A Vision for School #savmp

Week 2 of the School Administrator Virtual Mentoring Program called for us to discuss what school ought to look like and be; we were to articulate a vision.

1. School ought to be the spark; everybody there everyday should be leaving excited to learn more, create more, or apply more to what they did that day.

2. School ought to be a place where anybody in the community can go to be more - more employable, more creative, more articulate, more equipped for citizenry and a happy, successful adulthood; everyone should walk out each day with a little “more” than they walked in with.

3. School ought to be a platform for public celebration of all things collaborative, innovative, and excellent in the community; schools ought to be a community-wide hub of connectivity and self-improvement.

4. School ought to be a space for the community’s young to demonstrate their skills, philosophies, and creations. Anybody looking for evidence of the incredible things the next generation is capable of should be able to walk into their community schools and see.

5. School ought to be a place where people are moved from can’t to can, from won’t to will, and from novice to intermediate to proficient to advanced to expert to master, etc.

6. School ought to be a springboard for curiosity and further practice or application. The effectiveness of the programs are seen when looking at what folks do with what’s being done. If it’s not being applied, then it’s not doing what it needs to do.

7. School ought to be a place filled to the brim with inspiration; there should be folks of all ages and positions available to model for anyone interested the right way to go about preparing oneself for career, citizenship, college, etc. It should be a place where things happen in the short-term for success and viability in the long-term.

8. School ought to be an open exchange of ideas, practices, knowledge, and perspective for the dual purpose of self improvement through reflection and collective improvement through sharing and conversing.

Why I Lead #SAVMP

I’m happy to be a part of the School Administrator Virtual Mentoring Program, and with my first post wanted to highlight an experience that best captures my “why” in regards to leadership.

Photo Courtesy of Chris Barker

The last meeting I led at my previous school was everything a gathering of professionals should be. What started as a collaborative writing of indicators for a school-wide rubric for Creativity & Innovation evolved into a long conversation and diagramming of what great teaching looks like and how we can best facilitate learning. All of us, ranging from novice teacher to school administrator, freely offered perspective, concerns, insights, and stories. We created support documents with strategies and observable elements to accompany the rubrics, and it felt effortless as we did it. We took advantage of the collective capacity of the group, and we surpassed our own expectations by embracing and having fun with the collaborative process. In speaking to the folks who were there after the fact, it was evident that we all walked away from that session better able to support the learning outcomes we wish to see. Is there anything more satisfying as a leader then to hear colleagues say they not only enjoyed the session but also felt empowered to be better afterwards?

That's why I choose to lead; it's the power and possibility that comes with bringing people together in a manner that will yield the best results. Programs and systems don't move people; the folks who others in the organization look to as leaders facilitate the moving. It's about creating organic opportunities for people to connect and get better as a result of those connections while having professional fun in the process. Nothing inspires people more than the actions and attitudes of other people, and bringing individuals for collective gain is my favorite part about of what I do, and it's the best example of why I lead.

From Bad to Better to Good to Great to Greater to Master

I just started reading “Never Underestimate Your Teachers” by Robyn Jackson, and through the first chapter I’ve made several notes that led to further reflection and thinking. The highlights of those highlights with my expanded thoughts are below. The central theme of the book thus far is that there are actions and mindsets any leader can adopt to help any teacher reach mastery.

1. “Why shouldn’t masterful teaching be the goal - the attainable goal - of every teacher in the profession?... Great instructional leadership means rejecting the idea of masterful teaching as a gift endowed to a select few.” - Page 3

If we as school leaders relegate great teaching to nature, then we unintentionally undermine our own position and duties; if we fancy ourselves as leaders dedicated to the concept of every student learning and making progress, then we must assume that every teacher has the capability of improving and reaching mastery with our supports. Just as it’s wrong for a math teacher to justify poor student performance by saying they just have a bunch of students who are bad at math, a school leader cannot justify poor teaching with the same logic.

2. “Our biggest leadership challenge if not that we don’t know what to do to increase student success; our biggest challenge is that we must get our teachers to do it.” - Page 5

Knowing what to do is not enough. Knowing how to communicate what you know is not enough. We need to know a lot, how to best communicate what we know depending on the audience and circumstances, and how to follow up on that communication in an infinite number of ways depending on how the initial communication is received.

 

 

 

3. “...help bad ones become good, good ones become great, and great ones become even greater.” -Page 6

I’ve been thinking about this quote for a couple of days now since I read it, and I’m thinking that it will become part of my personal mission statement. If I’m not helping people get better no matter where they are, then what am I doing? Why am I here?

4. “It is critical to provide teachers with differentiated leadership as it is to provide students with differentiated instruction.” - Page 19

Don’t just throw darts at the board and hope one hits; be intentional with what you’re doing. Know who you’re working with, and diagnose what’s needed before trying to remedy it. Know strengths and weaknesses in order to get the most return on whatever investment you’re going to make. One size fits all never lives up to its billing whether its baseball hats, leadership strategies, or learning of any kind.

Advice: Do Your Reading

It seemed endless at first, but it was the best investment I could've made

 

Photo Courtesy of Tom Belte

I’m feeling strong two weeks into my new assistant principal position at my new school largely because I’ve completed all my reading - every student file, the Program of Studies, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the student handbook, the progressive discipline guide, School Committee policies, and pretty much every page/link on the school’s website; I’m excited to come back Monday to start week 3, and I'm ready to use my new knowledge of the school’s policies, practices, and offerings in conjunction with every else I already knew.

