First Year Teachers and First Time Parents

As often happens, I’m following in Mike Goldstein’s wake. In this case, Mike and associates had a couple of really good posts a few weeks ago on some of the challenges for teachers at this time of the year – challenges that are even greater when you’re a new teacher. His posts inspired me to write an email to the new teachers at KPEA that I’ve edited slightly for clarity below.

For context, here are some of the cast of characters:
Bri – my wife
Max – my son who is almost 21 months old. That's him below in his Halloween costume.
Owen – my newborn



I’ve been thinking a lot about how different having a second child is than having a first. While having Owen at this age is no walk in the park – no newborn is – it’s so much easier than when Max was this age. With Max, Bri and I literally had no idea what to do. You leave the hospital, where you are surrounded by nurses and doctors at all times and after two days you go home, where you have each other, some advice books on the shelf, and our own parents on the phone.

So to repeat, we had no idea what we were doing. What if the baby isn’t feeding? He’s sleeping a lot, is that ok? He’s not sleeping at all this afternoon, what’s up with that? What is that noise that just came from his diaper area? That can’t be normal – but what if it is? Is that rash getting worse? Is that sound normal? Why is he crying all the time? Are we supposed to feel this exhausted? Should the umbilical cord have fallen off by now? How do you give a newborn a bath? Do you really need to? Why is he crying – and not stopping? He has a fever, but is it high enough to be worried?

Dealing with the actual challenges is bad enough, but what is worst is the fact that you have nothing to compare it to you. This is your first child and making sure he is healthy and happy is sort of a big deal, so of course you worry. And you simply don’t have the experience to know if that rash actually is a big deal or something that will just go away. And you don’t have the context to know that there are going to be days and nights when a 3-week old cries a lot and there's not much you can do to stop if, but that it will get better.

Making any connections to being a new teacher? As you’re well aware, being a new teacher is hard and one of the hardest parts is that you don’t have experience or context that you’ll have in the future. It can be hard to tell how to handle every situation you’re going to face, what situation is a big deal (and which just seems that way), or have the confidence that a challenge is going to get better. And just like being a new parent, when you don’t know the answer and don’t know what to expect, new teachers get worried and stressed.

New teachers start to feel this more in October and November, as the honeymoon phase wears off and you begin to see some of the more long-term challenges you’re facing. Yes, that student really does have really loud tantrums on a regular basis, teaching at the end of the day is challenging, and weekends don’t ever seem long enough. And you start to worry about if those challenges are ever going to get better and if the issue is something you could be or should be doing better. And what makes it even harder is you don’t have the experience to know what it’s going to be like in two weeks or two months.

I hate to break it to you, but there is no fast forwarding to get the experience that you’re craving. There is no way to take the accumulated wisdom that fills the brains of our veteran teachers on staff and pour it into your heads. You only get that wisdom and experience by living it each day, learning from what goes well (and doesn’t) and stealing great ideas from those around you. 

What can you do in the meantime?

• Know that this is path that millions of teachers have taken before you including everyone else on staff. Every single first year teacher has wondered if something they are struggling with is going to get better. Every single one.

• Learn something each day. The good news is you don’t have to wait until next year to grow – each day you get another chance to take a new approach or try something again. Not to mention, each day is a chance to learn something from your mentor teacher and other staff. You will have more experience, knowledge and confidence two weeks from now and even more in two months. And just wait till next year! 

• Use the people around you. Bounce ideas and thoughts off your mentor teachers, your grade level chairs, Betsy (our AP), me, each other and anyone else on staff. Every single person around you would love to help you think through a challenge but we can only do that if you let us. Part of what makes the Co-Teacher program work is we don’t kick you out of the hospital after 2 days with your new students. You get to be surrounded by experts all year long – so make sure you’re using them. 

• Remember the Stockdale Paradox that Marc (our CEO at KIPP Philly) talked about at the all-region session this summer. We need to be honest with what is going well and what is not, but to never lose faith that we will reach our goals. Don’t be afraid to admit that something isn’t going as well as you want, but never doubt for a second that with hard work and clear thinking it will get better.

