In June, help 1 colleague get 1 or more helpful resources! Why? Because helpful resources help your colleague to get flourishing. And because helping others actually helps you to get flourishing.
How can you help a colleague get helpful resources? What comes to mind for us includes:
(A) Asking questions like, “What resources could help you?” and “How can you get the resources you need?”
Here is a conversation I had recently with one of my 5-year-old grandsons about a book I’d read to him:
Me: What did you like about New Shoes? Child: When they go into the jungle! Me: When they go into the jungle—that was pretty exciting! Why did you like it? Child: It was hard. Me: Hard, huh? What was hard about it? Child: No…I mean…it was easy! Me:[Suspicious that he’s just fishing for the answer I want] Easy, huh? What was easy about it? Child: He didn’t go by himself! Me: [So surprised and excited about this insightful answer that I totally forget I’m practicing using dialogic conversations and revert to doing all the talking myself] Ooooh! You’re right! Francis the donkey was afraid to go into the jungle by himself since he’d never been out of the village before, but then his parrot friend Rhoda offered to go with him! Friends do make hard things easier. And even if we don’t have friends around, or if our friends are busy or can’t help, Jesus is always a friend who helps us do hard things.
At this point, I was mentally congratulating myself on eliciting good thinking using dialogic conversation, and kicking myself for taking over the conversation. I wish I’d kept going with the questions to find out what the child was thinking about friends making hard things easier. What hard things he’s faced. What friends he has. How friends have helped him. How friends have failed him. How Jesus has been his friend. And if there were any other interesting thoughts he’d had about the book.
But I find that at home or in a classroom, once I take over the conversation, the child’s interest fades, or else gets directed toward trying to discern the answers I want rather than developing his own. So in this blog post, I want to reflect a bit on what I’m learning about helping readers flourish using dialogic conversations, a few other strategies, and the delightful book New Shoes by Sara Varon.
When the child answers, repeat what the child says, using it naturally in your response.
Then, in your response, expand a little—using a new word, phrase, or idea.
Then start the process again, engaging the child with another question, usually a follow-up.
How does dialogic conversation help? In the context of the book, conversations with young children are important because verbal proficiency correlates with reading proficiency. Practicing and growing conversation skills lays a foundation for reading skills in vocabulary, sentence structure, concept mastery, and reasoning ability. I think it would be helpful in conferring with readers at any level. Imagine using the expand step to address not just comprehension or vocabulary, but also a reading strategy, a literary term, or a biblical perspective.
I’ve found this pattern to be one I use naturally; however, when I use it intentionally, I can extend conversations much longer than otherwise. When I’m not consciously using this pattern, I run out of things to say after a couple of rounds. When I’m intentionally using it, I recognize I’ve run out of conversation, and I tell myself, “Repeat a word or phrase the child just said, add something, and ask another question.” And I can keep the conversation going.
Using dialogic conversation, I can not only sustain longer conversations, but I can also be intentional about using the “expand” step to introduce or reinforce vocabulary and concepts. For instance, recently a grandchild wrapped himself around my calf and said, “I’ve got your leg!” I responded, “You’ve got my leg? Have you captured it?” He asked, “What’s ‘captured’?” I answered, “To catch and hold so it can’t get away—like an animal in a trap, or like a superhero captures the bad guy.” The light came on and he responded, “Or like curious George was captured by the man in the yellow hat?”
In the conversation at the beginning of this blog post, the book we were discussing was New Shoes by Sara Varon. It’s that rare thing, an English children’s book set in South America. (While the story itself doesn’t mention a specific country, a section in the back shows some of the photos Varon took in Guyana to use as references for the drawings in the book—see below.) As such, it provides great opportunities to teach about geography, culture, and native animals and plants.
New Shoes is a graphic novel appropriate for read-aloud to children ages 4-6, and independent reading for children ages 7-10. Francis is a shoe-maker donkey who has never left his village, but when his favorite calypso singer, Miss Manatee, orders shoes from him, and his friend Nigel the squirrel monkey hasn’t returned with his weekly delivery of tiger grass, Francis must venture into the jungle to find the grass for himself.
