I attended a 2 hour conference presentation by Todd Whitaker tonight on Evaluating Teachers to Improve Instruction. I will not blog about everything from the session, but will hit on a few key points that include an exercise for you to complete as a school administrator.
Before you read any more of this blog, I ask that you think about the classrooms in your building and reflect on what instructional practices you want to see more of? What would you like to see less of? Actually stop right now, take out a piece of paper and write a 2 column list.
Did you make a list?
Now, what is on your list? You may have some common practices as I do. My "want to see more of" list includes: differentiation, a focused lesson objective with student mastery, formative assessment, active engagement, use of technology, co-teaching with special education staff, students reading independently (at their reading levels), and higher level questioning/problem solving.
My "want to see less of" list includes: wasted time, round-robin reading, isolating special education students, worksheets and the teacher sitting at the desk.
As you look at your list of "want to see more of," why aren't your teachers already using these instructional practices in their classrooms? Are they insubordinate or ignorant? I don't think I've ever met a teacher that did not want to be a good teacher and make a difference in the lives of children, so I hope your answer is not insubordinate. So that leaves us with ignorant as their reason. Ignorant does not necessarily mean the teacher is stupid, but just that they don't know. For example, a teacher with classroom management issues isn't choosing to have poor classroom management. I doubt that any teacher would really want to have kids misbehaving, interrupting instruction and leaving them to pull their hair out. If they knew how to have good classroom management, they would! Our job as leaders is to teach the teachers. All of those instructional strategies you listed as what you want to see more of in the classrooms...that is your job to teach your teachers.
Do not feel overhwelmed if your list is as long as mine; you need to pick one focus at a time and think through how you're going to teach it and reinforce it with your teachers. Todd Whitaker writes and speaks that anytime you are going to change anything, you must teach it "whole-part-whole". First teach all (whole) about it in your Friday Focus or weekly memo (I can never pull mine together by Friday, so it's a Monday memo in my building!). Always pretend that your memo is talking about the past, but it's really about the future...what you want to see teachers doing. For example, if you want to see teachers greeting students in the morning your memo may include: I want to thank you all for doing such a great job of starting your students day out on a positive note by greeting them at the door. The other day I saw a student come off the bus with a grumpy look on his face, but the teacher greeted him and told him how happy he was in school today...I didn't see that grumpy look on his face for the rest of the day. Some of our students come from difficult homes, but are so lucky to have such caring teachers.
Did I really see that particular incident occur last week? No, not exactly, but I do know from my own experience as a teacher and administrator how important it is to start every student's day on a positive note. But now all of my great teachers that are going to continue greeting their students in the morning and those that are not (or they're actually doing the opposite by hounding students the second they enter the classroom) think that "everyone is doing it." If this is your new strategy you're focusing on, then make "new sound normal."
That was the first "whole" teaching. To follow up with "part" start walking around in the morning to see teachers greeting students. If you see a teacher at their desk as students are coming in, walk in the room--I bet they'll stand up and go to greet students. If you find a teacher hounding on a student right away about something, talk to them later that day about it. Continue making your rounds each morning. A few weeks or months later, send out another positive email and this time the little story you share could be a real example from your building!
Make sure to always include your beliefs and great instructional strategies in your weekly memos. Teachers are in the lounge sharing their beliefs each day (ok, you know that was a nice way to say complaining) and if you don't share your beliefs with them publicly then they will start to believe their own!
I would love to hear comments from others that have implemented practices recommended by Todd Whitaker...please comment!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Power of a Data Room
The previous 2 years my superintendent and I talked about having a data wall or data room, but this year we finally made it happen. Being a data-driven geek, I was thrilled to finally have this come to fruition. If you don't know anything about Data Walls, please check out http://www.curriculum.org/secretariat/criticalpathways/datawalls.shtml for a video clip on the Power of Data Walls.
Our data room is in what was previously our speech therapist's office, so it's only big enough to cram in up to 8 people for a meeting. We are K-12 all in one building, so we have one wall for elementary and one wall for for 6-12. At the elementary, we have the wall divided into 3 rows to display student data on Reading Levels (using the DRA at K-3 and Fountas & Pinnell benchmark at 4/5), Reading Lexiles from the Scholastic Reading Inventory in 3-5th grades and Math Quantiles from the Scholastic Math Inventory in 2-5th grades. We have little bulls-eye targets that provide a visual of the end of year benchmark for each grade level. When student magnets are placed on the board, it is very easy to see how many students are below or above the benchmark. The data just jumps out at you!!
On our 6-12 board, we have a row for the Scholastic Math Inventory and Scholastic Reading Inventory up through 9th grades. We also have a row that will be used for tracking where discipline referrals orginiated (i.e. classroom, lunchroom, bus, etc.) with the implementation of PBIS.
As the elementary principal, we have been having our biweekly grade level meetings in the data room and have found it to be extremely useful. The room is a work in progress, but we started out the year with last year's Spring reading levels on and used the additional blank magnets as we decided where to place students for our intervention block, which we are calling WIN Time (What I Need).
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Documenting Walk-throughs
Blog 12 of Spilling Ink Challenge
More on walk-throughs...
I've explored various ways of keeping track of walk-throughs. This past year I used a spreadsheet for each quarter. On the left collumn were all teacher names (organized by grade level, then alphabetically, because that was easiest for me). Then there were 9 collumns...one for each week of the quarter. As I completed a walk-through for each classroom I would record the date in the box for that teacher's row. I liked being able to visually see how many classrooms I had been in for the week or to see how long it had been since I was last in their room. Since my goal is to get into at least 15 rooms a week, I would try to get into each room every other week. This spreadsheet made a great visual for this. I would also circle the date if I gave feedback (verbally or written).
I recently skimmed a book while sitting in Barnes and Noble and want to try something new that I saw. This year I will have a simple spreadsheet with 2 collumns. The left with all staff names and the 2nd collumn being much larger so that I can record a date and some information about the walk-through (ex: "guided reading groups, all on-task... asked tchr about word work center). I will complete a walk-through for each and every teacher, before I complete a walk-through on another teacher and record on a different spreadsheet. I plan to print off 15 of these spreadsheets with the goal of getting into each classroom 15 times next year. I think this system will hold me accountable for not "shying away" from any classrooms (as I've previously discussed) and give me a tool to record what I'm seeing.
