Appreciative Inquiry, much???

I walk in and out of the classrooms at this very high stress time of year as a result of the high-risk state standardized testing that is looming around the corner and realize that this phase of my journey is coming to a close.

Where did the time go?  You know,
I'm not even sure at which point the metamorphosis occurred.
I remember walking into my new assignment terrified, having my hand held every step of the way; not knowing "who" to call for what.  Some might call this secondary ignorance.  The difference between primary and secondary ignorance is this ...with primary ignorance, one is "safe" because they are aware of exactly what they do not know.  See ... the challenge comes with secondary ignorance.  It is at this point that one does not even realize what it is that they don't know.  This is where I was.  I had my hand held by Ann Broomes and by Quantas Simmons, the former Assistant Principal.  I sent countless emails and correspondance in the form of "now what?" type questions.  There was no point in time where I really noticed a diminishing of the quantity of the questions but as I stand here today, I realize I get through my day with far fewer questions than I once did.

I finally have my head wrapped around the concept of the job.  I build relationships with students and staff.  I support them however they need to be supported and I help drive Ann's vision forward in raising student achievement.

I have been so blessed along this journey.  Ann and I really work well together and we seem to compliment one another nicely.  She was very forthcoming in the beginning of the year about her notions of distributed leadership.  She gives me input and she values mine.  She fostered a fail-safe environment for me and through this I realize I have blossomed somewhat.  I recognize I am nowhere close to the place I hope to one day be, I have moved along the path surely and steadily.

So as opposed to filling this blog post up with nebulous statements that I'm not qualifying or filling it with "happy inspirations" about my journey from a caterpillar, let me reflect on where I am and some of the huge lessons that I learned.  The beauty of my reflections are that they are never planned.  I open the blog and just start pouring out my thoughts ...

What lessons have I learned that specifically impact my leadership style?
Let's talk Appreciative Inquiry, shall we?
I don't have all the answers and I shouldn't.  This is something that Ann taught me along the way.  I realized I made quite a few mistakes along the way.  See in the beginning, Ann would assign a task, project or responsibility and I was bound and determined to be "successful."  If Ann said "get it done," I would proceed to "get it done."  The problem with this approach, I soon found out, comes with the metaphor of "bull in the china shop."  Let me provide you with an example ... Ann very clearly laid out her vision for one of my tasks ...which was streamlining the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) structure.  So, on my way I went.  I involved a few stakeholders initially (not strategically either, might I add.)  I had Ann, of course ... but I also had the Behavioral Specialist & MTSS Coordinator, Amy, who was also a new addition to the school.  Amy and I were determined to create the MTSS system of all systems ... the Mack Daddy MTSS structure, if you will.  We had some great information to drive us forward.  I was fortunate to be able to sit in on MTSS meetings from the preceeding year to wrap my head around some of the concerns.  I had also heard lots of conversation from teachers as well as the MTSS team about everything that was "wrong" with the structure.  So armed with this information, Amy and I got started.  We created templates and flow sheets and Standard Operating Procedures for student induction into the MTSS process.  We had hand outs, and power points, and structure ...OH MY!!  It was beautiful.  We stood back in awe of our work.  We worked for weeks and weeks and weeks continually making often modest tweaks and at other times huge tweaks to the process.

So, then how am I considering this a lesson?  Well along the way, I realized that I had messed up royally by not including all the stakeholders in the process.  There were individuals, key players that held major pieces of this puzzle ... skill sets and experience that I just didn't consider.  Hurt feelings and feelings that I did not value the work that had been done before me or the value that these individuals had... I had new policies where the old policies were already very structured.  Talk about how not to "WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE  PEOPLE."  I started with a "deficit" view (I know Dr. Luis Moll, author of Funds of Knowledge, Dr. Zorka Karanxja and Dr. Leonard Burrello are all shaking their heads in dismay ... did my graduate studies not teach me anything??)  The concept that drove the work of Funds of Knowledge is that we should value the skill-set and assets of those involved in the process to maximize the potential of the students, the classroom and in this case the organizational framework that drove the support for student interventions.  I considered everything that was wrong with the MTSS structure and nothing that was right.  Amy and I expended a lot of energy into solving problems and fixing things that never even needed to be fixed.  We had assigned roles to people who had never had that role and overlooked very skilled individuals who had value in various capacities that should have been included as key stakeholders in the MTSS process.  We excluded whole individuals and skill sets simply because we did not look at the MTSS structure through the lens of Appreciative Inquiry.  The Appreciative Inquiry model functions on the basis of asking questions to get to the source of the problem.  I didn't engage in this part of the Problem Solving process.  I didn't really ask any questions at all.  I was steadfast and grounded on my assumptions and my deficit thinking.

