Tag: educator

Leaders Flush!

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Leadership lessons for the classroom or staff development

This blog is a follow-up resource for my Empowering Educator and Student Leadership presentation at the PA Department of Education SAS INSTITUTE state conference on December 9, 2025 and provides a “fill-in-the-gap” narrative about many of the concepts we have already presented at this blog site:

Growing Student Leaders
Leadership Lessons

If you would like to review my PDF slide summary from the SAS INSTITUTE, click here.

Did the main title (above) get your attention? What on earth could “leaders flush” have to do with this topic? In teaching (and modeling) leadership skills to my students, we discuss what it means to Faire sans Dire or “do without saying,” the English translation to this crest:

Heraldry coat of arms emblem: Earl of Ilchester

In other words, if you see something that needs to be done (flush the toilet?), don’t assume it’s someone else’s job. A true leader embraces the philosophy Carpe Diem (“seize the day”), identifies the problem and its solution, rolls up his/her sleeve, and “gets it done!”

Why teach leadership in the curriculum & extracurricular activities?

“Leadership is an essential skill that extends beyond the classroom, shaping how students engage with the world around them. Whether leading a group project, organizing an event, or voicing their opinions in discussions, leadership skills empower students to take initiative and make meaningful contributions. These abilities are not only beneficial during school years but also serve as the foundation for lifelong personal and professional success.”
— Bloomster

In the past, I have used a multitude of opportunities and settings to teach these life skills in summer leadership camps, section leader and student conductor seminars, drum major and marching band captain auditions, student director, producer, and musical crew head staff meetings, and for 25+ years, preparing student counselors for a comprehensive, six-day, grades 8-12 Township String Camp program.

To sum it up, teaching leadership in Grades K-12 and college settings will:

  • Develop communication skills
  • Build confidence & self-awareness
  • Enhance problem-solving abilities
  • Encourage teamwork & collaboration
  • Shape future success

Why teach leadership to educators?

My December session at SAS Institute was geared to school/system leaders, department heads, and other administrators, but actually the focus on leadership as a skill set necessary for school/staff/individual professional improvement is essential for all educators and school support staff.

From district administrators and school principals to instructional coaches and curriculum coordinators, leaders in education have a direct impact on the learning outcomes of all students. According to UNESCO, educational leadership is considered one of the most influential factors on student outcomes, falling just behind engaging teaching. As a result, leadership training for educators has become an essential part of the professional development experience for teachers at all levels of education.
— “Building Leadership Skills – From Classroom Teacher to Educational Leader”

School improvement rarely occurs without effective leadership, and school leadership is only second to classroom teaching in its influence on student achievement. A new evidence review report from Global School Leaders paints a complex and ever-changing picture of school leaders, with their roles, responsibilities, and impact varying around the world.
— 3 Reasons Why School Leadership Is Vital to Teacher Success”

The literature suggests that empowering educators with leadership training will:

  • Improve student achievement
  • Empower and retain teachers
  • Support new staff members
  • Drive innovation and adaptability
  • Bridge the gap between instruction and administration
  • Build/model a positive attitude
  • Enhance strategic thinking and decision-making
  • Promote a positive and collaborative school climate
  • Develop soft skills such as communication, conflict resolution, and building trust… both in and outside the classroom

Leadership assessments

“A leadership skills assessment is a formal evaluation used to identify and measure a person’s leadership potential and competencies, such as communication, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. These assessments can be used by organizations to evaluate current leaders, identify high-potential candidates for promotions, and inform hiring decisions. Common methods include personality tests, scenario-based assessments, and 360-degree feedback, with tools like CliftonStrengths, Hogan Assessments, and DISC being popular examples.” 
— “Leadership Assessment Test – A Complete Guide 2025”

There is a large body of information out there, especially commercial resources, for evaluating the leadership quotient and achievement of corporate managers, CEOs, CFOs, etc. I was impressed with the scope and depth of the research, including these sample firms advertising the availability of third-party consultants and advisors.

One night I randomly scanned through a handful of YouTube reels of company fraud and mismanagement (e.g., “Revenge of the Coffee Pot,” “Revenge with Karen,” and “Silent Revenge”), painting (fictitious) stories of bosses stealing intellectual property or assuming credit for the innovations/achievements of their subordinates, patent infringement, nepotism or incompetent hirings… all with arrogance, lack of professionalism, the total disregard of employee morale, and blatant patterns of poor executive decision-making, communication, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and the ability to influence and guide a team. “Emotional intelligence” (as defined above by Daniel Goleman in What Makes a Leader? also attributed to the United Nations Staff College) should include the “best practices” of self-awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Added to these YouTube (fake) scripted deficiencies are the mitigating effects of corporate politics, inconsistent application of compliance or HR policies, unclear contract language, and problems in the chain of command… with the eventual result of the boss receiving a fall from grace, termination, and other legal consequences. Most of these episodes imply only the Board of Directors evaluates the top executives (like school superintendents?), and even with the inclusion of employee satisfaction surveys, staff retention data, third-party auditors, and whistle-blower protections in some instances, the catastrophic actions of these leaders nearly destroy the businesses. For these videos, it seems that leadership assessments and goals are never ongoing, the benchmarks are seldom reviewed, and nothing is PROACTIVE… and therefore not preventive. Therefore, for the school district and corporate worlds alike, we need to intentionally provide formative assessments of our leaders (and ourselves). Exactly what do we need to know and do to improve?

In my blog Growing Student Leaders and the SAS Institute 2025 presentation, I offered the above image as an informal personal checklist to evaluate leadership traits. Coincidentally, while I was writing this article, a scholarship committee of the Community Foundation of Upper St. Clair (for which I serve as Communications Director and Arts Chair) was developing an assessment rubric for ranking applications of a new student leadership scholarship. Although still under development, here are a few of the categories being considered:

  • Communication: Includes listening skills, clarity in speaking, and the ability to make others feel heard.
  • Integrity: Acting ethically, being trustworthy, and aligning actions with words.
  • Accountability: Taking ownership of actions and commitments.
  • Collaboration: Working effectively with others, valuing different perspectives, and resolving conflicts.
  • Self-awareness: Understanding one’s own strengths, weaknesses, and biases.
  • Drive/Initiative: A bias for action and the ability to move projects forward.
  • Courage: The bravery to speak truthfully, admit shortcomings, and make difficult decisions.
  • Humility: Recognizing the contributions of others and remaining a lifelong learner.

The University of Massachusetts Lowell developed the above rubric for their River Hawk Experience Distinction Leadership Program, defining specific criteria with a clear description of what each trait should look like at different performance levels, in order to provide a standardized way of measuring and assessing leadership skills

In addition, the National Education Association has created the above NEA Leadership Competency Guide worth downloading.

My favorite inspirational speaker Simon Sinek has also weighed in on this topic of “What Makes a Great Leader?” refining/simplifying it to just three traits:

  • Courage
  • Integrity
  • Communication

Additional resources

If you are an educator looking for supplemental material on developing leadership skills in your students, besides these SAS INSTITUTE 2025 slides (of which the original PowerPoint file is available to download for free in order to adapt for your classroom – please email me), I recommend perusing the full-blown “Building Leaders for Life” (second edition) curriculum (94 lessons in five subject areas, 355 pages of lesson materials, 137 student handouts) created by the Association of Washington Student Leaders (a division of the Washington School Principals’ Education Foundation). Click here to view their website. They also have a middle school and elementary series!

If you attend my SAS INSTITUTE workshop on December 9, 2025 (starting at 9:40 a.m. in Magnolia C, Hershey Lodge & Convention Center), ask me to see sample materials from their high school course of study.

Finally, here is the “homework for future leaders” I provided at the SAS INSTITUTE and during a 2024 summer camp at Upper St. Clair High School, providing additional links to many inspiring minds. Enjoy!

Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge. — Simon Sinek

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. — John C. Maxwell

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one who gets people to do the greatest things. — Ronald Reagan

What you do has far greater impact than what you say. — Stephen Covey

PKF

© 2025 Paul K. Fox

Admins Helping Teachers

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This is an introductory blog-post perusing my early research and resources on supporting educator health/wellness in advance to my presentation Self-Care Cookbook 2.0 – Recipes and Resources for School Leaders for the PA Department of Education’s SAS Institute 2025 state conference scheduled for December 8-10, 2025 in Hershey, PA. Here is the summary description for the workshop:

“Do you find the harried pace of our profession overwhelming and at times crushing when buried beneath decades of keeping our noses to the grindstone and putting everyone else’s needs above our own? Do some of your staff members say they are stressed out, constantly tired, plagued by one ailment after another, or wondering how they’re going to “keep up?” If health is interfering with your colleagues’ abilities to do their jobs and find success, balance, and meaning in their lives, then it is time for change. The purpose of this session is to empower school leaders and teachers with skills and attitudes needed to make informed decisions to promote self-improvements in their lifelong health and wellbeing, to LEARN tools for better time management and to help remediate fatigue, stress and burnout, CONNECT and collaborate with your staff to inspire unique strategies for better personal self-care, and ACTIVATE creative new approaches to foster an improved workplace environment.”

Actually, previous articles at this site have dived into this subject of educator stress, burnout, and the development of a health and wellness self-care plan to build resilience, work/life balance, and reignite our motivation and passion for teaching. For a complete overview, I recommend you revisit these:

Always start with “THE WHY”

(Inspired by keynote speaker/author Simon Sinek): Why is this discussion so important now?

When I mentioned my research to my colleague (and former student) Dr. Timothy Wagner, Principal, Upper St. Clair High School (my former placement for full-time employment), he mentioned that this topic was timely and highly relevant, and suggested that perhaps there might be more statistics and resources “out there” on the stress of health-care workers and first-responders, which I found to be true. However, early looks have shown numerous parallels to the information in my 2023 Self-Care session.

