LEADING [AND WRITING] LIKE A PIRATE:  

Sailing with Principal and new co-author Beth Houf

B is for: Boy mom, Baseball practice, Band performances, Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., and Beth Houf.  I recently had the privilege to sit down with this outstanding educational leader, principal and [adding another B to her personal and professional resume] Book co-author at ASCD’s annual conference Empower 17.  We talked about [Balancing] the demands of being a mother, dedicated professional, and sailing through uncharted territory this year as she co-authored her first book, Lead Like a PIRATE, with Shelley Burgess.

Thirty minutes into our conversation, it was clear:  You don’t become the 2016 Missouri National Distinguished Principal overnight, nor does it happen without a substantial amount of sacrifice and an unwavering resolve to do what is best for students, families, and staff.  She is committed to personal growth and sharing her experiences, celebrations, failures and challenges with educators across the globe.  She serves as a facilitator for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Leadership Academy, is a co-host of #SatChatWC [a weekly Twitter chat on Saturday mornings], a regular professional development speaker across the United States at schools and educational conferences, all while being a full-time mom and principal at Fulton Middle School in central Missouri.  

Beth has a reputation for leadership that shatters the status quo.  She models and communicates expectations which support her mission to create learning environments that provide uncommon experiences for staff and students.  Her passion for education often surfaces on social media outlets, in press releases, on organizational websites, and now her name is on a newly released educational title.  Yet, in all that she does and is, a striking quality about Beth is her humility. Her unmatched enthusiasm for education and quest for personal growth stem from a genuine place in her heart: her boys.  Beth’s professional passion is deeply rooted in what she wants for her two sons.  She said, “My why: my boys.  I’m driven to help create schools that I’m proud to have them be a part of.”

I caught up with Dave Burgess, author of the New York Times’ best-selling parent title Teach Like a PIRATE and President of Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., in the ASCD Empower 17 Exhibition Hall.  In a sea of talented and passionate educational leaders, Burgess was quick to say, “Beth is an amazing leader and doing incredible work.  We are honored to have her become a part of the Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. family.”  Dave’s wife and Beth’s co-author, Shelley Burgess, said, “In looking for a co-author for Lead Like a PIRATE, Beth was the obvious choice.  She is smart, talented, and an incredible leader who wholeheartedly embraces the PIRATE [Passion, Immersion, Rapport, Ask & Analyze, Transformation, Enthusiasm] philosophy.  It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with her on this book.”

Beth’s purposeful presence on social media connects her to a global PLN [Professional Learning Network] and accounts for a significant paradigm shift in her own professional growth.  As a connected educator she finds support and encouragement from educators who share her passions for leadership and uncommon learning environments.  Connect with this inspiring educator on Twitter [@BethHouf], her blog http://principalhouf.blogspot.com/, at one of many national education conferences, or in her new book Lead Like a PIRATE.

BAN THE AVERAGE:

Designing school learning environments to the average kills talent.

Designing school learning environments to the average kills talent. Why?  Average simply does not exist.  Todd Rose’s TED talk The Myth of Average parallels the U. S. Air Force’s approach of fighter jet cockpit design to our instructional practices in schools.  Find it here: https://youtu.be/4eBmyttcfU4  

It might seem logical, on the surface, that designing a multi-million dollar aircraft cockpit could be averaged to effectively accommodate a range of pilots.  However, this assumption is not only false, it’s negligent to design a vessel that protects our nation’s borders and freedom based on an average pilot, as the notion of an “average pilot” does not exist.  As Rose points out, pilots [like students] have a jagged profile.  Meaning, that just as Air Force pilots come in an infinite number of shapes and sizes, so do our students. Why, then, is it not negligent to design a one-size-fits-all approach to curriculum and school design for the most valuable resource in our nation: the youth responsible for transforming every industry we have and those yet to be discovered?  

In their session Captivate, Motivate and Invigorate Your Students,

Lisa Allred (@enoughallredy) and Jill Thompson (@edu_thompson) shattered the notion that designing instruction to the average is acceptable or effective. Want to motivate students to take ownership of their learning, make it dimensional.  One-size-fits-all, average learning environments “destroy” potential.  According to Rose, average does not “nurture individual potential,”  yet, it “hurts everyone.”  

Still not convinced?  Think of it like this: Differentiate the cockpit for pilots through minor, less-than-expensive modifications and you have the opportunity to create an ideally suited environment for optimal pilot performance--our borders are protected, critical, split-second decisions are easily accessible in a finger’s reach [regardless if you’re a 5’2” female or a 6’1 male], and our soldiers have the confidence to perform life or death maneuvers with equipment specifically designed for their body.  Differentiate the learning environment [including classroom design and curriculum] for students through practical, less-than-revolutionary adaptations and you have the robust opportunity to not only create an optimal learning environment, but also change the trajectory of a student’s educational path, love for learning, highlight their gifts, and impact the world.  