How is this opening my eyes as a leader?  I realize that I have to involve all stake holders in the process.  This is something I have watched Ann do so eloquently time and time again.  If there is a concern or a problem, Ann never arbitrarily attempts to solve the problem single-handedly.  She never rides in on her trusty horse with her sword drawn eager to "save the day."  She models the notion of Appreciative Inquiry by asking questions and identifying the possible solutions and outcomes from the perspective of all individuals involved.

So maybe, next time ... I will save myself frustration, hurt feelings, and a lot of unnecessary work in trying to fix something I don't completely understand.     

BLOG

This is a link to my updated blog and the emphasis of my work as an administrative intern.  Building Student and Teacher relationships.

http://ci-teacherstudentrelationships.blogspot.com

Where Am I NOW?

The distance between my posts are becoming farther and farther between.  The cause is the fact that I am so enthralled in the responsibilities that are all encompassing at RGE as well as trying to manage and juggle my course-load at USF, not to mention being a full time mother of 3 children all under eleven.  The reflective process is ongoing daily even though it is not represented in this format so much.  I am also engaged in three other blogs that look at my journey through specific lenses.  this one tends to be more global.

SO ... the journey continues.  I cannot say enough how unbelievably grateful I am for this opportunity.  Every day is a journey and a learning experience.  I never know what is coming across my "walkie" or email or door.  That's just one part of why I love this transition.

The unique need that I have observed is a need to work on building relationships.  The students of RGE have very unique academic and emotional needs.  The perils of poverty that the students live with are increased stress.  This, we know, if we look at the work and research being done on poverty, has challenges.  Paul Tough's book explains the research that we are using to understand the effects of poverty.  In addition to Tough, there are other people who have shone a light on the struggles that come with living in poverty.  Some of that work has been debated as reinforcing stereotypes, so we will not go into specific people and studies (don't want to open up that can of worms) but at the end of the day, we can all agree that students who grow up in poverty have unique needs as a result.  They also have unique strengths and that is where our emphasis should be placed. So the conversation always comes to this next place ... You always hear people say that they are "one of these children."  This is all well and good a conversation to have, but there are bigger issues.

What happens when you didn't grow up in poverty?  AND
What if you did grow up in poverty and are contributing to the problem of reinforced stereotypes?

Both of these questions will foster quite the conversation ...and in many cases HEATED DEBATE!!

Let me preface this by saying ... there is no answer. There are only hypothesis and lived experiences.  And since our perceptions are our realities, then since this is MY PERCEPTION it becomes MY REALITY.  So therefor, I am comfortable saying this is truth for me.  Now, I am a learner FOREVER and am more than willing to have my Pillars of Belief challenged. Simply because this is TODAY's REALITY, doesn't mean that it is TOMORROW's REALITY.

So ... in moving forward, I am making a NOTE that is not in fine print.  This is my OPINION.  I use research and observations to come to my own conclusions, but I am not a researcher, I do not do meta-analysis of the current research.  I approach solid research from a position of Appreciative Inquiry and then connect that with my lived experiences and my global observations and I make what I believe are sound judgements and take positions that are solidly grounded.  I am, again, willing to be challenged and watch my positions and opinions evolve.  So I may not be a researcher, I can say that I am a Professional Learner always perfecting my craft.

That was a whole lotta foundation to lay before moving forward with this conversation ... but it is necessary because someone somewhere will argue what it is I am going to say.  I value those opinions and arguments ...as I would hope mine would be valued. Again,  MY PERCEPTION = MY REALITY.

What do I believe about the challenges of poverty?  We have to be careful to not reinforce the stereotypes associated with children of poverty.  For example, often times if you asked a person to pant a mental picture of what a child of poverty might look like, it would be the face of a black child.  This is not a true and accurate picture.  See a child of poverty might be a black individual, but if we are breaking down the misconceptions, it is an important piece of information to have that there are millions more whit children living in impoverished conditions that there are black children.  What tends to happen that skews our perceptions is that black people who live in poverty are in more densely populated pockets.  Donna Walker Tileston and Sandra Darling explain this in greater depth in their book Why Culture Counts: Teaching Children of Poverty.

Another misconception that has to be knocked down is that POVERTY and NEGLECT go hand in hand.  THEY DO NOT!!  Families that lie in poverty are just that ...families that live in poverty.  One cannot make broad and general statements about any family living in poverty except that ...THEY LIVE IN IMPOVERISHED circumstances.

What we do know is that there are certain correlations that can be made looking at the research and the data.  What are the truths?
**There is a correlation between stress and poverty.
**There is a correlation between the opportunities that the children from poverty stricken families come with compared to the opportunities that children have that are not from families of poverty.
**The data supports that students of impoverished circumstances have fewer vocabulary words in their schema than students who do not.