Leverage and Influence

As a professional developer in schools I'm finding myself ask two questions more and more often...

• LEVERAGE - What or who can I leverage to make change occur in a more effective and efficient manner?
• INFLUENCE - How do I influence these leverage points to create the necessary catalyst for effective change in the system?

I'm finding that in some of my more difficult schools and districts, it is actually finding the leverage points. I've finally conceptualized the full meaning of leverage - I visualize it as a light swtch or the old stick shift in my '68 VW bug. I remember back to high school science when we studied the simple machines. A lever is a machine that makes work easier and more powerful. Since there are so many factors and the work could be endless in many schools, it is critical to find those switches that are going to make the work more manageable. So a question that came to mind as I was in the shower this morning is this...How do we find the leverage points in a school building or system if none are obvious? And I guess there would be a follow-up question...Is it possible to be in a school or district where there are NO leverage points? As I am mentally and verbally processing my way through this question, I'm very quickly coming to the answer to my own question. Of course, there can be schools that are so dysfunctional that there are no leverage points. As I continue to puzzle over this, I then begin to see our job as beginning at the beginning. Do we then begin to work on developing those levers?

The question for the funders of such programs (because they all cost money) and for researchers is how do they see this happening? Just how far do we go? Can we make that kind of impact from the outside? Many secondary schools in our country are in tremendous difficulty. They are holding their doors shut with shoe strings (literally) and moving hundreds of kids so slowly through metal detectors that 2nd hour in all practicality is the first hour of the day.

Related to leverage, is the idea of influence. As a professional developer and instructional coach my job is to begin to influence what is happening instructionally in a school. Although I have not yet read The Influencer by Kerry Patterson, et. al., I am very hopeful to gain insight into these questions. I hope that my next post will have some reflections and insights to this dilemma. In the mean time, I would love to hear your reactions to what I'm thinking. Those of you who have worked in school reform efforts, how have you processed your way through all of this? I'm on my much needed Christmas Break for the next few weeks, and besides enjoying my family and friends, I plan to ponder these ideas and read this book that is the subject of a book study group this month and next.

ON ANOTHER NOTE...Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all of my friends and colleagues. I so appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow with you. May you have some time to enjoy relaxation and regeneration for a few short weeks as we move into a very exciting and change-filled new year. Blessings to all of you.

Reflecting on My Learning

I never really understood the power of reflection before. In some ways, I think of it as similar to meditation, but a little more specific. (Does that make sense?) How does one go about reflecting? When meditating, it is important to clear the mind. When reflecting, however, I need to begin with a question. I like to ponder ideas, let them ferment, and see what comes to the surface. I attended FUSION Professional Development today with about 40 teachers and administrators. Mike Hock, Ph.D., and Irma Brasseur, Ph.D., led the professional development. Several of those in attendance are teachers that I will be directly coaching this year in their classrooms when rolling out the FUSION reading class with students this year. I found a couple of ideas particularly interesting today...

• Changing view of reading...the old view of reading, termed the simple view of reading, is defined as mastery of word recognition (fluency, decoding, & sight words), comprehension of the author's message (background information, text structure, vocabulary, & syntax), and demonstration of cognitive and metacognitive processes. Ten years ago (maybe even five years ago) students at this level would do well academically. Students who were able to do this most likely achieving at average or above average levels. THIS IS NO LONGER SO! The new view of reading is much more complex. To be successful today, students must be able to do much more than what was previously needed. Students today must be able to first comprehend the information (by doing what was stated earlier), but also merge this information with prior knowledge to create new understandings. In Levy and Murnane's book, The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market (2004), this is exactly what they are talking about. The new job market is going to require that applicants have expert thinking and/or complex communication skills. (By the way, this is an excellent read for ALL education professionals.)

• I love how Mike Hock talked about the reciprocal relationship between the length of the opening activity (Do Now, Sponge Activity, or whatever you want to call it) and the intensity of instruction. Think about this...and you will know it is true. The longer a teacher gives students to complete an Opening Activity, the less intense the instruction generally is. Contrast this situation with a teacher who carefully times and moves forward with the instruction after the scheduled 5 minutes for the opening. The second teacher generally understands the nature of urgency and the power of time on task. I had never heard it articulated in that way - and it really stuck with me. One is definitely a function of the other. There is a relationship between these two ideas which I find very interesting to think about. I will bet that this relationship could be extrapolated out to other settings. I need to think about this some more, but I think it has to do with discipline.

Any thoughts on reflection? Have you been finding time to reflect more? I think in this world where we are constantly trying to solve problems, that we must discipline ourselves to do this. At least I know I need to. Is this really simplistic or does it make sense to you? I'd love to hear your comments!