Leadership – Confessions of a Former Instructional Coach

Top 10 Tips for Leading in a Crisis

This past week an episode from the Innovator’s Mindset podcast came out that I was privileged to be a part of. The interview was from the very beginning of Illinois’ Stay at Home order that resulted in our school buildings shutting down and switching to remote learning. Listening to it has been a wonderful reflection tool for leading and learning during a crisis. Although almost six weeks later the themes we discussed still ring true, there is definitely more that I have learned in this journey.

Below are my greatest takeaways thus far.

1. Continue to Focus on Relationships

This is truly the most important thing that we can do at any time, as leaders and as human beings. Whether by email, text, phone call, virtual meeting or letter in the mail, find a way to regularly check on your staff and families solely for the purpose of seeing how they are doing. Like George said in the podcast, this includes everyone. People who you may think are completely fine may not be. See if they need anything and just have a friendly conversation. I have sincerely appreciated staff members who have reached out to me as well. One of my teachers sends me funny memes and pictures on a regular basis. I look forward to them so much! They’ve helped really bad days when there’s a lot going on turn into manageable ones. Social distancing may mean that we can’t be physically close, but shouldn’t mean that we distance ourselves from continuing meaningful relationships.

2. Take Care of Yourself

You’ve probably heard this many times, but you can’t pour from an empty cup. I know it’s hard. I’m in 8 million virtual meetings on a daily basis myself while trying to balance with family responsibilities it can feel impossible to find the time, but you’ll be better if you do.

At the beginning of this I thought I could do it all. I went about two weeks at full throttle and almost completely lost it by day 15. My usual positivity was really forced. It was hard to think and I don’t know that I was making the best judgment calls. I had to change something fast.

For me, the taking care of myself ended up being a change in routine. Monotony is my worst nightmare and I was trapped in a cycle of just that. I started walking outside during some of my meetings. I picked up coffee at a local coffee shop a few days a week for a treat. I gave myself permission to not be busy every minute of every day and to sometimes just sit. I started working on things outside of school that fed my creative soul. It all made a huge difference and I am sincerely a better leader and human because of it. Please, please, please take time for yourself each day. You’ll actually get more done in the end and be happier doing it.

3. Continue to Connect with the Community

Connecting with families is such an important part of leadership in any time, but when we don’t have the four walls of daily interaction to keep us all connected, it’s imperative that we find new ways to do so. As an anchor of the community, supporting teachers, students and families will only make us stronger in a time of crisis. Because there isn’t physical connection, regular facetime is imperative. Look for ways to provide structure and routine that mirror what was happening before while also bringing in new and innovative ways that capitalize being at home.

At Jefferson, this connection has included:

A daily morning message that is a hybrid of home and school. I start the announcements celebrating birthdays each day, acting as the host. The rest of the announcements is run by student contributions such as leading the pledge, sharing a talent, a challenge for other students, a wondering or even an example of some family fun. It has been wonderful getting to see students show off talents that we might not have seen at school like acrobatics on a trampoline or cooking demos. Today’s announcements included our PTA president and his two sons playing a rock version of the Star Wars Thrown Room Song. I always close it with some encouraging words of positivity for the kids and/or parents.
Both staff and student bedtime story read-alouds that come out at 3:00 p.m. on our YouTube Channel.
Opportunities to connect virtually both synchronously and asynchronously through GoogleMeet, Zoom, FlipGrid Challenges, Instagram and Seesaw posts. Every Friday in May I meet with groups of 5th graders to catch up and talk about their thoughts about going to Middle School.
Spirit Week and last week of school activities developed by our Student Council that include a whole school virtual picnic and Field Day.
Social Media posts about what our students have been up to while they have been at home as well as individual daily posts celebrating our graduating class of 5th graders.
Staff collaboration videos sent to our families sharing how much we appreciate and miss them as well as what we’ve been up to at home.

Make sure that the sharing is not just one way. Look for ways to incorporate families as well as staff in the community connection.

