We moved to Port of the Islands; which is beside Everglades National Park near Naples, Florida. It has been several years since I have added a new post. We have moved six times since I last posted! I just love new adventures. I have retained this url and website as “ubiquitous” is my favorite word and I never wanted to toss it away.

The last time I wrote, I shared my fitness goals for January and February. Now that the end of January has arrived I wanted to share my progress in hopes you can learn from my experience. Not very many involved in this hashtag are beginning their fitness challenges in their sixties, but this is the point in life when I have found I am motivated and have the time to start. If not now …. when? “Exercise buys you three to seven additional years of life. It is an anti-depressant, it improves cognitive function and there is now evidence that it may retard the onset of dementia.” https://www.theguardian.com/ society/2015/aug/30/brisk-daily-walks-reduce-ageing-increase-life-span-research.

As with so many things in life, challenges arise that can steer us away from staying focused on our goals. During the month of January, my husband had a heart attack; he is doing well now, and will soon begin cardiac rehab. To celebrate, we took a week’s vacation to Key West for his 70th birthday. I share these details as I believe each of us have life events that can cause temporary set backs but the trick is to quickly return to our goals. Here are my goals:

My goal:

By January 31, 2017 – walk 4 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 17.00 minutes a mile.

By February 28, 2017 – walk 5 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 16.75 minutes a mile.

            BEGINNING OF JANUARY                               END OF JANUARY

       

Yippie! I had achieved my monthly goal of an average pace of a 17 minute mile but was not able to increase my walking to four miles a day. Actually, I thought increasing to walking four miles a day would be the easiest aspect, but it didn’t prove to be that way by the end of the month. When I began using @MapMyWalk I didn’t have any idea what my average pace should be so, like so many other things in life, I researched it. Here is a chart I located. I thought you might want to check out what it would be for your age range. The article that explains it is cited just at the bottom of the chart. I was able to set this goal in the @MapMyWalk app which was very helpful.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=1496

My revised goal:

By February 28, 2017 – walk 4 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 16.75.

What I have learned this month that may be helpful for others:

I have become addicted to using @MapMyWalk (her voice chirping in my ears is VERY motivating), my @Bose headset with Spotify music playing for enthusiasm/walking to a faster beat is necessary and carrying a bottle of water half-full as it is lighter and I would never drink the whole thing during my walk are all very helpful. There actually IS music for 60 somethings to exercise by – just use the search term in Spotify. Also, walking first thing in the morning is suggested by many to burn more body fat.

Sure, just like anyone, I can come up with hundreds of excuses each day why I don’t have time to walk … but … truth is … they are just excuses. Best of luck to everyone! You too can do it!

 

 

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My goal:

By January 31, 2017 – walk 4 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 17.00.

By February 28, 2017 – walk 5 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 16.75.

On June 15, 2017 I began walking as I wanted to become healthier. It started with walking about a mile in 20 minutes. It took until November 24, 2017 to consistently get in a rhythm of walking. I think it is important to reflect on our starting points, so we can celebrate our success as we reach toward our goals. I had just retired from working 40 years in the field of education. I was overweight and 61 years old. I mention this as I believe we can begin at any age and set goals that work for ourselves.

I absolutely adore @MapMyWalk. I works for me in so many ways. Here is a sample of last week’s data. I walked four out of seven days, three miles each day, total distance of twelve miles weekly, burned 1792 calories, for a total of three and a half hours total. When I magnify and examine each day’s data, I can see that I walked an average pace of 17:32 min/mile and burned 449 calories. It also details my pace for each mile/split pace. Since 11-15-17 I have lost 15 pounds.

What I love about @MapMyWalk is competing against myself. Each time I get home I check over my data and look for improvements from the day or week before. I wear my new @Bose headphones (I detest earbuds – I am NOT from that generation and will never get use to wearing them) and can hear the voice of the @MapMyWalk lady chirping in my ear “speed up – you’re behind” or “you’re doing great – slow down.” I search @Spotify for great exercise music to stream through my headphones from my iphone as I quickly walk along. I also use @GoogleAssitant to quickly change the song on my headphones as I walk along. Of course, I always have a bottle of water at my side as I cruise through the streets walking as quickly as I can.

During this last week in December I have hurt the upper part of my left foot while walking. I sure didn’t want this to slow me down so I went to the doctor. He suggested new shoes – I visited the @Asics store the next day – and realized I would need to rest it for a couple of weeks. This does NOT make me happy at ALL! I mention this because I think we all have set backs from time to time in our goals but, if we stay determined, we overcome them in time. “This too shall pass!”

My goal:

By January 31, 2017 – walk 4 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 17.00.

By February 28, 2017 – walk 5 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 16.75.

My #oneword2018 is ‘READ’. I reflected for over a week on which word would best match my positive leadership and, as Jon Gordon defined it, “a different word that would have a profound impact on people’s lives and, as we called it, a Life Word.” He also mentioned that it would be something that would leave a legacy during your life. After all of these years in education, I have an emotional pull within myself to leave such a legacy and inspire others to continue learning. I believe that reading can be that motivational instrument.

