Flourish/Inspire, Learning

To what extent is your international Christian school using full-orbed instructional coaching to help teachers flourish?

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Instructional coaching (aka meeting teacher needs) helps international Christian school teachers flourish. As a result of instructional coaching…

(1) New teachers are mentored through the steep learning curve of the first couple of years so they stay in the field and flourish. 

(2) Somewhat experienced teachers receive targeted support to keep adding tools to their pedagogy toolbox. (Some may struggle in one or two areas that keep them from really flourishing, and they can get help in those areas.) 

(3) Veteran teachers get encouragement, a resource every now and then, or a colleague to bounce ideas around with.

(4) Teachers and leaders learn to use data knowledgeably in decision making. (Did your school get an accreditation recommendation related to data use? No shame here—most schools I know have.)

(5) Teachers experience focused, effective professional development. (This includes special speakers, regular meetings, differentiated exploration.)  

(6) Teachers align a relevant, consistent curriculum and content with standards and current best practice. (My first year of teaching, I announced the next novel study according to the curriculum I’d been given, and the students told me they’d read it already. That was frustrating.)  

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Like I said, instructional coaching (aka meeting teacher needs) helps teachers flourish—and unfortunately, in my experience, instructional coaching is underemphasized in international Christian schools for 3 reasons:

(1) Coaching, instead of being seen as something that helps all teachers flourish, is seen as something to help struggling teachers survive. Given that coaching is not frequently used, no one really feels comfortable offering or receiving such support.

(2) Various people (for example, principals, curriculum coordinators, and department chairs) are assigned various tasks to help teachers—but these tasks do not fully cover instructional coaching, and sometimes overlap without sufficient communication by responsible parties.

(3) Those involved in helping teachers have not benefited from training in instructional coaching.

My suggestion? Try the online course 40-Hour Instructional Coaching! 

I sure wish I had had the benefit of this course before becoming a department chair and a curriculum coordinator. If I had, I think I would have been able to help teachers flourish more effectively and efficiently. Here’s why:

(1) The course defines instructional coaching. The authors say, “You will encourage teacher growth through modeling, reflection, data analysis, and high-quality professional development, and this comes in many different forms” (Unit 3, Lesson 2, The Tier-Coach-Grow Model, p. 1). Then they lists some of the ways this can happen:

  • Supporter of student learning
  • Supporter of effective instruction
  • Curriculum and content facilitator
  • Data coach
  • Facilitator for change
  • Learner
  • Professional learning facilitator
  • Resource provider

Note: First, this definition was really helpful to me. When we don’t all agree on a definition or have a common vocabulary, it feels like I am playing a game of blindman’s bluff, swinging wildly at partially perceived but not fully articulated needs. I don’t know what exactly it is I’m doing, who else is doing it, and how we can best do it together.

Second, for schools I served in, I don’t recall all of the above being fully provided. For example, one school didn’t provide data coaching, another didn’t provide curriculum facilitation, and another school didn’t provide professional learning facilitation. 

  • What’s your experience?
  • How does your school define instructional coaching? 
  • What additions might you need to make to your definition so that your teachers receive full-orbed instructional coaching?

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

(2) The course offers helpful content, for example:

(A) The suggestion to have a data wall in my office to model data usage for teachers. (This seems so obvious–why didn’t I think of it before? Maybe because I’m not confident in my own data usage, and so I need the following resource.)

(B) A schoolwide data guide giving 5 categories of data (discipline, engagement, classroom assessment, norm-referenced testing, and process/implementation), types of data in each category, and examples of how to use the data.  

(C) A culture of learning self-assessment tool listing 8 qualities (growth mindset, teacher ownership, avenues for collaboration, leadership values PD, common mission/vision, data valued, sense of trust, and focused school-wide goals). For each quality, it gives negative signs indicating that the school’s culture is toxic and positive signs that the school’s culture is ripe for learning. This would be a great faculty discussion piece, given the authors’ claim that a culture ripe for learning is a prerequisite to any change. This is something that I’d want to work on before putting a lot of effort into professional development and change initiatives.

(D) Checklists of what to do before, during, and after professional development to make it most likely that learning takes root in helpful and lasting ways. Most of these things I learned bit by bit, by experience, for instance, with facilitating professional development book discussions. But it’s great to have these concise lists all in one place, whether for running a cross-check on a big event or a check-up on regular meetings. 

(E) A scheduling plan to help me focus on priorities and get them done. I’ll have to admit I skimmed over this part when I took the 40 Hour Workweek course for teachers, but now taking the course for instructional coaches, I actually implemented some of the ideas, and I’ve found them truly helpful. You can also check out Angela Watson’s free mini-course, the Fewer Things Better Project, based on her book Fewer Things Better: The Courage to Focus on What Matters Most.

(F) A plan for tracking coaching contacts that gives me a quick look at who I met with, when, what we did, and what follow-up I need to do. This is a tool I now use daily.

