Leading Our Own Learning

What happens when we commit to learning experiences that stretch our thinking beyond the content areas we teach? Join Molly and special guest Sean Covey, as they dig into the impact of investing in our own leadership development. 

Transcript

09.19.23 Taking Time to Learn (Secondary) S1 E1 

Molly: [00:00:00] (1) From Leader Me Studios, I'm Molly Garcia. Welcome everyone to The Empowering Teacher Podcast for secondary. Today we're going to spend some time with Sean Covey, President of FranklinCovey Education, but before he joins us, I'm really excited because Dr. Eve is here with me. She will be joining us on our podcast adventure this season. 

Eve: Hi, Molly. So good to be here.

Molly: We are talking practical and tactical strategies that we can implement immediately in the classroom, and you are going to be addressing the research that supports the learning to help us go deeper into its effectiveness. And this, Eve, has got me wondering.

Molly: What would happen if we disregarded everything that we've told our students about being lifelong learners, that we learn powerfully by engaging in those new learning opportunities. That critical piece around embracing productive struggle, and of course applying new learning and sharing it with others.

Molly: I mean, what if we tried to teach them with words but not [00:01:00] with our actions? That doesn't feel right because students' growth and learning starts with us. So let's invite the power of research into our conversation, Eve. Talk to us about the importance of self-development and why it's important for us to model to students that we invest in our own learning.

Eve: Molly, I love this question and I love this idea of, of thinking about how just modeling can share this important concept. It made me think of a recent study that came out, and it was looking at the impact of distance learning on teachers during the COVID-19 school closures, and I doubt you'll be surprised by what they found.

Eve: Teachers reported record high levels of emotional exhaustion. Yeah, and they also found, and this was unexpected, a small group of teachers that they looked at fared far better, showing little or no sign of emotional exhaustion. So, intrigued by this, the researchers [00:02:00] dug deeper into the data to understand what was different about these teachers. So, what do you think?

Molly: So, I would guess they had probably more online experience, or my brain goes to maybe perhaps they worked in schools with more resources or supports.

Eve: Right yeah. I was thinking that, too, as I was reading it, but they accounted for all of those things and what they found actually was that those were not significant, and what was significant between the emotionally exhausted teachers and those who were not was self-efficacy. 

Molly: Okay. Say more. Say more about self efficacy.

Eve: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. So, like what does that mean? So the teachers who believed they could do something difficult—that's self-efficacy, right?—were more likely to view the shift to distance learning as an opportunity to learn. While the teachers who reported low levels of self-efficacy [00:03:00] saw the shift as a threat, and it was those teachers who saw it as a threat, who were more emotionally exhausted. And the ones who didn't feel emotionally exhausted, they were the ones who approached this as an opportunity to learn.

Molly: And this is exactly what we want for students, right?

Eve: Right, right, exactly. That they develop a sense of “I can do hard things and we can do hard things,” right? So, as educators, we can take students on our learning journey by modeling to them our own process of self-development and taking on those hard things.

Molly: This is so powerful, Eve. I love it. Thank you so much for this background. Now, let's explore this Inside-Out Approach with Sean Covey. 

Molly: Sean, welcome to The Empowering Teacher Podcast for secondary.

Sean: Thank you, Molly. So good to be with you.

Molly: We have so much appreciation for you and so grateful for our time together on the [00:04:00] podcast. I would love for us to start with your experience. You've worked with leaders in secondary schools and your work with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens has really opened up many opportunities for you to experience the power of this work.

Molly: So, what do you notice in teachers who commit to their own learning and growing?

Sean: The first thing that comes to mind is the power of sharpening the saw. 

