Guest post by Paul Hermes

My mom asked me if I could help her answer some questions about her new iPhone. We arranged that I would come over to help her. When I arrived, my mom took out a spiral notebook with a page full of questions. I have had an iPhone for several years, so many of the “issues” were easily answered. However, there were some that I wasn’t sure about, so I Googled a few of them to find the answer. For others, I just started trying stuff to see if I could figure it out. I asked her several times if she tried various solutions, to which she replied every time, “No, I was afraid that I would wreck it.” A little frustrated, I said, “Mom, there is nothing on this phone or what we are doing that is doing to ‘wreck it,’ and if what we try doesn’t work, we can just change it back.” Through this process of trial and error, we were able to solve all of her questions.

As I was driving home, I reflected upon the situation and my disbelief that my mom had all of these questions she couldn’t resolve by herself. When I got home, my first-grade daughter was fully operating my iPad and she certainly hasn’t asked for help on how to play the Hair Salon 2 or BrainPOP Jr. apps. It occurred to me why this was all happening. My mom is part of the “Wite-Out Generation,” while I am a part of the “Ctrl+Z Generation.” My mom was raised in a generation where you went to experts for answers. A generation where things can break if they were handled by novices. A generation that learned by listening to experts talk. A generation that isn’t used to—and is somewhat afraid of—technology. A generation who, if they made a mistake, had to use laborious products like Wite-Out to try to fix their mistakes (and even Wite-Out didn’t fully erase their mistakes).
I am from a generation where knowledge and expertise are no longer in the hands of experts only. A generation that has self-directed access to this expertise 24/7. A generation that is used to and not afraid of using technology. A generation that knows we have the option to just do a “Ctrl+Z” to undo our mistakes.

If we view these generations through this lens of Wite-Out Generation vs. Ctrl+Z Generation, what are the implications for our schools, teachers, students, and needs of all generations? If you are a school administrator or leader, what accommodations or adjustments are you making to support and engage your Wite-Out Generation teachers? How could this perspective on this generation of teachers impact your view of them and their current roles as leaders and learners within your school? If you are of the Wite-Out Generation, what must you acknowledge about yourself and your leadership style? How do you need to change/update yourself and your perspective to continue to learn, grow, and stay relevant and effective in a Ctrl+Z world?

Conversely, if you are a member of the Ctrl+Z Generation, what does this mean for you? What advantages and disadvantages does having this generational membership give you? How does this affect or change your ability to work effectively with your colleagues, specifically those from a Wite-Out time? What learning styles or approaches are best for you? What do you need and want from your school administrator or leader? If you are a school administrator or leader, what accommodations or adjustments are you making to support and engage your Ctrl+Z Generation teachers?

But the most important thing to consider is what this all means for our students. What does it mean for how they learn? For what they learn? For who teaches them? For what their future needs will be? What does the generational trend away from Wite-Out and toward a Ctrl+Z mindset mean? How does this affect our perspectives of education (both learning and teaching), schools, experts, curiosity, and failure? If we don’t consider the background of our teachers and leaders or the preferences, needs, and futures of our students of this generation, I don’t care if you have the jumbo-size bottle of Wite-Out or if you are an expert in using the keyboard short cut to “undo.” Our mistakes will be inerasable.

How do you address generational differences among those who lead and teach at your school?

Paul Hermes is the associate principal at Bay View Middle School in Green Bay, WI. He believes being an educator is the most important profession in the world and has dedicated his life to improving the lives of students, families, and communities. He is the 2016 Wisconsin Associate Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @BVPaulHermes and visit his education and leadership blog, Analogies from an Administrator.

Guest post by Kristan Venegas

Your students may need some help navigating their financial aid options. Kristan Venegas is a professor of clinical education and research associate at the Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. She served as a panelist during the NHS webinar, “The FAFSA: What You Need to Know Now,” which focused on key parts of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process. Her post below provides some insight to pass to your students about the importance of considering different types of financial aid and calculating all costs associated with going to a school of their choice.

All school leaders not only want to see their students excel academically, but they also want to ensure their students become knowledgeable about their options in financing their aspirations so they can take their education to the next level. As a panelist during a National Honor Society webinar on the FAFSA, I’d like to share some insights that might be helpful for you to pass along to your students.

Evaluating Individual Needs

What does inclusivity mean in terms of financial aid? After working and researching in this area for over 15 years, I have learned that a truly inclusive financial aid presentation takes into account the many different variations of individual needs within the audience. Admittedly, this is not an easy thing to do, but experienced colleagues are thoughtful about balancing information that includes individual and general concerns.

Because of my own research and practice interests, I am especially mindful of the needs of low-income students and families, as well as the needs of undocumented students, students who are in the foster care system, and students whose parents are incarcerated. At the same time, I try to be mindful of all of those middle and upper income students and families that might be in any audience.

What are their needs and how can they be addressed—what information is most important to this group? Typically, a student or family member will ask a question about options for financial aid believing that they only have a few options. However, they typically have more than they realize.

Discovering the Options

During the webinar, I presented a number of options, including grants, scholarships, loans, savings, tax credits, and work-study. It’s relatively easy to learn about these financial aid options by visiting FAFSA.ed.gov or CollegeBoard.com, which are both reliable resources.

And while understanding these options is crucially important, an even more important element relates to the conversations that I encourage students and their families to have as they prepare to make financial aid choices.

I recommend that students’ and their families think about three key questions:

1. What are the real costs of college for the school that the student hopes to attend?
   It’s important to understand the costs of attendance versus just tuition. In other words, the cost of books, food, transportation, and other cost-of-living expenses need to be considered.
2. Who will pay for those costs and when?
   Will you pay as you go? Take out student loans? Parent loans? Will a family member borrow with the expectation that the student pays those loans? Is the student expected to work to help pay for expenses? If so, which ones?
3. What kind of aid is OK?
   Will the family rely on tax credits to help pay for school? Are loans acceptable to the family? Does a family expect the student to receive scholarships? If so, how might that happen?

Having these conversations now, before those financial aid offers come rolling in will help clarify students’ options for college and their financial future after college.

Learn More

The NHS/NJHS webinar “The FAFSA: What You Need to Know Now” can be viewed on demand by student members of NHS and NJHS and their parents. Faculty and counselors of NHS- and NJHS-affiliated schools may also view the webinar. To facilitate participation, viewers should get the school’s NHS affiliation number before logging on. Visit www.nhs.us/webinars or www.njhs.us/webinars to access the recording.

Guest post by Derek Pierce

What are the annual events at your school that get your students the most excited? Does your faculty feel the same way? What do your school’s biggest traditions say about what your school most values? 

The best rituals are what alumni still talk about, what brings them back to campus. Too often school rituals can become unmoored from their original purpose or outlive their usefulness. Too often the most important school rituals center around what happens outside the classroom or after the school day is over.

At Casco Bay High School in Portland, ME, we want students to feel the same adrenaline rush and intense engagement about academic accomplishments as is normally reserved for a big game, performance, or concert.

We are a small, diverse urban school, a lead school in the EL Education network, and we strive for school rituals that students and faculty look forward to with equal passion—and which reflect our community’s noblest aspirations for students. Here are four of our favorites.

The Clap Out 

Several times a year, each grade level engages in a long-term, interdisciplinary project that addresses a social justice issue. We call these learning expeditions. After a grade level has successfully shared and defended their learning, we celebrate them with a “clap out.” After the culmination of their projects, the rest of the school—students and staff—lines the hallway, and the triumphant students are applauded wildly as they exit the building.

CBHS value: Expect—and celebrate—academic excellence for all.

Winter Solstice Assembly 

In our last hour before December break, our entire school community sits in a circle on the floor of our “Great Space.” At the core of the Solstice Assembly is a 30-minute open forum that allows any student or staff member to rise and speak to the following prompt for one minute: “What gift have you received from this community for which you would like to express gratitude?” What transpires next has consistently been magical as a cross-section of students and staff rise to give authentic thanks. Last year, about 50 alums chose to join the circle as well, adding even more depth and poignancy. This year’s Solstice Assembly began with a fifth-year senior giving thanks to all of the teachers and peers who had believed in him when he had not believed in himself and helped him persevere toward the diploma he would be receiving in January.

CBHS value: Build community and deeper learning will follow.

Movin’ On Up at the End of School Meetings

We end almost every one of our weekly school meetings between November and June with a “Movin’ On Up” ceremony. Any time one of our seniors has been accepted to college, they have the option to “Move On Up.” We crank the (classic) theme to “The Jeffersons” and call out the student’s name and his or her college options. Then the student basks in the standing ovation, wades through a sea of hugs, and climbs a ladder to place a personal pennant on the Movin’ On Up wall. This amateur video gives you a sense of the delightful madness.

