Do you think of yourself as an influencer? Do educators?

I think of myself as an influencer but often fall into the serenity trap... It is VERY different in my personal life... I am all about serenity at home :)

I think effective educators are influencers... instead of whining, worrying, and/or complaining about student performance, student achievement, school policy, etc they change or model behaviors to affect a change in the target group.

As a teacher, I've always considered myself an influencer, although I would never have used that term. Reflecting on my career thus far, I believe I have never tried to influence behavior in my classroom in the deliberate ways addressed in this book (so far). What I found most interesting about my reflection was that I know I was influencing behavior when I was coaching sports teams. I would strive to change specific behaviors in my sports teams and was successful more often than not in turning entire teams (and programs) around.

I know I applied some of those methods in my classroom, on occasion, but I must admit I often felt powerless to change some behaviors in my classroom. After all, the kids on my teams were using a privilege they earned by making the team - there were direct consequences, like removal from the team - if they did not change their behaviors. In a classroom, I feel powerless to remove students who refuse to change behaviors, attitudes, whatever. After reading these first two chapters, I can see I need to take a new approach to this and change my own behavior in order to influence the behaviors of others.

That is a great first question. I do think of myself as an influencer in the home, but like kimothymack, I feel powerless at work. I felt it in the classroom and I really felt it working with other teachers. Working with other teachers, vets and rookies alike, was often so difficult I wondered why I ever left the classroom. (kids think they know everything, teachers know it)

Reflecting on my year I have come to the conclusion that I was painting with too broad a stroke. Teaching has been done in isolation for a century. Telling a teachers they should try something different is like telling a parent how to raise their kids. Not everyone is as excited as I am about change. We cannot go from current state to PLC's openly discussing practice overnight.

Now is the time to i.d. some baby steps and think about how they will work.

I agree that making move to identify positive deviance for a said problem is a good first step. I also agree that classroom practice is a sacred cow that most do not want revealed. As teachers we all have insecurities about our skill. I am always waiting for the career police to step and say, "this guy's a teacher? He was a C student in high school!"

Creating and fostering an environment where it is safe to learn, grow, and make mistakes is critical to staff and classrooms alike. The identification of positive deviance and vital behaviors would be a worth while project, but it may end up just being another poster on the wall if folks don't buy in.

I do consider myself an influencer in my professional life. However, I think this has more to do with the relationships that you are willing to build. The same goes for personal life. It is a lot of time on the phone and really listening to other people.

Ken - Great points about isolation and change! I think isolation can contribute to teachers feeling powerless on some levels especially in schools and districts where there is little collaborative planning at grade/subject levels and at the school level/district.

Change is a tough nut to crack. There are many days where I think change like technology adoption and using data in instruction is so simple and logical that I wonder why anyone wouldn't do it (and I guess it does contribute to a feeling powerlessness on my part). Yet, as you mention it's difficult. There was a book published a couple years ago entitled The Change Function written by Pip Coburn that provided an interesting perspective on consumer change.

Coburn's thesis was that for consumers to use new technology their current pain had to be higher than their total perceived pain of adoption (TPPA). I think in some ways teachers fit this equation. For many, current pain is not at a high enough threshold while they perceive adopting something new as insurmountable or not yielding productive enough results. In an Influencer context, I wonder how many teachers feel like they need to change? Or how many maybe feel there are actually vital professional behaviors within their own context to change?

As a relatively new dad, I can't help but to think of myself as an influencer especially watching my 22 month old daughter say and do things my wife I have done and said. Wow, nothing is missed...nothing! And in other areas in my personal life I feel like an influencer.

I think many educators view themselves as influencers and work hard at it. But I think it's a double-edged sword: on one hand their perspective of influence gets readjusted and even jaded over time while on the other hand what they set out to originally influence gets stuck forming a frustrating cycle. How many teachers start off their careers with fire and passion wanting to change the world, believing in the power of being influential? I know I did. And I believe most teachers did/do too.