Together with Teresa Gross, (@teresagross625) who co-moderates #BookCampPD with me each Saturday morning, at 9:00 AM EST, on Twitter, we have a goal of sharing with other educators newly released educational books and their content. Hopefully, through this ongoing learning and development of a strong professional learning network (PLN) we all learn together.

I spent 40 years in education. Just imagine for a minute how many meetings I sat in, how many in-service presentations there were, how many conferences I attended, and how many times I presented to others. The following graphic speaks volumes about the method of learning new ideas that worked best for me – books and stellar educators. I ask you to lean back in your chair and honestly reflect about what has formed the educator you have become today.

Many thanks to Bethany Hill (@BethHill2829) #joyfulleaders and her new #oneword2018 ‘incessant’ – for it is her unending, positive energy that continues, year after year, in motivating so many to put pen to paper and create their own word and then live by it, month after month. Thank you, Bethany!

As so often happens when I am reading a book or participating in a Twitter chat, my mind begins to reflect on what I am learning. One evening, when participating in @plearnchat, I was humbled to know I would receive the book, “How to Personalize Learning” by Barbara Bray @bbray27 and Kathleen McClaskey – @khmmc (2017). When the book arrived yesterday, I was thrilled to crack open the cover and begin a learning journey. This coupled with joining the conversation in #sunchat about social media caused me to reflect about our learners.

During twenty-six years of being a principal I observed many classrooms. During my last year I tried my best to meet my goal of visiting every classroom each day – if only for a few minutes. It was my favorite part of the day! What I realized this morning, during my reflection, was that classrooms that were based on learners having intrinsic motivation to succeed were filled with happiness, joy and laughter. This is not to say that when the focus was extrinsic motivation these emotions weren’t observed; just not with the same intensity or frequency. If you believe this to be true, what increased value does intrinsic motivation hold? Are you curious enough about days being filled with positive emotions that you would like to walk from classroom to classroom in your building to see if this is true?

The concept of #observeme (graphic below) would encourage educators to visit each other and begin these types of conversations. Focus on what the learners are doing. I would add to observe the faces of learners and what is heard as the teacher weaves his/her magic.

Educators can learn the most from collaborating with each other as they are the true experts.

In Chapter 1, innovation is defined as a way of thinking that creates something new and better. What are some examples that you consider innovative?  How is it new and better than what previously existed?

As educators we have been writing school improvement plans for decades. When joining a school that was identified as one of the lowest scoring in the State the planning process, and carrying out the goals, became very important. We had many initiatives, partners to help guide our work, countless hours of professional learning sessions, data to track our improvement and several other tasks. It was disconnected and overwhelming.

We began our leadership journey with a Building Leadership Team (BLT) that frequently met to guide the work of the students and educators concerning the goals that were developed (nothing new with this idea). What became an extremely innovative approach developed near the end of the first year. We needed to become laser focused on the goals and the SMART initiative helped us shift this direction. It wasn’t long until terrific team discussions identified the need to have our PLC groups also discussing these SMART goals and examining data that was related. We realized that there is a great deal of lip service given to a school’s ability to have highly functional PLC teams that drove instruction. The team created an idea to have those who trained many building educators in SMART continue discussions at the building level during the next year. These trainers systematically visited the PLCs to observe practices/discussions related to the goals/instruction/data/assessment and follow this up with providing feedback to each PLC a week later. This rotation (learning about SMART/practicing during PLC meetings, trainers providing feedback) continues throughout the school year as the BLT well understood adult practices would not change with a “one and done” approach.

The adult learners understood the importance of highly collaborative professional learning communities that seek out feedback from others about their effectiveness in working toward common goals. Their close examination of data aids in the identification of specific professional learning opportunities that are needed. They self identify these areas, as it is a team approach, to increasing their skill sets that will result in improved delivery of instruction and increased student achievement. The BLT then arranges these professional learning opportunities, or building level coaches, and assist in providing the sessions (individually, at the grade or classroom level or building wide, if appropriate).

There isn’t a “silver bullet” or one magical approach that will change an at-risk school into a turn-around setting. It takes a team work approach, lead by educators who have a passion for not leaving any stone unturned, who have amazing professional learning community conversations.

“Change is an opportunity to do something amazing.” How are you embracing change to spur innovation in your own context?

When I reflect back on four decades in education, I see a long and winding road that was encountering innovation at each turn. My father was a tremendous innovator in the electronic engineering industry so I grew up listening to out-of-the-box ideas. I began my journey in education thinking I was not very bright and if I just listened to those around me I would get better at crafting my passion to help children. That quickly dissipated after the initial few years and my period of “wondering” began.

As a teacher of special needs students, I wondered if the exclusive, limiting, and isolated learning experiences for children would always continue. I understood a great deal about students with special needs from having an older brother who my parents tried to help maneuver the public education system in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Learning from these challenges was fraught with signs similar to the one’s that follow:

Becoming a school principal, after seven years of being a teacher, provided the audiences with other educators to begin discussions of moving toward inclusive practices.

