The Schoenblog

Today was day three of my school new year. Tomorrow is freshman orientation, and on Friday, I meet my new students. I’m excited for the new year and for the changes I’m planning in my classroom and teaching.

But I’m also excited for something else: there’s change coming. In the first two days, I felt it everywhere. From conversation with administrators, to our edcamp unconference day, to the opening assembly and keynote. It was a very different start to the school year.

It focused on learning, positivity, relationships, and culture. We discussed meaningful change, disrupting the norm, and reflecting on growth. And it left me excited to move forward and get started.

I wanted to write tonight to share some quick thoughts about why these days excited and inspired me and share two great experiences that started our school year.

#EdcampOssining

Last year, I ran our first ever Edcamp PD with #EdcampOHS, a building-level day of unconference style learning. We adapted the Edcamp model for 100 educators, and it was a real success. I wrote all about it in Making Professional Development Matter with the Edcamp Model and Life After Edcamp: What Comes Next?

This year, two district administrators teamed up to create an opt-in edcamp day to start the school year. They asked for input back in June but I was uninvolved in the real planning. That’s why it was so rewarding, inspiring, and meaningful to see 50+ educators choose to attend during the last day of summer vacation and to see a wonderfully planned event. Sessions focused on vocabulary, data, social media, Google Classroom, SIOP, collaboration, and so much more. A blank session board quickly filled up with 20 different topics and conversations for educators of all contents and age levels.

In addition to meaningful conversations and learning, many Tweeted and backchanneled throughout the day, sharing our work with the world. It was an awesome experience and I’m inspired by the leaps we’ve taken in designing meaningful professional development.

I’m looking forward to helping to plan more of it now that we’re back in school and to working to evaluate these models to determine their impact in our teaching and students’ learning.

#EdcampOssining session board is filling up! pic.twitter.com/sb1ezqdn1j

— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) August 29, 2016

It’s Going to Be the Best School Year Ever!

For years, we started school with an opening assembly, bringing the whole district to the high school auditorium for long speeches. In a hot and crowded room, with so much to do, this rarely felt like the most productive or inspiring of starts.

For a few years, this changed to building level activities and prep, but this year the dreaded assembly was back on the schedule. I heard rumblings that it was planned to be something special, and it really, really delivered.

Our Superintendent, Ray Sanchez, started by looking for teachers who were missing in an awkward moment where the audience isn’t sure what’s happening yet. He told us he had to find them, directed the district photographer (@MrQPhoto) to follow and record it live, and raced down the aisle. As he did, the video below started playing.



It was fun and funny and showed thought, humility, and positivity. I think it was the first time I’ve started a school year laughing. And laughing in the room with 300 other educators, most who are never in the same room or even building together, was powerful.

The video was followed by remarks from union and board of education presidents, but they were short and purposeful. Then David Kirkland, Director of the NYU Metro Center for Research on Equity, took the stage for a powerful talk on students, equity, and relationship. We wrapped up the morning with student performances and continued on our day.

Beyond access and opportunity, Ss need hope and healing. Really powerful talk from @davidekirkland #OssiningPride pic.twitter.com/F7p9tEkc2b

— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) August 30, 2016

And a day later I’m still thinking about it all. About culture. About change. And about tomorrow.



The start the school year is always a new challenge but it’s rewarding. It’s a change to start over, to build on successes, grow from failures, and impact students once again. Let’s get started.

What was your most memorable or meaningful start to a school year?

So much of what our schools do for students should also be done for our teachers. We need to help students love learning, develop 21st century skills, nurture their passions and interests, and to become lifelong learners. And we need to do all of that for educators, too.

It seems so obvious, and yet our educational systems so often recognize what’s best for student learners--choice, passions, curiosity--and then ignore the same for the adult learners. Not every quality of a child’s education should be mirrored for adults, but I’m recognizing more and more connections in what I want learning to be like, for both me and for my students.

These reflections were inspired by Michael Fullan’s The New Meaning of Educational Change, which I recently finished reading for class. The question I kept asking myself throughout was whether or not learning is really a priority for teachers? Not just the small percentage of connected educators and conference goers, but the majority of educators?

And more importantly, perhaps, are our schools a place that foster lifelong learning for teachers? Do our schools value it? Is there an importance placed on learning outside of teaching? Is learning a passion?

Fullan argues, “We need leaders--teachers, school, and district, who model and foster professional capital by being lead learners” (2016, p. 229-230). The only way that we can really develop capacity for continuous improvement and innovation is through learning and leadership.

Yet “restructuring (which can be done by fiat) occurs time and time again, whereas reculturing (how teachers come to question and change their beliefs and habits) is what is needed” (2016, p. 23). This quotes really struck a chord with me as I look forward to the new school year, to learning, and to change. How much of the change that happens in schools is driven by “the right drivers,” like improving culture and learning?

Instead, change is often driven by management and outside influences. Sure, they often lead back towards students and learning, but might have more impact if they developed true intrinsic motivation for learning, growth, and change--what Fullan calls the right drivers.

One way to improve school systems and culture is to build “the instructional skills of teachers, and the managerial skills of principals” (2015, p. 229), but where we learn in communities, not just as individuals. I want to work in, teach in, and learn in schools where learning is the culture and language of what goes on every day. A school that creates “conditions where leaders and participants continually develop a ‘shared depth of understanding about the nature of the work’” (2016, p. 229).

As the summer months wind down, I welcome a new opportunity to do something great for our schools, teachers, and students. And with every opportunity, comes the need to reflect and rethink our drivers and motivations.

This year, I want to make sure that it all comes back to doing what’s best for students. And to be the best teacher I can be, learning and a passion for learning needs to be valued--as a professional educator, as a classroom community, and as a part of school culture.