Leadership December 2018

I think the biggest challenges leaders face are realizing you can’t please everyone and knowing you have to make tough decisions. I have watched a new leader do both. I have also had to do both as the new chair of a department. What I also know is that there are people in your circle who appreciate the challenges and respect the decisions, even when the affect them. I am one of those kinds of people, and I have those in my division who have shared support.
The biggest gifts of leadership are opportunities to collaborate and celebrate big and small events with those you lead and serve. In DecembermbernInask to meet with all faculty and staff. I ask them to share what they are doing, what has worked, what they need from me. It is a time to check in and celebrate as well as troubleshoot if necessary.
 I am reading a book called Dare to Lead by Brene' Brown. She talks about vulnerability and gratitude. In her book she states, 'clear is kind, unclear is unkind'. As I continue to grow as a leader I will continue to strive to be clear with my vision, vulnerable in that I am willing to admit mistakes, and lead with gratitude.
May your 'break' be filled with renewal and hope for whatever lies ahead. Peace.

Middle School Spirit Campaign

Good morning!

I want to start a campaign to capture ‘the spirit of middle school educators’ through video vignettes, stories, and resources of inspiration for middle school advocates. 

I want to start with those of us in higher ed and alumni of our programs who share the passion, commitment, and ‘whatever it takes’ attitude about teaching, and share thoughts from those who celebrate this age group. ... kind of a campaign mentality.  If you teach students between the age of 10 and 15 you work with middle school kids. They may be in an elementary school, an intermediate school, a middle or junior high school, a 9th grade academy or a high school, but they are a different breed of childhood. 

I love them! They are a bit quirky, sometimes stay weird or mean or magical or amazing things. They are an age group that needs teachers who NEVER (and yes I am yelling!)  should be be given up on!!

What do you love about them, about working with middle school teachers? Or about working In a middle school? 

Let me know if you want to play. nruppert@unca.edu. Be sure and share where you teach and your almamater. 

Multimedia Projects

Happy Friday!

This week We started classes. At UNCA we have a culture of undergraduate research and strive to provide students with what is affectionately called Inquiry ARC (inquire, Apply, Reflect, Communicate). When we give Projects within our class we are asking candidates to consider an idea or a deeper understanding related to coursework, apply their knowledge, reflect on it and communicate their understanding in some way.

So my Inquiry ARC 'opportunity' (One of our professors always invites her students to engage in an examination as their opportunity. I like that.) is as follows:

Create a multimedia product that illustrates the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to complete EdTPA. Inquiry ARC stands for Inquire (learning about EdTPA), Apply/Analyze (there are three tasks), Reflect (How does EdTPA impact your own professional development?), and Communicate (Share your findings.)

Your goal is to create a 3-5 minute product that is both entertaining and inspiring. Consider memes, images, drama, song.

The topic is EdTPA, the three tasks, and consider this through the lens of developing your own professional development.

I was met with 

So, wow, I thought, maybe students in schools don't do much of this. Maybe students in college don't do much of this. So, I am here to liberate my students!

To create this multimedia project, students will first need something to say! They, like k-12 students, need some scaffolding. The scaffold is this....
RefLeft on the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to create EdTPA ( EdTPA is a portfolio based on a 3-5 day learning segment. ..Educational Teacher Performance Assessment).

Choose something you love to do! I love taking pictures.
Throughout the course keep a reflection record of what knowledge, what skills, what dispositions are being shared. Towards the end, write a script 2-3 pages, collect images, Memes, video clips, or paint images....that compliment the words, give contextual meaning. 
Then choose your presentation tool...video, virtual newspaper, song, interpretive dance....

Multimedia is magical and can give students a fresh way to share their passions.

It's a New Year!!! Recognize your Superpowers!

Welcome to your new year. I hope all goes well.
Last week I gave a talk with our incoming freshmen about the relationship between contemplative theory (the idea that when we are present and aware, we can enjoy and troubleshoot more than when we are not "aware" of our surroundings and our own inner response to events or people), and Superpowers. I refer to superpowers as how we address our own
Physical
Intellectual
Social
Emotional
Spiritual gifts.

