It is all about PEOPLE - Day 5 - 6.22.10

When I began my teaching career in high school mathematics, to me teaching was all about...math. That ability to think algorithmically and to make order or sense out of the world was very important. I naturally thought that way and saw the world through very black and white lenses. I actually began my college path thinking that I was going to be an electrical engineer, mostly because my dad told me that. Truth was...I didn't even know what engineering was or what engineers did. Throughout my college career, I kept taking math courses that were needed for engineering because it was easy for me, but began failing the engineering courses due to a lack of interest and understanding. I went on this long and winding path for a few years, trying to figure out what I was going to do once I was out of college. What would my profession be. Finally my third year I went to the college counselor, showed her my transcript and asked what the quickest route out of college was. She replied, "teaching high school math."

Now my sister who had math classes with me in high school laughed her head off when I told her I was going to be a math teacher. She had experienced first hand when I had tried to teach her something about math. My rigidity and my frustration at why she didn't understand came out in the worst ways. "I can't believe you don't get that!" was a common phrase I used to use with her. She honestly wanted to know how I was going to navigate the teaching profession with no patience or understanding of others who didn't get math.

In my student teaching and in my first teaching job it seemed easy for me. I had a firm understanding of the math concepts and could almost always find ways to tell a story and engage most of the students in what I was doing. It was those I couldn't engage that I really struggled with. Then the blame game started. It had to be because they were discipline problems...or it was because their parents were bad role models...or it was because of this...or of that. What I didn't get was the very message Howard Behar (2010) speaks of when he said it isn't about the coffee, rather it is about the people. It shouldn't have been about the math, it was about the students.

It has taken many years for this to really sink in to my thick scull. It IS about the people. Throughout our time in many different summer institutes and during out leadership and learning years, over and over again we have learned it IS about the PEOPLE! Consider these quotes from different sources on leadership:

• "People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care." (Maxwell, 2002. p. 79)
• "Applying the human equation to leadership challenges conveys respect for the fundamental principle that individual needs have value and the personal fears deserve consideration." (Reeves, 2002, p. 27)
• "In leading people, you will tune into their needs as well as your own." (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002, p. 165)

Once I was able to figure this out, it has made a tremendous impact on my well being, my ability to serve in my profession, and in the collegial relationships that I build with those I work with. 

I have come to know that the way to strengthen myself is to be able to get to know and to help support others. It wasn't so much about teaching of mathematical concepts as it was for building a relationship and instilling a love for mathematics because I could connect individually with each student about how I saw the world through a mathematical lens. This transformation has been a long, winding process for me, but has never been as clear as it has been this summer.

As Behar (2010) reminds us, "you don't always get what you want, you get what you need and it will come at the most appropriate time." It must be my time!

Baher, H. (2020, June). Leadership principles from a life at Starbucks. Lecture delivered at Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Heifetz, R. & Linsky, M. (2002). Leadership on the line: Staying alive through the dangers of leading. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Maxwell, J. C. (2002). Leadership 101: What every leader needs to know. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Reeves, D. B. (2002). The daily disciplines of leadership: How to improve student achievement, staff motivations, and personal organization. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Can Experience REALLY affect gene expression - Day 4 - 6.21.10

Since the time I first found out about my father having Huntington's disease (HD), we have been on a course of finding more information, looking deep to find answers to what he will progress through, and trying to seek to find answers about what behavioral changes he will go through. Huntington's disease is a genetic disease. Because it is autosomal dominant,if you have the mutated allele, you will have the disease. Research about what exactly happens inside the brain that causes the symptoms is continually taking place. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (2010) states, "At this time, there is no way to stop or reverse the course of HD. Now that the HD gene has been located, investigators are continuing to study the HD gene with an eye toward understanding how it causes disease in the human body."