My PDE SAS Institute session will become a “two-for-one” presentation, including the opportunity for school/system leaders, building administrators, and directors of school district professional development to also download my original “Self-Care Cookbook” (1.0) slides, recently updated for the DCMEA Annual State Conference (January 20, 2026). This self-help workshop is geared for educators to “on-their-own” explore strategies, implement use of individualized tools/remedies, and formulate new goals to improve health and wellness. Both sessions hope to cover these key questions:

  • Why is it essential to personal health to achieve balance in our lives, and how can we achieve it?
  • How does dedication to wellness lower the risk of illness, injury, and the quality of a person’s life?
  • What are the consequences of our choices in terms of time and stress management?
  • How do effective decision-making skills and goal setting influence healthier lifestyle choices?
  • What are suggestions, strategies, and samples for the development of a personal self-care plan?

Using a facsimile of a prescription pad in Self-Care 1.0, I posed these personal reflections:

  1. How do I usually feel daily throughout the school year?
  2. What are the emotional and physical tolls of my job?
  3. What specific self-care activities do I need to incorporate to recharge and prevent burnout? 
  4. What boundaries do I need to set around my work to honor personal time?
  5. What support systems can I build and/or professional help should I seek to create a sustainable practice?

Good ideas…

How can school admins support their staff in dealing with the climbing incidences of health problems, teacher exhaustion, call-offs, evidence of burnout, and high turnover rate? Sorting through a compendium of online research, these recommendations for school leaders occur repeatedly:

  1. Probably should go without saying: Show high visibility (“be seen by all”), recognition, and know everybody’s name. This goes a long way in building a sense of belonging of the staff and students.
  2. Provide more time for breaks and planning. Engage teachers in problem solving teams to identify and implement substantive ways to give them more time. Examples: cutting back on testing and data analysis; holding fewer and shorter meetings; putting a hold on new academic initiatives while increasing mental health initiatives conducted by school-based mental health professionals; hiring individuals who can assist with administrative tasks; compensating teachers for extra work; protecting classroom time by minimizing interruptions; reducing teaching hours to allow for more prep time and follow-up time.
  3. Foster a supportive community through mentorship programs.
  4. Distill high-impact strategies into a handful of manageable priorities. Once the goals are set, give teachers specific time within the school day or week to focus solely on them.
  5. Communicate directly, clearly, and frequently. “Supportive administrators know that a teacher’s time is valuable and that administrative meetings compete with individualized education programs, data teams, professional learning committees, cross-curricular planning meetings, and much more. So if a meeting is only for sharing straightforward information, it can be an email instead. It’s not necessary to have a meeting simply because the schedule says that faculty meetings are in the cafeteria on Mondays.” – Edutopia: “4 Practical Ways Administrators Support Teachers”
  6. Treat teachers with respect like the professionals they are, increasing mutual trust by decreasing micromanagement or reducing unnecessary accountability documentation.
  7. Shadow multiple teachers to experience first-hand the reality of their typical day.
  8. Allow educators the option to attend meetings and professional development activities virtually.
  9. Involve teachers in the creation of targeted professional development activities that are the most meaningful for them.
  10. Ask teachers about what specific help they need to improve classroom management.
  11. Develop a plan (with the Board of Education?) to increase teacher compensation over time, taking into account that many administrative and clerical tasks that are now required of teachers might ultimately be delegated to less highly compensated individuals.
  12. Address staff performance issues on an individual basis rather than issuing global reprimands that don’t apply to most teachers.
  13. Implement policies that encourage work-life balance. For example, recognize measurable indications of quality teaching rather than behaviors that signal a “more is better” approach (always coming in early and staying late, volunteering for everything, talking about working all weekend to catch up, etc.).
  14. Support educators by acknowledging stress, providing professional development on self-care, and creating a culture where asking for help is normalized.
  15. Ask teachers what mental health or other supports they need to cope with their own distress. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of introducing trauma-informed strategies, including an emphasis on compassion fatigue and secondary trauma, as well as mindfulness strategies that are part of institutionalized wellness routines.
  16. Provide “safe spaces” (SEL) where educators can express themselves without fear of being judged, and practice “Mindful Leadership” to connect with and listen to them. “Getting to know your teachers on a more personal level makes it easier to identify the best thing you can do to support them, even if teachers aren’t sure what they need. The goal should be making sure everyone made it to work okay and that they’re in good spirits and ready to tackle the day.” – 7 MINDSETS: “5 Ways Administrators Can Support SEL for Teachers”
  17. Counteract “toxic positivity” by acknowledging that teachers are hurting and need space to grieve the continued losses associated with the pandemic.

Bad ideas…

These strategies cited by Effective School Solutions will NOT help teachers in the long-term:

  1. While “wear your jeans to work” days and offering coffee and donuts occasionally are nice employee appreciation efforts, they do nothing to address the underlying issues.
  2. Offering one-shot seminars or newsletters with suggestions about individual self-care activities (breathing exercises, physical exercise, time for self, etc.) can inadvertently place further burdens on teachers, conveying the impression that they are responsible for both creating and addressing the stress that is structural in nature.
  3. Don’t conduct teacher surveys or focus groups about how to reduce teacher stress and then proceed to ignore their suggestions about what would make things better.
  4. Don’t assume that short bursts of extra time (e.g., ending a meeting early to give teachers more time) is useful. Small, unexpected pieces of free time do not help teachers catch up with work that requires concentration and focus.
  5. Don’t avoid difficult conversations to address the performance problems of individual teachers by making blanket statements/warnings to all teachers, most of whom are not engaging in the problem behavior.

“Be careful not to adopt a stance of “Toxic Positivity,” that is, a stance that accentuates the positive (“we are all in this together,” “we are strong,” “it could be worse,” “look on the bright side”) while invalidating the very real pain that everyone is experiencing. Denying or ignoring unpleasant emotions tends to make them worse, not better.
– Effective School Solutions

Free Downloads

I am putting on the final touches to the SAS INSTITUTE 2025 Self-Care Cookbook 2.0 session, but have already assembled a huge bibliography of resources for your review (see below). For a “sneak preview” of my slide summary, click here. Future updates will be posted here: https://paulfox.blog/care/.

Better yet, register for the SAS Institute 2025 to see everything in person.

Sample Books

  • 180 Days of Self-Care for Busy Educators by Tina H. Boogren, Solution Tree Press (2020)
  • Awakened – Change Your Mindset to Transform Your Teaching by Angela Watson, Due Season Press & Educational Services (2023)
  • The Balanced Band Director – Productivity and Wellness Tips to Amplify Your Impact, Not Your Workload by Lesley Moffat, Morgan James Publishing (2025)
  • Demoralized – Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay by Doris Santoro, Harvard Education Press (2018)
  • Exhausted – Why Teachers Are So Tired and What They Can Do About It by Paul Murphy, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2017)
  • Fewer Things, Better by Angela Watson (2019)
  • The Happy Teacher Habits by Michael Linsin, JME Publishing (2016)
  • Love the Job, Lose the Stress: Successful Social and Emotional Learning in the Modern Music Classroom by Lesley Moffat (2022)
  • Positive Mindset Habits for Teachers by Grace Stevens, Red Lotus 2018
  • Rekindle Your Professional Fire – Powerful Habits for Becoming a More Well-Balanced Teacher by Mike Anderson, ASCD (2024)
  • The Teacher’s Guide to Self-Care – Build Resilience, Avoid Burnout, and Bring a Happier and Healthier You to the Classroom by Sarah Forst, The Designer Teacher (2020)
  • The Teacher’s Guide to Self-Care – The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Thriving Through the School Year by Melanie J. Pellowski, Skyhorse Publishing (2020)
  • Upbeat – Mindset, Mindfulness, and Leadership in Music Education and Beyond by Matthew Arau (GIA Publications (2022)
  • The Weekend Effect: The Life-Changing Benefits of Taking Time Off and Challenging the Cult of Overwork by Katrina Onstad, HarperOne (2024)

Sample Websites

PKF

© 2025 Paul K. Fox

Social Media – Revisited

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Before you begin reading this article, please take a moment and peruse these past blog posts:

Although several of the cited research links may have expired (for example, PA Department of Education modified most of their website’s URLs), these provided the foundations of background information and references for the presentation I prepared for the DCMEA Virtual Conference in 2020 (during COVID) and serve as the starting point for the workshop I will share in-person at the DCMEA Winter Conference in January 2026. This blog provides updates and additional perspectives. Taken in combination with the above sources, you will be able to identify the benefits, positive models, precautions, and dangers of social media, social networks, professional learning networks, and sample emerging technologies as they apply to teachers’ professional development and education of students.

“THE WHY”

Before every clinic or publication I develop, I always try to spotlight the theme of “THE WHY” as preached by one of my favorite authors and motivational speakers – Simon Sinek! According to him, for organizations and individuals alike, “THE WHY” (rationale and priority) is more important than “THE WHAT” and “THE HOW.” (See this video.)

WHY is a collaborative discussion on social media essential? Why now?

 ”There’s a growing body of evidence suggesting that educators are facing increasing scrutiny regarding their social media use. Concerns include unprofessional conduct, inappropriate interactions with students, and the potential for cyberbullying and other negative impacts on student well-being.”

“Educators are increasingly concerned about how social media influences students’ social-emotional development and their interactions with others.” 
— NEA Member Polling on Social Media…
— NEA Impact on Social Media and Personal Devices on Mental Health
— HHS Youth Mental Health and Social Media

Frankly, there is still a lot of confusion about the dangers of social media, social networking, and other technology integrations into education. In Social Media – Boon or Nemesis, we mentioned that teachers should “debunk the free speech myth.” We demonstrated how the improper application of social media could get educators in trouble. Check out these sites for more info and corroborative stats:
— Teacher Student Misconduct and the Critical Role of Social Media Screening
— NCBA Social Media for School Employees
— Social Media Hazards and Tips for Teachers

As always, our goal is to promote ethical practices in maintaining professionalism in the digital world.