4. Consistent Focus & Messaging

Since the beginning of this crisis, we have focused on two major things: Connecting with kids and consistent communication. Although there have been some shifts as to what this looks like as we continue to gain experience in the virtual world of learning, our focus continues to be the same. I continue to reinforce this during team meetings, emails, 1:1 conversations as well as in my weekly Friday newsletter to staff and to families. Feedback from our families has been incredibly positive in the area of both communication and connection as a result.

We have had some shifts from our district office throughout the time we have been at home related to various aspects of operations, grading and planning. When these occur, I’ve found that significant changes are best communicated in a whole group virtual meeting (actually recommended to me by one of my awesome 5th-grade teachers). This makes sure everyone hears a consistent message as well as gives opportunities for feedback which leads me to my next tip…

5. Create Feedback Loops

Giving and receiving feedback is critical at any time, but especially when we are remote and not seeing on another on a regular basis. Throughout this process, I meet with teams weekly to find out their needs as well as to receive feedback on processes and information being shared. Our teachers have been asking both the parents and students for their feedback on our eLearning plans as they have progressed. During the first month, I also hosted a “Town Hall” at our April PTA meeting to share with parents our plan as well as receive feedback on how we were doing in meeting Jefferson students’ needs remotely. At the end of this month, I will also be sending out a final survey to families for positive feedback as well as suggestions for the future. All of these things combined contribute to the regular improvement of our processes and helps to keep everyone connected as well. It also will help to bridge a shared vision of education when we return in the fall or if we have to continue remote learning at any time in the future.

6. Trust the People Closest to the Kids

This message is critical to the success of our students learning and feeling cared for at home. Our teachers have been working with students since the beginning of the year and know them best. They were rocking it when we were in school, but I have been blown away by the ways my teachers have been shifting their teaching practices to meet the needs of the students at home. Trying out new technology, new ways to present lessons, and new ways to connect with kids have all come from my amazing staff. This was rooted in a foundation of trust in staff expertise. When we empower others, as opposed to limit their abilities based on a singular interpretation, great things happen for kids.

The same applies to trusting our parents who know our students better than anyone on the planet. Including parents’ ideas and feedback as well as supporting them when they need help is all an important part of the learning process, inside of school and out. One of my greatest hopes after this is all over is that the collaborative and trusting relationships that we have continued to build during this time will continue when we return to our brick and mortar buildings. The level of trust we give to our parents is a large factor in the success of this. We can’t just ask for feedback, we need to act on the suggestions given. If the idea is not feasible, it is important to explain why.

7. Keep Meetings (& Messages) Short & Flexible

I don’t care if you are the funniest, most charismatic person ever, no one, and I mean no one wants to sit in a 3-hour virtual meeting. People are trying to manage working remotely with taking care of family and 8 million other objectives of the day. Prioritize your agenda to what is most essential. The other items will still be there when we return to brick & mortar education and will be heard in a much more meaningful way when they actually apply to the work being done. The same holds true for emails. Keep your messages short and to the point. When in doubt, default to what is reasonable.

8. Professional Learning Should Match Teacher & Student Need

Just like when we are in the four walls of a school, professional learning should include choice and be directly connected to the work teachers are doing. Instructional coaches are making a huge difference during this time. Our instructional coach at Jefferson attends virtual team meetings weekly and looks for ways she can support teachers to take things off of their plate. She has created instructional tutorials for parents & students, modeled how to use tech tools to aide in synchronous and asynchronous teaching, offered office hours for families if a teacher is introducing a new way of learning to students and more. She is thoughtful in the ways she shares new ideas or resources by communicating one new idea once a week at a scheduled time. The things she shares are connected to conversations she has heard in team meetings or build upon the prior week. Teachers can also reach out to her for coaching on any topic of their choosing. For more information for how she is supporting our staff in new and innovative ways, check out my post, Coaching During a Crisis.

Avoid assigning articles on theory or required learning like scheduled webinars. Assigning blanket learning for all, especially when it is disconnected to the work currently being done is a major misstep that shows a lack of empathy as well as creates a perfect breeding ground for mistrust and resentment. The most meaningful learning that will happen at this time will come directly from your staff. We need to value their time and knowledge base as well as educator’s natural inclination and gifts in seeking out information and new ideas. When we do, their teaching will far surpass anything we could have possibly imagined.