These superpowers are important to all of us as we travel through the journey of preparing and interacting, problem solving, and celebrating. It is my hope to examine and share ways we can enhance and "feed" our own superpowers and provide support to our colleagues along the lines of recognizing and taking care of them. (:
Welcome to your new year!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X9ilvkplLqQkcxNOC5xu2y0VE0yOJV2M

Passing the Torch

In June, I ended my role as president of the AMLE Board of Trustees. I began my journey as a middle school educator in the late 1970s. I taught middle school children in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and taught people how to be middle school teachers in those states. I served as president of Professors of Middle Level Education and have continued to serve on the North Carolina Professors of Middle Level Education Board. My journey includes sharing what I do at Middle School, Math and Technology conferences. I have seen a shift in the opportunities that are available for educators. When I began, giving presentations and writing books and articles were the most prevalent means of communication. I have watched a flood of new sources of exchange and inspiration.

On our journeys as teachers we have the opportunity to carry our torches...the torch of care, the torch of trust, the torch of creative and critical thinking, the torch of inquiry, of communication, and collaboration, the torch of celebration. And so regardless of our role as teacher, administrator, counselor, support staff, district, state, parent or business partner, Board of Trustees or Committee members, or national leader, we carry a torch of commitment that what we do for children in our schools is important.

I believe that our joy, our passion, and our commitment must be shared. Our world needs us, needs the positive support of our story. We have the opportunity to make a difference in our school settings. I would encourage all of us to find ways to pass our torches figuratively and literally.

It was a tremendous honor to serve. It is a tremendous honor to hand the torch to our new Chair of the Board of Trustees. I will continue to carry my torch and to share the joy and passion of working with young adolescents. Here's to continuing to share our advice, our courage, our story.

Amle.org is The Association for Middle Level Education and I am committed to continuing to support those who work with young adolescents! They, the students, are magical and need educators who are willing to work with them as they, in the word of Sara Powell, 'become.'

Teachers in Raleigh: Speak even if your voice shakes!

This blog addresses the following: classroom management, working with exceptionalities, and technology in middle schools. But this week, I pause in support of teachers.

I was having dinner with eight teachers who work with children and who also teach lateral entry teachers in our state. They are exceptional teachers and they are magical. They are district and educational professionals, and they care about students and they care about teachers. They shared The attacks on teachers in blogs and postings because teachers are gathering in Raleigh.

Teachers around the country are speaking up and speaking out. This week, North Carolina, a right to work state, is making a Statement as well. School Boards in some districts canceled schools so teachers, administrators, and school board members can drive to Raleigh to make their voices heard. I do not hear School Boards saying, 'This is inconvenient.' What I hear is, 'Our teachers and our kids are worth it.'

We, or I, often hear, 'Speak for those who have no voice.' Most often we are talking about children:  those who are abused, or neglected, or under-served. But this week, it is the teachers in North Carolina who have been neglected and under-served, who have had no voice. The saddest commentary for any person or group is to say, 'You have no value.' The most liberating commentary is when those who have been marginalized are willing to stand up and speak and realize they are valued.

If we only listen to the status quo, we can become discouraged, disempowered, unheard. But those who share discontent over teachers may not realize that teaching is not a 9-5 job. Teaching is not easy. We have amazing teachers in this state and it is time, our time, to speak for those who are supporting our children, all of our children.

The blog postings in and around the world provide insights and sharing of ideas; they are about doing the work of teaching all children, they are about advocating for the under-served, the marginalized, the gifted, and the challenged. If teaching were easy, anyone would do it. Teaching is not easy. It is challenging and our children need the good teachers in this state to be supported.

I stand in support of teaching! Thank you for all you do!

