Farewell to CSE from Mrs. Garrett

Ever taken the true colors test? If not, just enter into Google, “free true colors test” and a variety of options will show up. I highly suggest taking it. My colors are mixed. When I took it before I had kids and was not in administration, I was half blue and half gold, no other colors. When I took it again a year or two ago, I was split between blue, gold, and green and orange was my smallest %. They say (and by “they” I mean I heard once that in a study…. No true research-based data for you here) that in times of stress, you revert to your lowest scoring color, but also continually show your “true” color as well. I am proof of said research.

I have been at Valley Ridge Elementary, my new school, 50/50 and haven’t cried a single time since the day I talked to my staff about my move. I love the CSE school, staff, students, and parents, but I haven’t had time or energy to be sad. I even got meaningful thank you notes from people in between this time and teared when reading them, but nothing extreme. I managed to hold it all together. THEN, today happened.

My “true blue” and “true orange”, my 2 extremes, hit me over the past 2 days.

ORANGE- Yesterday, I decided it was a good time to plan for a “jukebox” challenge and allow my husband to record me doing a really bad version of a cool dance so that our staff could join me in recording and enjoying having fun (video to follow at a later date). I was embracing my creative side and thought I was good until I hit school today. People kept asking me how I was doing and I tried to hold it together, telling them I was so good, because I thought I was.  I sat through my son’s kindergarten EOY celebration, beaming with pride, then praised our K-5 students who had 96% or better attendance as they got a Kona Ice Cone. All was good. Then, the end of day hit, I looked at my to-do list and remembered that my “big rock” was to get things packed to take to Valley Ridge tomorrow… In general, I have struggled with identifying my big rocks during this transition, which is a part of the orange coming through. Okay, it is time to pack, said the gold in me…

BLUE- First, I took things off of my wall, starting with my 7 Habit frames. The second I did that my room didn’t feel the same. I cried, then went on. I took down my pictures of my family, which show my children aging throughout my years at CSE from birth to now. I was feeling pretty darn depressed at that point, and happened to find my Christmas reindeer antlers… what better way to get over this than to put on these antlers?!?! Bad idea. People started walking past my office, which is in the middle of the school and either 1) ignoring my antlers (which made my laugh/ cry because they didn’t question it, so us) or 2) stop and ask me, “Rach, you are so funny, why are you wearing antlers???” I would starting telling them I was wearing them to try to to be funny/ happy and then started crying mid-sentence, resulting in dripping tears. Before I knew it, 5-6 of my teachers were hanging out in my office talking about things that they knew would make me laugh, even though we all had way better things to do. A reminder of how much I love my teachers.

I checked Jackson out of ESD early because he could hear and see me moving about and I know he is struggling the same way that I am. I wish I could post a video of him after that. He ran around the school playing with his other teacher friends, offering assistance to teachers (even when it isn’t helpful), requesting to go give his teacher just “one more hug”, giggling while riding on a flatbed, and the list goes on. And the tears hit again while I watched him run around with joy… what a special place that has embraced my child who isn’t always easy and has turned him into a confident leader who can finally interact with other kids and adults and enjoy learning. I have seen a complete 180.

The crying continued as I packed things like (just a few examples)-

1)   2 lighters I found in my top drawer that I confiscated from students over the past few years and the parents didn’t come pick them up, giggled also while remembering the stories (innocent ones, I promise).

2)   Message in a bottle- My 1^st year as AP, when I was pregnant and also covering while our principal was on leave, I felt defeated in everything I did, what a hard year! Then I received this glass vase with messages of appreciation from the staff. I have kept them and added to them every since then. It was so great going through these messages. Every person should have one of these!

3)   My antlers- Ms. Loyd said, as she say them, “The new AP better humor me like you do!” Ms. Loyd loves some holiday headgear… I told her she needs to give the new AP some time to acclimate J

4)   Lysol- Upon finding this, I remembered that I used to have 3-4 containers. So many funny and smelly memories came to my mind while thinking about the Lysol, probably non of which are appropriate to share on the internet.

