London Taxis and Bathroom Accidents

Fascinating news from a new study of London taxi cab drivers where researchers have found that having to learn the complicated geography of London causes physical changes in the drivers’ brains. The study isn’t merely showing that cab drivers get better at navigating the 25,000 small streets and 20,000 landmarks (all without a map mind you) with time and practice. The science shows that the brain actually changes and the hippocampus grows larger during the time when the drivers are studying and practicing to take the rigorous driver exam. And when drivers retire, this part of the brain shrinks again. As the scientists conducting this study point out, this is another in a long line of research that shows that the brain is much more like a muscle than we used to think; with practice, our brain can adapt and even grow to meet the mental demands it faces.

This all got me to thinking about what researchers would find if they studied new elementary school teachers. How does your brain becomes rewired in your first few years of teaching 25 5-year olds all day? My guesses are below:

• Attention to detail – when you’re teaching and especially when you’re teaching small children, the difference between a great lesson and disaster can often be the result of very small differences. Have you taken the time to make sure each student has a baggie with exactly the right number of popsicle sticks for the math lesson? Have you thought about which students can’t be near each other on the carpet and what the effects are when you move even one student’s carpet spot? Does the bin holding the math manipulatives have low enough sides so children can see in without having to stand up? Have you thought about the exact details for how children will move from their spots on the carpet to the perimeter so that no one gets trampled? New teachers often think they are detail oriented but they have no ideas what it means to be obsessed with every detail of every lesson, which is what you need to be as an elementary school teacher.

• Emotional flexibility – Even the best teachers never have perfect days and when you’re teaching 5-7 year olds, this is doubly true. Kids have bathroom accidents, students have tantrums, milk spills at breakfast, parents are sometimes frustrated, and children call each other names. Oh, and you make mistakes too. Teachers quickly learn that while you try to limit these moments, you cannot dwell on them. If a student wets their pants, get their change of clothes from their cubby and help them change. If milk spills, clean it up. And if a student is having a tantrum, get them calmed down and move on to the next task and do all of these as calmly and quickly as possible. Great teachers are fully in each moment, but quickly put it behind them so they can focus on what’s next. In many jobs you hear people talking about each day being a new day, but as a teacher it’s really each lesson or even each minute is a new opportunity.

• Information processing– One of the key skills teachers must master is being able to take in tons of information at the same time and use it to make split-second decisions. Think of a kindergarten teacher leading students through a lesson on counting by 5’s. She has to remember the lesson plan and what her next steps are, she’s listening to student answers and adjusting her instruction based on how well students are “getting it”, while at the same time monitoring and responding to student behavior. Now add in remembering students who have individual behavior plans, dealing with an interruption by another teacher asking to borrow some materials, and ensuring that your instruction targets your highest achieving and most struggling students during the same lesson and you can see how some part of your brain must be getting bigger after this mental workout.  

And let’s add in one more from a school leader perspective: two years into the job and I can not only instantly hear when a kindergarten student starts to cry but I can identify which child it is (with 98% accuracy!) from the other end of the hall. Oddly, this skill doesn't seem to transfer to home where I just can't seem to hear my 10 month old when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Strange, right?

My Favorite Days of the Year

I like pretty much every day of my job and I love many days. But my favorite days of the year are without a doubt our two days of the year when we have conferences to go over our report cards. Seeing roughly 140 families come through our doors to meet with teachers and see them leave feeling satisfied is really rewarding. To make sure we have time for real conversations (30 minutes) with families and to ensure that we meet the varied schedules of our families, we don’t have students these days and schedule conferences from 7am-6pm. We give families lots of notice, let parents preference the time they want to meet, and  send home frequent reminders. We call parents who are more likely to forget about their meeting and provide snacks and coffee. If they want to bring their KIPPster with them, they can. And if families want to bring other siblings (and many do), that’s no problem at all since we have toys and activities out for little children. The end result is that we get about 95% of our families to attend a conference on the official conference day, with the vast majority of the other 5% giving us advance notice that they couldn’t make that day and we schedule it another day before or after school.

The above paragraph is not to brag that we’ve got this figured out. And it’s definitely not to make the point that families who enroll their children in charter schools are more engaged or more on the ball than other families. It’s to make the point that just as students will meet the expectations that teachers put in front of them, families in Philadelphia and all around the country yearn to send their children to a good school. And given a school that treats them with respect, values their presence, and communicates openly with them, almost all parents will help their children with their homework, sign behavior reports, and yes, come to conferences. It’s absurd to have to write this, but contrary to what many people think, parents in North and West Philadelphia love their children just as much as parents in Center City or the suburbs do. And knowing our families as well as I do and knowing the sacrifices they make for their children, I would actually argue the opposite. And anyone who doubts that should come see our families and teachers talking together at conferences.

