I Totally Missed It!

So, it has been right there is front of me the whole time, my whole life.

Shared by cal.west on Flickr.com

From early on, the experiences in my life pointed me in a direction that I intuitively knew, but was unable to manifest within my career as an educator. I was taught the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” As a youngster, growing up, helping my father to fix a broken lamp, or helping my mother to bake a lemon meringue pie, I watched and learned, but yearned for the day I could do it myself. As a parent, raising my own children who often use me as a sounding board, but they certainly are not looking for me to direct their lives, to tell them what, how, when to do something. As a educator, the innumerable times I heard teachers rail against the newest changes being mandated and feeling that they were not trusted to be professionals in their classrooms. Teaching in my own classroom, the inspiration and passion that blossomed as I developed a new approach or idea for enriching the learning of students. The excitement that bubbled out of students as they engaged in their own learning and self-reflection because of the choices available to them.

Shared through Flicker.com by IceSabre

How did I not see a different way to support teachers, students, and parents when it was so obvious from so many collective experiences in my life ?

It was only after after completing my Connected Coaching course through Powerful Learning Practice and experiencing the power of  Appreciative Inquiry, that I really, FINALLY, Got It!

The Difference

Appreciative Inquiry offers a different approach.

A positive one.

One that builds on strengths.

One that believes in the power to leverage individual strengths to create the most desired future.

Undergirded by three Pathmarkers, Trust Building,  Questioning,  and Facilitating Design Thinking, Appreciative Inquiry empowers individuals to be the difference that makes the difference.

Shared via Flickr.com by Chris Wieland

Imagine the ability to empower individuals to be self-reflective and self-directed learners whose strengths are realized, unleashing their energy and courage to be the best of what each individual can be.

Imagine what we could accomplish.

Imagine how teaching and learning would be different.

What took me so long?   

What teacher doesn’t want the passion they brought to teaching realized as a difference in the lives of children? Unfortunately, the system, bureaucracy, and culture of education also live within a climate of politics, testing, supervision, and mandates. Together they have wrought a world that is not especially conducive to building up and supporting those who need it the most. It impacts the teachers, who work tirelessly, to make a difference helping students as learners but find themselves, instead, caught in a spiraling world of frustration and self-doubt, leading to believing that someone just needs to tell them what to do. It impacts parents, who want everything that is good and engaging for their children worry that their children’s school experience is not what it could be. And, it impacts students, the bedrock of education’s existence, who know, intuitively (just ask them), what would be a better way to learn, yet no one asks, or if they do, they choose not to listen.

The current culture in schools focuses on finding problems, analyzing problems, and fixing problems.  Why is that? According to Leslie S. Kaplan and William A. Owings, authors of a new book, Culture Re-Boot: Reinvigorating School Culture to Improve Student Outcomes,

"School culture may be understood as a historically transmitted cognitive framework of shared but taken-for-granted assumptions, values, norms and actions – stable, long-term beliefs and practices about what organization members think is important. School culture defines a school’s persona. These assumptions, unwritten rules, and unspoken beliefs, shape how its members think and do their jobs.” (pg. 4) Kaplan and Owings state that  “school cultures develop in their unique ways because they once solved problems and continue to serve a useful purpose.” (pg. 7) In addition, the authors say: “Because society, people, objectives, and resources change over time…once useful solutions may no longer function in the organization’s best interests.”

Time for Change

It’s time to step back, reflect, and recognize that we need to refocus, to change our ways. If learning is truly a lifelong practice of keeping up with the changes of the world -- and we know that it is -- then the most important thing is to teach people how to learn. To support learners. To create learners. In other words, what are the ingredients we need to infuse into the culture of school to fuel passion, commitment, perseverance, and life-long learning?

 For me, my AhHA! moment was when I recognized that the Pathmarkers in Connected Coaching were the ingredients that could help to change the culture of a school one person at a time.

TRUST BUILDING

• Build Rapport and Trust
• Respect Differences
• Discover Connections

QUESTIONING

• Invoke the Thinking of Others
• Seek Stories that Highlight the Best Experiences
• Be an Active Listener
• Paraphrase and validate the Thinking of Others
• Help Others to Mediate Their Thinking
• Affirm the Potential Within Others
• Help Others to See Their Strengths
• Help Others to Become Self-directed
• Ask Appreciative Questions

DESIGN THINKING    

• Uncover Possibilities
• Frame and Reframe Aspirations
• Invite and Engage in All Possibilities
• Brainstorm Ideas
• Accept Ideas Without Evaluation or Judgement
• Design and Field Test Experiments 
• Encourage Others to Try Out New Ideas
• Discover What We Learned

Now, just for a minute, imagine what could be. Imagine all of us collectively listening, trusting, questioning, sharing and supporting one another’s visions and efforts at designing and creating.

What a difference it could make!

I’m wondering if you are open to actively listening to someone talking about their capacity, open to asking Powerful Questions of them, open to being a part of facilitating their journey as they take steps to realize the capacity within themselves to discover the “best of what is, to generate the best of what might be.” (Evocative Coaching, p. 24)

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Essential Dispositions for Nurturing Passion, Learning and Growth

You've seen the commercials, the ads in the newspaper, the stores stocked full with pencils, markers, notebooks. Yup, it’s that time again!
If you are in the United States, you are getting ready to (or have already) headed BACK TO SCHOOL! You have rested, relaxed and rekindled the passion you have for teaching and the reason you choose to be a teacher, to make a difference in students’ lives. You are imagining the possibilities for this year, having reflected, reconsidered, reworked and re-imagined how this year will be different and even better than last year.