“THE WHAT” — Review of Definitions

“Social Media”

Social media are “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.”
— Oxford Lexico.com online dictionary

“Social Network”

A social network is, 1. a network of social interactions and personal relationships.; 2. a dedicated website or other application which enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, images, etc.
— Oxford Lexico.com online dictionary

“Professional Learning Community” (PLC)

A PLC is “a group of educators who meet regularly…” (usually in-person) “…to strategically enhance their teaching skills and improve student outcomes.”

versus “Professional Learning Network” (PLN)

A PLN is “a group of educators who gather more informally…” (usually in online communications) “…to problem-solve and generate ideas to enhance classroom practices. A PLN… often takes the form of an open forum, where participants can ask and answer questions based on their experiences.”
— https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2024/08/pln-vs-plc-perfcon

“THE HOW” — Ethos of Care

Teachers use social media to…

  • Get inspired with new teaching ideas
  • Find resources for the classroom
  • Connect with other educators
  • Stay on top of trends and news
  • participate in an online community
  • Find teacher discounts and deals
  • Follow education companies and organizations

— How Teachers Use Social Media
— Teachers Social Media Use

— Social Networks for Teachers

We acknowledge that the benefits of social networking for educators are numerous by promoting professional collaboration and connections, including:

  1. Acquiring information to enhance understanding
  2. Keeping informed about latest developments in education
  3. Enhancing communications with students, parents, and the school community
  4. Fostering connections with colleagues in the field to expand an educator’s professional network.

— Benefits of Social Media as an Educator

However, educators must exercise “sound judgment” and proper professional boundaries when using social media/networks with students. While the introduction of new technology provides many opportunities for teaching and learning, it is important to establish clear rules for appropriate student-teacher communication. In order to promote safety and appropriate boundaries while transitioning to a virtual teaching and learning environment, the Pennsylvania Professional Standards and Practices Commission offers suggestions to help educators protect themselves and their students.

  1. All technological resources and applications should be school entity-approved and only used in the manner prescribed. Ensure that you are familiar with the tools you are using in order to use them properly. 
  2. Communication with students should occur at designated times, consistent with traditional school day hours. Maintain transparency and protect yourself by keeping a record of all communications with students. 
  3. Clearly communicate when and how students should contact you and provide a timeframe for when students should expect responses to questions. 
  4. Avoid one-to-one interactions with students in chatrooms, FaceTime, Skype, or any other online space. School psychologists, school counselors and others providing one-to-one services to students should consult with school administration about the best mode of communication. 
  5. Use approved forms of communication by your school entity to connect with students and parents (i.e. Remind), use only your school email to communicate, and copy administration when communicating with parents or students. 
  6. When creating content or interacting in an online space with students, conduct yourself as you would if you were in school. If appearing on camera, dress professionally and be mindful of your surroundings and the camera’s view. 
  7. Do not “friend” or follow students on social media and do not allow students to “friend” or follow you on your personal social media. Remember, you do not have a “social” relationship with your students. 
  8. Keep your personal and professional lives separate. Do not share overly personal information about yourself with students.

— PSPC Digital Tips for Educators

While exercising responsibility to maintain a respectful, safe, online environment, there are many benefits for the application of social media for students in the classroom:

  • Real-time communications can increase student engagement, collaboration, communication and overall participation
  • Many students may find it easier to participate in online discussions that in the classroom
  • Students can easily ask each other or their teacher questions about assignments outside of class
  • Students & teachers can quickly share resources at any time.
  • Teachers can easily share class announcements.
  • Social media can provide a contingency plan for last minute remote learning scenarios.
  • Students can organize school events with each other or with the help of a teacher.
  • Teachers can augment an online-only class by establishing a social media page or account simply for building community.
  • Students can practice using social platforms responsibly, including maintaining a respectful online discourse.
  • Teachers can communicate directly with parents as needed, and parents can stay informed of school news via a convenient, easily accessible platform.

However, please watch out for these potential drawbacks:

  • Social media can be a major distraction, especially if students are accessing their personal accounts independently.
  • If students primarily use social platforms to participate in class discussions, they can miss out on practicing face-to-face conversations and respectful in-person discourse.
  • Some students may see social media assignments as an opportunity to cyberbully their classmates, and there is always a risk of someone posting inappropriate content or language.

— Social Media in Education

“THE WHAT” — Several Success Stories

Balancing the positives and negatives and taking into account all of these precautions in order to maintaining professional boundaries, the integration of new technology into the classroom may offer excellent enrichment and increase student motivation for advanced learning. This may take many forms. Here are a few interesting models.

Prior to preparing for the DCMEA online session in 2020, I stumbled upon a truly inspiring post from Derek Muller, a gifted teacher, physicist, filmmaker, and founder of the YouTube channel Vertiasium which has captured millions of subscribers. He offers one of the BEST models of using social media to enrich the understanding of learning math and science (applicable to all fields of study), while at the same time, provides warnings against unbridled use of so-called “innovation for innovation’s sake.”

“I feel like people over the years are invariably drawn to use these words:  revolutionize and education. And there’s this sort of amnesia that we’ve had a hundred years’ worth of these predictions, worth of really groundbreaking technologies that have transformed other areas in our lives but have failed to fundamentally change the way we do education. So, I stand here today as a voice of caution, to think that the future of education is not one of revolutions…”

You need to watch this: How is Social Media Transforming the Future of Education? (2016)
— Derek Muller

Say what you want about how COVID significantly disrupted our educational programs, evidence of learning loss, problems in socio-emotional development, decline of student engagement and self-motivation, rise in mental health struggles, decreased instructional time, and the effects of a new digital divide of under-served students (Annie E. Casey Foundation), happily there were surprisingly a few positive advancements — the results of exploring new tools and methodologies we had to employ to tread water and cope with the catastrophe. (“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!”)

As one example, in the middle of preparing music for my community orchestra, we were shut down in 2020. No in-person rehearsals at the school. I then pivoted to creating my own online platform called SHJOOLA (South Hills Junior Orchestra Online Academy) in 2021 using MusicFirst. For a nominal yearly subscription fee, I was able to continue my Saturday morning classes (synchronous) as well as asynchronous (on-their-own time) learning using excellent applications in a virtual environment: MusicFirst Classroom, Focus on Sound, PracticeFirst, Sight-Reading Factory, Musition, Auralia, a web-based music notation program, and a huge library of method books and ensemble music. Several past blogs showed how we rolled out SHJOOLA:

The latter link above also provided a comprehensive list of supplementary resources (at the time) for online music education. Please peruse these even though some of them may have now gone inactive. We will provide supplemental links at the bottom of this article.

Another direction accented by the onslaught of the pandemic was digital streaming performances, incorporating technology in both the solo and ensemble settings. The following are two of my favorite examples of these to be viewed on YouTube:

Circle of Life from Disney’s Lion King (2015-18) by Sam Robson, arranger, innovator and performer using multitrack recording of a single performer mixing as many as 50 voices at one time.

Cloudburst, a Virtual & Live Choir and TEDTALK (2013) by Eric Whitacre

Well… sorry this blog has grown to be so large! If you admit to understanding the potential hazards of and precautions for integrating social media, social networks and other technologies into education, we’ll close with the following bibliography of additional resources for further study. If that is not enough to whet your curiosity, stop back in several months to download a copy of my slide summary for the session I will present at the DCMEA Winter Conference on January 30, 2026.

Be careful — stay safe and professional — but ENJOY!

Sample Blogs

Several Major Platforms

Examples of Music Applications/Websites

PKF

© 2025 Paul K. Fox

Teachers – Take Charge of Your Wellness

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The Five C’s of Self-Care

What profession has the highest rates of stress and burnout?

The answer is… educators of grades K to 12. NO FOOLIN’ ⏤ yes, even though today is April Fool’s Day!

The Crisis

Citing a 2022 Gallup Poll at Purdue Global’s website here, “K-12 teachers are the most burned out profession in the U.S.” They go on to say:

In fact, teachers have higher-than-average stress levels compared to other client-facing professionals. This kind of stress can lead to physical and mental health concerns for teachers and negatively affect students’ well-being and achievement.

“Being an educator requires so much of us,” says Carol Laman, faculty member at Purdue Global. “It is emotionally, physically, and mentally demanding.”

Self-care practices can help. According to the National Comprehensive Center, self-care can aid educators in both improving their overall wellness and being more effective for their students. ⏤ https://www.purdueglobal.edu/blog/education/self-care-for-educators-guide/

According to the National Education Association, we have a MAJOR problem!

A study by the advocacy group, Alliance for Excellent Education, reports that 40-50% of new teachers leave within their first five years on the job. Many factors contribute to the high dropout rate, a severe lack of work-life balance and the inevitable high stress levels teachers feel on the job, to name a few. Because of this, self-care is extremely important for teachers. However, it’s hard for teachers to take care of themselves when their career is taking care of students. ⏤ https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-tips/importance-self-care-teacher

This statistics are overwhelming, as documented in the Teacher Wellbeing Survey by Panorama Education.

Teacher wellness has a significant impact on school climate and student learning. Yet teacher stress and burnout continue to present retention and turnover challenges in districts: 85 percent of teachers have reported that work-life imbalance affects their ability to teach. More than one in five new teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching—and this attrition is substantially worse in high-poverty schools. ⏤ https://www.panoramaed.com/products/surveys/teacher-well-being-survey

The Concern – What is “Self-Care?”

The online Oxford dictionary defines “self-care” as “the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health,” or “the practice of taking an active role in protecting one’s own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress.”

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provides even more clarification:

Self-care means taking the time to do things that help you live well and improve both your physical health and mental health. This can help you manage stress, lower your risk of illness, and increase your energy. Even small acts of self-care in your daily life can have a big impact.
⏤ https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/caring-for-your-mental-health.

The National Wellness Institute (NWI) further defines wellness as a “conscious, self-directed, and evolving process of achieving one’s full potential… [It] is positive, affirming, and contributes to living a long and healthy life.” NWI addresses six dimensions of wellness, the combination of which “enables us to thrive amidst [life’s] challenges.”

  • Emotional
  • Physical
  • Intellectual
  • Occupational
  • Spiritual
  • Social

In our profession, the defining concerns also involve other major “C’s” within the school workplace – climate and culture – and that “actions speak louder than words!” Edutopia dove into this topic in their blog, “Leaders Must Address Teacher Well-Being With Action, Not Just Self-Care Talk” here.