(G) Three complete bonus lessons on how to support teachers in some specific practices like teaching students time management skills, planning for different student work paces, maximizing instructional time, and streamlining transitions. These are great materials that can be given directly to teachers, and they are also good models of the types of materials that I could develop on my own.  

Bottom line: Help your teachers by providing instructional coaching. (Hint: Enroll in 40-Hour Instructional Coaching today!)

Get flourishing!

Kim

Help students flourish as readers by teaching them how to pick books

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You’re giving your students time to read–great! You’re giving them access to books they can choose from–fantastic! 

But there are some students who just can’t seem to settle on a book. They spend the whole 10 minutes of independent reading time digging through their backpack for the book they say they have. Or they randomly grab a different book every day off the class library shelf. Or they have the same book, but they’re not making any progress in it—they’re staring out the window or falling asleep–and they’ve read 2 pages in a week. 

They’re not flourishing as readers. And it may be because they don’t know how to choose a book they might be interested in. To a reading adult, this might sound crazy. But think about it for a minute. How do you choose a book? 

I use a variety of things to choose a book—and these things make up my book selection system. Here are some of the things I do: 

  1. I follow book bloggers (like Reading Middle Grade, The Brainstorm Plus, Redeemed Reader, and Imagination Soup). 
  2. I get recommendations from my friends. (One recently recommended What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. I loved it!) 
  3. I have favorite authors (like Gary Schmidt, Alan Gratz, and Louise Penny). 
  4. I know what genres and topics I love (like historical fiction and international settings). 
  5. I pay attention when book awards come out. 
  6. I browse bookstore shelves and library shelves. 
  7. I keep a running want-to-read list on Goodreads.
  8. I make use of the hold system at my public library.

How did I build my system? I’m not sure. But I was born into a home that was full of books. As a child, I was taken regularly to the public library where I checked out every book on horses I could get my hands on. My mom read books to me, and I learned early that I loved fantasy, like the Narnia series, and that I loved its author, C.S. Lewis. I had friends who shared their books with me–one in elementary school who had the entire Nancy Drew series, and another in middle school who had the entire Anne of Green Gables series.  

What if I hadn’t had all that? Is it possible that I might not have any idea how to pick a book? Yes, it’s very possible.

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

So, what are some things we can teach students about how to pick a book? Here are some that come to mind for me:

(1) Look for a book that will grab you. Not everyone will like every book. People have very different tastes. If a particular book doesn’t grab you, abandon it and move on. 

(2) Think about your preferences: What books have you enjoyed in the past? What authors, genres, topics? Can you find a similar book? 

(3) Examine a book: check out the front cover, the back cover. Read the first page. 

(4) Talk to your friends about what they like to read. Maybe you’ll like it, too.

(4) Ask an adult for a recommendation—a librarian, your English teacher, or another adult in your life who knows books.

(5) Keep a list of titles you come across that you might like to read. That way when you finish a book, you know exactly what you want to read next.

What can we do in class to give students scaffolded practice choosing books? Here are some things I’ve done: 

(1) Start the term with an activity like a book pass or book tasting designed to give students the opportunity to examine a lot of books, chat with classmates about them, and write down titles they find interesting.

(2) Have students keep a want-to-read list.

(3) Orient students to how to find books in the places they have access—a classroom library (mine was organized by genre), an online library (a little class time to figure out how to log in, download the app, and use the search function might just be the push a couple of them need), a school library, or a public library.

(4) Occasionally have students turn to the person next to them and share something about the book they’re reading.

(5) Give your class book talks—just 2-minute ads—about books they might find interesting.

(6) Once a term, a first-line tournament is fun. Just have students pair up, read the first line of their book to their partner, and then decide which is the best. The loser sits down, and the winner finds another partner. The final playoff is decided by the whole class.

(7) End the term with students giving book talks to the class.

(8) Give students time to reflect on their book choosing strategies—what strategies they’ve used, which have been most helpful, which they’d like to use more of next term.

Bottom line:  Teach students strategies for picking a book, and give them scaffolded practice using those strategies. (Remember, access to books and time to read isn’t enough to get every student deeply involved in reading.)

How about you? How do you choose books? How do your students choose books? How have you helped them? How can you help them even more?

If you have additional strategies and scaffolded practice ideas, let me know!

Get flourishing!

Kim

P.S. To do a deeper dive into supporting independent reading, check out the following books:

(1) Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers by Penny Kittle

(2) The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller

(3) The Joy of Reading by Teri Lesesne and Donalyn Miller

(4) Passionate Readers: The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child by Pernille Ripp

What do you want to know? How are you going to learn it? (Hint: Try a book discussion!)

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Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash

What do you want to know? 

  • What is that 1 thing about your content, your pedagogy, your students, or your well-being that you’d really like to grow in? Is it student motivation? Project-based learning? Using AI in school? Making the most of independent reading? Engaging English language learners? 
  • How could engaging with that 1 thing help you help yourself, your colleagues, and your students flourish even more?