This list goes on of things I found and stories behind them. Not only does it make me so sad to leave CSE, but it makes me eager to start at VRE to start new memories and build more leaders. Together as a Central Zone, how many leaders can we help students find within themselves?  I have seen my own son grow from an anxious, isolated, and off-task child to one who has friends, enjoys adult interaction (most of the time), and can say things like, “Mommy, I am so good at math, let me show you!” I can’t wait to see him grow under other amazing LISD teachers at VRE. While I could be blue and orange right now, my logic tells me, “Get over it Rachel, cry, then realize that relationships last a lifetime and new amazing ones will be created in your new adventures.”

Zootopia, Leadership, and STAAR: Yes, they all have something in common.

Zoopotia... If you have kids 10 and under, you have surely made it out to the theaters to see this new animated film. A "cute" Disney animated film about a rabbit, Judy, who, who is SUPPOSED to stick to her assigned role in society and mind the farms, decides that she wants to make a difference in the world by becoming Zootopia's first rabbit cop amongst the "true" giant Rhino, Tiger, and Elephant cops. She is doubted by all, her family, her friends, and even the "supposed" law-abiding government officials, behind her back, of course, who think this cute little rabbit is not smart enough to see through their conniving deceit. Check out this quick trailer-

If you search on the web about the theme or underlying meaning of the movie, you will find many tie it "inclusion" or "racism".  I mean, seriously, anyone can tie a movie or book to these hot topics these days... What jumped out at ME personally while watching this movie was the rabbit's perseverance, proactive attitude, strength in character, and ability to seek first to understand to determine how she could use her new-found-fox-friend's strengths to help her save the Zootopia society. OH THE HABITS, who knew there could be so many in one children's film!?!? They are oozing through this movie! The best part is that Judy can be found repeating throughout the movie, "Change starts with you" and "Anyone can be anything." It is unfortunate that no one believes Judy until she is able to prove them wrong at the end of the movie. She, one tiny rabbit, is able to show what a leader she can be just by believing in herself and her potential when no one else believed in her.

This is true to the leadership paradigm that we hold about our students. There will be some that are so resilient that they will believe in themselves and their potential without us telling them, and there will be others who will rely on these resilient models around them to help them see that change can "start with them" and that they "can be anything", and sometimes that message can come from unexpected places, even tiny rabbits that seem out of place :) True leaders help others see their full potential and live up to it, just like Judy does with the Fox.

As we prepare for our 1st round of our state STAAR testing tomorrow, I know that most administrators are fretting over what will happen and if their students will perform. I, personally, am the most calm I have ever been before a STAAR administration. I know that we have instilled the message in our students that they can be anything and that their potential starts with them. The rest is out of our hands! Our staff decided to design inspiration shirts for testing days this year that focused on the true meaning of what we are doing at CSE which state "We Can and We Will." This message is perfect for our students and what we teach them on a daily basis... You CAN accomplish your dreams and if you desire it and work for it, then you WILL. There isn't much more too it. Not sure about you, but that sure brings me peace to think about. Good luck on STAAR to all of my fellow Texas educators and go see Zooptopia if you haven't!!!

TLIM: A Crockpot

As I am sitting, at the back of the College Street Elementary library on a Tuesday night at 7:30 PM watching three of our teacher leaders facilitate a session with parents on the 7 Habits of Highly Successful Families, I flash back to a moment almost exactly 2 years ago. On an October day, I sat in my office with our new principal, Susan Heintzman, and a few of our teacher leaders with a Leader in Me Sales Rep. He said a lot during that meeting to try to “sell” The Leader in Me program to us. He knew that he was speaking to administrators and teachers from a campus with a high number of office referrals, a high absenteeism rate, and struggling scores on the state assessments. Oh boy, what we wouldn’t give for a “magical” program to come fix all of our problems… While I don’t remember most of what he said, there was one thing that did stick with me. The rep shared the data-based results that Leader in Me schools had experienced in relation to behavior, attendance, and academics; but he also cautioned us that The Leader in Me was not a “microwave”, but rather, “a crockpot.” The Leader in Me, he said, takes time and if done “low and slow”, will have a wonderful result.