By listening to educators and building supports that reflect their genuine needs and concerns, these leaders are shifting school cultures in ways that go beyond lip service.
⏤ https://www.edutopia.org/article/leaders-teacher-wellbeing-action

The Causes

That leads us to THE WHY – why is this such a crisis?

In my educator self-care workshops (e.g., this example), I bring up the research of Paul Murphy from his book Exhausted – Why Teachers Are So Tired and What They Can Do About It. Consider his litany of possible culprits that may cause burnout in some teachers:

  • Lack of autonomy
  • Dysfunctional work environment
  • Inadequate social support
  • Extremes of activity
  • Poor work/life balance

Another excellent read on the subject is Demoralized – Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay. Author Doris Santoro takes a closer look at these issues:

  • Teachers feel frustrated from accomplishing good work that benefits students, communities, and the profession.
  • Problem is external and does not indicate a “weakness” or lie within the individual teachers themselves.
  • Dissatisfaction in education is due to moral and ethical conflicts.

Only by addressing the moral sources of teacher’s anguish might we stem the tide of teacher exodus. ⏤ “The Problem with Stories About Teacher Burnout” by Doris Santoro in Kappan December 2019/January 2020

What are the symptoms of “burnout?” From the Mayo Clinic and other sources, we learn the following. Do you display any of these on a regular basis?

  • Disillusionment over the job
  • Cynicism at work
  • Impatience with co-workers, administrators, and students
  • Lack of satisfaction in accomplishments
  • Dragging themselves to work and trouble getting started once they’re there
  • Lack of energy
  • Unexplained aches/pains 
  • Self-medicating with food, drugs, or alcohol
  • Changes in sleep/eating patterns

Are these striking close to home? If you said, “Yes, that’s me!” more than a couple times, it is time to seek help. Please consider this a “wake-up call” to visit your health care professional.

The Courses-of-Action

If you Google search “teacher self-care” in your browser, the following comes up from the (experimental?) Google-generative AI Overview, otherwise a good starting point summarizing possible solutions for stress remediation and improving over teacher mental health.

Key Self-Care Strategies for Teachers

Paul Murphy added these “remedies” for improving teacher time management, promoting better work/personal life balance, and de-stressing:

  • Work less/fewer hours
  • Realize that time before school is worth more than twice as much as time after school (so plan accordingly)
  • Use class time to check work
  • Leverage technology
  • Don’t grade everything
  • Stop assigning things

The Courage to Change!

The bottom line – We are our own worst enemies!

Our negative thoughts, self-doubt, and destructive behaviors often hinder our own progress and happiness, making us our own biggest obstacles. ⏤ Google Generative AI and other sources including https://lorimilner.medium.com/the-art-of-being-your-own-worst-enemy-c393e9032d27, https://markmanson.net/when-you-are-your-own-worst-enemy, and https://letherspeakusa.org/why-are-we-our-own-worst-enemies/.

The research suggests that many “bad habits” may disrupt our ability to take care of ourselves and seek change, such as these:

  • Self-Sabotage
  • Negative Self-Talk
  • Lack of Self-Compassion

My insightful Washington-state music teaching colleague Lesley Moffat has written an excellent book, I Love My Job But It’s Killing Me – The Teacher’s Guide to Conquering Chronic Stress and Sickness, and in my opinion, she hits the nail squarely on the head embracing Shakespeare’s “to thine own self be true” in a renewed motivation on self-help:

You must take care of yourself first. This is the hardest lesson of all, yet it is so important. Chances are you got where you are because you ran yourself ragged taking care of other people’s needs. I bet you never said no to requests to be on one more committee, drive carpool, watch a friend’s kids, and every other favor someone made of you, yet I’d also bet there’s a good chance you never take the time to take care of your own needs. When was the last time you read a book for fun? Or went to a movie you wanted to see? Or pursued a creative endeavor that made you happy? Or any one of a million things you want to do? I bet it’s been a long time. ⏤ Lesley Moffat   

It is time to take the plunge towards better personal health, wellness, and balance in your life. There are plenty of resources out there for you to peruse, but don’t just sit there and read them! DO THEM!

Get started today!

PKF

© 2025 Paul K. Fox

February Updates…

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PROfessional Development!

Education, ethics, professionalism, and lifelong learning.

Hope you are enjoying the winter season and, for many of you, the anticipation of warmer weather returning soon! Sorry, skiers! I am sick of shoveling snow!!

Here’s a quick “catch-up” on things going on in educator professional development.

For PA School Administrators & Educators

There is still time to register for the upcoming 25-hour, PDE-approved, Act 45 course, “PA Educators: Your Ethical Codes & School Law,” which will cover the recently mandated PA Title 22 Chapter 49 (Certification) Professional Ethics Competencies. The next online series of Act 45 classes will be held Tuesday afternoons in March, and provide “the keys to the car” planning for your own school district’s future continuing education and induction programs in ethics training as required by the PDE.

Now sponsoring our eighth series of classes, I am designated a “qualified instructor” in partnership with the course’s creator/facilitator, retired social studies teacher and attorney Thomas W. Bailey. For more information, please click on these links to his website:

In addition, since over the past year PDE revised their website (and changed most of the content links), I compiled a super-index of “places-to-go” and “things-to-read,” sites of supplemental resources on school ethics here. I recommend visiting this blog if you are interested in our library of links to the Pennsylvania Code of Professional Practice and Conduct, the Model Code of Ethics for Educators, the PA Educators Discipline Act, and research and citations from the PDE, PA Professional Standards and Practices Commission, Connecticut State Department of Education, and Iowa Board of Educational Examiners, among many others.

If you would like to see the kind of things we cover in these classes, take a look at the slide summaries I posted from my presentation at the PDE SAS Institute “Purposeful Leadership” state conference last December:

From Pre-Service to Veteran Music Teachers!

It’s that time of the year… again! The PMEA Annual Conference on April 9-12, 2025 will be held in the family-friendly, perfect-for-a-mini-vacation spot in northeastern PA: the Kalahari Resort in the Poconos.

There is still time to register! (Click here.) If you would like to see a summary of the sessions and performances, go to the PMEA website here or download this PDF brochure.

Why attend the conference? In my five-plus decades in education, I may have missed only two or three of the annual PMEA state events, and heartily recommend you remain actively involved in your professional association. This is what I wrote about it in a recent PMEA Retired Member Network eNEWS:

For some of us, it’s a just chance to catch-up with our colleagues, see our friends, and socialize. Others are more focused and take advantage of the near-perfect opportunity to network with other professionals, perhaps seeking new working relationships, partnerships, or even employment. Many are on a look-out for newly published music, that perfect music lesson or teaching strategy, technology tools, fundraisers, advance educational venues, or much-needed equipment to purchase for our ensembles or classrooms. Most come to hear/see the “state of the art” in music education – concerts, demonstrations, keynote speeches, panel discussions, exhibits, research presentations, and workshops. PMEA’s PD Council would likely submit that the primary purpose of a conference is for professional self-improvement… What did Stephen Covey call it? His Habit #7 of “sharpening the saw” – to build a balanced program of self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Covey would insist we embrace “the process that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement.” So, in short, conferences help us “grow” – to revive, re-inspire, re-energize, rejuvenate, re-direct, and re-motivate all of us – pre-service, active in-service, and retired teachers towards making successful new connections, updating our knowledge and skills, and forming new goals. This is how we “keep up” with all the new standards, benchmarks, and cutting-edge advances, and meet the “movers-and-shakers,” visionaries, and leaders in the profession!

There’s a lot in store for college music education majors. Besides the aforementioned state meetings, concerts, clinics, and keynote addresses no one should miss, the music industry exhibits (new innovations in sheet music, instruments, technology, summer school and graduate programs, etc.), and the chance to introduce yourself to other music colleagues (aren’t some of you looking for a job soon?), there will be a “coffee and connections” informal lounge to ASK-AN-EXPERT on Thursday afternoon to pick-the-brains of PMEA mentors and retirees on any subject. Do you have a question about conducting technique, musical literature, lesson plan idea, classroom or time management tip, or teaching method? And, just take look these sessions the PMEA Professional Development Council has targeted specifically for YOU:

For Retirees… They are special, too!

PMEA Retired Members, consider this your personal invitation to join us at the Kalahari Resort in the Poconos for the chance to catch-up, connect, collaborate and communicate with other colleagues throughout the Commonwealth! (a plethora of “C’s!”)

As usual, we will “break bread” together Friday morning (April 11, 2025) with the annual retiree breakfast. Be sure to register soon for the PMEA Annual Conference (now only $25) and check the “yes” box that you will attend our meeting. Those in attendance will be treated to some “conference swag!”

Retirees are a valuable resource to PMEA! Our experienced retired members are among the best-trained (unofficial) mentors in PMEA. Facing many years of “boots on the ground,” we have at our fingertips numerous strategies to solve problems in education. Frankly, in my opinion, we have a lot to offer “the future of the profession!”

If you are a retired PA music educator, hopefully you have maintained your PMEA membership (dues significantly discounted), and have signed up for the Retired Member Resource Registry to help future “rookie” music educators. (To reach the R3, first login to your PMEA portal here.)

On Friday, April 11, at 3:30 p.m., we are offering a special sharing session for soon-to-retire teachers… the annual one-hour Retirement 101 workshop joined by a panel of experienced retirees: Rick Coulter, Jeffrey Dent, Sister Kathleen Doutt, Dan Klingbeil, Chuck Neidhardt, and Louise & Richard Victor. Active educators who plan to retire over the 1-5 years can learn valuable techniques from us for a smooth transition to post-full-time employment and successfully reinvent, reprogram, and “recharge” themselves to modifying those essential elements of purpose, structure, and community throughout their “golden years!”

My Professional Advertisement

You may have noticed in my last blog-post an outline of past article topics archived at this site, and a complaint that I feel I must repeat myself (or repackage the material) to meet the changing personalized “bookends” – life cycles – specific passages of my readers. The earlier February post was mostly for job seekers. If you were not looking for employment or coming fresh out of college, it may have seemed irrelevant. The same goes for specialty articles on self-care, ethics training, or retirement transitioning… WHEN WOULD YOU BE MOTIVATED TO STUDY THESE?