The first time I read the book to my grandson, I focused on vocabulary like aspiration, purchase, embellishment, and renowned. The next day, we had the conversation at the beginning of this post. The second time I read the book to him (he was enamored with it!), I focused on background knowledge, which is deeply connected with reading. Background knowledge both contributes to reading comprehension and is itself built by reading.
When we read about Francis’s favorite music, I introduced the 5-year-old and his little brother (who was listening in for the time being) to calypso by playing YouTube videos, like a street musician (to show context), a steel drum demonstration (to help answer the question “Grandma, why is he using bowls?”) and “The Forgiveness Song” from VeggieTales (to connect with something familiar). Then we got our own drums (not true steel drums—though one was an upside down Lincoln Logs can) and played along to a soundtrack!
We settled back on the couch to read, and when we came to the scene where the capybara teach Francis how to swim, we learned what capybara look like in real life by again turning to YouTube. I know the video stuck with the boys because their mom told me that later in the day she heard them playing that their stuffed animals were capybara!
There are so many more explorations that could be built on this book—from problem solving (How do you make shoes for a manatee?) to fair labor practices and copyright (obtaining and naming the tiger grass) to social and emotional learning (how to apologize and repair damage).
I wonder what conversation we’ll have the next time we read New Shoes. I’m interested in seeing how I improve in having dialogic conversations and in seeing how those conversations help my grandkids flourish in their oral and reading comprehension.
Get flourishing!
Kim P.S. Drumming along to calypso music (Notice the book New Shoes open on the coffee table?)
I want students to flourish in terms of helpful resources. My deep hope is that students are experiencing… (1) Engaging instructional materials (see Construct: Resources, p. 17). (2) Qualified, joyful, Christ-centered staff who have a best-practice mindset (see Construct: Qualified Staff and Best Practice Orientation, p. 17). (3) A living curriculum (staff) that models the value of helpful resources.
Get students consistently experiencing engaging instructional materials! Why?
(1) Because engaging instructional materials help students flourish. Engaging instructional materials help students flourish by priming them for meaningful learning, deepening their learning, and helping their learning “stick.”
(2) Because engaging instructional materials spark curiosity, demonstrate relevance, invite all learners, and utilize current understandings of how children learn.
(3) Because instructional materials that are outdated and/or unappealing spark boredom, demonstrate irrelevance, invite only some learners, and utilize out-of-date understandings of how children learn.
(4) Because using engaging instructional materials is a best practice.
Note: While this doesn’t mean you absolutely have to have all of the latest, coolest instructional materials, it does mean dated, unengaging materials can actually dampen learning. Here’s my story:
I was in 4th grade (school year 1974 – 1975). I was reading this line in my science textbook: “Someday people might even go to the moon!” This did not inspire the awe it was intended to. People had walked on the moon in 1969—I guffawed. Unfortunately, my teacher didn’t comment on the dated material, and after that, I didn’t really take seriously anything else that my science textbook said. Who knew–it could be just as outdated!
Years later, I heard the same guffaw from a group of students gathered around a world map on the wall of my classroom. Someone had just pointed out that the map still had Czechoslovakia as a country. The group quickly lost interest and dispersed. I took the map down that day, and the wall stayed bare until the new map I ordered came. The new map was smaller, but at least the information on it was reliable!
Question: For you, what are engaging instructional materials? What comes to mind for me includes:
(1) Materials with current information and attitudes—meaning, textbooks that don’t contain outdated information, world maps that don’t split Asia in order to center America, literature selections that introduce students to the experiences and thoughts of more than just white Americans and Europeans.
(2) Materials where students see themselves represented: Both girls and boys, as well as all the cultures represented at my school, should routinely see themselves in library books, class reading selections, current events, math lessons using the host country’s currency, and posters of famous people.
(3) Materials that are attractive and well-cared for: We say, “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” but in fact we do make that judgment all the time. Books that are dusty, discolored, and/or torn do not invite students to explore them. They say, “No one has used this for a long time, and it isn’t necessary for you to, either.”
(4) Materials that use current understandings of how students learn: These are textbooks or supplementary materials that give students a variety of ways to access and process information, for instance, reading, pictures, graphs, graphic organizers, demonstrations, videos, case studies, experiments, manipulatives, writing, and group work.