CBHS value: Every CBHS student is college material. 

The Final Word

The Final Word challenges each senior to craft and deliver a brief speech to an audience that consists of fellow seniors as well as staff, family, and other loved ones. Students answer questions such as “What is most important for me to say to the world about who I am, where I’ve been, and where I am going?” After each speech, a peer and mentor are invited to add their perspectives about why the speaker is ready to graduate. The school community is treated to about 10 Final Words a day for the last two weeks of senior classes. During the graduation ceremony, each senior proclaims his or her favorite Final Word sentence in a gorgeous performance collage.

CBHS value: Each student matters and has something important to say, for themselves and their world.

School rituals are a powerful means to both create and perpetuate school culture. They can help distinguish your community from others and imprint students for years to come. School leaders are well-served to shape rituals that not only energize students and faculty but also reinforce their best selves.

What are your school’s most important rituals? What do they say about your school values?

Derek Pierce serves as the principal of Casco Bay High School in Portland, ME. He is the 2016 Maine Secondary Principal of the Year. 

Guest post by Denver J. Fowler

As an education leader in Mississippi, I am frustrated that our state consistently places last in national education rankings. Education Week gives Mississippi a D- and ranks it 50th (out of 50 states and the District of Columbia). Even more troubling to me is that my fellow Mississippians seem to have gotten used to this situation, and detailed plans on how to fix the problem is lacking. Year after year, it appears Mississippi is not getting the job done when it comes to educating our children. I am left wondering why and asking myself what can we do in order to address this issue? 

An Uphill Battle 

To be sure, Mississippi public schools face some unique challenges. First, there are more private schools than public school districts, as many white families in the 1960s and ‘70s resisted integration by forming schools of their own. Mississippi is also one of the poorest states in the nation, and it is consistently losing residents. The political, economic, and historical factors behind these trends are numerous, but I believe the key to reversing them starts with education.

Issues and Recommendations for PreK–12 Education Policy in Mississippi

I’ve spent many hours and days pondering what the State of Mississippi could do to help schools at the local level. Here are my recommendations:

Elected Superintendents 

Historically, Mississippi public school districts have had elected superintendents, which is a process almost all other states in the U.S. have either never used or put an end to long ago. There is overwhelming evidence that school districts benefit from having professional superintendents selected by an elected school board through an open and competitive search process.

Recommendation: Fortunately, in 2016, Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill (SB 2438) that will effectively end the process of elected superintendents on January 1, 2019. It will be important to ensure this bill is fully implemented in a timely manner.

Superintendent Licensure

A related issue with respect to superintendents is licensure. To become a superintendent in Mississippi, one must complete an educational leadership program focused on being an assistant principal/principal and pass the School Leadership Licensure Assessment (SLLA) in order to obtain a license. Unfortunately, these requirements are the exact same ones that a principal in Mississippi must have. You see, Mississippi only has one administrative license for both principals and superintendents. A consequence of this policy is that an individual does not need to have any school administrative experience before being elected as a superintendent of a school district, a practice that does indeed happen.

Recommendation: To ensure that quality school leaders are leading our districts, Mississippi should adopt a model like most other states requiring an additional superintendent license separate from the principal license. The requirements of this license would include two main components: additional education and at least three years of building-level administrative leadership experience.

Reciprocity

Mississippi’s intentions were noble when they adopted the highest cut score of any state that utilizes the SLLA. However, with reciprocity, individuals can pass the same test in nearby states at a much lower cut score and receive the same license to practice in Mississippi.

Recommendations: In order for the SLLA cut score adopted by Mississippi to ensure quality school leaders are leading schools, Mississippi must end the process of reciprocity as it applies to the school administrator license.

Teacher Retention

In contrast to ending reciprocity for administrators, it may actually make sense to continue reciprocity for teachers because teacher retention is a major issue in Mississippi. This is in large part due to the high number of Teach for America (TFA) and Mississippi Teacher Corps (MTC) teachers across the state, many of who have only a two-year commitment to teach.

Recommendations: To attract top teachers and keep them in our schools, Mississippi can pursue a number of options. State funds could be used to create a statewide teacher retention program that would study the reasons why teachers are leaving Mississippi and implement plans focused on keeping teachers in the state. In addition, Mississippi could offer statewide professional development for school leaders focused on fostering a positive school climate and culture. By using the approach of “train them so well they can leave, but treat them so well they never want to,” and focusing on improving the school climate and culture, we can work to retain all teachers in Mississippi.

These are just a few suggestions for how Mississippi can start to reverse such a negative trend. Certainly, there are many other factors that could be explored. But from my perspective, we need to start at the top, with school leadership, to attract—and retain—highly skilled and dedicated professionals who are willing to do the hard work over time that will be required to get Mississippi schools moving in the right direction.

How do education policy decisions at the state level affect your local schools? Can you identify particular things that you think your state does and doesn’t do well? What is one change you would recommend to improve education policy in your state? 

Denver J. Fowler, EdD, is an assistant professor of Educational Leadership at The University of Mississippi. In 2015, he was named the NASSP and OASSA State Assistant Principal of the Year for Ohio. He has over a decade of experience in the preK–12 educational setting and over seven years of experience in higher education preparing aspiring school leaders. Denver is currently writing a book to be released in the fall of 2017 titled The 21st Century School Leader: Leading Schools in Today’s World with a foreword by Todd Whitaker and afterword by Thomas Tucker (two-time National Superintendent of the Year). Follow him on Twitter @DenverJFowler.

Guest post by Robin Kvalo

Portage High School in Portage, WI, introduced a new STEM manufacturing program for selected sophomores this 2016-17 school year. The major highlight of the program is that the students will take English, math, and science credits in the technology education and engineering labs. The core classes are integrated with technology education projects and our new “Enterprise,” our in-house manufacturing business experience. Core content teachers share classroom space with technology educators, teaming up for academic success for these individual students.

Structure of the STEM program

The daily schedule for the program consists of normal coursework throughout the morning. In the afternoon, students are in the STEM manufacturing area where they will take their English, science, and math classes. At the end of the day, students utilize resource time to work on individual employability certificates as well as the “Enterprise.”

The English portion of the STEM program revolves around communication needed both in the workplace and the “Enterprise” business that the students will develop. For example, students create procedure sheets, résumés, work orders, and a variety of documentation used in industry every day. Moreover, local business and industry professionals are available to conduct mock interviews with the students. Although the English portion of the STEM program is not team-taught, a technology educator is available for collaboration during this time.

The math portion is delivered with both a technical education instructor and a math teacher. The math curriculum centers around both machine tooling math and other concepts needed in the manufacturing “Enterprise” experience.

The students’ last class of the day is the physical science portion of the STEM program. The instructors reinforce the physical science standards that students will need in both technical school and the trades. Many of the science standards are reinforced by classroom labs and then applied in the “Enterprise” extension of the program. The science portion of the program is team-taught by a science and technology education teacher.

Why offer a new STEM program at Portage High School?

The answer is twofold. First and foremost, we saw a need for a specific population of students. Certain students have found success in our technical education department, but have not found the same success in their core classes. Therefore, by exposing the students to direct connections to the trades and manufacturing, we believe that students will find motivation and understanding to succeed in all content areas. As a result, confidence grows within the students and a sense of the big picture starts to emerge.

Secondly, our school district wants to continue to build partnerships with our community and local industry as part of its five-year strategic plan. Our STEM teachers have talked to local businesses and manufacturers. We have heard the concerns with regard to what skill sets the current new employee base is lacking. As a result, we wanted to bridge that gap and help teach the skills that will lead to individual successes in the workforce. With this model, individuals will be able to earn specific workforce/trade certifications and youth apprenticeship opportunities along the way.

We are confident the “Enterprise” model is a step in the right direction to meet the needs of some of our students and address the lack of skilled employees in the current market. By allowing these students to be a part of something bigger than themselves and having the opportunity to develop the skills that current employers are looking for in a manufacturing setting, the stage is set for kids to continue to find success in a career they choose.

Could a STEM manufacturing program and “Enterprise” model motivate your students and help them gain the skills they need to enter the workforce?

Robin Kvalo is the principal of Portage High School in Portage, WI. She is the 2016 Wisconsin Secondary Principal of the Year.

Guest post by Alison Maurice

Find out if your school district is eligible to provide free meals to your students with this handy FAQ guide to the community eligibility provision.

Why should I consider community eligibility for my school?