I have decided to maintain a comprehensive index of my writings (see “Inside” link in the top menu bar). Please visit the sections of this blog-site that matter to you most… and, when things change, come back and look again. You may find something that “hits the spot” or satisfies the needs of your new journey in education or personal/professional life.

I remain willing and able (aka “very interested”) in doing in-person or online sessions for college methods classes, PCMEA chapter meetings, PMEA festival directors’ meetings, PMEA District or Regional PD workshops, or school district/department inservices. Just give me a call. My contact information can be found in the top “About” link. Please visit this section for catalogs of my presentations and articles. FYI, I created this trifold of some of my past work.

Best wishes on your future successes in career development and professional goal setting.

PKF

© 2025 Paul K. Fox

FOX_PAUL_trifoldDownload

The Get-a-Job Toolbox

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Preparing for Those Upcoming Employment Screenings

So much of what I do at this blog-site is to archive articles offering advice on a host of topics:

Surveying my past blogs, I feel like I had to repeat (repackage) the content until my readers reached that particular stage in their career. Once they experience first-hand that sometimes tumultuous “passage,” they would be ready to reflect on this information. But, I doubt they would closely examine it until then. As an example, for more than a decade as the PMEA Retired Member Coordinator, these past articles I wrote for PMEA News and the PMEA Annual Conference’s session Retirement 101 revisit the voluminous insight of gerontologists exploring the “who, what, when, where, and why” of retirement. Regardless at how often it is presented, you tend not to consume advice on coping with post-employment until you feel you are “ready” to retire. This is the same issue for soon-to-graduate collegiates and those transitioning to a new job; who wants to read about branding, marketing, and interviewing until they are in the middle of seeking first-time (or new) employment?

Please click on the “plethora” of links throughout this article to be redirected to these past writings. My apologies in advance to what may seem like to be a lot of duplication!

I went as far as updating the most comprehensive and “perfect” PowerPoint for collegiates: Bookends – The Life Cycle of a Successful and Happy Music Educator – portions of which I have presented several times to Professor Jessica Vaughan-Marra’s Seton Hill University music student teachers. This slide handout starts with the material from the first three bullets in the first paragraph above and then adds information about teacher health and wellness, time management, and retirement. We offer Bookends… to preservice music educators in their junior, senior, or graduate years and “rookies” to the profession. I encourage you to download this resource, visit the PCMEA website (click here/scroll down) to read past issues of Collegiate Communique, and the paulfox.blog posts. While you’re at it, acquire your own copy of the Ultimate Interview Primer. Click away before these links become inactive.

Soon it will time for graduates to enter the workforce… and boy, do we need you! By most accounts in PA and the surrounding states, we are experiencing a teacher shortage. School districts are seeking quality candidates to apply for their open positions. But, much of what happens in the job screening process seems to be influenced by chance. Collegiates, ask yourself: Are you truly prepared to market your experiences and abilities, share your brand and stories of your interactions with children in educational programs, and relate positive anecdotes of your teaching, problem solving skills, and other professional attributes? I may have been a little Type-A when I first applied for those music teaching positions back in 1978, focused on saturation publicity and persistence, and organized with a large paper portfolio of past experiences, but I was clueless in responding to those tricky interview questions and what administrators actually wanted to see in prospective new members of their staff.

One more piece advice for first-year and recent transfers to music education: Seek out a PMEA mentor and/or a member of the Retired Resource Registry (access from the PMEA Retired Member focus area after you login to your member portal)… both are groups of volunteers willing and able to help “newbies.”

Have a question about selecting music for your ensemble, a dynamic lesson plan, classroom management issue, interviewing, curriculum innovation, or a conducting tip? Stop by the “coffee and conversations” informal lounge at the PMEA Annual Conference on April 10 and “sit-a-spell” with us!

In conclusion, the following is a sequential outline – a “to-do in this order” list – a preservice toolbox of past posts and other resources for you to assemble a marketing plan. Take time to sort through these “nuts and bolts” (all links in this blog), process the information, save anything you want to read further, and then “practice, practice, practice!” This “gift” to PCMEA and music education majors embraces my best wishes for successfully finding the job you always wanted and preparing yourself for the greatest “calling” of your life – an enriching and satisfying lifelong career in music education! Good luck!

Using the Collegiate Toolbox – A Roadmap for Becoming a Music Educator

  1. Peruse everything in this and past paulfox.blog postings.
  2. Download the PDF documents to your hard drive. Review a portion of them each week!
  3. On your computer, create a “ME” file documenting your accomplishments, awards, experiences interacting with children, etc. – a library of the things you may wish to include in your future resume, professional website, and (e-)portfolio. Add to this folder throughout your college years.
  4. To reflect on your perceived strengths and weaknesses, complete a self-assessment of YOU from a typical professional evaluation form, these ideal effective teacher attributes and more criteria
  5. Prioritize what you think you need most. Write down your goals! Pobody is nerfect!
  6. While you are still attending college, work on shoring up any weak content areas or specialty skills (e.g., how is your “piano chops,” knowledge of specific methods, grade level repertoire, etc.?)
  7. Write a philosophy of school music education (overview) and your mission statement: “Why do you want to teach?”
  8. Be ready to answer the question (and defend your response), “What is your vision of the role of music education in the schools?”
  9. Be ready to define your “brand.” What are your professional attributes? What makes you unique? Why would you be a good candidate for a school music position?
  10. Begin to assemble a list of stories that would “show not tell” your positive attributes.
  11. Identify the impressions you want to “sell” yourself, and practice strategic storytelling.
  12. Practice answering interview questions and use a rubric to evaluate your performance. If you can, share all of this with your peers and sponsor mock interview sessions. Record/assess yourself.
  13. Get started on drafting the marketing tools you will need (e.g., your professional website, resume, portfolio, etc.)
  14. Review educational acronyms, jargon, and terminology such as this list plus these recent additions: CR-SE (Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Education), DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging), and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning). These terms may come up at your next interview.
  15. Read cover-to-cover your PA code of conduct (CPPC) and the Model Code of Ethics for Educators.
  16. Practice ethical decision-making (with your peers) by reviewing these mock scenarios, first deciding what level of misconduct (if any) is reached in each case study, and then more discussion on the incident’s effect on the students, parents, staff, and community, and what proactive steps may be taken to remediate the situation.
  17. Join and become active in appropriate music education professional organizations (renew your memberships and add new ones): ACDA, AOSA, ASTA, NAfME, NBA, PMEA, etc. to name a few.
  18. Attend a conference of your professional association(s) and network with other colleagues. For PA colleagues, register for the PMEA Annual Conference (April 9-12) at the Kalahari Resort (Poconos).

Feel free to leave comments about this blog. (See the link just below the title.) How did you use these tools? What was particularly beneficial? What suggestions would you have for future music teacher applicants?

To PCMEA chapter officers/members, music education majors, and college instructors: I am available to present Bookends or other online or in-person workshops for college students. Send me an email.

© 2025 Paul K. Fox

Exceptional Ethics Training

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A Follow-up to the Pennsylvania Educators E-TRAIN

SCHOOL SYSTEM LEADERS, CTC DIRECTORS, & OTHER ADMINISTRATORS:
In case you missed my last update here in September 2024, this “express car” blog post will help you “catch-up” on the PDE “company line,” “supply new freight” to your continuing professional development and induction programs, get back “on track” and avoid being “sidetracked” or “derailed” for meeting the newly revised PA Chapter 49 “guard rails” of professional ethics training competencies.

THE ETHICAL WHEELS GO ROUND & ROUND…

You may have noticed that due to compliance regulations, the PDE website was revised with many of its former URL “tracks” leading to “train wrecks.” This “propelled” us towards making an “overhaul” to “connect” the new references (research “destinations”) in my slide presentations. Please use the following index (substituting old “routes”) and travel to our renovated “union station” with the new schedules.

Okay… I will stop “conducting” any more train “puns!”

Recent Ethics Sessions

Slide Summaries for the PDE Purposeful Leadership Conference (if you attended) are available from the SAS Institute’s conference app: Eventsquid.

Upon completion of the 25-hour course, the PowerPoints for all four sessions of the Thomas W. Bailey Act 45 class series were emailed to the participants.

Here is the PRE-TEST for both events.

What is your “best guess?”

UPDATES TO RESEARCH LINKS

Act 126 Child Abuse and Reporting Training
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pspc/content-pages/outreach/act-126-training.html

Adjudications & Orders (PA Certificate Actions)
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/education/programs-and-services/educators/educator-misconduct/certification-actions.html

Attorney (PA) Rules of Professional Conduct
https://www.padisciplinaryboard.org/for-attorneys/rules

California BTES – Overview of the Ethnographic Study by David Berliner and William Tikunoff
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002248717602700107?journalCode=jtea

Certificate Actions (Adjudications & Orders)
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/education/programs-and-services/educators/educator-misconduct/certification-actions.html

Chapter 49 Ethics Training
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pspc/resources/chapter-49-ethics-training.html

Cleveland Board of Education v. James Loudermill (US Supreme Court 1985)
https://www.twbaileylaw.com/blog/educator-court-case-blog-1/may-a-school-district-employee-be-dismissed-without-prior-opportunity-to-respond-to-allegations-of-wrongdoing-4

Code of Professional Practice and Conduct
https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/022/chapter235/chap235toc.html&d=reduce OR
https://paulfox.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/code-of-conduct-revised.pdf

Codes (Conduct vs. Ethics), Types of
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Education-Your-Hands-Introduction/dp/0415800900

Commission Publications (Professional Standards & Practices Commission)
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pspc/resources/commission-publications.html

Connecticut State Department of Education TEAM Program Manual
https://portal.ct.gov/sde/team/teacher-education-and-mentoring-team-program/documents

Contract Termination 11-1122 Public School Code of 1949
https://govt.westlaw.com/pac/Document/NB5B9C950342F11DA8A989F4EECDB8638?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default)

