TIS Director's Blog

Each week I write a letter to the parents that is posted in our school newsletter, The Dragon Dispatch. I use it similarly to the blog with more of focus on updating parents on school events, helping them with parenting suggestions, and focusing on student achievement. Below is my first Dragon Dispatch of the year, which is published every Friday. I lead with the video of our Upper School’s opening ceremony.

[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaddles/2402990826]

Dear Upper School Parents,

We had a successful start to the school year! We implemented a new timetable this year and it went relatively smoothly. It is always a challenge to assess the needs of the new students, adjust to unexpected enrolment changes, and then fit the schedule to best meet the needs of the students.

Parents should mark their calendars for Tuesday September 4^th from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM for our Upper School Open House. Parents are invited to come and meet all of the teachers. The teachers will be explaining their program and answering questions you may have regarding homework, technology, etc. It is a very valuable evening for helping parents supports their children in learning. More details will be forthcoming.

The other event you should be aware of is the student retreat. Grades 6-12 will be going on different  (per grade level) bonding trips from Thursday September 6 – Saturday September 8. The High School trips will be one night stay and returning on Friday evening, and the Middle School trips will be two nights and returning on Saturday. The purpose of the retreats is to the students to form closer relationships with each other and their teachers.

Adolescence is many times the most turbulent stage of the human life cycle. Adjusting to new classmates, a new grade, schedule, etc. can be emotional for teenagers. They may be venting a bit at home as they work through finding their place in their social group and figuring out the different teaching styles and subject areas. The best thing a parent can do early in the school year is to listen. It is tempting to try to problem solve, but it is best to wait for a while and see how the situations play out. Of course, if it is a serious issue a student is experiencing, we are always happy to help you and the student.

Finally, below is a short video of our opening ceremony from Monday. The students planted a White Ash (Fraxinus Americana) tree while the student body watched in our new beautiful amphitheatre. The message to the community was that the learning students do in the upper school will help them blossom and grow into productive, happy, citizens who will try to make the world a better place for humanity.

Regards,

Bill Kralovec

We had a guest speaker a couple of days ago, Dr. Dennis Copeland. He is an Elementary Principal at Randolph Township, New Jersey Schools; he is also on a Board of Education for another school district. He is a former HS Principal as well, 13 years total in administration. His talk was entitled “The Change Process,” and I was impressed with his organization and ideas. One item I liked about the talk, was that he had a clear understanding of what he believed in, especially with his use of educational or leadership theory. His style of leadership is “Servant Leadership” and he defined clearly his leadership ideas.

• 1)      Clarity (Bolman and Deal – 4 frames)
• 2)      Decision Making (Senge – 5 disciplines Systems Thinking)
• 3)      Communication (Covey – 7 habits)
• 4)      Data Use (ASCD)

• Seek first to understand, then be understood (COVEY)
• 4 Frames Political (power)  Symbolic (rituals) Human Resource (people involved) Structural (systems, processes)
• Data / Research / Best Practices
• Systems Thinking – personal mastery / team learning / shared vision / mental models

There are five parts to the change process.

1)      (most important) – clarity What are your non-negotiables? – Who Am I? Where Am I going? I believe…

2)      Decision-Making – It is important to let people know how you reached a decision. You will make decisions with your head and your heart.

3)      Communication – Who should be informed before, during, and after? You should put it on the white board.  Bring in your brain trust.

4)      Data Use – (best practices, use data to justify the decision) “Your school is only as strong as your weakest students.” Dr. Copeland suggested the following resources to keep up with the latest educational research.

American Educational Research Association

They have a national conference every year.  Teachers College out of Columbia a daily list serve with new research study TC Record.edu  – HGSE.edu  – Harvard Graduate School of Education with a list serve every 2 weeks – Journals PDK (Phi Delta Kappan.org) – ASCD.org – EdWeek.org (Education Week) also has a list serve

5)      Shared Leadership – It’s okay to let go! Find your supporters (who is on the bus?)

Dr. Copeland definitely opened my eyes to using more research to drive my decisions. I will subscribe to the list serves that he suggested. I will also do a bit of research with his models of decision making. That is something that I can improve on, being a bit more organized with making decisions and documenting the process. It will also help me anticipating problems.

In the second day of the course, we spent time discussing Michael Fullan’s book, Educational Change at the Local Level.  The book was published in the early 1990s, but Dr. Konzal, our instructor, says that he cannot find a better book about educational administration that is more recent. The class members agree that even though the book is over 20 years old, many of the same issues and characteristics of education have not changed. Each group was assigned a chapter to present to the class.

My full notes on the book can be found in a later blog post. I will be posting them to Scribd so I can refer to them later. This blog post is just selected items to reflect upon from the presentations.

The Student – This was our group’s assignment. The surprise was in the studies referenced in the chapter, it showed that only about 20% of the students in any class participate actively in class. And during a school day, only about 1 and ½ hours of time is spent by students cognitively focused on academic learning. The big point of the chapter was that in the 1970’s and 1980’s, students did not have input into what and how they were learning. Researchers saw improvement with the advent of cooperative learning and individual-centered learning techniques. This was before the internet and today education is even more individualized.

The other interesting study from 1980, classified students into four groups, with only the first two groups having contact with the teacher. Most importantly, students change categories to match the teaching style of the teacher.

