Communication as a Leader #SAVMP 24

Amber's assignment for this week -- Communication as a Leader -- is a great topic because it is one that trips up lots of folks involved in leadership. Decisions get made that trickle down to the people who have to implement them, and if there has not been STRONG and proactive communication about the why and what for's of decisions, people get confused, and they get angry.

I have spent the last year and half trying to tell the "story" of our school effectively so that the folks who like to get negative have all the facts and can't invent their own whimsical tales of why and how decisions are made. Do the decisions make everyone happy? Of course not. There are always folks who do not like change, and there are always folks who don't like accountability, and there are always folks who just don't like YOU! LOL. As a leader, you will need to accept that it is sometimes lonely work being in front of the line. 

I have used two very powerful tools to shed light on the AMAZING things happening at our school and on the AMAZING people who create the work day-in and day-out so that the magic happens for our students. I also share my vision consistently using these tools by focusing on the data, the educational research, and the best practices that generate this vision. 

What tools do I use? I use my Monday Memo called the Cheetah Chat  and my Friday Flash called the Friday Cheetah PUPdate. However, these aren't your average newsletter style documents that share faculty birthdays and inspiring quotes. We put those "announcements" of meetings and other business items in our Cherry Blossom and on the Google Calendar. I use the Chat and PUPdate to embed videos, links, and images from all over our campus and from all the great educational leaders to provide the clear vision and expectations for the faculty and for our challenging work. Further, I rarely send out emails to the staff in the interim because during an early leadership team meeting last year, one of our wise team leaders expressed frustration over the amount of email she has to plow through in her email inbox from everywhere, including the district level. This created the cultural norm for our campus that we ALL try and protect teacher's planning time; therefore, it is the expectation on Monday and Friday that faculty take the time to read these training documents.

Here is an example of a recent Chat where I show campus data, inlay campus expectations, and recognize the efforts of members of the faculty for innovative ideas.

Next I have included below an example of the PUPdate which is emailed early Friday mornings. These are really energizing to create because it requires me to continually have my mind on the great things happening on campus so that we can celebrate the small victories! It allows me to recognize the hard work of the folks who are in the front seats and foremost rows on the bus {a Good to Great reference-I recommend you read it},  and it reinforces the expectations for everyone so there are no questions about the non-negotiables for our team.

The attachments are always valuable as you can see from the images included below that add to the mere words of the email above:

You can see the smiling faces of the children who are why we do what we do, and you can see the environment emphasized for faculty that we have fun together and remember to balance our hard work with loving life!

Communication in leadership is critical. You must OVERcommunicate. Communicate, communicate, communicate! I just can't communicate it enough!

What Are We Cultivating? #SAVMP 25

2013-2014 has been a year of growth for Cherry Street Elementary. We have added a TAG program, become an inclusive school, and replaced our core curriculum. The amazing by-product of the growth of these programs has been the growth of our faculty. I could write for pages and pages about how these programs have grown all of us, but tonight I will focus on our CheeTAG program.

When I took the job as Principal at Cherry Street I was made aware of several challenges. The school had seen its local community families turn to the private school down the street and to several charter schools in the area. We had many families left supporting the school, but if things didn't change we might soon lose them as well. Also, the school grade had been in decline for a few years, but the decline had been masked by the state's safety net.

My brilliant friend reviewed the master schedule with me in the early weeks of my new leadership role. She asked vehemently, "Where is the TAG program?" I explained that we didn't have one, and then we both pondered aloud the benefits derived from adding a program like this. First, it would keep families at our school--the families looking for the challenging programs provided at the charter and private school settings. Next, it would help build a layer of proficient students in our school achievement data...something that was missing. Further, it would allow my class-size restrictions due to state mandates to be flexed when building the master schedule because TAG classes are frequently multi-age. The premise of these programs is that students work at their mental age and NOT at their physical age. Lastly, having a TAG program would allow our staff and select groups of students to explore the most innovative and technology-driven aspects of today's educational offerings.

