As social media emerged as a mainstream communication device for school leaders years ago, so evolved the use of the hashtag. Back in 2012 when I first was dabbling with Twitter, Patrick Larkin, one of our first digital principals, used the simple hashtag #bhschat to keep a running dialogue with his high school students, staff, and families. His example prompted me to start my own weekly hashtag chat at Timberview Middle School. We called it #TMSHawkChat, and we made great connections as a community through those weekly conversations. Now only six years later, school/community hashtag chats are commonplace all over the world, and we have learned many more uses for the hashtag on social media.

We can use hashtags to identify strands of learning. For example, at my previous school we used #TMSLearns to draw our community’s attention to learning experiences happening on the campus. Teachers would post images and videos of innovative and/or engaging activities to share with one another and for families to have a look inside the classroom. We used #TMSLeads to highlight articles, quotes, and activities related to our staff’s and students’ leadership growth. We also used it to promote examples of leadership on campus, both individual and collective accomplishments.

My favorite use of the hashtag in the school setting is to carry out ideas connected to our school’s vision, values, and goals. At my new school, Northwest High School, our students and staff worked together to develop a hashtagged theme that conveys our work to “level up” our existing efforts in a variety of ways. Our student council suggested the hashtag #TexanUp (our mascot is the Texans) would catch on, and it has indeed. We use #TexanUp to share examples of our students, staff, and community working to get better at the things we do, to celebrate someone stepping up to lead, and to pay homage to innovation and positive risk-taking.

At my previous school, we hashtagged photos of examples of our students and staff living out elements of the Timberview Way. #IFeelProud would accompany a display of pride in the school, while #IFeelSafe might accompany someone showing a safe habit or taking good care of someone else.

The fun thing about hashtags is you can be as creative as you like while you share the story of your school and share concrete examples of how you want your school brand to be perceived.

Are you unfamiliar with hashtags or hesitant about social media in general? You are missing out on a GREAT and easily accessible tool to promote your school. Start your own personal Twitter account today and spend some time looking at the ways some of your colleagues share the good news of their schools. Perhaps you will be inspired just as I was a few years ago. Social media has revolutionized the way I lead.

Carrie Jackson is the principal of Northwest High School in Justin, Texas. Carrie was named an NASSP Digital Principal in 2013 and has been actively involved in leadership with NASSP and TASSP for many years. She currently serves as the Texas Association’s immediate past president. Follow her on Twitter @jackson_carrie.

I can admit it now; I was probably the wrong man for the job.

As building principal, I knew that we needed to redesign and reinvent the space we called our library media center. We had a pretty obvious problem in there—students and teachers were not really using it. This large space situated in the center of our school had been remodeled several times—it used to be the library and before that it was actually the cafeteria. I added some fresh paint, new carpeting, new furniture, and bought some new books—popular young adult fiction and non-fiction. There were a handful of desktop computers and a SMART Board. Despite these superficial upgrades to the learning environment, it was still essentially a warehouse for a mostly-dated print collection and still largely unused.

An English teacher and hopeless bibliophile, I just couldn’t bring myself to make the real mindset change needed in this space. I saw value in every single book, even the paperback novels that hadn’t been checked out since 1972. What if one student wanted to dust that thing off and found some real meaning in it? Shouldn’t we hold onto all of them just in case?

A combination of events helped me to see the light. First, we did an inventory of our print collection. Talk about eye-opening. We found that nearly all of our reference materials in print were not just old, they were inaccurate and useless in 2018. Next, we were able to add a teaching position to facilitate and supervise this learning space. Finally, the district secured some funds for the technology department to make some major upgrades to this space.

The Evolution of Our Community Learning Space

This redesign became a team effort with administrators, the technology director, curriculum coordinators, teachers, students, families, and community members providing feedback and ideas for what we needed in our school. We researched lots of new and exciting learning spaces, including fab labs, creation stations, STEM labs, STEAM labs, makerspaces. Our vision was a modern, open, and versatile learning space that would be accessible, welcoming, and useful to all students and staff and support the development of 21st century skills. After a spring and summer’s worth of collective hard work from the entire team, we decided on a design and the transformation began.

Features of Our Learning Commons

Here are some of the changes we made for our OMS Learning Commons:

• A full-time Learning Commons Specialist teaching position who coordinates the space and collaborates with all teachers in all subjects to maximize its potential
• Flexible furniture and storage that serves small groups, large groups, project-based learning, and professional development
• A re-organized print collection (half was removed) to save space and to make the materials easier to find for students and staff.
• Two self-checkout stations for print materials
• New desktop computers with touchscreen Chrome monitors
• An interactive touchscreen projection table
• A touchscreen presentation table, a 14’ X 18’ projection screen, and a projector
• A group of 3D printers for students to work on STEM projects
• A newly-designed OMS TV Studio with new editing equipment, a green screen, and professional lighting and windows for audience viewing
• Personalized signage for the Learning Commons and the TV Studio designed by one of our art teachers

One Space with a Big Impact

Today, the Learning Commons is everything we hoped it would be. It is the academic heart of our school, an open and welcoming research and technology center for 21st century learning. Lots of teachers and students have taken advantage of this wonderful new resource, and our instruction and school environment are better because of it. Students enjoy watching the OMS Knightly News live broadcast each morning from the Learning Commons. The financial commitment to this upgrade, which was substantial, has been worth every penny. Our library media center used to be a large space in the middle of our school that was almost always empty. Today, we show our busy Learning Commons off every chance we get.

What are your experiences with redesigning learning spaces in your school?

Matthew Colantonio is the principal of the O’Donnell Middle School in Stoughton, MA. He is the 2018 Massachusetts Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @MattColantonio.

Think of the perfect student. Early to school, always respectful, never an issue, and top scores in every class. If you are fortunate to know students like this, they are diamonds in the rough. Despite appearances, these students are far from perfect. Perhaps they are neurotic before each test, they have little to no social life, or they cry if they lose a point. If perfection is truly unattainable, why do we teach it as the goal?

You may argue this goal is not for all students; however, in my experience, we tell students they get one chance at a perfect score on tests. If these students retake the test and demonstrate true mastery, they typically can only earn half the points back. When students struggle in a standardized test or a course the year prior, we give them additional courses in these areas and emphasize their deficiencies. Shouldn’t we be teaching students to keep working toward mastery until they have comprehension and to celebrate when they reach it? Are we are setting students up for failure by inadvertently setting an expectation of perfection?

The reasoning lies in the fault of perfection. Merriam-Webster defines perfection in multiple ways—“Being entirely without fault or defect” to “Satisfying all requirements.” This means on one hand, I must bowl twelve strikes in a row for a perfect game. On the other hand, by completing a checklist, regardless of how well each task was completed, I can achieve perfection. By focusing on getting every answer correct every single time, do we discourage students more than we encourage them?

The struggle is real. In my own life, I find I’m uncomfortable when I am not striving for perfection. I do the extra research, spend countless hours on nights and weekends preparing for an event that is never as good as I envision. The result is disappointment, anguish, and a questioning of my abilities. The energy I have left is spent reflecting and rebuilding after striving for an unattainable goal.

To stop this impossible quest for perfection, I offer the persistence movement. A principal posed this question to me: Should we be teaching students to shoot for perfection or to be persistent? By teaching others to work through the struggles and set the goal for showing mastery, we provide them with something attainable. The formula I offer is:

Problem Solving + Patience = Persistence

If we teach others by posing a question and giving them the tools they need to achieve theirsolution, they can show a mastery of the essential standards. When they struggle, we ask them to revisit the original problem and use resources outside of those in front of them, and in doing so, they will develop their own tools and have a deeper knowledge. They will create a habit of constantly building a library of resources to be used in a multitude of situations—both inside and outside the classroom—when faced with real-world problems.

As leaders, we need to also teach patience. Students need to learn the easy answer may not be the best one. By accepting a delay as a needed part of the learning process, we continue to focus on the goal. John Quincy Adams said, “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” Teaching others how difficult it is to learn something new may propel them forward toward their goal.

We spend countless professional development sessions training teachers how to present new information, how to “flip classrooms”, and the importance of questioning. We rarely take the time to teach patience and persistence in a field where they should be vital to both students and teachers. If we want to master the world as it is today, we must change our practices and grow to meet the needs of our current students. Come with me and join the movement.

How will you foster changing the mindset of your school away from perfection and towards a culture of persistence?

Eric Basilo, EdD, is an assistant principal at Sanford Middle School in Sanford, FL, and was named the 2018 Florida Assistant Principal of the Year. He also received one of six 2018 adjunct awards of excellence from Seminole State College and credits his success to the support of his family and the education he received while earning three degrees at the University of Central Florida. Follow him on Twitter @drbrm54.

