Hiring Gruntled Teachers Strategies for SBDM Councils

1. Hiring GruntledTeachersStrategies for SBDM Councils M. Mark Wasicsko, Ph.D. Dean and Bank of Kentucky Chair in Educational Leadership College of Education and Human Services Northern Kentucky University wasicskom1@nku.edu

2. Who we choose to teacher our students is the single most important thing we do to increase their learning, growth, and development.

3. Dispositional Hypothesis The most effective strategy for improving learning, growth, and development is to hire the right teachers and then invest in them to become better at their jobs and more effective as human beings.

4. Your Favorite Teacher • What is the first thing that comes to mind?

5. Your Favorite Teacher

6. Your Favorite Teacher • He really enjoyed teaching and cared about students. • She looked for the good in each of us. • He could teach something and make it fun. • She held our interest with her lively, humorous manner and her thorough knowledge of the subject. • He believed in me. • She challenged us. • He saw us as unique and treated us with respect. • She really knew her subject and had a passion for it.

7. Your Worst Teacher • What is the first thing that comes to mind?

8. Your Worst Teacher

9. Your Worst Teacher “I love to teach, I just cannot stand the kids.” “I was supposed to teach gifted kids but got you instead.” “I prepare the best lessons a teacher can prepare and they send me the wrong kids.” “I teach the best and forget the rest.”

10. How Important Are Dispositions? • Ranking • Dispositions • Teaching Skills • Knowledge Preliminary findings from “Great Teachers, Great Memories” National Survey on Favorite Teachers.

11. Part #1- Search Outcomes SCREEN FOR THESE Degenerative Transformative HIRE THESE Ineffective Effective

12. What We Can’t Change Select for These relatively difficult tochange relatively easy to change caring, enthusiastic, responsible, committed, energetic, positive, enjoyable, humorous, accepting knowledge, punctuality, appearance people skills, assessment strategies, technology infusion

13. What We Can Change relatively difficult tochange relatively easy to change caring, enthusiastic, responsible, committed, energetic, positive, enjoyable, humorous, accepting knowledge, punctuality, appearance people skills, assessment strategies, technology infusion Train for These

14. In Search of Gruntled Teachers • Typical hiring pools: • Dispositionally Disgruntled (50%) • Situationally Disgruntled (10%) • Unemployed (15%) • New entries (15%) • Idealistic high performers (10%) Applicants Candidates

15. In Search of the Gruntled Teacher • Recruit don’t select • Start with the ideal candidate in mind • Don’t settle – if it isn’t a VERY good fit take a pass (takes 2-5 years to undo a bad hire IF you can at all!)

16. Hire for Dispositions • Write your job description & profile • Describe your ideal candidate • Write a job description that would appeal to him/her

17. Understanding Dispositions: the helping personality • dispositions toward one self: upbeat, non self-centered, identified • dispositions toward others: people are able, worthy and dependable • dispositions about purpose: see the big picture, keeps perspective, priorities • general frame of reference: put people first, builds relationships

18. IDENTIFIED The educator feels a oneness with all mankind. He/she perceives him/herself as deeply and meaningfully related to persons of every description. UNIDENTIFIED The educator feels generally apart from others. His/her feelings of oneness are restricted to those of similar beliefs. PERCEPTIONS OF SELF AS “Identified”

19. Human Relations Incident (HRI) I would like you to think of a significant past event, which involved yourself in a teaching role with one or more other persons. That is, from a human relations standpoint, this event had special meaning for you. In writing about this event, please use the following format: FIRST: Describe the situation as it occurred at the time. SECOND: What did you do in the particular situation? THIRD: How did you feel about the situation at the time you were experiencing it? FOURTH: How do you feel about the situation now? Would you wish to change any part of it?

20. HRI #1 - I had about 30 first graders for an art lesson of paper designs. The students needed a lot of assistance and demonstrations because this project was new to them. One student did just the opposite of the assignment and I responded with shock and said, "What are you doing?" I felt irritated and wondered how the child could be so dumb. But now I think that I hurt the child's self‑confidence and that in the future I should handle the situation more calmly, since art is highly self interpretive. In the same first grade class, I was pinning notes on students to go home. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one boy take two pins and hide them in his pocket. This boy is a discipline problem so I figured he might use these pins in a destructive way. I got very angry and shouted at the boy to return them. His eyes got large and he returned one. I got even angrier because he gave me only one. He thought he was fooling me by giving one back. I couldn't paddle him so I yelled at him even louder, although we were face to face. He returned the last pin. I told him to sit down. He did and covered his face with his hands. Since then he has followed my directions a little more closely. I try to give him extra duties such as passing out things to make him feel useful. Still, yelling like that is more an emotional than reasonable way to handle a discipline problem.

21. ABLE The educator sees others as having capacities to deal with their problems. He/she believes others are basically able to find adequate solutions to events in their own lives. UNABLE The educator sees others as lacking the necessary capacities to deal effectively with their problems. He/she doubts their ability to make their own decisions and run their own lives. PERCEPTIONS OF Others as “Able”

22. HRI #2 - Today on the playground, John, one of my children, broke his glasses. This was not my day for playground‑duty so I did not see what happened. Three conflicting reports were told to me. The children were running after the ball, John was sitting on the ground with his glasses beside him and Henry stepped on them. This was the first report. The second report was that Henry had hit John and broken the glasses. The third report was that John had become angry and had hit Henry over the head, breaking the glasses. The boys were very boisterous. I asked the boys to take their seats ‑ all except John. John was in tears and would not talk. I suggested that he take his seat and come talk with me when he felt like it. Some time later John came to my desk and said "I'm ready to tell you. I got mad at Henry for getting the ball and hit him. I had my glasses in my hand and they got broken." I smiled at him, thanked him and asked him to tell his mother. I believe this was the way I should have handled the situation.

23. The Dispositions Interview • Begin the interview with usual questions • Treat answers as self-reported information • Get beyond rehearsed remarks and engaged in conversation on topics that interest them • Use reflective listening • Allow candidates to ask questions • There are no absolute right or wrong answers • People always tell “their truth”

24. Dispositions About Self • Describe your “perfect day?” • What kind of problems do people bring you?

25. Dispositions Toward Others • How would your colleagues describe you? • Tell about a situation in which you helped a person or taught a significant lesson.

26. Dispositions Regarding Purpose • If your life works out the best you can imagine, what will you be doing in 5 years? • How do you maintain a balance in your life between work and play?

28. 100% Rule • All parties should agree the person is a fit and has great potential for raising the level of the learning, growth and development of students.

29. Resource • Six Secrets of Change (2010) by Michael Fullan • Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success (1996) by Freiberg and Freiberg • Firms of Endearment (2007) by Sisodia, Wolfe, & Sheth

30. Hiring Gruntled Teachers More information on teacher dispositions can be found at the website of The National Network for the Study of Educator Dispositions. www.teacherdispositions.org Or contact: M. Mark Wasicsko, Ph.D. Dean and Bank of Kentucky Endowed Chair College of Education and Human Services Northern Kentucky University wasicskom1@nku.edu The National Network for the Study of Educator Dispositions