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Become the School’s Head Coach by Fostering Teacher Leadership

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As a former coach, the value of team and usage of each person’s strengths has always been etched in the forefront of my thinking and planning. Now as a school leader, this same concept has been a driving force in my thought process. My field is my school, and my team is my teachers. Instead of winning a game or a title, our victories are measured by student success. Though my title says principal, to me I am nothing more than the school’s head coach.

Like every good coach, a good principal needs a strong game plan. My game plan centers on teacher leadership. My job is to foster an environment where a team of leaders feels empowered to make suggestions and changes that play a role in our school’s victory. Win or lose, we are all in it together. Here are the best plays—or the necessary components for this plan to thrive—from my school leadership playbook:

School Culture

Just like we practice fundamentals with any sport, we must practice daily the following traits in order to ensure a culture of leaders.

Collegial Environment

  • Is your staff willing to collaborate before, during, and after school—both formally and informally?
  • Is there a shared vision that the entire staff, not just a chosen few, can speak about?

Problem Solving Orientation

  • Is your staff more interested in solving problems than complaining about them?
  • Are students on your campus “ours” and not “yours/mine”?

Trust

  • Are teachers comfortable to offer solutions to problems?
  • Do teachers and administrators have open-door policies that welcome communication?
  • Is there no expectation of perfection? Mistakes are okay.

Clear Communication

  • Is everyone in the loop? If not, you may have to show them the way.
  • Is two-way communication encouraged?
  • Do you have clear, predictable, and reliable communication structures in place?

Receptive School Administrator

As a school coach, are you willing to relinquish a little bit of control? While it may seem a little bit scary at first, the dividends it pays are well worth the initial stress. For me, this has been crucial in the five years of sustained growth in all components of our school performance score.

Here are essential questions that you as the school coach must be able to answer yes to:

  • Do I have a growth mindset for all staff?
  • Am I able to be humble and reflective?
  • Do I know how to be a community builder?
  • Am I approachable and flexible?
  • Can I step out of my comfort zone as a leader?

It is my responsibility to find the strengths and weaknesses of my team. I use google forms surveys and a teacher google classroom to ask frequently for opinions and suggestions to current challenges. I also use ED Camp practices at faculty meetings for others to give solutions and opinions. This is my opportunity to adjust my game plan using the input of my team.

As hard as it may be for administrators to answer yes to the above questions, it is just as difficult for teachers to take leadership roles. You, as the coach, must create the culture and the opportunity for others to lead. This challenge has to start with you.

Change-Oriented Teachers

The final and most important piece of game plan is the teachers. Like any player, our teachers need to practice—they must practice the act of leadership. When you hire teachers, the teacher leadership expectation must be clear and concise before people choose to take a position.

I am looking for teachers that can:

  • take small steps to improve the school’s culture
  • communicate issues and help encourage a reluctant principal
  • take initiative and push through the fear of failure
  • help others become leaders

You Are Not Alone

While a principal wears numerous hats and many times it feels like you are all alone, that is a choice you make. At times, it is the only way, as you are the ultimate decision maker, but by sharing leadership amongst your entire school, you will find support when it is most needed. It will also allow you more time to be with your students and experience the successes that all of you work so hard for. Remember, we all got in this business for the kids. Anything that will help us to be better for them is worth the effort. So, go out, and “Coach ‘em up.”

Have you created an environment where others are willing to lead? If not, adjust your game plan today. Use your people and just be the “head coach.”

Tommy Byler is the principal at North Vermilion High School in Maurice, LA. He is the 2018 Louisiana State Principal of the Year. He currently serves as the Vice President of the Louisiana Association of Principals and is the Vice President of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Executive Committee. He served as a varsity coach for 24 years before entering administration. Follow him on Twitter @2018LAPOY.


Truancy Task Force: Don’t Fight Attendance Problems Alone

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At Lakeland Union High School, our absenteeism rates used to be substantially higher than state averages. Year after year, someone—usually an assistant principal or dean of students—was always working hard on addressing our truancy cases. Despite our efforts, nothing we did dramatically affected the number of students habitually missing school. To break this cyclical pattern, our administrative team decided to take a different approach to curb attendance problems.

The Truancy Task Force

In 2010, we created the Truancy Task Force, which brought together individuals from local schools, county court systems, county social services, private counseling firms, law enforcement officials, and local mental and physical health professionals. We realized that all of us were working in isolation on the same problem of decreasing truancy rates. It was time to join forces, get all of the stakeholders on the same page, and work in collaboration on the complex issues surrounding student truancy.

The Truancy Task Force started off meeting two times a month. School leaders, judges, prosecuting attorneys, social workers, counselors, health care providers, and school resource officers used this regular time to plan attendance interventions for our truant students. One of the biggest benefits was that everyone learned what each area does to address chronic absenteeism. Schools learned what judges’ philosophies were on truancy intervention, judges learned what steps schools took before a student ended up in court, and county and private social service providers engaged in discussions about how they could help.

Systematic Interventions Through Truancy Report Centers

When we realized the many individual efforts all of us were making, we collaborated and created Truancy Report Centers to provide attendance interventions in a robust, systematic way. Each of our county’s schools house a report center. Here’s how it works:

  • Students in truancy court are ordered by the judge to attend a report center.
  • Each report center is open Monday through Friday from 3:45 p.m.–5:45 p.m.
  • A student comes to a report center every day for varying amounts of time based on their specific academic situation. For instance, if a student has one failing grade, they may only be assigned 30 minutes. If failing four courses, they would be assigned the entire two hours.
  • At a report center, students have access to one of our teachers (paid for by Oneida County) who help them catch up on missed academic work.
  • Students have access to counseling services provided by either private service providers or the appropriate county agency. These counseling services include alcohol and other drug abuse (AODA), anger management, mental health, and others on an individual basis.
  • Report center educators submit a weekly report to school administration that monitors students’ academic progress, work ethic, attitude, and behavior during report center sessions. These reports are shared with the court system(s) at regular truancy court review hearings with the student, parent(s), and school present.
  • Once a student’s attendance and grades improve to a satisfactory level (judge’s discretion based on school’s recommendation), they are released from the program. Some students are ordered to attend the report center for months; others only attend for a few weeks.

Effective Attendance Interventions

From a school perspective, the Truancy Report Center program is much more effective than traditional truancy consequences. Students receive the academic, behavioral, and emotional support they need that addresses the root causes of their truancy issues. In addition, our local truancy court jurisdictions (we have students in Oneida County, Lac du Flambeau Tribal Court, and Vilas County) have found that funding the Truancy Report Center is less expensive than funding more traditional truancy court consequences (such as secure detention).

As the Truancy Task Force has evolved, the delivery of attendance intervention has become increasingly swift and entirely more effective. Currently, the Task Force is not only collaborating regularly on how to better serve our students and families in the truancy system, but we are also developing and implementing more proactive strategies to avert truancy cases before they arise.

Have our collaborative efforts to combat chronic absenteeism and student truancy been worth it? Absolutely. When we started the Truancy Task Force in 2010, the student absenteeism rate was 23.2 percent. In 2018, this rate is now only 6.45 percent. We are proud of the work we have done and even prouder of our students who have overcome the challenges in their lives that were affecting their school attendance.

Collaboration between agencies working on behalf of kids to improve attendance can start small. Get in contact with your local truancy jurisdiction. Once the conversation is started about how to better serve kids, keep inviting others to the table. What other strategies have been effective for increasing attendance and curbing truancy at your school?

Justin Szews is the principal at Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, WI. Justin was the 2018 Wisconsin Assistant Principal of the Year and a finalist for the 2018 National Assistant Principal of the Year.

It’s Not About You! Keeping Perspective During Difficult Conversations

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A day in the life of a principal can be fraught with difficult discussions that require a careful approach. You have likely found yourself in a conversation which caused you to feel anxious, stressed, or even angry. Although these emotions are natural, they can limit your ability to see problems clearly and prevent your openness to different solutions. After experiencing numerous challenging interactions, I have realized that I need to find ways to focus on these conversations and remove any emotional response so that problems can be solved effectively.

It is not about you!

I have found that one of the first steps to handling difficult conversations is to remember that it is not about you. Often these conversations are about a rule, decision, or action that was taken. These conversations are not about me as a leader or human being. By focusing on the issue, it helps remove the personal nature of these conversations.

Perception is Reality

This mantra helps me find a resolution with students, parents, and staff. It also helps me reflect on my own view of reality. When there is conflict between two people, it is normal for them to dig in and try to win the argument. Their views of the situation may be skewed and high levels of stress can impact how they view the motivations of others. These perceptions can impact how we react. By being aware of how each person, including yourself, perceives the event or issue, you can more easily find a resolution.

I have discovered that in many situations, individuals are not willing to admit that they did something wrong. It is more successful to help them see how their actions or statements could have come across differently than intended. Understanding that a person’s perception of events is their reality helps people move away from a defensive posture and toward resolution.