At that time, what I took away from the “Crockpot” analogy was that we were NOT to expect results overnight. Those who know me well know that being patient and waiting for results does not come easily to me. In fact, one of my top 5 strengths based on the Strengths Finder is “Activator”, meaning, I see something that needs to be done or a problem that needs to solved and would rather take action than sit around and analyze the decision. It is a good thing that Mrs. Heintzman, our principal, is analytical and thoughtful and is usually able to pull me off of the ledge before I take action too quickly :). Because of this trait of mine, after we “pulled the trigger” and started our LIM journey, I expected that after at least 1 year of TLIM implementation, we would see at some results. I wanted results! And I wanted results BADLY! I was quite disappointed at the beginning of the 1^st 9 weeks last fall to see that our number of office referrals, absence occurrences, and academic data had stayed stagnate. In fact, saying I was quite disappointed was probably an understatement. I had witnessed the hard work and dedication of our staff and students and wanted SO badly to have seen that “it worked” to solve our problems and to share that victory with them. I remember saying to Mrs. Heintzman many times, “What are we missing? What else can we be doing?” and seeing her wait patiently.  We kept working hard and I just kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting to see the results. I finally decided that we were doing everything we could in our power and that I needed to stop watching the “crockpot” timer and just keeping working.

This evening, the timer went off… Because the 9 weeks is about to end, I pulled data for discipline, attendance, and reading scores. This is what I discovered:

	End of 1st 9 weeks 2014/2015	End of 1st 9 weeks 2015/2016
Discipline # of Occurrences	67	17
Students with 4 or more absences	37	16
iStation Tier 3 (struggling readers)	46%	22%

I sat in the back of the room, almost crying tears of joy (actually, I did a little but no one saw), listening to our teachers and parents dialogue in a conversation about how to lead their families to be more successful. I heard one grandparent thank a teacher and the school for teaching her grandson the habits and for always listening to him and supporting him. I heard parents share the way they have seen their children transform at home. I listened to these small victories in the background while staring at this data. That is when I realized that while the timer hadn’t gone off until I saw this data today, things were slowly cooking and marinating the whole time, I was just focusing on the final product instead of enjoying the cooking process.

I originally thought that the slow-cooker analogy just meant we needed to give it time and not expect results overnight. Now, I have deepened my thinking about why treating school reform like a crock-pot (being proactive and following a plan) is WAY better than the microwave method- Just like using a microwave to cook food may be fast and produce food that is edible, the food has gone rubbery, isn’t full of flavor, and you weren’t able to get anything worthwhile done during the cooking process. A school program put into place quickly then walked away from results in just that, a program without much result other than dull and impactless program.

A crockpot/ slow-cooker, on the other hand, takes time. During the time it is cooking, you can walk away and work on things of high importance. In fact, this cooking method gives you more time since you don’t have to take time to actually cook. When the timer goes off, what you find is tender and flavorful and is meant to be enjoyed around a dinner table with your family. Not only that, but you were able to enjoy the time that the meal was being cook by focusing on things of high importance. This is The Leader in Me. If you put thought into the flavorful ingredients that are placed into the crockpot (pick the right staff and select the right initiatives), stop listening to the “Activator” inside of yourself and instead use the “cooking” time to plan, prioritize, work, and enjoy school initiatives, you will find yourself with a solid, positive, effective, and student-centered school with the results and happiness to show it. It may take more time, but it is worth it!

I showed the above data to one of our teacher leaders this evening during a break and his response was, “I have been seeing this trend in my classroom. Now the question is, what next?” I love that he knew that even though the crockpot timer went off to show the wonderful results of everyone’s hard work, it isn’t the end. What will we cook next? You’ll just have to wait and see!

Our Attendance Victory!

We have quite the victory to share this week to our community! Starting this fall, we've been tracking our daily attendance at CSE, knowing that it is an area that we need to improve upon. According to www.attendanceworks.com, chronic absenteeism is a powerful indicator of  students becoming at-risk. In fact, "chronic absence is associated with a lack of certain social skills, including a child’s ability to pay attention, work independently, adapt to change and persist in tasks. It also reflects a lack of eagerness to learn new things and a lack of engagement in school. Again, the differences are greater for the students who miss more school." 

