Building on Strengths

One of my good friends is a speech therapist who has had great success helping young children make life-changing progress in areas many of us take for granted - eating and speaking. She is incredibly upbeat, and genuinely cares about her clients. Adults and children both feel at ease with her instantly.

When I asked about her secret to success in making such great strides with children, most of whom have severe disabilities, she says she simply finds something the child can do well, and then extends that ability to create new functionality. "We build on their strengths," she says.

Most of her clients are younger than school age, but from time to time, she does work with children in the school setting. It is not uncommon for her to be frustrated by her experience at the school. Her frustrations have often made me stop dead in my tracks, and consider things from a whole different point of view.

If you think about the way we address challenges for students, we often do the exact opposite of what my friend does. If a student has trouble with reading, we pull them out for extra work on the very thing they have trouble with.  We don't find the hooks - the things they do well - and then build a bridge to those things that are challenges for them. This is actually what families are best at!!!  They understand their child's strengths, and have opportunities to help the children build on those strengths. What we must do is help families have the tools to help build the bridges from strengths to challenges, so that the challenges become competencies too!

Extreme Engagement

As we work with schools who are transforming historical culture into a culture of engagement, one of the critical pieces that we stress is that everyone within the community much remained challenged, and must see what they are doing as critical to success for engagement to continue. School set "stretch goals" that move the school out of the comfort zone. Stretch goals with students help them achieve more than they believed was possible.

There is an extraordinary camp in Snowmass, Colorado that has mastered the use of stretch goals and extreme engagement  and is seeing incredible results. What makes the camp so exceptional is not the rock climbing, water skiing, rafting, or crossing a river with only a rope at the feet. This camp is unique because of its campers; they have autism.

 

The camp offers extreme sports to kids that are not likely to have experienced any sort of sports before, but certainly not extreme sports. The camp's method stresses sensory overload. Struggling is part of the course.  (Click here to view the ABC Nightline segment about the camp)

 

Staff members at the camp engage with the children, and study each camper so they can understand how best to reach that individual. They use touch with the campers who can’t communicate any other way. With others, touch is used as a way to overload the senses. Each child gets the individualized program he or she needs - and is pushed to their limit, and then beyond those limits! The children experience a sense of accomplishment, and take pride in doing something that nobody - even the child himself - thought he could. The camp fosters a sense of solidarity and cooperative spirit among the campers, but its the ultimate goal is self-reliance. And the campers return - year after year! 

As you are setting goals for your school, or your classroom, or your child, think about the benefits these children get from reaching beyond what they thought they could do, and set stretch goals that challenge you to do more as you continue the journey toward full engagement throughout the learning community.

 

Click here for more information about the Extreme Sports Camp in Roaring Fork Valley.

The Talent Code

There was a great segment on Nightline last night talking about the human brain's potential to create new white matter. According to Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code, the myelination process, the insulating of the "wiring" for certain activities, when taken to the extremes, is actually what creates genius.  (Watch the segment here)

Coyle says what makes talent is two basic things- lots of practice, and great coaching.  When a new skill is learned, new pathways form in the brain, or existing pathways are extended to "map" the new skill.  As we practice the skill over and over, the newly formed path becomes a superhighway  - an ultimate connector, that is not only extremely fast, but is very reliable. 

Great coaching has to do with who the coach is - the great coaches have some very key core factors like being laid back, relational, and engaging in intense moments of very targeted correction.  The "golden second" for coaching is immediately after an error has occurred.  Unless you reach the edge of error and frustration, you never build the brain's potential - or your talent.

Families play a critical role in guiding students and coaching them in many aspects of development.  Mentors (or advisories) create the opportunities for the building long term coaching relationships in the school environment that helps students -and their families - explore and develop interests, abilities, and talent - and take advantage of the golden seconds when talent is nurtured.

What Coyle is describing, of course, is one of the key aspects of Engaged Learning Communities!

Lackawanna!

 I was headed west on I-10 in Jacksonville, Florida the other day, and was deep in thought about the creative ideas and plans that one of my client schools is pursuing, the success that they are beginning to see in building relationships. Mixed with the excitement over that school, was concern for another school where leadership is not really on fire. I was lost in thought about why some leaders excel, while other leaders seem to get in their own way - why some teachers are successful in reaching kids, and some seem to be putting in time for a paycheck - and why some students really take responsibility for their education, and others are still struggling.  All of the sudden the answer was right there in front of me on I-10 as I approached McDuff Avenue! A huge sign on the side of the building just to my right said LACKAWANNA. As it turns out, in a cruel twist of fate, Lackawanna is the alternative education center for Duval County.

In our work with schools and school districts, we encounter Lackawanna, or Lack-of-Want-To, far too often in education. Educators have seen a steady stream of programs and initiatives that have been abandoned before they reached their potential, accomplished very little, or outright failed. After a while, many veterans adopt the mentality of "this too shall pass" and quit trying, choosing instead to weather the storm until the new program is in the rear view mirror.Students, discouraged when success doesn't come quickly, abandon the pursuit and quit. The interesting thing is, that in failing to try, these students and educators have already decided to fail! I was struck at how different this is than those pursuing excellence in any endeavor.

Take for example, Maurice Ashley, who in 1999 became the International Grandmaster of Chess. (Click here to learn more.)   "Losing is learning," Maurice says, "it's just part of the process. The only way you can fail is if you don't get back up and try again."  Maurice cannot imagine what it would be to not try again. Or in other words, he has Gottawanna!



We have a lot of schools who are reversing Lackawanna, even in some very rough circumstances.  Leaders, teachers, and students all are finding their Gottawanna to build relationships, to close the circle of support for students, to take responsibility, and to maximize the potential of ALL students.  How about you?  Gottawanna!