More on walk-throughs...
I've explored various ways of keeping track of walk-throughs. This past year I used a spreadsheet for each quarter. On the left collumn were all teacher names (organized by grade level, then alphabetically, because that was easiest for me). Then there were 9 collumns...one for each week of the quarter. As I completed a walk-through for each classroom I would record the date in the box for that teacher's row. I liked being able to visually see how many classrooms I had been in for the week or to see how long it had been since I was last in their room. Since my goal is to get into at least 15 rooms a week, I would try to get into each room every other week. This spreadsheet made a great visual for this. I would also circle the date if I gave feedback (verbally or written).
I recently skimmed a book while sitting in Barnes and Noble and want to try something new that I saw. This year I will have a simple spreadsheet with 2 collumns. The left with all staff names and the 2nd collumn being much larger so that I can record a date and some information about the walk-through (ex: "guided reading groups, all on-task... asked tchr about word work center). I will complete a walk-through for each and every teacher, before I complete a walk-through on another teacher and record on a different spreadsheet. I plan to print off 15 of these spreadsheets with the goal of getting into each classroom 15 times next year. I think this system will hold me accountable for not "shying away" from any classrooms (as I've previously discussed) and give me a tool to record what I'm seeing.
Reflecting on my classroom walk-throughs
Blog 11 of Spilling Ink
I've previously talked about my professional development plan (for state licensure renewal) being focused on using walk-throughs to improve student learning. My goal this year was to get into at least 15 classrooms each week and provide staff with meaningful feedback. When I wasn't inundated with tasks related to my position as District Assessment Coordinator, I did a great job at getting into classrooms, but finding a good way to give meaningful feedback has been a struggle for me. I think the most effective is when the feedback can be given verbally, because it will lead to dialogue between you and the teacher.
In the book, People First, the authors suggest using a staff roster to reflect on how you personally interact with each (writing a D next to those you have daily communication wiht, W for weekly, R for rarely, a star next to names that you regularly call on for extra duties and a check mark next to those teachers meeting expectations. I did this and was disapointed to see that I spend more time talking with my teachers that are meeting expectations, but far less time with those that are not meeting expectations. Shouldn't this be the other way around? Yes, it sure should, but I don't because they are difficult teachers to deal with and it is a lot of work. I am ashamed that I even just said that. My job is to make sure that every student has the best education, so I never want to say that again. Next year, I want to focus on those teachers, get into their rooms frequently and have the conversations that need to be had to improve student learning.
I've previously talked about my professional development plan (for state licensure renewal) being focused on using walk-throughs to improve student learning. My goal this year was to get into at least 15 classrooms each week and provide staff with meaningful feedback. When I wasn't inundated with tasks related to my position as District Assessment Coordinator, I did a great job at getting into classrooms, but finding a good way to give meaningful feedback has been a struggle for me. I think the most effective is when the feedback can be given verbally, because it will lead to dialogue between you and the teacher.
In the book, People First, the authors suggest using a staff roster to reflect on how you personally interact with each (writing a D next to those you have daily communication wiht, W for weekly, R for rarely, a star next to names that you regularly call on for extra duties and a check mark next to those teachers meeting expectations. I did this and was disapointed to see that I spend more time talking with my teachers that are meeting expectations, but far less time with those that are not meeting expectations. Shouldn't this be the other way around? Yes, it sure should, but I don't because they are difficult teachers to deal with and it is a lot of work. I am ashamed that I even just said that. My job is to make sure that every student has the best education, so I never want to say that again. Next year, I want to focus on those teachers, get into their rooms frequently and have the conversations that need to be had to improve student learning.
Reflecting on how I can improve as a leader
Blog 10 of Spilling Ink challenge (Yes, I know I'm way behind and will likely not catch up to meet the 30 posts in June challenge, but at least I'm blogging more than normal).
There is a lot to celebrate at our school in the changes and progress that has been made since I've started as principal. My staff will be the first to tell you that they had 7 years of no leadership so they all did whatever they wanted. (They were also the first to tell me that they weren't used to being told what to do and it would be a challenge for them!) I really think that the success we've had over the past two years can be attributed to my leadership of identifying their strengths and areas of opportunity to improve and communicating that with staff...for the most part they all agreed with what I saw and jumped right on board.
But for this post, I'd like ot take some time to reflect on what I need to improve on as a leader. This may bore others to read, but I'm actually using this as my time to reflect and journal on this, so that I can come back to read this throughout the next school year to remember what I need to improve on.
The first area I feel I need to improve is continuing to build relationships with staff. In the book, People First, the authors recommend taking time for staff relationships, saying that every minute is precious for communicating information. You should take time to get to know each of your staff members and ask them when you can; asking about children, dogs, a trip taken, etc. I've found that my superintendent does this very well, she seems to know everything about everybody and they all LOVE her. Even though I have always been a very social person, I struggle with this as a leader, because at work I am always very focused and about business. The idea of taking the time for small talk is definitely out of my comfort zone when it comes to business during a school day, but as I read about the importance of relationships, I realize how much I really do need to take time for it.
As a new principal, I've come in and made many decisions (on my own and with staff decisions in the leadership team); but I still need to become stronger in my ability to make decisions and stick with them. I often ask myself, "what hill do I want to die on" and will sometimes let some things go with teachers if I'm just not ready for the "battle." After completing 2 days of a data retreat in our district (unfortunately, with only a handful of my staff), after hearing what they had to say, I realize how I really need to "grow a spine" in some areas. The overall message I heard from staff is "we want accountability," "We want all staff to act professionally," and "we want direction." I will give 2 examples of issues that I have shyed away from addressing (but have bothered me personally):
#1 Homework-this has been a big issue in our school...with LOTS of it. At the start of this year I led some discussion on homework, gave some research and asked staff to rethink homework. I had about 75% of staff rethink and significantly decrease their homework and speak highly of this change. The other 25% of staff have not made changes and I bet never will unless being told to. This came up in our data retreat. I have decided that I WILL "die on this hill" and give teachers a directive on homework.
