Two versus Thirty: Read More to Your Child.

Imagine a newborn. Now imagine the amount of reading time spent with that child before entering kindergarten. What are the impacts of this on the child's development? If you are a kindergarten teacher you know what I am talking about and even if you are not it is still probably common sense to most. But, for some it is still not a priority. So how can we share with our parents what must be done to combat gaps in achievement before formal education ever begins? I started sharing a simple, and somewhat exaggerated, model of the differences in achievement based on reading to a baby for two minutes a day versus thirty minutes a day. My goal in doing such an extreme comparison was designed to help create a vicarious experience of the impact over such a short period of time on a child's ability. I share this with as many parents as will listen to me and when I taught English I used this model to encourage my students to read more, as well as to encourage them to read more to their younger siblings.

OK, for the sake of simplicity there are a few assumptions made, but you will get the idea. A baby is born and his parents read to him for two minutes a day, thus he will have 14 minutes a week and 728 total minutes of reading his first year of life. Another baby is born and her parents read to her child for thirty minutes a day during her first year of life. She will have 210 minutes per week and 10,920 minutes of reading time during her first year! Now lets imagine this pattern continues for five years leading up to the first day of kindergarten. The two minute boy will have only accumulated a total of 3,640 minutes of time spent being read to while the 30 minute girl will have accumulated a whooping 54,600 minutes of time spent being read to! If this were the case the size of the achievement gap before ever hitting the school door is unbelievable.

Like I stated before it is an extreme exaggeration, but it is meant to show how large the gap in achievement can become without even realizing it. Susan Hill states that "if help is given in fourth grade, rather than in late kindergarten, it takes four times as long to improve the same skills by the same amount." What I want to advocate for is encouraging our parents to step up as early as possible to keep these deficits from ever occurring in the first place. As educators we understand the importance of language development during the early years of a baby's life. What we need to be reminded of is that a lot of our parents may not. In today's schools educators are well versed in research, but our parents in high poverty areas are most likely not. It is important to share with them a reason why it is important to read to their child from day one in order to motivate them to act before delays occur.

So what do you think? I would love your feedback on the 2 versus 30 model as well as what you see in your classrooms or with your parents. I would be interested in what you may have to deal with when attempting to educate parents on their child's needs. I am a firm believer that we will continue to struggle in our attempts to educate some of the children in our schools until we work harder to educate the parents of our school community.

Finding Your Voice through Informal Leadership

Stephen Covey has several books that can help us become more effective in our lives no matter what our job or family situation is like. There are nuggets of valuable information to be had at the turn of every page. I want to share with you a particular section in Covey's book "The 8th Habit" in which he encourages you to find your voice by becoming more aware of your current level of influence. The question for you to think about is- Can you move yourself or the people around you in such a positive way that it positively affects the entire organization? If not, why? What will follow is a list of Covey's "7 Levels of Initiative or Self-Empowerment." By finding out where you are, you can begin working on where you want to be. Having a higher level of influence within your school, family, community, or anywhere is not about having any formal power; it is about self-empowerment. There is always a time and a place to act or speak up, but there is also a time and place to do neither. Knowing the difference is the key.

Coveys "7 Levels of Initiative/ Self-Empowerment"

• Wait Until Told. You don't want to be doing someone else's job. You can't make recommendations for things you have no influence over. People would not have confidence in your recommendation and may see it as being inappropriate or totally out of line.
• Ask. It is totally reasonable and logical to ask a question about something within your job description, but outside of your influence. You can not do anything about these types of situations, but since it may directly affect you it is still a legitimate query.
• Make a Recommendation. There are times when it is totally okay to share your insight into a matter even when it is not within your job. You may be asked to think through a problem and its issues. Then once you have done your best thinking, you are asked for your recommendation. This does not guarantee it will be acted upon, but you are at least trusted for your opinion.
  
• "I Intend To." This is just a bit higher than just making a recommendation in that you are seeking permission by your boss/ administrator. Once you have attained permission you plan to follow through on your own recommendation.
• Do It and Report Immediately. You report immediately because others need to know. This will enable others to see if what you have done is correct and make any necessary adjustments. It also informs others, such as your administrators and peers, in case there are any additional decisions and/ or needed follow-up actions.
• Do It and Report Periodically. This level of initiative pertains to actions that could be part of normal operating procedures. This is done in order to keep others abreast of how things are doing within your job.
• Do It. There is great power in the idea of taking responsibility and just doing something- making it happen. When you are doing what you have been hired to do or entrusted to do on a daily basis there is no need to keep everyone informed of your every move.

