Start With Strengths - Canadian Association of Principals 2015

Editor's Notes

• #3 twin daughters. Only 4 – we have raised them identically… yet they are so different. They each have different strengths and struggles Both love to dance. Horrible at sitting still. Curiosity, joy for life. I hope their teachers embrace who they are. Embrace their strengths and support their areas of struggle. Tap into their wonderment for life. My students – all so different, bring the best of who they are. For many, school is a wonderful place… for others, it is a struggle to behave properly and to keep up.
• #4 My hope for when you walk out of here
• #5 The stories shape our identities. the stories that are told to us AND the stories we tell It takes years for us to explore identities and strengths… Our children are building their stories right now So how do we build positive stories of student life at school? From what I have seen and in my experience… students don’t always see themselves in the most positive light… and neither do we as adults.
• #6 Kids often see the positives We learn to be critical and reflect… but do we learn to see the negatives too much? Before we can see the strengths in others, we must see the strengths in ourselves. I know you all have been through a rough few years… closures, reconfigurations, a lengthy labour dispute. I am hoping today we can not only help to see the strengths in students but to change the lens altogether and also see the strengths within ourselves and our colleagues.
• #7 We cannot see te strengths in others until we see the strengths in ourselves. What are your strengths? Who are you as a teacher? What story do you tell yourself and others? Are you taking the time to teach who you are? use your strengths? Are others aware of your strengths? Which lens do you look through when you reflect on your work? Teaching is such a challenging profession. Highly criticized. Expectations continue to build. Are we taking the time to reflect on the bright spots in our classrooms and schools? How can we build on these? When you acknowledge the strengths… the bright spots, you get a connection.
• #8 It all starts with Relationships. Connection. Interests and strengths. Getting to know students. Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser say each child needs to be able to name 2-3 adults who care about them. Do we know who our students are? Do we know what they are good at? What they do beyond school? Do they feel worthy when they walk through our doors?
• #9 To build positive stories of life at school… AUTHENTIC Relationships are the backbone School and classroom ideas that build on strengths, meaning through interests… discussing this today. Building on strengths helps with SEL Confidence through assessment – different workshop – sweet spot for confidence and FLOW Engagement – how can we tap into the strengths and interests of our kids. How can we make school experience meaningful? When we do this… we change the stories. We change the identity of our kids at school In this talk, we will focus on the first level… in the breakout sessions we will dive deeper into the what and how. I have 2 4 year olds. They have such a wonderment for life. Why are the mountains following me? What a teachable moment! Depth perception, speed, velocity... Then went into lens, retina, toss and cones. Apparently my teaching was not that engaging…
• #10 in order for our students to learn to be… they need to learn what they can do. I agree with Sir Ken – but find myself asking … yes, so now what? What do we do? students go through school learning all the things they cannot do and either not realizing the things they CAN do. We have an opportunity in BC right now. So many districts are saying “let’s try that”. There are a lot of changes but also a huge opportunity to create change… change that helps create positive stories for students. There are so many of examples of educators working hard to create the conditions for positive stories of our students. There are still negative stories and identities of student life at school…
• #11 I love hearing stories of school… from adults and kids. Some are good and bad – stories of confidence, challenge, engagement, and triumph… also stories of continual struggle and pain. We now have an increasing number of students with mental health challenges in school as well. Each year, we seem to see more and more students with anxiety and depression. Mental health is becoming one of the highest costs in health care. Our kids are growing up knowing that their screw ups and deficits can be recorded and shared for all to see. need to hear these stories both good and bad and reflect on what we do well and how we can help change some of the stories to more stories of personal success.
• #12 Amy - Gr 12, top dancers in the FV . I like to listen to the stories of our students. I interviewed her last year. 2 different stories. 2 different identities. Studio - leader who grabs your attention with dance and character – heads turn. “KRAMER” School- story of who she is at school, she said “she just tries to blend in… be invisible”. struggles in academics, loves her creative writing and visual arts. favourite teacher - Mr. C. She skipped many … but rarely missed Mr. C’s class. Why “he encouraged us to be who we are in his class”, “he was so random… singing, writing poetry on an oddly shaped paper” “share what we learned in ways that worked for us… for me, I could write poetry or draw how a story made me feel”. Test and quizzes other classes… so routine. So fast. Teachers are trying to get through everything… Does anyone know about you in school as a dancer? No. – bio but nothing done with it Advice : be interesting, be interested, slow down, be random 2 stories - We all know our Amy’s – their strength is not noticed at school. They try to be invisible… or noticed in negative ways. How can we help to bring their strengths into their world of school and change the story? Throughout this talk… think of a child in your class or your school with a story that needs help changing. Who is your Amy?