• 1)      Attention Seekers – 20%
• 2)      Intermittent Workers – 36%
• 3)      Solitary Workers – 32%
• 4)      Quiet Collaborators 12%

The most interesting chapter was about the Principal. After hearing the group’s presentation, I went back to the class website and read through the chapter closely.

• Educational Change – Everyone feels misunderstood during the process of change. The role of the Principal has become more complex, less clear, and busier during the last 10 years.
• Studies of the 80’s and 90’s of how a Principal spends their day – lots of individual meetings, rapid change of activities; spent lots of time with “putting out fires” and not reflective thinking. Too many things to do and couldn’t keep up with the pace and try to be all things to all people. Lots of energy spent to sense of order; maintaining resources; etc. not much strategic learning.
• Action over words and the Principal is part of the change and involved in the planning despite of lack of expertise in every area.
• Principals were judged by what they brought to the school. Leaders tend to focus on areas that they are strong at. Good principals spend 41% on program improvement and 34% building management.

In a 1989 study of 1,200 principals, effective ones were engaged in the four strategic interactions with teachers.  Very few (10%) in the various studies were found to be effective.

• Resource Provider – Mobilize resources and district support to help achieve academic goals
• Visible Presence
• Instructional Resource – give advice and expertise to teachers
• Communicator

Principals are middle managers, with the supporting and interacting with the teachers on one side and appeasing and reporting to the school director and Board of Trustees on the other.

Principals are so busy that they  spend a lot of time managing and not much time reflecting and doing, “transformational leadership.” Managing means designing and implementing plans, getting things done, working effectively with people. Leadership relates to the mission, inspiring, and direction.

Principals do have the freedom to think creatively or in unorthodox ways in running a school. The “system” tolerates both highly innovative principals and rigid, orthodox, “do not rock the boat” principals.

Principals need to spend some time in every department and be familiar with what the departments are doing. If he/she gives the HoD a carte blanche, then he/she is not being effective.

The personality and leadership style differed with effective principals. The important item was the activities they were engaged in. It seems the magic number is over 40% of your time spent improving curriculum/instruction and 30% spent managing. This is easier to do on the elementary level and gets harder in high school.

I am taking EDAD 617 Advanced Leadership class through the College of New Jersey. The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) holds courses for international school teachers on the Spanish island of Mallorca. I earned my Master’s degree from the program in the 90’s and it is nice to be back to see the old sites and refresh myself on educational administrative issues. The course will be two weeks every afternoon and there is a variety of educators, from PYP Coordinators, to Athletic Directors, US and International-based people, and a variety of ages. It is very stimulating to hear from other people. I’ll be blogging what I am learning from the class.

Yesterday’s big learning was the Theory of Situational Leadership. This concept was brought forth by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  The theory states that different situations need different leadership styles. The two variables to consider are the following:

TASK – how much the leader communicates one-way in what, how, and when the project needs to be completed.

RELATIONSHIP – the extent the leader allows the colleague to take over a project

Directing Style – give specific instructions and closely supervise the performance of the follower

Coaching Style – give specific instructions closely supervise the task, but also explain directions and solicit suggestions and support progress toward completion.

Supportive Style – facilitate and support the efforts of followers and share responsibility for decision making

Delegating Style – turn over problem solving and decision making over to followers

The theory also takes into account the maturity (ability to get the job done and initiative) of the people a Principal is working with.

I read this in the New York Times this morning.

‘Independent thinkers’ sought by many schools

According to a survey of British and U.S. admissions officers, universities are looking for “independent thinkers.”

The research, conducted by ACS International Schools, which has three schools in Britain and one in Qatar, is carried out to measure the value of the International Baccalaureatediploma. The study was released July 6 to coincide with the day that I.B. diploma results were announced worldwide.

The survey found that 29 percent of U.S. admissions officers valued a demonstrated capacity for “independent inquiry” above any particular exam result. The next most sought-after quality was “in-depth subject expertise,” cited by 25 percent of respondents.

“American universities are looking first and foremost for students able to challenge conventional thinking and want to see clear evidence of this above all else in the qualifications and written submissions they receive from university applicants,” said Jeremy Lewis of ACS International Schools.

The survey also found that applications to U.S. universities have held up despite the economic downturn, with two-thirds of admissions officers in the United States saying that the number of incoming freshmen was better than expected. This contrasts with the response from Britain, where tuition fees have tripled and where only a quarter of admissions officers said that application numbers exceeded expectations.

— D.D. GUTTENPLAN

The International Baccalaureate is an excellent curriculum for providing those two characteristics (in bold) that university admission officers are looking for. I had never heard of ACS International Schools. They have four schools, three in the UK and one in Qatar, that uses a hybrid of the IB and British schooling models.

Every June I make a presentation at the ISB Board of Trustees public meeting of our students’ results in outside assessments. This includes a wide range of measures like the IB Diploma scores, Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), etc. 

After this year’s presentation, several administration and board members asked me to publicize these results. In this tough economic climate, a goal for our school is to market itself to attract more students. This presentation will help! They show a high level of learning and just how strong academically our students are performing. We are not perfect and there are areas to improve, but the results indicate we are a high-performing school. This is not just what we do every day, although the quality of the curriculum and teachers does help, it also shows high socio-economic families that value education as well. 

One member of the Board asked if we discern the data between students who have been with us for a long time and recent students. We do not do this and it may be a project for next year. 

I am developing a Moodle page with all of our student learning data, including things like report card grades and attendance data, as well as the major assessments mentioned above. Below is my power point presentation to the Board which I uploaded to Scribd.com.