When Covey says that leadership is a choice, it basically means you can choose the level of initiative you want to exercise in response to the question: "What is the best I can do under the circumstances?" As you become better able to correctly empower yourself, people in formal positions will have increasing confidence in your character and competence. Trust will increase. In time they will want to build higher and higher levels of initiative and empowerment into your job. You will find yourself becoming the leader of your boss... and your boss will naturally become part of a complementary team.

Covey, S (2004). The 8th Habit. New York, NY: Free Press.

More Morale Boosting Fun

Angie Seiders, a principal in Newport News (VA), has several morale boosters that she uses throughout the school year. In her new book, People First: A School Leader’s Guide to Building and Cultivating Relationships with Staff, she talks of giving teachers an extra Payday (candy bar) or a 100 Grand (another aptly named candy bar) for extra effort. She gives her spin on ideas she has adapted or come up with on her own from hosting the Staff Emmy awards to toasting the faculty each year with sparking cider. Her back to school faculty work weeks are themed for fun and focused on what is good for kids and the school. She has played KC and the Sunshine band “that’s the way I like it” as images of good instructional practices scroll on a PowerPoint at the start of a faculty meeting. There is even an egg hunt (see excerpt). This is just the tip of the iceberg—there is about 90% more to go in ideas of building relationships – morale is just a part of the equation. The book addresses leadership components of: vision, communication, team sense, and influence.

The following excerpt from Chapter 3 of People First, is of one morale booster that has become a tradition in Seider’s school.
For teacher appreciation week, a theme was identified for each day of the week. The first day on the calendar was: Do Rams lay eggs? (The school’s mascot is a Ram). The secretaries hid eggs with donated prizes and gift cards around the school. At the faculty meeting that afternoon, the teachers found out their school’s mascot did lay eggs. They went on an egg hunt around the building (egg hunting participation was optional). The teachers loved it – it is what Covey, an inspirational speaker, calls a win- win situation. I got on the intercom and announced that Mrs. Smith just found a $10 gift certificate to the teacher’s store, etc. The teachers were excited, it was fun to watch, and the hunt was a welcome stress reliever. Administrators, be aware as sometimes a hallway referee is needed as teachers can get competitive, since school rules still apply-- there should be no running in the halls! After a few years of doing a school wide scavenger hunt using plastic eggs, I was thinking about doing something different. However, after overhearing a teacher’s conversation about how they look forward to it every year and my secretary telling me that there was no way I was changing, I smiled as I realized that we had what is now a school tradition on the first Monday of teacher appreciation week.

Now for the rest of the story, the book – People First- is a wonderful example of collaboration (my biased opinion) as I am one of the co-authors. Angie and I taught at the same school in 1995 and remained friends since. The book is practice meets research. Angie would tell me the things she was doing to raise student achievement and enhance her faculty. I’d tell her that she needed to share her ideas more broadly. It is a book full of real examples and do-able ideas with a dash of research. Angie was most of the ideas and her other co-author and I identified the evidence that supported why various approaches worked to raise student achievement, improve school climate, increase faculty capacity, etc.

Fabulous Fridays in February

As a school administrator I understand the importance of keeping teacher morale up throughout the entire school year. Everyone, not just the teachers, within a school will experience peeks and valleys during the year. I am working with a great principal that is often heard saying "Happy Teachers equals Happy Kids!" and I have to agree. That is why I was delighted to see a blog post by Melinda Miller a few weeks back about something she has started doing at her school to help boost teacher motivation. The basic concept is a guess who contest each week that ends on each of the Fridays during the month of February.

After reading her post, I couldn't wait to do something similar at my school. I immediately contacted Melinda to share with her my excitement of doing something very similar. Now here is the cool part of the whole deal... not only did she give me a "hey good luck," she also emailed me with additional resources she had gathered over the course of creating her own monthly event! And that is what is so great about creating a wonderful Personal Learning Network; the more diverse and connected it is, the more likely your PLN is to grow you as a person. Way cool.

So now our event has started with the first weeks Guess Whose being our feet and already after the first day the teachers (and even the students) seem to really be getting into it. The teachers were going around cheerfully checking out each others feet and even sharing hints with each other. It is neat to see them be chipper on a Monday! Am I overly optimistic after just one day? You bet, but hey its all in good fun and can you tell which one of those is my feet? if you are interested in starting something similar at your school you can check out my "Fabulous Fridays in February" document I created with help from Melinda Miller and Joan Ayers. Anything that can be done to boost morale is worth trying and anything that can be learned from my PLN is definitely worth paying attention to. If you don't believe me, just ask my staff.