#2 Field trips-we have a couple of grade levels that left far too many students behind on field trips. I questioned it (their high expectations of behavior and homework...there's that H word again!), listened, but didn't verbalize my thoughts on it. In our data retreat, we discussed how rural we are and how many of our kids are not exposed to anything outside of their small community; making those field trips very important for them. So, do we have grade levels leaving behind 30% of their students because their card was flipped once (our discipline system) or they were missing one assignment? This is also an issue that I WILL address next year.
As I think about why I've shyed away from these issues, it is because the teachers that this would involve speaking with are intimidating. This is why I am reading the book "Difficult Conversations" over the summer.
There is a lot to celebrate at our school in the changes and progress that has been made since I've started as principal. My staff will be the first to tell you that they had 7 years of no leadership so they all did whatever they wanted. (They were also the first to tell me that they weren't used to being told what to do and it would be a challenge for them!) I really think that the success we've had over the past two years can be attributed to my leadership of identifying their strengths and areas of opportunity to improve and communicating that with staff...for the most part they all agreed with what I saw and jumped right on board.
But for this post, I'd like ot take some time to reflect on what I need to improve on as a leader. This may bore others to read, but I'm actually using this as my time to reflect and journal on this, so that I can come back to read this throughout the next school year to remember what I need to improve on.
The first area I feel I need to improve is continuing to build relationships with staff. In the book, People First, the authors recommend taking time for staff relationships, saying that every minute is precious for communicating information. You should take time to get to know each of your staff members and ask them when you can; asking about children, dogs, a trip taken, etc. I've found that my superintendent does this very well, she seems to know everything about everybody and they all LOVE her. Even though I have always been a very social person, I struggle with this as a leader, because at work I am always very focused and about business. The idea of taking the time for small talk is definitely out of my comfort zone when it comes to business during a school day, but as I read about the importance of relationships, I realize how much I really do need to take time for it.
As a new principal, I've come in and made many decisions (on my own and with staff decisions in the leadership team); but I still need to become stronger in my ability to make decisions and stick with them. I often ask myself, "what hill do I want to die on" and will sometimes let some things go with teachers if I'm just not ready for the "battle." After completing 2 days of a data retreat in our district (unfortunately, with only a handful of my staff), after hearing what they had to say, I realize how I really need to "grow a spine" in some areas. The overall message I heard from staff is "we want accountability," "We want all staff to act professionally," and "we want direction." I will give 2 examples of issues that I have shyed away from addressing (but have bothered me personally):
#1 Homework-this has been a big issue in our school...with LOTS of it. At the start of this year I led some discussion on homework, gave some research and asked staff to rethink homework. I had about 75% of staff rethink and significantly decrease their homework and speak highly of this change. The other 25% of staff have not made changes and I bet never will unless being told to. This came up in our data retreat. I have decided that I WILL "die on this hill" and give teachers a directive on homework.
#2 Field trips-we have a couple of grade levels that left far too many students behind on field trips. I questioned it (their high expectations of behavior and homework...there's that H word again!), listened, but didn't verbalize my thoughts on it. In our data retreat, we discussed how rural we are and how many of our kids are not exposed to anything outside of their small community; making those field trips very important for them. So, do we have grade levels leaving behind 30% of their students because their card was flipped once (our discipline system) or they were missing one assignment? This is also an issue that I WILL address next year.
As I think about why I've shyed away from these issues, it is because the teachers that this would involve speaking with are intimidating. This is why I am reading the book "Difficult Conversations" over the summer.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
End of Year Traditions
One very unique part of my school's history is that up until 8 years ago it was 3 separate small/rural schools. At that point the district consolidated its separate, old/run-down buildings and built one large new building for all of K-12. While there were many benefits to this, it was a lot of animosity between the communities and it also made for interesting staff climate. My first year in the building at some point, I realized there still seemed to be 3 separate groups of staff in the elementary and different grade levels (of staff that previously worked together) carried on their own traditions from their previous schools. I realized how important it is for us to start our own traditions as a whole staff to improve our climate/culture. This is along with trying to make our school welcoming and "family friendly" to our parents/guests.
This year, one tradition that we hoped to begin was an all school picnic on the last day of school (although by "all school" I just mean the elementary...the Middle and High Schools are kept separate from us, despite being under one roof). It took a LOT of planning and hard work from the teachers (I was only involved in a couple of the planning meetings due to my maternity leave...they did ALL the work!) Just one example of the hard work they put into this is that several of them came early on the last day of school to cut up 40 watermelons!! (Not to mention the staff member that filled her van with them and brought them to school) That is TEAMWORK!!
I went in to work for the last day of school events to see them all play out. We had staff members directing traffic. Since we do not have a large parking lot, our teachers parked as far away as possible (on the high school side of the bulding, in the grass). We filled up the parking lot with our guests' cars, plus filled our entire grass field!
Then we had 3 tables lined up with food and staff serving the students/families. We served around 700 people within 30 minutes--I could NOT believe it!! We were almost faster than our lunch program (shhh...don't tell them I said that!) Then we had a full hour for families to visit, play together on the playground and enjoy the beautiful weather.
It was a great new tradition to begin together to enjoy our last day of school before we all say good-bye to each other for the summer.
What end of year traditions do you have at your school?
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
My Summer Reading List
Blog 8 of Spilling Ink Challenge
Summer is a time to rejuvenate...this usually means that I finally catch up on professional reading that I've wanted to do all year long, but didn't find the time for.
Here's my summer reading list:
Difficult Conversations : How to Discuss What Matters Most No matter how many difficult conversations I've had, I always feel like I need more learning in this area.
Implementing Response to Intervention: A Principal's Guide We are just in the beginning stages of RTI at my school and I need to be a leader for RTI.