The flip side to this is I think sometimes we get stuck on what we're trying to influence. Literacy comes to mind. For example, it seems many teachers still believe in the traditional 3Rs - reading, writing, and arithmetic - which is reinforced more than ever by the accountability movement (but undoubtedly important). Frustrated by low test scores and the pressure of student performance their original focus of influence gets obscured. Areas such as new student learning theories recognizing students are constructing knowledge differently and from different sources than even 10 years ago, 21st Century Skills, strategies for using data in instruction, and different approaches to content (UbD and PBL) aren't considered, aren't deemed important by them or their schools, or the culture of the school/district isn't conducive to them. Subsequently, teachers can get caught in a loop of influence based on an "older paradigm".

When students don't "get it", don't respond well, or test scores are lower than expected, the perceived influence over students lessens. Couple this with "we know best, do what you're told" philosophy of folks outside the classroom and the growing shift to place a lot of societal burdens on teachers, I think educators' feelings of being an influencer can get knocked down a few more pegs. Am I off base with this?

Professionally, as a teacher and technology coordinator I think of myself as an influencer. While my ideals may be more realistic 13 years later after leaving my teacher education program, I'm still very idealistic in my role as an influencer. I guess that's why I'm so excited about the tools offered by this book and this study group concept as a whole.

As an educator, I do see myself as an influencer. I influence behavior in my classroom intentionally or unintentionally. For example, my fourth grade students are interested in my hobbies, my pets, my life. Every year parents tell me how their child tried a new book or a new hobby because of me. This year, in a very casual way, I told my students how I use Skype to communicate with my dad. A week later a parent asked me, "Who introduced these kids to Skype anyway?" Over a quarter of my class now has a Skype account at home. I thought this was fantastic. The parent did not. She was worried about the internet safety. (That is another blog.)

But on the other hand, there are students that I can't or don't influence. They don't like to read, like school or they don't like me. These are the students that are always on my mind. They are usually the students of color or students who come from low social economic backgrounds. How do I reach them.

The "positive deviant behavior" was an interesting concept for me. The concept is not new to me. The framework is. Look for children in the same situation who succeed. What are their behaviors. Help the struggling students to change their behaviors to copy the successful students. Sounds simple? (I know it's not) Now can I make it work in the classroom? Peer tutors on how to do homework? Peer coaches? I'll have to read on.

Influencing in the home is cake compared to influencing change at my online charter school. The two biggest problems at our school are student failure rate and teacher apathy. I haven't been very successful at influencing either, although, I try very hard at both. As I was reading the chapters, I kept coming back to how we could improve student failure rate by influencing teacher behavior. A few of us at my school constantly evaluate teaching behaviors that seem to work, and behaviors that don't. Even though we have identified behaviors, I don't have the power to influence them. I'm not a principal and it seems like our principal neglects real behavior change.
I'm reading this book with the hope that I will find strategies to change our school despite the principal.

I do think of myself as an influencer - I think I did when I was a classroom teacher, too. As a matter of fact, when I was in the classroom, I felt more successful as an influencer - because I impacted students and also my colleagues. As an administrator, it seems to be much more complex. I believe that stems from the fact that I am now dealing with change in a system - and that is much more difficult. I love the ideas presented in the book thus far. I do believe we are often guilty of parking the ambulances at the bottom of the cliff! And the principles described are simple, but certainly not easy! A few people mentioned the challenge of influencing behaviors of staff that will positively impact students - I agree it is difficult to get everyone to understand why we need to change and exactly what needs to change. That is where I think we have to look at our own role at the present moment and figure out how the principles described would fit. So, as a building administrator, what is in my realm of influence - what is it over which I have control that I can begin to influence change?

I do believe myself to be a influencer even though many attempts have not been effective. After reading the chapters, I can find examples of how I have used that one student or one teacher at a time. Effecting greater change is needed and I identify with the viewpoints above in the need to really identify behaviors and use the techniques. Overcoming our behaviors that impede the process is first. Beyond the teachers in my hallway (who have heard my stories of how technology is serving my students well), how do I get to the rest of the school?

Finally able to be part of the discussion.

I want to be an influencer and some may say I am one although it does not often feel like it. My hope is that in reading this book, I will have more of a positive impact on education in my community.

I think most of us who are involved in education want to be influencers - at least in the lives of our students. We want to have an impact, to nurture and promote success and engagement. Some of us want to go beyond our own classrooms and effect change.
So excited to be part of this discussion.