9. Celebrate & Share the Good

There is so much good happening right now, but it may be hard to see because we’re all teaching in our own virtual classrooms. My instructional coach and I have been attending team meetings once a week virtually for the purpose of seeing how we can support teams, but also to be able to share what other teams are up to. This has been great for sparking new ideas as well as trying new things with students. I continue to send emails to staff about the great work they are doing as well as share on social media learning happening as a result of my teachers. When parents share something positive with me about a staff member I make sure I share it with them. One of my colleagues highlights in her weekly newsletter something wonderful she’s seen in each of her team’s plans. I plan to start doing this as well. Good ideas need to be shared!

10. Continually Learn & Plan for the Future

In any situation, the best thing we can do is reflect on our experiences to plan for the future. As a staff, we are already thinking about next year, considering what teaching strategies and tools we want to make sure we continue to utilize. A strategic plan for teaching students at the beginning of the year how to use various technological tools has been a large part of this conversation. To start the year, my staff has asked that we focus our professional learning on various aspects of technology to better prepare ourselves if this were to happen again. Teams have also been brainstorming ways they will use what they have learned in their classrooms in the fall. If this happens again, (please no!) I am confident that we will be prepared because of our thoughtful reflection and planning.

At the beginning of this, I felt like my greatest role was supporting my staff and families to stay connected as a community. Six weeks later I continue to stand by this conviction. Without our regular routines and interaction, it can be easy for anyone to start to feel disconnected and alone. As leaders, our actions can either fuel that isolation, or be the antidote, bringing everyone closer. When in doubt, air on the side of empathy.

“Empathy is a strange and powerful thing. There is no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting and communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘You’re not alone.” – Brene Brown

The Paralyzing Effect of Stress

This week was not a stellar one for me. I found myself in the familiar place of adulthood where there is too much to do and not enough time to do it. I followed none of the advice I know is best and instead retreated into my office for large portions of the day, worked marathon hours at home and caffeinated enough to fly a jet plane around the world.

I thought that if I scheduled every minute of my day I could get it all done, the presentations, the phone calls, the observations, the projects. Sleeping less, and planning out the day to the finite minute would give me ultimate control resulting in maximum efficiency and total calm in the chaos. At least that’s what I had convinced myself.

Of course, that’s not what happened.

By Wednesday afternoon, I had reached my breaking point. I had been on all day for three days straight and was working on finishing, (ok honestly just starting) a presentation I was giving that night at a PTA meeting about our school improvement plan. Prior to this week, I had been looking forward to giving it because I sincerely love our PTA and couldn’t wait to share the wonderful work my staff has been doing. I had even invited my superintendent to come as an informal evaluation because I was so excited to share the work.

Instead of excitedly starting the presentation, I felt sheer terror. I started thinking about the numerous other projects I would have to complete even after the presentation tonight and it just seemed utterly impossible. To make matters worse, I realized around this same time that a portion of the Jefferson Family Project, which was debuting at the all-school Thanksgiving Feast the next day had disappeared. I had no idea where the slides had gone and hadn’t scheduled time in the day to find them. If that wasn’t enough, it was also my day to pick up my daughter from school and take her to her School of Rock lessons followed by dinner together and it was almost time for me to leave. Life felt like a ticking time bomb.

I froze. My mind went blank and I started tearing up. My inner thoughts jumped from, “You are terrible at this job. You are not good enough to be an administrator. How could anyone ever give you this position?” to “How can you even call yourself a mom? You’re never home. Other moms can do it all. Why can’t you? What’s wrong with you?” I told myself things that I would never ever say to anyone, but for some reason felt free to shame myself with.

Lessons Learned

Spoiler alert. None of the horrible thoughts I had during those moments ever came to fruition. The Jefferson Family Project got fixed. I gave my finished presentation to PTA and got wonderful feedback from both the community and my superintendent. I didn’t end up getting to take my daughter to her class that night, but we spent the entire day together today and she still loves me unconditionally. All of the projects that I needed to complete, the phone calls, the meetings, they all happened and went well.

So am I writing this post to tell you not to be stressed because it will all work out?

Nope.

I wrote that post in August. It clearly didn’t work for me so I obviously need to readjust.