Classroom Walkthroughs to Improve Teaching and Learning My Professional Development Plan (for licensure renewal) is on using walkthroughs to improve classroom instruction/learning, so this looks like a great book for my own personal professional development.
What's on your summer professional reading list?
Summer is a time to rejuvenate...this usually means that I finally catch up on professional reading that I've wanted to do all year long, but didn't find the time for.
Here's my summer reading list:
Difficult Conversations : How to Discuss What Matters Most No matter how many difficult conversations I've had, I always feel like I need more learning in this area.
Implementing Response to Intervention: A Principal's Guide We are just in the beginning stages of RTI at my school and I need to be a leader for RTI.
Classroom Walkthroughs to Improve Teaching and Learning My Professional Development Plan (for licensure renewal) is on using walkthroughs to improve classroom instruction/learning, so this looks like a great book for my own personal professional development.
What's on your summer professional reading list?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
I'm leading the school, but I cannot delegate!
Day 7 of blogging 30 days in June (that's my new way to still meet the challenge...not necessarily every day, but 30 blog posts!)
Later on I'll be posting about my reflection on this past school year...what went well, what didn't and my goals for next year. But, I'm not ready to get that deep in thought yet (I'm sleep deprived).
I will touch on an area of weakness that I believe is common among many administrators...the ability to delegate. I will admit, I am horrible at this. I am in charge of a school, but I am horrible at delegating. When I say that outloud, it almost sounds like the two are completely incompatible with each other, but I know I'm not the only one. I am afraid to delegate tasks to others, because I simply just feel bad. All of my staff (well, most of them) work so hard and I don't want to add to their pile of work. I don't want to give people things to complain about. I believe in "feeding the teachers so they don't eat the students." This means I end up doing a LOT of work. This means I spend way too much of my maternity leave at school. I actually went into school THREE different times today for various tasks...yup, pathetic, I know!! Well, I'm proud to say that after my third trip in, I delegated a task to my secretary, because I am refusing to go to work tomorrow!
If anyone reads this, can you please share some wisdom on improving in this area?
Later on I'll be posting about my reflection on this past school year...what went well, what didn't and my goals for next year. But, I'm not ready to get that deep in thought yet (I'm sleep deprived).
I will touch on an area of weakness that I believe is common among many administrators...the ability to delegate. I will admit, I am horrible at this. I am in charge of a school, but I am horrible at delegating. When I say that outloud, it almost sounds like the two are completely incompatible with each other, but I know I'm not the only one. I am afraid to delegate tasks to others, because I simply just feel bad. All of my staff (well, most of them) work so hard and I don't want to add to their pile of work. I don't want to give people things to complain about. I believe in "feeding the teachers so they don't eat the students." This means I end up doing a LOT of work. This means I spend way too much of my maternity leave at school. I actually went into school THREE different times today for various tasks...yup, pathetic, I know!! Well, I'm proud to say that after my third trip in, I delegated a task to my secretary, because I am refusing to go to work tomorrow!
If anyone reads this, can you please share some wisdom on improving in this area?
Monday, June 7, 2010
Allocating new technology and a lesson in communication
Well, I skipped blogging yesterday...can I say that I made my own rule to not blog on Sundays? So, today is actually day 6 for me to blog.
Compared to the rest of my peers on twitter, we are far behind on the use of technology in my school/district. In fact when I started in my position 2 years ago I thought the school librarian was joking with me when she had me write my name on a card to check out a book. Her face changed drastically after I laughed and then I realized she was serious...we must be the only school left in the country without an automated checkout system!
Last year I talked to my staff about the possibility of ordering SMARTBoards...a meeting that I thought would have been very positive and exciting; however, I was met with negative comments about adding on "something else." I had to bite my tongue , because I wanted to say "the overhead projectors came over 30 years ago, I think you've got that one down now." Instead I ordered 1 portable SMARTBoard, modeled some uses for it in a staff meeting and hoped someone would try it.
That SMARTBoard not only got used, it got fought over and led to staff begging for more! This year we got approval to order 5 SMARTBoards to be placed permanently into classrooms. The difficult decision was in where to put them. After meeting with the superintendent and technology director, we felt it would be the best decision to place 1 in each grade level and in the classroom of a teacher that has had training/used the portable in the classroom. After this was shared with staff, one staff member later came with the concern that having only one in each classroom could divide the grade level (jealousy that one teacher has one and the others don't and parents wanting their children in the classroom with the SMARTBoard). After thinking of this, I also realized how much more proficient teachers would be if an entire grade level of teachers all had SMARTBoards, because they could share lessons/ideas better than teachers of different grade levels.
Well, now how do we go back on this decision? Teachers have already been told they were getting SMARTBoards and I obviously can't go back in time and seek staff input on where the boards should go (which would have been the smartest thing to do). Tomorrow, we're having a "listening session" with staff to share the idea and provide the time to hear their ideas/concerns.
Compared to the rest of my peers on twitter, we are far behind on the use of technology in my school/district. In fact when I started in my position 2 years ago I thought the school librarian was joking with me when she had me write my name on a card to check out a book. Her face changed drastically after I laughed and then I realized she was serious...we must be the only school left in the country without an automated checkout system!
Last year I talked to my staff about the possibility of ordering SMARTBoards...a meeting that I thought would have been very positive and exciting; however, I was met with negative comments about adding on "something else." I had to bite my tongue , because I wanted to say "the overhead projectors came over 30 years ago, I think you've got that one down now." Instead I ordered 1 portable SMARTBoard, modeled some uses for it in a staff meeting and hoped someone would try it.
That SMARTBoard not only got used, it got fought over and led to staff begging for more! This year we got approval to order 5 SMARTBoards to be placed permanently into classrooms. The difficult decision was in where to put them. After meeting with the superintendent and technology director, we felt it would be the best decision to place 1 in each grade level and in the classroom of a teacher that has had training/used the portable in the classroom. After this was shared with staff, one staff member later came with the concern that having only one in each classroom could divide the grade level (jealousy that one teacher has one and the others don't and parents wanting their children in the classroom with the SMARTBoard). After thinking of this, I also realized how much more proficient teachers would be if an entire grade level of teachers all had SMARTBoards, because they could share lessons/ideas better than teachers of different grade levels.