And as a former new teacher and now as a former first-time parent, I can tell you that this uncertainty and doubt about what is coming next gets better. With Owen, we don’t worry because we know that really is what he sounds like when you burp him after a feeding, that he is going to be wide awake from 11pm-1am each night, and that you don’t actually need to give a kid a bath for at least a few weeks.

In the same way, trust that this period of uncertainty will pass and you’ll soon know what’s normal, what’s not, and what to do about it. And as you work to build that experience, keep doing what you do every day so well, which is help our kids start their climb up that mountain to college. You all are doing a great job and I can’ wait to see what’s next for you all.  

Year 3!

Our kids are about to go into the third week of our third year at KPEA. A couple of cute pictures and facts about our third year:

• Our founding class of students is now in 2nd grade and while 2023 (the year they go to college) still seems miles away, middle school feels just around the bend.

2nd graders working hard and looking so mature!

• We're now up to a full-time staff of 25, including our first ever reading specialist and full-time speech therapist.
• After 16 months, construction on our building is just about done and our 2nd graders have moved upstairs into the newly renovated section of the building. 

The Class of 2023 during their lesson on using the stairs. Because we have stairs now!

• Thanks to KaBoom! our kids will be getting an awesome playground in early October as the final part of the conversion of an old warehouse into a sparking school for kids.

• There are now over 300 students on our kindergarten waitlist, which while flattering, means that there are hundreds of families trying unsuccessfully to get their children into a better school. This will hopefully be the year we start another KIPP elementary school in Philadelphia and double the number of kids we can serve.  

• Even with all the changes, the core part of the job stays the same. Over half of our new kindergarten students have such low literacy knowledge that they aren't even at a pre-reading level. A bunch of our students know less than 5 letters and can hardly hold a pencil to write their name. But if we can duplicate the success of our first two years, over 93% of our students will be reading on grade level by the end of kindergarten.

•  Our kids are pretty adorable :)

1st graders at recess putting on a puppet show

A Few Sometimes True Arguments and Some Facts

This post is about what I believe regarding charter school enrollment policies, comparisons with district schools , and other touchy subjects. I’m writing for myself and not for KIPP or KIPP Philadelphia.

There are lots of people who don’t believe in or like charter schools. They believe all kinds of things about what charter schools are like and why they are bad for American education. Working at KIPP for the last 7 years, I don’t agree with many of the critiques I hear, but there are more than a few that are rooted in fact. Here are some of the ones I believe are at least sometimes true: 

• Some charter schools play games with what kind of students and families they take in

• Some charter schools play games with what students they keep and who they kick out

• Some charter schools have mismanaged public monies, or worse, intentionally redirected money meant for kids to enrich school administrators.

• The distinction between charter schools and district schools doesn’t tell you anything about the quality of the school. While studies have shown different things, there is no doubt that many charter schools do no better than district schools. 

• Some charter schools aren’t transparent with what happens in their buildings or what happens in the back offices. The current system of charter oversight in Philadelphia, with a well-meaning but small staff in the charter school office looking over 80+ charter schools is not sufficient.

• Some charter schools only care about high test scores and teaching to the state test 

• It’s too hard to close charters where kids aren’t achieving or are mismanaged

• Too many people look to charter schools as a silver bullet that will “fix” urban education.

But just like the still developing cheating scandal in the district (and yes, in some charters) doesn’t offset all the good things happening in many district schools and the hard work of thousands of teachers, the actions of some charter schools do not mean that all charter schools are trying to destroy the school district, make money for corporate interests, or impose a separate and unequal school system designed to prepare the urban poor for a lifetime of low-wage work. I don't know what happens at each charter school in Philadelphia, but I know what happens in the one I run. And none of the sometimes true attacks I listed above are what happens at KIPP Philadelphia Elementary Academy (KPEA), the school I founded in 2010.