My first task was to locate the teachers who could tackle the obstacles inherent in implementing a new program while also learning how to be successful in managing such a program ALL AT THE SAME TIME. I knew just the right people. I asked two teachers on staff to consider taking the gifted endorsement coursework. It was a gift from heaven when both dynamic ladies agreed to take the coursework. They each seemed genuinely interested in the program we would implement in the upcoming school year.

Fast forward to the following summer. Both ladies finished their coursework ahead of schedule! Did I pick the right two or what? And, they began developing plans and curriculum for their classes. The teacher for the 4/5 combination TAG class even came up with a name for our program: CheeTAG since we are the Cheetahs at Cherry Street. I bought each of these ladies the book: Re-Forming Gifted Education, and away they went to the races! As we got closer to the start of school, we ended up having the students to create a combination 1/2 TAG class, a pure 3rd grade class, and a 4/5 combination class. Luckily, we had a 3rd grade teacher who was already endorsed for gifted education which allowed us to flesh out the program from grades 1-5.

The three fabulous teachers, our wonderful Student Services Coordinator, and I, all set out to create a diverse program that relied on student data to fashion personalized student learning goals for every content area of the program. From there, we embedded project-based learning, career-oriented learning, and technology-based learning. The results have been astounding, and we continue to see gains with almost 100% of the students in the program.

The teachers in these classes are positive, dynamic, and they are data-driven. Their malleability and willingness to work with a multi-age program that relies heavily on technology and increased engagement has provided our students with learning opportunities that are very unique. Two of the teachers are very excited about the possibilities for next year, and every time I get a chance to chat with them they tell me how much THEY have grown this year. For instance, one of the teachers sent me her engagement percentages for a lesson she taught last week, and she shared the pictures with me of the students who were VERY MUCH engrossed in the lesson. It was exciting to share the joy with her about trying to push student learning to the very highest level! Not only are our diverse TAG students growing, but our teachers are growing. So when this week's SAVMP assignment asked, "What are you cultivating?" I had to take this opportunity to share about our new TAG program and the progressive teachers who stepped up to the challenge to make certain our strongest learners continue to meet their own learning goals.

What Makes a Good Teammate? #SAVMP 26

I know that picking a few team members or even creating a team is not something everyone gets to do; many times leaders walk into an already established team or find themselves in other similar circumstances. But, when you do have the chance to pick a team, what qualities would you look for? What traits would be on your wish list? What non-negotiables would be a part of your Team Roster?

I have had the chance to work on several leadership teams over the years because I was an administrator at the secondary level where we enjoyed teams of 5-7 administrators. I also worked for some very different leadership styles on those teams. At one point, I had an amazing 2-3 years working for a former superintendent who was charismatic and energetic and definitely had vision. I loved watching him work with parents, students, and teachers. He was a gifted speaker who could make things happen.

I also worked on another pretty amazing team, a few years later, at the secondary level. My favorite part of that experience was my teammates. There was one teammate in particular who was brilliant! She and I worked well together for so many reasons. She liked to be out in front, and I liked to work the magic behind the scenes. She was the idea girl, and I was the achiever--I could put the ideas into action. And, most importantly, we challenged each other by always striving to be our best and by always looking for something new and innovative that would help our school or our students. We would sit for hours after the regular school day and brainstorm ways to improve the systems we were working in.

After having those types of experiences, I think I have been pretty spoiled. I have some lofty goals for what my teammates should be, and I will constantly strive to find that same synergy again. Here are the things I believe make a GREAT teammate.

STUDENTS FIRST:
Framing everything we do within the context of...is this what is best for our students?...will never fail any school leader. Yes, there is a delicate balance because the adults on campus need to be happy and successful in order to execute the plan for "students first". So I tend to hire folks who have the same mantra, "students first" in order for us all to carry the same torch. A great teammate will recognize this as the lens with which we review every decision. I truly consider my job like mission work. I work at a high poverty school with 80%+ students are stuck in cycles of generational poverty, and education can not only modify those cycles...it might even end them. I was a child of poverty, and my father ended the cycle for all of us! I believe all of us are dealing with the lives of children, and our "touch" should only be positive and powerful. I treat every child as if this child is the Superintendent's child! A teammate should have that same lens when making decisions for our school.