The research of Dr. Suomi is encouraging. He stated during his presentation (2010) that "experience affects gene expression" in the rhesus monkeys. Because my research is dealing with the impact of Huntington's disease on families, it is interesting to hear this comment. Could this really be true? Is there really the hope that at some point families who have had to experience this disease, all due to genetics, would have hope through providing certain experiences to others that may dramatically improve their quality of life?

After the presentation I was able to ask Dr. Suomi about the HD question and if he knew if his research would have an impact on genetic disease such as this. He pointed me to the studies in Los Angeles that have had some success in turning around behaviors associated with HD by using some drugs that have impacts on how the brain functions. The drug therapy is of high promise, but could this be accomplished behaviorally as well? Just amazing!

Dr. Suomi reminded me of our obligations as researchers to really continue to preform research and to continue adding to the knowledge of body that exists on any subject. Being part of the doctoral program and knowing that my research will also add to the existing body of knowledge is exciting. While some may have argued that his research with monkeys isn't quite right, without the use of animals to test some of our models, I don't know how we would continue to move forward. At one time I would have been very against research on animals and the impacts it has on them. However, it is such research that is now providing hope that one day no others will have to go through the consequences of a disease like my father has had to. 

That is true inspiration!

Suomi, S.  (2010, June). Leadership, Experience-based Brain & Biological Development. Lecture delivered at Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

NINDS Huntington's disease information page. National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke. Retrieved June 30, 2010 from http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/huntington/huntington.htm

Welcome to Summer Institute Year 3

Year 3 of the 3 year program. The last summer I will have to dedicate 16 continuous days to doctoral studies. While 16 days may not seem like much, summer goes by so quickly anyway. It is interesting coming into year 3...being those students that are in their last year. I remember when we were greeted by year 3 students as we entered our first year. We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves in to. We could only anticipate the rigor and intensity of what we were going to experience. Those year 3 students had a sense of accomplishment about them, a sense of peace. 

Then when we came back for year two...the painful year for me. It seemed summer institute would never end. We knew the rigor and intensity we had to look forward to coupled with the realization that we had more years to endure. 

But year 3. Ahhhhhhh...... here we are! We made it thus far. This is the last summer we will have to be away from our families. Our adventures in leadership, learning, and service will be self directed rather than having to be here during this time. Yet there will be something missed.

I am very excited about our adventures for the next year. I also anticipate the conclusion of the formal part of the program. It will be and is a huge sense of relief and accomplishment!

Service is... Grappling with Ideas - Day 1 & 2 - 6.18.10 & 6.19.10

On our journey this year we are asked to define our philosophy of service. This will be an especially hard quest for me because I'm not sure how to define service. In fact, as we started this venture 2 years ago, when we did our KWL (what we know, what we want to know, and what we learned), I had several things in the W column and not much anywhere else. Some of the questions I was seeking to get answers to:

• We know that there are styles of and types of leadership and different ways people learn, are there different "types" of service?
• Can service still be taking place, even if you are receiving monetary gains? 
• So often service is related to giving back to the community...isn't service also giving to your family and to those close to you when in need?
• Are some people more predisposed to serve? Is it a disposition?

When I came in to this program, I had a pretty good understanding of leadership (or so I thought), I knew some about learning, but service is a large area of question for me. 

Blair and Hipp (2010) talked about service as a personal journey, about understanding others and being open to serve their needs (rather than our own?). However, most times what we end up serving is already in alignment with our own value system. This helps us to meet our own needs at the same time. 

So I continually try to ascertain - 

Is service a project, serving on a board, providing community service, service to our children's school, it is a physical act?

OR

Is service really helping others in need in small ways? Can it be all the little things you do to help others achieve their goals?

Here is another example, at my children's school last year, they implemented mandatory service hours from the parents. This really struck me the wrong way, because if it is mandatory, how can it be service? In my mind, the way to encourage parents to be more active and find ways they can give back to the school community doesn't happen by mandating a certain number of hours that somebody "work" for the school. However, service is defined in so many different ways, that is really is hard to put a definition to it. 

