Building Capacity to Lead

Update for Sept 22 - 26

This week was an amazing example of what happens when we allow ourselves to be creative in order to provide unique learning experiences for kids.

What we did as a learning community to celebrate International Dot Day was an act of brave creativity. We trusted each other to coordinate 900+ students into one large dot in the middle of the field we share with Darby Creek Elementary. I appreciate how we modeled for our students what it looks like to collaborate and create something that is bigger than ourselves. What started as an idea turned into reality because we were able to work together and recognize this was going to be a special moment.

What I hope each of you take away from International Dot Day is this --

• If you want to try something new, go for it. 
• If your kids want to try something new, tell them to go for it. 
• When you have an idea that puts kids at the center of something that will deepen their understanding of themselves and the world around them, go for it.

Give your kids and give yourself permission to take a risk and to try something new.

You never know what might happen.

Reminders/Upcoming Dates

EdCamp Logistics –

·       If you haven’t sent home your copies of the “Kids EdCamp Session Catalog”, please do so on Monday.

·       Be prepared to collect session choices from students. It would be helpful to keep the choice forms in order as students turn them in to you.  You can send the choice forms down to the office each morning.

·       We will be entering the choice form information into a Google Form that will allow us to organize the information.

Data Team Dates –

We will be starting our half-day release times for Data Teams on the following dates:

·       Oct 22 – 5^th Grade, half-day AM; 4^th Grade half-day PM

·       Oct 23 – 3^rd Grade, half-day AM; 2^nd Grade half-day PM

·       Oct 30 – 1^st Grade, half-day AM; KG half-day PM

More information will be coming to you in the near future. I just wanted to get these dates out to you.

Interims – Oct 3

I would like for you to take this opportunity to communicate with parents how their child is doing so far with the material you are focusing on at this time in the year. Just like you, I believe that supporting the growth and success of each of our kids is the most important aspect of the work I do. Please turn your interims into my mailbox by Wednesday, Oct 1 so that I have a chance to review each of the interims.  I appreciate your support. Please see me if you have any questions.

Why is he in here? -- 

I’ve had a couple of folks ask my why I am in classrooms nearly every day.  I appreciate that others may be wondering too, so I wanted to share with you my response.

The work that teachers do is the most important work that is being done within our learning community. Seeing the instructional best practices and strategies that are being utilized by teachers is the best way for me to support the work you do. It’s like checking the heartbeat of the building.

When I walk into a class and stick around for a bit, I always try to see things from the students’ perspective. I use a framework of four questions that I ask from the perspective of the child that helps me form an understanding of the learning experience:

1. What is important for me to do in today's lesson? (Learning Target)
2. What​​ must I learn to be able to do it? (Lesson-sized chunk of content knowledge & skill)
3. How will I be asked to show that I can do it? (Performance of understanding)
4. How well will I have to do it? (Success criteria or "look for")

I look forward to being in your class this week and to the professional conversations that follow!

Upcoming Dates –

Tue Sep 23, 2014

Scheduled Team Time w/ Herb – Let me know if your team would like to meet during your planning time!

Wed Sep 24, 2014   
Biometric Screening – Preschool Conference Room
3:35-4:20 ADE/DCR Staff Meeting at ADE

Thu Sep 25, 2014       
Picture Day! (Gifted Classroom) – It’s Picture Day -- a day of needed patience and organization. Please help the learning continue in the intermediate hallway by helping your students minimize the noise.

Wed Oct 1, 2014
Interims due in Herb’s mailbox

Thu Oct 2, 2014       
Mumkin Delivery
5:30pm - 6:30pm Market Day

Fri Oct 3, 2014       
K-5 Interims Due
Newsletter Home
8am - 9am Building Advisory Committee Meeting

Tue Oct 7, 2014       
8am - 9am Building Improvement Team mtg

Fri Oct 10. 2014       
9:30-11:00am Kids’ EdCamp

Mon Oct 13, 2014   
3:35-4:20 ADE/DCR Staff Meeting at ADE
6:30pm - 7pm PTO Executive Mtg
7pm - 8pm PTO General Mtg

Thu Oct 16, 2014       
Spirit Day
6pm - 8:30pm Tailgate Party

Fri Oct 17, 2014        Central Ohio In-Service Day - No School for Students

Articles Worth Reading -

"Before You Move Onto the Next Big Thing… | The Principal of Change" http://feedly.com/k/1r3iHjB 

“You just listened, so then I could figure it out” http://shar.es/1aWAsP  

Digital Learning Is Just Different http://www.teachthought.com/technology/why-digital-learning-is-just-different/ … via @teachthought

Recovery in Education

Update for Sept 8-12

This week's update is a guest post from Mr. Thom Wendt.  Please let me know if you are interested in being a guest blogger.  We are a community of learners and I would love to share your story of learning.