Educators know that in order for children to learn, they must be well nourished. Schools are an important access point for healthy meals for low-income children. That is why community eligibility continues to grow in popularity among high-need schools. Community eligibility has been successful at increasing school breakfast and lunch participation, so more students experience the positive educational outcomes that are linked to participating in school meals. In the current school year, nearly 10 million children in over 20,000 schools and 3,500 school districts are being offered breakfast and lunch at no charge through the community eligibility program.

What are the benefits of community eligibility?

Schools participating in community eligibility benefit from:

• Less administrative work—school administrators no longer need to collect and verify school meal applications and can focus more resources on providing nutritious meals for students.
• Increased participation in the school breakfast and lunch programs—in initial pilot states, community eligibility increased breakfast participation by 9.4 percent and increased lunch participation by 5.2 percent.
• Improved financial viability of school nutrition programs—when community eligibility becomes available at a school, school meal participation increases, which can improve school nutrition finances.
• The elimination of unpaid meal fees—this means schools no longer need to collect money from families or find available funds for the meals that go unpaid by students.

Additionally, by offering meals at no charge to all students, community eligibility makes it easier for schools to leverage innovative school breakfast service models, such as breakfast in the classroom, “grab and go” breakfast, and second chance breakfast. Traditional school breakfast programs that operate before the school day begins must compete with hectic morning schedules and late bus arrivals. Rather, breakfast after the bell service models integrate breakfast into the school day, allowing more children to start the day ready to learn.

How does community eligibility work?

Community eligibility allows high-need school districts and schools to offer breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students, while eliminating the school meal application process. Any school district, group of schools in a district, or individual school with 40 percent or more “identified students”—children who are certified for free meals without submitting a school meal application—can choose to participate in community eligibility. Identified students include:

• Children who live in households that receive assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR); and in some states, Medicaid.
• Children who are homeless, migrant, enrolled in Head Start, or in foster care.

How will my schools get reimbursed?

Once a school, group of schools, or school district establishes its identified student percentage (ISP), that number is multiplied by 1.6 to determine the percentage of meals reimbursed at the free reimbursement rate (capped at 100 percent). The remainder is reimbursed at the paid rate. This percentage is locked in for four years, unless the ISP goes up, in which case it would be adjusted to reflect the increase. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a “Community Eligibility Provision Estimator” tool to help school districts determine if community eligibility makes financial sense. There is a lot of flexibility in how schools are grouped to determine the ISP, allowing districts to group schools to ensure financial viability.

What can I do right now?

Start planning for the 2017–18 school year today. Find out which school districts and schools in your state have implemented community eligibility or were eligible during the 2016–17 school year using FRAC’s Community Eligibility Database.

By adopting community eligibility, you can increase participation in school breakfast and lunch, ensuring your students the nutrition needed to succeed in school.

Is there a deadline for my school to apply for community eligibility?

On May 1, 2017, your state’s education agencies will publish a list of schools and school districts that qualify for community eligibility. Review the list to see which of your schools qualify for the 2017–18 school year.

The deadline to apply to use community eligibility in the 2017–18 school year is June 30, 2017.

For more information on community eligibility, reach out to Alison Maurice, child nutrition policy analyst at the Food Research & Action Center and check out these resources:

• FRAC community eligibility webpage
• FRAC Facts: Community Eligibility
• USDA Community Eligibility webpage
• USDA “Community Eligibility Provision: Overview & Timeline for SY 17–18”
• FRAC “Breakfast for Learning” research brief

Alison Maurice is a child nutrition policy analyst at the Food Research & Action Center.

Guest post by David Caruso

Though many students successfully navigate their middle school years, some students lose focus, have tremendous difficulty developing positive relationships, often avoid work, and engage in extremely disruptive behavior—all of which impede academic and social progress. As administrators, we know well that these are the students whose problematic behaviors, if not corrected, will result in frequent visits to the office for discipline. 

After trying various interventions with these students without much success, our staff came together and rethought our intervention program. We realized that in order for these students to find success, we must address the underlying social, emotional, and academic skill deficits that contribute to their behavioral and academic struggles. That is why East Hartford Middle School developed the RISE program.

What is RISE? 

RISE is an intervention program that stands for Restore Inspire Sustain Educate. RISE supports students struggling with behavioral problems in a small and separate learning environment. A collaborative team of professionals, led by a special education teacher, works together to deliver targeted emotional, social, and academic learning activities aimed at developing the skills necessary to build healthy relationships, deal with adversity, and allow for increased focus and academic success. The program consists of four phases.

Phase I: Identifying & Monitoring Potential RISE Students 

The first phase of the program involves classroom teachers and administrators identifying students who may be exhibiting early signs of behavioral struggles. The RISE program leader and success coach conduct classroom observations of the identified students and attempt to identify any “triggers” or other causes of the disruptive/defiant behaviors. They provide the teacher with an observation summary that includes intervention strategies to correct the misbehaviors and teach the desired behaviors.

Phase II: Intensive Intervention Plan & Student Referral to RISE

If our Phase I interventions prove ineffective, the team will move to Phase II and develop a more intensive and highly structured intervention plan to address the student’s ongoing behavioral concerns. The team will meet every two weeks to monitor progress and adjust the plan. If after six weeks the plan is not yielding the desired results, the team completes a referral for RISE intervention to the school administration.

Phase III: RISE Program and Individual Skill Development

Once a student has been welcomed into RISE, they participate in an orientation in order to get acclimated to the program and its expectations, and to build connections to adults and other students. After orientation, a student will attend the RISE program all day for a period of four weeks (though it varies for each student). Our RISE program leader is a certified special education teacher specializing in managing student behavior and provides students with different learning experiences each period. A typical day in RISE looks something like this:

• The student starts the day with a group session facilitated by a member of our support staff (school psychologist, social worker, or our school resource officer) and addresses the skill deficits interfering with their learning. The group learns how to navigate challenging peer issues in a positive way, engage in self-esteem boosting activities, work through adversities, and deal with failures.
• After the group session, students work on various activities that help address skill deficits. Students have real-world opportunities to practice these skills and put their learning into immediate action.
• Core subject teachers will come in and co-teach with the program leader to deal with issues particular to that class.
• As the student progresses through the day, they are awarded points that result in earning individual incentives, such as gym activities, computer time, and lunch with friends.
• The program leader will review daily progress with each student at the end of every day and share a weekly summary with families.

Phase IV: Transition for Success

After a student has exhibited sustained improvement both socially and academically, we will transition the student back to their academic team. The program leader facilitates this transition by tailoring a plan to meet the needs of each student. Each plan includes the following steps and goals:

• The program leader and the team preparing to receive the student back work closely to select classes that will place the student in the best position for success.
• As the student demonstrates the ability to be a productive member of the class, the student will re-enter additional classes and join their team.
• When appropriate, the success coach from RISE may join the student in their team classes until the student is comfortable and confident to do it with the support of the teacher.
• The team will continue to monitor student progress and adjust the plan to ensure the student continues to build the right skills that foster personal growth and academic achievement.

Positive Growth

Now in its second year, the RISE program shows promise and positive results. Of the 29 students who have been part of the program, 18 have successfully transitioned back to their academic team or have advanced to high school. Only two of the students were sent to an alternative program outside of the building. The nine students currently in RISE expressed thanks for helping them get back on track. The program has been very well received by parents and staff who appreciate the additional support.

The RISE program has provided our school a way to address problematic behavior before it makes a lasting impact on a student’s future. What are your best behavior intervention practices? Could a program like RISE help your middle school students develop the social, emotional, and academic skills needed for school and personal success?

David Caruso is the first assistant principal at East Hartford Middle School in East Hartford, CT. He is the 2016 Assistant Principal of the Year.

Guest post by Robin Kvalo

As the principal of Portage High School, the term “makerspace” came into my world when I brought Naomi Harm, innovative educator consultant, to Portage High School for staff development workshops. Initially, I wasn’t sure where makerspaces would fit in a high school. However, after attending Naomi’s makerspace workshop Make Room for Makerspaces at the School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education (SLATE) convention in Wisconsin, I was hooked. 

For our library media specialist, makerspaces had been a topic of conversation among her library peers for at least a year, but she admitted that they made more sense to her at the middle and elementary levels because she saw those students “at play” on a regular basis. At the high school level, where the focus is on academics, career planning, or job skills, it seemed a harder fit. Then she came across an article by Diana Rendina, which pointed out the amount of research available about how both children and young adults learn through play. Rendina writes, “What often looks like ‘just play’ to adults is actually a reflection of much deeper learning.”

Planning for Makerspaces

In 2011–12, PHS had already converted its traditional library into an iCenter, where print and technology came together in a 21st-century learning space. This was the perfect location to launch several makerspaces at PHS. Providing that space to students in a place that already housed a variety of resources for everyone to access was a natural fit.