Lean in With Curiosity

One year, I noticed that a teacher I worked with was really negative. The communications I received were pessimistic and frustrated. I was concerned that this individual seemed to always view the glass as empty with a hole in the bottom of it. I realized that I needed to address this and was concerned about how to approach the person so that actual change could occur. When I walked into the teacher’s room I could have said, “Your attitude lately had been negative, and it is impacting others” or some other judgmental and argumentative statement. Instead, I simply said, “How are you?” When the teacher said, “Fine.” I responded, “Really? I have been worried about you. You have been kind of negative in your communication lately and that is not like you. I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help.”

This approach can help you when you are entering into a difficult conversation. It is easy to get defensive and focus on preparing your rebuttal when you are feeling attacked in a conversation. It is also easy to be overly direct and even abrasive. The problem with this is that you stop truly listening when you start to prepare your argument in your mind and you open the door to your emotions. This can lead to misunderstanding and clouded judgment. Instead of leaning back and preparing a defense, lean in with curiosity. Ask yourself questions that help you to become curious about what the other person is saying. Questions like, “Why is this person reacting this way? Are they angry? Scared? What is driving them?”

I have even used this strategy in the hall one day when a student called me a really creative expletive. I thought, “Wow! I have never been called that before. I wonder how he decided to combine those words in that way?” It may sound funny, but instead of being offended or angry, I viewed the situation with interest and focused on the action, and not on myself. That freed me to be able to handle the situation calmly, without allowing my emotions to be triggered.

These approaches can help you work though difficult conversations in a way that leads to common understanding and a feeling of acceptance. The authentic application of understating others and being curious will lead you to stronger relationships and a stronger sense of calm in any storm.

What strategies do you use to lower your level of stress during difficult conversations, and how do you help find a common resolution to issues when they arise? 

Mark Hatch lives in Sidney, ME, with his wife and daughter and has been the principal at Messalonskee Middle School for 16 years. He is the 2018 Maine Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @PrincipalHatch.‏

Making Connections: Lighting a Fire in Your Staff and Students

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I am not a camper, so I am in no way an expert on building a fire, but I do know (thanks to my high school science classes) that in order for fire to ignite, it needs three elements: heat, fuel and oxygen. On the flip side, being a school leader is something I do know, and culture is something that is talked about all over leadership blogs, articles, books, and tweets. Culture is way more than just a buzzword. Culture is the heart of a school, and the difference-maker between success and failure.

I am going to save you time and money today and help you ignite a positive culture in your school. You don’t need to buy the newest culture book from Amazon or spend your nights ignoring your family in hopes of finding the culture Holy Grail on Twitter.

Culture starts with connections. This is the key to igniting a fire in your staff and students. Without a spark, your culture will never become a wildfire that blazes down the hallways and into the classrooms. And just like an actual fire, for this cultural blaze to ignite you need these three elements:

Element One: Heat Up Some Excitement
We have all had those leaders in our lives that you prayed would finally wake up and show some excitement. I am not saying leaders have to be like Richard Simmons and run at 110 percent energy and excitement all day, every day. That would make those you lead feel anxious and nervous, and we know we don’t want that. What I am saying is, as leaders, we set the tone for the school. One of my favorite people—and who I want to be when I get older—Todd Whitaker, says it best, “When the principal sneezes, the school catches a cold.”

If you want a school culture where people are excited to be there, then YOU need to be excited to be there. If you want teachers to work in PLCs, then you need to be excited about collaboration. If you want your students to connect with the school through sports and clubs, then you need to get your butt in the bleachers and run some clubs. When you lead with excitement for all areas of your school, it becomes contagious and others join to get in on the excitement. It doesn’t matter your personality; you can do it, even if you have to fake it. Here is a simple one you can start first thing tomorrow morning. Take the current book you are reading, throw it under your arm and walk down the hallway looking like you just won the lottery. Trust me, everyone is going to think whatever you are reading and learning from the book is epic. Learning is now modeled through excitement.

Element Two: Fuel the Passion and Love
This second element is crucial to your culture and to the continual burning of that flame. As leaders you need to have passion for your staff and your students. You have to show them that you love them. Yes, I said “love them.” This is easier than you think. Here are two simple ways to show love and can be implemented starting tomorrow. First, listen. When anyone tomorrow talks to you, stop everything that you are doing (yes, put your phone down) and give them all of your attention. Second, respond. Your response is crucial because most leaders (myself included) love talking and are so quick to respond with our thoughts. The key is to respond with passion for whatever is being shared with you—from what the kindergarten student got from Santa to the concerns of your AP Calculus teacher. When you respond with passion, they feel important, which causes the flame to burn.

Element Three: Life-Sustaining Oxygen 
Take a breath. Go ahead, I’m waiting…

Doesn’t it feel good when you can just take a moment and breathe? It does, so as school leaders, it is your job to give your staff and students time to breathe. When we run our schools in a way where everyone feels like they are under the thumb of someone else, it gets really hard to breathe. There have to be moments throughout the day or week that allow your school to breathe and re-energize. These times come in a variety of ways from fun activities: assemblies, games, lunch raffles, outings, and more. When you create avenues in your school where fun can be had and the worries of state test scores and your to-do list can be put briefly in the backseat, your staff and students can see that school is way more than just scores and grades—it’s about life and passion. Don’t wait. Tomorrow, surprise your staff with a great free lunch and have an ice cream day in the cafeteria for your kids.

I hope that you can take these elements—excitement, passion/love, and life—and add them into your daily practice as a school leader. Change the culture for your staff and students. They are worth it!

Are you satisfied with your schools’ culture? Are you connecting with your staff and students? Are you starting a cultural fire or are you just being the extinguisher? What can you do starting tomorrow to light a fire?

Roger Gurganus is an assistant principal of Brownstown Middle School, a 6–7 building in Brownstown, MI. He has a passion for children and education and strives to ensure that every student is connected and feels part of the community he creates. He is the 2018 Michigan Assistant Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @RogerGurganus.

Share Your Passion with Students: School-Wide Clubs

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A maximal learning environment cannot exist without students feeling safe and connected with their teacher in the classroom. But teachers quickly get caught up with the demands of covering curriculum and meeting mandates. Most times, it is easier to conform to the system instead of infusing our individual personalities into our school lives.

When students only know us as teachers, the scope of the student-teacher relationship is narrow. In order to overcome this traditional norm, middle level schools must dedicate time outside of content classes to allow students and teachers to get to know one another.

The middle level schools in our district feature a 30-minute advisory period at the end of the school day, which is intended to serve as a study hall, extra help, and catch-all for anything and everything outside the normal curricular day. Over the years, we’ve evolved from using that time as “homework help” to building a powerful model where students and staff build positive relationships and rapport.

This was the genesis of school-wide clubs. We asked every teacher in the building to create a student club based on their own personal interests that would meet once a week during advisory time for twelve weeks. We created a “catalog” with all of the teachers’ names, their club names, and their club descriptions. As you can imagine, our “All-Stars” embraced the concept immediately and came up with amazing club ideas. Some of our more reticent teachers chose the easy route with “Silent Sustained Reading Club” or “Watch the News Club.” Below is a sampling of some of the more original and exciting offerings:

  • Cwalina—The Crazy Cat Lady and Dudes Club: In this club we will learn how to
    make homemade cat treats and cat toys for our own pets and those in shelters. In addition, we will also create cat-related projects and/or artwork.
  • Hemple—Cricut Club: Bring your Pinterest vision boards to reality in this hands-on crafting club. We will use the cricut machine to design and create unique, one-of-a-kind projects.
  • Pat—HVAC Basics and Repair: Learn the basics of how heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems operate in your homes and in large buildings such as schools!
  • Meade—Save the Monarch Club: Students will explore the drastically declining numbers of the Monarch butterfly and the reasons for the dramatic population change. We will work on flower and garden designs to attract the butterfly and do some flower pots for the courtyard. In October, we will perform a citizens scientist count of the migrating butterflies we see in the school courtyard.

We also included principals, custodians, and other staff members. For my part, I started a powerlifting club, which taught the basics of weightlifting. Mason joined my powerlifting club for the first 12-week session and subsequently signed up three more times to round out the year. He was an otherwise average student who didn’t play any school sports and wasn’t part of the arts program. Mason took all grade level courses and was a “B” student. By definition, he was the type of kid who often was overlooked, moving through the middle school world without forming any strong teacher bonds.

There was nothing spectacular or particularly wonderful about my club. I didn’t plan any amazing ice breakers or cool team-building activities. I simply introduced myself to the kids, laid out the ground rules for safety and respect in the weight room, and started teaching the fundamentals of the four basic barbell lifts. Some of the more interested students quickly joined the “course” I created in our learning management system, Schoology, and began studying the demo videos, reading the expert articles, and uploading their own practice sets of the exercises from home.