(6) Hardware that enables teachers and students to infuse teaching and learning with technology— projectors and staff computers so teachers can use the internet to illustrate and elaborate lessons (see above). Enough devices that students can explore interests, practice digital literacy skills, collaborate using Google Docs, and create better work using digital documents to produce multiple revisions. Document cameras so teachers can share models such as journal entries or math problems.
(7) Classroom libraries that give students immediate access to good books and get them reading: Public libraries, school libraries, and online libraries are all great. And if we really want to support student reading, classroom libraries are the way to go. Certainly in elementary classrooms and English language arts classrooms. Ideally, in every classroom. Why? “[S]tudents who have physical books within reach read more – they read up to 60% more in classrooms with libraries” (Does Your School Need a Literacy Check-Up?).
What about you? What happens when students experience engaging instructional materials? What happens when they don’t? What are some unengaging instructional resources you have experienced? What comes to mind when you think of engaging instructional materials?
I want staff to flourish in terms of helpful resources. My deep hope is that staff are experiencing… (1) Well-maintained facilities and effective technology (see Construct: Resources, p. 17). (2) Skillful, encouraging, Christ-centered leaders who have a trust-and-inspire mindset. (3) A living curriculum (leadership) that models the value of helpful resources. (4) A comfortable compensation and benefit package that allows them (A) to flourish, (B) to stay in Christian education for their career, and (C) to retire well.
Leaders, model the value of helpful resources for us staff! Why?
(1) Because helpful resources help us flourish.
(2) Because when leaders model the value of helpful resources, they shape a culture that uses them. They shape a culture that says (A) helpful resources exist, (B) we all need them to help us flourish and help others flourish, and (C) you can access them.
(3) Because when leaders don’t model the value of helpful resources, they shape a culture that doesn’t use them. They shape a culture that says helpful resources don’t exist, or we don’t need them, or we can’t access them.
(4) Because modeling the value of helpful resources is a best practice.
Note: Some helpful resources cost money, and some don’t. Meaning, regardless of your school’s financial situation, there are helpful resources you and your colleagues can use.
Leaders, how can you model the value of helpful resources for us? What comes to mind for me includes God, time, professional resources, book discussions, and instructional materials. Let me explain:
(1) God: Embrace praying for staff and with staff. Attend staff devotions. Ask for prayer requests, and follow up by inquiring how it’s going. Share your own requests, both personal and institutional. Share stories of God’s leading and provision.
(2) Time: Within the 24 hours God gives us each day, model gratitude, healthy boundaries, smart work habits (which include establishing priorities), trust in God, and rest. Don’t model the opposite, which could look like this:
Not consistently attending staff devotions.
Answering “How was your weekend?” with “Busy.”
Sending work emails on Saturdays.
Opening a meeting by talking about how late you were up preparing for it.
Note: Modeling the opposite can result in staff thinking you’re not approachable (not good) and even that they should follow your unhealthy example (really not good).
(3) Professional resources: Make a professional development budget available, and normalize using it by sharing how you use it. Talk about what you’ve learned from a professional membership, book, blog, podcast, or workshop. Ask us what professional resources we’ve benefited from recently.
(5) Instructional materials: Encourage us to purchase instructional materials that are both current and of high quality. Share examples of quality instructional materials the school has recently received—new world maps, new books for classroom libraries, faster Internet speed.
What about you? What’s important about modeling the value of helpful resources for your colleagues? How do you model the value of helpful resources? What else could you do to model the value of helpful resources for your colleagues?
(4) A comfortable compensation and benefit package that allows them (A) to flourish, (B) to stay in Christian education for their career, and (C) to retire well.
Leader, ensure your workspace is welcoming for you! Why?
(1) Because a welcoming workspace helps you flourish.
(2) Because having a welcoming workspace increases the likelihood of productivity (I work best in a space with the right temperature and good lighting) and well-being (having a standing desk helps me).
(3) Because not having a welcoming workspace increases the likelihood of reduced productivity and reduced well-being (think neck pain and back pain).
(4) Because having a welcoming workspace is a best practice.
Question 1: For you, what’s an unwelcoming workspace like? For me, it’s a space that’s too hot or too cold, that’s too humid or too dry. There’s no natural light, I can hear too much external sound when my door is closed, and the furniture doesn’t fit my 6’2” frame.
