Hector Montenegro on Leadership, Learning & Service

What is possible? ANYTHING.  

The impact we have on children is profound. Hector told us that in society we move so fast we only get a superficial look at what we are looking at. How much detail do we pay to educating our youth? Consider a beautiful building – I bet that the architect was meticulous with details. Do we use that same attention on educating our children? We have the ability to shape the values and beliefs of our children.

Let’s use Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 

The Four C’s of 21st Century Skills

• Critical thinking and Problem Solving (does not occur in our classrooms – it is a lot of sit and get)  Okay, teaching these skills can be like herding cats, but it’s essential.
• Communication and Collaboration – (we have not learned to do this well yet – we all come to the table with preconceived notions. There are more children in China learning English than there are people in the United States. Americans are not proficient in Spanish, even though this is the quickest growing language. Here is a short example of language barriers in Germany… 
• Creativity and Innovations

Ineffective Leadership Paradigm 
* Focus on Management, Punitive & Compliant Driven, Loyalty above Effectiveness, Lacking Passion or Vision, Little depth of understanding, Arrogance without substance.
Independent Kingdoms (how many programs are planned together, aligning curriculum with a higher level), No alignment or directions. Meetings: no interaction, boring, top down & Info Dumps. Constellation of Disjointed Tools & Resources, Silos.

FISH Philosophy – What can be fun about cleaning fish? You might be surprised… 

Chose your attitude – some people brighten up the room when they walk in, some people brighten up the room when they leave.

Activity time: Rochambeau (rock, paper, scissors)  Everyone up; standing on your feet! Find a partner, sit down when you lose. Right side sends your top person – left side sends your top person. Everyone’s attention on the final round please.

Principles of Good to Great: Get the Wrong people off, get the right people on and in the right seats.

Shifting of importance to Social and Emotional Learning SEL – Self-awarness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decisions making. (heart AND mind).

Changing Ineffective Paradigms – ACTIVITY
Read these words together.

 Okay, you did so well, so let’s raise the bar (read twice as fast, all together)…

You all did so great again. Now… say the color, not the word, same speed.  (at this point we have mental turmoil going on and no one is seeing in black and white anymore)

Chile, Brazil, and Central America are putting a lot of funding into education. It is amazing what other countries are doing to prepare their children. Now.. Industries are hiring globally. What will the US do to keep up?

Transformation Process:
Creative Dissatisfaction
Enlightenment – Blink
Infrastructure/Capacity
Tipping Point
Tipping Point
Sustainability

Pair Share #1 – Take 2 minutes each to share your primary take-away from this part of the presentation and discuss how it relates to a particular aspect or dilemma in your current work.

Three Lessons of Learning:
Professional Learning Communities  (Rick and Linda Defour)
Professional environment (optimal/discipline/followthrough/competencies). The Learning Environment is on-going (collaboration – every time teachers come together they need to be changing), Community (all inclusive, stakeholders should be involved too).

Service and Servant Leadership – puts the interest and desires of those you serve first. What are the hopes, dreams, and desires of those you are serving? Typically we adopt the common core, but teachers are not prepared to teach the common core. A fundamental change in pedagogy.

Close with an activity that includes everyone’s participation. Strings with nine pegs, Ball,
Each peg represents something (middle school teachers, bus drivers, business communities, parents, etc.). I need nine volunteers (one for each peg). The students are the softball. You need to get students (safely, can’t drop the ball) to a certain point (a piece of paper on the other side of the room) – GO!

Recommended books: The Hungry Caterpillar, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Characteristics of Effective Leadership, Blink, Tipping Point, Good to Great