Really I’m writing this post because I learned something about myself as a leader, a human, a mother, and a friend. I want to avoid getting into that awful mental space of overwhelmed feelings and self-doubt and shame and am hoping that what I share might help you too. (Especially if you an overthinking stressosaurus like me.)

1. You Can’t Do it All

Nor should you. One of the best things I did in this was to go and seek out my instructional coach. She was more than happy to be a thinking partner in the work I was doing. Her help not only took some of the overwhelmed feelings I was having away, but also made the work I was doing 10 times better than if I would have done it myself. Besides helping think, she also helped with style and made the presentation look professional. Once I had a partner in the work it was amazing how much easier it was to get my thoughts together. I can’t believe I didn’t go to her right away with this, and will definitely remember to do so in the future.

You know the saying, “It takes a village?” Well, I ended up getting help from my assistant principal, coach, secretary, PTA President and wife, 5th-grade students, and teachers to finish the Jefferson Family Project and get it ready for the next day. They all did different components and every time I pass by it I smile. I am grateful for their help and the lesson learned.

This whole experience has made me start re-evaluating a lot of the tasks I am doing. Do I really need to complete them on my own? Which ones can I delegate? Who can be a thinking partner in my work? I work with some incredible staff. It is clear that I have been missing out on some opportunities to use them to their full capacity.

2. Get out of Your Head, Go Be With People

The best parts of this week, and another reason my work ended up going well, were conversations I had with staff, students, and friends. On Wednesday night, two of my staff members stopped by my office just to chat. It wasn’t about a need, it was about life or to share a funny story, one that I’m still laughing about. One of those staff members surprised me with chips and salsa from my new favorite restaurant because when she was with me, the company that was delivering my food had brought me the wrong kind. Her unexpected kindness made my day, my week honestly and got my mind in the right space.

On Thursday, knowing this is a busy time of year, in place of a staff meeting, I organized a wellness event. We got to pick from yoga, cardio or a cooking class. At the end, there were other optional things to choose from. My favorite memory was sitting with staff in a circle in the library, with acupuncture needles stuck in our various limbs telling stories about our lives. During the day we had our all-school Thanksgiving Feast, run by the PTA where we all eat lunch together. Because of this, I got to spend about two hours connecting with students, staff and parents. I left school feeling invigorated as opposed to deflated. What a difference 24 hours can make!

When you spend your day talking only to people about work-related items it can be draining, but when you connect on a personal level it is invigorating and incredibly important. I need to remember that as I go about my day.

3. Stop Scheduling Everything

I am not a “Type A” person in many aspects of my life. My house is often a mess. It doesn’t stress me out to be late to social events. I am happy to go on vacation without planning out every minute detail. When I feel overwhelmed by something though, “Type A” tendencies often take over and I over plan to the point of taking the joy out of things I love.

I have also written about this before, but this time I am committing. Because I am going to get better delegating and partnering on work, I am much more confident that it will actually happen. Each day is going to include a half-hour of think time that I can use as I like to reflect, close my door and be by myself if needed or catch up. I am going to try to give myself more grace if I don’t finish “all the things” in the timeframe that I thought I would as well.

I also need to make more time for family. This week I failed terribly at the work/home balance. I committed at the beginning of the year to focus Saturdays on family and friends only, but in reality that hasn’t always happened. I am recommitting to that promise.

When I get stressed, I tend to go internal and reach for some sort of inner strength or answer. What I’m realizing is that it is better to get out of myself and connect with and learn from the strength of others. I also need to be kinder in my self-talk when I am feeling overwhelmed. Mostly, I am incredibly grateful to everyone who helped me this week for the lessons learned, the help given and the love I felt as a result.

Wildly Important Goals: Calm in the Chaos

This past Thursday I attended a training on evaluating administrators. As much as I enjoyed talking with my peers and listening to the presenter, the part that was most meaningful was learning about a concept called, “Wildly Important Goals” from the book, The Four Disciplines of Execution by Covey, McChesney, & Huling.

The beginning of the year is hectic for educators, and it can make you feel like although you are working insanely hard and barely sitting every day, your ToDo List never seems to get any smaller. When I was a teacher I had experience and routines in place that helped to counteract this, but as a new administrator I’m still figuring things out. I’ve been questioning my ability to execute, much less ever be good at all of the tasks required of a principal.

