Weekend Reading: It's Your Ship, Volume 2

A continuation of my post last week about It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy.

Chapter Three: Listen Aggressively

1. Give people your undivided attention when they're speaking to you.
2. See the ship through the crews' eyes/see the classroom through the students' eyes.  Do check-ins/interviews to see what people like the best, what they like the least.  If you get to know your people (and respect them) you wouldn't be able to look at them in a poor light.  When possible, implement some of the changes/suggestions.
3. Find round people for round holes - try to match people's personalities to jobs that fit them.
4. Use the power of word magic - back your words with actions.  Also keep encouraging your people.  Tell them they're the best damn ship in the navy, after a while they will believe you and act accordingly.  If you are confident and truly believe and embody what you say people will catch on and follow suit.

Teacher's Take

1. I wish I could say I do this all the time.  I know often when my students speak to me I'm distracted by another student's behavior or their calling for my attention.  I know how frustrated I feel when someone wouldn't pay attention to me, and I can only imagine that my student would feel likewise.  Whether or not students stay in school and work hard has to do with how valued they feel.  I can definitely work harder to truly give my attention to students when they're talking to me.  Also I think using layered curriculum in the classroom truly helps give students a lot of one on one attention they wouldn't receive otherwise.
2. Even though I was a high school student in the not so distant past (and am currently a graduate student) when you're in front of the classroom sometimes you lose perspective on what it's like to be sitting at a desk trying to learn.  I had a little wake-up call myself at the beginning of this semester when I was in class.  The professor was flying through her PowerPoint presentation, we were all struggling to take notes at her pace.  At one point someone asked her if she could slow down. She said, "Just write down the highlights,  not everything on the slide.  We need to get through this, besides, copies of the notes are on my website."  She then continued through the presentation at ludicrous speed.  Even though I knew the PowerPoint was available online I really learn best when I take notes from the lecture.  As I was sitting there simmering in my frustration at her I realized I often do the exact same thing to my students.  When they ask me to slow down they're giving me feedback - you're going way too fast for me to learn!  If I just ignore them and tell them to get the notes on my website later does that show them that I value their learning?  Does that show them that I value their input?  Does that make them want to be invested in the educational process?  Do I need to answer these questions for you?
3. Here's another example where layered curriculum comes to the rescue.  With layered curriculum students can utilize and demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways.  I can teach all the students the same lesson, but they can all demonstrate what they learned through a method that best suits them - political cartoon, newspaper article, letter, diary entry, pamphlet, campaign poster, etc.  If they can show me they learned the material and understand it, what do I care what format it's in?
4. Students can read you much easier than you think.  If I sigh and moan about how much I hate a unit (cough:nationalism:cough) they'll pick up on that and it will become contagious.  If I tell them how this unit is the greatest thing ever and they're learning fascinating intriguing stuff that most people don't know they'll believe it, and I start to believe it true.  And maybe it will become the greatest unit ever . . . maybe . . .

Chapter Four: Communicate Purpose and Meaning

1. Articulate a goal that inspires a diverse group of people to work hard - make people feel like their work is important and meaningful.
2. Make your crew/students think, "We can do something!" - use whatever resources you have, bulletin board, website, etc, to share new ideas and explain goals as well as keeping people informed.
3. Make sure information travels clearly from the top to the bottom.
4. After creating a great brand, defend it.  Make your crew/students realize they represent you.  Don't threaten, but make the consequences of misbehavior clear.
5. Freedom creates discipline - after every major action/event the group gathers to critique it.  People/students should check egos at the door and be prepared to take criticism, meaning you should too, others will follow your example.  When people feel they own an organization they take a greater role/are more invested in it.

Teacher's Take

1. A classroom generally tends to be a diverse group of people.  Making your activities/lessons appeal to a broad range of talents and abilities will make people feel more capable/likely to work, and will also make your life easier.  Once again, layered curriculum comes in really handy here.
2. I would like to do more of this with my website.  I would like to post more positive messages and examples of outstanding student work.  I do that in my classroom, but on the website would make it more public so students could receive encouragement from parents and others who rarely enter the classroom.
3. In the classroom there isn't really a top/bottom structure, it's more teacher and students.  I always try my best to convey information clearly to students.  In the school in general it's good to be open with people at all levels about what you're doing in your classroom, because you never know what kind of encouragement, support, or resources you'll receive.
4. In the book Abrashoff points out that the more he told his crew they were the best damn ship in the navy the more they believed it and embodied it.  While the collective goal of my classroom is to learn, I can help promote this by telling students why the information is relevant and interesting and make connections to their lives.  When they believe the information is pertinent and they're working towards a higher cause they're more likely to become invested in their education, and so are you (this relates to number 4 above).
5. In my classroom we certainly don't do group critiques of projects or assignments (this might be relevant in an art or drama classroom), but in using the layered curriculum model I give students the freedom to create whatever kind of final product they want to demonstrate their learning (within reason of course), and I do sit down with every student to go over their final products for each layer.  When sitting with the student I often question them on what they are trying to show me with their final product and what they learned through the process and I give them suggestions for improvement.  Sometimes I get feedback from the students such as, "I didn't really understand what I was supposed to do" or "I never understood the concept of nationalism anyway."  I realize this feedback is a golden opportunity for me to re-assess and revise some of my instructional techniques as well as for students to improve their performance in the future.