How are you going to learn what you want to know? Here’s a 4-step process you can use that includes a book discussion—I love reading!

  1. Pick 1 your 1 thing. 
  2. Find 1 colleague at your school or elsewhere who is also interested in that topic. You might be able to find more than 1 colleague!
  3. Collaboratively work with your colleagues to pick 1 book to read, but first do some research on good books to read. You and your colleagues can do this by reading book reviews, seeing what ACSD offers, or talking with others. 
  4. Purchase the book. Then with your colleague, read, discuss, and apply a chapter every week or two. 

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed doing many in-person book discussions with groups of colleagues from my school. This school year I learned it also works to do a book discussion online with just 1 person. And because there were only 2 of us, each discussion took less time. We did it in 30 minutes every 2 weeks, while my colleague was eating her lunch!  

What did our 30-minute book discussion look like? We used the time to… 

  • Report on ways we’d implemented things we’d learned in the past 2 weeks. 
  • Discuss what we found interesting from the chapter we’d read for this meeting.
  • Brainstorm how we could implement ideas from the new reading.
  • Pray for each other.

Source

The 1 thing my colleague was interested in was how to help students displaying traits suggesting Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). So, I contacted a friend who had been a learning resource specialist and asked her for a recommendation, which was Decoding Autism and Leading the Way to Successful Inclusion by Barbara Boroson (an educational specialist, and also the parent of a child with ASD). 

What did my colleague and I learn? A lot of empathy as well as strategies for helping children with ASD deal with their challenges so they can acquire the content and skills they need to flourish. 

The author goes chapter by chapter through anxiety, executive function, sensation, communication and socialization, engagement and content acquisition, and finally behavior. The first half of each chapter is devoted to explaining what the issue is, and how a student with ASD experiences it. The second half offers tips for helping the student deal with the issue in the classroom. 

Why was behavior addressed last (when that’s what we wanted to address first)? Because accommodating student needs minimizes behavior issues! 

My colleague was so excited about what she learned that she is scheduled to share it with the rest of the elementary teachers at her school at a meeting! And now she wants to learn more about teaching reading: What’s the controversy about? How can we best help students? 

So just like last time, I contacted a friend who serves as an elementary principal. She said her staff was reading Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom. We look forward to starting that discussion soon!

Source

How about you? What do you want to learn in order to help yourself, your colleagues, and your students flourish even more? How will you learn it, share it, use it? 

My suggestion? Try a book discussion! Find one or more colleagues who want to learn with you. Reach out to someone who can recommend a helpful book. Read, discuss, and implement your reading together over time. Even if it’s only 30 minutes every 2 weeks in a virtual discussion with 1 person–you can still experience transformational learning! 

Get flourishing!

Kim
P.S. Here are a few books I highly recommend: 

(1) The Will to Learn: Cultivating Student Motivation without Losing Your Own

(2) How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms

(3) AI for Educators: Learning Strategies, Teacher Efficiencies, and a Vision for an Artificial Intelligence Future

(4) Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers

(5)The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox: Hundreds of Practical Ideas to Support Your Students

How might talking with your counterpart in another international Christian school help you?

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Talk with your counterpart in another international Christian school! Why?

  • Because it helps you flourish.
  • Because in my experience, talking with a counterpart is energizing, gets me thinking about new ideas, and helps me make a friend.
  • Because it’s an effective practice.

You might be thinking, “Sounds good. How do I connect with my counterpart?” Here’s what I did: I contacted a person I had enjoyed interacting with before to see if he’d like to talk. I got a “yes,” so we started talking. Later, we added 2 more people to our conversation.

But what if the conversation doesn’t go all that well? I wondered about that. It helped me when I thought of the conversation as an experiment and when I wrapped up the first conversation by open-handedly asking, “How was this for you? Might you like to do this again?”

Image by Freepik

You might also be wondering, “What do we talk about?” I also wondered about that. So, I developed a set of 7 questions to use as a flexible guide, and they worked pretty well:

  1. Connect: For you, what’s 1 recent high and 1 recent low?
  2. Share: What’s 1 thing you’re learning?
  3. Celebrate: In your ministry, what’s an example of someone flourishing that you want to celebrate?
  4. Grow: What 1 or more questions do you want to ask?
  5. Reflect: What are your highlights/insights for today?
  6. Pray: How can I pray for you?
  7. Schedule: When are we talking next?

Note: For me, these 60-minute conversations happen 6+ times each school year. (Originally, I was thinking 3+ times, but the conversations proved so beneficial that we wanted to meet more often!)

What will you do? What’s 1 thing you can do to explore talking with a counterpart in another international Christian school? How about reviewing this 1-page conversation protocol I designed to help you? It includes tips for helping your conversation to go well.

Get flourishing!

