centered around moving. The questions would be based on Jim Collins' book. I planned to have a Voki dressed as a mover "moderate" the chat. Such were the plans....

But, this week was one of those hectic weeks! It was a great week, but all of my energy went into my kiddos. I didn't make time to prepare things for the chat. Last night, I tried to get everything ready but could not stay awake! I went to bed but was up at 2:30 am forcing myself to prepare for the chat. Being so tired took the fun out of the process.

Making the Vokis took a lot longer to make than I had anticipated. I didn't have time to make the graphics that I pictured in my head. I quickly made some for the questions in Canva. They were not pretty! The questions were pretty standard- somewhat lame. I scheduled the tweets. Luckily, I checked everything about 30 minutes before the chat started. I'd forgotten to add the hashtag to all of the tweets! I guess I was so worried about the Voki/graphic being the same that I overlooked that important detail. I hurried and rescheduled them, but Tweetdeck kept freezing up on me. I was exhausted but got a second wind.

The chat went fine- sort of. I think the Vokis took time to load and that it made it hard for people to follow along and respond. Some didn't even see the Vokis. I had everything on a Smore (luckily!), but it's still hard to follow a chat if you're switching between two screens. I'm sure that it was harder on a phone.

I love the people on #satchatwc! They are my friends in every way, and THAT's why the chat turned out at all. People came to support me. They were positive and kept the conversation going even though I sensed that things weren't going that smoothly. The Vokis did NOT work for a chat! I will not use them again!

I tried something new, and it didn't work out so well from my point of view. I'm grateful that Shelley Burgess is so gracious. She's extremely kind and didn't mind too much that I experimented. Some people genuinely enjoyed conversation with each other despite the tech issues. More than anything, I feel like I let the #satchatwc community down. I wasn't as prepared as I should have been and I felt it. I'm embarrassed but moving forward.

I'm not sure that moderating a chat is for me. When I've done it with someone else, it's been fun. I enjoyed talking with my friends today, but maybe not the responsibility of the chat. I'm STILL having a hard time keeping caught up and finding the questions in other chats. I feel bad when I miss responding to tweets. I don't want to ignore anyone.

Today, I could beat myself up because of a public fail. But, I did something different, and I'm proud of that. Sometimes you have to risk to learn!

Sound of Silence: Bullied Teachers

I've been accused of purposely making other teachers look bad, not being a team player, having too high of expectations for kids, being a bad teacher, being incompetent, and not being friendly. I've also been accused of being the most negative person on the planet, a trouble-maker, and a poor excuse for a teacher. This is the short list.

I will be the first to admit that I haven't always followed along with the crowd. Even as a first-year teacher nearly 30 years ago, I was the teacher that didn't teach page by page out of the textbook and workbook every day. I was the teacher that arranged the desks into tables versus straight rows. I was the teacher that created a comfortable reading center, used games and simulations for learning, decorated my classroom according to various themes, and played with kids during recess. My classroom was different than the traditional classroom. I was different.

Because I marched to a different drummer, I was the target of a teacher bully and her clique of other teachers who were powerful within the school community. The stares, gossip, public shaming, false accusations, isolation, and mistreatment was unbearable at times. The more effort I put into providing opportunities for our students, the more intensified the bullying became. Teachers even stooped low enough to humiliate and mistreat my students. And that was when they crossed the line.

By nature, I'm a pretty quiet person. Being the target of a powerful school bully was not easy. I tried to remain positive. I attempted to ignore as much as I could. But, when it came to bullying students to get to me, I broke my silence. What I found out was that the majority of the teachers were behind me, supported me, agreed with me, but were too afraid to speak up. They knew of the bullying, probably had been bullied as well through intimidation, but chose not to say anything. I don't blame them. It's a common phenomenon. Even I didn't speak up for a long time because of being afraid of more retribution.

In the book, Crucial Accountability by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler, they talk about their research into our human nature to stay silent.

"Speaking of workplace reticence, 93 percent of the people we polled work day in and day out with a person they find hard to work with, but no one holds the person accountable because other employees believe that it's too dangerous."

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm alone in my experience. In fact, I know of another situation close to me where a teacher was bullied by an administrator. The stress was a factor in her having a stroke. I was not silent, and I did pay a price. That's another story. However, I'm glad that I broke my silence.  It took a lot of courage, and it wasn't easy.

The purpose for me writing this post is two-fold. First, to be a voice for those suffering in silence. Administrators are often not aware or in denial about bullying happening on their campus.  The bully isn't easily identifiable in many cases. Bullies and those that form the posse are often masters of PR and deception. Don't be fooled. They cause a toxic undercurrent in the school culture.

And secondly, as colleagues and co-workers, we know who are the bullies in the school. Staying silent is not an option. We can no longer turn the other way, pretend not to see and hear, and ignore this behavior. We need to have courageous conversations and stop this practice in our schools. I'm speaking to myself. I wish I had a rewind button and could go back in time. I wish that I had had more courage to speak out. Bullying hurts...everyone.