I love these days because it reminds me that the hard work we do each day is not just about students moving reading levels or learning how to use finger spaces between word when they write; it’s also about giving families hope that their child is in a school that will protect, teach, and inspire them. And on conference days our teachers and I get the chance to talk deeply with families about how their child is doing and how important education is to their family. Here is just a sampling of what I heard (imagine a parent saying these with a big smile):

• My daughter loves school so much that she gets sad when there is a day off
• I have two children here and I can’t wait for my son to go to KPEA next year
• Coming today reminds me why getting up so early every morning is worth it. I love this school!
• I love how the teachers here talk to students. They’re always so positive and I’ve never heard anyone yell at a student.
• If you ever need someone to talk about KIPP, sign me up!
• Can I give you a hug?
• I almost moved this summer to a nicer neighborhood, but I didn’t because I wouldn’t have been able to send my daughter to KIPP anymore
• I knew this school would be what my son needed and I was right.

Our mission at KIPP is to help get our kids to and through college so they can have happy and successful lives. Just like every single student in America deserves a great education, every parent deserves the chance to send their son or daughter to a school they’re proud of. And that’s part of our job at KIPP too. Our kids are too young for us to know much about how we’re doing on the college part (though 2023 will be here sooner than we think), but it’s nice to know that we’re doing well on that second goal. And by working side-by-side with our students' amazing families means we're going to reach our goal of giving our students the education they need to choose their own futures in life. 

On Morning Practice and Teacher Feedback

In high school and college I played water polo. Contrary to popular opinion, this sport does not involve horses, but does involve silly looking hats. It also involves an incredible amount of swimming, treading water (played in all deep pools), and hand-to-hand combat with your opponent as you struggle to get position in front of the goal. So you need to be in great shape to be a good player and that takes a ton of hard work, especially for someone like me who was not a naturally gifted swimmer. When I say hard work, I mean things like treading water the length of the pool while holding metal folding chairs above your head, 30 minutes of swimming sprints after an exhausting game, or morning practices 4 days a week at 6am with another practice in the afternoon.

I hated this. After the last morning practice of the year, I was quickly calculating how many days until they started again the following year (about 270 BTW) and dreading the return of jumping into an outdoor pool when the sun wasn’t up yet. The work was exhausting and in the moment, not at all fun. But the thousands of laps swam and hours spent treading water were what I needed to be a good player. And I could only work as hard as I needed to if I had a coach there pushing me, giving me encouragement, or calling me out when I was slacking off. When I worked out alone in the off-season, I could never get as good a workout as when Mr. Ruth, Coach L, or Jason was there pushing me to do more than I thought possible. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about coaching and feedback because we’re in a time of the year when my teachers, our school, and I are getting a lot of it. Like many organizations KIPP Philadelphia, does regular 360 reviews where you get to hear what your boss, your peers, and your direct reports think about you. We got those last week. As a second year KIPP school, we get an independent, three-day review of what our school is doing well and what we can do better from SchoolWorks, a nationally recognized organization who specializes in this kind of work. This takes place next week. And teachers are getting their formal, mid-year reviews over the next three weeks (in conjunction with our regular coaching program). 

Just like with my old water polo practices, the process of getting feedback can be hard. You never really know for sure what someone is going to write or say about you which can cause anxiety. Hearing that you can do something better can bruise your ego. There can be confusion if you don’t understand exactly why someone thinks that or what you did to cause that impression. Feedback can cause many people lots of stress, especially if not done well. Mike Goldstein (BTW, a fellow alum of Wilson High School in West Lawn, PA) of MATCH Charter School and its associated programs has the definitive post on how to make feedback easier to process and accept. Read the whole thing, but it basically boils down to making feedback as regular, consistent, and easily understood as possible.

But even when these conditions are met, some (many?) people are still going to be uncomfortable when they sit down to read their review, open up an email with their 360 report, or talk with their manager about how their lesson could have been stronger. I know that I still am. For example, when I get written feedback, I need to put it aside for a few hours before looking at it. Eventually the anxiousness of knowing the feedback is sitting there out-weighs the anxiousness of opening it up and I can read what someone wrote. Just like I always hated morning water polo practices, I never really love the idea of getting feedback.

But just like water polo practice, I know I need people holding me accountable and working to make me and the school better. And 99.9% of the time, the feedback is on the mark and helpful. And while I find the run-up to getting feedback uncomfortable, I love the work that comes after getting feedback where I can take what people have said and figure out how to make the school stronger. That feels good, just like it feels good to finish a hard swim workout. So do I get excited about getting feedback? No, not really, but I love getting better at my job and making our school stronger and feedback is the only way that happens. If I could do 8 years of morning practices, I can read my 360 report.