FAST FORWARD...to the opening in-service days when you reconnect with your colleagues, sharing your energy and hopes for the new school year. Then, the district initiatives for the year are introduced along with the district scores from the latest round of state testing. Common Core State Standards, a new writing program, changes to the math program to align with Common Core, a new professional employee evaluation system along with school level plans to address deficiencies related to not meeting Annual Yearly Progress. Your heart sinks, your energy deflates, your positive outlook turns, your belief in your ability to make the difference in your students’ lives waivers.

OK, Let’s REWIND to those moments and feelings just before the district initiatives were announced. What would school look and sound like if it instead nurtured your passions, supported your belief in yourself, facilitated your efforts in trying new ideas and becoming the best teacher or administrator possible?
How would you want a coach to approach you if you were going to commit to really putting yourself out there, being transparent, trying all kinds of ideas, taking risks, to follow learning where it took you?

WHAT IT’S NOT
Let’s take a few stabs at what it is not.

• It’s not simply having your performance rated.
• It’s not with a stance of judgement.
• It’s not by offering advice that was not requested.
• It’s not by hearing about all of their problems.
• It’s not with expectation of failure.

Instead, imagine the coach or colleague who approaches you with essential dispositions that encourage and empower you to develop your learning and growth. How would you want them to approach you and interact with you? What would be those essential dispositions? What are examples of the essential dispositions in action? What dispositions could you foster to develop the culture and atmosphere that will nurture your beginning of the school year hope and optimism throughout the school year?

ESSENTIAL DISPOSITIONS: WHAT ARE THEY?

TRUSTING and TRUSTWORTHY
This is the ability to create a safe, supportive environment that produces ongoing mutual respect and trust. Strong, respectful and supportive relationships are at the heart of coaching and learning.

Trust opens our work and dreams to each other and makes possible
continuous improvement of how we teach and what our students learn.
-- Carl Glickman

Taking time and employing a range of strategies to develop trust is a critical first step in coaching and an essential disposition for meaningful engagement. But, what do TRUSTING and TRUSTWORTHY look and sound like? Getting to know each other, sharing interests, family stories, photos, social media ID’s such as Twitter or Facebook help to build an atmosphere ripe for learning and commitment to the group and group norms. Maintaining the initial trust that is built is supported through collectively developed norms. Having integrity, being there for each other, listening to each other, being truthful and open, and keeping promises are all hallmarks of trusting relationships.

ACTIVE and MINDFUL LISTENER
This disposition is evident in the ability to focus completely on what another is communicating to understand their intent in the context of their values and goals, and to support self-expression non-judgmentally. How often have you begun to share a story or concern with another and they respond with “A similar thing happened to me...” and then share their own story? Active and mindful listeners focus all of their attention on the one speaking, listening for words, tone of voice, and feelings to hear what is actually being said. They demonstrate respect for and interest and belief in an individual’s strengths, goals, style, and learning. The locus of control is shifted to the speaker because the active and mindful listener recognizes the importance of “self-discovery.” In addition, the active and mindful listener demonstrates appreciation for the other’s perspective, even when it is different from his/her own. Through the use of paraphrasing, clarifying, and asking questions, the active and mindful listener, encourages, explores, and accepts without judgment the expression of feelings, perceptions, concerns, beliefs, and suggestions of the one speaking.

OPEN TO POSSIBILITIES AND WELCOMING THE UNEXPECTED
You were all set, had thought through your new approaches to the school year and then the district threw you a curve ball. How do you respond? Are you open to possibilities and welcoming the unexpected? This disposition is evidenced by the ability to shift perspectives and approaches as needed in the moment. It is about a willingness to leave your comfort zone and experiment with new strategies. It is about being a learner, a passionate learner who believes that with trying, collaborating, and experimenting anything is possible. By embracing the unexpected, considering broader perspectives and seeing different, interrelated factors, you will find new possibilities for action. It will require perseverance as you explore ideas and concepts, rethink, revise, and continually re-pack and unpack, resisting the urge to finish prematurely.

SELF-AWARENESS, SELF-REFLECTION, AND SELF-DIRECTED ACTION
Accepting the role of being trustworthy, an active and mindful listener, and open to possibilities is a tall order! The fourth disposition is the ability to integrate and accurately self-evaluate multiple sources of information, and to make interpretations to guide future efforts. As you develop, try, practice and deepen the newly adopted learning and practices the ability to be self-aware and self-reflect on self-directed actions is needed. As you consider your newly adopted actions, think, “What have I learned? What have I accomplished?” A learning stance, reflects from a positive perspective. Energized by our own thinking and accomplishments, expansive thinking is engaged, generating new possibilities, new ways of thinking, new connections, new goals and actions.

THE CHALLENGE
As much as the fourth disposition is about self, self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-directed action, it it buoyed by the belief in collective intelligence, that none of us is as good as all of us. It is through collegiality that the efforts and contributions of everyone leads to learning and growth for all. The answer is “in the room,” but it will take trust to emerge from the collective good, active and mindful listening to recognize when you hear it, openness to possibilities to activate it, and self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-directed action to refine and make it a reality.

How will you approach this new school year? How will you continue to kindle your passion and spirit for teaching, learning, and growth? Where are you on the “I think I can” journey of learning. What step will you take today? What will you reach for?