Our library media specialist, technology director, technology coach, and I formed a committee and called ourselves the Google Gals. We brainstormed various makerspaces that had been researched. The team selected eight stations for the initial launch: Osmo, 3-D pen, Google Cardboard, Lego wall, adult coloring books, puzzles, drones, and Makey Makey.

Launching Makerspaces for Students

During Digital Learning Week in 2016, we launched a different station each day. Library staff had the PHS iTeam (a technology team of students who reside in the iCenter each period to troubleshoot technology issues) learn each makerspace, become an “expert” in that space, and present it to other PHS students. Everyone brainstormed challenges for each station. We gave hints to students about what was coming that week through Twitter, Facebook, the school website, and morning announcements.

The week after the launch, all of our science classes visited the iCenter to experience each makerspace. We believed our science teachers naturally understood makerspaces and could help students see how they fostered the 4Cs—creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking—as well as problem-solving, design and redesign, and innovation. Students began learning through failure and experimentation. We had successfully brought the 4Cs and 21st-century skills together in one place.

Introducing Makerspaces to Staff 

Once students had experienced the makerspaces, it was time for staff to join in the fun. At a staff meeting, we provided an overview of why the makerspaces started in the iCenter, as it is a central location for inquiry, information, and research. Now, the iCenter had hands-on experiences for discovery. As departments experienced each makerspace, they discussed and recorded ideas they had for makerspaces in their courses. They also discovered that many classes already had makerspaces, they just didn’t name them as such. Most of all, they realized that there is learning through play!

What’s Next? 

Makerspaces have brought excitement to our students and staff. Students are suggesting makerspaces they’d like to see and coming to school early to create some in our resource room. Teachers are now thinking beyond the traditional educational practices and looking at new and innovative ways to incorporate creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving into their curricula. They want to implement makerspace environments in their classrooms and departments. Teachers are even talking about creating makerspaces for one another and the community.

It is exciting to see energy and enthusiasm from students and staff over makerspaces. These collaborative and dynamic environments have generated an eagerness in our school for designing, tinkering, exploring, and creating. The fear of failure is OK because there is a willingness to try again. Makerspaces may re-engage some of our students to learn life skills that are necessary for success in the 21st century.

What are your experiences with makerspaces? How have they helped your school community get excited about learning?  

Robin Kvalo is the principal of Portage High School in Portage, WI. She is the 2016 Wisconsin Secondary Principal of the Year.

Guest post by Andrea Dennis

Do you often feel that the bulk of your day is spent as judge, jury, and executioner? Do you recall those roles being outlined in your job description? Administrators are regarded as the chief disciplinarians within schools. When classroom instructors routinely defer to administration on myriad minor student transgressions, assistant principals drown under the tidal wave of referrals and fail to evolve into the transformative instructional leaders needed for schools to thrive. Modifying policies with innovation and cooperative methodology, however, can make redirecting student behavior a shared task and curtail office referrals schoolwide. 

Exhibit A

After 18 years of working in a high school, I dismissed my trepidation and accepted an opportunity to move to the middle level. Are middle and high schools basically the same? The short answer is definitely not. Trend data revealed that my middle school faculty encountered a mountain of minor (though not inconsequential) behaviors that often resulted in suspensions, forfeited learning experiences, and failing grades. We had to cultivate a proactive discipline policy that halted misbehaviors before they progressed to “willful disobedience” or evolved into actions that led to suspensions.

My school of nearly 600 students has two core content teams per grade level. Schedules are designed for these teams to collaboratively plan. Our first step was delineating minor and major infractions. My eighth grade teams then developed a discipline blueprint that uses a QR code system and Google Docs to quickly address and record minor offenses. Teachers track student misbehavior and identify patterns that negatively impact the learning environment. These teachers then submit a request to their grade-level administrator to schedule a meeting that includes the team, the student, parents, and the assistant principal. The documentation is stored in Google Docs and comprehensive progress and attendance reports are prepared for the meeting.

Witness for the Defense

All meetings begin with stakeholders agreeing that this is a collaborative effort to redirect student behavior. Team members advocate for the student and share positive attributes before broaching the topic of his/her conduct. Although Michael has amazing debate skills, classroom sessions are hampered when he questions every decision of the teacher. While Destiny is brilliant at solving math problems quickly, she tends to distract classmates that need more time. Reach deep if necessary and find the compliment to start the meeting.

Jury Deliberates

The stakeholders work in partnership to identify triggers that lead to student misbehavior and develop an action plan/behavior contract to move forward. Some of the ground rules include:

• The student has a voice and should be prompted to discuss and take ownership of his/her actions.
• This is not an attack; this is an intervention strategy.
• All data presented should focus on the student’s needs and student success.
• The school’s progressive discipline policy is examined to show the consequences of failing to adhere to the final agreement.

Judgement 

This approach has significantly decreased the number of discipline incidents for eighth-graders at our school. Students are supported through comprehensive monitoring. Parents are better informed and actively work with the school to manage student behavior. Teachers lose less instructional time. And administrators no longer feel like lone rangers when it comes to addressing discipline.

Items to consider:

• What level offenses would this strategy most effectively address?
• At what point in the school year would these meetings need to take place?
• Should case managers be included for students with IEPs? Counselors for students with extreme behaviors?
• What steps can be taken to ensure parents and students don’t adopt an “us against them” outlook?
• How can technology assist in communicating with parents and early intervention?

Are minor discipline infractions hindering the educational process at your school? If so, how can this team intervention model thwart misbehavior?

Andrea Dennis is a first-year principal at Scarborough Model Middle School in Mobile, AL, which serves 584 students in grades 6–8. She is the 2015 Alabama Assistant Principal of the Year and AASSP District 1 vice president. Follow her on Twitter @AndreaLDennis.

This academic year, students found their voice and discovered a new means of empowerment, thanks to the National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society State Summit experience. Five locations hosted the State Summit in 2016–17: southern California, Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas, and New Mexico. This innovative leadership development experience will be coming to more locations in 2017–18. Here, two student delegates at the Texas State Summit reflect on the day, giving a glimpse into the summit from the student perspective.

Jaden Smith
NEHS member
Fourth Grade
Holy Trinity Episcopal School, Houston, TX

During the Texas State Summit I enjoyed learning about conservation and social justice efforts. The State Summit helped me understand my relationship with the environment. The State Summit also helped me develop leadership skills and more.

I was assigned to the Champion Social Justice Efforts conversation, as well as the Operation: Conservation talk, and I will gladly share my experience.

Jaden Smith and State Summit facilitator Karen Dawson at the Texas State Summit

From the Social Justice Efforts conversation, we had two marvelous teachers: Nicole and Stephan. Nicole loves photography and travel. She went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania for college. Stephan went to Texas Tech and loves to mess around with software. He is a huge Beyoncé fan.

In the class itself, we learned the difference between equality and empathy. The key to empathy is to understand the feelings of the other person before yourself. Equality is when everyone gets the same amount of something. Empathy is giving whatever it is to someone who needs it. The example they gave was a taller son standing on one stool to see a baseball game. A medium height son and small son got the same size stool. Both the tall one and the medium one could see with just one stool, but the little one couldn’t see the game with one stool. Out of empathy, the taller son gave his stool to the little one so everyone could have what they needed to see the baseball game.

In the Operation: Conservation room, we had two fantastic teachers: Karen and Bertrand. Karen told us, “I love to help build homes in Africa. I took part in helping to save butterflies.” Bertrand told us, “I am from Los Angeles. I spent my life to studying to help the environment. I helped build a dam that cleans out water.”

We learned about saving resources that we take advantage of every day, for example, electricity. We know electricity as a simple flick of a light switch, but electricity takes lots of resources. That’s why we use solar panels to get electricity from the sun rather than from coal and other options that use resources from the earth. We also need water for our sinks, bathrooms, showers, etc. We talked about saving electricity by unplugging chargers after they have been used, turning off the light after leaving a room, and more simple ideas that would help save a lot of electricity if everyone participated. That is why we need to preserve our resources around us. In that classroom, we brainstormed ideas to help people with the same problem.

To sum up my experience, we went into separate color groups. There, we came up with our own problem and worries for the world. We decided on one important topic and presented it in front of the other color groups. All the ideas were great. In that one day, we came up with loads of ideas that are going to be put into action—and action into service.

Angelica Rodriguez
NJHS member
Sixth Grade
Holy Trinity Episcopal School, Houston, TX

Going to the Texas State Summit was a new experience for me. Our NJHS chapter has never left campus for anything other than service learning opportunities. I was a little scared, but super excited to not have to go to class. I had no idea what to expect, but got a little nervous when I realized that we would be attending workshop sessions without our advisor. As students, we are accustomed to being with adults and allowing them to speak for us and make all the decisions. Heading to those sessions without my advisor pushed me to speak up and find my voice.

