School Leadership Reimagined with Robyn Jackson
Robyn R. Jackson, PhD, has been an educator for more than a decade. As a National Board-certified English teacher, she increased the enrollment of minority and nontraditional students in her AP Language and Composition classes and tripled her overall course enrollment within one year without a decrease in her students' test scores. We had the extreme pleasure to speak with her on Vrain Waves about buildership, the importance of a strong and compelling mission / vision / values, and being the kind of people we want to see in the world. You WILL NOT want to miss this one.
Vrain Waves: Teaching Conversations with Minds Shaping Education · Benjamin Kalb, Rebecca Peters
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Show Notes
Dr. Robyn Jackson, School Leadership Reimagined
Connect with Dr. Jackson
Website: mindstepsinc.com | schoolleadershipreimagined.com | Twitter: @robyn_mindsteps
Connect with Vrain Waves
Website: vrainwaves.com | Twitter: @VrainWaves | Becky Twitter: @BeckyEPeters | Ben Twitter: @mrkalb
Links & Show Notes
- Dr. Jackson’s books on ASCD
- 4 Disciplines of Buildership
- Why leadership is insufficient (03:18)
- “A builder goes out ahead, then they invite people to that.”
- “Bosses say ‘Go’. Leaders say ‘Let’s go.’ Builders say ‘Come’”.
- The importance of culture (05:45)
- “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” - Peter Drucker
- “Whoever controls the narrative controls the culture.”
- How do you regain control over your narrative (and therefore your culture)? (07:27)
- Have compelling answers for these three questions:
- What are we building? (have a compelling vision)
- Why is it important? (have a compelling mission)
- What’s my role? (a set of core values)
- Mindsteps, Inc - core values: (11:02)
- 1 - Drama-free work environment
- 2 - Do the right thing, even when it hurts
- 3 - Figure it out
- Core values as decision filters
- Vision / Mission / Core Values (13:41)
- They don’t mean anything if they don’t govern the work.
- They have to be non-negotiables
- Only 3, no more than 4, they should be ranked
- Everybody has to sign off on them
- Hire based on those things - shape interview questions that tease out people’s core values
- Master schedule has to support your core values (BONUS: See this article from our very own Andrea Smith, Lyons Middle / Senior Principal, on how your master schedule reflects your climate and culture!)
- Has to hit 100% of your students
- Builders Lab Workshops
- Advice for teacher leaders (21:55)
- Culture = organizational habits & the stories we tell about them
Robyn’s AP Class story (22:30) - Jay Matthews’ book on Jaime Escalante
- “What you start in your classroom can be powerful enough to change the culture of your entire school.”
- “Be who you want to see.” (28:23)
- “If you really want to change your culture, you are in the most powerful position to change it. There is nothing more powerful than a teacher.”
- Pygmalion effect (29:49)
- Kids will rise to the expectations you have for yourself. (not the expectations you have for them)
- Blog post about it
- Master Teacher Project (31:12)
- 7 Principles of Effective Instruction (32:29)
- “Use Feedback to help you both get better”
- What kind of feedback is this assignment going to give me about how students are doing?
- How do I respond so I can give the student the type of feedback this assignment was designed for?
- Color-coded rubrics (36:22)
- Feedback has to give kids a pathway to improvement
- Rigorous Instruction (38:34)
- Free tutorial for rigorous instruction
- Requires students to construct meaning for themselves
- Requires students to impose structure on information
- Requires students to integrate skills into processes
- Requires students to apply what they’ve learned to more than one context and to unpredictable situations
- Unit planning template
- Dr. Jackson’s interview with Ashton Kutcher - Curious Not Furious (42:29)
- Kutcher’s work on human trafficking / Bodies are not Commodities A21 curriculum
- Funding Iowa Donors Choose projects
- “If you don’t take every opportunity to learn something, if you’re not looking at everybody as ‘they have something they can teach me’, then you’re significantly cutting yourself off from insights, some perspectives that could really broaden your own.” (47:32)
- Being passionate about something makes you quicker to judge sometimes (49:52)
- “Curiosity and judgment can’t fit in the same space.” (51:08)
- Summer PD opportunities with Dr. Jackson - 2 Builders Labs (June 24-26 in CA; July 15-17 in Arlington VA for Instructional Coaches)
- Takeaways (52:50)
- AP Progress in St Vrain
- 10 signs of a toxic culture (Episode 8 - How to Detoxify your school culture - School Leadership Reimagined podcast) “Safety is not about removing discomfort.” Are people safe enough to be uncomfortable with me?