Michael
P.S. Be sure to check out the conversation protocol!

Avoid Faulty Assumptions (#6): My students are learning—so they’re flourishing, right?

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Photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash

Please note: Consistently pursuing a granular vision (aka vision script) of flourishing students, staff, and leaders helps international Christian schools to flourish. This post reflects my vision.

Learning! It’s wonderful when students are learning about God, His world, and their place in it. Learning, particularly transformative learning, is integral to flourishing. However, learning does not equal flourishing. Consider:

  • Is an aimless student flourishing?
  • Is a student who is learning only for grades and who is not using what s/he learns to help others flourishing?
  • Is a student who isn’t getting enough sleep and who has mental health issues flourishing?
  • Is a student who has no friends flourishing?

My response: Just because your students are learning doesn’t mean they’re flourishing.

But let me ask you some questions about flourishing students:

Question 1: What does a flourishing student at an international Christian school look like to you? To me, what a flourishing student at an international Christian school looks like includes someone who…

Photo by Jason Sung on Unsplash

Question 2: What’s your definition of a flourishing student at an international Christian school? Here’s my working definition: A flourishing student consistently experiences the 5 elements of flourishing* and helps others do the same. Or to put it another way, a flourishing student consistently experiences abundant life in Jesus and helps others do the same. (To learn more, please read What do flourishing students at international Christian schools consistently experience?)

*Note: The 5 elements of flourishing (based on ACSI’s model):

  1. Passionate purpose
  2. Resilient well-being
  3. Healthy relationships
  4. Transformative learning
  5. Helpful resources

Question 3: What faulty assumptions might you need to address about flourishing students? Here are 5 examples of faulty assumptions about being a flourishing student:

(1) Passionate Purpose:  “I guess we’re not really supposed to ask deep questions. You know, like sometimes when I have doubts, I’d like to ask questions. But it doesn’t come up in class, and I’m pretty sure my teacher would say I shouldn’t have doubts, so I don’t ask. So I guess a good Christian doesn’t have doubts—that’s why I shouldn’t ask my questions, right?” 

This just makes me sad. At a Christian school, we’re supposed to help our students grow in faith, which includes processing their doubts (see construct on questioning in Flourishing Schools, p. 14). I know that in my own life, processing my doubts has helped me grow—like doubts about God’s sovereignty when some gets cancer. 

Students learn from asking questions. We all know this. And when students aren’t encouraged to ask questions about their real experiences, about their real doubts, they lose out on an opportunity to grow. And when the message is that they shouldn’t ask certain questions, their takeaway could be that being a Christian means never having doubts and behaving in such a way that no one gets uncomfortable. (To learn more, please read My Christian High-School Students Have Doubts. Here’s How I Respond.)

Note: If your students don’t ask their questions in a Christ-centered environment, there’s a good probability that they will eventually ask their questions in environments that aren’t Christ-centered

(2) Resilient Well-Being: “Reading, writing,  and math—that’s important. I’m in 2nd grade, and we spend the most time each day on reading, writing, and math. We used to get more recess and more PE, but now recess is shorter and we don’t get PE. I guess those aren’t important.”

Reading, writing, and math are important—as are Bible, science, and social studies. As are music, library, art, and computer. And for 2nd graders, for all students, “regular exercise” is important (Flourishing Schools, p. 18). It’s good for physical health and helps students concentrate and behave.

Most international schools are in cities, and most students have significant commute time and homework, and not a lot of space at home to play. What can get squeezed out is physical activity. God created students with bodies—bodies which need regular exercise if those students are to flourish. Find time for students to sufficiently exercise each day—the CDC recommends recess for all grade levels.

(3) Healthy Relationships: “I’m working hard to learn, to reach my potential, to get into a good college, a really good college. I get along with my basketball teammates—which will look good on my college applications. At some point, I’ll have the time and energy to focus on helping others. Right now, though, I need to stay focused on getting into college. My parents agree.”

It’s good to have goals. It’s good to be focused on reaching your potential and on getting into a good college. But your goals don’t have to exclude helping others. Helping others doesn’t take hours—it usually takes seconds or minutes and it’s a way of living. Being known as someone who shows “love and care” (Flourishing Schools, p. 15) will look good on your college applications—the opposite won’t. 

God says we are to love our neighbors—and keep in mind that part of reaching your potential, of flourishing, is helping others flourish. It looks like an unintended consequence of your goals could be being self-absorbed. Not good. Really good colleges are not looking for self-absorbed students.

(4) Transformative Learning: “I just follow directions and do what the teacher tells the whole class to do. I’m not really sure what you mean about what else helps me learn. And I don’t really understand what you mean about my strengths. Do you mean which classes I get better grades in? I basically get all Bs—so that’s not much help.” 