So when the presenter played this video about the first discipline of the book, I felt an overwhelming sense of calm. It was like someone had been reading my mind and had given me that plan of execution I had been experimenting with, but never really successfully accomplishing.

Like the title says, there are four disciplines that are key to exceptional leadership. Discipline 1 is the Discipline of Focus. Mastering it will make the whirlwind of tasks (expected or unexpected) that can be all-consuming to a leader (or teacher), become not only more manageable, but resulting in the achievement of our loftiest goals. The authors argue that amazing results can only happen if we are clear on what matters most.

So how do we do this?

Start with creating a Wildly Important Goal (WIG). Ask yourself, “If everything else remained, what one achievement would make everything else seem secondary?” It is way harder than you might think to come up with this goal, but once you do, you focus all of your effort on the tasks related to accomplishing it. The other tasks you have to complete you are given permission to put forth minimal effort to complete.

I love the analogy given in the video of the jobs of an air traffic controller. It may seem like EVERYTHING is critical in this job, but really the laser focus must be on the plane that is trying to land so that it gets on the ground safely. A much smaller amount of effort is spent on making sure the other planes do not crash. As a lifelong perfectionist, this one analogy was the most calming and reassuring.

In creating my WIG, I thought about the goal we set as a staff on the first institute day this year of Unlimited Growth & Connection. What was my role in this endeavor? Where do I want to focus all of my efforts so that this goal is achieved by all stakeholders? When I started breaking these two things down, I realized that in order for students & staff to have unlimited growth they need to know their strengths. The only way this could happen was by me developing strong relationships with everyone involved in our school.

My Wildly Important Goal for this year is making sure that every learner (adult and child) in my school community ends the year knowing at least one strength they are incredibly talented at. This is not going to be an effort that I can do alone. It will definitely be a team effort including all staff members as well as our parent community.

To ensure that my WIG becomes a reality, I have the following action steps planned for the rest of the first trimester:

Unless I have a meeting, be outside talking with students both before and after school. Be present at recess/lunch for the same reason.
Block out time daily in my calendar to be in classrooms. When I’m in classrooms give explicit feedback to students about what they are doing well. When I leave, send a positive email to staff or tweet out their awesomeness.
Create a lunch schedule where every student in the school is invited at some point throughout the year to eat lunch with the principal.
Continue the “Positive Phone Calls Home” on Fridays where I call families to share with them the good news that their teacher nominated them to receive a phone call home based on something special they have done.
Provide time for our staff during institute days and staff meetings to track how much they know about students both personally and academically and collaborate with their peers with action steps. At our Late Arrival on Wednesday, teachers had time to fill out this template (or this one) and collaborate with peers to get the process started.
Provide professional learning opportunities focused on giving feedback in both teacher to student and student to student.
Before and after school walk around the building and check in with staff members to find out their successes, ideas and challenges that they may want assistance with.
Ask for feedback from staff, students, and the community. How well do they think I know them or their child? How do they know? What are suggestions for improvement?

The next three steps in the process involve tracking lead behaviors (action steps), making progress visible and having regular accountability talks. For me, the lead behaviors I plan on tracking are how much I know about each staff member and how often have I given them positive feedback. I also plan on keeping track of everything I know about students. I have a dream of a giant wall in my office with a picture of each student and a place to record things I know, but I’m guessing a binder with a class list including pictures is more realistic. At the end of each day, I’ll flip through the pages and jot a few notes. For staff, I’m going to have a stapled packet of our staff list with one page for each week of school. Every time I visit a classroom I’ll put a checkmark next to the staff members’ name followed by an email with positive feedback. I have used this practice regularly in the past and it is a great tool to track how much I know about their strengths.

I recognize that this sounds like I have just given myself a TON of extra work to do, but what it has really done is prioritized what is important each day. It’s not that I won’t do the other logistical things that are required to make the building work well or if a crisis arises I won’t help out, but I’m not going to expend the majority of my energy on them.