It was my first year teaching,andI was tidying up my classroom. I picked up trash under a desk and threw it away. The next day I noticed moretrash under a desk.Iwatched for several days as the culpritwould place trash under his desk and then leave it.  The next day, when my classroom offender got up to leave, once again leaving trash on the floor, I stopped him and asked him why he would leave his trash, he stated, “Oh, that’s the janitor’s job.”

What? I was furious,but quickly realized that the student was saying this with no malice or entitlement. He truly thought that since there was a janitor who already cleaned up, a littletrash in a pile was just part of the job.

It was on this day that I realized, I was teaching kids more than just English.

Academic Versus Non-Academic Skills

“Take your earbuds out during a conversation.” “Stand up when meeting someone for the first time and shake hands.” “When working in a group and you finish your task, ask others if you can help them.”

These are “common sense” courtesies that we expect students to perform, but who is teaching these “soft skills”—social-emotional learning and personality traits—to our kids? In a 2015 Kansas State Department of Education analysis of community and business focus group responses centered around the question, “According to Kansans, what skills should the ideally educated, 24-year-old youth have?” 70 percent of community focus group participants and 81 percent of business and industry participants cited non-academic skills over academic skills when describing the ideally educated youth.

This led educators to the questions of when, where, and how these skills were being taught to students.

Redefining Character Education

Often, when students and staff members hear “character education,” once-a-month lessons which begin with definitions of vocabulary words such as “responsibility,” “respect,” “friendship,” and “perseverance” followed by class discussion around the question “What does (insert character trait) mean to me?” come to mind.

At Complete High School Maize, we have stopped making character education an addition to the curriculum and have made character education the curriculum that everything else sits upon. Instead of contrived, one-and-done lessons, students are taught character education concepts through authentic, hands-on projects and lessons. With a character trait focus identified each month, all students and staff members participate in one hour of character education each day.

From learning responsibility by writing a resume and cover letter, learning civic engagement by registering to vote, to learning compassion by discussing funeral etiquette, character education at CHSM is something that students live, not just learn.

Turn-Key Resource for Free

Interest in CHSM’s all-inclusive character program, boosted by the school’s designation as a National School of Character by http://character.org/, motivated staff members to compile a year’s worth of character education lessons into the free resource titled 186 Days of Character. The downloadable manual is available via PDF or Google Drive. Lessons are organized by monthly character trait and list the character trait focus of the lesson, Social Emotional Character Development (SECD) standards met, and life skills addressed.

CHSM staff members are committed to helping other schools get started making character education more than just something added to the plate, and instead making character education the plate that everything else rests upon.

How can you, as leaders, support character education in your school and district?

Kristy Custer is the principal of Complete High School Maize, an experiential, project-based, alternative school in Maize, KS. CHSM has won numerous awards including National School of Character, Kansas Green School of the Year, and the National Dropout Prevention Center’s Crystal Star Award. She has been at CHSM a total of 18 years, seven as the principal. She is the 2018 Kansas Principal of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @CompleteHSM.

As an administrator at Lancaster High School, I am always seeking to help students find their place. In my experience, students perform at higher levels when they feel comfortable and a part of the school community. To provide these opportunities, our school has created academies that are tailored to certain career paths. We offer a variety of experiences so that students can choose an area that best fits the vocation they have in mind.

Our Academy Structure

Academies—or small learning communities—encourage students to get involved in not only their daily education plan but extracurricular activities linked to the academy as well. The academy programs have cohorts of students collaborating as a team. They work with their teachers and with community and business leaders toward common career and postsecondary goals. They are able to work with other students who have similar interests and are all striving to succeed in their future endeavors. The academies allow students more opportunities to build relationships and to be celebrated for their efforts. Academy cohorts are not together for just one class, one semester, or even one year; at our school these students work together on academy curricula for three years.

Benefits of an Academy

We’ve found that our academies provide numerous benefits for our students. Here are the top three:

• Career path identification: Students may either pursue their academy career at the postsecondary level or choose a different career path based on their experiences. Either of these outcomes can save a lot of money and time and provide an invaluable experience.
• College and Career Readiness: The curriculum includes internships for most academies and coursework that provides students college credit and soft skills that are highly beneficial. These experiences build skill sets that can help students successfully complete college efficiently and/or gain solid employment.
• Practical experiences that enhance classroom instruction: Student learning experiences within the academies are often project-based and related to “real life” applications. The curriculum is often linked to what a student can expect at a worksite or in higher education.

How to Determine Which Academies Are Right for Your School

Academies can connect to almost every career and also offer unique experiences that benefit any path. You can choose to link your school with already established organizations that provide a structure for curriculum and internships, such as the National Academy Foundation. Or you can establish your own format and curriculum when creating an academy. At our school we have created these seven academies that offer a home to more than 40 percent of our school population:

• Project Lead the Way (Engineering): Our engineering-focused academy allows students access to STEM curricula that prepares them for an engineering major in college. Visit the Project Lead the Way websiteto learn more about this program.
• Academy of Finance: Membership to the National Academy Foundation helps students gain NAF certification, which gives them priority for interviews with some Fortune 500 companies.
• Healthcare: Coursework includes medical terminology, medical ethics, and human anatomy/physiology in this academy. Students can potentially earn college credit through agreements with local colleges.
• Hospitality and Tourism: Linked to a nearby college, this academy allows students to complete coursework preparing them for a career in the industry.
• Leadership: This one-of-a-kind academy supports the development of student leaders, equipping them with the management and organizational skills to excel in a wide range of career paths.
• Trades: Our newest academy offers curricular and practical experiences preparing students for careers in the manufacturing and construction industries.
• Visual and Performing Arts: Coursework and opportunities in this academy prepare students to pursue a career in music or art.

We are always considering ways to improve our current academies as well as add new ones. To improve, we are currently working to have each academy CTE certified through the New York State Education Department Career and Technical Certification Program. As far as what academy will be offered next? This will likely come from the suggestions of our student body who sees the value of these small learning communities and all they offer.

If academies are of interest to you, feel free to contact me at tadamec@lancasterschools.org. If you have academies at your school, I would love to compare notes and hear your stories as well. I believe everyone can find benefit from the academy model, which helps students explore their interests and become part of a community that will position them for future career success.

Terry Adamec is an assistant principal at Lancaster High School in Lancaster, NY serving approximately 1,850 students in grades 9–12. She has been in education for 26 years, 24 of which have been at Lancaster where she began as a special educator prior to her 12 years as assistant principal. Terry is the 2018 New York State Assistant Principal of the Year.

Part of the distinction in being named a 2018 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year is the opportunity to be part of a McKinsey leadership program. This internationally renowned company is “the trusted advisor and counselor to many of the world’s most influential businesses and institutions.” In Part I of the McKinsey Academy, I am part of a cohort that began with 26 educators from around the globe. My subgroup is small: it’s simply Renita from Durham and me.

We’ve met digitally many times in past month and, as a group, developed partnerships to investigate better ways of managing effective teams. One dimension is renewal that includes not only taking time to rest and recover, but also to reflect and respond.

Driving home yesterday, I started to think about the importance of renewal in my own job as a high school principal. I am in my 15th consecutive year as the building principal of Joseph Case High School—what do I do to renew myself?

The most obvious answer is to surround yourself with children. Administrators who have lost their direction need to return to the classroom, the cafeteria, the gymnasium, the auditorium—wherever children are in your building—and reconnect. By bearing witness to their academics, their school socialization, their athleticism, and their artistry, these young spirits will recalibrate your day.

But how can you renew professionally? The answer might be literally and digitally within your reach. Although I am a connected educator, each one of these renewals depends on people, not only the company that you keep on a day-to-day basis, but the collection of professionals you can collect via social media: your PLN, or as many refer to it online these days, your “tribe” of like-minded, uber-curious, and growth mindset-guided brothers and sisters who are living it every day.

And as I read in a recent series of posts on Twitter, you have to find your tribe. Here are three ways you can reconnect, recalibrate and renew on your own time:

Join an edchat. There are virtually hundreds of edchats that go on across the nation and the globe that are dedicated to a specific niche of being an educator today. I start each school morning at 5:30 a.m., with a rapid-fire, 15-minute, one-question chat called #bfc530 (bfc = breakfast club). My #bfc530 chums are K–12 educators, teachers, and leaders—both novice and professionally seasoned.

I begin my morning in a reflective, sharing mode over Icelandic yogurt and fruit. Most of all, I am often inspired to begin my school day positively and having stretched myself just a little. Extra points when you meet one of your tribe face to face whom you only have known digitally.

Revisit the edcamp model. I went to my first edcamp about five years ago, and it really changed my perspective on the taking control of our own professional development—cost-free—within our own communities. So many of us have been a part of and later facilitated subsequent edcamps for our own schools. But when was the last time you simply attended an event without being the organizer?

