On the importance of showing up
 

Edna Varner
Associate,Leadership Development

 

Woody Allen once said, "80% of success is showing up." I can't remember the first time I heard that, but I do remember thinking, Woody doesn't set the bar very high.

Now that I am older and wiser, I am wondering if I misjudged the old boy. Maybe he assumed that we all have good intentions and if we start acting on them by showing up, we increase the likelihood that those good intentions will become our reality.

Thus, my list of top ten reasons for Cornerstone principals and coaches to show up.

  1. Show up for Cornerstone professional development, including book studies
    • As principal, show up to introduce sessions, co-facilitate, and model the behavior of the "leader of learners"
    • As coaches, show up to participate as co-presenters and/or facilitators in your role as on site professional developers
    • Show up to monitor teachers' needs by observing to see who is emerging as a leader, who is still resistant, who is growing in ways that may not have been apparent, and who is still confused.
    • Show up to ensure that professional development meets action plan goals.
      Suggestions: study groups focused on asset map analysis (revisit those dots), professional book study (check your reading list and add to it), school culture, parent and community goals, exploration of the Cornerstone literacy framework, and effective instruction in all six systems.
    • Show up in a quiet place at a regularly scheduled time for your own professional reading that focuses on literacy instruction and another that focuses on leadership.
       
  2. Show up for site visits by Cornerstone staff
    • Show up in rooms where literacy fellows are working with coaches and focus teachers to determine how you can support the ongoing professional development at your school
    • Show up with other teachers who have been released from classes to observe the literacy fellow's work with coaches
    • Show up with "Principal Look Fors" to validate what you are observing with the literacy fellow, liaison, and coaches
    • Show up for meetings scheduled at the end of each site visit to hear Cornerstone staff perceptions of strengths, challenges, and concerns regarding Cornerstone work at your school.
       
  3. Show up in coaches' classrooms
    • To observe how they create a climate of respect and civility using rituals, a predictable schedule, and a warm, inviting environment to increase learning
    • To learn with them as they create a culture of rigor, inquiry and intimacy by continually expecting more, probing ideas further, and pressing children to explore their intellect.
    • To observe their demonstration lessons and to see how teachers are responding to them
    • To see their progress with focus teachers and to support focus teachers as they take on the responsibility for model classrooms.
       
  4. Show up in teachers' classrooms with Principal "Look Fors" (4.20), especially during the literacy block
    • To determine if teachers are using the most effective literacy practices
    • To determine what teachers need (resources, skills, encouragement, challenge) to make their practice more effective
    • To determine whether children are receiving appropriately balanced ongoing instruction on all six language systems with the proper proportion of instruction in surface and deep structure systems
    • To determine whether children have ownership for book and topic selection and the ways in which they share thinking and knowledge
    • To model effective practice as the "head" teacher.

  5. Show up during common planning time for grade level meetings
    • To ensure that teachers are encouraged to elaborate upon, improve upon, and be innovative with ideas Cornerstone coaches and fellows have shared.
    • To promote continued engagement among faculty members in studying research and understanding complex idea
    • To build capacity for studying student work and using it to inform practice
    • To hear burning issues as faculty members confront barriers to change.
       
  6. Show up for leadership team meetings
    • To ensure that leadership for instruction lives not only in coaches' classrooms and the principal's office, but is shared among faculty members
    • To discuss and address critical organizational issues that affect literacy teaching and learning
    • To ensure that literacy action plan goals are being addressed school wide
    • To determine how parent and community groups can be introduced to Cornerstone and how their interest can be sustained
    • (Because it is not a leadership team meeting if the leaders don't show up.)
       
  7. Show up for video conferences and use technology to connect with other Cornerstone participants
    • To develop colleagueship and draw on the experiences of Cornerstone staff, principals, coaches, and other teachers across the network
    • To continue professional development that builds on work at the summer institute, regional meetings, and site visits
    • To share documents through "My Connections" with others in the Cornerstone network
    • To access the most current news and other information from the network via the Cornerstone newsletter
    • To focus on the most urgent issues in literacy learning, including in-dept analysis of children's work.
       
  8. Show up for district meetings
    • To inform and influence district policy decisions that support growth for Cornerstone
    • To collaborate with district leaders to create a system that will permit you to manage new state and district mandates without negative impact on your Cornerstone initiative
    • To build knowledge and advocacy for Cornerstone with district staff, teachers, other principals, parents, and special interest groups.
       
  9. Show up for School Reviews
    • To contribute to the collective perspective of a review team invited to review the progress of another Cornerstone school
    • To gain insights into the educational practices and the approaches to Cornerstone of a school other than your own.
    • To be coached, through the various procedures of the review, "to know what you see, and not to see only what you know." This is a powerful tool for self
      • review.
       
  10. Show up for Summer Institutes and Regional Meetings
    • To continue professional development on literacy theory and school change
    • To learn about the innovative practices and approaches of other Cornerstone schools through school visits and demonstrations
    • To learn from and collaborate with Cornerstone staff, principals, coaches, teachers, and parents from across the network
    • To challenge our beliefs about and expectations for the children we serve
    • To re-energize each other for the important work of ensuring that all children reach an acceptable standard of literacy by third grade.
       

That's a list to get you started. We keep saying that Cornerstone should not be viewed as an additional program, but the driving force for literacy development and school change. Making that point and moving an entire school call for very deliberate acts of leadership.

Okay, I'll admit it. Leading well requires much more than simply showing up. It requires showing up with a purpose. But purpose doesn't have much impact if we don't at least show up. And about that 80%--we can do better than that.