INITIATIVE:
I believe a teammate has to take the initiative. I know that delegation is part of the leader's job; however, my teammate and I, when we were at the top of our game, never had to be told what to do. As assistant principals, we always rushed into our Principal's office and listed the things we would like to do and how quickly we would have them done. This demonstrates proactivity and forward thinking. I love getting out in front of situations vs. reacting to them after they have happened. Being able to plan/predict a situation and how it will play out allows you to hone your skills in many areas. Comparing your plan to how it really occurred increases your ability to execute successful plans. AND....knowing how people will react to a plan you have created is key in planning for its successful implementation. Taking the initiative allows you to be innovative because you are generally the first one to start the task if you an initiator. 

A SENSE OF URGENCY:
I believe that a teammate will work swiftly and at a grueling pace during the work day because our time with these little ones is so short. We must make every minute count. A minute can not be wasted when those countless minutes add up to hours or days of instruction where a child could learn to read. I believe it is criminal if a child leaves the elementary school level and can not read proficiently. We must be creative and utilize everything in our power to help them walk through our doors equipped to succeed in our ever-changing world...a world that used to be concerned about neighbors and happenings in our town. Now, we are clicks away from others around the globe. We need to equip our students with the tools to succeed in a world that will look entirely different than anything we have ever known.

POSITIVE:
Being positive in the education business is two fold. First, it is imperative that we tackle all our problems in a positive light otherwise we would be devastated by the home lives of our children. In education, we do so much that goes unnoticed or unappreciated by the recipients. BUT, that is not why we are teachers or educators. We do the job because it is a courageous and rewarding job. We do not seek recognition. Just this past week, I had a teacher who voluntarily took an early morning ride in a police car to locate a lost child who did not make it to school. She knew the student because he was a member of her class. She saw him walking with his 4 other siblings to school. Then, when class started, he was not there. She quickly located his twin, and the brothers and sisters did not know why he didn't make it to school. They left him behind because he was walking too slowly. He was found within the hour, and this teacher was happy that he was safe. Keep in mind, this same student had tried to kill the fish in her aquarium the week before!!! We love our students, and we will view them and the opportunity to work with them as the best job in the world. The second need for positivity comes from the need to help our team of teachers stay positive. I read article after article that describes how one or two toxic (negative) employees can destroy any good work to be done in a corporation, small business, and school. I have a policy that if teachers bring me problems, they need to come with ideas and suggestions for solutions. We ALL own the success of our students and our school; therefore, we ALL need to be involved in the improvements. Feedback on improvements is essential, and it is how we will get stronger as a school; BUT feedback is a much different animal than someone who finds negative things to discuss all the time without any impetus for solutions. We are lucky to have only a few folks at the school who are negative at this point. It is sad that when we see them coming, we know exactly what their discussion will be about. So, a great teammate will be positive and assist our team in reaching innovative solutions and will not be discouraged by the morass of sad circumstances we encounter on a daily basis.

LEARNING ALL THE TIME (Teach me!)
As the lead instructional leader for our school, I am charged with learning and being versed on all the best practices and on all the new research that has any chance of making an impact on our ability to teach our students better. I am quite the DIY (do it yourself) learner, and it helps to have a teammate who is cut from the same cloth. I need someone who can challenge me with better and more cutting edge ways than I can glean in my own studies. I need someone who is versed enough in the latest research to challenge my decisions and think of even better ways than I can to tackle the issues at hand.

These are difficult skills to find contained in one individual. I am always trying to keep my own skills polished so that I can be the best that I can be...and there are some times that I fail. That is why I need that teammate who can remind me why we do what we do, who we do it for, and how amazing it can be EVERY SINGLE DAY!

I will close with a quote from Mia Hamm (my daughter is a soccer fanatic--LOL):

"Being a good teammate is when you try to sprint down a ball that everyone thinks is going out of bounds. But you go after it anyways and you get it."

