Friday Flyer - March 25, 2021

As I walk from station to station and school to school, I see signs of spring like the photo above. Yesterday, I saw daffodils that with some sun, will bloom in a few days. More daylight in the evening and seeing beauty in the world refreshes the soul.

Region Meeting

Thank you for engaging in mini-consultancies with each other to share how you used MAP Data to reflect and plan next steps with your ILT/CPTs. The answers are in the room. At our next meeting in May, we will start setting up your arc of learning for next year.

Halfway through Seven Weeks of Focused Instruction

We are halfway through seven solid weeks of instruction. Thank you. 

On Thursday, I was with a leader who emphasized with their team the importance of staying focused on instruction in spite of the DESE Review and looming MCAS administration. To us, MCAS is a big lift because of the scheduling and support required for every grade. From the student perspective it is a few sessions for each content area. We cannot waste the time students are in front of us - the year is not over because of state testing. I used to communicate to my staff the percent of days left in the year and asked they continue to maximize every minute of instructional time up to the last day - 18 days = 10% of the year; 9 days = 5% of the year. Don't squander that time.

From last week: The best preparation for MCAS is daily grade level standards aligned instruction. Please discourage "MCAS Prep" or "Practice." Practice sends a message to kids that the test is separate from their daily work. We want to know what students can do as a result of every day instruction, NOT because we have done a bang up job teaching to the test. 

"Forceful Language" to Spark Reflection/Action

One of the hardest actions we take as leaders is to plan and have difficult conversations because of a culture of "nice." Here is a reminder from Courage to Lead. In conversations with many of you recently, it is the anticipation of having a challenging conversation that is more stressful than the conversation itself. Are you having the conversations we need to have to shift the mental model about teaching and learning? Here are some tips:

We can act our way into new beliefs,” says Michael Fullan… Beliefs change when teachers start to see results. So, there is a certain forcefulness required from leaders to accelerate the pace of adopting these new practices.

This forcefulness must be balanced with:

• Acknowledgement that the changes are difficult
• Humility about not knowing how to do them all
• Planning together for how to move
• Support for learning how to do the new practices

And especially listening to the views and worries of the staff members we are working with.

Friday Flyer

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