Just last weekend, I was a part of #EdCampSEmass, and it again ignited a passion in me because I was surrounded in person with like-minded people who yearned to be better tomorrow. Extra credit if you share your day’s journey on social media.

Read the last 20 posts in your Twitter feed. Take a step back and reflect on one fresh perspective. Retweet with a comment to show your gratitude. Small acts of digital kindness on social media have the potential to give you the dopamine rush equivalent of a hug. Extra credit if you embrace a new follower.

December brings all sorts of seasonal pressure—school leaders are not immune. But a few simple digital reminders may help you find the strength to begin the new year renewed.

To all my PLN, my tribe, thank you for refilling my spirit in my quest to be an even more awesome leader tomorrow.

Brian McCann is a 2018 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year. He graduated from Joseph Case High School in Swansea, MA, in 1980, where he now serves as principal. Follow him on Twitter @casehighprinc.

How can you assure that all students in your building have met a minimum proficiency on all of your priority standards, regardless of the teacher? As Lander Valley High School began to answer this question, it became apparent that we needed to have a different grading system to ensure that when I sign a diploma, I can verify that the student has met the standards.

Simply stated, there were too many extraneous variables that influenced our students’ grades to ensure all students were learning at a high level. Just take a moment to think about the way behavior is ingrained into our grading system—from attendance, punctuality, late work, missing work, etc. Then factor in extra credit, and by the time students’ grades hit the report card, it is hard to say what they know about any given topic. Moving to a standards-based grading system ensures that proficiency is measurable, student by student and standard by standard, and allows me as a building principal to guarantee a product of our system despite the teacher, family, or behavior of the student.

Get Crystal Clear About What You Expect All Students to Know and Be Able to Do

What do you want students to know and be able to do? Up until three years ago, what our students learned in their respective classes depended on which teacher the student management system randomly assigned them. Let’s face it; as teachers, we all had things that we preferred to teach and those items that we would prefer to avoid. If you are going to grade on standards, it is imperative that collaborative teams have agreed-upon standards to which all teachers within that team will adhere. Creating a list of priority standards that are also vertically aligned guarantees a clear scope and sequence of material for all students to learn.

Create a Scale to Outline Specifically What Proficiency of The Standard Looks Like

Once you have identified the standards that all teachers will teach, it is important to have an agreed-upon proficiency scale. This scale will clearly articulate exactly what it looks like for students to be proficient in each individual standard. Using Robert Marzano’s scales, our system outlines beginning, approaching, meeting, and advanced application of the standard. Each one of those levels becomes our 1–4 grading scale, with 1 indicating beginning work, and 4 demonstrating advanced application. The concise, four-point grading scale makes it very easy for teachers to calibrate their assessment of a student’s level to ensure every student is assessed equally. With only scores of 1–4 being entered into the gradebook, it becomes crucial for a high school to conquer the next step of converting those back to a traditional percent and letter grade for all the purposes of transcripts, scholarship, college apps, etc.

Convert Scale Grades to Percentages and Letter Grades

There are many suggestions on how to convert scale grades to percentages and letter grades in the literature concerning standards-based grading. As a school, you have to decide what the value of a certain grade means in your school community. Below is the conversion scale LVHS selected, and it is set against the Marzano conversion so that I can highlight our differences and reasons for those differences.

LVHS CONVERSION                MARZANO CONVERSION

4 = 100%                                  4 = 100%

3.5 = 90%                                3.5 = 95%

3.0 = 80%                                3.0 = 90%

2.5 = 70%                                2.5 = 80%

2.0 = 60%                                2.0 = 70%

1.5 = 55%                                1.5 = 65%

1.0 = 50%                                1.0 = 60%

The starting point when deciding a conversion at your own building should focus on level 3, or proficient. Level 3 is your benchmark, the level to which you will drop everything to ensure a student has achieved the standard at this level. The staff at LVHS agrees that level 3 is high-level work worthy of more than a C, but we also agree that there is a difference between showing proficiency and having advanced knowledge and/or application skills that should be reserved as A-level work. Therefore, we agree that level 3 work represents an 80 percent, or a B.

Furthermore, on our scales level 2 work is listed as the prerequisite knowledge needed to acquire proficiency on the standard. We cannot support giving students credit towards a standard without ever having to move above a 2 and apply that knowledge. Therefore, we give 2’s a 60 percent and also changed our grading scale so that D’s no longer receive credit. This guarantees that students who earn credits and eventually graduate demonstrate proficiency on the standards each subject area has identified as priority.

Converting a high school grading system is not always an immediate reality; however, what things could you do almost instantly to ensure that students’ grades are reflective of their proficiency towards a standard rather than an indicator of their behavior? I challenge you to identify the behavior that is being included in your school’s grades and work towards eliminating such marks to ensure your grades assess proficiency towards academic standards.

Brad Neuendorf is in his fourth year as principal at Lander Valley High School where he also served as the assistant principal for four years. He took over at LVHS during a transition to a new block schedule that was created to build time during the day for targeted intervention for students. In an attempt to continually deliver a better product to students, the PLC journey began at LVHS and with immediate buy-in from staff, LVHS quickly prioritized standards, created proficiency scales, and created a standards-based grading system to serve their 500 students. He is the 2018 Principal of the Year in the state of Wyoming.

Let’s be honest. In today’s time, education is all about numbers—state tests, national tests, school report cards—the list goes on and on. One number that I always strive to see increase is our graduation rate. Yes, an increasing graduation rate looks good on paper, but more than that is the intrinsic motivation I have when a student who has faced many obstacles receives a diploma.

When I became the South Effingham High School Instructional Supervisor, my first order of business was to look at dropout data from previous years. Two main trends continually showed up throughout the dropout data mining process: transient male students and “at home” students who struggled academically since elementary school. Now, I know that this is in no way shocking to anyone, but it hurt my heart to see name after name on this dropout list. This is when I knew something had to be done. Our community is a suburb of Savannah, GA, so I knew that there were many job opportunities for our students, but for those big corporations that were always hiring our students, they had one main requirement: a high school diploma. So, I set out on a mission to help improve our graduation rate—not for accolades—but to provide a variety of opportunities for every single student.

Here are three specific strategies we used to target our at-risk population:

1. Alternate Educational Placement: A four-year high school graduation plan is not for all students; therefore, alternate routes to a diploma are a necessity. We found two alternatives that worked for our students:
   1. Crossroads Academy: For students who were extremely credit deficient, they were placed on a credit recovery program that could be done at school and at home. These students would report four days a week to Crossroads Academy, an off-campus alternate education placement center that has smaller numbers and offers more individualized education plans. Once students completed their coursework, they could receive their diploma and move to the next stage in their life. One flaw in this program was that students were not receiving any direction on employability skills; therefore, we tweaked the program to allow students to be bused to the county’s career academy to learn employability skills in logistics.
   2. Senior Fast Track: For seniors who were on track for graduation but decided to drop out their senior year, we offered this option. Students would come to the high school for four hours each day (morning and afternoon sessions) to work on a credit recovery program, which could also be done at home. Usually, these students had three to five classes to complete graduate requirements. Once students completed the required coursework, they received their diplomas.
2. Teachers as Mentors: In our “Teachers as Advisors” program, I strategically selected several teachers to be my “+2 advisors.” I called them this because I knew it would take a little extra effort and time for these teachers to mentor students who would be placed with them. These teachers were assigned students who failed more than two courses for the previous year, those who had academic struggles since elementary school, and those who moved to the school and were credit deficient. These teachers put a lot of hard work toward building a rapport with these students, checking on these students (academics, behavior, attendance, and non-school related events/issues), and offering advice and extra support when needed.
3. Mustang Mentors: To target “at home” students who struggled academically, we created this program in which SEHS seniors mentored feeder middle and elementary school students. We also extended this opportunity to students who struggled with behavior, social acceptance, emotional instability, and adversity at home. SEHS seniors were extensively trained before being placed with their protégés.

Throughout much data mining, energy, effort, time, and planning, these three strategies have shown success. Our graduation rate increased substantially in the past ten years, which is awesome news, but the best news is knowing that students received a high school diploma who would have never received one if not for these programs. There’s no greater joy than giving a diploma to a student who is the first person in their family to graduate.

What processes are in place to make sure each student has a graduation plan and that the plan is being implemented? What safety nets are in place for students who are not successful with a traditional graduation plan?

Tammy Jacobs began her career as math teacher at South Effingham High School, and she moved into the assistant principal role 11 years ago at the same school. In October 2018, she became the principal of Ebenezer Middle School. She is married to Bryan Jacobs, and they have twin boys that are three years old. She is the 2018 Georgia Assistant Principal of the Year.