At first, we were having classes track days where their entire class was present. The goal was that students would encourage each other and synergize to all be present. Classes set goals each 9 weeks for total number of perfect attendance days and then tracked their progress on a campus attendance data wall. Unfortunately, this system just wasn't quite what we needed. At the semester mark, our attendance was hovering just below 95%, meaning that on average, each CSE student had missed at least 5 days of school and were on track to miss at least 10 days by the end of the year, putting our students greatly at risk. This system was not increasing our overall attendance rate and was sometimes unrealistic, especially in the winter months, to expect classes to have perfect attendance when students were ill.

We know that with a growth mindset, we don't fail and then give up. We see see failures as opportunities for growth! In fact, fail can be see as a "First Attempt in Learning." Our Leader in Me Lighthouse team reflected on what was working and what wasn't working and looked at pictures that we gathered at the symposium in January of attendance tracking systems from other schools. We realized that we needed a more quantitative school-wide goal and for classes to daily track where they were in relation to that goal. We also realized that we needed different incentives to reach this goal. In the end, we decided set our new goal to at least have 96% daily average attendance. We created a large calendar in our hallway and each day we met the goal, a green sticker was placed with our average and on days we did not meet the goal, a red sticker was placed with our average. Classes also received class calendars to do the same with. It was announced that each week, any student who was present all 5 days would get $5 in Cougar Cash and that if we met our goal for the month, we would have a school-wide dance party.

We began tracking with this new system on March 1st and by the end of March, our average daily attendance for the month was SO close to 96%, but not quite there. We pushed forward and continued to remind students about the possible incentive. Yesterday, we were able to celebrate that our average daily attendance for April was 96.5%! Not only did we meet our goal, but we exceeded it. Look at all of the green on that calendar! This shows that when we begin with the end in mind and make a plan to put first things first, we can achieve anything!

As promised, we were able to celebrate as a school community yesterday with our "Synergy Assembly." Our entire school sang the CSE Cougar Song, said our 7 Habits Pledge together, and had a massive line-dancing dance party. Who knew so many of our Cougars have such awesome moves! Check this link out with some highlights from our Synergy Assembly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaX50fpfXWM

We know that if we all continue to encourage each other's attendance, begin with the end in mind, and stay healthy by sharpening the saw, we will continue to meet our goal and raise our overall daily attendance even more!

Opening Easter Eggs = Leadership

Have you all ever watched an Easter Egg Hunt? A whistle blows (or a gun fires if you are REALLY in Texas) and all of a sudden children throw themselves forward to pick up eggs. Eggs.... Plastic round eggs... Filled with goodness knows what! How random!? Here is the best part: They don't pick up one egg, open it, check out its content and decide if it's worthy, then move on to another. They pick up egg, after egg, after egg, after egg, without EVER stopping. They do this ASSUMING that whatever is inside of each egg is wonderful and scrumptious and worth their efforts. They trust this and run with reckless abandon toward each plastic egg.

Children 1) Assume the best in each egg 2) Don't stop to examine 3) Gather eggs with excitement and 4) Take pleasure in the hunt. What would happen if we took a lesson from children at Easter Egg Hunts? With our Leader in Me journey, this is what we have done so far. We have thrown ourselves toward this paradigm shift with reckless abandon and assumed that every egg we open will have wonderful, sweet, and triumphant goodies inside and we have thoroughly enjoyed the hunt so far.

Many adults stop to examine the "eggs" in front of them, wondering, "Is it cracked?", "Could it have gone sour?", "What if it was ruined from the beginning?", "What if the insides melted?" We haven't stopped to examine the eggs, rather, we have seen each egg as a fresh one, ready to be gathered and opened up to wonderful beginnings, just like young children see each egg at an Easter Egg Hunt.