If you walk the planet for very long, you will be recovering from something.  We recover, or are in recovery, from hardships like ailing parents, the loss of a mother, a sick child, the loss of a pet, a rejection from a date, a lost game, a financial setback, a disappointment in a friendship, unspeakable hurts, and countless others.  We are creative beings and can learn a great deal from how nature creates, recreates and recovers itself in some of the most fascinating ways.  Life’s blessings and hardships allow us to experience our ultimate creation; ourselves.

As I approach 35 years of experience in education, I reflect on how my career has been created over time.  How in the beginning I was not aware of what I did not know, and as a result, I had less stress about the work I was doing.  I did not know that I did not know what needed to be done to leave my mark, or make a difference in the life of a student or colleague.  As I reach departure from a career that has encompassed a great deal of my identity, I realize that by the time I became efficient in knowing how to do my job, the time has come to check out of my profession according to the rules.  Now in my final year, every day a comment or observation is made about my retirement.  It is bittersweet, as I recreate how I will continue to teach, lead, serve, or survive.

I may joke about my age or experience, but seldom see myself as old.  My friends and family shake their heads that I single-handedly moved six ton of of gravel one day this summer with a wheelbarrow and shovel, and wanted to go for a quick slalom water ski afterwards.  It is my goal to leave knowing I owned every second that this world could give.  I know hard work (bullheadedness) is in my DNA from watching my father as a farmer and laborer in gainful employment for 72 years.  My father is like the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Tree.

 I recently discovered the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Tree and realized the lessons it can provide us, as we are mere infants in comparison.  The Bristlecone Pine is the oldest single living organism in the world.  They live in California and one has been dated to nearly 5,000 years old.  It has been alive since before the Pyramids and 3,000 years prior to the time that Jesus Christ walked the Earth.  They only live in the harshest of conditions.  Freezing nights, hot days, little rain, barren soil, pelting sandstorms: all are a requirement of their success.  They attain a great age not in spite of their harsh environment, but because of it.  A harsh environment is what turns a regular Bristlecone Pine Tree into an Ancient one.  The dense and resinous wood created by the harsh conditions make it resistant to disease and fire, the two great killers of all trees.  The only way to become an Ancient Bristlecone Pine Tree is to go through harsh conditions.

The Ancient Bristlecone Pine - The California Environmental Legacy Project

On a much smaller scale, I have witnessed how as educators, we have at times endured great challenges and hardships.  And as I look over my career and the school experience my sons have endured, I see some scars and gnarled practices.  Like personal recovery, the audacity of hope is what sometimes sustains us to face the next day.  As I observe where we are headed, I would rename “educational reform” to “educational recovery.”  Moving toward innovation, student interest, the whole child, teacher autonomy, shared leadership, collaboration, relationship building, the arts, recreation, and the joy in life long learning, allow us to recreate and recover what lead us to our passion in teaching.  

All those initiatives have been present, in our DNA, and in some cases, laying dormant.  They will emerge in a new form like fresh flowers in spring.  Like Death Valley, even a little rain will allow dormant seeds to recover and survive for awhile in the harsh environment.  So we must bloom where we are planted and embrace the beauty in recovering what lies within and ahead.  I will move on to a new season.  You will carry the torches of those who have left before you, and leave your mark.  We may be a million miles from a million dollars, but no one can spend the wealth we have co-created in touching the lives of children.

Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk captures so much of what I have witnessed and value in our profession.  It will reaffirm what you already know to be true about what is gnarled and what constitutes a recovery or rebirth!

Sir Ken Robinson, How to Escape Education’s Death Valley

Thom Wendt is an Intervention Teacher at Alton Darby Elementary.

Up-coming Dates

Mon Sep 8, 2014

Mumkin Sale Ends

Team Time with Herb - During your team's planning time. 
This is voluntary, so please let me know if you would like to meet at this time.

6:30pm - 7pm PTO Executive Mtg

7pm - 8pm PTO General Mtg

Tues Sep 9, 2014

9:00am - 10:00am Mrs. Shively's students' Community Outing

Data Team / IAT Process Overview Meetings for 5th, 4th and 2nd Grade Teams during your planning time.

Wed Sep 10, 2014

Data Team / IAT Process Overview Meetings for 1st and 3rd Grade Teams during your planning time.

Fri Sep 12, 2014

Mumkin Orders due

Mon Sep 15, 2014

International Dot Day!

Teachers help me out put the color shirt for your grade level in your newsletters next week. We can wear our new staff shirt. We will start calling grade levels at 9:15. 

Fifth will lead followed by fourth, third, second, and first and then Kindergarten.