This is the sort of commitment a good teammate has--the commitment to ensure our students never go out of bounds. We always guide them to be winners no matter what it takes!

Student Driven Principal -- SAVMP #23

Well, well, well. I really like this topic for week #23. The reason I rejoice in this topic is because I frequently ask my teachers to be student-driven. Now, based on Amber’s assignment, I can accept the challenge to also consider myself student-driven. It is definitely a mindset, so why wouldn't it be natural for a principal to ALSO be student-driven?

Florida has moved to the teacher evaluation model that uses the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching as our evaluation instrument. The highest levels of this rubric push the teacher to move from the instructor in the classroom to facilitator for learning. This is very different than the classroom of the past 100 years. Traditional classrooms are set up in rows with the teacher’s desk at the front of the room, and all knowledge and learning is imparted from the very wise teacher who spends hours preparing to deliver this information to his/her pupils. Well, today’s classroom looks very different. Often set up in pods, students work as teams under models like Kagan to solve problems and dig deep into the concepts using strategies for effective learning such as the Singapore Math methods. Much of the work is now becoming individualized and personalized.

In the student-driven classroom, students establish their own learning goals, they manage their own progress-monitoring data, and they contribute to the goals of the classroom with student choice.

Florida’s system has a built-in incentive for this type of educational model because teachers’ salaries and hiring capacities are now directly tied to their student growth data and to their ratings on the Danielson Instructional Framework. Student-driven is quickly becoming the goal of all high-performing faculty.

So, how does an administrator demonstrate that they are student-driven? I think our first critically important step toward this model was our decision to build our master schedule this year on data and not on teacher preference. Just this past month, I had a faculty member come to me who was struggling with classroom management. She was frustrated about the mix of students in her class and asked why our leadership team had not listened to the teacher recommendations about the mixture of students for the class. Remarkably, I was surprised that she was unaware of how our master schedule was devised. I pulled it out to show her how it was a purely data-driven schedule. What I showed her was how each student in our schedule was matched to teacher credentials as well as classes were grouped together based on the needs of students and the best teacher match for those students’ academic needs. It is a color-coded thing of beauty. Certainly, we do listen to parent non-requests about placements, but that doesn't always work out. For instance, we had one parent who made a non-request this summer, and she asked for her student not to be put in a class with this student, and that student, and this other student. It turns out that those students were all spread across the classes, and that left no pristine class for her child. He would have to be placed with one of the teachers – and we carefully weighed where that placement should be.

In a massive and covert way, we have begun the journey to become a student-driven leadership team.

Coming up in the next few months, I will be having Pizza with the Principal meetings with our student council to get feedback from these student leaders in our school.

Most recently, I worked with a small group of students who were solid writers for our school. I worked with them to fine tune and add some special elements to their writing. We called our group Rine's Writers Academy . It was an exceptional experience for me in the “keeping it real” category. My short time with these students allowed me to live vicariously through our teachers and see the difficulties they face in growing our students, and at the same time I was able to see how much our students want to be the best they can be. Both the students and myself were overjoyed when they caught on to the use of the semi-colon—a piece of punctuation they had not used before. It was a deep experience for me, and I appreciate the teacher who allowed me to assist her students in this manner.

Here is what Amber asked us, the Lead Learners, through her provocative questioning. 

"At what point in a teacher’s career does the focus shift from doing what is best for students to, “let’s do what’s best for me.”  Our systems are built around the convenience of the adults and not necessarily for the benefit of the students...

1). Master schedule is based on adult’s preference.

2). Teachers threaten to quit or transfer if they do not get the classroom or conference that they want.

3.) Knowing that some teachers lessons aren't up to par, but not wanting to rock the status quo.

4.) Looking the other way at worksheet driven classrooms because “the test scores are fine.”

Educators need to be redirected back to the purpose of our profession –  doing what’s best for students’ success."

I DEFINITELY need to add more opportunities for student voice into my school day, and I will make it a clear goal to become student-driven at every opportunity.