Prior to this training I used a methodology I learned from James Clear (check out his website here -it is awesome) where you prioritize three main tasks of the day and start each day putting forth all of your energy towards them. I liked this approach because it helped me feel a sense of accomplishment each day. However, many times I struggled with prioritizing what were the 3 most important things.

Layering in this new approach is going to elevate this process and give me the confidence I need to execute my Wildly Important Goal. I look forward to sharing with you the progress along the way of every learner at Jefferson knowing his or her strength. Thanks in advance for being my regular accountability check-in. 🙂

Unlimited Growth & Connection: Creating a Common Vision

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” – A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

Now maybe I’m being a bit dramatic using the opening line of a book about the dichotomy of people’s lives during the French revolution to describe my inner turmoil as I drove to work on the opening institute day of the year, but I honestly don’t think I could describe it any better. Never in my life have I been so insanely excited about something while also so completely terrified at the same time.

As a former instructional coach, I know that trust starts day one. It’s not one thing you do, but a collection over time that builds up. Brene Brown tells a story in Daring Greatly of a time that her daughter lost trust in one of her friends who hurt her deeply. Her daughter’s description of how trust works has become one of my favorites. (I actually used it on the opening slide of my keynote that day.)

“Trust is like a marble jar. You share those hard stories and those hard things that are happening to you with friends who over time you’ve filled up their marble jar. They’ve done thing after thing after thing where you know you can trust this person.”

I had started building a few marbles of trust with my staff over the summer, meeting in coffee shops individually or in groups to get to know them better, but this was the first time I would be addressing them as a whole, sharing my hopes, my fears, my dreams and promises to them as a leader. The importance of vulnerability is another concept I learned from Brene. This felt like vulnerability on extra strength steroids. On this day not only was I was going to be incredibly vulnerable, but in one of our activities, I was asking my staff to also be vulnerable as well. It was a perfect storm for complete success or epic failure.

I learned from Katie Martin visiting our school last year the power that sharing your why can have in creating connection as well as a direction for the vision of the school. With this in mind, my instructional leadership team (myself, assistant principal & coach) planned out an activity where staff members were asked to bring two objects, one representing their personal why and one their professional why of everything they do. They then were asked to get into groups of four with people they don’t normally interact with and share the stories behind them. Finally, they had to create a visual that represented the common theme among them. They had about an hour to do this and then were instructed to come back to our Multi-Purpose Room to share what they had created.

Our greatest hope was that we would find a common thread among them that would focus everything we did for the year. Our greatest fear was that nothing would be connected and we would be coming up with an artificial idea that some people would get on board with, but others would find greater disconnection.

My assistant principal and I spent the hour walking around classrooms listening in to the powerful conversations that groups were having with one another. Many shared stories of people, adults and children, who had had a great impact on them. The positive energy was flowing as smiles and memories lit up the faces of everyone involved. It appeared that although each story was unique, there were definitely common themes emerging.

At around 10:00 the moment of truth arrived and we asked the groups to return to our MPR to share their common threads. As each group stood and shared their creation, it was truly amazing to hear the ideas that each group shared and the inspired ways they chose to represent them. You can see a picture of what they made below, but one group made a chain with important words connected together. Another group drew a puzzle with different pieces connected. Another team talked used Buzz Lightyear in their image to represent that students need to know that they have infinite possibility. A couple groups used nature to demonstrate how as educators we want students to grow to their full potential.

It was completely inspiring to see how much we had in common. I deeply appreciate the vulnerability it took to have these conversations in sharing their passions and beliefs. It was because of this that our vision for the year emerged easily: Unlimited Growth and Connection, applying to both our staff and students.

We spent the next hour sharing ideas for how we could better connect with students at the beginning of the year and throughout. Splitting up the ideas into the four categories of: Classroom Community, Community of Learners, Sense of Belonging and Student Strengths teams, we created a chart that could be referred back to throughout the year. Each staff member selected one to two ideas of something new to try this year and created a plan of action.

The week and a half following our opening day has been nothing short of amazing. As I have been in classrooms and around the building I have seen our focus unfolding and evolving as each person has been connecting with our students in inspired and inventive ways. Yesterday one of our staff members shared an idea with me that she and another staff member have for our entire staff for Unlimited Growth and Connection that totally blew my mind. They are hashing out the plan for it this weekend and I sincerely cannot wait to talk to them about it on Monday.

