Iowa ASCD joins with other ASCD affiliates in the Midwest to offer a FREE conference on January 19 with asynchronous opportunities until February 2. Register now and also receive a year's free membership in Iowa ASCD. You can register at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MjLbglUCw-_Mt3pWtKa1bN9-eJqYUcAS/view.

The keynote will be live at 9:00 A.M. on January 19 and will also be provided on-demand until February 2.

The three breakout sessions and the final speaker are taped and will be provided January 19 through February 2. These are perfect for schools and districts focused on equity and would be great for your PLC conversations.

One presentation features Iowa's own Dr. Katy Swalwell of Iowa State University. What she is most curious and passionate about is what helps people develop a critical consciousness necessary for a healthy, "thick" democracy. What do people need to know and be able to do in order to help build a more just and equitable world? What about young people growing up in affluent, majority White communities? In what ways can learning anti-oppressive histories help this process? And what kinds of resources help teachers do this well?

Swalwell's work has appeared in practitioner publications like Educational Leadership, Rethinking Schools, and Teaching Tolerance as well as peer-reviewed journals like Curriculum Inquiry, Democratic Education, Education Policy, Theory & Research in Social Education, Journal of Social Studies Research, and several edited volumes. She is one of the co-founders of The Critical Social Educator, an open-access journal dedicated to publishing work from practitioners and scholars alike, and the Critical Resources for Elementary Social Studies Teachers Facebook group with 1000+ members. She is the author of several books, including the award-winning Educating Activist Allies: Social Justice Pedagogy with the Urban and Suburban Elite (Routledge in 2013) and the "Amazing Iowa" series of children's books, traveling exhibits, and supplemental curriculum for teachers.

Join today. We all have lots to learn about equity! You must register to participate!

Once upon a time, a teacher thought she knew how to handle it all. And then came COVID-19. Everything once known seemed to change. Educational experience taught her to turn toward professional development for a solution. Sadly, there wasn’t a professional library full of books about how to lead and teach during a pandemic.

While the sky seemed to be falling all around her, she noticed a friend and small business owner who was managing the unknown with grace and purpose. When she asked her friend about her elixir-of-leadership, her friend said that she and her staff practice “staying out of the box.” “Go read Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by the Arbinger Institute,” she insisted.

It turns out, the teacher didn’t need a manual about how to teach during a pandemic; she just needed a guide for her new reality on identifying and responding to other people's truths without face-to-face contact.

Surprise! That teacher leader was me. Now I want to share how to ride the COVID-19 wave in the hopes that it might help others to ride other waves as teacher-leaders so that we foster humanity and equitable actions in spite of our current reality. My new book gives some direction.

Walk it or Run it Out

Finding time for self-care is hard enough, but during a pandemic it is almost impossible. This book makes for an excellent listen, so tie up those tennis shoes, put on a coat and headlamp, and get lost in the story as the learning from this book is delivered in parable form.

Identify Boxes

The first part of the book takes readers through a journey of a leader who, from his perspective, is doing a good job. As the story continues, the layers peel away revealing a series of metaphorical boxes causing the protagonist to misperceive reality. As the reader, it is simple to judge the protagonist only to then have those judgments show the level and extent of the reader’s own boxes.

Breaking Free

The second part of the book follows the protagonist through the process of attempting to break free by identifying moments of self-betrayal, only to find that humanity is complex, and nothing is as simple as it seems. As a reader, parallels start to form between past and present relationships where the reader can self-identify instances of laying blame at the feet of others by inflating personal virtues and magnifying other’s faults. Hope starts to build as the protagonist and the reader collaboratively re-evaluate the influence of self-perception due to self-deception. The path forward reveals itself.

Staying Free

The third part puts the protagonist and the reader at the edge of their seats trying to find the solution to staying out of the box. It also brings the work into full perspective with the impact the learning can have by naturally fostering equity within daily personal interactions. Additionally, it puts forward the impact this thought process could have on a system if purposely directed, as my friend experiences in her business.

So, who is ready to self-identify their own self-deceptions and break free of their own metaphorical boxes?

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Johanna Russell recently released a new self-paced ISEA Academy License Renewal course, Solving People Problems, which uses Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by the Arbinger Institute as the anchor text. For more information on taking this action-based course go to https://isea.org/course/

A special thanks to Dr. Randy Peters and Dr. Doug Stillwell whose Educational Leadership course work leads Johanna to have the conversation that provoked the transformative learning.

Johanna Russell is a guest columnist and is an ISEA Academy Course Instructor, a Building Instructional Master Mentor for Ankeny Schools, and an Educational Leadership Student at Drake University.

The "Leadership Freak" shares the following to empower leaders 300 words at a time.

The words that come out of your mouth explain 4 things.

1. Who you believe you are.
2. Who you believe others are.
3. What matters.
4. Where you are going.

But where do your words come from?

Origin sets direction.

The place your words come from maps the journey ahead.

Dr. Jared Smith, superintendent of South Tama Community Schools, offers this blog:

“The first step toward executive effectiveness is to record actual time-use.” - Peter Drucker

Previously we’ve talked about designating time to complete important work and matching one's mental state to the task.

While these are great first steps for hacking productivity, the concept of time tracking takes time management to the next level.

Time tracking is creating moment-to-moment awareness of actions by keeping track of time spent on projects throughout the day. When leaders record minutes and hours spent on specific tasks, alignment (or misalignment) between goals and actions becomes visible.

Florida ASCD proudly presents Dr. Doug Fisher on Friday, January 22, and Saturday, January 23, 2021. Morning Sessions are 9 am -12 pm EST; Afternoon Sessions are 1 pm - 4 pm EST. See the flyer for more information and descriptions. All sessions will be hosted through Zoom.

Participants will be registered with the email provided below and a unique sign-in and password will be emailed to the participant.

Session 1: Teacher Clarity: The Pathway to Better Learning
Session 2: Integrating Social-Emotional Learning Into Everyday Instruction
Session 3: Balanced Literacy
Session 4: Distance Learning Up Close: Teaching for Engagement and Impact in Any Setting

If you have questions, please email Dr. Lou Whitaker at drlouwhitaker@gmail.com

Download a Printable Flyer Here