Too often when I read education websites, blogs, and comment sections I see people on both sides of many issues repeating the same talking points without having as good an understanding of all the facts on the ground. This is as true of debates about the Common Core standards or phonics instruction as it is of charter school conversations. Just like with Middle East politics or figuring out why my wife is mad at me, a key first step in these education debates is getting all the information out on the table. While this is just the first step in having a productive debate, we can then at least have a conversation about the same set of facts and maybe even find some common ground.

So I’m going to try to do my part and give some information about how some anti-charter arguments stack up to the facts on the ground as I see them at KPEA. Before I begin, three caveats - to be clear, facts are never without interpretation so I expect that some will argue with my facts. I’ve tried to be as objective as possible but I’m obviously not a neutral observer here. Secondly, this is the information that I know best because it’s about the school I work in each day and the details are going to be different at every charter school even within the KIPP network. Finally, I can’t attempt to answer every criticism of charter schools in one post so I’m focusing on what I hear the most.

Charter schools play games with what kind of students and families we take in

At KPEA, our enrollment form is one, single-sided page that simply asks basic demographic information like address, phone number, and date of birth. Our open enrollment period is for two months (February and March) and no additional information is required for a child to be entered into the lottery other than the one-page form. No special in-person meeting, no bringing in proof of address, no essays, no report cards – nothing. We distribute these enrollment forms to locations where we can find lots of families in our neighborhood – places like community centers, Head Start centers, corner stores, and supermarkets. We go door-to-door in our immediate neighborhood handing out our information. The enrollment form is available online. We also host three voluntary enrollment Open Houses during our open enrollment time for interested families to see the school, observe classes, and ask me questions. It’s totally optional, but we think it’s important to provide a chance for interested families to see the school they want to send their child to.

As a result of our open process, our student population is reflective of the communities we serve, with over 85% of our student qualifying for free or reduced meals and over 20% of our students having an IEP, including more severe challenges like intellectual disabilities, autism, and Down’s syndrome.

Charter schools play games with what students they keep and who they kick out

Many people know that at KIPP, we do home visits to meet our new students and families before they start school. This happens after they are admitted and is basically an orientation to school that happens at the student’s home because we feel that this is a really effective way to start to build a strong home-school connection. This meeting has zero impact on which students are admitted. To be absolutely sure that all our families understand this, the very first thing I say to families when we sit down is “Relax, this is not an interview. Your child already has a spot.”

Our goal is to keep 100% of our students each year and for as many of our students who start with us in kindergarten to stay at KIPP for the next 13 years until they go to college. In our two years at KPEA, we have never kicked a student out and hope we never have an incident serious enough that this would have to happen. This doesn’t mean we don’t have hard kids, because we do. We have kids who were absent over 40 times in a year, students who were physically violent towards teachers, and students who were frequently defiant. But we don’t get rid of those students (this is no doubt easier for us as an elementary school than it is for both district and charter schools with older students because serious incidents are simply less extreme when kids are 6 and 7). When students are really challenging we just work harder to figure out how to meet their needs. Because we don’t get rid of students who are struggling and because our families are satisfied, our yearly student attrition rate has been under 2%.

Charter schools only care about high test scores and teaching to the state test

First, the caveat that our oldest group of students are only now in 2nd grade and won’t take the Pennsylvania state test until next year. But our students do very well on commercially available reading assessments like STEP and F&P and the nationally normed NWEA MAP assessment. At KPEA we believe a core part of our mission is to give our students the academic skills to succeed and this included rigorous literacy and math instruction taught in a student-centered way. This looks like students getting phonics for 30 minutes per day in small, leveled groups. It means students get small group guided reading four times per week and lots of time for independent reading and literacy centers. And it also means 70 minutes of math each day that includes at least 30 minutes of math centers. But we know if we are really serious about developing our students to be the kind of people and learners who can be whatever they want in life, that success in reading and math is necessary but not even close to being sufficient. 