Wed Sep 17, 2014

10:15am-11:30am District Building Visit

Fri Sep 19, 2014

Mumkin Order Money due

Wed Sep 24, 2014

3:35-4:20 ADE/DCR Staff Meeting at ADE

Thu Sep 25, 2014

Picture Day

Thu Oct 2, 2014

Mumkin Delivery

5:30pm - 6:30pm Market Day

Fri Oct 3, 2014

K-5 Interims Due

Newsletter Home

8am - 9am Building Advisory Committee Meeting

Mon Oct 6, 2014

Global Read Aloud begins! -- Click here for more information.

Tue Oct 7, 2014

8am - 9am Building Improvement Team mtg

Fri Oct 10. 2014

9:30-11:15am Kids’ EdCamp

Opening the School Year: It's a Roller Coaster Ride!

Two of the best moments in my life were the birth of my two daughters.  Both of those moments were a roller coaster ride filled with anticipation, excitement, fear, anxiety, stress, and pure joy. I never thought I would ever experience anything like those moments again. 

Well, I’m here to tell you that preparing an elementary school for a new school year as a principal has pretty much contained all of those same kinds of emotions for me.

However, despite the lack of sleep, the anxiety, and the energy it has taken to open a building, I have never been this excited for school to start. Ever.

I can’t wait to see the kids walk into the building for the first time this year! We get a chance each day to make a difference and to change the world by helping to prepare our kids for the future. Just think about that for a moment. We honestly get the opportunity each day to change the world. That to me is a dream come true.

The anticipation of the first day of school and the monumental task we have been given is worth the roller coaster ride and I am ready to go over the hill with my hands up! Here’s to a great school year!

The Week Ahead

Monday, August 18 -- Convocation -- Hilliard Bradley High School, 2800 Walker Road

*Please remember to wear our new ADE Staff t-shirts!

7:45 am–8:15 am - Coffee and Juice in the Commons 

8:30 am – Welcome and Program Begins in Gymnasium

 After Convocation, the rest of the day is for you to get ready for the new year!

11:30 - School Safety Team meeting (Media Center, 15 minutes) - - I will email those of you who are listed on the Incident Command Structure.

4:00-5:00 - Meet the Teacher Open House -- Support staff, please make yourself available to help our families find classrooms. We may need some volunteers to help families access Home Access. I will be in touch with some of you to see if you can help out.

4:00-6:00 - PTO Ice Cream Social -- Located outside behind the gym. Servings are on sale for $1 each.  Thanks to ADE PTO for organizing this event!  

Tuesday, August 19 -- First Day of School!
Wednesday, August 20 --
Thursday, August 21 --
Friday, August 22 --

Articles / Blog Posts Worth Reading

"4 Principles Of Student-Centered Learning" http://www.teachthought.com/learning/4-principles-student-centered-learning/ … via @teachthought

"Who is going to stop me?" http://wp.me/p1w9ty-as  via @MrBernia

"OS!M" - Teacher at Heart http://teacheratheart.weebly.com/1/post/2014/08/osm.html … via @jacki_prati

Update for August 4-8

Summer Days...

Crickets are chirping in the evening and the number of daylight hours are decreasing each day, both signs that the first day of school is right around the corner…

Using a blog may be considered an unconventional way to deliver a weekly building update, but I am doing so for two main reasons. First, I believe in being transparent with you, with our students, and with our families. This blog is a way for me to be transparent with you all. Second, social media has become an important communication tool for us personally and for schools. We can reach a broader audience by utilizing social media to share our stories of learning with our community. 

I wanted to share with all of you something that I have been reflecting on during this summer in the hopes that it may inspire you to reflect.  

Since being chosen to be the next principal of Alton Darby Elementary my world became incredibly busy. This came as no surprise and I fully expected that to happen.  It was like jumping on a treadmill that was running at max speed. I'll never forget it and I loved that time because everything was new and exciting.

What I didn't expect was that the emails, the meetings, summer school, and ending the school year started to take me away from the "why" of wanting to be a school leader in the first place. Let me explain what I mean. 

Simon Sinek, who wrote Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, said "People don't embrace WHAT you do, they embrace WHY you do it". The WHY that Sinek talks about is our purpose, the reason for doing what we do.  My reason for wanting to be the lead learner of a school is to help others, especially students, discover their passions and interests and to know themselves as learners. I am committed to that purpose and it is what makes me wake up each day with a smile on my face. (Sinek did a TED Talk on this topic. It is one of the best videos I have seen in a long time and I highly encourage you to watch it). 

The details and the WHAT of being principal started to take over my focus and it took some downtime this summer to realize that if I wanted to be the best leader I can be for students, teachers, and families, I needed to start each day with my WHY. 