Sean: I think the, the idea of sharpening the saw is so important that you're constantly learning and growing. Two scientific terms that come to mind. One is entropy. Entropy is, things disintegrate unless you are constantly sharpening the saw. Over time, your body doesn't feel as good. Your mind, your spirit, everything about you can, can decay unless you're constantly trying to improve and fighting entropy, which happens to us all. For teachers, I think the half-life of knowledge today is decreasing all the time. Your facts and information disintegrate fast because things are changing so fast. [00:05:00] 

Sean: And so often people will learn a lot during school. They get their degree or degrees right, and then their learning curve slows way down, right? It's kind of like, “Hey, I got my learning.” Well, with the changes today, you’ve got to be constantly learning and growing and developing. So, I just, I feel like, for teachers it's just essential that you're constantly up on your game going to conferences, listening to podcasts, reading books, listening to books, and staying current.

Molly: Yeah, I love that you brought up this idea of this continual process because that really lends itself to our next question, which is, what are some of those daily practices that teachers can adopt so that they weave that ongoing learning throughout the year? Not that one time when I was going through my college courses or took a workshop in August.

Molly: So, what could those daily practices be? And then Sean, with your wisdom, if you could just share with us what could be some rookie mistakes that we can fall into.

Sean: Yeah. Well, I think the, biggest rookie [00:06:00] mistake is just, uh, thinking that getting the degree is the end of your learning. I've got it. And I can really slow down now because, hey, look at my big degree that I've got. Right?

Molly: Yeah.

Sean: I think getting on a, some type of, regimen of what you're going to do on a regular basis. You know, I have to do that and I have to fight for time. And so I have certain things that I read, I have a daily newsfeed that I read. I spend a half hour on it every day. That's how I keep up. I have a few magazines that I read. I try to do conferences a couple of times a year, but unless I have what I call my Daily Private Victory, I don't get it done.

Sean: And so for me, the Daily Private Victory is, it's exercise and it's planning and it's reading

Molly: Mm-hmm.

Sean: And so I feel like, coming up with your own ways of keeping current and staying on top of things, I think is just really important.

Sean: And it's, I like the word “daily” that you mentioned in your question because I think it can't be something, the [00:07:00] rookie mistake is just thinking you'd do it, you know, once a week, once a year, or you know, the degree or whatever. It's got to be constant.

Molly: Mm-hmm. And I love that you say you’ve got to fight for the time, right? You've got to protect that time. Embrace the, the power of that Daily Private Victory really comes through. So when teachers, Sean, engage in leadership development beyond just the content that they're teaching, what results should they expect?

Sean: I think learning outside of your area of expertise, your domain, is really good and healthy. You should do some of both, right? Some of it should be within your own field, but oftentimes we can, we learn the most, and it can have new insights into the things we're doing constantly, right, our, our own field by going outside our field and learning new things.

Sean: For example, one of the best things my dad did to me was, he said, “Sean, what do you want to go into?” I said, “I want to go into business. I want to get an MBA.” [00:08:00] And he said, “Okay, so please do not get your undergraduate in business. Do something totally different.” And so I, I went into English. I had a great experience, and then I went into business later and got an MBA after I got my English degree.

Sean: And it was really healthy. It's helped me so much in business, to know about Shakespeare and to know about sonnets and iambic pentameter and writing and being able to think really well, for my English degree background. So I just, I just feel like it's so good to get learning outside of your area of expertise.

Sean: I think leadership development in particular applies to so many things, right?

Molly: Mm-hmm.

Sean: Because you're learning about how to work well with other people. And as a teacher, no matter what area you're in, your leadership development, relationship building- is so important, right? With your students,

Molly: Mm-hmm.

Sean: with your colleagues.

Sean: That's part of your teaching, [00:09:00] is just how well you get along with all the people you interact with. And I think leadership development helps us stand apart from ourselves, use our self-awareness, use our imagination. use our conscience, figure out what we can do to best contribute, and then we go back into our realm where we spend every day and hour and we, we see the world differently.

Molly: Sean, the word that popped up in my mind was amplify. The idea of leadership development amplifies the content that we get to bring to our students, and when those are coupled together, it fosters that relationship that we know is really the foundation to any content area that we're going to teach.

Sean: Yeah, I think that's well said.

Molly: Well, Sean, thank you for bringing to light what happens when we choose to be students of leadership ourselves. And of course, a big thank you to our listeners. Remember, you matter. You make a difference, and you've got this.