Mason loved lifting and picked up the technique quickly. His parents helped him join a local fitness club so he could pursue his interest outside of school. Mason and I would chat several times a week and he began hanging out with some of the other kids from the club. He smiled a lot more in the hallways. It seemed like he had genuinely found his place. By the end of the school year, he found me and said, “Hey, Dr. Indeglio! I can’t wait until club sign-ups next year. I want to get even stronger than this year!” I smiled, we exchanged a fist bump, and Mason went on his way to class. With close to twelve hundred students, I might never have even met Mason, much less learned his name and so much about him, if it weren’t for our school-wide clubs.

In the end, our school-wide clubs allowed our staff to share the most wonderful parts of themselves with the students and, in kind, the students embraced new interests and hobbies outside the normal curriculum. But even beyond that, our entire school community, including parents and families at home, reaped the rewards of this worthwhile endeavor.

What are your experiences with school-wide clubs and staff-designed activities?

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

What FOMO looks like at Glenpool High School

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After attending the 2018 National Principals Conference, I had a renewed vision of what kind of school I wanted to give my students. As principal of Glenpool High School (GHS), I had always focused on building positive relationships with students, but I wanted to take it a step further.

Fear of Missing Out

How do we create FOMO? What can we give our kids every day that they can’t get from social media or Google? How do we create an atmosphere where kids don’t want to stay home for fear of missing out? The answer is relationships and energy! I asked my staff to make a commitment to increasing engagement with students so that they fear missing out on school. This is what FOMO looks like at my high school.

Back to School Lip Sync

When my staff reported at the beginning of the year, I gave them the task of recording a lip sync that would be shared with students and parents the night before school started. I wanted to convey the message that we are excited to see them tomorrow, that you are never “too cool for school,” and that we will do anything for them. We told teachers to be goofy when we recorded the lip sync, and if they were too shy to be goofy, they could wear a funky costume. The teachers did an awesome job, and both students and parents were thrilled with the Back to School Lip Sync. It set the tone for the year. Check out the end result: Welcome Back Lip Sync

Greeting Students

GHS is blessed with a large faith community that wants to support our school. One of the churches set up a sound system in the parking lot and blasted up-beat music welcoming students back to school and handed out donuts. Staff and administrators were there to greet students and take first day of school selfies to post to Twitter. Every morning administrators are in the hallway as students come in and tell them “good morning” and “glad you’re here,” even to the tardy students (especially to the tardy students).

Lunchtime

In the past students were required to go to the cafeteria for lunch. This created some anxiety for some of our kids, so we took away that barrier. Students have the flexibility to go to the library where they can read or work puzzles, sit at the bistro tables in the lobby, or go to the cafeteria. Offering choice has been a powerful motivator for our kids. In the cafeteria we play music every day and have activities such as trivia, karaoke, stuff the bench, pudding eating contests, and other fun activities to get students engaged.

Engaging Lessons

I challenged teachers to teach their course in a manner that students couldn’t wait to get to class the next day. Teachers created fun and engaging lessons, such as dressing up as Flo from Progressive Insurance when teaching the Progressive Era and using golf to show how reflections can be used to plan your golf game. These interactive and relevant lessons have sparked student engagement and made them eager to get to class each period.

Student Shadowing

On October 1, I shadowed a sophomore student from bus stop to bus stop, which is an experience I highly recommend. Experiencing everything from the types of seating and room arrangement of classes to the student restrooms and classroom instruction from a student’s perspective was powerful. It gave me firsthand knowledge that improved my instructional leadership to teachers and gave insight into changes I wanted to make to give students a better overall experience.

Student Success Periods

Every Friday morning my administrative team meets to go over the failing student report. We go name by name and discuss why the student is failing, how many classes they are failing and how we can support the student. In our trimester schedule, there are three sections of student support classes. The most at-risk students are put in a student support class where their teachers work with them on goal setting, grade tracking, attendance, and behavior, in addition to providing individualized instructional support. The teachers serve as advocates for their students. Many of the students enrolled in this class experienced their first academic successes this last trimester.

FOMO Works

Our commitment to foster student engagement has paid off. Our data indicates positive growth in student attendance and reductions in course failures and in-school placements. More students show a genuine desire for school, and the relationships are stronger than they have ever been. Students want to come to school and go to class so that they don’t miss out on the engaging lessons, friendly and fun staff, and supportive learning environments.

How do your students view their experience in school? What are ways your team is enhancing your learning environment so that students don’t want to miss out on school? What ways can you put yourself in the roles of students to see school from their perspective?

Kim Coody has spent 22 years working with Oklahoma students as a special education teacher, high school assistant principal, middle school principal, and high school principal. Kim has 16 years in secondary administration experience and was named 2018 Oklahoma’s OASSP High School Principal of the Year and represents the Oklahoma Association of Secondary Principals as president-elect. Follow her on Twitter @kimberlycoody.

College Opportunities and Success: Creating a Robust Dual-Enrollment Program

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My belief in the necessity of an equitable education is summed up in my motto: “all-in for all students.” When students achieve, we all achieve and are inspired to strive for greater success. At Pelion High School (PHS), we are proud of our quality programs that elevate each student; from At-Promise to AP, we have a plethora of programs to support students’ social, emotional, behavioral, and academic needs.

Experiencing College Success

One program that I am most proud of is our robust dual-enrollment program. Over the last six years, we have gone from zero dual-enrollment courses on our campus to offering nineteen courses in seven departments. For many communities, this dual enrollment is a given; it’s a part of the course catalog and is offered each year without fail. Located in rural South Carolina, we face unique challenges common only to a school with our socioeconomic makeup. For most of the students enrolled in our dual-enrollment courses, they are first-generation high school graduates. Many of them don’t have their own transportation, and college is a dream that doesn’t make much financial sense. Being able to offer our students college success, with the financial, academic, and social support system already in place is life-changing. As a matter of fact, it is community-changing.

Explosive Growth

Attributed to our large community, guardian, and faculty and staff support, last year approximately one-third of our senior class experienced college success in high school and graduated with a combined total of 468 college credits. This fall, several of them entered college as sophomores.

PHS began this journey by having a very frank conversation with ourselves about the challenges such a lofty goal would present. We started by speaking with our stakeholders. Our School Improvement Council was immediately receptive and excited about our idea to provide these opportunities. From there, we allowed their excitement to ignite others’ passion. With the support of our strong parent advocates, we looked to our next challenge: finding professors willing to travel the distance to our school. Knowing that the travel would present a major issue, I surveyed the faculty to determine who would be eligible to teach at the collegiate level.

With that information in hand, we set out to provide the beginning stages of a college education for all students. It has taken several years, but the dedication of our faculty and community means our dual enrollment has increased from 12 credit hours earned in 2015–16 to 196 credit hours by students for the 2018–19 school year. While our students rightfully appreciate the free college credit, AP weighting, college student discounts, access to college amenities, and reduced time in college, as their assistant principal and biggest advocate, I appreciate the confidence each student gains from achieving a feat they once deemed impossible.

Expanding Further

As a passionate instructional leader, it is my mission to build on our existing dual-enrollment success, and it is my goal to push forward to pursue the creation of a middle college so our seniors may graduate with a diploma and an associate’s degree. This opportunity will create another path for success and will have a positive economic impact on our community.

My middle college vision will require growth from teachers and students, advocacy from administration, and support from district, town, and county leaders. As students seize these opportunities, enthusiasm will spread, and our students and community will benefit as we wield education that breaks the cycle of poverty.

Challenge to Get Started

Starting a dual-enrollment program is challenging and tough, but our students are worth this extra effort. Here are some tips for school leaders who are interested in starting or expanding a dual-enrollment program:

  • Meet with faculty, staff, and community stakeholders to solicit ideas and discuss potential student, school, and community benefits.
  • Contact your local community college and university to discuss potential courses, entrance requirements, and logistics.
  • Advertise and hold information sessions for students and parents.
  • Administer a Masters or above survey to faculty to identify possible in-house instructors.

What will you do to create the college opportunities for your students?

Erica Page is an assistant principal at Pelion High School in Pelion, SC. She began her career as a teacher in Lexington County School District One and also served as an assistant administrator before her promotion to assistant principal. In 2016, she was a finalist for the South Carolina Association of School Administrators Secondary Assistant Principal of the Year Award. In 2018 she was named South Carolina Association of School Administrators Secondary Assistant Principal of the Year, and four months later she was named the 2018 National Assistant Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Follow her on Twitter @EricaHPage.

Designing and Implementing a Flexible Modular High School Schedule

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Before opening in 2013, River Bluff High School (RBHS) was architecturally designed and academically planned for a flexible modular schedule. Instead of a traditional bell schedule, we wanted a new approach that provided space for students to develop skills such as time management, collaboration, and independent decision making. We wanted RBHS to be a place that empowered students and placed the leadership of learning into their hands. We wanted to create a true learning environment where time benefited both students and teachers.

So how did we go about implementing a flexible modular schedule and how has it affected our students and staff?