Well, now how do we go back on this decision? Teachers have already been told they were getting SMARTBoards and I obviously can't go back in time and seek staff input on where the boards should go (which would have been the smartest thing to do). Tomorrow, we're having a "listening session" with staff to share the idea and provide the time to hear their ideas/concerns.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Keeping the theme alive all year
Day 5 of blogging each day in June for the "Spilling Ink" Challenge
Last year was the first year that my staff voted on a school-wide theme for this year. We started out the year with the theme and decorations around the building, but that's really as far as it went. This year I took the time to visit another school that has kept their theme alive all year to build unity and learning. From the ideas gathered there, our staff met to come up with ideas to keep our theme alive all year and build unity throughout the school.
Here's what we came up with for next school year:
2010-2011 School-Wide Theme
“Around the World in 180 Days”
•First week of school we will send information home with students about our theme and a contest for students/families to design the logo for our theme that will be on our school t-shirts. The logo must include a hot air balloon in the picture.
•Each grade level has a designated continent for the year. The classrooms/grade level hallways can be decorated for this theme from the start of the school year. Each grade level will research their continent and create a simple newsletter that will go home with all students to share what they’ve learned about their continent. We could also figure out a way to include facts about the continent on the morning announcements during that grade level’s month for sharing (maybe just for a week on the announcements).
4K Antarctica
5K Africa
1st South America
2nd North America
3rd Europe
4th Asia
5th Australia
•Once we have received student pictures, each student will be given a cut-out of a hot air balloon with their picture on it to send out to a relative/friend as their personal version of a “Flat Stanley” to receive information back about that place to post in the hallways of the school to learn about that location.
•Post Card project: At the beginning of the year we will include an article in the Dodgeland Connection asking parents/community members to help us with this project. We will be seeking post cards for locations outside of the United States…they can be sent to Dodgeland from themselves if on a vacation or ask family/friends that live out of the US to send them to us. We will have them on display with a world map on one of the main hallway bulletin boards.
•We will plan a Cultural Fair as our culminating end of school activity.
•Music concerts could incorporate songs within each grade level from the continents they are learning about.
•We will go back to having a Character Trait for each month and have students nominated by teachers each month for displaying this Character Trait instead of the generic Student of the Month.
I'd love to hear what other schools do to keep their school-wide theme alive all year.
Last year was the first year that my staff voted on a school-wide theme for this year. We started out the year with the theme and decorations around the building, but that's really as far as it went. This year I took the time to visit another school that has kept their theme alive all year to build unity and learning. From the ideas gathered there, our staff met to come up with ideas to keep our theme alive all year and build unity throughout the school.
Here's what we came up with for next school year:
2010-2011 School-Wide Theme
“Around the World in 180 Days”
•First week of school we will send information home with students about our theme and a contest for students/families to design the logo for our theme that will be on our school t-shirts. The logo must include a hot air balloon in the picture.
•Each grade level has a designated continent for the year. The classrooms/grade level hallways can be decorated for this theme from the start of the school year. Each grade level will research their continent and create a simple newsletter that will go home with all students to share what they’ve learned about their continent. We could also figure out a way to include facts about the continent on the morning announcements during that grade level’s month for sharing (maybe just for a week on the announcements).
4K Antarctica
5K Africa
1st South America
2nd North America
3rd Europe
4th Asia
5th Australia
•Once we have received student pictures, each student will be given a cut-out of a hot air balloon with their picture on it to send out to a relative/friend as their personal version of a “Flat Stanley” to receive information back about that place to post in the hallways of the school to learn about that location.
•Post Card project: At the beginning of the year we will include an article in the Dodgeland Connection asking parents/community members to help us with this project. We will be seeking post cards for locations outside of the United States…they can be sent to Dodgeland from themselves if on a vacation or ask family/friends that live out of the US to send them to us. We will have them on display with a world map on one of the main hallway bulletin boards.
•We will plan a Cultural Fair as our culminating end of school activity.
•Music concerts could incorporate songs within each grade level from the continents they are learning about.
•We will go back to having a Character Trait for each month and have students nominated by teachers each month for displaying this Character Trait instead of the generic Student of the Month.
I'd love to hear what other schools do to keep their school-wide theme alive all year.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Singing "Kumbaya" to build unity as a school?
Day 4 of blogging each day in June for the "Spilling Ink" Challenge
I remember working in a previous district where my principal joked about us all getting to gether to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" to build unity. I thought he was nuts. Well, now I'm starting to reconsider...just not with singing "Kumbaya." Before you laugh at me and click the x to close this page, please hear me out. This past week we have had two staff parties. The first one was to celebrate with two of our retiring teachers. One of our very talented teachers had written a personalized song for both of them that we all sang together. They were both touched to tears by the song and us singing it together. Today we had a luncheon to say goodbye to one of our secretaries that is leaving us. Again, that talented teacher wrote a song for her that we all sang together. It was during today's song when I realized we were all singing together with smiles and tears in our eyes, how it really felt like we were one united team together celebrating the good times we've had together. I can't think of any other time in the past two years in this school that I've felt that.
So, would getting together to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" build unity in our staff? I don't know, but I'm not going to suggest it because they will all think that I've lost my marbles!! But, I did ask that talented teacher to make a school song to go along with our school-wide theme for next year so we can sing it together as a school at each of our assemblies to build unity.
I remember working in a previous district where my principal joked about us all getting to gether to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" to build unity. I thought he was nuts. Well, now I'm starting to reconsider...just not with singing "Kumbaya." Before you laugh at me and click the x to close this page, please hear me out. This past week we have had two staff parties. The first one was to celebrate with two of our retiring teachers. One of our very talented teachers had written a personalized song for both of them that we all sang together. They were both touched to tears by the song and us singing it together. Today we had a luncheon to say goodbye to one of our secretaries that is leaving us. Again, that talented teacher wrote a song for her that we all sang together. It was during today's song when I realized we were all singing together with smiles and tears in our eyes, how it really felt like we were one united team together celebrating the good times we've had together. I can't think of any other time in the past two years in this school that I've felt that.