This paradigm shift has paid off. Not only have we "opened up eggs" after the hunt to discover wonderful leaders that we never imagined could be there, but we have done so with reckless abandon and sometimes have even forgotten to stop and catch our breath during the hunt. Random fact- We have given out almost 200 Super Cougar Leadership awards in less than 5 months! We did not realize this until we stopped to "catch our breath" during the "hunt" recently. But still, there are many "eggs" left unopened. At many times, Mrs. Heintzman and I have stopped and looked at each other and asked, "Should we really be recognized for this right now? We have gone so far, but still have so far to go!" The latest achievement, of many of this year, that our school has received is to be the elementary school winner of the district "Model Character" award. Yes, our school is an exemplary example of modeling strong character, but it is so much more than that. This is something that can't be put into words, but only felt but those a part of our school community.

As I watch my sons hunt for Easter eggs tomorrow, I be thinking of what they are imagining, how they are SURE there is "good" stuff inside, and how excited they will be to open up their eggs (even if there are Goldfish inside ;). I will remind myself that we need to take our children as a model when searching for leadership in our own youth, the very youth that can barely sleep tonight in anticipation of the Easter Bunny. As educators, we should live with that same anticipation each day and know that every single child is filled with something wonderful. After all, who wouldn't love opening up an egg filled with some wonderful and scrumptious sweet stuff??

What is leadership?

This is a quote that was introduced to our staff this summer at our 7 habits signature training and at the Texas LIM symposium this week, we saw it again. This time, it really hit home. Many think leadership is about knowing their own self worth and potential and in fact, this is something we believe at College Street. We want our students to know their strengths and talents and be proud of who they are. What this quote reminds us is that this is the result of leadership, not leadership itself. 

I think one of our 4th grade speech students, Kaylee, explained it best when answering the stem, The leader in me is... She said "The leader in me is helping others find the leader in themselves." Wow! This is a student who has only experienced 5 months of TLIM paradigm shift. This is a student who must have personally experienced a teacher's leadership because she is the result. Because of her experiences, she now wants to be a leader and help others find their worth and potential. 

Stories were shared at the Symposium about people who faced some major challenges in their lives and how they overcame them. All it took was an adult's unconditional love, telling them over and over again that they believed in them and would NOT let them give up. These people did not even feel worthy of that kind of love, but over time, they started to see in themselves what the adults communicated to them. This is Covey's quote lived out in real life. There was an elementary school child who talked about his family dealing with and overcoming his mother's battle with breast cancer. He said he got through it by living the 7 habits with his family. There was the story of an ESPN producer who took 2 high school wrestlers under her wing, one who was legally blind and the other who, at 11, had his legs ran over by a train. Both of these boys did not see any worth inside of themselves and did not believe they could be someone special. All it took was one person who consistently showed love and communicated their worth and potential over and over and over again, until they saw it in themselves and reached their dreams. There was Tommy Spaulding who was told by everyone in his life that he would never amount to much and whose football coach told him, "I believe in you", and his life was changed. There was another child who at the age of about 9, had already developed a mantra for life, "Yes, I can." Anytime he has been faced with a challenge, he simply tells himself, "Yes, I can." He learned how to face challenges and believe in himself through the leadership of his teachers at his school communicating his worth and potential to him. 

When people ask, "What exactly is the leader in me?", the easiest way to respond is that we believe that all students can be leaders and we teach students to follow the 7 habits to be leaders in their own and others' lives. But this response doesn't do TLIM justice. TLIM isn 't just teaching the 7 habits, helping students set goals and make a plan to reach them, or assigning student leadership roles. It is so much more. It is a true paradigm shift that starts with the educators in our students' lives. It is a ripple effect. It is going into relationships full of love. It is, as Kaylee would say, "Helping others find the leader in themselves."

Who do you know that has lived out Covey's quote above and communicated someone's worth and potential so much that they have started to see it in themselves? Who changed your life simply by believing in you and telling you the things they saw in you that you never saw yourself? Now is the time to let those people know. Would you please comment below and tell us who you have seen live this out? Otherwise, they may never know...

Pacifiers and High Standards

Please bear with me as I attempt to explain to how taking a baby's pacifier away is a metaphor for setting high standards for students and creating opportunities for growth.... (I know weird, but stick with me and I think you'll see!)