My voice comes out in many ways. Sometimes, I shout. At times, I mumble. There are even those times when I whisper (although my sister would say I always shout). In choir, I join my voice with the people around me to bring enjoyment to others. I’ve always thought about voice in that context … the noises produced by the vibration of my vocal chords. At the Texas State Summit, I learned a new way to think of my voice. I learned that I can join my voice with others to change the world. I want to use my voice as an instrument that makes the world around me a better place.

Everyone has different thoughts and opinions, so my voice is important because my thoughts and opinions can show a perspective that others do not have. As a student, I spend much of my life doing as I’m told. I guess you could call it “on the job training.”  I am surrounded by capable and confident leaders who are teaching me to follow in their footsteps.

Delegates from Holy Trinity Episcopal School at the Texas State Summit

By allowing me to use my voice, they are training me to step up and take ownership of and pride in my thoughts, opinions, and eventually, my actions.  At the summit, our workshop leaders gave us the tools to speak up and act.

In the car on the way home from the Texas State Summit, our advisor asked us questions about what we had learned and what we wanted to do with that knowledge. I spoke up and described a program I want to start on campus. We all started talking about it and making plans. It felt good to have everyone want to be a part of something I started. The program we talked about is focused on helping children who learn differently make friends and become a part of our school community. This is important to me because my sister has Williams Syndrome. My perspective on this topic is a little different than my friends. I have insight into the need for this program that they don’t have. I used my voice to share my perspective and now we will change the lives of these students in our community.

I also learned that by listening to what others say, I can learn about them and their world. I can learn about their perspective. Honoring and respecting the voices of others is a part of the process of turning the tide on the hate in our world. Our voices are unique to us and should be shared with others and respected by all. Only by truly sharing our thoughts and ideas can we make our mark on the world and make it a better place.

How does your school help students to find their voice?

Guest post by Dennis Barger

What makes you good at what you do? I was recently asked this question in an interview, and it gave me pause to think about how it is that I have come to experience success as a principal. Everyone I know, from students and parents to friends and family, all have strengths, but what are mine as a school principal? Why is my school successful?

The answer is simple—I hire the right people. I am not responsible for teaching all of the lessons that happen in class, or running club meetings, or coaching teams, or (insert a thousand other things that happen on our campus). I am, however, responsible for choosing the people who make those thousands of decisions every day. That is a big responsibility, and getting it right really matters!

When do we learn how to hire? Was that in one of our undergrad courses or part of our master’s degree? I do not remember if it was. I do remember being invited to sit in on an interview by someone who saw me as a potential administrator. I also remember some of the first interviews where I was asking the questions and just how scary it was to realize that I was providing opinions on candidates that I would get to work with in the future. (I also realized that some people should NOT work with kids, but I will save those thoughts for my memoirs!)

When hiring, I am reminded of Jim Collins’ Good To Great. Collins writes about getting the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus. Hiring is where we get the right people on the bus. Without them, it simply doesn’t matter where the bus is heading. Another part of his book talks about getting people in the right seats. That is more about staffing decisions than hiring, but it is a valid point and I recommend the book to all leaders.

Here are some of the key lessons I have learned through years of hiring.

Plan ahead for the interview, then reflect on what you hear. 

First, remember to take your time. That’s the only way to get it right. After the interview, ask yourself: Is this the kind of person in whom we should invest $200,000 for training? Would you want them in front of your children? Do they talk about serving others or just themselves? These are all great things to consider when choosing to hire someone.

Follow up interviews help prevent hiring mistakes.

I find that after an initial interview I have a pretty good idea as to which candidates are a likely fit, which might be a fit, and which should not work here. Follow-up interviews are always a good idea, even though they are time consuming, because making a mistake in who we hire can be way more time consuming and costly!

Take the time to complete the reference checks yourself.

After you find a candidate you like, talk to people who worked with the candidate and listen carefully to how they answer the questions. Do they answer with enthusiasm and examples of this person being great, or do they answer only with yes or no, pausing too long while they are trying to decide how to answer? If you sense a red flag, pay attention to it!

Google and Facebook check your candidates.

Finding unprofessional comments and pictures by your candidates might help you to see who they are when they are not sitting in front of you, showing you their absolute best. One Google search allowed us to learn that a candidate was a reality TV contestant who had been sexually promiscuous on the show. That was not disclosed in the interview or the background checks. Imagine placing that person in front of a classroom full of hormonal teenagers and explaining to parents, “We didn’t know, sorry.”

Learn from your mistakes.

I have had two very painful staffing issues in my 11 years as principal; those staff issues that keep you up at night, fragment your staff, and make your human resource director one of your closest friends. The first of these mistakes came when I asked someone else to complete the reference checks because with one, “I was too busy,” and for the other, the candidate was someone who I was lukewarm about after the first interview and only brought back for a second interview when my original candidate declined. The problem was that we were getting closer to the start of the year and I felt rushed. In hindsight, I would have slept a whole lot better for several months had I taken a week or two longer to make the right decision.

The moral of the story: Hire wisely! 

Take the time to do it right. Get the right people on the bus—people that you would want in front of your own children. I did. My kids graduated in 2014 and 2016. I could look parents in the eye and say, “I would—no, actually—I did put my children in their classroom.” One of the most important things I do, and one of the tasks that makes me good at what I do, is hiring the right people to make our school a great place for kids to be.

What are your best hiring practices? How do you make sure you hire the right people for your school? 

Dennis Barger is principal of Vail Academy and High School in Tucson, AZ. He is the 2016 Arizona Secondary Principal of the Year. 

Guest post by Duane Kline

I’m writing on a cross-country flight from Kentucky to San Francisco with my wife and daughter. It turns out that my 22 years of parenting have brought us to the point where (a) my daughter has her own interests and a career and (b) she feels the need to “see the world.” So, she’s preparing to move to Northern California. It’s interesting that I’ve had similar conversations with parents every year that I have been a high school principal. As the school year winds down, we prepare to send our seniors on their journeys and face that set of emotions only teachers can know at the end of a year. Each year, I have reminded my students, parents, and faculty of the importance of finishing strong. Strong endings, I think, make for stronger new beginnings. (A conversation I’m having with my sweet daughter as we hurtle westward, somewhere over Nebraska, I suppose.)

And so, to you, my colleagues, I’ll offer the same advice. As we’ve spent another year teaching, guiding, mentoring, and even arguing, it’s important that we draw closer to the end of this edition of our journey in strength; we are laying the foundation for next year’s work. While we all have our own transition rituals (my year officially ends/begins when I erase my whiteboard master calendar and realign the days of the week for the next year), I want to encourage you to make sure these elements are part of your work.

Communicate what’s important in your school. 

What you communicate when you speak, write, and act for your school is enormously important. Every opportunity is one to nudge the culture of your school and community that much closer to the positive, growth-oriented ideal you have in your mind. Luckily, the end of the year is rife with opportunities to talk about the important things in your school—character, effort, persistence, grit, and excellence come to mind for my school. As you gather for graduations, moving-on ceremonies and award nights, be sure to remind everyone what your school is really about.

Evaluate the past year before everyone leaves for the summer. 

Get your teachers together—your building leadership team, your PLC’s—and take one more look at the year’s data. Where did growth surprise you? What areas didn’t perform to expectations? What will you, your teachers and your students need to do differently next year? Have these discussions before thoughts turn to camping trips, the pool, and naps. I know I always felt a little intruded upon when I was called in during the middle of the summer to have conversations that would have been better had in May. Give your team an opportunity to pour the year out before leaving, and they’ll appreciate the summer … and you … all the more.

Lay your plans for improvement. 

Now is the time to elicit commitments so everyone can prepare mentally and emotionally for next year’s journey. One of the things I try to do is to give teachers the big ideas for the next year to chew on before they leave for the summer. I do this for two reasons. First, we invariably get better thinking when teacher leaders have a chance to process ideas. Second, the beginning of the next school year is that much less stressful if I’m not springing additional ideas and plans on teachers that they could have been preparing for ahead of time. It’s amazing what a difference a few weeks of “think time” can make.

Clear the air, encourage and pat backs. 

Every year I go into the summer with one or two conversations I wish I’d had. These might be discussions about redirection with the superintendent, or thank yous to a teacher, or “attaboys” for some students. Take a few minutes to consider the conversations that you need to have that will improve the life of your school. Then have them. Tell people how much you enjoy them, what you expect from them, give people your sincere thanks as often as you can. These moments, these conversations are the foundation of the goodwill and teamwork that make all great schools.