• #13 Students spend over 2300 days in school K-12 - Look through their lens. if a student shared a story of their life at school… what would they tell? Not all stories would be positive so how can we improve some of the stories of our students at school?
• #14 ACE is the alternate school in agassiz - labelled as bad kids. Sandy Balascak created the conditions for these students to change their experiences at school. Change their stories The students have become a staple in the Agassiz community – 9 to 90. Especially the seniors community. Each Christmas, these “bad kids” give up their own Christmas morning for seniors. 5am, cook, prepare breakfast and share gifts with local seniors. Became a nation wide news story. Sandy found their strengths and changed the story… and changed the community. seniors have gone back to school including 3 over the age of 80 last year. Majority of ACE students graduate with their Dogwood too… the staff believe the students can do it, and the students continue to prove them right.
• #15 89 year old Kay on the far left with 76 year old Maureen in the middle along with other graduates of ACE. In an alternate setting, there is more flexibility but - we tap into the strengths of students, we can help to change their stories of school. We tried to do this at my former school Kent Elementary through an event called Identity Day
• #16 We need to start with strengths
• #17 Think of one student that does not have a positive story at school… that maybe has strengths that need to be revealed. Share this student with the person beside you. Why did you choose him/her?
• #18 Skills, Qualities, traits, virtues that lie within people. Arts, athletics, trades, academics… and also virtues like empathy, care, resiliency, and courage Exist side by side with struggles and weaknesses Strengths can be learned… and that is where we can have a huge impact on our students. Some are unaware of their strengths… or fail to see their strengths. We can help change the lens. Not about teaching them to think they are awesome at everything….
• #19 Lorna Williams of the Lilwat First Nation NOT saying this is polarized we teach kids to AVOID their areas of challenge… use their areas of strength to build themselves as learners so they can embrace struggle, effort and growth. Soft? Sure. Powerful? Absolutely.
• #20 As a new teacher, I thought I was going to come in and fix kids. Fix all those that struggled. As a society, we are often driven by deficits. The disease model. Fix kids. Diagnose, interventions. IMPORTANT but we often miss a key part of the story… the story of strengths and interests Which lens? There is power in starting with strengths.. Using the strengths to buiild/
• #21 What we focus on gets larger – what are we looking for? Challenge to see strengths in stressful situations – large classes, large needs, large curric, little support. It is also difficult and stressful for us to see through the deficit lens. Step back… seek out the positives in our classes. When we look at our challenging students, what do we see? Where is the bar?
• #22 Positive Psychology Research  did an activity in which people with depression determined their 3 top character strengths and then had to spend time doing NEW things with these strengths for one week. 6 months later… still feeling significantly better. They did the same thing in a few schools… and achieved positive results in learning, cooperation and social skills. The best part about this was not only did people feel better… but they stuck with the activities for the next 6 months without being asked. We should be building on the best things n life… AND repairing the worst By focusing on strengths, we not only bring up the deficits but we also create the conditions for people to truly flourish… to take those strengths and create more passion, more purpose, and more pride.
• #23 Sometimes our greatest struggles become our greatest strengths. Met Dom in my visit to the school when he was in grade 4 Asked for him to be in my grade 5/6 class. Was stubborn, withdrawn, reluctant learner met with my principal – what is he good at? Didn’t know – all I knew was that he would not do any work. FIND OUT Met with Dom one recess. Lived with his grandma (mom was too young when she had him), took a bus 2 hours each day Loved music – both loved Johnny Cash Was a drumming leader in his community… BOOM. Set up our FNSW to work with him at recesses. Asked if he would play in front of class – declined but then talked into it. Sang and drummed, beads of sweat… huge roar of applause. Other joined in... Played in in front of our class each Monday. Played in front of our school for every event. Formed a group – Sacred Connection. Part of the Pre-Olympic performance. Drummer with all the adults in a Pow-Wow we had at our school. Friendships grew… he did the work in class! last day of school… he missed the bus. We found him in the class crying. Huge hug. Did not want the year to end. Now 16, Dom spoke at the local Erase Bullying and I spoke to Surrey Supt Jordan Tinney – Dom was the highlight.
• #24 Dom continues to lead. Sings and Drums for Kent school events. Will be graduating this year… hoping to be a chef. We all have a story of someone like Dom. There is such power in using strengths to change the stories. This next clip is called “with a piece of chalk” – pay attention to your emotions at the start vs at the end.