Because we have a longer school day (8am-4pm) we have more time to fit in great core academic instruction with the “extras” that are so essential for elementary kids that calling them “extra” doesn’t do their importance justice. All of our students have 30 minutes of recess each day. All students have science or social studies for 45 minutes per day. Kids have art, Spanish, and gym each week, starting in kindergarten. Our kinder students have nap – real nap with cots, blankets, and (optional) stuffed animals. We have special education teachers in every grade, a full-time speech therapist, and part-time occupational therapists and social workers. We go on three field trips a year. Students put on extravagant musical performances. We teach character education classes focused on social skills and values. In other words, we try really hard to give our students the well-rounded education that families pay lots of money for. My goal is to make sure that KPEA is a place I would want to send my 18 month old son when he gets older and I know we're on the right track because there are multiple KIPP staff who send their own children to KPEA.

Charter schools aren’t transparent with what happens in their buildings or what happens in the back offices

One of the many reasons, I’m really proud to work at KIPP Philadelphia is because of our strong stance around transparency. We have created a special section of our website called Open Book where anyone can find information on our board, our budgets, school leader salary scale and tons of other topics. We’re a public school and the public deserves to know how we operate. And at KPEA we also have a literal open door policy at our school. Our families can come into our building to observe classes anytime they want, no appointment needed. We hosted between 50 and 60 visitors last year from other schools, foundations, and community groups and never said “no” to anyone. We’re proud of what we do and happy to share it with others. 

This post isn’t mean to show anti-charter advocates that they are wrong – because in some important ways they are right. It’s not to show that we have things figured out at KPEA, because I have a long list of what we’re working to do better this year. It’s simply to say that there is too much at stake for all of our kids to not find common ground where it exists and part of that is for everyone – myself included – to do more to engage with the real issues. That starts with getting down to the ground level to learn what is really happening in all of our schools, no matter the type. Please contact me if you’d like to visit KPEA. We’d be happy to have you. 

Anti-Initiatives

Summer is a time for trips to the beach, grilling in the backyard, and hitting the pool. It’s also time for teachers and school leaders to reflect on the previous year and plan for the upcoming one. As a school leader, this means focusing on projects and initiatives that I want us to do better next year, or maybe do for the first time. Things like tighten our dismissal routine, adjust our teacher coaching structure, or use our older students as leaders for our younger students. The list could go, and frequently does, go on and on. This cycle of reflection, planning, and action is one of my favorite parts of being a teacher and school leader.

But what if besides thinking of new areas to focus on, we thought about what we can cut/trim/reduce? I got to thinking about this while reading an article in The New York Times Magazine about the tech company Tumblr and its founder, David Karp. One of Tumblr’s funder’s says this, “it is “normal behavior” for a founder to be excited about adding new bells and whistles, but Karp seems excited about doing the opposite: “He’ll tell us, ‘Hey, got a new version coming up — and I took four features out!’”

As an organization grows, the temptation is to do more and more, and schools are no different. While we need to take on new ideas and focus on different projects each year, we should be better and more efficient than in prior years because we’ve done this already. As a result we should be looking for things to cut and what to make easier. In other words, we should not only be thinking about initiatives, but anti-initiatives.

At KPEA, we’re reducing the number of meetings we have this year because we should have less to decide in our third year than we had in our first. The amount of time it takes to plan for special events like Report Card conferences or the kindergarten Moving Up ceremony is a fraction of what it took two years ago. Our kindergarten curriculum is in such a good place that teachers are merely adjusting plans from previous years instead of creating everything from scratch.  

In Covey-speak, we can only have so many big rocks in our cup. If we’re going to put new ones in every year (and have them fit!), we need to turn the previous year’s big rocks into pebbles first.  

It Burns With a High Flame

The science fiction writer Ray Bradbury died a few weeks ago and as is now typical when someone dies, Twitter quickly filled with stories and anecdotes. One quote (retweeted by Ta-nehisi Coates) that Bradbury gave to the Paris Review caught my eye – speaking about the wide range of influences on this work, he said, “A conglomerate heap of trash, that’s what I am. But it burns with a high flame."