The plane is about to land, literally and figuratively. Make sure to put as much effort into ending your school year as you did into the beginning; the next beginning will be that much smoother because you did. Every day, even the last one, is a chance to make your school a place where all of your students are proud to be!

What are your end-of-year rituals? How do they move your school forward? How do you encourage your faculty and students to look ahead, even as they wrap up the year?

Duane Kline is the proud principal of Owen County High School in Owenton, KY. He is the even prouder husband of Anne, and dad of (California-bound) Hannah and Aaron. Duane is the 2016 Kentucky Secondary Principal of the Year. 

Guest post by Cameron Soester

Four years ago, I became the assistant principal at Milford Junior/Senior High School. It was September, and the principal in my building, Brandon Mowinkel, invited me to attend the Region 1 meeting of the Nebraska State Association of Secondary School Principals (NSASSP). I was unsure exactly what I was getting into, why I was going, and what I was going to do at this meeting, but as it turns out, getting involved in my region has opened many doors for me.

In Nebraska, involvement in the state organization starts at the regional level. Each region has an executive board that oversees quarterly meetings that involve networking and professional development. Each regional president is also a member of the NSASSP executive board at the state level. There are additionally at-large members to represent other groups such as assistant principals at the state level, for example.

Through my involvement at the regional level, I have had the opportunity to network and associate with principals and assistant principals that are geographically close to me. This professional network has been a valuable resource to which I regularly turn to ask for advice, collaborate on school initiatives, and share best practices. It is through my involvement that I and a colleague, Charlie Hutzler from Norris High School, have organized an assistant principal-specific session at the annual Nebraska Administrator Days. It has been a successful venture as we have consistently had 25–30 assistant principals, deans, or other student service personnel in attendance.

My involvement with our state organization afforded me the honor of being named Nebraska’s APOY in 2016 and gave me the opportunity to attend NASSP Ignite in Orlando, FL. Attending this conference was something I will not soon forget. Through this experience, I had the privilege to participate in the first-ever professional development tract specifically for assistant principals. In this program, I have made many connections with educators from across the country and learned how to be a more effective leader. Since then, I have been able to write guest posts for NASSP’s Assistant Principal Expert of the Week blog through the Assistant Principal Leadership Center, take advantage of professional development opportunities, and collaborate with colleagues.

Being involved with NASSP and NSASSP has also spurred an interest in advocacy. I have become a more informed leader for my district and have learned quite a bit about how I can make a difference on a political level, not just for my district but for public education in general. Now I write to our political representative at both the state and national level expressing my concerns.

Throughout our careers, we have many choices to make; making the choice to be involved with NASSP and my state affiliate has been beneficial in many ways. I am a more connected, informed, and innovative leader in my school because of my participation in these organizations.

How are you involved in your state organizations and NASSP? How has this made you a better leader?     

Cameron Soester is the 2016 Nebraska Assistant Principal of the Year. He is currently the assistant principal at Milford Junior/Senior High School in Milford, NE.

Guest post by Donald Gately

Teacher peer observation is a powerful tool for professional growth and school improvement. Whether done formally or informally, peer observations help teachers enhance their knowledge base, improve classroom practices, gain new ideas for instruction, and much more. For a principal, however, it’s rare to see another principal’s work or spend time observing other schools. How can principals get feedback from their leadership peers, like teachers do, to improve their schools and grow professionally?Jennifer Gonzalez, author of the online magazine devoted to all things education, The Cult of Pedagogy, blogs about Pineapple Charts, a powerful and informal teacher peer observation method. Essentially, teachers post a pineapple sign (a symbol of hospitality) on a chart in the teacher’s workroom or a common staff area signifying that colleagues are welcome to visit their classroom on a given day to observe their lessons and give feedback. Teachers “advertise” the interesting things they are doing in their classrooms and activities they think others might want to observe. The key to the success of the program is informality. The observers are not required to take notes or conform to any protocol; they’re simply welcome to come in and learn.

Like teachers, principals need their own “Pineapple Program” so that they, too, can observe and learn from one another in an informal way. Through the Long Island Middle Level Principals Association (LIMLPA), we created a highly replicable program to facilitate school walkthroughs for principals and allow them to provide feedback based upon what they see.

To launch this Pineapple Program”for principals (or what I renamed the Middle Level Principals’ Professional Learning Network), I emailed every middle school principal on Long Island and invited them to my school:

Middle Level Principals’ Professional Learning Network:

This program is based on an initiative that teachers are using in which they post a pineapple sign (symbol of hospitality) on their classroom door signifying that colleagues are welcome to visit their classroom on a given day to observe their lessons and give feedback. Here’s a great post about the teacher program.  

Here’s how our program will work:

Principal invites colleagues to visit school at a time convenient (use a Google Form or Eventbrite?). Feel free to send an assistant principal if you’re unable to make it. In the invite, highlight any particular programs that you think may be of interest to your colleagues.

 Structure of visit:

• Coffee and pre-brief: Principal discusses initiatives, challenges, and accomplishments at the school (15–30 minutes).
• Learning walk: Do a walkthrough, including classroom visits (30–60 minutes). Probably a good idea to let staff and students know we’re coming.
• Debrief: Share thoughts on the walkthrough (15–30 minutes).
• Smiles, handshakes, coffee to go …

 That’s it!

 I volunteer to go first. Stay tuned. …

Don

In just two weeks, over 20 principals or their designees had signed up through the Google Form to visit the school. Prior to the walkthroughs, I met with the participants and gave a brief overview of the school. I outlined the way the master schedule is organized, described middle school team configurations, and gave each participant a folder containing a map of the building, a copy of the master schedule, and a chart showing the teacher teams. I also discussed the various initiatives that have been taking place in the school over the past several years, such as our comprehensive program for social-emotional literacy, a bully prevention program, our Level 1 Response to Intervention strategies, and Child Study Team procedures.

Each observer wore a brightly colored lanyard that said “Jericho Middle School VIP: Welcome” and had free rein of the building. The assistant principal and I stationed ourselves at central locations on the first and the second floors. The observers walked in and out of classrooms, and we occasionally left our posts and jumped into rooms with them. Informal conversations between principals occurred in the hallways, and we answered questions about everything from classroom furniture to pedagogy for English-language learners.

After 50 minutes of walkthroughs, we reconvened in the conference room and discussed what we saw. There was a lively conversation and exchange of ideas as principals shared the challenges they face at their schools. The entire event was an hour and a half.

Participants offered additional feedback and observations through an anonymous Google Form. The survey prompts were simple: I was impressed with … I wonder about … You should think about … Other ideas/thoughts/suggestions/anything else … Most participants took the time to offer helpful feedback and observations.

The substantial turnout and enthusiasm for the Middle Level Principals’ Professional Learning Network indicates that there is a genuine need for those in leadership positions to have opportunities for feedback from colleagues based on direct observation. I look forward to being on a team that conducts walkthroughs at the next school that steps up to participate.

How do you find means for feedback from your leadership peers?

Donald Gately, EdD, serves as the principal of Jericho Middle School in Jericho, NY. He is the 2016 New York Principal of the Year. Follow him on Twitter @donald_gately.

Guest post by Tara Rosipal

Administrators spend lots of time and energy creating a positive and caring student culture. Although important, what about teacher culture? How do we as school leaders help teachers stay positive and keep their morale high?

On its best days, teaching is demanding. On its worst days, it is downright draining and exhausting. According to the Learning Policy Institute, teachers in the last decade have left the profession—well before retirement age—at an alarming rate of eight percent. Those who remain are continually asked to meet the changing demands of education. Educators love their jobs and students, but sometimes it is just overwhelming! Teacher burnout is real and even the best, most dedicated teachers wonder how long they can keep going.

It is our job as school leaders to create a positive, caring, and supportive environment for our teachers. What can we do to support our teachers and keep them in the classroom? Here are a few simple ideas that have helped maintain a positive outlook for our teachers at North Middle School:

Get to Know Your Teachers as People

It sounds simple and it is. Just like students, teachers appreciate it when you get to know them and their lives outside of the school. Take the time to talk to your teachers about their lives. Learn the names of their significant others and children. Ask about their interests and hobbies, and even give shoutouts to their personal accomplishments at staff meetings. Did a teacher recently run a marathon? Star in the community theater’s recent production of “Grease?” Fulfill a lifelong dream of traveling to Antarctica? Whatever it is, share it proudly. Teachers who know that their administrators care about them as people are more cooperative and have a more positive outlook about their jobs.

