(spoken-word performance audio/video forthcoming)
School Leadership philosophy
I believe . . .
That strong, effective leadership and great teaching are the same thing. To help my teachers grow, and my students to learn, I adhere to the following ideals:
“Learning” and “play” are synonymous. We learn best by getting our hands dirty and pushing through valuable failures to success. Ideas and thoughts are meant to be held up to the light and tossed around like a ball before they become worn enough to feel like our own. Students should get to play with different, real-life work, so that they can better decide what fits them best - and the best work to play with has more questions than answers, and necessitates failure prior to improvement. Leaders should always look for the best questions to push thinking and allow someone to solve their own problems before even considering giving explicit suggestions.
Consistency and structure beget freedom. When a student or staff member knows what their expectations are, that frees their minds from worries about “what happens next” and opens up mental space for exploration. We should make expectations clear, and our purposes transparent, so that staff and students do not fear what will happen next, and instead spend their time and energy doing the fun part of exploring solutions.
Relationships are the foundation for growth. You cannot serve a student effectively if you do not who they are. And you cannot know who a student is without knowing where they are from, and who they come from. The same applies to leadership - to get the best out of teachers, we need to truly listen and show them that we care about who they are outside of the building, so that we can help them put their whole selves into their work.
Self-reflection is the most important skill of all. All the best teaching in the world does nothing for our students if they do not know who they are and where they stand. We must work to make sure every student has the skills to find their own areas for growth, so that their progress does not end when they leave our building. School leaders should look to model this for our staff, always working to get better and acknowledge our shortcomings - as well as looking for ways for the organization as a whole to do the same in the pursuit of doing the best work for our students and their families.
I believe . . .
That all of these principles, together, contribute to students of all backgrounds having the joy and freedom to develop deep skills and - more importantly - the independence and motivation to continue learning throughout their lives, and in whatever career they might want for themselves.
But beyond all that . . .
I believe in School Leadership as Activism
But to me, activism is so much more than
Just raised fists
Enraged kids
Drawing lines
Taking sides
With picket signs
And a megaphone
Cuz when that parade ends
Most people go on home
But for true activist leaders
There’s no home to go to
Cuz our beliefs are soul-food
So even when it hurts to go through
We can’t cut it out
Because our hearts are connected to our mouths
Passion comes in
And dedication comes out
And so I always - ALWAYS - look first to the kids
Cuz there are too many excuses
NOT to listen to them
And no student chooses
To get locked out of the system
And yet so many do
So my pedagogy goes beyond academic curriculum
PBL, Studios, Ed-Tech, and even a bit of Traditional are welcome
As long as they continue to support
Our differentiated
Activism
Which consists in
Steps and methods to help our kids
Entering at any level
But ending in understanding our roles in the System
(And how we can change them)
But blank slates begin at Stage One:
Clean, simple self-reflection
And accountability for our actions
Because we know that our own mistakes
Are situationally-envoked
But for other folks?
We place blame for their less-than-best
On physical difference
Or projected flaws in their souls
So
Empathy is Stage Two:
A simple understanding
That other people’s behaviors - like our own
Are just attempts
At making good things happen
Even when the results
Do not result
As they planned them
Stage Three is managing our feelings
Not ignoring or labeling
But finding their origins
And validating
Ourselves
Before exploring
A means to express them constructively
I call that stage “Communicating”
Next is Questioning
With true curiosity
Why people do what they do
And the world is the way it is
While fighting to remove our biases
From the equation
Which brings us to the last piece
Called “Facilitation”
Which is about deconstructing systems
And making connections
Between unlike things and differences
Managing experiences
So that we -
Do not get what we want
But all the theys
Get what they need
All of us uncomfortable
But equally
Extending our power
Into every community
Cuz that’s the goal of a Differentiated Activism pedagogy
And
This is what our students will learn
As my teachers practice what they teach
Each
Student an activist leader
Reaching into their community
To facilitate solutions to what they see
Equipped to handle the burdens
Of being under-repped and under-served in this country
Speech
Loud, but not attacking
Spitting fire, but understanding
That standing strong
And doing wrong
Are thinly divided
Receiving regular feedback
But they won’t mind it
Because failure is the surest way to learn
And when they leave us to earn
Their own way in the world
They likely won’t even thank us
Because differentiated activism is thankless
By design
Each student’s mind
Their own
To take
To whichever successful future
They make
For themselves
And the only way in which our school can fail . . .