So, would getting together to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" build unity in our staff? I don't know, but I'm not going to suggest it because they will all think that I've lost my marbles!! But, I did ask that talented teacher to make a school song to go along with our school-wide theme for next year so we can sing it together as a school at each of our assemblies to build unity.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Maternity Leave for the Principal? Not Really
Day 3 of posting a blog a day for Spilling Ink Challenge
I had my baby on Friday, May 14th...a beautiful, perfect baby boy who looks identical to my first son. My maternity leave started that day...or did it? Well, let's see. I stayed home that day from work timing my contractions all day ( finally went to the hospital at 5pm), but I had checked my work email several times that day. I was in to work 4 days later with my newborn in tow (after kids were gone to avoid germs) to get everything set up for the scoring of our Spring 6 Traits Assessment for 3,5,7 and 9th grade students. Since that day I have now logged 16 hours of going in to complete various tasks: compiling 6 Traits Assessment data, printing spring reading reports, a few meetings, and dealing with some staff issues (some people seem to think they don't have to continue business as usual without me there!). This time does not include the numerous phone calls I've received from school to check with me on this or that or the time I've spent from home keeping up with emails and corresponding with staff about end of the year stuff.
I had my baby on Friday, May 14th...a beautiful, perfect baby boy who looks identical to my first son. My maternity leave started that day...or did it? Well, let's see. I stayed home that day from work timing my contractions all day ( finally went to the hospital at 5pm), but I had checked my work email several times that day. I was in to work 4 days later with my newborn in tow (after kids were gone to avoid germs) to get everything set up for the scoring of our Spring 6 Traits Assessment for 3,5,7 and 9th grade students. Since that day I have now logged 16 hours of going in to complete various tasks: compiling 6 Traits Assessment data, printing spring reading reports, a few meetings, and dealing with some staff issues (some people seem to think they don't have to continue business as usual without me there!). This time does not include the numerous phone calls I've received from school to check with me on this or that or the time I've spent from home keeping up with emails and corresponding with staff about end of the year stuff.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Why am I blogging every day in June?
Day 2 of Spilling Ink Challenge...blogging every day in June. http://writenowtroup.blogspot.com/
I'm currently on maternity leave (well, kind of, but I'll blog about that tomorrow), so why did I get myself into this challenge to blog everyday when I barely have time to shower? I want to feel connected to other great educational leaders again and be motivated to plan for another great school year. During the times that I stayed active on twitter, I was constantly dialoging with other leaders...on twitter, through their blogs, chat rooms, emails, online book studies, etc. I feel like it kept me current, motivated me and saved me from the "island" that the daily life of a principal can feel like.
During the last few months of my pregnancy I was not the best principal...I had to follow doctor's orders to stay off my feet as much as possible or go on bed rest. So, I became a "paper pusher" sitting in my office the majority of the day. After putting my son to bed at night, I was so exhausted that I rarely checked twitter or other blogs for my online PLN (twitter is blocked at school).
So now, that is why I am joining this challenge to blog each day in June...even though it means I might not get the blog posted until just before midnight and it has taken me all day to try to type it during baby naps...and that I typed most of this with one hand while holding the baby. I'm taking the challenge with the hopes of getting feedback from others and following their blogs as well to stay current and motivated by other educational leaders.
I'm currently on maternity leave (well, kind of, but I'll blog about that tomorrow), so why did I get myself into this challenge to blog everyday when I barely have time to shower? I want to feel connected to other great educational leaders again and be motivated to plan for another great school year. During the times that I stayed active on twitter, I was constantly dialoging with other leaders...on twitter, through their blogs, chat rooms, emails, online book studies, etc. I feel like it kept me current, motivated me and saved me from the "island" that the daily life of a principal can feel like.
During the last few months of my pregnancy I was not the best principal...I had to follow doctor's orders to stay off my feet as much as possible or go on bed rest. So, I became a "paper pusher" sitting in my office the majority of the day. After putting my son to bed at night, I was so exhausted that I rarely checked twitter or other blogs for my online PLN (twitter is blocked at school).
So now, that is why I am joining this challenge to blog each day in June...even though it means I might not get the blog posted until just before midnight and it has taken me all day to try to type it during baby naps...and that I typed most of this with one hand while holding the baby. I'm taking the challenge with the hopes of getting feedback from others and following their blogs as well to stay current and motivated by other educational leaders.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Hiring procedures/tips
I used our week long spring break to catch up and plan ahead for my maternity leave. What I couldn’t plan for at that time was the amount of time I would have to spend on hiring new staff. With retirements, resignations, and staff moving into different positions in the district I had seven new staff to hire. In addition to this was keeping track of the movement of staff changing grade levels. Most school districts around us are on the opposite end of the spectrum; laying staff off. Because of this I have had to screen hundreds of applications for the hiring process. Something that you don’t learn in college is how to efficiently screen applications to narrow down the amount of candidates for interviews. Through this experience, I’ve come up with my own set of criteria: cover letter/resume must have appropriate format and be free of grammatical/spelling errors, must have three or more letters of recommendation (one must be from the current principal), the last important of each recommendation letter usually points out well whether it is an outstanding or just an average candidate, frequent movement between positions is a “red flag” to be concerned about, and it is worth looking at applicant transcripts.
Our school/district uses a committee process to hire additional staff, so I had to form 7 different committees and seek their input on interview questions that addressed what qualities we were seeking for each position. Again, this was time consuming, but I found it essential to have a variety of members on each committee to provide a variety of insight and to have enough variety of interview questions to really find out about each candidate. I found it very important to have dialogue amongst the committee after interviewing each applicant and by the time we completed interviews each day, we were able to come to consensus on our top choice for each position. I then had the additional time consuming task of calling all references (which usually turns into multiple games of “phone tag”) before offering the candidate the position. I’ve learned from a previous experience to always wait for the candidate to accept the position before calling the others to inform that they were not chosen for the position. In addition, I’ve found it very helpful for myself to have a “script” on an index card that I use to call each of those candidates, because otherwise I fumble with my words when giving them the bad news.