• #25 Kent Elementary – OUR STUDENTS Previous principal and many staff member and parents, community members (esp FN community of Seabird) taught me this. LEADERSHIP roles - flourish- Gardening, big buddy, tech crew, lunch monitors, cheerleading, office helpers, library tech, early morning readers, FN drumming and dancing Not a reward – part of the educational experience. Because of the philosophy that each has a strength, we had to rethink how we honoured kids. We had to question if some of the processes we used in school were ignoring some strengths and highlighting others… Were we somehow creating stories of students as winners and losers?
• #26 I will share how I feel about strengths in school… but I want to know how YOU feel A+B - A goes first, B goes 2nd (cannot repeat what has been said). Each get 30s to respond after this. If a group of 3, each gets 60s Record 2-3 key points in the space below .Share to the group – record on chart paper/white board
• #27 Teachers – many ways I have seen teachers do this with kids…. Often in the first week or as the year goes on Easy to determine in some students… harder for others. Principals – meet n greet with each staff member, have staff do activities, surveys
• #28 Slide, poster. Crest, movie, trailer, word cloud
• #31 Surveys Writing Prompts
• #32 2 minutes a day for 10 straight days… be in the moment with a child Truly listen… ask questions Eat lunch together once in a while Watch what they choose to do… watch what they draw… what they write about.
• #33 Seligman and others researched and came up with 24 character strengths that crossed cultures, societies, religions, etc. There are questionnaires and surveys to help you as well as students from age 10 decide what their top strengths are. Doesn’t mean we don’t have the others but there are some in which we have more of. When people get to spend time using these strengths, happiness increases. Mental health increases. Engagement in school increases. It will be interesting to see where this goes in schools.
• #34 Identity Day One of the most powerful events I have ever been a part of project about themselves and present to every other student throughout the day. Not graded… done with families. Students shared who they were – what they loved – what they did. Their family, passion, culture. Hockey, lego, dance, FN drumming, jewelry making, gardening, even had a goat… and a girl who taught us about her story… a story of autism. Shy, lonely – art – pets Confidence soared. She developed a new identity at school. When I was talking to her mother about bullying… she said the anti-bullying ideas had short term impact… helping my child share who she was and what she could do made all the difference.
• #36 Genius Hour, 20% Time, Passion projects Space in providing ways for students to demonstrate their learning. Space for areas of interest. Space for projects and depth.
• #37 Help guide one on one chat to those that you are struggling to see the strength. Strength in struggle… many kids who simply make it to school are those that have strength in resiliency.
• #38 Need chart paper… each group document, then share out 1-2 from each table
• #39 School-wide shifts Question how we honour kids… what structures do we currently have that unintentionally marginalize the strengths of some Awards, honour roll, reward systems… who wins? Are there kids who have strengths that get buried… who seriously need them to be revealed? When I ask how we honour kids… I often get mentions of awards ceremony. I have to ask… is this the best we can do?
• #40 MY students to OUR students – find out what works, what has worked… and do more of it! How can each child lead? Why are we afraid to use former teachers who had success with a child? Ask what CAN a child do? When ARE they successful? Schedule this in. Secret Agent – assign a child with making one person happy each day… or each week. Secretly. Embrace the relationships with other adults in the building. There are also many things we can do within our classrooms.
• #41 MAKE THE FIRST CONTACT A POSITIVE one Share that we know the child… or ask about the child Focus on the bright spots and how to use these to help with the struggles
• #42 We have started the shift… we felt that a student of the month assembly didn’t value enough of our students. We wanted to create opportunities to share more about who our students are and which strengths they bring to our school. This year we are honouring every grade 5 student – not with an award for Top _____ Honouring by showing we value them. We acknowledge their strengths. We appreciate who they are. People who have strengths in the arts, academics, athletics… but also character strengths that are modeled through helping younger students and taking care of animals. These events are great for setting the tone in a school about what is valued… but the real place to tap into strengths are in the classroom.
• #43 Let’s steal a page from Fine Arts – celebrate what each person can do individually or as a group. Share a project, your strength as a learner… something that you are proud of. Share the process of learning. Celebrate learning. Some schools are making this shift and it is having a large impact on school culture.
• #44 Are we providing students the opportunity to share what they have learned in ways that work for them? Are we tapping into their strengths to teach the curriculum? Are we offering the chance for students to not only share what they know but also who they are?
• #45 Tap into strengths and interests of teachers and students Slow down – take the time Go through each off the ideas CHOICES - Canoe building, CSI, Glee club, flag football, stop motion video, readers theatre, lego architects, bird watching A quote from a parent… I know on Wednesdays I don’t have to ask “what did you do in school?... They just tell me” Passion projects at LSS – Christa Barberis PBL - answer a question, solve a problem, reflect learning in world outside the classroom.