Is if our students and community still need us
A generation after
Our first students leave us
That strong, effective leadership and great teaching are the same thing. To help my teachers grow, and my students to learn, I adhere to the following ideals:
“Learning” and “play” are synonymous. We learn best by getting our hands dirty and pushing through valuable failures to success. Ideas and thoughts are meant to be held up to the light and tossed around like a ball before they become worn enough to feel like our own. Students should get to play with different, real-life work, so that they can better decide what fits them best - and the best work to play with has more questions than answers, and necessitates failure prior to improvement. Leaders should always look for the best questions to push thinking and allow someone to solve their own problems before even considering giving explicit suggestions.
Consistency and structure beget freedom. When a student or staff member knows what their expectations are, that frees their minds from worries about “what happens next” and opens up mental space for exploration. We should make expectations clear, and our purposes transparent, so that staff and students do not fear what will happen next, and instead spend their time and energy doing the fun part of exploring solutions.
Relationships are the foundation for growth. You cannot serve a student effectively if you do not who they are. And you cannot know who a student is without knowing where they are from, and who they come from. The same applies to leadership - to get the best out of teachers, we need to truly listen and show them that we care about who they are outside of the building, so that we can help them put their whole selves into their work.
Self-reflection is the most important skill of all. All the best teaching in the world does nothing for our students if they do not know who they are and where they stand. We must work to make sure every student has the skills to find their own areas for growth, so that their progress does not end when they leave our building. School leaders should look to model this for our staff, always working to get better and acknowledge our shortcomings - as well as looking for ways for the organization as a whole to do the same in the pursuit of doing the best work for our students and their families.
I believe . . .
That all of these principles, together, contribute to students of all backgrounds having the joy and freedom to develop deep skills and - more importantly - the independence and motivation to continue learning throughout their lives, and in whatever career they might want for themselves.
But beyond all that . . .
I believe in School Leadership as Activism
But to me, activism is so much more than
Just raised fists
Enraged kids
Drawing lines
Taking sides
With picket signs
And a megaphone
Cuz when that parade ends
Most people go on home
But for true activist leaders
There’s no home to go to
Cuz our beliefs are soul-food
So even when it hurts to go through
We can’t cut it out
Because our hearts are connected to our mouths
Passion comes in
And dedication comes out
And so I always - ALWAYS - look first to the kids
Cuz there are too many excuses
NOT to listen to them
And no student chooses
To get locked out of the system
And yet so many do
So my pedagogy goes beyond academic curriculum
PBL, Studios, Ed-Tech, and even a bit of Traditional are welcome
As long as they continue to support
Our differentiated
Activism
Which consists in
Steps and methods to help our kids
Entering at any level
But ending in understanding our roles in the System
(And how we can change them)
But blank slates begin at Stage One:
Clean, simple self-reflection
And accountability for our actions
Because we know that our own mistakes
Are situationally-envoked
But for other folks?
We place blame for their less-than-best
On physical difference
Or projected flaws in their souls
So
Empathy is Stage Two:
A simple understanding
That other people’s behaviors - like our own
Are just attempts
At making good things happen
Even when the results
Do not result
As they planned them
Stage Three is managing our feelings
Not ignoring or labeling
But finding their origins
And validating
Ourselves
Before exploring
A means to express them constructively
I call that stage “Communicating”
Next is Questioning
With true curiosity
Why people do what they do
And the world is the way it is
While fighting to remove our biases
From the equation
Which brings us to the last piece
Called “Facilitation”
Which is about deconstructing systems
And making connections
Between unlike things and differences
Managing experiences
So that we -
Do not get what we want
But all the theys
Get what they need
All of us uncomfortable
But equally
Extending our power
Into every community
Cuz that’s the goal of a Differentiated Activism pedagogy
And
This is what our students will learn
As my teachers practice what they teach
Each
Student an activist leader
Reaching into their community
To facilitate solutions to what they see
Equipped to handle the burdens
Of being under-repped and under-served in this country
Speech
Loud, but not attacking
Spitting fire, but understanding
That standing strong
And doing wrong
Are thinly divided
Receiving regular feedback
But they won’t mind it
Because failure is the surest way to learn
And when they leave us to earn
Their own way in the world
They likely won’t even thank us
Because differentiated activism is thankless
By design
Each student’s mind
Their own
To take
To whichever successful future
They make
For themselves
And the only way in which our school can fail . . .
Is if our students and community still need us
A generation after
Our first students leave us