What have others found to be helpful in the hiring process to ensure that you hire the best candidate and ways to save time when flooded with hundreds to choose from?
Our school/district uses a committee process to hire additional staff, so I had to form 7 different committees and seek their input on interview questions that addressed what qualities we were seeking for each position. Again, this was time consuming, but I found it essential to have a variety of members on each committee to provide a variety of insight and to have enough variety of interview questions to really find out about each candidate. I found it very important to have dialogue amongst the committee after interviewing each applicant and by the time we completed interviews each day, we were able to come to consensus on our top choice for each position. I then had the additional time consuming task of calling all references (which usually turns into multiple games of “phone tag”) before offering the candidate the position. I’ve learned from a previous experience to always wait for the candidate to accept the position before calling the others to inform that they were not chosen for the position. In addition, I’ve found it very helpful for myself to have a “script” on an index card that I use to call each of those candidates, because otherwise I fumble with my words when giving them the bad news.
What have others found to be helpful in the hiring process to ensure that you hire the best candidate and ways to save time when flooded with hundreds to choose from?
Friday, April 2, 2010
Planning for Maternity Leave
This has been quite an interesting and fast-paced year. I haven't kept up to date with this blog or my PLN on twitter and other blogs, because I've made it a goal to get home in the evenings and have a life with my family. I am excited to share that we will be adding to our family, with my due date in early May. While this is exciting, it is also very overwhelming, because planning for my maternity leave is not the same as when I was a classroom teacher.
Due to the small size of our district and the timing of my expected arrival, we will not be hiring anyone to fill my shoes. Instead, we are being creative with the people and resources that we have. One benefit of having all K-12 in one large building is that the Middle/High School administrators and Superintendent will be able to assist in the elementary building if a serious discipline or other incident should occur. I am also fortunate to have a teacher that is working on her administrative degree and completing her internship hours under my supervision this spring and summer. I have been utilizing her this past month to assist with planning for summer school and end of the year events at school. I will also be relying on her to check my phone messages each day during my absence and either return the phone calls or pass them onto an administrator.
There will be some tasks that I plan to come into the office on evenings/weekends during my maternity leave to complete and will be attending several end of year events for staff and students. I only live a mile from the school, so it will be easy for me to pop in and out as needed. I am only planning to take off five weeks for this maternity leave (using only my sick and vacation days) and then return during summer school.
Have any other administrators taken a maternity leave? What tips/advice can you offer?
Due to the small size of our district and the timing of my expected arrival, we will not be hiring anyone to fill my shoes. Instead, we are being creative with the people and resources that we have. One benefit of having all K-12 in one large building is that the Middle/High School administrators and Superintendent will be able to assist in the elementary building if a serious discipline or other incident should occur. I am also fortunate to have a teacher that is working on her administrative degree and completing her internship hours under my supervision this spring and summer. I have been utilizing her this past month to assist with planning for summer school and end of the year events at school. I will also be relying on her to check my phone messages each day during my absence and either return the phone calls or pass them onto an administrator.
There will be some tasks that I plan to come into the office on evenings/weekends during my maternity leave to complete and will be attending several end of year events for staff and students. I only live a mile from the school, so it will be easy for me to pop in and out as needed. I am only planning to take off five weeks for this maternity leave (using only my sick and vacation days) and then return during summer school.
Have any other administrators taken a maternity leave? What tips/advice can you offer?
Long-Term Plans
Here's my February article in NAESP's Mentor Center:
In my first year as principal at our school, I often felt stressed and overwhelmed at the amount of work needed to get our school on the right path. I formed a leadership team, created time for grade-level meetings, established professional learning communities, and began educating staff on response to intervention. In February 2009, I attended a statewide RTI summit; however, since our school was so behind on the path to having any sort of RTI plan, I felt out of place and overwhelmed by the summit sessions.
We started small at our school with a voluntary book study over the summer and then formed an RTI team in the fall to attend additional RTI trainings to learn together, present to staff, and begin creating a plan for our school.
Last month, I attended another state conference and attended many sessions on RTI again. This time, I was relieved and reassured as I listened to speakers and saw what other schools in the state are implementing because I could finally identify with what some of the other schools are doing. Even though we still have a lot of work to do, I feel like we are on the right path now and are making some positive changes to impact our students.
The difficult part of this process is remembering that change is a process and it won’t happen overnight. The literature I’ve read says this is a two- to three-year process. This is also a major change in both philosophy and practice for many teachers.
How do you keep the process moving forward with momentum, but not too fast to overwhelm staff?
In my first year as principal at our school, I often felt stressed and overwhelmed at the amount of work needed to get our school on the right path. I formed a leadership team, created time for grade-level meetings, established professional learning communities, and began educating staff on response to intervention. In February 2009, I attended a statewide RTI summit; however, since our school was so behind on the path to having any sort of RTI plan, I felt out of place and overwhelmed by the summit sessions.
We started small at our school with a voluntary book study over the summer and then formed an RTI team in the fall to attend additional RTI trainings to learn together, present to staff, and begin creating a plan for our school.
Last month, I attended another state conference and attended many sessions on RTI again. This time, I was relieved and reassured as I listened to speakers and saw what other schools in the state are implementing because I could finally identify with what some of the other schools are doing. Even though we still have a lot of work to do, I feel like we are on the right path now and are making some positive changes to impact our students.
The difficult part of this process is remembering that change is a process and it won’t happen overnight. The literature I’ve read says this is a two- to three-year process. This is also a major change in both philosophy and practice for many teachers.
How do you keep the process moving forward with momentum, but not too fast to overwhelm staff?
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Time Management 101
Here's my December article from NAESP's Communicator:
During my first year as principal, I got into classrooms as much as possible. In my building, there was no previous practice of a principal presence in the classrooms other than the formal teacher observation on a three-year cycle. I made it a priority to get into classrooms to get to know teaching styles and the students, often just leaving a positive message on a Post-it note.