• #46 3 times a year for 6 weeks… Wednesday afternoons, teachers chose to teach in an area of strength/passion, students chose sessions to learn in an area of interest Gardening, ball hockey, science, geology, knitting, basketball, video production, coding, chess, bird watching, 2-way radios, sketching, painting, FN carving, etc “I never have to ask ‘How was school today’”? (parent)
• #48 “My goal is to make learning meaningful… set kids up for success… and watch that light go on.” Mark Maines. Using student interests to teach writing, reading, presentation skills, technology, collaboration… start with a child’s strengths/ interest and then think about how we can teach through these. Grade 1 poetry with Peck Neil Stephenson asks - Where does the curriculum live in the world outside of school? Inquiry with Jonathan Vervaet – met 2 off his students at edcamp – then interviewed them. Hated him as a teacher in September… struggled with him in October (gimme the textbook and worksheets.. I am good at that).. By Christmas, Mr. Vervaet changed how we viewed learning.
• #49 Josh Stumpenhorst - Illinois, Jesse McLean - Alberta (innovation week) – also done by 2 schools in Surrey recently Josh: Jr. High- The goal was to do a project in an area of interest, passion, curiosity… one deal - produce evidence of their learning at the end of the day. Jesse: a whole week. (also did this separately as teachers) Such engagement and learning around design, creation. Photo of a student performing His first concert. Students at Jesse’s school designed their own hovercraft. Best quote from Josh “Mr. Stumpenhorst, I would come back to do this tomorrow” but tomorrow’s Saturday… I would come back for this. Don’t often hear that in jr. high. Autonomy… purpose… engagement.
• #50 Bring out the genius! Genius Hour - Gaining popularity worldwide. Giving windows of time for creativity, passion, innovation….and PURPOSE Google 20% Time and 3M An example of inquiry. But not all inquiry is as open as genius hour. Does not have to be free inquiry. Start with structure, start with guidance.
• #51 Builds on inquiry Stop worrying about the name… just worry about the quality of thought and take small steps to include the strengths, curiosities and interests of our students. High Tech High, Deep Learning PBL does not start with giving all the info and then doing a project. answer a question, solve a problem, reflect learning in world outside the classroom. Grade ¾ teacher - Minecraft playgrounds for math
• #52 Christa Barberis – English 10 Did a project in an area of passion 1 period a week… then had to produce a 15 min TED Talk. digital desk for example. Speaking, writing, collaboration, technology… learning about learning. It all comes down to creating the conditions, creating the space for engagement to occur. Naryn Searcy is a sr English teacher in Pentiction…
• #53 Regular 4 credit, one-block course for Grade 11 or 12 students, but with unique learning design and emphasis on student choice. This course is recognized by UNBC as a full academic credit for entrance. English 11 and Geography 12 This course is designed for students who like to read and write, especially fantasy and sci-fi.  It takes it's name and inspiration from the complex world created by J.R.R. Tolkien, but is more about creativity, language, culture, landscapes, and stories than it is about hobbits or magic rings.
• #54 The Mondays and Fridays “free the kids to take on the sparks, passions, and interests that they deem important for their growth as a person,” Parent said that in her son’s case, much of the credit goes to the teacher. “Roger is highly skilled and has an innate ability to motivate them … He finds some strength in every student to build on.”
• #55 Need chart paper… each group document, then gallery walk
• #56 Activity sheet – what, when, with whom? Share out the start doing part.
• #57 As Amy said… Be interested. Be interesting. Slow down. Be random. Take risks. Create the space for strengths, interests, curiosities Engaging in work that matters, tapping into curiosities - asking, designing, building, exhibitions of learning. Like Amy said… Make it interesting… and more random – check out this video from a HS teacher in Kelowna named Naryn Searcy.
• #58 Many of these were done by students on their own time… on weekends because they loved it. Change it up. Very few remember that amazing worksheet that was given out. Provide opps for students strengths/interests to be embedded in their learning. Change the story.
• #59 I spoke to Amy recently… she said that this was such a huge moment for her. Staff and students now know her for her strength in dance. Staff have shown interest in her life beyond school. She has also danced in front of her whole school as part of a school wide fundraising event. She is no longer invisible. She is determined to graduate this year and will walk away from our district knowing that we provided an opportunity for her to show so many people in the Langley School district and beyond… who she really is.
• #60 Can be overwhelming We can do this by starting with one. One idea, one lesson… one student. Story of James – teacher’s idea to connect through strengths He still has some struggles but I have a connection. He no longer shuts down when I talk to him… he seeks ME out to share his stories, We can often feel overwhelmed by so many students with so many needs. As educators, we have an incredible impact and a crucial role with today’s youth. So Start Monday… start with one. Start with one child’s strengths - Change one child’s story. I leave my daughter to say the final word.
• #62 Slides will be up on my website.