Question 2: For you, what’s a welcoming workspace like? For me, it includes natural light, a standing desk, plants, a bookcase, a round table with comfortable chairs, student artwork and photos, and personal touches, like a family photo.
Question 3: What can you do to make your workspace more welcoming? What can you do to help your workspace increase your productivity and well-being? One thing that comes to mind for me is better computer and screen cable management.
Michael P.S. Try this ChatGPT prompt: Act as an interior decorator. What are 20 differences between a welcoming office space and an unwelcoming office space?
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.)
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.
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?
(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.
(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!)
Resources—I want my 6 grandchildren to have helpful resources like nutritious food, a supportive church to participate in, high quality books to read, and good places to play. What I don’t want is for my grandchildren to have unhelpful resources. I also don’t want students, staff, and leaders at international Christian schools to have unhelpful resources, to have resources that don’t help them flourish. Let me explain:
Unhelpful resources look like…
Helpful resources look like…
1. A non-existent or insufficient reserve fund.
1. A reserve fund of at least 25% of the annual operating budget.
2. An insufficient number of staff (so staff are on overload).
2. A sufficient number of staff (so staff have a reasonable workload).
3. Teachers who aren’t flourishing (due in part to not completing a teacher training program and/or teaching subjects for which they don’t have a major or minor from college).
3. Teachers who are flourishing (due in part to completing a teacher training program and/or teaching subjects for which they have a major or minor from college).
4. Not having enough time to work on school improvement.
4. Having enough time to work on school improvement.
5. Textbooks that are out of date and/or insufficient in number.
5. Textbooks that are current and sufficient in number.
6. Library holdings that don’t reflect the cultural diversity of students and staff.
6. Library holdings that reflect the cultural diversity of students and staff.
7. Building temperatures that are either too hot or too cold.
7. Building temperatures that are conducive to study/work.
8. Internet that is not fast, not reliable, or both.
8. Internet that is fast and reliable.
9. Not enough computers for all students in a given class to work on essays.
9. Enough computers for all students in a given class to work on essays.
10. Unclear and/or undocumented procedures.
10. Clear, documented procedures.
11. No resource backups: no extra textbooks (for when new students enroll), no extra light bulbs (for when light bulbs burn out), and no extra computers (for when 1 or more computers aren’t working).
11. Resource backups: extra textbooks (for when new students enroll), extra light bulbs (for when light bulbs burn out), and extra computers (for when 1 or more computers aren’t working).
Bottom line? Unhelpful resources are exactly that—unhelpful. And helpful resources are exactly that—helpful!
Question: What do you think the key resources are for an international Christian school? Here’s what I’m thinking:
Resource #1: God. Enough said.
Resource #2: The Body of Christ, meaning Christians working together seamlessly and interdependently—like your body does. Please remember that the Body of Christ is not a collection of individual Christians (some or all of whom may be disconnected from each other—think silos). And leaders, get the Body of Christian flourishing—create a flourishing culture!
Resource #3: Individual Christians (staff, leaders) that serve at your international Christian school.
Right now, what resource would help you flourish? For me, I think it’s a team or a professional learning community I can be part of—a group that regularly meets, talks, and works together to help students, staff, and leaders at international Christian schools to flourish in Jesus.
What about you? What do unhelpful resources and helpful resources look like to you? When have you experienced unhelpful resources? What do you think the key resources are for an international Christian school?
Helpful resources. Do they matter? Yes or no? To me and to those I know, they matter. They matter at home—nutritious food, consistent electricity, a comfortable place to sleep. They matter at church—clean water, effective lighting, a room in which to gather for worship. And they matter at school—quality teachers, good textbooks, and classrooms in which students can focus on learning.
Helpful resources make life go, help me and those I know to flourish. (Unhelpful resources don’t—think junk food, dirty water, and no place to sleep.) So, my response to your question is, “No, you can’t flourish without experiencing helpful resources.”
Let me explain my response by processing some related questions:
Question 1: What comes to mind when you think of helpful resources?
In addition to things I listed above (like nutritious food, clean water, and classrooms), what comes to mind for me includes:
Welcoming facilities (not decrepit buildings).
