Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Category: Reform

  • school reform 101

    Image: aafad 38/365 the name is lom… by lamont_cranston made available by a creative commons license on flickr.

    I just read an article by accident, on addressing the issue of racism in school, because I was looking for a different article in the March 2003 issue of Phi Delta Kappan. That one wasn’t available but this one, Ending the Silence by Donna M. Marriott, is. The title intrigued me, and this bit yelled out to me:

    …classroom teachers are the only real agents of school reform. It is teachers who translate policy into action; who integrate the complex components of standards, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment into comprehensible and pragmatic instruction; and who balance an ever-changing array of political, economic, social, and educational factors while trying to meet the individual needs of children.

    That first line in particular screams truth. In order for us to create vibrant, learning-rich, successful classroom communities we need to start with teachers. Too often teachers are handed new sets of guidelines called reform that they are expected to carry out. Very often they fall flat. They have no meaning for anyone beyond the policy-makers who crafted them.

    If teachers were involved in a process to improve their classrooms for the success of those in it – in a process that reached out to their values as teachers and as people, then there will be true reform.

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  • Developing dreams, reaching our highest potential


    “AI’s fundamental approach
    of seeking to discover, honor, and amplify what works, the life-giving
    elements, is a “system” process that works at all levels,
    with individual students, one-on-one student-teacher relationships,
    classrooms, schools, school districts and communities.”

    from Leadership at Every Level: Appreciative Inquiry in Education by Rich Henry

    Appreciative Inquiry, for me, seems so logical, simple, true, and essential, that I forget not every knows this.
    I am presently involved in a change process at one of the schools I work with. In the past, as the principal tells me, she found something she liked and was passionate about – some new pedagogical twist of the month – and tried to impose it on her teaching staff. Now she realizes that can never work, that what she was actually creating was a climate of insecurity, of ever-changing focus, and that teachers were actually shifting towards complacency with this.

    Our goal with the present initiative is nothing less than to shift paradigms of teaching and to create a community of sharing and ongoing learning that will celebrate diversity. What this looks like will emerge as we go because, while we have a general vision of where we want to go, the details will be filled in by community members – teaching and support staff, parents, students, and the board.

    Unlike previous change initiatives, the principal is moving slowly and is starting by changing the conversations that are taking place within the school’s walls. We are encouraging people to ask each other questions around their passion for teaching and learning and community. I am already seeing the change as conversations in the staff room are much more collaborative and focus on practice rather than complaints.

    Our next step is provide a context for the conversation shifts, and a framework from within which the community can create their best future.

    I am excited about seeing where this school goes.

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  • dreams and connections to the spirit


    Image: Forest Whitaker from Red Carpet Treatment on Reuters Blogs

    When I was a kid, the only way that I saw movies was from
    the backseat of my family’s car. At the drive-in. And, it wasn’t my
    reality to think I would be acting in movies, so receiving this honor
    tonight tells me that it’s possible. It is possible for a kid from east
    Texas, raised in South Central L.A. in Carson, who believes in his
    dreams, commits himself to them with his heart, to touch them, and to
    have them happen.

    Because when I first started acting, it was because of my
    desire to connect to everyone. To that thing inside each of us. That
    light that I believe exists in all of us. Because acting for me is
    about believing in that connection and it’s a connection so strong,
    it’s a connection so deep, that we feel it. And through our combined
    belief, we can create a new reality. (found on firstshowing.net)


    I thought that Forest Whitaker’s speech was powerful. In the first paragraph he spoke of the power of dreams and goals to bring us to our best future. And I think that his second paragraph shows how it is possible. For him it is through acting. For me, it is through teaching that I find the connection to the human spirit – Forest’s light that exists in all of us.

    Teaching for me has to do with creating a context for hope and potential, both qualities that drive the human spirit.


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  • Barack Obama and Education


    Image: Photo of Barack Obama from my.barackobama.com
    Teaching Our Kids in a 21st Century Economy. A speech by Senator Barack Obama, in October 2005 at the Center for American Progress (Go here for a text version)

    He talks about Jonathan Kozol‘s new book – Shame of a Nation. It seems to me that Mr. Kozol has been writing of the same themes for many years now. His books, Death at an Early Age and Amazing Grace, were among the factors that brought me to a career in education.

    I am glad that Senator Obama, who, since yesterday, is now a presidential nominee, has advocated for equality and progression in education. I hope he still is. Because I think that he is someone who is going to have great influence in that country to the South of us, where 1 in 4 8th graders never finish high school (statistic taken from speech).

    He talks of transforming American educational culture. A beautiful dream.

    He says, “the single most important factor in determining their achievement today is not the colour of their skin, or who their parents are but…who their teacher is.”

    “If we are going to give our kids a chance, it is time to start giving our teachers a chance”

    Wow.

    He offers ways of doing this. I am going to listen more later because I have to go! I will give my opinion on that later on today.