When other educators are asked to describe my strengths they immediately mention being innovative, creative, and thinking toward the future. I spend a great deal of time researching information about a new idea and following this with listening to the thoughts of others before moving forward. I am certain that for any innovative initiative to be sustained over time the “runners” in the building must be involved in a team approach to “building the snowball.”

Many thanks to George Couros, Dave Burgess and Katie Martin for beginning this #IMMOOC initiative. I look forward to learning from others as the weeks spin by.

 

As I stated in an earlier post, I initially wanted to be a school administrator in order to increase inclusive practices for students with learning or behavioral challenges. This was deep rooted from life experiences in having an older brother who was initially labeled as mentally retarded. This label changed, as decades passed, to words society deemed were more acceptable. The passion to use my life experiences to adjust the way educational services were provided to exceptional children never wavered. As I look back now I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to guide students, families and educators.

The first position I had was that of a middle school principal in a small, rural community in Southern Illinois. Part of the day, I would work with students in a computer lab and the rest of the day I juggled principal duties. This was almost thirty years ago so the memories are not as vivid as they once were. In a small school there wasn’t anyone else to be sure the building was secure so that was my responsibility. It made for very long days! The staff was a mix of veteran teachers along with those who were new to education. We all played important parts of making sure students were provided a wide range of experiences; from the yearly school play to lots of physical exercise. Since there were very few “hands on deck” everyone understood the importance they played in working as a team for students. The veteran staff provided me with all of the advice/suggestions I needed as I slowly began to learn, over the seven years I was there, how to be a school leader. Many thanks to the team of educators who I worked with during this time: Garry Monroney, Eloise Kueker, Barbara Marlin, Kim (Eggemeyer) Maes, Diane (Jaenke)Chambers, Terrie Thies, Larry Ashley, Bill Wilson, Evelyn Schrand, Vern Antry, Steve Sikorsky, Bev Braun, Mrs. Eggemeyer, Jim Macri, and Janice Hamilton.

One of the fondest memories I have, during these seven years, was when I discovered we could enter into a agreement with Saxon Math. They were just beginning to create textbooks and had a way of teaching mathematics (spiraling) that was very different from what had been done previously. If we purchased 15 books the other 15 were free as long as we anonymously shared the achievement data with them. With funding being extremely limited we launched into this initiative. The teachers and students embraced this new instructional method and achievement soared. I was so very proud when one group of students won a State Mathematics award! This all began with educators who understood how to build relationships with students and set the very highest expectations for their success.

I have worked at many schools in different parts of the country but I have never seen a group of boys, who were quickly becoming young men, so dedicated to playing basketball. The minute they arrived off the bus, until 5:30 when practice ended, they practiced basketball during every spare moment. They won some of their games, lost some, but everyone of them learned how to play together as a team and self-discipline. I was so proud of them! In a small, rural community when a common cause is identified they often come together to get it accomplished. The playground area had a baseball diamond but nowhere for them to play basketball outside. When an asphalt company was in town, paving the streets, I gathered together all of the muster I could generate and went to talk with them. I asked if they would please donate enough asphalt for the school to have a place for students to play basketball. They agreed, and shortly after, the parents joined together and placed the posts and hoops beside this asphalt. Yes, community can make all the difference in creating successful schools.

During the next post I will share about the nine years I spent in Wisconsin.

Such a tremendous challenge educators have to make in their common practices in order to assist students to be prepared for their future. A teacher might pause and think, “Wait, this wasn’t what happened in classrooms I grew up in.” Careful planning would need to take place for some of the 25 ideas to be woven into daily instruction. What could a PLC group implement into their structured time to assist each other in designing these shifts?

Master’s degree in hand, I thought I would move toward becoming a director of a county’s special education district. I paused, took a quick glance at the neighboring counties special education directors, and realized none of the positions would be open any time soon. I was in my last semester when I overheard a conversation between two fellow students about how the coursework I had taken would also provide certification in K-12 administration. I took almost a year to mull over the possibility of becoming a principal. Truth be known, when I thought of an angry parent coming into my office to see me (conflict resolution) I was certain I would turn into a blubbering idiot and disappear into a puddle of tears. I thought to myself, “a principal can’t act that way!” and I was stuck wondering what I was going to do next.

During that year I kept dreaming of moving the education of children with special needs into less restrictive learning environments. I wanted to create a change and began wondering if being a principal would help facilitate my hopes. In the fall of 1990 I began a career as a school administrator that would span twenty-six years. I will always be thankful that Dr. Robert Bulthaus, Superintendent, provided me with the marvelous opportunity to begin this journey when he hired me one hot August night. Just as Monica Phillippe was a marvelous mentor when I began my teaching career, Dr. Bulthaus was a thoughtful coach and listened to all of my questions until I began to come out of the fog.