We have decided to use #unlimitedgrowthandconnection in our social media posts for the year to share our journey with others.

This is another quote that I shared on my first day to describe the best team I have ever been a part of. It was truly the best time in my teaching career and I thought it would be impossible to duplicate. As I have begun to build relationships, I am seeing this same quality emerge in my Jefferson staff, students, and community. That sheer and utter terror I had on the first day has turned to delight, pure joy and excitement for the great work we will do together.

As always, thanks for reading! Christina

Overcoming Worries About the Beginning of the Year

This post is mostly a reminder to myself, but if you are an educator like me you might appreciate this message as well.

It’s that time of summer when “Back to School” ads seem to start popping up almost everywhere. When I was a teacher this signaled the time when I started thinking more heavily about the upcoming year, dreaming about the classroom I would create, the students I would have, and reflecting on what I would do differently.

I would start making lists.

Lists for classroom decorations like nametags, posters and bulletin boards.

Lists for activities I wanted to plan the first week.

Lists for copies I needed to make and fancy things I wanted to laminate.

Lists for days I would do the things on said prior lists.

You needed a list for something? I had a post-it or notebook page for that.

My routine almost always went this way: The first day I would come in for only a half-day and ease myself back into the classroom. Take the lay of the land. Plan out placement of the new shiny things I wanted to put up. Laminate 1-2 said shiny things. Maybe open up a few boxes. Catch up with friends I hadn’t seen all summer. I was in around 10 and out by 2 at the latest. As the days progressed I would start to spend more time and by the day before school, I was always ready.

The problem was I spent a good portion of those weeks anxious. Even though I had made plans upon plans and lists upon lists, I was worried. Worried that it wouldn’t all get done. That I wouldn’t be ready when the first day started. So, instead of enjoying my time when I was not working in my classroom, I spent the time with family and friends feeling anxious and crabby and worried that it wouldn’t all get done.

My husband would tell me every year, “Don’t worry, you’ll get it done. You always do. You’ll be great.” And guess what? I did. I always got it done. And the things that I didn’t, it didn’t matter, I did them later. Or better yet, had the kids do them.

So I promised myself that I would stop worrying and remind myself at the start of every year how I always got everything done and as the years progressed things got gradually better. (I can’t say they totally stopped. I am naturally a little neurotic.)

New Role, New Worries

This year I will be a principal for the first time at Jefferson Elementary School in Elmhurst, IL. I have spent the past two weeks meeting with many of my staff, and each time I meet with a new person I get even more excited to be a part of the school.

Even though I have had all of these incredibly positive and energizing meetings & ideas, school officially starts in two weeks. Once again, feelings of doubt and worry are creeping into my mind and dominating my thoughts.

Will I be enough?

How can there possibly be enough time to get everything done?

How am I not going to fail miserably and let everyone down?

I care. Deeply about this work. When I first got into education I remember telling someone that if they offered me a million dollars to stop I wouldn’t take it and I still stand by that today.

Becoming a principal is an incredible honor and just like my teachers, I want to make sure I am fully prepared to start the year. There are relationships to build (the best part), schedules, routines & processes to create (or just understand), class lists to double-check, a collaborative vision to be built, plans to be made, emails upon emails and meetings upon meetings. I want so deeply to be the leader that the students, staff, and families are proud to have. At times it can feel a bit insurmountable.

So even though I am trying hard not to, I have honestly spent a lot of time in that familiar place of anxiousness and worry.

When this starts to happen I have been going back to the words of my husband reminding myself of all the times I have overcome something that I once thought was impossible, like getting my doctorate or becoming a mother. I assure myself that I have all of the talents and skills to do this well. I wouldn’t have been given this job if many others didn’t see my work and believe in me as well. I focus on the joy instead of the fears of what I am about to do.

Many times I think of the quote below that was posted by Linnea, a dear friend of mine, several years back on my Facebook wall. I’m not even sure she knows of the impact it has had on me. I love how it uses personification to change the concept of worry from an intangible, uncontrollable thing to something I can choose to let into my mind or not.

