| Do You Really Need to Send That Email? |
As a business tool, email is both essential and incredibly annoying. Many of us aren’t using it in the right way and are guilty of sending way more emails than we need to. So when should you actually send an email and when should you look for another way to communicate? Email is most effective when used in these four ways:
(from Harvard Business Review) |
| Psychological Safety for Your Team |
Research shows that high-performing teams have a sense of psychological safety, which means employees feel they can speak up, ask for help, and offer ideas without being punished or ostracized. Here are some ways to promote psychological safety on your team, especially if you’re remote:
From HBR tip of the day |
from Marshall Memo 877
The Omaha Public Schools took on this challenge by launching a district-wide initiative that included in-depth coaching and other professional learning experiences. Over a 15-month period, evaluators observed classes, interviewed teachers, looked at achievement data, and surveyed students, and reported marked improvements in teaching and learning. The most interesting data came from comparing teachers’ self-assessments with what their students said in anonymous surveys. Here are some of the questions students were asked:
My teacher thinks mistakes are okay as long as we are learning.
My teacher wants us to understand our work, not just memorize it.
My teacher gives us time to really explore and understand new ideas.
In my science lessons, I get a better understanding of the world outside of school.
In my science lessons, I explain my ideas to other students.
In my science lessons, other students explain their ideas to me
During science lessons, my teacher asks me questions.
In my science lessons, we learn by doing experiments rather than being told the answer.
from MM 877
In this interview with Suzanne Bouffard and Elizabeth Foster in The Learning Professional, Jal Mehta (Harvard University) says the disruption of the pandemic has spurred new thinking about schooling – for example, teachers using “flipped” instruction, with students listening to recorded mini-lectures at night and having lively synchronous discussions about them the next day. As schools return to in-person instruction, says Mehta, “it might be a really positive opportunity to incorporate what’s working and let go of what’s not working.” To jump-start that process, he suggests asking questions like these:
What have you learned about your students and their families this year?
How could that shape the way you connect with families and students next year?
What has worked well this year, and how could you amplify those things as you transition out of emergency education mode?
What are you not looking forward to about going back to “regular” school?
During remote schooling, educators have really missed the informal connections with colleagues in hallways and lunchrooms but appreciated the slower pace of life, not commuting, and having more time with family. Mehta says we need to allow for a period of “hospicing” as we let go of things that have been important to us but now seem less helpful.
Gearing up for a “new normal,” timing is important. “Teachers are not going to have the bandwidth for significant reimagining during the school year,” says Mehta. This June and July, during paid professional time, will be the best opportunity for teachers and administrators to brainstorm about what worked well and do some initial planning for the school year ahead. “Then, in August,” he says, “when there is fresh energy, a lot of schools have at least a few days of professional learning time, and that would be a natural time to talk about what will be different in the coming school year.”
School and district leaders have a vital role in orchestrating these conversations. The research points to four tasks:
Naming practices that have worked well during the pandemic, like better connections with families;
Nourishing practices that are starting to take root and helping them grow;
Connecting educators with similar instincts and interests so they can think things through, which means scheduling common time and using remote connections;
Growing expertise by drawing on the best thinking inside and outside the school.
“But overall,” says Mehta, “we don’t currently have the time we need for adults in schools, and that’s a huge barrier to everything else we’re trying to do. That needs to be addressed.”
In that regard, he describes how educators in Chelsea, Massachusetts negotiated an extra 10 days for professional learning at the beginning of the school year. After reflecting on their own experiences as students, teachers conducted “trust visits” with families on sidewalks outside students’ homes, elsewhere outside the school buildings, and on Zoom. Then the district convened nine “working tables” in which teachers, educators, and families across different schools focused on an issue (with parents doing most of the sharing and educators most of the listening) and made recommendations for the upcoming year.
Mehta closes with a question: “What’s the equivalent of the chat box when we go back to in-person learning? I don’t have a good answer yet, but I’m hoping some teachers will have a good answer.”
When we repeatedly promise rewards to children for acting responsibly, or to students for making an effort to learn something new, or to employees for doing quality work, we are assuming that they could not or would not choose to act this way on their own. If the capacity for responsible action, the natural love of learning, and the desire to do good work are already part of who we are, then the tacit assumption to the contrary can fairly be described as dehumanizing.
Alfie Kohn (1993) Punished by Rewards
I asked my colleague Evan Haase to tell me more about the rubric he uses in art:
So in ceramics and jewelry, we do a checkpoint system that has the student submit 3 progress photos over the course of the project. For each progress photo, students assess whether or not their work is currently A,B,C,D level. They also reflect on areas they are doing well, areas they need to improve to move onto the next level. The rubrics are common and designed linearly but written more present tense rather than past tense as students are in the process of completing the assignment.
It helps them see where they are at and make a plan of attack for the next class to bump them to the next level.