Criminal History 1-111 Public School Code of 1949
https://govt.westlaw.com/pac/Document/NB6D6E91007EE11EA8D85D136C641FF9C?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default)

The Danielson Group
https://danielsongroup.org/

Digital Tips (Online Boundaries) for Educators (Professional Standards and Practices Commission)
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pspc/resources/commission-publications/digital-tips-for-educators.html

Educator Discipline Act
https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/pspc/documents/statutes-regs-forms/educator%20discipline%20act.pdf and
https://www.pspc.education.pa.gov/Statutes-Regulations-Policies-Forms/Educator-Discipline-Act/Pages/default.aspx

Educator Misconduct
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/education/programs-and-services/educators/educator-misconduct.html

Ethical Dilemmas of In-Service Music Educators by Joelle L. Lien
https://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Lien11_1.pdf

The Ethical Educator (Frequently Asked Questions)
https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/pspc/documents/ethical-practices/publications/the%20ethical%20educator%20and%20professional%20practices.pdf

Ethical Equilibrium – Troy Hutchings’ work
https://slideplayer.com/slide/12243050/ and
https://vimeo.com/126979216

Ethics Toolkit – Teacher Preparation Programs (missing from revised PDE website?)
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pspc/resources/information-for-school-administrators/teacher-preparation-programs.html
Web archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240807121601/https://www.pspc.education.pa.gov/Promoting-Ethical-Practices-Resources/Ethics-Toolkit/Pages/default.aspx

General Assembly (PA)
tps://www.legis.state.pa.us/

Iowa Board of Education Examiners (Moral vs. Ethical Standards)
https://slideplayer.com/slide/12203932/

Loudermill Hearings – Court Case Blog (US Supreme Court 1985)
https://www.twbaileylaw.com/blog/educator-court-case-blog-1/may-a-school-district-employee-be-dismissed-without-prior-opportunity-to-respond-to-allegations-of-wrongdoing-4

Model Code of Ethics for Educators
https://www.nasdtec.net/page/MCEE_Doc and
https://www.nasdtec.net/page/MCEE_Video_Series

Moral Development Philosophy by Lawrence Kohlberg
https://archive.org/details/essaysonmoraldev0000kohl

Moral Professionalism (Wynne, E. A. (1995). The moral dimension of teaching)
https://www.itejournal.org/wp-content/pdfs-issues/spring-2013/08bergman.pdf

Moral v. Ethical Standards (Iowa Board of Educational Examiners)
https://slideplayer.com/slide/12203932/

National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification
https://www.nasdtec.net/ and
https://www.nasdtec.net/page/MCEE_Video_Series

Pennsylvania Code & Bulletin (Title 22 Education)
https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?titleNumber=022&file=/secure/pacode/data/022/022toc.html&searchunitkeywords=&operator=OR&title=null

Pennsylvania Code (Title 23 Child Protection Services)
https://govt.westlaw.com/pac/Document/NAD136501756B11E88795828A65D8C1A1?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default)

Professional Ethics Program Framework Competencies
https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/education/documents/educators/certifications/professional%20ethics%20program%20framework%20guidelines.pdf

Professional Standards and Practices Commission
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pspc.html and
https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/022/chapter233/chap233toc.html and
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pspc/resources/commission-publications.html

Public School Code of 1949
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/US/HTM/1949/0/0014..HTM or
https://govt.westlaw.com/pac/Document/NB5B9C950342F11DA8A989F4EECDB8638?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default)

Rules for Teachers (1872 & 1915)
https://www.openculture.com/2013/09/rules-for-teachers-in-1872-1915-no-drinking-smoking-or-trips-to-barber-shops-and-ice-cream-parlors.html

Simon Sinek
https://simonsinek.com/

Slater v. PDE Case Citation
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/pa-commonwealth-court/1465107.html

Statutes, Regulations, Policies and Forms (Department of Education)
https://www.pa.gov/search.html#q=Statutes%20Regulations&f-copapwpagency=Department%20of%20Education,Department%20of%20Health or
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/education/programs-and-services/educators.html

Teacher Preparation Programs
https://www.pa.gov/en/agencies/pspc/resources/information-for-school-administrators/teacher-preparation-programs.html

Thomas W. Bailey Court Case Blogs
https://www.twbaileylaw.com/blog

Thomas W. Bailey PDE-Approved Act 45/PIL and Act 48 Courses
https://www.twbaileylaw.com/

If you missed the SAS Institute 2024 in Hershey and still need help in designing your own educator ethics training in-service or mentor/mentee induction programs, check out the Thomas W. Bailey website here. Consider registering for our next 25-hour PDE-approved Act 45 online course.

Finally, the answer to the above PRE-TEST is letter “D” (NOT):

Please reach out to Paul Fox (click here) if you find any of the above links have gone inactive or have suggestions/updates to this blog-post.

PKF

© 2024 Paul K. Fox

Bookends – Part 3

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As summer draws to a close and schools begin to reopen, we look forward to the coming autumn season (and hopefully some relief from the scorching weather). After all, tomorrow will be the first day of classes at my former place of employment (and the dress rehearsal for Friday’s marching band senior show). Soon we’ll enjoy one of my favorite transitions of the year! In Western Pennsylvania, deciduous trees will gradually change color (some bright red, orange and yellow) and then shed their leaves… the perfect metaphor for the final sections of my “Bookends” series.

(Yes, fall is a month away… but, as you can see, the stores are way ahead in anticipation of the changing seasons!)

Autumn is a season of harvest, a time to reap the rewards of our hard work and reflect on the blessings in our lives. The Fall Equinox is a reminder for us to assess our accomplishments instead of our shortcomings.

– www.inspiringactions.com

We return to a discussion first introduced last October in Bookends – Part One – The Life Cycle of a Successful and Happy Music Educator, exploring:

  • Stage 4: Veteran/Sustaining Years (this blog)
  • Stage 5: Next Chapter/Living the Dream (future blog)

When do we become “experts” in our field? When are we “master teachers?” Do we ever reach the apex of our achievements, the crowning glory of our career, or the pinnacle of our profession?

Never! You snooze, you lose. If you stop expanding on your knowledge and skills, forgo exploring new ideas, methods, and media, or become stagnant and settling into a rut at work, you might as well RETIRE (“Stage 5”). Instead, I direct you to revisit “Stage 3” in Bookends II here. As dedicated educators, the focus must be on constant retooling… reviewing/revising “best practices,” setting new goals, and building on the existing networks and engagement in the profession. These have always been the essential elements of a true professional.

Now I should mention that during our middle-years, we sometimes return to education, get advanced degrees, new certifications or teaching specialties, apply for new job assignments, etc. When my PMEA colleague and fellow music teacher retiree John D’Ascenzo left full-time teaching, he went on to pursue a doctorate degree. Also appropriate for our next Bookends section, I have often quoted his analogy for all career stages to “swim like a shark” (since a shark never stops moving, even when it is sleeping). Sage advice for us all!

During my whirlwind of more than five decades in the field of music education, I went through several “first-year-of-teaching” passages, such as accepting my first job in general music at Edgewood School District (1978-1980), then being hired to direct strings (grades 6-12) at Upper St. Clair School District in 1979 followed by a 16-year appointment to the USCHS choral program of over 200 singers in 1980 on… transitions requiring massive job retraining and revitalized professional development. I may have not appreciated the stress of these “hurry up and relearn” periods at the time, but these periodic challenges made me GROW. In the end, I “lived” and embraced Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken.” It may have not been the initial pathway I imagined for myself when I started in music education, but “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

To this day, this violist and orchestra director has NO REGRETS teaching so many years outside of his so-called “specialty” or emphasis! It comes back to me every time I run into former choral or musical students, those I taught in those early years of being a vocal novice (at times when I felt less prepared). My past instrumentalists/singers/actors reminisce a little and literally rave about their musical experiences and what they meant to them.

My emphasis to foster success in our “veteran years” is also on teacher self-care: health and wellness, burnout prevention or remediation, stress and time management, and personal life and work balance.

Let’s start with examining the probable causes of STRESS in TEACHERS:

  • Overwhelming workload, long hours, and/or challenging classroom situations
  • Lack of administrative or social supports
  • Feeling a lack of respect, loss of job autonomy, or not being valued or appreciated in the organization or assignment
  • Dysfunctional or hostile work environment
  • Inconsistent hydration and consumption of a balanced diet and healthy quantities (length, depth, and frequency) of rest and sleep
  • Irregular amounts of daily aerobic physical exercise
  • Misuse of the voice at work and inadequate hearing conservation and protection from over-exposure to sound
  • Deficient scheduling of opportunities for mindfulness, meditation, and/or reflection
  • Deprivation of personal outlets for creative self-expression (not related to job) and the lack of time to explore hobbies, interests, and socialization with family and friends
  • Infrequent use of sick days or vacations even when they are needed for restorative health

We all have experienced at least a few of these “bumps along the road” (but hopefully NOT most of them). Although I generally had very supportive administrators throughout my years in the public schools (and no one would claim I exhibited any symptoms of “burnout”), I did model a few of the inconsistent habits of personal health (diet, sleep, etc.) and an unbalanced work/personal life schedule. And, perhaps it could be said that I did some of my best work totally exhausted!

As I have written in past blogs (especially here in “Burned Out or Bummed Out”), the best book I know on “teacher exhaustion” is by Paul Murphy (2017), and subtitled Why Teachers Are Do Tired and What They Can Do About It. I strongly recommend it as “a required read” for all new AND veteran teachers.

Besides being aware of your “body chemistry” (especially what the challenges of constant willpower, deferred gratification, and relentless scheduling can do to lower your blood glucose levels later in the day), to quote Murphy, some of his suggestions for remediation are NOT so easy to follow:

  • Work less/fewer hours
  • Time before school is worth more than twice as much as time after school
  • Use class time to check work
  • Leverage technology
  • Don’t grade everything
  • Stop assigning things

Sorry! My wife and I modeled the behavior of “more-than-full-time” music teachers with after-school rehearsals of marching bands, musicals, community orchestras, chamber ensembles, private lessons, music festival preparation, etc. How in the world do you work fewer hours? Also, since most music teachers do not assign “paper” homework requiring teacher correction, “checking for understanding” and in-class formative assessment could improve efficiency. Sometimes we are own worst enemies… We should “keep it simple” and focus on the priorities. That brings us to time management.

