Something has got to give. #EDAD688

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="768"] There are many demands that pull on a principal. How can they manage demands and still lead the school?
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This post was inspired by a discussion forum conversation that took place for a class I am taking. The focus of the class is communication in educational leadership and how educational leaders go about building relationships with stakeholders through effective communication styles.

We were asked to pick a communication style that we might employ as building principals. I picked a style that involves communicating with and listening to the stakeholders within the learning community. This communication style fits with my philosophy of leadership that recognizes that it takes a strong team to get things done in schools. Giving a voice to all stakeholders and synthesizing those voices to establish a collective vision and mission for the school will be a powerful force.

I also believe this style fits me best because I tend to be an idealist and I often find myself asking “Why not?”. I like to buck the status quo when the status quo no longer works for the school. The parents, students, staff and community members are the heart of the school and a strong partnership with these stakeholders should be a principal’s priority. If I am able to strengthen the school-community relationship through a two-way symmetrical model of communication, then I will use it because it will enable the school to stay focused on a mission and vision that all of its stakeholders agree to.

A great question that was posed during the discussion was "With all the demands on the table for administrators, and the fact that they are constantly being pulled out of buildings for central office meetings (one-way communication), how can the 2-way model be organized in a time conscious way?" 

I like that question because it asked us to explain what we are willing to do to make this style of communication work for our school. Time is a precious commodity for everyone and effectively communicating with stakeholders will take a lot of time. So how do we respond?

We have to let some things go. There is only so much we can do and prioritizing our time can help us stay focused on what is important. But before we can let things go, we have to know what we can't let go of.

I can't let go of being in classrooms every single day. The interactions between teachers and students are the lifeblood of the school. I need to know what those interactions look like everyday to help my building continue to provide learning experiences that best meets each student's needs.

I can't let go of working with teachers to better support kids. If we want teachers to provide excellent instruction for students, we need to give them support. I need to be able to meet with teachers to find out what they need to make their instruction meet the needs of their students.

I can't let go of working with parents and community members. It takes a team of many individuals with different skill sets and talents to create an excellent school culture. No one can do that alone and working with parents and other community members will be necessary to create a positive school climate and culture.

However,

I will be able let go of time-draining tasks like reading and responding to emails that go on for pages and pages. Chances are there will be a meeting about it anyway.

I will be able let go of being involved with too many activities that take me away from my building. Prioritizing my time and putting my building first will help ensure our progress is maintained.

And I will be able to let go of responsibilities that can be delegated to someone who has a stronger skill set than I do to complete a task. Not every important task or project needs to have direct involvement by the principal. There is a whole building of professionals that I will be able to rely on to get certain jobs done. I will need to rely on those professionals and the strengths they bring to the building.

If you know you need to make something happen in order to improve or enhance the quality of your school, but you aren't sure how you will make it happen, then something will have to give. Know what your "non-negotiables" are and let them guide you to prioritizing your time and resources towards improving the quality of your school for the students, teachers and families it serves. 

Seeking Balance by Asking Questions #EDAD688

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Education seems to be changing at warp speed.

And it seems like everything is on the table when it comes to what needs to change in education: schedules, grades, lesson delivery, professional development - We are taking a "leave no stone unturned" approach to changing schools and looking into replacing it with self-paced online learning instead of classroom learning, passion projects instead of performance tasks, and PLNs instead of professional development.

This is a great development for students. I like how Ayna Kamenetz explained the latest trends in education: It’s never been a better time to be a learner.

However, I find myself asking questions about some of these changes.

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  Is a 1:1 program good for all students? Even Kindergartners?

  
  


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  Is “flipped instruction” the right instructional approach for all students?

  
  


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  Should all professional development happen through a PLN?

  
  

As a parent of a Kindergartner and a 3rd grader, I can tell you that I would not feel comfortable if my daughters learned everything through passion projects. They still need so many foundational skills such as reading, writing and math that will help them get to a point where they can explore an interest and do it successfully.

A hot topic in education in my district is passion projects and how we need to give students the freedom to learn more about their passions. Companies like Google and FedEx do that for their employees through “20% time” programs and it is yielding results.

But don't forget, Google calls it 20% time because 80% of the time there is still work to be done.

Kids should explore their interests, but they should also need to learn how to be literate problem-solvers who can navigate and understand content.

And let’s be honest: Passion projects are really an instructional approach. The successful teachers I know are the ones who vary their instructional approaches in response to their students rather than use the same approach for everything.

So for now, I’m going to continue to ask questions about some of the changes being proposed. I’m not ready to throw everything out because we are doing great work with kids even if it’s not “flipped” or passion-based. As we strive for change, I believe we also need to strive for a balanced instructional approach.

Creating Opportunity #EDAD688

I feel strongly about using Twitter for professional growth.  Each day, I run across dozens of great ideas shared by amazing educators across the world.  Being involved with Twitter really has changed me professionally.

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Every now and again, someone will share something short and to the point (which is the point of Twitter) that really changes my thinking about teaching and learning and what I can do to help improve learning experiences for students.

This quote made me have one of those moments:

This quote really resonated with me in two ways.  First, this quote is something I'm realizing more and more the older I get:  If you have an idea, go for it.  It may be a risk, but isn't it riskier to never know what might have happened if you didn't try?

Second, and more importantly, this quote made me begin to think of how we can teach the kids we work with how they might be able to create the very opportunities they are waiting around for.  How many of our students are secretly wanting to start some sort of club?  How many are wanting to do a big project, but need more likeminded folks to help out?  What could we share with students to help them get going on their own big idea?