So as a final reminder to myself (and anyone else in full-on school panic mode)…

You will get all the things done.

You always have.

You are more than enough.

I believe in you.

Whether you choose to worry about it all is up to you. 🙂

Making the Positives So Loud

I’ll admit it.

George Couros is one of my favourite (spelling intended) people in education. Not only is he skilled at telling a captivating story that can cause both tears and inexplicable laughter, but his ideas about education are thought-provoking and real, grounded in his own experience or ideas he has recently read about or seen.

Since being introduced to his work and hearing him speak at a conference last year, I’ve been influenced by not only his book, The Innovator’s Mindset, but also his regular blog posts, podcasts, and tweets.

When I originally encountered his popular quote, “We need to make the positives so loud so that the negatives are almost impossible to hear,” I quickly connected it, as many people do, to the context of making sure that the positive voices are heard so loudly in the school that they outweigh any negativity from the naysayers. In a year of rapid changes in my district, this quote resonated with me as a great strategy to build a positive school culture.

What I realized recently though is that although that interpretation is completely valid, it actually has a variety of meaningful contexts that relate to not only students and staff, but to education as a whole. Administrators need to regularly share the strengths of their team and teachers need to do the same with students.

In one of the studies mentioned in Paul Tough’s book, Helping Children Succeed he discusses a strategy that social workers used with parents of toddlers to improve their parenting skills. Instead of focusing on what they were doing wrong after each visit, the social worker gave feedback explicitly naming what the parents were doing correctly. The impact of this study was profound, elevating not only the overall confidence of the parents, but their parenting skills as well.

At first as an instructional coach, and now an administrator, I have tried a variety of strategies to emulate this philosophy and grow a positive culture.

Every time I visit a classroom I send an email to the staff member explicitly stating positive observations related to their instruction, interaction with students or even classroom environment.
“Bite-Sized Feedback” cycles are also an awesome way to highlight great instruction. First, we talk about something they would like me to observe and then we set up a 15-minute time slot each week for me to come into their classroom. Afterward, we talk for 10-15 minutes about the laundry list of awesome things they are doing followed by me offering a tip for how to enhance one of their strengths. I have seen more impact on instruction as a result of this practice than any traditional observation.
I regularly tweet out pictures and videos of the amazing instruction I see when I pop into classrooms. Sometimes it is a student, sometimes a staff, and sometimes me reflecting on what I saw and the impact it had on students.
This year we have started a podcast at one of my buildings where we interview one of our staff members about their instructional practices. This helps our staff to get to know one another’s strengths, and also gives us an avenue to share the amazing learning happening in our building.
Involve students in telling the positive story of the school. This year I am working with groups of students in both of my buildings to do this. At one of my buildings this developed into creating a documentary about our entire school and in the other building, the students have been creating short videos about individual classrooms.

In the book, The Multiplier Effect: Tapping The Genius Inside Our Schools, authors Wiseman, Allen & Foster agree with the importance of not only recognizing, but sharing strengths with those whom we serve.

“But if people aren’t aware of their genius, they are not in a position to deliberately utilize it. By telling people what you see, you can raise their awareness and confidence, allowing them to provide their capability more fully.”

Walking through classrooms or in conversations with students & staff, I am amazed daily in the creative genius that surrounds me. Telling them their brilliance shines a spotlight on their talents and says, “DO THIS MORE!” This builds not only confidence and a positive school culture, but causes even brighter ideas and more innovation to spread in our school.

Please know that by saying we should highlight the positive, I am not saying that we should never have reflective conversations about shifts that may need to be made in instructional practice. It has been my experience that when I focus on sharing strengths instead of telling a list of changes to be made, that we end up actually having even more of these types of conversations. This is because when people know that you see them for their unique strengths and talents as opposed to a project that needs to be fixed a greater trust is built. Staff members often come to me with ideas asking for feedback or I am able to ask reflective questions resulting in instructional shifts. When change comes from within, it is deeper and more likely to last.

Educators don’t always see the amazing strengths within themselves. As leaders, the more we recognize and celebrate the strengths of those we lead, the more we create a positive culture that drowns out negativity and grows the innate talents of our school community.