Following directions and doing what the teacher tells the class to do is important for students to do. And while each student is a member of the class, each student is also an individual created by God with learning tendencies and with strengths. When a student isn’t aware of how s/he learns best and what their strengths are, they will find it harder to learn, harder to flourish. Teachers, please provide “[i]ndividualized instruction…[that helps students know] how they learn best and…identify their natural strengths” Flourishing Schools, p. 16).

(5) Helpful Resources: “It’s not that I’m not grateful for being able to attend an international Christian school. It’s just that I really like science. I’m thinking about majoring in science in college. But last year, stuff happened and I had 3 different biology teachers. This year I had a really good chemistry teacher, but she left in March. An English teacher with some background in science filled in, but it’s not the same and, to be honest, it’s not as good. I guess I’m getting a little concerned for my future, but maybe that’s just what happens at Christian schools.”

I’m glad the student wants to pursue science, wants to learn about God’s creation. I can see why she’s concerned about his future—pretty difficult to have 5 science teachers in 2 years and to basically have an English teacher for the last quarter of chemistry. And I recognize that stuff happens. However, I also recognize that students need helpful learning resources, the key one being qualified teachers who are flourishing. Providing unhelpful resources shouldn’t be “just what happens at Christian schools.”

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

Question 4: What change(s) do you need to make to help your students flourish? Please keep in mind that ongoing change is part of flourishing, that you don’t need to do everything (though you do need to do something), and that you should start with yourself.

Options for changes related to helping students flourish include:

  • Praying for students by name on a regular basis.
  • Encouraging students to ask difficult faith-related questions.
  • Subscribing to the Culture Translator, an e-newsletter that helps you understand and disciple your students.
  • Giving students time to reflect on their progress on the student outcomes.
  • Establishing classroom libraries.

Note: To help yourself successfully make a change, be sure to identify what helps you.

What about you? 

  • What does a flourishing student at an international Christian school look like to you? 
  • What’s your definition of a flourishing student at an international Christian school? 
  • What faulty assumptions might you need to address about flourishing students? 
  • What change(s) do you need to make to help students flourish? 
  • What helps you make the changes necessary for helping students be the international Christian school students God is calling them to be?

Get flourishing!

Michael

Flourish by encouraging a colleague to pursue transformative learning!

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In December, encourage a colleague to pursue transformative learning! Why? Because you’ll be helping a colleague flourish—and helping a colleague flourish actually helps you flourish! 

So this month, how can you encourage a colleague to pursue transformative learning? 

(1) You can share questions that you’ve found life changing. Here are 2 questions we’ve found helpful: “What’s the real challenge here for you?” and “How is your system perfectly designed to produce this?”

(2) You can share books that helped you grow. Books that helped us grow in 2023 include The Will to Learn, The Culture Map, and How to Work with (Almost) Anyone. 

(3) You can share transformative practices, for example, using a personalized flourishing plan, intentionally modeling resilient well-being for students, and using meetings and schoolwide action plans to help others flourish.

(4) You can share a model you’ve found life changing. For us, life-changing models include the 50-40-10 Rule of Happiness and the 4 Disciplines of Organizational Health. 

(5) You can share mindsets that have helped you grow and transform. This year we’ve especially benefited from the open mindset, growth mindset, and promotion mindset.

(6) And you can share tools for reflecting on organizational culture, establishing a well-being culture, assessing expected student outcomes, and helping students grow strong in the Lord.

What about you? How do you feel about encouraging a colleague to pursue transformative learning? How can you do this? Who will you encourage?

Bottom line? Flourish by encouraging a colleague to pursue transformative learning!

Michael & Kim
P.S. Even if your ACSI Inspire self-study visit isn’t for 18+ months, what are 10 things you can do right now? You can (1) use new tools that help you and others focus on flourishing, (2) complete a tutorial on flourishing, and (3) get board members to help the head of school to flourish.

Source: ACSI Inspire Manual

Teachers, what do you want your students to learn?

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I want students to flourish in terms of transformative learning. My deep hope is that students are experiencing…

(1) Big questions, big ideas, and big skills.
(2) Best practice content, assessment, instruction, and feedback that are designed to help them achieve the Christ-centered outcomes.
(3) A living curriculum (staff) that models transformative learning.
(4) Measurable holistic growth (intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual), including achievement of the Christ-centered outcomes (see Construct: Data-Driven Improvement, p. 16). 

This blog post focuses on #1 above.

Photo by Jerry Wang on Unsplash

Get your students learning big questions, big ideas, and big skills. Why?

  • Because big questions get your students inquiring, reflecting, and doing critical thinking.
  • Because big ideas help your students understand and apply a biblical perspective.
  • Because big skills help your students learn and use their learning to serve others.
  • Because these are time-tested best practices that help students flourish.