Spring fever

It is the week before spring break in our region. It could be a time to reinforce your rules and procedures and to find ways to remind students you care about them. Teachers are ramping up their testing preparation in some places, and students are or may be showing signs of spring fever. (;  at any rate there may be some challenges out there... some overt, some subtle. I know, at the college level, we see a lot of stress signs (sadness, work ethic wanes, tears, outbursts in class, leaving class, lateness...). We cannot lose sight of the importance of reminding students to take care of themselves and one another.

This week I participated in my first #mschat experience. They were talking about social emotional learning. While our conversations centered on young adolescents I was reminded that we also need to think about it for ourselves. Teaching is challenging, not so much for the content but for the myriad of personalities and needs of the students in our classes. I thought about the challenges we face motivating students and ourselves. I think if we can arrange some structures and work with our students, things can be more peacesful, more productive... and is t that what we hope for?

I have had challenging classes. Every week I had to come up with something different. The concern was not only for my own mental health, but also for the learning of those students who wanted to learn and could not, and to those who chose to disrupt because it is often easier to be disrespectful than to appear stupid in front of your peers. 

Advice

Next week, begin with the following. 

1) Set up new seating charts. Rearrange them. 

2) Ask students to write on a slip of paper, their name and what they need to be successful in class? Take those up, read them. Write what you need and display it on the screen.

3) Have a team meeting with the whole class. Students need to know we need a better working atmosphere. We have 10 weeks of school left. There are three things I need from you: respect (for one another, for me, for math, and for yourself); effort (bring materials to class, homework and a mindset ready to work), and kindness. 

When it begins to get unruly, move to the unruly group.

4) share the routine that will take place this next week

5) individual meetings with ring leaders. Let them know you care about their learning and want to help them get through the class. Be specific about a particular behavior, how it makes you feel, how you want to help them and ask what they need and tell them what you need. 

Inspired by Preservice Teachers

This week I am heading to the South Carolina Association for Middle School conference in Myrtle Beach, then will head to the North Carolina Middle Level Education conference in Greensboro, NC. These conferences provide insight and inspiration for teachers, administrators, and for the preservice teachers an opportunity to be introduced to middle level education on a much bigger scale. 

I  am so impressed with the passion and hope CMLA and other middle school preservice teachers bring. At the National AMLE.org conference (This conference takes place in the fall every year.) preservice teachers spent an entire day focusing on their needs, their ideas, and it culminated with a service project where they packed book ages with snacks for kids in Philadelphia. 

We, as educators, need their inspiration. They are the future. 

Last night, a group of preservice teachers shared their insights and passion with other student teachers about edtpa, a new national portfolio tool used to evaluate candidates’ abilities to plan, demonstrate evidences of respect, rapport, student engagement, deeper thinking, and assessing student learning. This panel of student teachers in their 8th week of student teaching came to my introduction to edtpa class and shared their insights. The following is a note I sent them. 

Dear Shawn, Lauren, Mary, Rachel, Emily, and Alex,

Thank you so much for sharing your inspiration about edtpa last night with my students. You were so clear, so helpful, and so passionate about your own views of how this process has shown you that you are prepared and ready to advocate for all students; that you recognize that teaching is about knowing all of your students and finding ways to consider their needs; that assessment is formative and that giving feedback is so important; and that the theories, knowledge of students, and best practice strategies play out everyday in your teaching. I also appreciate the candid reality that this process is rigorous, takes hours, and has given you confidence. 

It was so refreshing. Thank you for your love of teaching, your belief that you will make a difference, your passion. 

My students said you have given them a clear message that 1) this is doable and 2) they can do this! We will all celebrate March 26 with you. You all rock! Thank you. 

Sincerely,

Nancy

Advice:

1. Preservice teaching is more complex than it used to be. We as educators in the field need to find ways to support and encourage them. 
2. Our preservice teachers who are early in their programs need to hear from our student teachers. 
3. We need to share their stories and encourage them to participate in conferences that will inspire them and invite them into an educational profession that is passionate about working with young adolescents. 

The preservice teachers’ voice will be heard this weekend at these state conferences. We need their voices!!