Doing the reading never gets the attention it deserves, but isn’t that one of the clear differences between the successful and unsuccessful? I know the laws, I know how to work with and lead people, I know about blended learning and essential questions, but how much influence would I wield or how much good would I be to the organization if I don’t know what we do and don’t do/offer? Sitting down and doing the reading is the first time administrator in July's equivalent of walking the walk; it isn't glamourous and it surely won't be what I hang my hat on, but it was the critical step I needed to take to insure my own effectiveness moving forward.

Some of it was dry and some of it became redundant, but the difference between seeing myself as an outsider on Monday compared to an insider on Friday validates all the highlighter marks on the side of my left hand and time spent secluded in quiet this week. I feel prepared to take my pre-existing skills, beliefs, and knowledge and apply them in the specific context of my new school.

Before I did my reading that application would not have been possible, and as we all know it’s the application and implementation of knowledge & ideas that determines success and impact. I'm striving for both.

3 Steps to More Support

Monday’s visions don’t become Friday’s realities without the help of those around us; the status quo is built with good ideas that are never seen through because nobody else buys in, helps make it happen, and/or takes the necessary actions.

I've seen 3 steps any leader of any organization can take to better insure their envisioned outcome. If you cannot or will not do any of the 3, then the likelihood it’s going to happen diminishes rapidly.

1. Start with WHY - make it clear that the work and effort required will produce necessary and beneficial change by explaining WHY it’s happening. If you can’t, then go back to the drawing board before asking others to help you make it happen.

2. Roll up your sleeves - make it clear that you’re not above doing any task necessary to make the vision a reality; people always respond better when they’re working with you instead of for you.

3. Acknowledge & thank - start working on your next initiative by saying thank you for the work just done. A little praise and appreciation goes a long way.

Simple yet profound; these three easy steps are often overlooked at the expense of what’s trying to be done.

Lesson #3: Show Them

Photo Credit

I’ve been reflecting a lot on my first year in school leadership; the third lesson from this year is SHOW THEM.

I’ve received a lot of validation this year for the theory that modeling the outcomes and initiatives you wish to see gets the best results; from a school leadership position this practice can generate the organic growth and development we want students and staff alike to demonstrate.

1. I made a bunch of tutorial and promotional screencasts this year, and some teachers throughout the year began sharing ones they made after seeing mine. I didn’t have to pontificate about the merits of making videos; people saw what I was doing, realized the value, and took the initiative to pursue it. Awesome.

2. We had a staff workshop on UBD that didn’t go very well, but for the rest of the year I planned and published my meeting agendas using a UBD template with all of our district indicators. As we close up school this week and I prepare to move on to another district there are still teachers approaching me about UBD and writing goals for next year regarding curriculum design. A little modeling went a long way.

3. Like many districts we’re integrating Common Core standards into our curriculum, and we’re also implementing the use of school-wide rubrics to assess school learning expectations. I used my part-time status in the classroom to create a hoist of CCSS / common rubric aligned activities, and my part-time status as an administrator to promote and share them with everybody. More and more throughout the year I saw teachers using and improving the templates I created for their purposes; I saw less and less anxiety and fear surrounding both initiatives as more and more people saw easy and effective ways to integrate them. Creating resources and showing how to use them gets results.

The bottom line is the degree to which you’re visible affects people’s perception of you. More so than being physically visible in halls, classes, etc, there are ways beyond that for school leaders to be a visible part of the initiatives and desired direction of the school. If it’s clear that it’s important enough to you to model, then it becomes more important to everyone. Show them how it can be done.

Lesson #2 - Everything Is An Opportunity to Build or Burn a Bridge

I’ve been reflecting a lot on my first year in school leadership; the second lesson from this year is EVERYTHING IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD OR BURN A BRIDGE.

Photo Credit

Too often we forget that people need to be listened to. It was two months ago that an irate parent was telling me she was putting me on the front page of the newspaper for being terrible at what I do, and it was two hours ago that the same parent was telling me she was thankful for how much help I offered her son throughout the school year. My conduct and professionalism throughout the prior hostile exchange built a bridge; had I focused my attention during that meeting on retorting or debating the parent rather than listening to what the concerns really were I probably would have burned the bridge. Had my behavior and response to the hostility been reciprocal I doubt the second exchange would have happened as it did. Even hostility can move us toward where we’re trying to go. Everything is an opportunity to build a bridge.

Too often we act solely in the short-term; we just want issues to go away. A student was being referred to the office by the same teacher for same type of behavior and poor academics over and over and over again, and I was growing tired of it. So badly I wanted to suspend the student and reprimand the teacher for not managing the classroom well, but what would the long-term impact of that be? So instead I wedged in another appointment in the day, got the teacher coverage for a face to face group meeting, and got everybody together for as long as it took. In the short-term it created a hectic day, and meant that I was spending another hour on an ongoing issue; in the long-term it set the student up for 3 consecutive months of success in a required class following the conference and established for the teacher a network of allies in me and the parents. Everything is an opportunity to build a bridge.

Too often we get too busy to realize how busy others are and how hard the people around us are working. Teachers are doing awesome things in classrooms that can easily go unnoticed if we let them; making time to visit shows appreciation for what they’re doing; appreciation empowers others. Replying to emails matters. Being on time and keeping meetings within the scripted time frame matters. Only have meetings that you’re prepared to hold matters. Everything is an opportunity to build a bridge.