What does getting students learning big questions, big ideas, and big skills look like? Here’s what it looks like for me as a secondary English language arts teacher:

(1) Big questions: Big questions pique students’ curiosity and direct their inquiry. Big questions come in 3 main types: questions related to the subject area content, to the skills, and to a worldview perspective.  Here are sample questions for secondary English language arts:

  • Content: How do literary devices communicate theme? Why would a reasonable, rational, normal person do that? What is the purpose of satire and how does it work?   
  • Skill: How do I develop an informed opinion and what do I do with it? What makes good narrative writing? How can I serve my neighbor/audience? How do I read like a writer and write like a reader? What can I do when I don’t understand what I’m reading?  
  • Worldview: Who am I? Who is my neighbor? How do people build or break shalom? What is the significance of words?  

To learn more, check out Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding.

(2) Big ideas: Big ideas put what students are learning into the context of the beauty and brokenness of the world God has created, the life God has designed students to live, and how students can best flourish in it. I find this motivating for both my students and myself! These big ideas operate at the level of my subject, my course, and a particular unit. 

Here are some examples:

  • Subject: We use God’s good gift of language to serve others.
  • Course: Respect others because they are God’s image bearers.
  • Unit: As stories help us vicariously experience the lives of people very different from ourselves, they help us deeply understand the neighbors God calls us to love.

To learn more, check out Enduring Understandings: Seeing the Forest through the Trees.

(3) Big skills: To function in our diverse, information rich world, students need skills, for example: 

  • Reading: Reading increases vocabulary, improves writing, expands knowledge of the world, deepens empathy, gives opportunities to practice moral decision making, and much more.
  • Listening: In our diverse world, listening is vital. Students must learn to listen intently in order to understand others. 
  • Writing: Writing changes how we think and helps us effectively communicate that thinking to others. 
  • Collaboration: We learn better together than separately. When I listen carefully, ask good questions, build on others’ thoughts, and respectfully disagree, I increase my own and others’ learning.

To learn more, check out What are 21st Century skills?

Here are some related resources:

What about you? What do you want your students to learn? How might learning big questions, big skills, and big skills help your students flourish? What’s 1 action step you can take?

Get flourishing!

Kim

Leaders, how can you model transformative learning for staff?

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I want staff to flourish in terms of transformative learning. My deep hope is that staff are experiencing…
(1) Professional development aligned with individual, department/team, and schoolwide goals (see Construct: Professional Development, p. 16).

(2) Participation in professional/virtual learning communities and in professional organizations. 

(3) Frequent feedback—criticism that is kind and clear, praise that is specific and sincere (seeConstruct: Feedback, p. 16).

(4) A living curriculum (leadership) that models transformative learning.

(5) Measurable growth in terms of carrying out the Christ-centered mission, helping students achieve the Christ-centered outcomes, and serving as a flourishing role model: passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources (see Construct: Data-Driven Improvement, p. 16). 

This blog post focuses on #4 above.

Photo by Lidia Nemiroff on Unsplash

Leaders, model transformative learning for us staff members! Why?

  • Because modeling transformative learning helps both you and us staff members to flourish.
  • Because modeling transformative learning inspires and encourages us as staff members to pursue transformative learning.
  • Because modeling transformationless learning (or even worse, deadening stagnation) isn’t good for you as leaders and certainly isn’t good for us staff members.
  • Because modeling transformative learning is a best practice.

Leaders, how can you model transformative learning for us as staff members? What comes to mind for me includes:

  • Sharing your professional development goals with us.
  • Regularly talking with us about what you’re learning and the difference it’s making in your life. For example, after you go to a conference or workshop, share with us what you learned and how you’re using it.
  • Regularly sharing during staff meetings about what you’re learning and the difference it’s making, and regularly inviting us staff members to do the same in small groups.
  • Asking us questions, for example, “How has learning this made a difference in your life?”

Here are some related resources:

What about you? How are you impacted by what others model? Staff, what would be helpful for your leaders to model in terms of transformative learning? Leaders, what do you want to model in terms of transformative learning?

Get flourishing!

Kim

Leaders, what’s your own professional development aligned with? 

/ mkessenburg
I want leaders to flourish in terms of transformative learning. My deep hope is that leaders are consistently experiencing…
1. Professional development aligned with individual, team, and schoolwide goals (see Construct: Professional Development, p. 16).

2. Participation in sessions with a qualified coach/mentor, in professional organizations, and on accreditation teams.

3. Frequent feedback—criticism that is kind and clear, praise that is specific and sincere (see Construct: Feedback, p. 16).

4. Measurable growth in terms of carrying out the Christ-centered mission, helping students achieve the Christ-centered outcomes, and serving as a flourishing role model of passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources (see Construct: Data-Driven Improvement, p. 16).

This blog post addresses #1 above.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Your professional development isn’t helping you serve more effectively, makes you look self-serving, and seemingly models the idea that professional development is ancillary fluff. No good, very bad things happen when your professional development isn’t aligned with individual, leadership team, and schoolwide goals! Additional bad things include:

  • You looking like you don’t care about contributing to the growth of your team members and/or your staff.
  • You looking like you’re disconnected from school improvement and from learning what it takes to improve your school.
  • You being an ineffective steward of your God-given gifts and/or your school’s God-given resources.