Research and Design

Early in 2011, a team of school leaders began identifying schools who scheduled differently. We discovered three schools that had years of experience in flexible scheduling and conducted site visits. These visits allowed leaders to speak with their staff to get ideas and strategic advice on how to implement our own flexible modular schedule.

After some months of research, we moved into the design phase, using a backwards design process beginning with the end in mind: our students. How did we envision students using this learning space? What culture did we want to cultivate? What was learning going to look like day to day? To help us work through all of the moving parts, we hired a consultant from Pearson who had experience with modular schedule design. By early 2013, we created our first flexible modular schedule, or FLEX MOD as we call it. Now into year six and five iterations later, our 2018–19 flexible modular schedule is the dynamic force that fuels equity at RBHS.

The FLEX MOD Schedule

RBHS’s FLEX MOD schedule consists of 25 modules (mods) of time comprised of either 10- or 30-minute mods. These 25 different mods allow us to create a flexible schedule with two phases—A and B—that occur simultaneously. During the A and B phases, students attend their academic classes, or what we call “paths of instruction.” Each path of instruction (1 credit) meets 210 minutes a week, but how often each path of instruction meets depends on which phase it is in:

A Phase B Phase
Meeting times per week 4 days a week 3 days a week
Length of meeting time Three 60-minute periods and one 30-minute period One 90-minute period and two 60-minute periods
Paths of instruction Various Math, World Languages, Physical Education courses (mostly ninth through 10th-grade courses) Various English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science courses (mostly 11th through 12th-grade courses)

Each student enrolls in seven out of eight academic paths of instruction.  The remaining mods of time within a student’s schedule that is not scheduled into face-to-face instruction is Independent Learning Time (ILT). C1 and C2 paths within the middle band of our schedule are where students meet in their grade level CREWs. The gray C phase in the center is for additional path balance, which provides the flexibility necessary for our A and B phases to work. The FLEX MOD schedule is a five-day cycle that repeats 36 times. 

 

A Sample Student Schedule

To get a better understanding of how the FLEX MOD schedule works, let’s take a look at Sam, a junior, as she goes through her weekly schedule:

Sam has no more than seven classes a day, and some days she has only five. At a minimum, Sam gets 45 minutes of ILT each day; other days she gets between 75–195 minutes. Overall, Sam gets 555 minutes of unstructured time to pursue her studies independently in any manner she chooses.  During ILT, Sam can visit her available teachers for one-on-one and small group instruction. Often, you’ll find Sam in the Learning Commons working on a project with her classmates. Sam does not have a dedicated lunch time; instead, she chooses to eat her lunch during any of her ILT mods between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. She only hears two bells throughout her day: the morning 8:15 a.m. bell and the final 3:40 p.m. bell.

The FLEX MOD approach has fostered a number of benefits for both students and staff:

  • Increased teacher-led collaborative planning time
  • Exposure to postsecondary learning environments, including lectures, recitations, and student-led study groups
  • Additional one-on-one time between teachers and students during the school day
  • Enhanced student collaborative learning experiences
  • Stronger peer-to-peer and peer-to-staff relationships because of regular CREW time
  • Improved interventions and learning support for struggling learners
  • Wider use of best practices and blended learning techniques
  • Development of soft skills, including communication, organization, and time management
  • Greater access to community resources during the school day

Our data and anecdotal evidence indicate that FLEX MOD works.  RBHS has received an Excellent rating by the State Department of Education of South Carolina and were finalists in 2018 for the Palmetto’s Finest Award, the state’s highest award given to schools. We’ve seen improvements in our student outcomes and increases in our graduation and AP enrollment rates. Our most recent graduates (our first class to graduate after four year at RBHS) report a high level of confidence in managing time in college and meeting with professors during office hours.

Walt Disney said, “Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.” The future is here at our school and the flexible modular schedule has engaged our students and staff in a new direction.

I challenge you to rethink time and design schedules that create conditions to prepare students to manage time and engage with others. We welcome your visit to River Bluff to learn with us.

Dr. Lucas “Luke” Clamp is the founding principal of River Bluff High School in Lexington, SC, which opened its doors to students and staff in 2013 as South Carolina’s first EL Education High School. With over 16 years of experience in public education, he was selected as 2018 South Carolina State Principal of the Year and 2019 NASSP National Principal of the Year. He is passionate about developing relationships with students and staff while creating conditions for all to become effective learners, ethical people, and contributors to a better world. Follow him on Twitter @LucasClamp.


Five School Technology Hacks to Improve Communication With Stakeholders

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We lead busy lives as administrators, with items getting added daily to our already busy to-do lists. How do we keep up? Why not use the power of technology to communicate with all stakeholders in an efficient, consistent manner? That is not to say that phone or face-to-face conversation should be replaced, nor should the letter home or the programs that give students a tangible certificate. However, immediate feedback is something that we teach our staff at Governor Livingston High School to employ in their classrooms, so let’s develop ways for school leaders to do the same in our buildings.

Here are five different actions that you can introduce in your building right now to increase communication with your parents, students, and staff.

Friday Folder

Every Thursday we meet as an administrative team to review upcoming events for the next two weeks and populate this information into a Google Doc, which we share every Friday to parents by email. Included in this document are useful materials that in the past would have been mailed home, including PSAT information, ACT registration forms, and flyers regarding night events.

Electronic Hall Pass

This idea was born from developing ways to combat the avoidance behaviors of students who like the walk the halls; however, the positive benefits have been far more than we could have imagined. First, the written hall pass is time-consuming and requires the teacher to stop instruction to write down the necessary information and collect it upon a student’s return to class. Instead, Electronic Hall Passes (EHP) require students to complete a Google Form before leaving class that they access through link in a teacher’s Google Classroom or a QR code posted in the classroom. All students have district-issued iPads, so they are required to leave this iPad in the classroom while they are in the hallway. When they return, they sign back in on the same device. All sign-ins are then able to be viewed on the corresponding Google Sheet by necessary staff.

Staff have loved this change, and as administrators, we have noticed that EHP has helped curtail the number of students in our hallways. In addition, it has increased security in our building, as we now know which students are in the hall at any given time. If an issue occurs, we know who to speak with; if a student does not arrive in their next class, we know what their last destination was and can more easily find them in guidance or with the nurse.

For the next three integrations of technology, all you need is Google and some add-ons. Let me talk about my favorite add-on this year: Form Mule. What Form Mule allows you to do is set data entry points on a Google Sheet, and when specific information is typed in specific cells, an email is generated, which mail merges all of the information you want it to.

Positive Office Referrals

I learned about positive office referrals while speaking with my Assistant Principal of the Year partners. I brought it back to my school, and we love what it has become. Every staff member has been provided with a link to a Google Form that asks for the student’s name, email address, parent’s email address, and a direct quote (that will be used in the email) regarding the positive referral. We approve each submission in Form Mule on a weekly basis, which, once accepted, automatically sends emails that congratulate each student on positive actions.

Results: The response has been amazing! Students immediately write back, or seek out the administrators and teachers to thank them for the referral.

Discipline

Although there are fancy systems that track discipline for students, we do this internally using Google Forms, Google Sheets, and Form Mule. Staff members submit discipline referral forms, which populate to a Google Sheet. As appropriate discipline is assigned, discipline-specific emails (for lunch detention, office detention, administrative detention, etc.) are sent to the student, parent, counselor, and bcc’d to the staff member that submitted the referral.

Result: As communication is more immediate, discipline can be more timely, since parents are aware of the date of consequence with advance notice.

Attendance

Though our parents have access to individualized reports about their student’s attendance and receive texts and email updates when their child is not present in class or is tardy, our district still must communicate these issues to parents, especially when students reach their attendance threshold, which could result in loss of credit. In the past, we sent letters, but what often happened is that by the time the letter made it home and parents had an opportunity to respond, absences and tardies had accumulated even more. Calling every single parent as their student reached thresholds required too much time, so this year, using Google Sheets and Form Mule, we developed a more timely and just-as-detailed approach to communicating with parents and students. When a student reaches a specified attendance threshold, an automatic email is sent to parents and any additional staff members that should be aware of a student’s attendance, including child study team members and counselors.

Results: In the past, the first set of attendance letters that were sent did not yield much communication with the school. This year, the first set of email letters—25 in total—yielded 21 parent responses, which included scanned letters, further questions, or simple acknowledgment.

Using technology to improve the way we communicate with our stakeholders has given us back some of the time that in the past has been spent on these important minutiae. Learning these technology hacks will save time and are worth your investment as a school leader.

How are you leveraging technology to improve communication with students, staff, and parents?

Tara Oliveira is an assistant principal at Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights, NJ. She is the 2018 New Jersey Assistant Principal of the Year. 

