Entry # 10:
Put on Some Lipstick
and Get Ready for Change

I felt a slight tap on my shoulder one day last week after school, while standing out on bus duty. I turned around and smiled.

"Hey, who are you?" asked a tall boy named Marquise. "Oh, Dr. Kahl, that's you! I didn't recognize you without your lipstick on!"

As I made my way to the front of the school, another boy, Jonathan came up and said, "Something looks different. Oh, wait, I know, you forgot to put on your lipstick." I laughed, "Is it really that bad? You are the second person to notice."

"Now don't go getting sick on us, Dr. Kahl," he replied. "Sick? What do you mean?" "Well, you look kinda pale and come to think of it, you look kinda sick, too."

"How about my hair?" I asked. "Does it look bad too?" "Nah, just pale like the rest of you." "Go home!" I demanded and patted him on the backpack.

The boys were right. I have been so consumed by work that I'm forgetting small things like putting on my lipstick. And Jonathan's observation was on target, I DID look pale and tired. But I wasn't getting sick. Just beginning to show on the outside how I was feeling on the inside.

"Fellow Teachers . . ."

I had received my first anonymous note that day from an upset staff member. Actually, it wasn't addressed to me, but to his "Fellow Teachers." It was another one of those weeks when you think you will never get to think about anything more important than which angry parent is going to yell at you next. So when I got word of the letter, it was like the proverbial icing on the cake.

It wasn't particularly nasty (or well written for that matter). The upset party felt that decisions were being made without staff input and that kids weren't being disciplined in a harsh enough manner. It went in the teachers' boxes on the same day that they received our Teachers Union Principal Evaluation Forms. (I just can't WAIT to read those!)

Anyway, the impetus for the letter writing was our exploration of a whole school reform model. For the sake of discussion here, it doesn't really matter what the model is. The fact that I brought folks to our campus to talk to us about a prospective partnership makes some teachers very nervous. Many have been around long enough to live through the Accelerated Schools reform process that took place about six years ago at the school. Most everyone was at Hill last year when they decided to become a Classical School. Now I was suggesting we once again take a look at a way to bring a clearer focus to our school. To say the teachers are gunshy would be an understatement.

Although Accelerated Schools created a strong bond among staff members, the governance structure that it created was too cumbersome. As one teacher put it, "We were having meetings to decide what the actual meetings should look like. It was absolutely crazy."

Our move this year to become a Classical School has created a new structure for our course offerings and more opportunities for our students. Yet what I believe is missing from both of these reforms is a serious look at teaching and learning. Most of the teachers I talk to agree that neither Accelerated Schools nor Classical have changed the way they teach.

The heat is rising

During this same week, I went to a special meeting for Title I Program Improvement Schools, and found out that we are in more serious shape than I previously thought. Essentially, we MUST make serious changes for next year or risk the state telling us what to do. The staff understands this because our district has already closed and reopened two middle school campuses that previously had not made sufficient progress.

I can honestly say that we are not in the situation that we are in due to lack of trying. We are doing all of the things that we are supposed to be doing: looking at the test score data, examining student work, meeting in teams, curriculum mapping, using faculty meeting time for professional development, monitoring classrooms for the "essential elements" and collecting data on how kids are doing on a variety of assessments.

Yet I have learned that these activities are only loosely connected. We have not created a structure to make each of these activities connect back to examining, and ultimately, changing the way we are teaching. This is why I wanted us to explore this reform model -- to bring all of these things together.

We will be voting next week on whether or not to explore this option any further. The partnership requires an 80% "yes" vote from the teachers. We'll see. But I'm not worried. Whether it is this, or something else, one thing is certain: change is inevitable.

Now I've got to go put on some lipstick.


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