But, good things happen when your professional development is aligned with individual, leadership team, and/or schoolwide goals. Things like:

  • You improving your skill in listening, inquiring, focusing, and encouragement, helping you achieve your goal of serving others better.
  • You studying key concepts related to a leadership team goal, resulting in you asking better questions as the team works on the goal.
  • You deepening your understanding of using data to drive student learning, and you sharing your findings as you initiate schoolwide efforts to address a school improvement goal on using assessment data.
  • You serving as the living curriculum in terms of transformative learning.

Bottom line: Pursue aligned professional development. Avoid unaligned professional development.

You might be wondering, “What are possible causes of professional development not being fully aligned with individual, team, and/or schoolwide goals?” Here are 9, formatted as things a leader might say:

(1) Unfortunately, I don’t really do professional development. I feel bad about saying that, but I just don’t really do it.

(2) I don’t do goals. Goals are like New Year’s resolutions—they don’t work. I just give my best reaction in the moment and keep moving.

(3) I don’t have goals. Neither do my team or my school. 

(4) I have goals, as do my team and my school. But nothing is documented.

(5) I have documented goals, as do my team and my school. But they’re a bit fuzzy. Instead of being specific, our goals tend to be more like “Learn about data.”

(6) When I talk about how my professional development fits with team and/or schoolwide goals, I don’t get the confirmation I expect. I’m beginning to wonder if others think I don’t fully understand the goals or if I don’t fully understand doing PD that fits my role as leader.

(7) I don’t have a documented process for establishing goals (individual, team, schoolwide) or a process for determining what professional development targets the achievement of those goals.

(8) I have documented goals, as do my team and school. But none of us have plans for achieving those goals. I hear that other schools have plans that include goals and the professional development needed to achieve those goals. We don’t have that yet. We don’t really have documented plans for much of anything.

(9) I don’t use an order of operations when it comes to growth and professional development. I don’t grow myself to grow my team in order to grow my staff.

Which of the 9 possible causes resonate with you? For my early career, I resonate with #4, #5, #7, #8, and #9. Based on things I’ve read and those I’ve coached in the past 10 years, I resonate with #1, #2, #4, #7, #8, and #9.

Photo by Leeloo Thefirst

What can you do to further align your professional development with individual, team, and schoolwide goals? Things that come to mind for me include:

  • Start with yourself. (Remember the order of operations? “Grow yourself to grow your leadership team to grow your staff.”)
  • Document a process for establishing your own goals and for determining the professional development you need to achieve your goals—then using your process!
  • Ask your leadership team, “To help us and our staff grow, what are some things that would be helpful for me to do professional development on in the next 3 years?” Listen intently. Document your 3-year professional plan, share the plan with your leadership team, report on progress, and invite feedback.
  • Assess the alignment of your professional development with individual goals, leadership team goals, and schoolwide goals, using the following rating scale: No Alignment • Unsatisfactory Alignment • Satisfactory Alignment • Brilliant Alignment.

What about you? What happens when your professional isn’t aligned with individual, team, and schoolwide goals? What happens when it is? What are possible causes of professional development not being fully aligned with individual, team, and/or schoolwide goals? What can you do to further align your professional development with individual, team, and/or schoolwide goals?

Here are some related blog posts:

Get flourishing!

Michael

Avoid Faulty Assumptions (#5): We can flourish without experiencing transformative learning, right?

/ mkessenburg

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Please note: Consistently pursuing a granular vision (aka vision script) of flourishing students, staff, and leaders helps international Christian schools to flourish. This post reflects my vision.

What do the following have in common?

  • Becoming Christlike.
  • Taking care of God’s world.
  • Loving God and our neighbors.
  • Sharing the Gospel.
  • Being part of the Church.

There’s a range of possibilities, including: they’re all found in the Bible, they’re all responsibilities of Christians, they’re all indicators of flourishing in Jesus, and they all involve learning—about God, His world, and our place in it. So, my response to your question is, “No, you can’t flourish without experiencing transformative learning. For example, how exactly do you become Christlike without learning about Christ and without learning that results in transformation, in being more Christlike?”

Let me explain my response by processing some related questions:

Question 1: What comes to mind (and doesn’t come to mind) when you think of transformative learning? For me, what comes to mind includes: 

  • Deep change (not deadening decline).
  • Students identifying themselves as scientists, musicians, social scientists, mathematicians, readers, and writers who are deeply vested in regularly learning more about God’s creation (not: students studying science, music, social sciences, math, reading, and writing only when required to do so).
  • Metamorphosis (not irrelevant obsolescence).
  • A staff member learning about a growth mindset and actually changing from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset (not: a staff member learning about a growth mindset and then continuing to use a fixed mindset).
  • Impactful discovery (not stale stagnancy).
  • A leader taking an online course and changing the practice of listening to respond to listening to understand (not: a leader taking an online course on developing healthy relationships and then resuming past practices).