4 Tips About Innovation From #PrinLeaderChat

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Do you want to grow professionally, discover ideas and insights from innovative leaders, and maximize your time? Tune in and participate in #PrinLeaderChat, NASSP’s Twitter #edchat held on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. (ET) and 6:00 p.m. (PT). This #edchat is an awesome way to connect with some of the nation’s best school leaders and share thoughts and ideas. Chats are guest moderated by Digital Principals, State Principals of the Year, and other thought leaders in education. Perhaps you haven’t participated because of login issues or your schedule doesn’t allow you to join. To help you see what you’ve been missing, I’ve curated the top four ideas from our recent conversations about innovation in schools:

Innovation requires trust and collaboration. Change is can be challenging. One of our major roles as a school leader is to help create the environment where innovation can be embraced. This means open conversations, empathy toward each other, and involvement of all stakeholders.

Innovative ideas can come from anywhere. As school leaders, we may think we always have to come up with the best idea. Not only is that stressful and tiring, it is completely not true. The expert in the room is the room. Utilize all the brainpower available to generate creative ideas.

The most innovative ideas come from trying to tackle the unknown. Our future world in constantly changing, and in order to help best serve our students, we should wonder what tomorrow will bring and prepare our schools today.

There is a lot of information on innovation out there.One of my favorite resources is cybraryman.com. Jerry Blumengarten has a wealth of information on education, including innovation and technology. There are many resources shared on Twitter chats that are tried and true recommendations from other leaders to help you move your school forward.

If you have never participated in a Twitter chat, please reach out and I’ll help you get started. Don’t feel as though you have to post something profound—contribute what you feel comfortable during this peer-led discussion. We would love to have you as part of the #PrinLeaderChat ‘Ohana!

Winston Sakurai is the upper school principal at Hanalani Schools in Mililani, HI. He is the 2016 Digital Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @WinstonSakurai and join him every Sunday night 9:00 p.m. (ET) for a Twitter conversation using the hashtag #prinleaderchat.

Building Leaders: One School’s Approach

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As administrators, we are tasked with building the capacity of teacher leaders. But what exactly does teacher leadership look like? In The What, Why, and How of Teachers as Leaders, teacher leaders are described as “skilled classroom educators (who) hone their craft, mentor others, and grow professionally—while keeping one foot firmly inside the classroom.” So what can we do to build leaders while keeping them in our classrooms? The answer lies in the way we look at professional learning.

One of the first budget cuts in education in North Carolina over 10 years ago was unfortunately professional development. The days of attending the state conference in a teacher’s content area or being out of the classroom to attend workshops and conferences are few and far between. Yet teachers want and need to grow professionally. As an administrator, I had to answer to the call for a new way to help teachers grow as educators and expect this as a culture of learning in our building. I have sought to accomplish this through collaboration with our district instructional coach, Laura Mayer. Together, we have looked at ways to build upon our own teacher expertise and provide in-house professional development and tools for reflective practice.

Here is the three-pronged approach our school uses to grow and maintain a culture of leadership both in and beyond the classroom walls.

Distribute the Leadership

Teachers are the best at what they do and they know what they need more than anyone else. Let them be a part of decision making and leadership in the school. School improvement teams are one place for teachers to lead, but schools should also leverage the skills and experience of its faculty through literacy teams, professional learning communities (PLCs), and technology teams. Unlike the “committees” of old, these teams are teachers partnering with other teachers to learn, lead, and impact teaching and learning schoolwide.

At our school, we also designate a professional learning lead who is a teacher that communicates with the school improvement, literacy, and technology teams to identify teaching and learning needs and then address them through a variety of professional learning opportunities. The professional learning lead meets regularly with our instructional coach and media specialists in order to develop a “big picture” of professional learning. Even with the concept of principal as instructional leader, we believe there should be many instructional leaders setting the culture for learning in the school, and leadership should be distributed in a “train the trainer” fashion.

Build a Public Teaching Culture

Today’s teacher leaders collaborate with colleagues and seek to learn by observing teaching and learning in the classrooms of their peers. Successful teacher-led schools embody a culture of “public” teaching where classroom doors are open and feedback is invited. Instructional coaches and literacy teams can help initiate such a climate. Our literacy team is a cross-curricular group of teacher leaders who, over the course of the past 10 years, have changed the way professional learning looks in our building. Initially, they invited teachers into their classrooms for informal learning walks where colleagues looked for practices to try in their own classrooms.

Today, those walks have developed into focused opportunities for teachers to observe the student impact of learning targets, formative assessment, academic vocabulary study, text dependent questions, student goal setting, and more.

Other methods for making teaching and learning “public” include:

  • 30 and Outs—30-minute focused sessions on a topic such as “Questions”
  • Faculty meeting demonstrations by a teacher with a great teaching or learning strategy
  • Pineapple Charts
  • #ObserveMe

Encourage Reflective Practice

Not only are outside school professional development opportunities so limited, teachers are also super busy and inundated with curriculum changes, testing, accountability, and the enormous behavioral, social, and emotional needs of students. They have limited time to reflect, do research, or read professional journals. We have to take it to them. Reading and reflecting needs to be concise, powerful, and easy to put at one’s fingertips. This is what we have done. We have created padlets for teachers to use for follow-up to professional development opportunities. I respond to these in a timely fashion with just one to two sentences. We hold debrief sessions after our learning walks where colleagues reflect on their observations. Each week in a faculty newsletter, a short research-based article is included for teacher reading. These include topics from grading practices, classroom management, and ideas to bring writing into every classroom.

As we have expanded our teacher leadership and involvement in teacher learning, we have changed our school culture. Teachers teaching teachers, sharing together, learning together, and a climate of reflective practice is our normal. Our instructional coach is vital to all of this. She leads learning by co-teaching and co-planning with teachers; teaching mini-sessions and organizing public teaching opportunities; and follows up with reflection and coaching. It is important that I, as the school leader, support her role in our building and expect this culture of teacher leadership for our entire faculty.

What does teacher leadership look like at your school?

Doris Sellers is the principal of AC Reynolds High School in Asheville, NC. She is the 2018 North Carolina Secondary Principal of the Year.

Laura Mayer is the Instructional Coach of AC Reynolds High School in Asheville, NC. Follow her on Twitter @ashecoach.

Creating a Culture of Nourishing Relationships

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So much of the principalship is rooted in ever-evolving data, never-ending checklists, and meeting the needs of stakeholders. However, most know that true growth and success come from the ability to not only manage the aforementioned items, but also to create a culture that invites and nourishes relationships. During the infancy of my principalship, I have been pleasantly surprised at the growth of our school family. In reflection, sharing my why, inviting others to share theirs, and creating meaningful opportunities to grow relationships has made a profound difference.

I knew I wanted to share my passion with my students and spend quality time in working with the idea that all students, regardless of unique learning needs or labels, are a meaningful and crucial part of our school family. I, along with a former student with autism, Aubrey Bridges, began to share small moments in time with our student body. We spoke to the entire fifth grade, launching the book Wonder and sharing Aubrey’s unique story. When we were waiting on a substitute teacher in music, I took that moment as an opportunity to have a conversation with our fourth graders and focused on the strengths of all students.

Currently, we are teaching a kindergarten class their alphabet and basic reading principles in three modalities: letter, sound, and sign. We have seen dramatic results is the increase of phonemic awareness and beginning reading skills, showing our students that just because you have struggles with autism or learning, you have a gift that you can share that will make a true impact on others. My students love interacting with Aubrey as she volunteers at our school and has become a meaningful part of our school culture. More importantly, students and teachers have begun sharing their passions with me, and we are able to find ways to nourish those passions.

Now, as we move through the most stressful days of the school year, both students and teachers are able to share and nourish their stories and passions. Whether it is helping others through gathering items, raising money through selling cause bracelets, or a participating in a local high school pink out game, we are able to build relationships and celebrate our unique talents and gifts.

How do you as a leader share your “why” with your students? How does your school foster and nourish both student and teacher gifts? 

Meghan LeFevers is the principal at Tryon Elementary School in Bessemer City, NC. She is the 2018 North Carolina Assistant Principal of the Year, the 2017 Milken Educator, and the 2017 Gaston County Schools Assistant Principal of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @MeghanLeFevers

The Makerspace: A Catalyst for Change

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At Mackenzie Middle School in Lubbock, TX, makerspace has transformed learning through innovative, self-directed, and meaningful experiences for all of our students. What exactly is a makerspace, and what value can it bring into schools? 

The STEM Initiative Spurs Innovation

Under the umbrella of the STEM initiative, the makerspace is an avenue that schools are utilizing to inspire students. More and more makerspaces can be found in elementary and middle schools where Ozobots, Spheros, sewing machines, and 3D printers are humming in the hallways. Fab Labs and TechShops are prevalent at the high school campuses with 3D printers, laser cutters, vinyl cutters, milling machines, 3D scanners, and engravers, which are better suited to the big kid environment. Most students would agree, the makerspace is less of a location and more of an experience. Although most makerspaces are located in the school library, you can find them on mobile carts or in classrooms, as well.