Looking in a couple of different online dictionaries, they had 15-23 different definitions of the word service. That really made me think hard about what service is and what we are talking about when we say the word "service".

This year will be a great year to gain new meanings and understandings of service.

Stanford-Blair, N. & Hipp, K. (2010, June). The Service Year. Lecture delivered at Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwuakee, WI

Research Classes Coming to Life!

After spending nearly two years immersed in the CSU doctoral program, there were times I'd wondered if I was really gaining enough knowledge to cover the thousands of dollars being paid to be in this program. Then the revelation hit!

I was asked to be part of a team that was put together in consideration of applying for an i3 grant (Investing in Innovation Fund from the federal government) with an area STEM group. I was pleased about the consideration because of implications it would have on the work I was doing with Engineering is Elementary for Wisconsin Education Innovations. I was also excited about the opportunity to continue to develop my grant writing skills. But the skills needed for this grant required more than that...

As the meeting began, the cast of characters told it's own story. Yes, we did have some K-12 school people, many involved in Project Lead the Way. There were several people from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and a couple that were PhD's that either had been or currently were involved deep in research projects.

In front of us was placed a copy of the federal register that outlined the grant requirements. One of the biggest changes in this round of funding is the fed's priorities of funding are directly tied to research. The amount of funding you could apply for was directly tied to the amount of evidence (research) that had been done. This may annoy some of us in K-12 education, but the bottom line is we really need to find out what is working well, which is a harder task than one might first think. Evidence as defined in this grant application was something like this:

"Strong evidence means evidence from previous studies whose designs can support causal conclusions (e.e., studies with high internal validity)...more than one well-designed and well-implemented experimental study or well-design and well-implemented quasi-experimental study...or one large randomized controlled mulitsite trial that supports the effectiveness of the practice, strategy, or program."

It goes on, but I think you get the "gist". Many of the people in our room could assume what those terms might mean, but it really felt good to REALLY know what those terms mean and have examples in my head of what that would look like. In fact, it was great to enter into discourse about some of the definitions with current researchers in the field about what studies would actually fit those descriptions. As I watched others in the room listen to the discourse, I could see myself a few years back, listening intently but not fully understanding what any of that meant. Most sat quiet and waited for the research discussion to be over to join the conversation. It was an enlightening experience!

Bottom Line:

I'm definitely getting my money's worth! :)

Chaos and Direction, Merging a dichotomy for Leadership, Learning, and Service

As I enter new opportunities that have presented themselves this year, I look forward to new challenges and opportunities that will come my way. As the Director of Professional Development at Messmer Catholic Schools, I am hopeful that I can have an impact on student achievement by helping all teachers become successful in their classrooms. First and foremost I want to see them succeed and have the knowledge needed to reach every student that they encounter. 

While I have my own mission and expectations, as I know having a clear direction, goal, or path is essential for successful leadership. However, I must also always remember that while I have that mission or goal, I must keep my mind open to the natural chaos that will occur. I must remain flexible in order to let the direction carve it's own path as well. It is always important to remember that what matters most is the small impacts that you can make. As those small impacts increase, the overall impact becomes larger and larger. It must start with genuine care and concern for each individual, teacher and students. 

As shared by Perez (2009, June), Robinson (2009, June), and Taulbert (2009, June), I will remember that my main focus must be on developing relationships with those I work with. Each and every interaction has the opportunity to bring us together and to work toward our common mission.  That interaction might also tweak or refine our understandings of the mission and lead us in new directions as well. 

Leadership really is a fine balance of two mutually exclusive events, having a clear direction and mission, and allowing the flexibility for chaos to occur and a new direction present itself. It really is like the understanding of our brain, our left brain focusing on order, and our right brain looking at big picture and pushing to let new realities and understandings emerge. 