That’s a nice TED Talk, but teachers and leaders are left asking: “Now what?”  If average is detrimental to all, what do we do?  Shouts from educators across the globe echo “differentiate instruction.”  Sounds good, but good has got to be great for it to impact student achievement. What can teachers and leaders do?  Where do you start?  Jill and Lisa shared a wealth of perspective and resources on how to design our student cockpits.  Check out their Google doc here: https://goo.gl/bPqSam

As cautioned by Rose, we have to consider that the “cockpits of our economy” [i.e. our learning environments] are spending more money than ever, yet we are falling further and further behind in academic gains.  He goes on to pose the question: How much of the problem is just bad design? Like Rose, Jill and Lisa point out that we continue to design learning environments for “average” [disguised as “age appropriate”].  It’s not only improper, it’s detrimental to the wealth of our nation, the future economy, global citizenry, and a culture of innovation.  Designing to the average is not merely an easy way out for educators unwilling to do what is best for students, it’s harmful to our overall advancement in education and as global citizens.  Rose elaborates that students, like fighter pilots, are not one- dimensional.  Each one has a jagged learning profile, composed of unique strengths and weaknesses. As we look to reform and advance an educational system that is continuously under attack by governmental and public naysayers, we must unite and the grassroots level and change our learning environmental design to accurately evoke the peak performance of our elite fighter pilots, our students.

BLUEPRINT FOR AWESOMENESS: Transforming Your School's Culture Through Collaboration

BLUEPRINT FOR AWESOMENESS:  

Transforming Your School’s Culture Through Collaboration

People don’t become awesome by accident. True. Simple. Powerful.  

Awesomeness is intentional.  Was it the title “Blueprint for Awesomeness” that produced a wall-to-wall crowd (partially evacuated mid-session due to fire code) in the ASCD #Empower17 opening breakout session or the unquenched thirst that educational leaders have for positive educational transformation?  I would argue, both.  Co-presenters Jennifer Brown, Alabama Teacher of the Year, and Danny Steele, Alabama Secondary Principal of the Year, made it clear: Collaboration does not happen in a vacuum.

Want to change the culture in the building?  Change the adults.  An undeniable factor on the culture and morale of the the students in a building: the adults in the building.  Toss out titles, every adult in the building needs to know, communicate, and model their why.  What professional values ground you?  What are you relentlessly committed to?  Invest the time to articulate your values and post them.  Yes, display them on your door, instructional boards, framed on the wall.  Sounds reasonable?  Reasonable, yes.  Adequate, no.  Plainly stated: It’s impossible to cultivate a culture of collaboration if it’s not an organizational core value.  Post your values, certainly.  But, every adult in the building has to own and model them for one another and their clients: students, families, and community.

Create a culture of 3Ps: Positive Peer Pressure.  Teachers can’t wait for leaders to change the culture of a campus.  They must channel their inner why(s) and realize that they can single-handedly ignite an uncontained fire of passion in a classroom, throughout a building, and across a district.  It can happen with an unwavering spirit and action steps.  It won’t happen when educators passively rely on their campus leaders to take charge. PLCs aren’t new or tech-savvy by nature but, as Danny Steele stated, they are “the heart of sustainable and fluid innovation” and student growth when they “collaborate on data.”

So [insert “Real Talk”], how does a campus leader influence positive peer pressure?  Have teachers create voluntary, cross-curricular teams, where they visit and observe other classrooms.  Toss out the proverbial titles like “Pedagogical Walks” and hit the target of the activity with a motto like “Leading by Learning.”   Make these visits informal, yet targeted, identifying practices that the observers find useful and providing immediate, relevant, and positive feedback to the teacher being observed.   Vulnerability is high in this type of culture but the payoffs are even more remarkable.  The leader’s role: be the safety net.  Foster an unmatched sense of security that staff members feel and see; remind staff that unless they are willing to fail--awesomeness is an unreachable peak.  Change the mindset of classroom observations from one of judgement to one of transformational growth.  Jennifer Brown reminds us that teachers not being fed [rich and nutritious meals, i.e. relevant PD] will not grow and simply can not anticipate or expect that their students will either.   

Walk into any session at #Empower17, down the halls of a school, or in the teacher’s lounge and you will hear common collaboration barriers for educators: Trust and Time.  Are they barriers or challenges? Is the glass help empty or full? You decide.  Leaders:  It’s time to massage that mindset, get over it, and help your staff figure out a way to collectively collaborate.  Principal Steele bluntly stated:

There is no shortcut for building trust.  It doesn’t happen through  emails, campus-wide memos, or a few fun faculty meetings sprinkled with activities.  Trust happens through building relationships and, relationships take time.

Want change?  Commit to collaboration because it’s worth it! Educators are the experts, not politicians.  Bring back the ownership of the profession to the soldiers, the technicians, the building experts--empower the teachers to empower one another.