TK is working on her very first sewing project while Abby is providing guidance and support. (Photo by Mrs. Teresa Carter)

In the maker world, students have the opportunity to build, design, create, manipulate, destruct, and construct. It is a gathering spot for students that desire more hands-on learning experiences. Ultimately, it brings joy to the learning environment, which is what’s missing from most of our schools. Doug Dougherty, an early founder of the maker phenomenon, believes that “the maker movement has the opportunity to transform education by inviting students to be something other than consumers of education. They can become makers and creators of their own educational lives, moving from being directed to do something to becoming self-directed and independent learners.”

Brianna was our first student this year to complete a print on the 3D printer! (Photo by Mrs. Teresa Carter)

Even President Barack Obama has helped spur the initiative as he presented to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009, stating, “I want us all to think about new and creative ways to engage young people in science and engineering, whether it’s science festivals, robotics competitions, fairs that encourage young people to create and build and invent—to be makers of things, not just consumers of things.”

The Imperative for a Makerspace

One reason that the makerspace phenomenon has gained momentum is due to the academic deficiencies of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In 2015, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST, found “that many American students decide early in their academic careers that the STEM fields are too difficult, uninteresting, and unwelcoming.” In another study by the Department of Education in 2016, STEM 2026: A Vision for Innovation in STEM Education research study believes that “the current student-level maker movement that is sweeping the country, at local, regional, and national levels, offers a promising approach and mechanism for building student interest and engagement in STEM.” Simply put, “the maker movement demonstrates that playfulness and ingenuity can fuel STEM learning in education contexts.”

Students participate in a STEM enrichment activity after school with our TTU-NSBE partnership. (Photo by Mr. John Martinez)

Beyond the data that highlights the need for more STEM professionals, the movement is also about equity. Providing all children with the opportunity to prepare themselves for an ever-changing global society begins with technology. When children of poverty or underrepresented children do not have access to STEM, then schools place them further behind. Paulo Blikstein, professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, believes that “educators should be intentional in creating opportunities so that minorities and low-income students feel a sense of belonging in these spaces.” As we move deeper into the 21st century, schools continue to be left in the 20th century. The STEM initiative and the maker movement gives us another reason to be innovative leaders for our students and for the future of our country. Are you ready for change?

Is the makerspace a resource that your students would enjoy? What first steps will you take in building a makerspace for your school? How does the makerspace spur innovation in the classroom? What does it mean to be a transformational leader?

John M. Martinez Jr. serves as the principal of Mackenzie Middle School in Lubbock, Texas. He is the 2018 TASSP Texas State Principal of the Year. To learn more about our makerspace, check us out on Facebook @MMSLibrary.

Three Self-Care Practices That Promote Work-Life Balance for School Leaders

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As a school leader, I wear many hats. I am the instructional leader, a teacher of children and adults, a marriage counselor, a mediator, a social worker, a miracle worker, and an out-of-the-box thinker. I’m an email writer, a schedule master, a reminder, talent developer, disciplinarian, therapist, negotiator, mediator, and perpetual cheerleader. No two days are the same and a day is never dull, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

But in our efforts to be everything for all of our kids and staff members, we end up not having enough left for ourselves. When we leave the building after a long day of taking care of other people’s kids, we go home to our own kids and continue the caring. What is generally left out in these short twenty-four hours is care for ourselves. How do we as school leaders take care of ourselves in a role that requires us to be the caretaker-in-chief?

As administrators, we have to do a better job at taking care of ourselves, so that we can continue to give our all to those we have dedicated our lives to serving. Here are three lessons I’ve learned about self-care for school leaders:

Find the Time

As administrators, we can find lost phones, shoes that have been thrown on roofs, missing homework, an extra desk for the classroom, and space at a lunch table for a new friend. If we can find those things, surely we can find the time to take care of ourselves. Block off regular time on your calendar just for you. Maybe it’s for a weekly cup of coffee with a friend or that painting class you’ve always wanted to try. Whatever it is, you’ll feel that much better to continue to care for others and to fight the good fight.

Enroll in CMTSU University

The successful leaders I know credit an amazing support system at work and at home in helping them to find balance and maintain their sanity. Suzanne Webb, in her ACSA Leadership Summit session, spoke about the need to have designated time with a group of colleagues at Can’t Make This Stuff Up (CMTSU) University. Time at CMTSU University is a time to vent, share, laugh, and cry at the daily happenings of school site administration. And while this university is fictional and intended to make you laugh, its purpose is honorable. We need time to let each other know that we aren’t alone and that yes, it does, in fact, get better.

Get a Healthy Dose of Exercise

There is a plethora of research on the benefits of exercise: it boosts your energy, helps you to lose or maintain weight, releases endorphins, and more. We can all recite the good exercise does. Whether it’s Zumba, running, or general gym attendance, make the time to engage in some sort of physical activity. Even I, who cringed at the thought of working out, have taken up yoga. I find peace in the deep breathing and poses. I am far more relaxed and am able to center myself more easily than before. And the added bonus is…me. I do it for me, by myself, and for that hour and a half, I can’t focus on work, that student, that parent, or that other thing that just has to get done. I focus on me. Because if I’m not my best self, then I’m no good to anyone.

 

In this high-stakes world of education and preparing students today for the betterment of tomorrow, we have a big job on our hands. And who better to do it than you? We need to take care of ourselves. So do it, find the time, get your own CMTSU group, and get a healthy dose of exercise. The children will be grateful, and you are worth it.  How do you find work-life balance as the school leader?

Mistee Hightower Guzman is the proud principal of East Avenue Middle School in Livermore, CA. She is a wife and mother, and a daughter of a former Alameda County Superintendent of Schools. She is also a yogi in training. Mistee is the 2018 California Assistant Principal of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @MisteeGuzman.

Tell Your School’s Story on One Platform With Wakelet

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At the start of the 2017–18 school year, I challenged our staff at Cedar Crest Middle School (CCMS) to tell the story of our school—to showcase the learning that was happening, the community that we were building, and the positive aspects of our school that were occurring every day—through social media. Our staff quickly took to Twitter and started to tweet regularly. It was awesome, and I was proud of our staff for embracing this challenge.

After a few months of regular tweeting, we faced our first challenge. Not all of our families were on Twitter—or any social media at all—and were missing out on the best and most engaging content about CCMS’s story. How could we find a way to reach all of our families without having to post on every platform and help our families without social media connect to our school story? Enter Wakelet.

Why Wakelet?

Wakelet is a curation site that allows teachers and leaders to collect links to websites, social media posts, pictures, documents, and PDFs in a one-stop shop for their constituents. Wakelet is a versatile and intuitive platform that allows its users to store information in collections. These collections can be accessed through individual links or via a customized link to the user’s homepage.

I discovered Wakelet on Twitter and started using it about a year ago. I have found Wakelet to be a valuable tool that increases our efficiency and allows us to reach more of our students, families, and community. I love the power of Wakelet. It lets our teachers use the social media platform of their choice while providing me the opportunity to curate all of the posts to create a weekly collection that I publish for our families and community.

Our school’s goal was to tell our story to as many of our families as possible. However, more than once I heard from families that they did not want more social media accounts. Wakelet was the solution to this concern! I am able to collect all of our tweets, social media posts, pictures, and documents into one space and provide families with one link to access all the amazing stories from one week at our school! Wakelet is a great vehicle for me to share as much information efficiently and effectively as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0k4ygZ7ZPQ

How does Wakelet work?

Wakelet allows me to curate tweets, Instagram posts, and documents to our collection each week—highlighting the awesome learning, both academic and social-emotional—that take place in our school. Adding information to your collection is as easy as clicking a plus sign or copying a link. I am able to search Twitter by username or hashtag or upload a picture from my phone. I can take advantage of our school hashtags like #FalconPride, #FalconsCARE, #FalconFriday, #CommUNITY, and #FalconFamily and add tweets to my collection with a simple click.

I capture the stories from our school by the week so that our students, staff, and families can find related stories, tweets, or posts by date instead of having to scroll through hundreds of posts or tweets. I have even created collections of special events like our #MiniTHON or #CommUNITY Day to set those events apart. I publish our weekly Wakelet that I call “This Week at CCMS” every Friday before I leave school for the weekend. And it doesn’t take me long—about 15–30 minutes—to curate the weekly Wakelet.

My customized Wakelet page gives our families and communities access to all of my collections from our school. I post my customized link that is easy to remember and accesses all of my collections. The link to my Wakelet account is on my Twitter profile, our school website, my blog, my Instagram profile, and my e-mail signature.

Wakelet has become a tool for efficiency in our school. It is a way for our stories to be curated, collected, and saved in one location for easy access to all of our stakeholders. And Wakelet even has application for professional learning; check out the collection I curated when I recently guest hosted #prinleaderchat with fellow Digital Principals of the Year Kristina MacBury and Brian McCann. 

School leaders have an awesome responsibility to share the stories of the amazing things happening within their schools! Wakelet offers an easy-to-use, one-stop shop for all of our families to access information about our school. How will your school tell its story?