Having a basic understanding of how our brains work and how people learn can no longer be ignored. In working with teachers to improve instruction, the relationship that is formed with be the basis for understanding what types of past experiences have shaped a teachers' thinking. It is only then that you can purposefully begin to build new neural networks for the teacher, in hopes that the information presented will become automatic enough that it will help students to achieve in that classroom. Many administrators think/feel that when professional development is presented, teachers should just be able to take that information and apply it to their classroom instruction. What we know now is that our brains just don't work that way. The new information has to connect to prior meanings and experiences (Wolfe, 2009; Estes, 2009). Since we all differ in those experiences, it is important to work with each teacher at a more individual level. Helping to shape their experiences, and to build the experiences for them.

It will be essential in moving forward that I remain true to what I want to accomplish, and at the same time leave enough room for random events to occur and take me in different directions.

• I must keep dreaming big at possibilities that didn't occur before (Wild Ideas about Education). 
• I must use what I know about learning (Learning is Essential to Leading).
  
• I must allow random events to occur in my life (Leadership as a Random Set of Events).
  
• I must take those leadership lessons and continually reflect on how I can put them into my practice (Leadership lessons).
  

It will be an exciting year full of opportunities. I can honestly say, I don't know what it will look like when I am done, but the journey will be full of new relationships built and new lessons learned!

Estes, D. (2009, June). Brain Power. Lecture delivered at Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Perez, J. (2009, June). Power of diversity leadership. Lecture delivered at Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Robinson, E. (2009, June). Four giant steps to leadership. Lecture delivered at Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Taulbert, C. (2009, June). Leadership for the 21st century. Lecture delivered at Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI. 

Wolfe, P. (2009, June). Brain research and education: The vital connection. Lecture delivered at Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Let our voices be heard! - Day 12 - 6.30.09

There really something to what Ben Merens (2009) described in his workshop as the "need for our voices to be heard." In working in large organizations, such as a school, and in a small non-profit organization, I have experienced this need to be heard.  We also know that our brains are constantly assimilating information, but when people are able to share that information with someone else, it continues to build their neural networks. We also know that if we are in a situation where we are not emotionally "safe", the neural networks will not work as efficiently as we might have hoped. 

Over and over in any leadership training program, you hear the importance of listening to people. It is one of those things that you may hear, believe, and know from the speaker side of things, becoming a great listener is harder than one might think. Even in a position like Ben's where he is listening to people on a daily basis for the radio show.  I must admit, however, in listening to Ben's show, there are times when I think...Ben, LISTEN TO THE CALLER! Even if we think we are great listeners, a honest check in should be done once in a while. 

It's funny how when you listen to someone speak about listening and wanting to be heard, how applicable it is to the audience right away. As an audience, we are all supposed to be listening. Which we were. In one case, the person who was sitting next to me happened to disagree somewhat with Ben's point that we should turn off our cell phones and try to be present in the moment when we are in a listening situation. The person next to me right away whispered, "But I have to have mine on in my situation. That just wouldn't work for me." When Ben came to the question and answer portion, this person kept raising their hand in order to make that point to Ben. If it were me, I would have just let it go. But this person needed to have their voice heard! It took a turn, stemmed by an emotional response, that turned the situation from a listening one to a "I need to be heard"  one. At that point, there wasn't much more listening going on. 

This experience made me wonder how many times I didn't take the time just to let other people let their voices be heard. Sometimes I'm sure I even predict what they will say and not wanting to hear that, do not allow them the time to speak. 

Relationships (Perez, 2009) are the most important aspect of leadership. We must make sure that we take the time to listen. To really listen. By being present. By allowing our minds to try to create new neural pathways with the information we are hearing. By seeking other perspectives and giving others an opportunity to be heard. Just 5 minutes, as Ben Merens (2009, June) described. Just 5 minutes!

Perez, J. (2009, June). Power of diversity leadership. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Merens, B. (2009, June). People are dying to be heard. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Other resources:

http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm

http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7article/article40.htm

http://www.benmerens.com/