I was a bit fearful at the beginning of this school year. Budget reduction days loomed ahead, which—understandably—would be carved out of our non-student contact days, or our professional development in-service days. I worried that we would not be able to continue to make the great strides we have made in recent years in developing teacher leaders through our PD days.

Numerous questions weighed on my mind. How would we maintain the positive perspective we’d developed about in-service training? How would we sustain the momentum of growth we had come to experience, expect, and look forward to as part of the teaching and learning culture we had created together? Had we even become dependent on prescribed PD days for the bulk of our opportunity for growth? Like so many challenges, this was just one more opportunity for growth, and a learning experience aboutgrowth as well.

Professional Development Overkill

As I tackled this problem of how to deliver rich professional growth opportunities without dedicated in-service time, I reflected on my personal approach to staff development. In past years, I would meet three times a year with each teacher and discuss, set, and review professional growth goals. With around 30 teachers—meeting three times a year, an hour or more each meeting—the amount of time I spent on this task added up to more than 100 hours of precious time. And there were some obvious issues with these meetings as well; for instance, by the third meeting, we often found ourselves digging through past forms to even remember what goals we set at the beginning of the year.

Though these meetings were well-intentioned, I quickly realized that this kind of measurement was overkill and not really worth our time. So, what could we put in its place that provided educators with authentic learning experiences to grow as professionals that wouldn’t take up so much time?

Micro-credentials and Badges to the Rescue!

To find a solution, we looked to a growing model for professional learning: micro-credentialing and badging. Micro-credentialing takes professional development online and allows individual educators to self-direct their learning and identify skills and competencies they want to master.  Companies such as Digital Promise and BloomBoard offer a variety of web-based programs where teachers earn digital certification, or a micro-credential, when they demonstrate mastery of a specific skill or competency. Our staff have earned micro-credentials for a variety of achievements, including Google educator certification and design thinking.

Badging works in a similar way, except that it is our informal, in-house version of micro-credentialing. Teachers earn a badge when they demonstrate a unique skill or accomplishment, much like a scout would earn to reflect individual progress. Our staff have earned badges for becoming in-house experts for project-based learning, participating and sharing experiences from learning walks, and becoming a certified common-sense media educator.

Our In-House Badging Program

Our staff worked collaboratively to design our badging system, which we based on our successful student badging program. I have found that co-creating a system with teachers has enabled us to design a system with a variety of meaningful opportunities. As we work to implement similar successful student programs through collaborative processes and innovative practices, we are now modeling our professional learning by that same concept.

For our purposes we have identified a common cycle of learn, implement, reflect, and share, required for earning any particular badge. Within that framework, our badges are relevant to our needs as a whole and to individual teacher goals and passions. We can define activities that make sense for each of us, and our goals can be individualized within a collective framework. Furthermore, learning is not dependent on scheduled days; it’s practical, purposeful, and ongoing. The level of teacher buy-in is high because they are invested in the process and know their learning is real. Another added bonus is that we can identify and measure our success based on clear criteria, meaning we will all know if we have met our set professional growth goals.

A New Culture of Professional Learning and Growth

Micro-credentialing and badging offer educators a way to tailor their individual professional growth and provide an easy way to track their progress that others can see. Earning a micro-credential or a badge means something to busy teachers. It has helped us recognize our progress, evaluate what we’ve learned and where we still need to grow, and realize continual growth.

Though our badge system is new this year and we have not yet seen the full effects, I can tell already that it has changed things for us. Like our students, adults have varying learning styles, interests, and experiences, and our badges provide an avenue for growth that blends motivation and passion into goals, which leads to sustained and memorable growth. The authenticity is truly motivating. It’s a win-win for us all.

How might we develop personalized learning options that recognize staff for their work and passions, identify them as in-house experts, and build a culture of growth and learning? Let’s work together to drive growth in schools to benefit our kids for their futures!

Jamie Richardson is the principal of LaCreole Middle School in Dallas, OR. He is one of the 2017 Digital Principals of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @JamieR42.

If you’re reading this, my guess is that you and your school have crystallized a vision for why you do what you do—student learning outcomes, career pathway discovery, etc. In the case of Elk Grove High School (EGHS), our vision is to solidify America’s middle class by educating a generation of highly ethical, civic-minded, economically successful citizens who create a better future for all of us.

Sound familiar? Your vision for student outcomes is likely quite similar to ours. Many schools have a vision for their student outcomes, but does your school cultivate a vision for the process? At EGHS, our administrative team has adopted the philosophy of “Challenge, Support, Patience.” Much more than a catchy slogan, this mantra guides our decision-making every day.

Challenge

Here’s the critical realization that both principals and faculties need to internalize: Students know when our expectations for them have been lowered. Fortunately, as noted by my education hero Rick Stiggins, students are able to reach any target that is clear and does not move. All students must be pushed to their maximum, regardless of where anyone assumes they may finish.

Only about 30 percent of our EGHS parents possess a four-year college degree, but over 90 percent of them aspire to raise children who reach that goal. More than 50 percent of our parents ended their formal education with a high school diploma or less, but virtually none of them would be satisfied if their children were to follow their path.

It’s on us as school leaders to pave the way for the fulfillment of our families’ dreams for their children. At EGHS, even as our school’s poverty rate tripled to over 40 percent, our AP participation quadrupled, and dual-enrollment participation increased by over 500 percent.

Support

Clearly, the mere placement of students into challenging courses is not going to magically transform every child into a Nobel laureate overnight. It is equally critical that all students are actively supported during their challenges by staff who understand that there is much more to each kid’s day than any single course, activity, or sport.

Support for success starts in the classroom. Put simply, students know which staff members are glad to see and teach them, and they rise in response to the warm welcome they receive. This support is particularly critical during those inevitable moments of doubt on the part of a student or parent who feels that the challenge may be greater than their abilities. We must convince our teaching staff to embrace the notion that all students, adequately supported, can succeed in rigorous academic work.

To create the conditions for success, we must also create interventions that identify and bring students along when they are not sure they can handle what we’ve given them. In the school day, outside the school day, whenever. Skeptical staff, students, and parents become believers when support for achievement is present.

Our “Mastery Lab,” a learning center staffed by over 100 teachers and student tutors throughout the day, provides real-time support for students in need.  For students who need more intensive academic and executive functioning support, a referred study program and more than 25 staff-created social wellness groups are there to close the gaps.

Patience

It is where students finish, not where they start, that matters.We forget sometimes that if kids were already mature, prepared, and self-driven when they get to high school, they would not need us. We similarly forget sometimes that student achievement is a journey, not an on-off switch that students or teachers can control.

It is critically important to remember that success does not have to happen overnight and that we, as school leaders, must exercise patience to see the realization of our vision. Despite obstacles of both perception and reality, more than 50 percent of the EGHS Class of 2017 received a passing score on an AP Exam prior to graduation. This year, about 80 percent of EGHS Seniors are enrolled in college credit-earning coursework in math and English, up from about 15 percent just three years ago.

To accomplish our vision, we have prioritized quality assessment literacy practices that emphasize student learning rather than compliance, student growth rather than prior experience, and long-term attainment over short-term struggle. We cultivate a culture that patiently yet deliberately insists on student mastery of knowledge of skills, irrespective of how long the learning may take. In doing so, we’ve created a student-focused environment with increased academic achievement, fewer behavior infractions, and robust student spirit.

We must be the ones to close the gap between our parents’ own experiences and their dreams for their children. Even in the face of opposition, school leaders must create a climate of high expectations for student achievement that puts all of our students in a position to surpass even their own assumptions of their ability.

When we provide the supports and create a culture of patience in the interest of long-term student growth, achievement results WILL follow!

Paul Kelly is proud to be the principal of Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove Village, IL, where he has served for the past six years. Previously a recipient of the Milken National Educator Award as a classroom teacher, Paul was named the Illinois High School Principal of the Year in 2018. Paul is one of three Finalists for NASSP’s National Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @EGPrinciPaul.

I recently returned from a trip to Germany sponsored by the Goethe Institute and Germany’s Central Agency for Schools Abroad. The focus of the trip was to learn about Germany’s vocational schools and training programs as well as to learn more about how they teach languages other than German. As with any international trip, especially one focusing on schools, there was much to learn. Here are a few lessons the U.S. school system can learn from Germany.

• Germany’s approach to teaching languages is proactive for engaging with the rest of the world. Germans begin learning a second language (usually English) in elementary school. Often, they are learning a third or fourth language by the time they are in high school. Their school systems have embraced the critical language learning phase and begin some language immersion at the kindergarten or pre–K level.

  Vocational students working on a German lesson in a technical writing class. Photo credit by Erica Schnee.