To learn more, please read What’s the difference between transformationless learning and transformative learning?

Photo by Pixabay

Question 2: What does transformative learning at an international Christian school look like to you?  It looks like…

(1) Students consistently experiencing best practice content, assessment, instruction, and feedback that are designed to help them achieve the Christ-centered outcomes; and experiencing measurable holistic growth (intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual), including achievement of the Christ-centered outcomes (see Construct: Data-Driven Improvement, p. 16).

(2) Staff consistently experiencing professional development aligned with individual, department/team, and schoolwide goals (see Construct: Professional Development, p. 16); and experiencing measurable growth in terms of carrying out the Christ-centered mission, helping students achieve the Christ-centered outcomes, and serving as a flourishing role model

(3) Leaders consistently experiencing participation in coaching sessions, in professional organizations, and on accreditation teams; and experiencing measurable growth in terms of carrying out the Christ-centered mission, helping students achieve the Christ-centered outcomes, and serving as a flourishing role model.

Now back to our original question: We can flourish without experiencing transformative learning, right? Learning, growing, changing, transforming—these are integral to flourishing. I don’t seem to be able to imagine flourishing while stagnating, just maintaining, and/or experiencing rote learning, can you? I don’t seem to be able to imagine consistently experiencing the blahs in relation to learning in a school setting and somehow thinking, “That’s flourishing.” So, my answer remains, “No, you can’t flourish without experiencing transformative learning.”

I think it’s great that ACSI includes a teaching/learning domain (complete with 8 research-based constructs) in its Flourishing Model. And I think it’s great that ACSI includes a teaching/learning domain (complete with 4 standards) in its new accreditation protocol.

Bottom line: Avoid the faulty assumption that you can flourish without experiencing transformative learning.

Question 3: What other faulty assumptions might you need to address about transformative learning? Here are 3 examples:

(1) Student: “I just follow directions and do what the teacher tells the whole class to do. I’m not really sure what you mean about what else helps me learn. And I don’t really understand what you mean about my strengths. Do you mean which classes I get better grades in? I basically get all Bs—so that’s not much help.” 

Following directions and doing what the teacher tells the class to do is important for students to do. And while each student is a member of the class, each student is also an individual created by God with learning tendencies and with strengths. When a student isn’t aware of how s/he learns best and what their strengths are, they will find it harder to learn, harder to flourish. Teachers, please provide “[i]ndividualized instruction…[that helps students know] how they learn best and…identify their natural strengths” Flourishing Schools, p. 16).

(2) Staff: “I’ve gotten my teaching basically down. I like how my classroom feels and runs. I like my units and lessons. I’ve got my go-to strategies. I’ve perfected things. I receive feedback annually in my evaluation—not all that helpful. And I’m not looking for additional feedback. I’m fine where I am.” 

I’m glad you’ve been working to perfect your classroom management and teaching practices. I recognize that annual evaluations may not be all that helpful to you. However, this is a school, schools are all about learning, you are a teacher (the living curriculum), so you need to keep growing. You need to ask for regular feedback on your “teaching practice and classroom management …[so you can make] adjustments in real-time” (Flourishing Schools, p. 16). Keep growing—don’t stagnate!

(3) Leaders:  “I have pretty good hunches, and going with my gut works for me. I think we’re doing pretty well as a school, and when something comes up, like I said, I go with gut.” 

Hunches and going with your gut do work, but to a limited degree. To flourish, you need to also be using data. At the flourishing international Christian school, “[d]ata is used to gauge school results and effectiveness, determine goal attainment, and address problems the school faces” (Flourishing Schools, p. 16).

Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

Question 4: What change(s) do you need to make to consistently experience transformative learning and help others do the same? Please remember that ongoing change is part of flourishing, that you don’t need to do everything, and that you should start with yourself.

Options for changes related to transformative learning include:

  • Setting a focused, 3-year professional development goal. Transformation takes time.
  • Assessing actual growth (instead of assessing activity completion).
  • Identifying who you want to help flourish, what you want the help to focus on, and then targeting learning that will help you help others.
  • Determining the type of person God wants you to be. Ask God for help. Find and study resources that help you become that kind of person.
  • Scheduling time each week to learn, grow, and flourish!
  • Regularly talking with others about personal and professional growth.

Note: To help yourself successfully make a change, be sure to identify what helps you. Getting newsletters helps me—regular reminders to keep growing!

What about you? 

  • What comes to mind when you think of transformative learning?
  • What does transformative learning at an international Christian school look like to you?
  • What faulty assumptions might you need to address about transformative learning? 
  • What change(s) do you need to make to consistently experience transformative learning and help others do the same?
  • What helps you make the changes necessary for experiencing transformative learning?

Get flourishing!

Michael