jan oneill's blog

 For me, it means focusing on the kids first and always. And SMART goals with "zones" gives us a way to do this. Listen to the podcast on our home page from the webinar "Engaging Students in Change" and you'll hear some of the best examples of goal monitoring and adjustment involving kids and their teachers that we've ever seen.

Anne and I had the extraordinary opportunity of participating as one of 24 women-owned companies (selected out of over 100) to present to investors in NYC. Springboard Enterprises https://www.springboardenterprises.org/about is the organizing group, and through them we've discovered a wonderful community of support. These are women who are passionate about making positive change in the world, whether through advanced traffic management systems, connecting women to "best of" brands, or like us, transforming American public education.

We're in a Kairos moment right now, a moment between what was before and is no more, and the unknown future. 

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of an undetermined period of time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos

What is the relationship between professional learning communities (PLCs) and S.M.A.R.T. goals? One way to think about this is from the perspective of a school’s organizational capacity for change, learning and improvement.

In schools that function as professional learning communities there is strong organizational capacity. In these schools you’ll find teachers who:

Prior to the start of the current school year, our district decided to add accelerated classes in 9^th & 10^th grades notwithstanding the potential loss of some cherished electives classes at upper grades. This decision caused an uproar that revealed a philosophical divide within our community. Some parents are concerned their children aren’t being challenged enough while others believe heterogenous classes are critical to keeping diversity alive and well. 

Have you heard of “initiativitis,” the disease that contributes in significant ways to our nation’s continuing achievement gap?

Schools and districts with initiativitis pursue program after program in a desperate and frantic effort to improve performance. What they get instead is overwhelmed teachers and administrators and flat or even declining student results.

My family and I recently spent a week off the grid, deep in the North Woods of Wisconsin where the brilliant stars and a waxing moon were the only lights, and the eerie cry of loons, yips of coyotes and hoots of owls were the only sounds. You wouldn’t think I’d read a book about checklists in that environment, but that’s exactly what I did—and it was a page turner.

I’m gravely concerned about a recent posting in Teacher Week by Renee Moore, a former Mississippi state teacher of the year and Milken Award winner. In a post entitled “Fixing NCLB: How Testing Hurts Disadvantaged Kids”, Ms.

I happened to catch Diane Ravitch on public television recently describing her positive reaction to the expressed desire of the Obama administration to eliminate the draconian punitive measures in No Child Left Behind. In her view, we aren’t helping students learn by threatening their teachers and administrators with school takeovers, staff firings, and the like.

“To set and work toward any goal is an act of courage.” -- Stephen Covey

Dennis Sparks recently wrote in his blog about the power of setting incremental goals, saying

Large goals can overwhelm school leaders who may not know where to start and how to maintain momentum over a period of many months and years. That’s why it’s important that leaders break large goals into small parts that can be addressed on a daily or weekly basis. ("Breaking big goals into small goals," April 21 - find a link to Dennis' blog in our Resources)