• Germany’s vocational schools prepare students to enter the workforce with a well-rounded foundation of skills. Germany is known for their vocational programming. Traditionally, students take classes two days a week and learn the theory of their vocational field, the language skills they’ll need to succeed in that field, as well as business skills. For the other three days a week, students earn money as apprentices in their chosen field. Historically, 90 percent of the German labor force went through the vocational program. While that has shifted in recent years, far more students still complete a vocational program versus attend a university. Additionally, today there is much more fluidity between the educational tracks and some students may attend university after completing a vocational program as well.
• Germany embraces its role as a global partner. While visiting Berlin and Hamburg, I had the opportunity to interact with professionals in a wide range of positions from people working within the U.S. Consulate and working for German federal agencies to city education departments, school headmasters, and teachers. Every person we talked with mentioned the importance of connecting with other schools and countries as they develop policies and curriculum. Most schools we visited had partner schools in other countries, not only in name, but they were connected through projects and competitions. I was impressed with Germany’s proactive and collaborative approach to global challenges, as well as how they teach this process to students in all of their schools.
• Germany plans for sustainability. As one walks the streets of any German city, you can’t help but notice the many ways Germans are environmentally conscious. Escalators appear broken until you approach and the sensor starts it up. Why should it run constantly when people are not using it? Your hotel room key is required to turn on the lights so that you can’t leave lights on all day wasting energy when you’re not there. Buildings display their energy usage, and even their Bundestag (national parliament) is designed to reduce energy use and rely on solar power.

Gymnasium students preparing a presentation on a German play. Photo credit by Erica Schnee.

While I embrace the continuous improvement cycle and think there are always things we can learn from others, there are also some things U.S. schools are doing well that German schools could consider exploring.

• When I spoke with German students, they mentioned they liked the idea of electives and wished they had more choices in their schedule.
• Schools in the United States spend a great deal of energy on the climate and culture of their buildings, which boosts students’ sense of being part of a community.
• U.S. high schools often support students in a well-rounded manner, offering art, music, sports, and more as part of their curriculum and activities.

My most important takeaway is that we have a lot to learn from each other. Connecting individuals across borders is the best way to build a global community and share ideas to deal with global challenges and improve schools.

If you have the opportunity to participate in a global school exchange or learning program, I would encourage you to take advantage of the learning experience.

Erica Schnee is a nationally board-certified teacher who has been a high school educator for the past 22 years. She is currently an assistant principal at Bozeman High School and she teaches AP U.S. Government and Politics for the Montana Digital Academy. Erica has participated in the State Department’s Teachers for Global Classrooms program, Global Education Allies’ East Africa program and has been fortunate to visit schools around the world. She is the 2018 Montana Assistant Principal of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @MsSchneeGov.

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, is a system with long-standing results. PBIS aims to teach core skills as they pertain to behavioral expectations, similar to how schools teach core curriculum expectations. Whaley School, a separate day school for students with acute behavior needs, has been using the PBIS model for five years in the Anchorage School District. We believe that much of our PBIS success is due to the work we have done in four key groups: students, staff, families, and community. 

Students

PBIS creates a positive environment within the school where students follow required expectations and receive points, school monetary systems, or another external reward. For our school, we are clear about what we expect of our students. We expect our students to:

• be Prepared 
• be Accountable
• be Caring to the entire school community 
• Keep a positive attitude

When students exhibit these behaviors, they receive P.A.C.K. cash. On Friday, students visit the school store stocked with items supported strictly by donation—such as clothing, games, toys, food, and more—and can “purchase” these items with their P.A.C.K. cash.

Prior to their time at Whaley, students had seldom been recognized for positive behaviors and instead had been punished for negative behaviors. While it seems simple, recognizing positive behaviors with P.A.C.K. cash has been motivating for students. It helps them be more aware of their classroom and school behavior and has minimized negative behaviors.

Staff

PBIS is not only for students in the building, it’s also for staff. We recognize staff with a “Staff of the Month” award. Students and staff nominate staff members who have made a difference that month through a survey, and the school votes on the nominations. Those who are recognized win various prizes. This program has not only helped to boost staff morale, but it has also been a great way to show staff members what teaching behaviors benefit students the most.

Families

We couldn’t create a PBIS system without parent support and understanding. Parent University has been a great way to involve parents and provide them with the knowledge and skills to help support their child’s education. Parent University at Whaley involves four components:

• Connect parents to the school community and show them how they can get involved.
• Educate parents about our curriculum and the reasoning behind the different course options and educational tracks.
• Explore ways that students can get involved in the school and the community to add to their academic education.
• Teach parents skills and strategies to use at home to support their child.

We’ve found that Parent University has been instrumental in our work with our students. It has increased parental involvement, reduced parental frustrations with the school, and improved student learning because of the extra support they are receiving at home. Truly, our school and families work as a unit for the betterment of all of our students.

Community

Without the support of our community members, PBIS would fail. Getting the word out to the community regarding what we do, how we do it, and the purpose of PBIS is the best way to show the community that we can work together as one to create success in school and the community. Whaley invites our community members to our annual Gala and Silent Auction. This event raises awareness of what we do and raises money for items for our school store. It allows the community to get an inside look into our school community. We also regularly invite community members to teach lessons or share what they do in the community to give a better perspective to our students.

PBIS is a system that can be implemented at any school regardless of grade level. Creating an environment with specific expectations throughout the building helps students to recognize normalcy in the real world. PBIS should be a means to teach students what daily expectations are in and out of school, thus the success of their actions is rewarded—just like on a job.

What are your experiences with PBIS? How do you work with students, staff, families, and the community to implement and support PBIS in your school?

Robyn Harris has been an administrator for the Anchorage School District for 10 years and is the principal of Whaley School, a separate day school for students with acute behavior needs. She is the 2018 Alaska Principal of the Year.

For school leaders, January brings the unofficial start to master schedule season. A master schedule includes decisions about course offerings, teacher plan periods, teacher course recommendations, utilization of Full-Time Equivalency (FTE), instructional interventions, and even lunch times. January is often the time of year that principals and assistant principals begin to formulate a plan to best utilize their resources to meet student needs through an efficient and effective master schedule.

This process always reminds me of a famous quote from Joe Biden: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” The same is true for a school’s master schedule—it sends a direct message about what school leaders value.

Building a master schedule should be transparent, collaborative, and tethered by a shared vision of teaching and learning. This process can become a climate and culture initiative for school leaders to build and maintain this shared vision with their teachers, counselors, and support staff. It is important that school leaders give careful thought about how to create a process that accomplishes this goal.

Creating Transparency

The key to creating transparency around the decisions involved in the master schedule process is developing a set of criteria questions that you will use to determine if a specific decision is the “best” decision. By being clear with your criteria for decision-making, you build in transparency around your values as a leader.

Example criteria questions:

• Is it best for supporting learning for all students?
• Is it best for the curricular scope and sequence?
• Is it best for the professional requirements of teachers?

Creating these questions to “filter” decisions creates a way for you to evaluate your decisions while also creating clarity around what matters when building a master schedule.

Structures for Collaboration

Any school leader will probably tell you that collaboration is the key to effective school leadership, and this thinking should extend to the master schedule process as well. Creating transparency is the foundation for true collaboration. While the personnel aspect of the conversation may create some challenges to collaboration, having structures in place that give voice to teachers empower them to take on new challenges. In addition, collaboration creates opportunities to weigh the outcomes of different decisions, which helps promote a truly collaborative approach.

Some questions to consider as you build collaborative structures and systems:

• How are teachers and counselors included in decisions around course offerings?
• How are teachers and counselors included in decisions around section numbers and teacher assignments?
• What communication strategies do you employ to share information about these decisions? (Email? In person? Shared spreadsheets?)
• Is it best for all teachers to be included in the discussions or should a department chair/team leader structure be utilized? If yes, then how will decisions be communicated to the entire staff?
• Do teachers and counselors feel comfortable asking questions or following up with you about decisions? What processes are in place to ensure this dialogue?

Tethering master schedule to a shared vision

When teachers and counselors fully understand the decisions being made and are included in those decisions, then the real work of talking about the values that drive those decisions can begin. For example, does the shared vision of teaching and learning include instructional teams to best support ninth-grade students? Then the collaboration about the master schedule should definitely include common plan times and team-teaching opportunities. Does the shared vision of teaching and learning include innovation through STEM programming? Then the master schedule should definitely include a “STEM Hour” where every teacher contributes to teaching inquiry and innovation. The list could go on and on, but the key component is that the master schedule is seen as an opportunity for school leaders to speak their vision and build a shared understanding of that vision.

Building a master schedule can become one of the most important climate and culture initiatives in a building. It is imperative that school leaders recognize the importance of the process in establishing and maintaining a shared vision for teaching and learning.

If someone looked at your school’s master schedule, what would it say about your values as a leader and the shared vision for teaching and learning in your school?