Respect Teacher Time

Time is in short supply for everyone. Find ways to minimize disruptions to that time for your teachers. If you can end a staff meeting 10 minutes early, do it. Avoid having a meeting if the information can be provided another way. If you can avoid back-to-back days of modified bell schedules, do it. Any time you give your teachers the gift of time, it will be met with many thanks and appreciation.

Have a Little Fun

Find time to have some fun with your teachers and encourage them to socialize with one another. Whether it is sharing the latest humorous teaching video, recounting a hilarious story, or filling out a March Madness bracket, these small acts can pay off in big ways in building friendly and good-natured relationships among the staff. Plan a quarterly luncheon where all staff members share the meal and take time to appreciate professional friendships. Remind your teachers that laughter is healthy.

Help Teachers Meet Their Personal Needs

Teachers are great at taking care of others and putting their needs last. An easy way to boost spirits is to find ways to help your teachers take care of themselves throughout the school day. Encourage them to go for a walk, get a drink of water, or get outside for five minutes to see some sunshine. Offer to cover a class when a teacher needs a bathroom break or needs to take care of a quick personal matter. Even teachers need a little TLC every now and then.

Focus on the Positive and Celebrate Success

Teachers and administrators alike can get stuck in a cycle of negativity and only see what’s wrong in the school. Too often we let one unruly student make us forget to see the 24 other students in the class doing exactly what we told them to do. Look for what’s going right in your school, for your teachers and with your students. When you notice these positive moments, let your teachers know with a simple note, shoutout at a staff meeting, or even a tweet on social media. Taking the time to recognize your teachers’ hard work and passion will encourage and motivate them.

Building a caring and supportive culture for teachers will pay off in numerous ways. Improved morale can lead to better teamwork, more productivity, and greater staff retention. When teachers feel connected to their schools and colleagues, they will enjoy their jobs more, making the work and challenges less daunting. Happy teachers make for happy students. Positive attitudes are contagious and promote student learning, self-confidence, and overall enjoyment of school.

What do you do to build teacher morale and create a positive culture for your staff?

Tara Rosipal is an associate principal at North Middle School in Great Falls, MT, serving an average of 750 seventh and eighth graders each school year. Tara has 23 years in education, the last 11 at NMS. Tara is the 2015 Montana Assistant Principal of the Year.

Guest post by Crystal Newby

With another college application season about to start once again, we know that one of your students’ main concerns is the admissions essay. That’s why the National Honor Society (NHS) recently launched a series of virtual college application essay writing workshops. In one such workshop, Crystal Newby, assistant director of education and training for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), presented “Perfecting the Personal Statement.” After the presentation, Crystal prepared some strategies for you to share with your students:

I’m sure you’ve heard your parents, grandparents, or family members say the phrases, “When I was your age…” or “I’ve been in your shoes.” When I heard mine say this, I used to roll my eyes (behind my mom’s back, of course). I used to think that they couldn’t possibly understand what I was going through. It wasn’t until later in life that I appreciated what they said and came to the realization that they really did understand.

Students, I say all of this because I really have been in your shoes. I went through the college search process and experienced the anxiety of preparing for the SAT and filling out college applications. I remember the nervousness of waiting to get back my test scores and waiting to hear if I had been accepted into the schools where I applied. (Sidebar: They actually mailed test scores and acceptance letters to your house when I was in high school. I didn’t have the option of checking online. Yes, I’m kind of old and yes, I still have my acceptance letter to the school I ultimately attended. Don’t judge.) Anyway, let’s talk about the college application process.

There are various components of a college application that schools will look at when considering a prospective student for admission. How do I know this? I used to be an admissions counselor and had the pleasure of reading thousands of applications during my tenure. You might have heard admissions representatives say they take a “holistic approach” when reviewing students’ applications. If you haven’t heard this term before, it means that they look at the whole picture. In addition to looking at grades, class rank, and test scores, schools who take a holistic approach might also look at letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and an essay or personal statement. The last item is what I want to focus on today.

Dispelling Panic

When someone says, “Tell me a little bit about yourself,” for some people, a moment of panic sets in while they rummage through their brain figuring out exactly what they should say. How much should I share? Should I tell them how many siblings I have? My favorite color? My favorite food? The name of my first pet? I know it might sound silly, but the anxiety is real for some people and this moment of panic is sometimes evident when students are asked to write a personal statement as a part of a college application.

It can be difficult to talk about yourself, showcase your strengths, and basically convince someone why you’re the best fit as a member of the incoming freshmen class. It can be a daunting task, but it’s not impossible.

Getting Started

Some people have the ability to sit down and just start writing. Others, like myself, need some time to think about exactly what to write. To help get you started, I want to share a few activities that you might find useful:

The Life Map

Think about drawing a life map. Here’s an example.

It’s a pretty simple concept where you put yourself in the middle and link to the people, places, and things that are most important to you. It’s a great way to start gathering ideas.

Ask your family and friends to share their perspectives of you. You can simply send a text or pick up the phone and call. Ask them to give you the first five words that come to mind when they think of you. Looking for outside perspectives is a great way to see just how awesome you are!

Think About Using Pictures for Inspiration

With social media being so popular, we pretty much document everything that’s happening in our lives. Pictures are a great way to remember significant events in your life and that can translate to a personal statement topic.

These are just a couple of activities, but there are many other ways to help you get started on your personal statement. As I mentioned earlier, I know how overwhelming this process can be, but you are awesome! To quote St. Ignatius of Loyola, “Go forth and set the world on fire!”

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Crystal’s presentation can be viewed by NHS students on demand. Faculty and counselors of NHS-affiliated schools may also tune in. To facilitate participation, viewers should get the school’s NHS affiliation number before logging on. Look for the recording “Perfecting the Personal Statement” at www.nhs.us/virtualNHS.

Guest post by Jay R. Dostal

Last year, my leadership team held a two-day retreat to focus on moving from our current school building into the new one we were building at the time. As you might imagine, moving a 230,000 square foot building, in addition to implementing a new educational model centered on college, career, and life readiness, can be quite stressful and taxing. Many details needed to be coordinated, including developing a communication plan, updating multiple forms with the new address, purchasing new furniture, and much more. My team and I worked diligently to put together a list of things that we needed to get done during our two-day hiatus away from the building, and we had every intention of getting them completed before the second semester started. Then the retreat happened.

One of my team members remembered an article they had read recently about building a culture. The gist of the article was that organizations too often focus on what they have to DO rather than what they want to BE. After a lengthy discussion, we collectively decided that we needed to set aside what we had planned for the retreat and really focused on the CULTURE that we wanted to bring with us to our new school. We decided to figure out what we wanted to BE before we focused on what we had to DO. It was a watershed moment for all of us because we realized as a leadership team that we were doing things backward. We are all plenty busy doing a lot of things, but we never stopped to think about why we were doing them in the first place. We never took the time to determine if what we were doing was taking us any closer to what we wanted to be as a school. That is when the magic happened.

We started by looking at some work that our staff had done regarding their vision of Small Learning Communities at our new school. Groups of teachers were asked to come together and describe what a student should look like after graduating from high school. They came up with words like: respectful, adaptable, creative, resilient, honest, engaged, purposeful, and many more. We then looked at student and parent surveys that were completed for our upcoming accreditation visit and, sure enough, the same words appeared again. Over and over again, we had parents, students, and teachers stating what they wanted our school’s culture to promote. After working for hours analyzing data and wordsmithing, we developed a concept that we are still working with our staff to modify and adjust. We are developing common definitions and language that we can all use together. We are building a culture.

We understand that culture is not something that changes overnight. We need to be diligent in our pursuit of a paradigm shift. We need to educate our students and parents about what we are trying to accomplish. We need to stop DOING things that do not bring us closer to what we want to BE. This is extremely hard work, but it is worth it. Our school, our community, our students, and our teachers will all be better for it.

What do you want your school to BE?

Jay R. Dostal, EdD, is the principal of Kearney High School in Kearney, NE. He has been in education for 15 years, 10 of which have been in an administrative role. He is the father of two amazing kids, Brenna and Mason. His wife, Melanie, is a special education teacher. Jay is the 2016 Nebraska Principal of the Year.

We’ve all heard folks grumble that time flies faster and faster as we age. With schedules governed by school calendars each year, that sentiment seems to be most aptly applied to principals! Each year seems to go more quickly than the last, and I’m likely not the only one wondering where all the time has gone.

I’m the principal of a high school in Western Montana, located in a beautiful valley south of Missoula. We have four seasons here every year—winter, spring, summer, and forest-fire-smoke season. On the final day of July last summer, as the pace of visitors into the school’s office was slowly increasing in anticipation of another school year’s start, a small wildfire just southwest of town became a big one. A huge blowup grew to thousands of acres in a few hours and put hundreds of homes at risk—many of which belonged to our students. The fire grew so rapidly that it immediately earned a Type I national Incident Command Team; the kind they bring in when things get serious.