My favorite strategies for organizing our time and fostering a better work/life balance involve these resources (click on links below to past blogs at this site). PLEASE STUDY THESE!

I return to the “Four D’s” concepts several times in past writings, and the “system” can be applied digitally as well… as long as you make a concerted effort to take the necessary time (10-20 minutes) every day to manage the up-front decision-making to “do immediately,” file, or weed out most of the “voluminous noise” (distractions) you get in email, texts, voicemail, snail-mail, etc. Get ready to push the “delete” button… over and over again!

Then there are a few more ideas in “Top Ten Organizing Tips…” and any of the books by Stephen Covey (below). I particularly like the philosophy/demonstration attributed to him re: “start with the big rocks!”

Also, if you are a member of NAfME (National Association for Music Education), search their vast library of related blogs here, several articles to which I was fortunate to have contributed.

Final thoughts for the “sustaining years” of your profession and to avoid any touches of BURNOUT is to develop a self-care plan. My first go-to for building meaningful wellness habits comes from “What Self-Care Is and What it Isn’t.” In past health and wellness workshops, I echo these “basics.”

  • Promote a nutritious, healthy diet, and hydrate often.
  • Get enough sleep.
  • Exercise.
  • Follow-up with medical care.
  • Use relaxation exercises and/or practice meditation.
  • Spend enough time with loved ones.
  • Do at least one relaxing activity every day, whether it’s taking a walk or spending 30 minutes unwinding.
  • Do at least one pleasurable activity every day, from going to the cinema, cooking, or meeting with friends.
  • Find opportunities to laugh.

Self-care can take many forms, such as physical, spiritual, and emotional self-care. It’s an important factor in maintaining health and well-being.

Self-care might range from a hot soak and yoga to everyday activities like preparing meals you want to eat or dressing in your choice of style.

Self-care is not an indulgence. The WHO recognizes it as a crucial aspect of health maintenance.

Tailoring self-care for your budget, season in life, and personal needs for whole body wellness, inside and out, can be energizing and exciting in itself.

– https://psychcentral.com/blog/what-self-care-is-and-what-it-isnt

Veteran full-time educators: To sustain and nurture success in the middle to twilight years of your career (Stage 4), seek to understand and practice personal wellness and work/life balance while continuing your pursuits in self-motivation, self-assessment, self-energizing, self-(re)invention, and “growing” personally and professionally, and if it becomes necessary, promote the diagnosis, prevention and self-remediation of debilitating stress and burnout.

PKF

© 2024 Paul K. Fox

Bookends – Part Two

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The Life Cycle of a Successful and Happy Music Educator

Joyous Holidays, Season Greetings, and Happy New Year from “The Foxes!” This is a time for reflection and gratitude… and we feel blessed for all the opportunities allowing us to share our insights, gifts and experiences with other music education professionals.

We hope to inspire YOU and literally model the concepts in this blog series. We continue with our discussion first introduced a month ago in Bookends – Part One – The Life Cycle of a Successful and Happy Music Educator, exploring:

  • Stage 3: Inservice/Growing Years (this blog)
  • Stage 4: Veteran/Sustaining Years (future blog)
  • Stage 5: Next Chapter/Living the Dream (future blog)

This article is an abstract from a session presented to Seton Hill University music education student teachers on October 17, 2023. Click on this link to download the slide summary in PDF format.

“I have written a lot of articles in support of these topics… now compiling them for your easy access. Depending on your current status and interests, feel free to peruse the checklists (links) in this series. It is possible a few of the resources contained within these blogs have gone inactive, but I believe enough are there for you to gain the insight, tools and motivation to achieve professional development for life.”

– Paul Fox

Stage 3 – Inservice/Growing Years

[ ] 8. Becoming a Music Educator: For a review of Bookends – Part One, take a step backward and revisit what you have done to “get ready” for your “rookie years.” Take special note on the things-to-do list (“secrets”) as a first-year educator (perhaps completed during your student teaching semester):

  • Subscribe to a discounted NAfME + PMEA first-year membership (If you are a recent college graduate in your first year of teaching, or if you are the spouse of a current or retired NAfME member, contact NAfME at 800-336-3768 or email memberservices@nafme.org) to find out if you qualify for a reduced rate.
  • Hook up to PMEA Mentor or other state’s MEA support program for new teachers.
  • Look into finding an informal advisor in the PMEA Retiree Resource Registry for PA music teachers.
  • Need to fill in a few gaps missing from your college courses in skills and knowledge? Continue your “enrichment” viewing PMEA Webinars and the exhaustive video library in the NAfME Academy.
  • Take advantage of earning professional development credits just for reading an article in the NAfME Music Educators Journal
  • At some point you will be writing/editing curriculum, so research the awesome resource of Model Curriculum Framework (Have to be a PMEA member)
  • Too busy to participate in the PMEA Annual Conference or NAfME national events? Look into going to a PMEA summer conference (usually at a lower-cost!). Check out your own state’s MEA discounts and offers for collegiate members and new teachers!
  • Numerous free and timely blog posts from NAfME Music in a Minuet and here (paulfox.blog).

[ ] 9. The Care & Feeding of Your Principal: Although not covered in any detail during the Seton Hill University presentation, it is recommended that you read in its entirety “The New Teacher’s Guide to Fostering Positive Relations and Good Interactions with School Administrators” offering a wealth of excellent recommendations from these trustworthy sources:

A favorite question I pose to college music ed seniors is, “In what professional associations are you a member and actively involved?” For the price of consuming one fewer Starbucks latte a week, you can open up the Wonderful World of “C’s” – Contacts, Coachings, and other Connections, including research and resources that will benefit your Continuing Education. You can’t afford NOT to join groups like these.

To help “nail down” a few related definitions critical to personal growth and career development in our profession, especially “engagement,” “professionalism,” “collaboration,” and “networking,” please take a little time to travel and consume the following archived blog postings.

[ ] 10. The Meaning of PRO: This is one of the oldest articles at the paulfox.blog site. How about a little soul searching? Are you truly a professional? Do you have the skills, habits, and attitudes of a professional in the field of education?

[ ] 11. Transitioning from Collegiate to Professional (Part II): New teachers have to move away from “book learning” or higher education research and emphasize “practical application,” and at the same time, assess the precise areas needed for immediate (re-)training… everything from new exposure to specialized teaching areas and grade level focus for the job to which you have been assigned, to the enhanced skills of classroom management, student assessment, curriculum writing, class or ensemble warm-up materials, music repertoire and programming, etc.

While we are on the subject, it is important to intentionally seek out mentors or consultants in your early years of becoming an educator. PMEA offers a mentoring program (read all about it here) and PMEA Retired Members are also an excellent resource to “phone a friend” for advice as needed (see their section on the PMEA website here). That leads us to the next most essential “habit” of attending professional conferences… #12 below.

[ ] 12. Getting the Most Out of Music Conferences: Our PMEA Annual Conference sites are cyclical. This article, written on March 5, 2017, showcased that year’s event at the Erie Bayfront Convention Center – coincidentally the same location for this year’s PMEA Annual Conference: April 17-20, 2023. For a sneak peek at the proposed sessions and guest performers, click here.

There are a myriad of conferences offered every year… something for everybody in just about every state. Make plans to go, “recharge your batteries,” and pick up new state-of-the-art ideas, lessons, music, technology, etc. Again, you cannot afford NOT to attend… or becoming stale in your teaching or “stuck in a rut!” Besides, going to your state’s or national conferences and regional workshops are FUN places to meet other like-minded, inspiring colleagues! This is how professionals network, collaborate, and share their “latest and greatest!“

A couple upcoming events:

What are you waiting for? It’s time to DIVE INTO your customized career development!

Coming Soon…

Bookends Part Three – Stages 4 & 5

PKF

© 2023 Paul K. Fox

Launching PA Educator Ethics Training

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Implementing the NEW PDE Chapter 49 “PE” Competencies – “The WHO, WHAT, WHY, & HOW!”

Blogger’s Note: We will return to Part II of “Bookends” next month to explore:

  • Stage 3: Inservice/Growing Years
  • Stage 4: Veteran/Sustaining Years
  • Stage 5: Next Chapter/Living the Dream

Instead, our November blog will share methods, modes, media, and other materials to provide meaningful professional development on ETHICS for EDUCATORS in the Commonwealth, resources from my upcoming presentation to school administrators at the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s SAS Institute – Successful Leadership – Shaping Your School’s Story to be held in the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center on December 11-13, 2023. Click below for my handouts.

planning-pd-for-ethics-sas-institute-handouts-s121123Download

PKFox

Interested in joining us at the Hershey Lodge on December 11-13, 2023? Please click here for more information or to register.

A Summary of My SAS Institute Ethics Session

To paraphrase the wisdom of one of my favorite recent visionaries and online workshop presenters, Simon Sinek, “Every organization should begin with “the WHY!” According to SmartInsights, Sinek’s Golden Circle theory explains “how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust and change in a business based on his research into how the most successful organizations think, act and communicate if they start with why.” On his website, he declares his own WHY: “We are here to inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that, together, each of us can change our world for the better.” I love his mission!

https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/online-value-proposition/start-with-why-creating-a-value-proposition-with-the-golden-circle-model/

“Your WHY is your purpose, cause, or belief. WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care about the work you do?” – Simon Sinek

So… lets ask the questions that define our own golden circle, my session, and this article:

  • WHY should we be so concerned about professional development in ethics for PA educators?
    (Why should you even be reading this blogpost?)
  • HOW should we train our staff?
  • WHAT should be introduced and reinforced over the long term?

And, I will add one additional question: WHO is responsible for all of this?

Well, the quick response to that last query is EVERYONE in the profession. However, this blog is particularly geared to school system leaders, career and technical center directors, and administrators charged with the responsibility of continuing education/professional development and induction programs for their PA educators.