Pacifier = Normalcy Bias

Let's start with the pacifier and the reason for my lightbulb moment. Since September, I had a grand plan to take away my son's pacifier during nap and nighttime when he turned 18 months, which happened to be over Thanksgiving break. I convinced myself, based on prior experience and my subpar expectations, that it was a good thing that I had a full week because it would be a painful experience accompanied with lots of crying and sleepless nights for the entire family. With my oldest son, when we did "operation paci",  I made a HUGE deal out of it. I said things like, "I know this is going to be hard. I'm so sorry. Jackson needs to try to be a big boy and not cry" then made the poor child throw his own paci's into the trash. Obviously, he cried all night for a few nights straight. With Keller, while I still thought it would be awful, I took a different approach. I laid him to bed that Monday night during the break, did our nighttime routine, said night-night with a smile, gave him a kiss and walked out the room, acting like all was normal. "Oh man, this is going to be bad" I told myself and sat on the couch waiting for the crying. I waited.... and waited.... and waited... NO CRIES ALL NIGHT! And the nights after, when I finally realized, there would be no crying!

That is when I made the connection... While I was terrified on the inside, I acted like "operation paci" was no biggie and made him believe I thought he could do it. In fact, I just smiled and acted like throwing this challenge his way was an everyday affair. And by golly, he rose to my expectations! I can imagine his internal monologue that night, "Where is my paci? Hmmm, weird. Well, mommy doesn't seem worried, so I guess it's all good. I've got this!" Oh, the power of positive thinking and setting high expectations! Then think back to poor Jackson. I pretty much made the child feel like "operation paci" as going to be difficult, painful, and awful. So, that is what happened. 

Now, if you are reading this and are involved in teaching or rearing children in any way (whether you be a mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, teacher, school administrator, counselor, the list goes on), think about how true this speaks for the children we influence. Eric Jensen (2013) explains that "the normalcy bias is a psychological principle we use to predict the future based on the past, regardless of how 'non-normal' it might be. Our experiences, over time, gradually create our norms" (p. 37). After time, especially working with challenging students or students from challenging situations, we start to believe that is "just how they are". And guess what? If that is what we think, then that is what we will get. Or, we can remember research that shows that IQ is not fixed (nor is motivation or behavior) and choose to Raise the Bar for our students and ourselves! Jensen (2013) gives strategies for raising the bar such as reminding students that the learning destination is a certainty. We can say to them "WHEN you master this skill..." and never "IF". We can also help students set mini-goals in which they can experience success so that they continue to persevere to more long-term goals. We can design experiences where students get to taste success and then we acknowledge and affirm these successes early on and often, as we continue to remind them that they will reach their end in mind if they follow their plan. 

One example of "raising the bar" (tossing out the pacifier with a smile on their faces too!) is this sight word bulletin board by the 1st grade classrooms. The 1st grade teachers have definitely begun with the end in mind with this bulletin board. Not only have the teachers provided for opportunities for mini-goal mastery for each student, but they have made public their belief that their students WILL master all 100 sight words. Not only that, but they have sent the message to themselves, their students, and parents that not only do they believe they can learn all 100, but they also believe they can exceed the grade level expectations by learning up to 200 words. I bet that all of these students will master all 100 1st grade sight words and that many will exceed this expectation, as well! (No pressure, ladies;). 

1st sight word bulletin board

So, ask yourself, do you keep plugging the baby with the pacifier because you don't have faith in what will happen if you stop? Have you caught yourself saying anything like, "I can't give them that leadership role, it is too much for them", "That looks too hard for them, I'll give them something they can better handle", or "That STAAR test is so hard, there is no way they will pass."?

Are you allowing your normalcy bias to stop you from setting high expectations for the children in your life (I bet we all do at some point)? If so, I challenge you to identify one way that you will raise the bar for one child in your life. Let's all make a goal to choose to be proactive in our language and believe that if we set the bar high, the children in our lives will rise to the occasion. 

I triple dog-dare you.... throw that pacifier away and do it with a smile and full of hope!

Jensen, E. (2013). Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind: Practical Strategies for Raising Achievement. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.