Mariah Rackley was named one of the Digital Principals of the Year for 2018 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Mariah is completing her 18th year at Cedar Crest Middle School and her 10th as the building principal. Mariah’s professional interests include leadership, student agency, personalized learning, innovation, creativity, and motivation theory. Follow her on Twitter @MrsRackleyCCMS. 


Building Strong Relationships Within the School Community

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It is my privilege to be one of the educational leaders in our rural community with a student enrollment of 400 fabulous kids! There is a magical atmosphere in our school, and though I cannot take all of the credit for our pizazz, I know that my role as a leader contributes to it. To me, the heart and soul of a school district is relationships. How can school leaders cultivate a culture that puts relationships at its center? Here are some of the ways that Timber Lake School promotes strong relationships among our students, staff, families, and the community.

Students

Building relationships starts with our kids! They are the reason we get to walk through the door each day and have best jobs in the world! My mission is to make my students feel welcome in my building and let them know that I truly care about them as a student and a person. I want kids to know I am their biggest cheerleader and am invested in their lives. This includes meeting and greeting them in the mornings, at lunch, and between classes, as well as attending their events. This gives me an “in” to have positive conversations with kids and get to know who they are.

We have a “Caught Doing It Right” initiative in our school where students receive recognition for going above and beyond to show their excellence. Giving and receiving Panther Paws from students is one of the best parts of my day. When young people do get sent my way for redirection, I hope to always treat them with kindness and respect to make the situation a learning opportunity and a way for them to get better.

Staff

Teachers are the heartbeat of the school. The staff in my district go above and beyond to provide top-notch educational opportunities. I want them to know that I see what they do and I appreciate their time and efforts. My role in building relationships with my staff is similar to students: they need to know they are welcome and important. I try to greet each teacher every morning. On Mondays, I distribute a specific quote to get them started for the week called “Monday Motivation.” Morale building has been a professional goal for me especially this year. I strive to create a caring, fun environment for my staff where they love to teach!

Families

We all know that one of the keys to student success is family partnerships. Building positive connections early is key to gaining support. I enjoy visiting with parents by phone or at school events to let them know the positive things their kids are doing as well as how happy we are to have them in our school. It can be as quick and easy as, “Your daughter has such amazing manners! She thanks the cooks every day when she leaves her tray!” or “Wow, Joe did an outstanding job with his trumpet at the concert!” An open-door policy allows me to visit with parents about their questions and concerns. I feel it is important to be an active listener and truly hear the parent’s concern without becoming defensive. (A lesson that has taken time to learn!) I spend a significant part of every Monday afternoon on the phone with parents whose students are struggling academically. This allows early intervention as well potential proactive solutions. Each time I interact with a family, I imagine their child is my own child. I want families to know that their kids are precious gems to me, and I take my job educating them seriously.

Community

Our little town is small in population but large in heart and support for our school. A double-header high school basketball game or music concert is a social event in our community, and it brings many into our building. This is an awesome opportunity to make connections with community members and business leaders. I want to make sure they feel welcome in our school and are proud of the job we are doing to educate Timber Lake students. Small conversations often lead to outstanding opportunities!

Our jobs as administrators are busy and hard. Don’t forget the little things that make the big jobs easier and more enjoyable. Relationships with all stakeholders are the key to this. How do you build relationships in your school?

Julie Marshall is the 6–12 principal at Timber Lake School in Timber Lake, SD. This is her ninth year as principal and 23rd in education. Julie is the 2018 South Dakota Secondary Principal of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @juliemarsh73.

Three Steps to Improve Teacher Performance

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We have all read or heard research that concludes the teacher in the front of the room has the largest impact on student learning and performance. Therefore, as principals, we should be focused on helping our teachers to grow and improve. At Ashland-Greenwood Public Schools in Nebraska, we have implemented a successful process to do just this. Here are the three steps we take to improve teacher performance:

Create a Common Language of Instruction

A common language of instruction can come in many forms. I am partial to the framework from Robert Marzano, but it can be any number of research-based models. It could be based on your local teacher appraisal system if it is a strong model that describes good instructional practices. Regardless of the model, teachers and administrators must commit to ongoing professional learning about how the model impacts instruction in the classroom. Once introduced, the teacher and the principal must engage in ongoing review and reflection about performance with the model as the guide. After six years of work with the Marzano Framework, I can say that work like this never really ends because, if reflective in nature, there is always more to learn and areas to grow.

Increase Teacher Feedback by Increasing Classroom Visits

In addition to establishing a common language of instruction, the next step to improve teacher performance is to provide specific and timely feedback focused on the instructional model and area of growth. I would bet that we have told our teachers that same thing a time or two regarding effective assessment practice for students. The onus now is on the principal. The principal must be able to differentiate for each staff member and provide individualized feedback based on the individual needs of the teacher. This takes more time than one formal observation annually, or maybe bi-annually in some systems. Walk-throughs, informal visits, and formal visits all must work together to support the teacher’s growth and provide feedback to aid in that process. We have a goal to visit every teacher’s classroom twice a semester beyond any expectation of a formal observation. Admittedly, I have not yet reached that lofty goal, but it is something I strive to do. The role of feedback cannot be taken lightly. You will find that teachers truly want to grow, and in a very short time they will expect feedback that can help them grow. “Good job” or “nice lesson” will not cut it any longer!

Brad working with POY 2018 Colleagues at the Principal’s Institute in September, 2018.

Connect Student Performance and Growth to Classroom Teacher Performance and Appraisal

Once established that observing a teacher is more than an annual exercise, a hoop to jump through, or a means to catch someone doing something wrong, the final step is to create a system that ties student performance data to teacher appraisal. Even stronger, build teacher performance goals to support the review of student growth. This is not high stakes where a student failing leads to termination. This is about building a culture of modeling good instruction, setting goals for kids, getting feedback from an administrator, and reviewing the student performance data in order to inform teacher appraisal and to set goals moving forward. Nebraska’s Department of Education has a model with this structure, which we put in place along with our adoption of the Marzano Framework.

As a principal, if you want to have an impact on teacher performance and, ultimately, student learning, you can! You will need consider how to formulate a common language of instruction, how to support increased classroom visits and feedback to your staff, and to embed a system where student performance data is studied with the teacher to inform appraisal and guide instructional decisions.

How do you work with teachers to help them grow professionally and impact student learning?

Brad Jacobsen is the grade 6–12 principal at Ashland-Greenwood Middle/High School, a public school in Ashland, NE. Brad is the 2018 Nebraska Secondary Principal of the Year and in his 10th year as principal after 13 years as a teacher in the same district. Follow him on Twitter @BCJacobsen.

Collaborative Practices to Hire for Excellence

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A few weeks ago, at Montana’s State Administrator conference, I had the opportunity to listen to Jimmy Casas, author of Start. Right. Now.and Culturize. He asked a question that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. In talking about the importance of hiring quality teachers, he asked, “How do we train people on hiring committees to hire people for excellence?”

I’ve continued to think about this question and reflect on the importance of the hiring process and how we can set our buildings up to hire the best possible candidates. There are some things I think we do well and some things our team can work to improve in the future. Here are a few tips about how we’ve developed collaborative partnerships to hire and retain an outstanding teaching staff.

Post Positions as Early as Possible

Over the past several years, we have worked collaboratively with our district administration to bump up our posting dates as early as possible in the spring. Montana’s legislature meets every other year and sometimes school funding is one of the last topics of the session. As a result, school funding formulas may not be finalized until mid-May, meaning we have posted positions in June and interviewed later in the summer. In a state like Montana where the population is low, often the strongest candidates have already signed contracts with other districts by June. As we collaborated with our district funding and human resource offices, we have been able to move postings up into April and have noticed a larger and higher quality candidate pool. We even post as early as March for hard-to-fill positions.

Cultivate Connections With Local College and University Programs

We are fortunate to be a university town and often have student teachers and practicum students in our building. For the past four years we have collaborated with our local field placement office to modify the process by which student teachers are assigned to teachers. University students now complete a resume and personal statement and teachers interview candidates to find the best placement match. This supports the university students as it provides an opportunity to practice their interviewing skills before they are on a real job search, and it benefits our teachers because they are part of the process and not just working with someone who was randomly assigned. We also worked with the university education department to change the rules allowing teachers to request a student teacher if they have worked with them through their practicum placement and know they would be a good match.

Work With Other Administrators in Your Area to Promote Success Across buildings and Districts

Our district is growing, and soon we will open a second high school. The planning for this transition has forced us to think about hiring in a different, more collaborative way. We don’t want a situation where the perception exists that one school has all of the “good” teachers. Administrators will have to work together to ensure both schools have high-quality teaching staff. We’ve started planning how we can be proactive and collaborative during the hiring process to set both schools up for success.

Work With Department or Team Leaders to Establish a Clear Vision of What Kind of Teacher Would be a Good Fit With Their Team

This is a step we need to work on in our building. Discussions typically develop in an informal way throughout the interview process. However, articulating a vision and measuring candidates against that vision would greatly improve our interview process.