Photo Credit: Jane Mason

As a high school principal, I had many worries. As a resident of a great community, I worried about my friends, neighbors, and employees in the area that was evacuated. I worried about our students and parents who were at risk of losing their homes and property. And naturally, I worried about all the normal planning that goes with getting the school year started properly. In the midst of all of these worries and concerns, I received a call from a representative of the Type I Incident Command Team seeking to set up a huge fire camp at my school.

Was the school willing to help out in this time of need? Of course we were! Within 24 hours of the fire’s start, my high school and its sprawling grounds became home to a thousand firefighters with tents, life support services, and all of the other logistical needs for a monumental effort. The classrooms became hubs of activity, with each being assigned to a command staff section or set up as daytime sleeping rooms. Hundreds descended upon the school for daily briefings and press conferences. It was a rapid transformation from the slow buildup that occurs before the start of the school year to an absolute hectic hub of activity in our school.

The end is near, indeed! The start of our school year looked like Armageddon, with dark clouds of smoke blotting out the sun and causing an eerie post-apocalyptic haze to the sky, complete with branches, moss, and ash falling from the plume of smoke 10,000 feet overhead. Air quality was hazardous, and it was just about time for the Montana High School Association’s official start to fall sports practices. On top of the air quality issues, there were tents and equipment on every inch of our practice fields. Two-a-day football practices and the first cross-country runs are tough enough, but the conditions in our valley were beyond the boundaries of safety. It was the most worrisome beginning of the year I’ve had in my career. With all classrooms full of incident command activities, I began to worry that we wouldn’t have our school “back” when the teachers were to report back to duty.

When it looked as though the wildfire was going to rage until the snow started in the high country in October, we caught some fortunate breaks. Wind direction changes, a sprinkle of rain or two, and some unexpected cold fronts helped run the fire away from the low hills filled with homes and ranches, and allowed firefighters to get control of an out-of-control situation. Within three weeks of that fateful Sunday when the mountainside blew up, the Type I Team was gone from our campus and things suddenly became “normal” around Hamilton High School. That break in the weather that blew Armageddon out of the county happily coincided with return of our sports practices, and our forest-fire-smoke season was incredibly short. We had to cancel very few practices last fall due to air quality concerns. In fact, as scary as the start of the season was, it was one of our best years for good outdoor air quality in a while.

As I write this on May 1, it is hard not to think about the sentiment that time flies more quickly every year a person ages. It feels like it was only a month ago that I was worried about how in the world we’d get school started with a campus bursting at the seams with firefighters and equipment, and suddenly the end is near—the end that principals have grown accustomed to during the normal rhythm of their school year, if there ever is a year that can be considered “normal.”

One of the elements that makes being a principal such a rewarding career is the variety of situations that we deal with and how our year is neatly packaged into quarters, semesters, and years. Here’s to another safe and successful year to all of our NASSP members and their students, families, and employees. While this year’s end is near, another beginning will be upon us in the blink of an eye.

How do you embrace the variety of issues you deal with as a principal?

Dan Kimzey is the principal of Hamilton High School in Hamilton, MT, a rural school with approximately 500 students. He is Montana’s 2016 NASSP Principal of the Year, and when not working, enjoys every bit of Montana’s great outdoors.

Guest post by Brad Currie 

Over the past year, Google Classroom has taken the educational world by storm. Teachers and students are now able to thrive in a paperless world. School leaders must support this new way of life while respecting the transition from traditional methods. So how can a school leader leverage the power of Google Classroom to promote student and staff success? Let’s take a look …

1. Flip the faculty meeting and create a Google Classroom for staff members. Instead of wasting teachers’ time with boring agenda items, post this information on a Google Doc or Google Slide in Classroom. Then, actually utilize this additional time for meaningful professional growth opportunities.

2. Promote sharing of best practices with a Blog of the Week PLC. Send out a Google Form that provides staff members with an opportunity to nominate their favorite blog post pertaining to a best practice in education. Once the blog posts are submitted, send out another Google Form for nomination purposes. Once the blog post with the most votes is selected, begin a conversation utilizing the question feature in Classroom.

3. Move your school forward with a student roundtable. Once a month, a select group of students meets with the administration to be informed of school happenings and, more important, share insights on how to make the learning environment better. The Google Doc agenda leading up to the meeting can be shared out to students and crowdsourced in Classroom. Additional conversations and resources can be posted within the Student Roundtable Google Classroom throughout the school year.

4. Create a Google Classroom for best practices in technology integation. Each week, have staff members share different ways they are utilizing various apps and extensions to promote student success. Often, teachers who are in the same hallway—let alone the same building—have no idea what great things are going on in their colleagues’ classrooms. This sort of sharing will be a game-changer.

There are countless ways that administrators can utilize Google Classroom. It’s a great way to enhance communication, disseminate information, and drive change for students and staff. Make it a goal this upcoming school year, if you are working in a G Suite school, to find one consistent way to utilize Google Classroom. Several of these tips and a host of others can be found in my new book titled, Hacking Google for Education. It will make a world of difference!

How can you use Google Classroom or another virtual tool to drive change in your school? 

Brad Currie is the 2017 NASSP Assistant Principal of the Year. He currently serves as the Vice Principal and Supervisor of Instruction for the Chester School District in Chester, NJ. Learn more about Brad by following him on Twitter @bradmcurrie or visiting his website, www.evolvingeducators.com.  

Guest post by Autumn Pino

I will be the first to admit that what I am about to say might be a little controversial, and maybe even a bit daunting for some. What if we built our schools, our schedules, our teaching around the needs of our students? Many of us think that we do, but I would argue that we don’t. I am not saying in schools that we are doing anything wrong, but I often get caught up in wondering, what if we did everything right?

Over the past 14 years, I—like so many other school leaders—have been trying to figure out the best way to serve students, searching for that missing piece or the right initiatives to promote a positive culture and raise student achievement. I embraced Professional Learning Communities, worked on reading initiatives, provided social/emotional/behavioral support, and incorporated coaching and feedback into the school day. Yet somehow, through it all, something was still missing.

Early in my career as a special education teacher, a student once said to me, “Wouldn’t it be great if school was about us?” Feeling challenged and somewhat taken off guard by the statement, I asked for some clarity. She responded, “I don’t mean caring about us, I mean creating a school that is made for students.” It challenged me to think about my own classroom and caused me to strive for my own definition of student-centered teaching and learning, and what school should look like.

Mindset

Culture begins with each of us. At Roosevelt, we have spent the last several years investing in belief-systems change and the power of what is meant by fostering a growth (versus fixed) mindset. By shifting the mindset of our students and teachers, we continue to shift our culture to a place of collective discovery, shared responsibility, and a commitment to equity and innovation. The time invested has paid dividends and laid the foundation for all that is possible to meet students where they are and challenge them to think about learning as endless capability.

Time, Structure, Space

Over the past several years, our school has been refining a blended/project-based learning program that we are now replicating across the entire building during the 2017–2018 school year. We quickly learned that as we continued to immerse ourselves in personalized practice, we were forced to ask the question: How can we better utilize time, structure, and space to not only meet but maximize the learning opportunities for our students? A short yet profound question related to school. Feeling as though we were in a culture with the right frame of mind, I knew that it was time for me to step up my game and engage staff in a day of intense conversations about our daily schedule (time), team structure, and utilization of space. I know what you might be thinking – we do this all of the time. But for us, it was different this time. It was boundless. It was through the lens of the student. It was powerful.

Students In The Driver Seat

In a recent interview, I was asked what it was that truly allowed for our blended/project-based school to work. My answer is simple. We listened to our students. Our teachers piloting the program were smart enough to incorporate student voice and choice into their daily practice, and we all grew in the process.

I think in schools today, we take for granted the insight, perspective, tenacity, and leadership abilities of our students. Next year, we will be proud to celebrate the grand opening of the Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy, a middle school magnet and the first school of its kind in the state of Iowa. Shared leadership and staff dedication will be important factors in this work, but what moves me most is that students will forever be the cornerstone of this accomplishment.

At Roosevelt, we are certainly not doing everything right—yet—but we are striving to put students at the center of all we do. Sure, there will continue to be failures and missteps along the way, but it all creates opportunities for learning and growing shoulder to shoulder with our students.

What bold steps are we willing to take as leaders to shatter old paradigms on behalf of our students?

Autumn Pino is the principal of Roosevelt Middle School in Cedar Rapids, IA. She is the 2016 Iowa Principal of the Year.