Andrea Smith is Principal of Lyons Middle Senior High School in St. Vrain Valley Schools in Lyons, CO. She is the 2018 Colorado Assistant Principal of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @SmithSVVSD.

Much more often than I would like to admit, a little voice can be heard chastising me from the back seat of our minivan while sitting at a traffic light: “Better left unread than dead, Mom.”

In those moments I reflect and recognize I must do better—I am not modeling or practicing what I preach. I need more digital balance, and whatever text or email I am replying to can wait until I get to my destination. The phone goes into the glove box until I get home, with a firm digital boundary set.

What is Balance Anyway?

By Merriam-Webster’s definition, balance is a state in which different things occur in equal or proper amounts or have an equal or proper amount of importance. To me, that means the amounts shift depending on what I need to keep me steady. We all want to be healthy, happy, and balanced, so how do we as educators do that when the digital realm often helps give us hope at work/life balance?

Go Ahead and Use Social Media

Part of our attraction to our digital world is social media. This is as important to us as it is to our students. Feeling connected is healthy, and when you are insanely busy, face-to-face interactions are at a premium with social media often filling that void. Interestingly enough, there is research that supports that this is more than OK for us and for our students. Studies in 2018 from the University of Missouri-Columbia and Common Sense Media demonstrate that participating in social media does not have significant negative impact on social interactions, and, in fact, teens are much more likely to say social media has a positive, rather than a negative, effect on how they feel. So, if your only way to connect with staff, students, family, or whomever is by using social media, by all means, connect—you are not going to be any worse for it! Send a Snapchat to your children before you leave your PTA meeting and perhaps catch them before they go to sleep.

Be Mindful of Your Messaging

Remember, we are striving for balance. Don’t put a higher value on our digital interactions over physical interactions. Our students are watching. What we do is as important as what we say. Are we only tweeting, sending email, and connecting over Facebook? Are any of your interactions with students phone calls, home visits, or one-on-one meetings? At our school we have instituted a “Let’s Disconnect Lunch Half Hour” for all students and staff. It’s non-negotiable. Even if students don’t want to eat, they must leave all classrooms and are not permitted to keep working. This truly was one of the most difficult culture-changing behaviors—and now we have students playing cards and sitting with staff eating lunch, and staff playing badminton, going for walks, and more.

Use and Model Digital Boundaries

Here are a few ideas I have used and shared to help tame my digital romance:

• Schedule your digital time: Since I schedule everything in my world, I now schedule my free digital time and my digital work time. This has helped me set limits, especially with Twitter (I can stay on there for days). Establishing these boundaries has helped me be more intentional and feel better about my balance.
• Send work emails only from your desktop/desk and not from your personal phone: This will do three things; it will minimize the amount of emails you send, increase the intentionality of your emails, and minimize your phone time from constantly checking your email (and prevent you from going down a digital rabbit hole).
• Charge your phone out of sight out of mind: In my office my phone is on and in my drawer. This way I am not prone to pick it up 40 times. Charge your phone outside of your bedroom at night, too, which will improve your sleep.
• Enable Do Not Disturb and turn off notifications: When applicable, use the Do Not Disturb feature on your phone and turn off nonessential notifications from on your phone and computer (you will be surprised how many things actually have notifications).
• Be mindful of the time you are on your device: Most devices have an app that allows you to monitor your screen time. Review it, reflect on how you can do better, set intentional goals, and openly model your goals.
• Shift your digital screen to grayscale: Since social media use can trigger a pleasure response in the brain, some suggest shifting your screen to grayscale to remove those positive reinforcements.

Love Yourself Enough to Give Yourself Grace

Balance is never the same formula, as the variables change. Balance for me may not be balance for you. This week you may have been a digital balance wreck—and that may also mean you ordered those flowers for your spouse, made connections with your students who needed a mental health follow-up via email, connected through social media with your brother, and sent a how-to video in Google Apps for Education (GAFE) for a struggling staff member. Today you are reflecting, giving yourself grace, and intentionally planning tomorrow’s digital boundaries. You got this!

How do you maintain digital balance as a school leader?  How are you openly modeling the importance of digital balance and reflecting on your progress for your school community?

Kristina MacBury is principal at Sarah Pyle Academy in Wilmington, DE. She is an author, speaker, leadership coach, and advocate for school happiness agency. She is a 2018 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year and in 2017 was named a Top 30 Technologist, Transformer, and Trailblazer by the Center of Digital Education. Follow her on Twitter @MacBuryKristina and visit her blog, educate4hope blog.

At Centennial Middle School (CtMS), incoming students arrive typically two to three levels behind on academic standards. Every year, 60 percent of the population in math and 55 percent of the population in English/language arts (ELA) need additional academic support. In a building of 600 students, with a 50 percent free and reduced rate, it’s a clear focus of ours to provide that extra support in math and ELA in an effort to help close that gap without taking away from core instruction.

Response to Interventions (RTI) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) are structures available within the education system to address students’ needs that are beyond the reach of standard classroom differentiation. One or both terms might be familiar to you depending on your state; Colorado uses MTSS. The system relies on analysis of student data with a team of experts (core teachers, intervention specialists, administrators, and more) who base interventions on the gaps that data uncovers.

The challenge I have had with MTSS implementation is, “How do you provide interventions at the middle levels?” It seems that most of the books, resources, and intervention curriculum is designed for elementary school students. In addition, since intervention needs to be in addition to core instruction (core plus), the challenge becomes providing students extra instructional time without adding more time to the day or staff to your building. So, how do you get 400 students more math time? Or 350 students more ELA time?

Having worked on these challenges for a decade at both the elementary and middle levels, I’ve learned various lessons about implementing an MTSS system into a school. Here they are:

• Start with strong core instruction. All students need to get the best core instruction that your staff can deliver. Teachers need to see that MTSS starts with them. At CtMS, our staff works collaboratively to research and implement best practices to improve core instruction. Our leadership team supports our teachers by providing regular time to meet together to analyze data, create and evaluate common assessments, and form strategies to improve core instruction. In addition, we encourage our teachers to take risks in the classroom and learn from those experiences.
• Get your best teachers working with the students who are struggling the most. Utilize your best math teachers to work with your students with the greatest math needs, and the same should be done with ELA. Traditionally, schools have paired struggling students with the newest teachers or paraprofessionals. Struggling students must be working with our best teachers!
• Use progress-monitoring to assess student progress or performance on the areas that are identified as at-risk. Progress-monitoring is a systematic approach that monitors student progress at frequent intervals, depending on the skill and tier level. At a minimum, progress-monitoring occurs at least monthly, but ideally every two to three weeks. Teachers use this data to drive their instruction and respond better to the individual needs of each student.
• Build a flexible master schedule that accommodates core plus programs within the school day.Time and staffing can be a HUGE roadblock in having a successful middle level MTSS structure. To build our schedule, we had to change the way we look at time and use our staff. Our schedule had to allow our best teachers to instruct our struggling students. We added more class sections to provide time for students to get core plus without pulling them out of core instruction. Adjustments to the master schedule allowed us to create an additional class period (from 6 periods to 7) and a 7-day rotation that drops one class period per day in order to provide more sections for interventions.
• Support students who don’t need MTSS interventions. With the majority of our school’s students needing core plus, we created a What I Need (WIN) block. WIN supports students who require more instruction time but may not need the intensive instructional level of an MTSS intervention. Additionally, WIN enrichment classes provide students who have meet or exceeded standards in their core subjects the chance to explore other opportunities, like problem-based learning, engineering, robotics, and advanced math.

Centennial’s MTSS system was not created overnight. We began with a single focus on reading, then added math, then writing, and now this year we’ve folded behavior intervention into the system. Overall, it has been a five-year process at CtMS that started with 40 students and is now supporting 170 learners. This ever-expanding reach of support to more students each year is a highlight of our successful MTSS program here at Centennial Middle School.

What are your experiences with RTI/MTSS? What strategies have helped the implementation of your school’s core plus initiatives?

Joe Simo is the principal of Centennial Middle School in Montrose, CO. He is the 2018 Colorado Principal of the Year.

Schools benefit when students share their voices, but how often do we take the time to truly listen to what they have to say? The Quaglia Institute suggests that students are seven times more academically motivated when they believe their voices are heard as compared to students who do not. How might we integrate student voice into the way schools work while also honoring what students have to say?

At Seward High School in Seward, NE, we strive to hear the many voices of our students. We provide opportunities for students to develop their voices and ask them to play an active role in their education while building a community of learners and leaders. Here’s our story:

Establishing the Bluejay Leadership Team

Earlier this year,our building administrative team wanted to find ways to invigorate our current student council structure and empower student voice and action throughout the entire school. To address these needs, we formed the Bluejay Leadership Team, with the purpose of providing students a platform to not only share their voice but also to shape our SHS story.