The “WHY!”

Quick. Calling on all PA teachers! Without looking on the Internet, can you identify the exact title of your “code of conduct” (1)? Do you know the PA agency responsible for writing this code and adjudicating its rules (2)? Can you name the “code of ethics” recently adopted by PDE and the Board of Education which provides school staff comprehensive guidance in professional decision-making based on context (3)?

Hints? How about a few acronyms?

  1. CPPC
  2. PSPC
  3. MCEE?

Don’t you think “we” should at least be familiar with the commission that grants us the license to teach in PA as well as the document that “governs” our behavior, violations of which could remove us from our job or revoke our certificate?

Of course, six years ago, even I didn’t know we had a PA “code of conduct!” (I started teaching in the public schools in 1978 and it wasn’t written until 1992!) After retiring from full-time teaching in 2013, I was asked to present my first ethics workshop back in 2017 for a Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) Regional In-Service Program. Already scheduling me for two other sessions, the organizer came to me, “Could you add a presentation on educator ethics?” My first reaction was, WHY? Why would this be necessary? I promised him I would do a little research before getting back to him… and found these (now updated) statistics. Here’s the WHY in a nutshell!

HORRIBLE! These are the number of PA educators by year who had misconduct complaints filed against them. Sure, a majority of their cases were not always fully prosecuted nor did they all result in a “guilty” verdict or plea, as this glimpse of educator disciplinary resolutions for 2016 (out of 672) for comparison shows (statistics from PDE):

But, if you can read the above graphic, that means that in 2016, 156 educators surrendered their license or had their certificate suspended or revoked! Obviously, no matter how you interpret the stats, this is a SERIOUS PROBLEM! And it may be due to a lack of training or understanding of the regulations and principles of ethical decision-making!

Why is this topic crucial for all pre-service, “rookie,” AND experienced professional educators? It is essential… not so much to serve as a reminder of the penalties for ethical infractions or spotlighting the occurrences you read or hear about in the news… but, because ETHICS are what we all stand for, the values we exhibit in our day-to-day decision-making, the integrity of the profession, and our “making a difference” in the lives of the students.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it.

(Oliver Wendell Holmes)

The “WHAT!”

My colleague Thomas W. Bailey, a retired social studies teacher who reinstated his law license, and I set ourselves the goal of creating continuing education courses to provide REAL ethics training for PA educators. Thomas applied to the Pennsylvania Department of Education and received approval for a four-hour online Act 48 continuing education course for all PA educators (earning credits in PERMS) and a 25-hour online Act 45 PIL continuing education course for school system leaders, career and technical center directors, and other administrators responsible for planning the professional development of their school staff. The dates for our next two series of classes with open for enrollment in January 2024 are:

To register for either course, please go to Tom’s website: https://www.twbaileylaw.com/event.

Both of our courses satisfy the recently revised PDE Chapter 49 requirements of learning the “professional ethics” program framework guidelines:

For school system leaders and other administrators, PDE has set high expectations with the release of the following DEADLINES in April 2022:

“Chapter 49 requires instruction in professional ethics to be integrated in educator preparation, induction, and continuing professional development programs as follows.

  • Continuing professional development programs must integrate the professional ethics competencies no later than the 2023-24 academic year.
  • Educator preparation and induction programs must integrate the professional ethics competencies no later than the 2024-25 academic year.“

Our Act 45 and Act 48 courses cover the following subjects, definitions, and applications of these terms:

  • Fiduciary
  • Ethical Equilibrium
  • Personal Morality
  • Regulations of Law
  • Professional Ethics
  • Professional Dispositions
  • Moral Professionalism
  • Differences Between Moral and Ethical Standards (with Examples)
  • Codes of Conduct (Examples)
  • Codes of Ethics (Examples)
  • Differences Between a Code of Conduct and a Code of Ethics
  • PA Professional Standards and Practices Commission
  • Paths of Educator Discipline in PA (Local and State)
  • Loudermill Hearings
  • State Discipline System (from Misconduct Complaint to Appeals)
  • PA Code of Professional Practice and Conduct
  • The Educator Discipline Act
  • National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification
  • Model Code of Ethics for Educators

The “How!”

I know this will sound a lot like bragging, but what makes the Thomas Bailey + Paul Fox ethics courses truly effective and different from everyone else in the game (albeit there are few “classes on the codes” sponsored in our geographic area) is the process – a focus on top-down training (administrator to teacher to student), interactive discussion, and a major emphasis on borrowing from the research of “Principled Teaching” in Domains 4a, 4d, 4e, and 4f of the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching, the Teacher Education And Mentoring (TEAM) Module 5 Guide of the Connecticut State Department of Education, and the Facilitators Guide of the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners.

In my SAS presentation, I review several different modes of case study analysis, from simple to comprehensive, modeling small group interactive peer review, encouraging healthy discussions of diverse opinions in an “open,” non-threatening environment. The following approaches could be adapted to your setting of in-service programs or inductions:

MOCK JURY

Degree of Misconduct, scenarios for learning the PA Code of Professional Practice and Conduct (CPPC): For more details, revisit the application of my misconduct rubric and explanation in the blog “Ethical Scenarios” here.

In collegiate sessions, I have used color-coded popsicle sticks and handouts of different hypothetical case studies for “the jury” to evaluate the behavior and “find the relevant code” in the CPPC.

VOICES IN MY HEAD

Random Bad Attitudes for review of the standards in the Model Code of Ethics for Educators: I doubt (or sincerely hope) you would not hear too many of these directly from the school staff, but comments like, “Don’t ask for permission, beg for forgiveness” are NOT ethical precepts! Let’s dissect these bad boys!

SEARCH FOR THE STANDARDS

Hybrid Approach for using “the negative voices” and researching appropriate provisions in both the CPPC and MCEE: Select a single bad attitude and break off into two or three teams, each focused on corroborating related ethical principles in CPPC, MCEE, and even the PA Educator Discipline Act (EDA).

ALL CODES

“Deep Dive” Case Study Analyses in small group break outs for comprehensive interactive discussions using an adaptation of the questions in the Connecticut State Department of Education TEAM Manual:

  1. What possible issues/concerns might this scenario raise?
  2. How could this situation conflict with school policy, CPPC, EDA, MCEE, or case law?
  3. In this situation, what are some potential negative consequences for the educator’s students, fellow educators, and the school community-at-large?
  4. What responses/actions will result in a more positive outcome and/or what proactive measures might be considered?

A single hypothetical scenario would first be presented to the full group, and then the educators would break off into 4-6 smaller groups to review these questions. Individuals may or may not all agree. A group leader is usually appointed to record their responses and then upon reconvening, report back to “the whole.” Here is a sample case study (painful reading; fictitious but based on actual past incidents):

The moderator may promote further discussion (sample answers below) and even pose additional questions like the following:

  1. What if the relationship was always of mutual consent?
  2. What if the teacher never taught the student while she was enrolled in his school?
  3. What if the relationship did not start until after the student graduated?
  4. What if his student was over the age of 18 during the time of the relationship?

It deserves mention here that this final training mode, representing perhaps the highest degree of scaffolding of the learning for the ethics training of your staff, proposes the establishment of a permanent school district Professional Learning Community (PLC) or ethics committee. We know from our past experiences in providing continuing professional development of educators that promote free, open, healthy sharing of potential professional decision-making conflicts or ethical “conundrums” – “what would you do” scenarios – will foster lasting long-term benefits. Danielson Framework for Teaching (Domain 4) and CSDE reinforce this philosophy of peer collaboration.

“Teachers must engage in district-facilitated conversations that focus on ethical and professional dilemmas and their professional responsibility to students, the larger school/district educational community, and to families.”

Connecticut State Department of Education

My educator ethics mentor and “hero” Troy Hutchings, Senior Policy Advisor to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, admitted that in his early years of teaching, he felt a little reticent about going to his principal for advice in handling a situation of a student developing a “romantic crush” on him. To paraphrase his remarks during his webinar, “I was concerned that my supervisor might think I was encouraging the girl… Who could I turn to?” Sharing these anecdotes and talking informally with other faculty members will go far in building teamwork, mentor-mentee relationships, and intra-building trust in allowing more peer review towards enhanced educator decision-making.

If you need a resource on PLCs, my colleague (PA Principal of the Year to be honored at the upcoming 2023 SAS Institute) Dr. Tim Wagner recommended the handbook Learning by Doing by Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas W. Many, and Mike Mattos (Solution Tree Press, 2016).

The authors’ summary of reasons to implement a PLC in your school building(s) are to:

  1. Improve staff’s individual and collective practice
  2. Build on staff’s “shared knowledge and experiences”
  3. Build clarity and understanding in the use of a common vocabulary
  4. Develop a library of accessible tools, templates, and protocols (i.e., ethical scenarios)
  5. Promote non-threatening, thought-provoking discussion on ethical decision-making

Wrapping It Up with More Resources

Every school setting is different, and your application of these staff ethics training ideas will be unique. Hopefully I have given any interested PA school system leader, CTC director, professional development or building administrator, or department chair some “food for thought.” For example, if you wanted to set up a PLC to meet regularly to discuss ethical issues, many of you may need to involve your teacher’s professional association and/or review their contract… or perhaps on-your-own implement a rotation of educators to experience these case study discussions during pre-scheduled inservice or induction days.

For “the keys to the car” to build your own local ethics professional development programs, we encourage you to sign-up for one of our classes here. For our PIL series, Thomas Bailey shares the native files of his PowerPoint presentations so that they can be turned around and taught to other educators, and then even students who are studying their own discipline code or online anti-bullying school policies. Here is an image of our PIL brochure which will be offered beginning on January 3, 2024.

I also suggest perusing Thomas Bailey’s free videos on this topic, slide #61 (page 31) from the handouts to my SAS Institute presentation (above), and these links to other blogs on paulfox.blog.

NOW YOU HAVE IT… the entire toolkit and rationale… the “who, what, how, and why” of educator ethics training and satisfying the new PDE Chapter 49 “PE” competencies.

© 2023 Paul K. Fox