Ray Bradbury- not looking too trashy here

Besides the creative (and self-deprecating) turn of phrase, what I love about this quote is how it captures the enthusiasm Bradbury had for the world around him and the influences that this “heap of trash” had on his work. Enthusiasm, energy, intensity, curiosity, wonder, inspiration. That's what he's talking about when he writes that he "burns with a high flame" and could there be a better description of the kind of passion we all want to feel about our work? This passion and intensity of feeling are not only characteristics of great writers, but I would argue, are also key skills in being an effective school leader. 

Great school leaders need to have passion for their work, joy for teaching kids, and inspiration to encourage their teachers. Those are the easy and obvious answers, just like an obvious answer for Bradbury would be that he read Verne, Shakespeare, and Steinbeck. Which he surely did, but what made him the greatest science fiction of all time was reading those authors, while also watching movies every week as kid at a theater four blocks from his house and being in the poetry club in high school. Just like Bradbury's influences extended beyond the usual masters, a school leader’s enthusiasm and passion needs to extend outside of the school building and beyond the usual narrow range of education and management books. I'm not saying don't read Fountas and Pinnell or Jim Collins. I'm saying don't think that's enough. 

Burning with a high flame as a school leader means you are always on the look-out for some small piece of information, some little story, a figment of inspiration that you can use to make your school better. You read often and widely. You talk to interesting people. You understand that brainstorming, daydreaming, and thinking with your head in the clouds is important work. You find connections to your work in virtually any situation and you probably annoy your family because you always want to explain how something you’re reading or watching connects to your job. You keep a list of these little ideas and insights and go back to them often, because you never know when some old idea is going to be useful. You record voice memos and take photos on your iPhone and email them to yourself. And you share all of these with people you work with (enthusiastically!), because you want to be an interesting person and you want interesting people to share back with you. The work of leading talented adults and educating brilliant children can be and I would argue, must be informed by the “heap of trash” that is around you at all times.

In the interest of sharing, here is my “heap of trash” with the rule being that everything on this list has sparked some personal insight, provided a hook for a PD session, or given me a story I use to build culture with students.

• ·     Twitter – I don’t use Twitter to share my thoughts on where I’m eating lunch – I use it as a curated reading list of interesting people. Twitter gives you direct access to incredibly smart people’s thoughts and what they are reading. I follow about 100 people, ranging from sports announcers to political pundits to punk rockers. Some of my favorite follows:

o  Kurt Anderson- novelist and host of Studio 360

o  Chris Jones- writer for Esquire

o   Anna Holmes- founder of Jezebel.com

o   David Carr – writer for The New York Times

o   Aziz Ansari- comic(and foodie)

o   Rembert Browne- writer for Grantland

o   Education folks like Kevin Carey and Kristen Graham of the Inquirer

• Kottke.com – personal website of Jason Kottke who has one of the first bloggers. His site is basically just him posting items that interest and fascinate him, like a video of a slinky on a treadmill or him explaining why it’s so hard to make a better tablet than an iPad.

• The New Yorker – there is no better magazine for great writing and great ideas. I don’t read it cover to cover each week, but I find at least two great articles in every issue.

• The New York Times – the best newspaper in the world. So much good stuff each day.

• Reality TV – remember, this is a heap of trash! I’ve been known to include video clips from The Bachelor in PD sessions and long-time readers of the blog know I used Top Chef to anchor an earlier post.

• Instapaper- an iPad app that takes articles from websites and strips out all the formatting to give you a nice, clean page with just the text so it’s like you’re reading a book. Besides the ease of reading, the app is great because it easily syncs with websites like longreads.com and longform.com which aggregate great long-form articles from tons of websites. Easy way to catch up on high-quality magazine pieces.

• Podcasts – super easy way to listen to great radio/internet programs on your own schedule. Favorites include: 
• The Tony Kornheiser Radio Show 
• This American Life
• Planet Money
• Fresh Air 
• Nerdist 
• The Jalen Rose Show on the Grantland Network  

• Education websites and authors 
• The Notebook – Philadelphia’s incredible local education paper and website
• Gotham Schools- NYC focused but national news too 
• Eduwonk.com 
• Starting an Ed School 
• Dy/Dan 
• Edweek and its various bloggers 

• Go for a walk or a run. Without headphones. Just look and think. 