Provide Some Guidance for Your Interview Committee Before the Interview Process

This is another area in which we could improve. Typically, we have a department leader and a teacher or two on each interview panel. We normally pass out paperwork, all furiously take notes during the interview, and then discuss each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. This process has been adequate, but as leaders in our building, our administrative team could do more to actively engage our teachers in this process. Doing so would help them feel empowered, serve as a reminder of what it means to be an outstanding teacher in our building, and help continue to build a strong community.

Support Your Teachers Once They’re in Your Building

We are lucky to have one full-time employee who is both a part-time teacher and part-time instructional coach to work with our first- and second-year teachers. This person serves as a support and is not evaluative  . Our coach has provided support for goal development, completed class observations, helped with long-term planning, and provided any support as requested by teachers. Unfortunately, due to funding restrictions, it is likely we’ll lose this valuable support. Fortunately, due to partnership with our local union, each new teacher is also provided with a building mentor who helps provide curricular support as well as building orientation and a sounding board for first-year struggles. Teachers in our district are required to complete 12 hours of professional development on their own time, and this mentorship doubles as those hours in order to encourage and reward veteran teachers for supporting teachers new to our building.

We strive to continue to refine our hiring process and, with the help of collaborative partnerships, continue toward our goal of hiring and retaining high quality teaching staff.

Reflect on your own hiring practices and seek out collaborative partners and creative solutions to ensure you are hiring for excellence. What are your best hiring practices? 

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 teaches AP Government for the Montana Digital Academy. She is the 2018 Montana Assistant Principal of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @MsSchneeGov.

Define a Collective Purpose to Guide Your School’s Culture

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As school leaders, it is never too early to plan how you want to begin the next school year. In what manner can you galvanize your staff to start a new year? Many schools have a mission or a vision statement, but I want to challenge that notion. Why change or divert from this philosophy? Many of us in leadership could not recite our specific mission statements by memory. Many of us will have to dust off the document and read it again to refresh our memory.

Instead of a mission or vision statement, I want to introduce the “purpose” of your school. At South Middle School in Harrisburg, South Dakota, we have come to call it our “collective purpose.” I wanted our group of teachers to embrace a core value together. Our collective purpose at South Middle School (South) has become the heart of our culture.

The “How” of a Collective Purpose

Before our learners entered our building in August of 2016, our district planned two days of in-service time. A portion of this time was building-specific, with the leadership controlling the value of that time. I’m sure a similar format exists in your district.

What will that time look like for you? First, I followed the lead of a few teachers in my building that flip their instruction. For our math department, the instruction is completed outside of school through videos. Noting this philosophy, I sent out some typical routines on a preservice agenda: staff handbook, logistical items related to policy, and central office notes. It was their responsibility to read or watch these pieces on their own. Second, I planned a time together that begins the culture of a family.

When we met together as a staff, I wanted it to include as many support staff as well. The collective purpose of a building should include more than certified staff. The conversation began with me highlighting a quote from Bold Schoolauthor Wes Kieschnick: “There are two types of schools: Those that prepare kids for the future, and those that allow adults to live comfortably in the past.” I told the group that I wasn’t there to make them comfortable. Preparing kids for the future involves hard work.

Next, I played Rita Pierson’s TED Talk, “Every Kid Needs a Champion.” After we watched this clip, I split them into groups to answer this question: What is our purpose at Harrisburg South Middle School? To facilitate the responses, I had them post to a Padlet. Padlet is a tech tool we use like a digital blackboard to collect information from various sources. Even when this part was completed, I challenged them to think more profoundly about our collective purpose. For what do we want to be known? What drives us to be the best? What one thing pushes purpose?

After a little more discussion, someone said one word that resonated with our group: relationships. This became the glue that held our work together; the collective purpose for us would be building relationships. But we did not end there. I emphasized that this will be spoken through our whole culture. Whenever we decide to accept a new idea, program, or instructional strategy, it has to fit our collective purpose of relationships. If it does not, then we don’t move forward with it.

The Impact of Our Collective Purpose

After employing our collective purpose for the past three years, relationships have become the fabric of our building and culture. I have been reinforced by our decision to focus on a purpose when I see the changes our kids have to handle. It can be emotional, social, physical. It relates to culture, home issues, disability or gender. When they come to Harrisburg South, though, they will find a consistent theme and purpose. Plus, they have the opportunity to contribute to the culture of our school.

How can you utilize a collective purpose to hone your school’s priorities and culture?

To learn more about this concept of a collective purpose, check out this book that I coauthored with Derek McCoy called The Revolution (Dave Burgess Publishing, 2019).

Darren Ellwein is the principal of Harrisburg South Middle School in Harrisburg, SD. He is a 2017 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @DEllwein.

How to Reduce After-School Detentions and Make Them Meaningful

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Detention has been around for as long as I can remember, and some of us—myself included—have served a detention or two when we were students. When I became principal of Wilson West Middle School, I thought deeply about detention as part of our discipline practice. Do detention policies that have been around for decades work for today’s students? If the same students keep finding themselves in detention, what good do they serve? Are detentions effective and helping students learn from their mistakes or do schools keep them simply because they are so ingrained in our tradition?

What if there was a way to stop the same students from receiving detentions or not give them any at all? You can, by replacing it with more constructive ways for students to learn from their mistakes.

Here’s what we did at Wilson West Middle School to reduce detentions and make them more meaningful:

Create a Staff Committee to Review Discipline

Like so much of our work as school leaders, we are better when we work together. We formed a committee of administrators, teachers, and counselors to review our current approaches to discipline and detention policies and looked closely at what infractions students were committing to gain an understanding of what was really happening with detention. What we saw was the same students receiving repeated detentions and not all of our teachers assigning detentions; only a few teachers gave detentions, so some students had higher detention numbers only because they had a particular teacher. And when we asked these teachers why they assigned detentions, it wasn’t because they thought them particularly effective at curbing the behavior, but rather they did it because that is what the student handbook required and there was no other way to address the behavior.

Update Outdated Detention Policies

These observations led us to review our detention policies. Our committee realized quickly how outdated some of the rules were, and we needed to make changes. For example, we dropped the no gum or food policies schoolwide and turned that responsibility over to the individual classroom teacher. Each teacher decides if they want to make that a classroom rule/policy. In real life everyone can eat and drink anywhere they want unless it is posted. Are we not getting our children ready for the next level? Teachers and staff have that morning cup of coffee or tea. Why can’t students? Do we practice what we preach?

Another big issue for which students were getting detentions involved being late to class. To address this issue, we got rid of our bell schedule. This required a major climate shift in the building, and there was immediate pushback from the staff. I created a schedule that had one-minute passing times between classes and explained to the teachers that they should be the ones starting and dismissing the classes, not the bell. Next time you are in the hallway, take a look at the number of students that stand in the hallway speaking with friends, waiting for the bell to ring before darting into class. To avoid the sporadic and inconsistent nature of late markings, there are no bells. In addition, it more closely resembles the nature of the likely next leg of their journey—college.

Creating New Detention Criteria

Just by making these two changes, we saw an overall decrease in detentions by 75 percent. The detentions that are assigned are addressed by the teacher or administrator with a call home and engagement with a parent/guardian. Getting the parents/guardians involved is the first step in making detentions more meaningful for students. After all, if the infraction is bad enough to warrant a detention, then parents need to be called.

We also track the students who are getting detentions. If a student gets four or more detentions in a quarter, we set up a conference with the parent/guardian. The staff that are invited usually consist of grade-level team members, a counselor, an administrator, and other interested parties. These meetings help to address the problem behaviors in a more direct way by discussing the underlying issues that led to the infraction in the first place.

Making Time in Detention More Meaningful

If students end up in detention, we now use the time in a more constructive manner. We offer a variety of activities that help students reflect on what led them to detention in the first place. Our students can:

  • Write a reflection as to why they got detention in the first place and what they could have done differently.
  • Have a one-on-one conference with the monitor who asks the student a variety of questions for personal reflection. We developed questions for various situations to guide these conferences.
  • Read an article about their offense and then report out to the counselor.
  • Set goals. One of those goals should be not to get detention ever again.
  • Write an apology letter to their parents for being assigned the detention. In the letter they should explain why they got the detention and thank them for picking them up after detention.

We also use lunch detentions. When serving a lunch detention, the student needs to do schoolwork as they are eating. This is also a good time to have teachers conference with students to discuss why they received the lunch detention. (Check with the building union representative prior to asking a teacher to do this during their lunch.)

Changing our detention policies have shifted our culture from a punitive one where students’ every move is monitored to a restorative one where students have more autonomy and choice. I encourage all of you to review your school’s approach to discipline and its detention policies. Making a few adjustments can definitely change the climate of your building for the better.

What is your school’s approach to detention? What strategies help make detention more meaningful and effective?

Kyle Wetherhold is the Principal at Wilson West Middle School, a state and national School to Watch. Heis the 2018 Pennsylvania Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @wetkyl.

 

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