I spent some of my time during vacation changing my morning routine around to give myself time to meditate and visualize my day. I started my mornings by reading and by doing some writing before I did anything else. I am amazed at how much more focused I am during the day. I am getting more done and the time that I spend working is more focused. I believe that I am in a better position to keep my WHY in focus this school year.

As we begin the school year, I encourage each of you to define the WHY for yourself. 

What was it that inspired you to want to be an educator?

How can you share that WHY with others?

How can you use your WHY to inspire others to take action?

All the best to you and your family as we begin this school year!

Herb

____________________________________

ADE Upcoming Events

Monday, Aug 4 – Friday Aug 8 – Ohio Innovative Learning Conference, Hilliard Bradley High School:

-There is still time to register if you haven’t done so already.  Here is more information about the conference: http://ileohio.org/.

-Friday, Aug 8 is the FREE EdCamp.  I can’t wait to be a part of this participant-driven professional day of learning! Here is more information about EdCamp CBus: http://ileohio.org/about-edcamp-ile-columbus/

-Tuesday at 12:30, see Jay and Karen present Reenergize, Inspire, Reconnect with Your Passion in room A13!

Monday, Aug 4 & Thursday, Aug 7 – Poverty Simulator presented by Son Ministries, Alton Darby Elementary

We are the host site for the Son Ministries Poverty Simulator that is one of the breakout sessions during the ILE Conference.  The simulator will take place in the gym.  Thanks to Dave for getting the gym setup! I highly encourage all of you to attend one of the simulations. 

I am proud that we are making our building available to Son Ministries for the Poverty Simulation. I met with Kim Emch, Executive Director and Founder of Son Ministries, today at one of the Hilliard Free Lunch sites.  I met some of our students there and all of the kids were having a great time. Kim is a passionate advocate for providing programs and services for families in poverty or who are in need. She wanted to make sure that we knew that we could reach out to her if we discover that there is a family in need in our building.

One of my goals as a principal is to build partnerships with other people and organizations outside of our building to provide amazing experiences for kids and families, and I am glad to be working with Kim and Son Ministries.

Monday, Aug 4, 6:00PM -- PTO/ADE Staff Get-together at El Vaquero, Hilliard-Rome Road

Wednesday, Aug 6 -- Kindergarten and 1st Grade Assessment Day

_______________________________________
Articles Worth Reading 

-"Ten Tips for Personalized Learning via Technology": http://edut.to/agWUYo  via @edutopia
-"The power of digital student portfolios" http://smartblogs.com/education/2014/07/29/the-power of-digital-student-portfolios/ …
-"5 easy ways to improve your classroom learning space" http://www.justintarte.com/2014/07/5-easy-ways-to-improve-your-classroom.html …

New Beginnings: First Steps

I am honored to continue serving my district as the next principal of Alton Darby Elementary. The goal of this blog was to document my journey to the principalship because I wanted others who might have been interested in educational administration to see what the journey may be like if they decided to take it. Now that I have accepted a position as principal, I will shift my attention to the transition period that has already begun to take place. I am excited to start documenting these reflections through a blog series called "New Beginnings".

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6163/6231641551_541c96e583.jpg[/caption]

 

Since I was announced as the next principal of Alton Darby, the question that seems to come up most is "What is the first thing you are going to do?". I love that question for a few reasons. I think it's funny that sometimes people will ask the question and they stop themselves short of saying "...with all that power?". They see the principal as the decider who makes sweeping changes.

The truth is the "power" does not lie with me. The power lies with US -- the students, parents, teachers, and community members that represent Alton Darby. My mission and my responsibility is to empower these representatives and to synthesize our voices into one vision for learning so that Alton Darby continues to be a reflection of the values, goals and dreams of its community.

The other reason I love this question is because it gives me a chance to talk about my vision for where we can go as a learning community. I believe that leaders need to be transparent in their beliefs. Being transparent helps to foster a culture of trust within the school community. So when someone asks me what I want to do as principal I tell them, "I want to discover the dreams, goals, and passions of the students, teachers, and parents of Alton Darby". I feel that I can effectively lead when I have a deep understanding of what my learning community values and what we want to accomplish. I choose to share this message because I want everyone to know that I believe in building relationships and creating learning environments that are safe and welcoming to all.

So, what is the first thing I will do as principal?

Listen.

Listen to teachers.

Listen to parents.

And listen to students. I can't wait to start having conversations with students so that I can find out what they love about Alton Darby and what they feel we need to focus our attention on in order to help each student reach their goals and discover their passions.

I am thrilled to being my first steps as the next principal of Alton Darby Elementary, and I look forward to continue sharing what I am learning about educational administration.