   

Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. We have an incredible team of teachers at KPEA and here are just some of the reasons why I appreciate our amazing team:

Reason #12 and #16 in action

1. They work hard. Really hard. And they do it with a smile every day, even when it's December and they come to work in the dark and leave to go home in the dark. And it's cold. But they're still smiling. 
2. They love teaching our hardest kids. Kids who aren't always perfectly behaved. Kids who take lots of extra effort before they "get it". Kids who aren't always in uniform or don't always have their homework done. Kids who have tantrums or who sometimes say not nice things. Teachers at KPEA love these kids the most. 
3. Teachers at KPEA can write a catchy song about any learning objective and frequently do. 
4. They don't give up until students have mastered every skill they've taught. If this means pulling small groups of students for extra practice at breakfast, creating an entirely new center, or making sure families are practicing the skill at home, it's what they do. 
5. Even though they work hard, teachers work equally hard to have fulfilling lives outside of school because they know that they need to be happy and rested to be at their best for kids. Besides being great teachers our staff are great runners, dancers, wives, cooks, friends, sisters, activists, artists, mothers, and more. 
6. Every person in our building has the back of everyone else, no questions asked. Teachers clear paper jams from the copier when their colleague has had it up to here with the finicky machine, give each other rides to the auto repair shop, and watch each others class while they take an urgent parent phone call. 
7. Our teachers are the most patient, calm, caring people I have ever met.
8. They build incredibly strong relationships with families that enable our teachers to both be invited to family celebrations and to have tough conversations with families about student progress. 
9. Teachers pick kids up when they have no other way to get to school and take them for pizza as a reward for reaching their big goal. 
10. Our first graders read chapter books and write page long pieces clearly arguing why we should have a hot tub in their classroom.  
11. Kindergarten students come in not knowing all of their letters of the alphabet and leave reading 1st grade books. 
12. They can make a hat or crown the most exciting reward for any occasion!
13. They make teaching 25 six-year olds look like the easiest thing in the world, when in fact it is one of the hardest.     
14. They hand in things on time. Like 99.99% of the time. Without me reminding, badgering, or asking. Our teachers are pros who do great work because they know it is what is best for kids.
15. Our teachers always have the best interest of our kids in mind, even when that means calling a student every night at 9pm to remind her to go to bed or making individualized homework each week for a student. 
16. They are always up for a challenge. Moving to 3 buildings in 10 months? Sure, no problem. Put on a huge student performance for tons of VIPs? Yeah, why not. Set and reach really high academic goals for our kids? Of course!  
17. They are so much fun to be around, whether it is leading a dance party with their students or telling hilarious stories before a staff meeting, our team is always smiling and bringing joy to everyone they come into contact with. 
18. They are great teachers and yet they still work really hard to get better every day.
19. Teaching is hard and teaching in a start-up environment is hard, but our teachers never complain, gossip, or get down. Instead, the exemplify the KIPP ideal of looking for a solution when there is a problem. 
20. Our kids love school and love learning because they have great teachers.

Saying Sorry

School leaders have really hard jobs and even effective school leaders make lots of mistakes. And that means you need to say sorry frequently. To put it even more strongly, you need to be good at saying sorry if you're going to be good at the job.

• You need to be good at knowing when you messed up. 
• You need to be good at getting over your own (large) ego 
• You need to be good at not making excuses, hedging your apology, or doing the famous, "I apologize if I have offended you..."
• You need to be good at genuinely showing that you care that someone has been hurt or wronged  
• You need to be good at saying some version of "I messed up" or "It's my fault and no one else's" or "I apologize that this happened and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again"

Speaking from a few examples from just the past few weeks, being upfront about making a mistake and giving a sincere apology can almost instantly transform a tense situation or repair hurt feelings. Of course, an apology with no change in behavior or without action steps won't count for much for very long - an apology is just a starting point and not the end. But you need to start by saying "sorry".