I've just started thinking about how I might help students advocate for opportunities.  Right now I have more questions than answers, but I might just start listening a little more closer to what kids are asking for to see how I might help them get there.

In Case of Emergency, Read This Book #EDAD688

I originally posted this story to HZN165. It's one of my favorite stories from teaching, so I wanted to share it here, too.

Helping Kids Through A Bad Day

This afternoon, I was running 10 minutes behind the time I was supposed to be working with some students on responding to their reading through writing.  I had made a commitment earlier in the week not to let anything stop me from meeting with these students since that kept happening.

As I was getting nearer to the classroom (walking at a pace that is probably not allowable in an elementary school), I saw a student outside of her classroom showing signs of being frustrated.  Now, it's not unusual for this child to get upset easily.  That's just who she is.  So, against what I wanted to do, I stopped and asked, "Is everything okay?"

She blurted out her frustration and said, "I'm going somewhere else," and headed down the hallway.

That's usually not a good sign.  Not just for this kid.  For any kid.

I followed her and tried to get her to tell me where she was going, but all she said was, "I need to get outta here."

At this point, I wasn't quite sure what to do next.  I was worried that talking about what happened would upset her even more.  It turns out, a few kids in her class were reminding her not to use so much lip gloss in that kid-reminding-another-kid-sort-of-way (think poor choice of words and a negative tone of voice).

So I turned to the emergency, never-fail, guaranteed to make a kid laugh book, The Blue Day Book for Kids: A Lesson in Cheering Yourself Up, by Bradley Trevor Greive.  

I told her I have the perfect book for you.  She was interested and wanted to see what I was carrying on about.

It worked.

She loved relating to the different examples of blue days (and the funny pictures of animals, of course).

So if you ever find yourself in a situation where your child is too upset to think about anything but being upset, I highly recommend bringing out The Blue Day Book For Kids.

It works like a charm.

A School's Social Media Account Can Be More Than A Newsletter. #edad688

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This year Hilliard Horizon Elementary established a Twitter account (@HZNElemenary) for our school because we wanted to utilize this social media tool so that we could better communicate with our students, families and our community about the great things that are happening at our school each day.

Many schools use social media platforms such as Twitter to share information about important dates and events. This is a great way to communicate important information, but more can be done with this powerful communication tool.

We have been using our school Twitter account to share information, student learning in action, reflections from staff members and articles for parents that can help them help their child learn.




The point is that there can be many uses for Twitter that can help you not only get your message out there, but also share the great things you are learning about in your building. Just think of what that shows the community - That you value learning something new every single day, and that learning never stops!

Check out what some of our students and staff members have been learning about over Winter Break:

https://twitter.com/HZNElementary/timelines/420635157607886848

What are some ways your school uses Twitter to engage the community?

Core beliefs should drive you to improve each day.

“If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.” -Winston Churchill

Last week, I had a conversation with a teacher about our student support process. We are both on our intervention team and the teacher was feeling frustrated about what to do next with a student case.

This was a great conversation for me because the teacher was giving me feedback on a process I helped to develop. I was stunned at first - I was under the impression that our intervention process was working well and we had great results for students during the previous school year. How could this be an issue?

But I quickly ignored those thoughts because this was someone whose opinion I trust and I didn't want to miss a word.

After I listened, I reminded them about a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago about something similar. I told them that the structures we put in place to support students should be the floor and not the ceiling. If what we do is the very best we can do for a kid, then who cares what the process says is the next step?

I've been thinking about my conversation with my teammate a lot since then. While I believe structures and protocols are important, I also believe we often build our own barriers to solutions for the sake of protocols. I believe we need to consider protocols and processes the starting point for our conversations about a student and then use what we know about the student to help him or her be successful.

However, just because something is a core belief doesn't mean I've mastered it yet. This is something I need to continue to reflect upon and improve, and it drives me to want to be a better leader each day.

3 Reasons Why We Gave Access to Everyone

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Today, we gave every staff member access to our school's Twitter account.

This could be a little jarring for those who are worried about what might go wrong. But after all, they have keys to the school building and they are with children all day.  Surely teachers can handle access to a school-wide account.

What's funny is that when my principal and I established our school's social media accounts during the summer, we kept the passwords secret and in a protected file. The whole purpose behind creating these accounts was to help our school get our story out there for everyone to see.  How was that going to happen when only two people had access to the accounts? 

But really, this goes beyond letting everyone access -- It addresses 3 big reasons why teachers need to be connected.

1. On-going Professional Learning -- Those of us who have connected to Twitter know that one of the best things about being connected is the countinous learning experiences we have because of our connections to other teachers around the world. There is a fourth grade teacher who has not only embraced learning through Twitter, but she has also used this new learning to create meaningful and engaging experience for her students through such as participating in the Global Read Aloud.  She is a voice that the staff needed to hear because she is making social media work for kids.

2. Sharing the good things that are happening every single day -- Good things are happening in our building every single day. However, most of it never makes it outside of the walls of our building. We have an opportunity through Twitter to share our stories of learning with the world in real time. Getting our teachers connected to the school account will help share even more of those stories.

3. Becoming the digital leaders our students need -- I showed our staff a Twitter account of a fourth grader in our building. This is an account that was created on his own. He certainly does not meet the age requirements needed to have an account, yet he has one. How many other of our elementary aged students have a social media account?  Rather than taking a "wait and see" approach to social media, we teachers and school leaders need to be taking a "learn with me" approach so that our students have positive models of responsible digital learning.

Today, our staff was given the tools, the chance and the trust to be digital leaders.  We need to be living the learning lives our students are learning so that we can help them be successful.  If we aren't the role models for our students, who will be?