Here’s how the Bluejay Leadership Team works. Students submit applications to be a candidate for Bluejay Leadership Team. Next, the student body votes democratically for their desired candidate through an electronic ballot. Our group is comprised of 17 members and is advised by myself and Ms. Kristen Upton, a classroom teacher who assists the team. Students meet monthly for 45 minutes during a dedicated meeting period on campus.

Defining a Student Vision

The Bluejay Leadership Team starts each year by working through a process to define who we are as a school and how we want to tell our story. Students identify when our school is at its best and for what we want to be known.  This year, the team adopted this statement for our vision: “We will respect each other’s diverse interests while positively encouraging our classmates and competitors through sportsmanship, citizenship, and innovative practices.” Once these desires are clarified, the team attaches action words to these statements in order to outline their vision for the team.

Transforming Student Voice into Action

After developing this vision, the Bluejay Leadership Team works to transform their voice and vision into action. We empowered student leaders who have a specific affinity for social media branding and video creation to help tell our story. Combining graphic design, journalism, and video production skills—and organized by social media interns—students use the Class Intercom app to promote and share our story through multiple mediums. The Class Intercom app lets administrators and teachers easily monitor and approve digital content composed by students.

Sharing the Stories of Students

Students are proud to be part of telling our SHS story. They have adopted the mantra “Show Up For Each Other” to show their dedication to and love of their fellow students. Students share the stories of the school using both the #showupforeachother and #sewardjays hashtags. They proudly wear press passes at games and activities as they represent each of the specific groups at our school. Senior social media intern Rebekah Klenke says, “This ensures everyone’s story is being told because we have authentic representation from every group contributing to our brand.”

Spreading P.R.I.D.E. throughout the School

Another function of the Bluejay Leadership Team provides is support our P.R.I.D.E. program, a school-wide reinforcement and acknowledgement system that provides immediate, intermittent, and long-term reinforcements through weekly recognition systems.

Our team plans quarterly P.R.I.D.E. recognition rallies featuring alumni speakers, unique student performances, and special awards based on controllable, desirable assets or soft skills such as preparation, respect, integrity, dedication, and effort. Each rally also features a video that is planned, recorded, and edited by students that creatively highlights academic and extracurricular events and achievements for that particular term. Students offer feedback, contribute ideas, and strive for inclusivity with such presentations as flamenco guitar, cup stacking, and student versus faculty quiz bowl competitions with video clips highlighting a wide array of student activities from trapshooting to competitive diving.

Little did we know when we formed the Bluejay Leadership Team what a tremendous impact this organization would have throughout the entire school community. By empowering student leaders to serve our school and tell its many outstanding stories of success, we have built a stronger school culture based on the ideas of those who matter most: our students. Thanks to them, our administrative team is confident that not only do we encourage students to share their voices, we hear those voices and act on them.

If you were to ask your students if they have a voice in the decision-making process at your school, what would be their response?

Jill Johnson is the assistant principal at Seward High School in Seward, NE, serving an average of 525 ninth- through 12th-grade students each school year. Jill has 25 years in education, the last three at SHS. Jill is the 2018 Nebraska Assistant Principal of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @mrsjillj.

DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit built exclusively to support K–12 public schools and address educational inequities, and DonorsChoose.org has helped teachers in 4 out of 5 U.S. public schools request items for their classroom. Our founder and CEO Charles Best launched the nonprofit 19 years ago out of his Bronx high school history classroom—since then, DonorsChoose.org has generated $775 million from over 3 million donors of all stripes for public school classrooms. We’ve teamed up with NASSP to create a new Principal Toolkit, and show how you too can help teachers get resources for their classroom that line up with your school priorities.

When Principal Mildred Charley-Greene of Northwood High School heard her physics teacher’s project was fully funded on DonorsChoose.org, she was inspired to encourage others in her school to create their own classroom requests. Because of this encouragement, Northwood High School has raised over $13,000 in materials through projects in line with Principal Charley-Greene’s focus areas of equity, powerful instruction, and shared accountability.

After Hurricane Harvey, Rockport-Fulton High School Principal Scott Rogers says DonorsChoose.org was incredibly helpful in a time of need. Thousands of dollars of resources now go toward supporting programs from the Robotics program to the school’s Student Council Club.

Upon learning that DonorsChoose.org supports teacher professional development, Centennial Middle School Principal Joe Simo was excited. He cares about his teachers being on the cutting edge of their profession, and wants to encourage teachers to request STEM- and literacy-focused professional development experiences.

These are just a few of the principal testimonials about their experience with the crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose.org.

Because we’re solely dedicated to supporting public school teachers, we provide end-to-end safeguards and accountability for school leaders like you. Unlike traditional crowdfunding platforms, DonorsChoose.org fulfills funded classroom projects, sending resources directly to verified school addresses and never sending cash to teachers. We also work hard to inspire funders from outside teachers’ personal networks—in fact, 75 percent of the $775 million we’ve generated for classrooms comes from donors and organizations who don’t know the teacher they’re giving to.

Schools that find the most success and funding on DonorsChoose.org are led by principals who work with teachers to align DonorsChoose.org project requests with the school’s strategic imperatives and goals. NASSP and DonorsChoose.org have teamed up to create a new Principal Toolkit that shares ways to spur innovation and support the unique priorities of your own school.

The toolkit includes strategies for engaging teachers, with tactics on how they can use DonorsChoose.org to reliably get funding for resources that support student learning. Additionally, the toolkit shows you how to receive updates on teacher project creation and case studies of how other principals successfully used DonorsChoose.org. We’ve included project examples and language you can share with your district leaders to ensure they understand what makes DonorsChoose.org the K–12 crowdfunding platform of choice. Whether you are looking to boost STEM learning, build your library with culturally relevant texts, or even host an engaging speaker for students, DonorsChoose.org can help you achieve your goals, as it has done for thousands of schools. We are honored to work with NASSP in supporting secondary principals and their schools across the nation.

Check out the NASSP and DonorsChoose.org webinar recording here.

Download the Principal Toolkit.

How can I leverage DonorsChoose.org to create a culture of innovation in my school community?

Katie Bisbee leads the DonorsChoose.org marketing and partnership team, engaging 3 million citizen donors and 500 corporate and foundation partners in supporting public school classrooms.

There are no restaurants, banks, grocery stores, or other everyday establishments or public places specifically for people with special needs, different education levels, or specific skin tones. Thankfully those places are there for everyone’s use. Shouldn’t students be educated the same way, with all their peers, as much as possible? That would be a great start to teaching and learning acceptance, care, empathy, and respect for others while creating a foundation to help students navigate life.

When I started at Stoughton High School ten years ago, I found a school ready for a change. At that time, the overall graduation rate was 84 percent—65 percent for students with a disability. There were over 600 failing grades marked per semester, and 24 percent of our student population were receiving IEP services. The school district was in the middle of a multi-year Office for Civil Rights review and was on the state DPI disproportionality list. The school climate was negative and the culture showed little school pride.

I knew that we needed to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Our students, families, and community deserved a better learning environment. We needed to transform Stoughton High School into a place that everyone felt welcome and all students were able to achieve success.

This transformation process was like turning around a big ship. From the start we knew that we were creating a place for all students. Based on the work of Colleen A. Capper, Elise M. Frattura, and Maureen W. Keys from their books, Meeting the Needs of All Students of All Abilities and Leading for Social Justice, we committed ourselves to an Integrated Comprehensive Services model. Using this model, we focused on full inclusion for all of our students.

Through good planning and hard work, we completed all parts of the Office for Civil Rights criteria, lowered our students with disability percentage below the state average, and became one of the few schools in the state that has been able earn their way off of the DPI disproportionality watch list. Our staff did amazing work on accommodations, modifications, and differentiation of lessons to keep all students in their regular educational settings with their peers. We do not have pull-out special education classes at Stoughton High School; all students are educated with their peers.

Not only did we need to shore up our social justice lens, we needed to tend to our overall school student expectations. Again, through the hard work of our staff and systematic planning with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, we have been able to create a fantastic learning environment for our students. We stress that our students are ready, respectful, and responsible. We increased the academic rigor by adjusting our curricula, increasing our graduation requirements, increasing AP offerings, and teaching college classes on campus. Our average graduation rate for all students has risen to 97 percent. The other piece of the puzzle was to strengthen our extracurricular offerings and increase avenues for students to become involved. We now offer so many opportunities for students that we have over 70 percent of our students involved in school activities.

There is always work to do, but when I look at what we have accomplished, I am amazed. Our staff has done a fantastic job and put in many hours of hard work helping students and families.

As a school, we have exceeded expectations on every state report card, received the State Spirit of Excellence award, and the WIAA Award of Excellence, and have been nationally recognized for our inclusionary work. Stoughton High School has become a wonderful place for all students.