Library holdings that reflect the cultural diversity of students and staff (not: Library holdings that don’t reflect the cultural diversity of students and staff).
Temperatures in the building that are conducive to study and work (not: temperatures in the building that are too hot or too cold.)
Resource backups: extra textbooks (for when new students enroll) and extra computers (for when 1 or more computers aren’t working)—not: no resource back ups.
Leaders consistently experiencing a welcoming work space and experiencing plans, policies, and procedures that result in effective, efficient decision-making.
Now back to our original question: We can flourish without experiencing transformative learning, right? Sounds like you possibly think that resources don’t matter (try running a school without instruction materials), or that resources that range from blah to unhelpful don’t impede flourishing (try preparing for class and finding out the copy machine is broken).
I want to flourish, helpful resources are an integral part of flourishing, so my answer is still “No, you can’t flourish without experiencing helpful resources.” ACSI’s Flourishing Model includes the resource domain (complete with 8 research-based constructs), and ACSI’s Inspire includes a resource domain.
Bottom line: Avoid the faulty assumption that you can flourish without experiencing helpful resources.
Question 3: What other faulty assumptions might you need to address about helpful resources? Here are 3 examples:
(1) Student: “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.”
(2) Staff: “I want to learn and grow. I found a couple of online classes that look good and a conference that looks good. But then I checked the cost. Too much. Bummer.”
I’m glad you want to learn and grow. It seems like you may think that helpful learning resources are limited to classes and conferences. And it also seems like you may think that helpful learning resources necessarily cost money. I’m a big proponent of schools providing aggressive professional development funding, and I want to share that there are a variety of helpful learning resources that are free:
(3) Leader: We have an effective budget development process, and we carefully monitor our budget. That’s good enough for me!
Nope. It’s not good enough for you or for those you serve. To head toward flourishing financial health, you need a “strategic financial plan” (Flourishing Schools, p. 17) that spans several years, and you need to track key performance indicators to measure your school’s long-term financial health, for example:
Question 4: What change(s) do you need to make to consistently experience helpful resources 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 helpful resources include:
Scheduling time to explore resources so you can identify the ones that you find helpful.
Creating a resource bank–a listing of helpful resources that you want to use.
Subscribing to 1 or more newsletters and/or podcasts.
Including helpful resources when developing plans.
Implementing resource-related plans (like a strategic financial plan and a master facilities plan).
Note: To help yourself successfully make a change, be sure to identify what helps you. Weekly podcasts help me.
What about you?
What comes to mind when you think of helpful resources?
What do helpful resources at an international Christian school look like to you?
What faulty assumptions might you need to address regarding helpful resources?
What change(s) do you need to make to consistently experience helpful resources and help others do the same?
What helps you make the changes necessary for experiencing helpful resources?
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!
Pick 1 your 1 thing.
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!
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.
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.
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?
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!
What new tools have you added to your toolbox? I’ved added mindsets, models, and questions:
(A) Mindsets:
Leading with And (book, personal action plan): Leaders need to manage 5 tensions: (1) Become optimistic AND realistic. (2) Embrace change AND preserve stability. (3) Become profit focused AND purpose driven. (4) Have expectations AND extend grace. (5) Care for others AND care for yourself.
3 Building Blocks of Self-aware Teams: (1) “A leader who models the way…” (2) “The psychological safety and expectation to tell the truth…” (3) “An ongoing process to stay collectively self-aware” (Insight, loc 3790).
5 Cornerstones of Collective Insight: “1. Objectives: What are we trying to accomplish as a team? 2. Progress: How well are we achieving our objectives? 3. Processes: Is the way we’re working helping us reach our objectives? 4. Assumptions: Do the assumptions we’re making about our business and environment hold true? 5. Individual contributions: How is each team member impacting our performance?” (Insight, loc 3790).
Relational Nutrients (overview, book, website): There are 4 quadrants of relational nutrients: (1) Be Present, (2) Convey the Good, (3) Provide Reality, and (4) Call to Action.
If you haven’t yet started a toolbox, what tools do you want to start with? If you’re looking for options, check out the Get Flourishing Toolbox and My Toolbox.
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