I started this year with the best intentions of not only getting into classrooms more, but leaving more meaningful feedback for teachers to promote further reflection and dialogue to improve student learning. At the start of the year, I met with each teacher to find out what teaching standard he or she would like me to focus on when I come into the classroom so I can tailor my feedback to each teacher’s goals.
To plan for this, my secretary and I came up with a strategy for her to manage my schedule so that both meeting and classroom time are marked on my calendar. I thought the plan was brilliant. However, I also took on additional duties this year as the district assessment coordinator (part of being in a small district). My plan did not account for how much time my new duties require. I am now ashamed to admit that I’m rarely in classrooms, to the point that a few kindergartners have mistaken the recess monitor as the principal.
I’d like to hear any time-management/organization tips that other principals have to make time for the classrooms and not stay in the office until 10 p.m. with paperwork.
During my first year as principal, I got into classrooms as much as possible. In my building, there was no previous practice of a principal presence in the classrooms other than the formal teacher observation on a three-year cycle. I made it a priority to get into classrooms to get to know teaching styles and the students, often just leaving a positive message on a Post-it note.
I started this year with the best intentions of not only getting into classrooms more, but leaving more meaningful feedback for teachers to promote further reflection and dialogue to improve student learning. At the start of the year, I met with each teacher to find out what teaching standard he or she would like me to focus on when I come into the classroom so I can tailor my feedback to each teacher’s goals.
To plan for this, my secretary and I came up with a strategy for her to manage my schedule so that both meeting and classroom time are marked on my calendar. I thought the plan was brilliant. However, I also took on additional duties this year as the district assessment coordinator (part of being in a small district). My plan did not account for how much time my new duties require. I am now ashamed to admit that I’m rarely in classrooms, to the point that a few kindergartners have mistaken the recess monitor as the principal.
I’d like to hear any time-management/organization tips that other principals have to make time for the classrooms and not stay in the office until 10 p.m. with paperwork.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
I have not updated this blog in so long that I couldn't even remember how to login! This new school year has been flying by, with very little extra time for me to get online at night. Why? Because I'm pregnant!! That's right! I'm now 5 1/2 months pregnant and due in May. It's quite exciting, but overwhelming at the same time.
Anyhow, I've been having a pretty successful year as a 2nd year principal and feel like we are making great progress at our school. It definitely feels better than last year. I was realizing the other day how much I have benefited from other principals I've connected with on the net and want to get this blog going again to put my communication out there.
For now, I'm going to copy/paste my articles that have been in the NAESP Communicator. I was excited to be selected as their mentor center principal for the year, because as I've read in previous years, many administators offered feedback. Unfortunately this year, the Communicator is now mostly online and you have to login to access it. So there has been very little feedback for me. I'm hoping that by also posting here, I will get more feedback.
Here was my article for October: Building a Culture of Collaboration
Throughout my first year as an elementary principal, I spent much time observing and learning about the school, its culture, and its history, and changing the things I could not live with. I worked hard with staff throughout the year in staff meetings and leadership team meetings to begin change processes to implement this school year. I thought my second year as principal would get easier, but now that I know how much work has to be done, it seems I’m working even harder than before. I still have hope that the third year will get easier.
Some changes at our school this year include: beginning stages of response to intervention and positive behavioral interventions and supports, school celebration assemblies, having the secretary manage my schedule and sort my mail, and meeting with each teacher to discuss his or her professional goals to tailor my classroom walkthrough feedback to individual goals. One other major change is providing biweekly substitute coverage (using ARRA stimulus funds) to allow grade levels to meet for collaboration during the school day. I have provided teachers with a meeting protocol to follow and take notes on that follows Dufour’s guiding questions for a professional learning community. I have found that some grade levels truly collaborate and accomplish great things together; however, other grade levels do not stay student focused or data-driven and revert back to venting or chatting if I’m not there to keep them on track.
I’m hoping administrators can offer some strategies or resources to help build the collaboration among grade levels so they are focused on student learning as a team, even when I’m not there in the meeting to monitor. I appreciate your input and hope that everyone is off to a great new school year!
Anyhow, I've been having a pretty successful year as a 2nd year principal and feel like we are making great progress at our school. It definitely feels better than last year. I was realizing the other day how much I have benefited from other principals I've connected with on the net and want to get this blog going again to put my communication out there.
For now, I'm going to copy/paste my articles that have been in the NAESP Communicator. I was excited to be selected as their mentor center principal for the year, because as I've read in previous years, many administators offered feedback. Unfortunately this year, the Communicator is now mostly online and you have to login to access it. So there has been very little feedback for me. I'm hoping that by also posting here, I will get more feedback.
Here was my article for October: Building a Culture of Collaboration
Throughout my first year as an elementary principal, I spent much time observing and learning about the school, its culture, and its history, and changing the things I could not live with. I worked hard with staff throughout the year in staff meetings and leadership team meetings to begin change processes to implement this school year. I thought my second year as principal would get easier, but now that I know how much work has to be done, it seems I’m working even harder than before. I still have hope that the third year will get easier.
Some changes at our school this year include: beginning stages of response to intervention and positive behavioral interventions and supports, school celebration assemblies, having the secretary manage my schedule and sort my mail, and meeting with each teacher to discuss his or her professional goals to tailor my classroom walkthrough feedback to individual goals. One other major change is providing biweekly substitute coverage (using ARRA stimulus funds) to allow grade levels to meet for collaboration during the school day. I have provided teachers with a meeting protocol to follow and take notes on that follows Dufour’s guiding questions for a professional learning community. I have found that some grade levels truly collaborate and accomplish great things together; however, other grade levels do not stay student focused or data-driven and revert back to venting or chatting if I’m not there to keep them on track.
I’m hoping administrators can offer some strategies or resources to help build the collaboration among grade levels so they are focused on student learning as a team, even when I’m not there in the meeting to monitor. I appreciate your input and hope that everyone is off to a great new school year!