Watch the video we created on school culture and inclusion.

How do you make your school work for all students?  

–A native of Iowa, Mike Kruse holds degrees in science education and education administration from Northwest Missouri State University. He also earned an educational specialist degree from the University of Wisconsin in educational leadership and policy analysis. In 2006–07, he was named Wisconsin Associate Principal of the Year while at Verona Area High School. He became Stoughton High School principal in 2008 and was just recently named the 2018 Wisconsin Principal of the Year.

Darkness, cold weather, and a continued lack of daylight can bring the winter blues to many of us. While February is considered the shortest month of the year, for some it seems to be the longest; students and staff are longing for warmer weather, increased daylight, and spring break!

As building leaders, we owe it to our students and staff to flip the negative mindset that can occur during the February Funk. Here are some practical strategies that school leaders can use to bring more LIGHT to dark attitudes.

Light the Fire

One of the best ways to light the fire is by being present. As hard as it may be, leave the office to welcome students and staff into the building. Greeting them with smiles and high fives will provide a contagious spark. Walk into classrooms and shout at the top of your lungs, “I love our school and your positive attitudes!” Stand by the buses or in the hallway after last bell and play groovy music while students exit the building.

Inspire with Positivity

Attitude is a choice. As you plan your staff meetings, intentionally build in fun team-building activities. Staff will love getting to know each other through cooperation and competition. Tweet at least one positive image a day to showcase your school. Hand out positive behavior referrals to staff members by having your assistant call the teacher to your office and present them with an uplifting, positive message. Attitudes are contagious.

Give Compliments

Everybody loves a compliment, especially when it comes from a boss who is sincere and gracious. Take time to write notes of thanks, citing specific behaviors you appreciate. Go a step further and write these notes to the teacher’s spouse or parents. Walk into a classroom and personally praise a teacher in front of the students. These simple gestures will energize and enhance trust.

Highlight Positives

February is a great time of year to reflect. During staff meetings, put together a slide show with pictures you’ve gathered from the beginning of the year. Praise your teachers for going above and beyond to create meaningful moments in their children. Looking back at these positive interactions will fuel them to create even more experiences. Let them know you will be showing another video at the end of the year and you’ll be in their classrooms taking pictures.

Timely Treats

There may be no better way to get to teachers’ hearts than through their stomach. After all, February is known for huge chocolate sales. Randomly leave treats in the staff lounge with inspirational messages. A moment on the lips and forever on the hips—I mean hearts!

How do you bring light to teacher morale and lift spirits for your staff during the darkest of times?

Jason Bakke is the principal at Century Middle School in Lakeville, MN, serving an average of 950 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students each school year. Jason has 22 years in education, the last 17 at Lakeville Area Schools. Jason is the 2018 Minnesota Assistant Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @jebakke.

Positive connections between students, teachers, administrators, and school community lead to academic success and a balanced education. To reach their potential, it is integral that children connect to at least one person in their school community. This connection needs to exist within a safe and stable environment, providing opportunities for these relationships to strengthen and grow. The middle level leader plays a key role in fostering these important components of success.School communities need to gain a firm grasp on how well they really know their students in order to effectively connect with and eventually educate them. An activity called “Do You See Me?” (also known as the “Dot Activity”) provides leaders with a chance to measure not only how many students connect with educators in the school, but also how many staff members each student might see as a resource or support. “Do You See Me” is best done toward the end of the first quarter which gives staff time to get to know their students.

Activity Description

To prepare for this activity, we take the student pictures provided digitally by our school photographers at picture day and print out a copy of each student. We fit two 5×7 images on one standard letter-size paper, tape all of the pages onto paper, and hang them in a large area like a gymnasium or library.  From there, faculty and staff are given a variety pack of small “dot” stickers and follow these directions:

Part One: 20–30 minutes

• Walk one lap around the entire area, viewing the pictures of all the students.
• Walk a second lap and begin placing stickers on the pictures of students with these guidelines:
  • Place a blue dot sticker on a student’s picture if you know their first or last name.
  • Place a yellow dot sticker if you know at least one school-related fact about the child.
  • Place a green dot sticker on a student’s picture if you know one non-school-related fact about them (hobby, vacation location, favorite sports team, etc.).
  • Place a red dot sticker on a student’s picture if you had a one-on-one conversation with them about something not related to school.

Part Two: 10–20 minutes

• Allow a short break after the second lap.
• Teachers should then take a third lap, relooking at all the pictures and stickers.
  • Ask them to make silent observations about the completed student pictures along with observations about the students they personally knew, didn’t know, or only knew particular information about.

Part Three: 5–10 minutes

• Staff will then independently complete a survey (can be electronic, written, or non-written) asking for the following information:
  • Approximately what percentage of the student body did you “know” something about?
  • How many stickers did you place on the students who you teach in class? Which color stickers did you use for them?
  • How many stickers did you place on students who you do not teach in your class(es)? What color stickers did you use for them?
  • How did you feel after placing your stickers on student pictures after the second lap?
  • How did you feel when you were walking around looking at the stickers on student pages during the third lap?

Teacher Reflections

Teachers will likely come up with some powerful reflections during the survey portion of the activity. If you were able to conduct the survey electronically, you can monitor the comments and use it in the “Discussion Phase” of the activity. Here are some actual comments from prior teacher surveys:

• I felt bad when a kid didn’t have many stickers, or only yellow stickers. I was thinking about how to improve my percentage of “red”, so I could make time to have more personal conversations with kids. I also noticed that the kids with the most stickers were IEP students, students with behavior issues, or students with outgoing personalities.
• I was amazed at the distribution of stickers. Some of the students that I thought would be well known turned out to have very few; the converse is equally true. I was surprised that the least-stickered students were also the students who would be considered “not a problem, not a star.” They didn’t stand out for good reasons or for academic reasons and exist under the radar.
• It was sad to see some students with only a few stickers or no stickers at all. As a parent, it made me realize that I would want my own children’s teachers to spend the time to get to know them.

Group Discussions

After completing the survey, conduct a group discussion with your staff (whole or small group depending on the size of your staff). Use a protocol for the discussion to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to have a voice in the conversation. Some examples of effective discussion protocols include Affinity Mapping, Final Word Protocol, Four Corners, Pinwheel Discussions, and Socratic Seminars. This is an opportunity to focus the conversation on your building goals, vision, or specific issues you are facing at your school. Some guiding questions for these discussions may include:

• If you saw a student picture with only one sticker, why is that sticker important?
• What characteristics did you notice of students with no stickers, one sticker, or only a few stickers?
• What characteristics did you notice of students with many stickers?
• Is it more important to focus on students with many blue or yellow stickers, but few green and red stickers?
• What should we do about students with no stickers?

Some specific examples of comments made during this portion of the activity are below:

• That student may not feel connected to school and that sticker could represent the strongest staff relationship in their life.
• That may be a student who could’ve “fallen through the cracks” or does not have many supports in their life. That one sticker may be the one smile per day that that child sees at school and brings them comfort.
• What can you do about students with no stickers?

Close the discussion activity with the following question:

• What’s the most important thing you can do as a middle level teacher to make sure your students are being seen?
• Here are some real-life examples from our middle school staff who answered this question:
  • I think that standing in the hallway between classes is essential. There are times when I get busy and don’t do it, however, when I am out there, I always try to say good morning or good afternoon and use the student’s name. I find that these are the times when they would be likely to tell me something about themselves that is silly or non-academic.
  • Continue to communicate as a staff with one another to make sure no child falls into the shadows. Additionally, extracurriculars are the best way for me to get to know kids that my role at school simply would not allow.
  • Just because a student had a lot of stickers, doesn’t mean we’re making a big change/difference with them. There are kids with a few stickers that we are making a big difference with at school. This activity really highlights the importance of personal connections our students need to make with their teachers, coaches, etc.

Follow-Up

After the activity ends, be sure to follow up in the coming days and months. Consider having your guidance counselor(s) collect the student papers that had very few stickers or more superficial stickers. Identify ways to support the students who need more of a connection in your school. Look for commonalities between the students with lots of stickers. Do they have any similar characteristics that could translate into skills to teach less-connected students?

In the final analysis, there is no right or wrong way to go about performing “Do You See Me?” As long as the building community has the opportunity to reflect on the relationships they have with students in the building, it’s guaranteed to be a successful exercise. All students need to know that they are more than grades on a report card, more than a discipline form. They need to know they matter.

How does your school measure student connections with staff?  

Nicholas Indeglio, EdD, is the principal of Downingtown Middle School in Downingtown, PA. He is the 2017 Digital Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @DrIndeglio. 

Jonathan Ross is the principal of Lionville Middle School in Exton, PA. He is a 2009 National Distinguished Principal. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanG_Ross.