Time Management - The Perspective of an Efficiency Freak

#SAVMP Week 10 ~ Time Management

With the ever intensifying demands of the jobs of educators, I believe the need for strong time management skills is more important than ever. I happen to be a weird sort of individual that is intrigued and challenged by increasing efficiency and finding better ways to do things to improve my productivity. I actually consider it a hobby of mine. Yes, I know that sounds bizarre, but I am extremely organized so this hobby fills my need for speed. 

So, George asked us to share advice and tips on time management for school leaders in our #SAVMP post for this week. I respond gladly.  {BIG GRIN}.

Here is how I do it, and I am constantly looking for aggressive ways to intensify my productivity:

1. Email

     Email seems to be one of the most challenging tasks for most people I know. I have glanced over some of my peer's shoulders to see upwards of 2,000 or more emails hanging out in the inbox of folks. OH MY STARS! That would give me nausea. 

     I approach email with a customer service mind. I try to respond to all emails within a 24 hour window. A response, for me, involves action of some sort. I either reply, delegate, file or convert to an action item every single email in my inbox. Action items are the emails that require the most time because I have to develop a document or rely on information from someone else to ultimately file that email. BUT, I star them or keep them hanging out in my inbox until they are completed so that I never lose sight of completing that task. This is how I manage to always meet deadlines and never allow things to fall through the cracks.

     AND, as a rule of thumb, I only touch an email twice. I might view it on my phone or just scan it during a busy day, but the next time I read that email I take an action step. That way I am not plagued by ever-mounting numbers of emails. I set boundaries for myself, such as I never allow my inbox to get past one page {I have my settings at 25 messages per page}. That way I am not ever overwhelmed by my inbox. 

     Filing emails is also a brilliant way of keeping them organized. This requires creating the folders in your inbox to manage them, but I can almost 99% of the time retrieve a conversation or a message that has aided me in numerous scenarios over the course of my career. 

2. Document management and naming conventions

     Again, this is easily done by the development of folders in your document storage location. I see clerical staff or other folks around me who store all of their documents en masse in the My Documents folder. They then struggle to retrieve documents because they must sort through hundreds, yes even thousands of documents. I have tons of folders where documents are sorted accordingly, and I can retrieve a document in seconds. Additionally, I ALWAYS use appropriate naming conventions so I never have to guess which version of a document is the newest. Naming conventions can be as simple as the current date like I might name this BLOG as a Word Document: Time Management_10_22_2013. 

3. Synchronized accounts    

     Synchronizing accounts is critical when leveraging social media for the benefit of education communication. I have my YouTube Channel synced with my Twitter which is synced with my FaceBook which is synced with my BLOG which is then synced with our district's My School App. One post can be simultaneously posted in multiple locations. This is a huge time-saver.

4. Scheduling with Google Calendar and Google Invites

     I believe Google Calendar has become my Holy Grail for staying organized. With the ability to send Google Invites, you can avoid tedious emails to individuals, and it keeps active rosters of who is attending events.

     Further, I schedule reminders that are sent to me via SmartPhone push notifications and email notifications. As long as I have my phone on me, I will get a reminder that says, "Morning Announcements in 10 Minutes." So, if I am engaged in a very important conversation in the breeze way at school, I can finish up our final comments and make my way to my next appointment. I adore this tool!

     AND, I schedule things that might get overlooked in my busy schedule. My GC will have blocks of time committed to Classroom Walk-thru's. If those items are not scheduled, I will get so busy that they fall by the wayside. I can not afford for that to happen.

     Google Calendar has so many other awesome features. You can click on a time that is mentioned in an email by someone and it will automatically post that as an appointment in your GC. Also, if you put the specifics of a location in the appointment, you can click on the link on your SmartPhone and it will take you to the navigation app. on your phone and take you directly to an appointment that is at an unfamiliar location. And who can forget the ability to SHARE calendars with your co-workers? That tool saves me and my leadership team time because we can all see each other's calendar and we never have to have that communication about when or where someone is. We know with the GC. I REPEAT. I love this tool!

5. Give and Take

     Lastly, I must say that I honor and respect that not all folks are efficiency junkies like me. Because of that, I recognize that many people can not take in the amount of information or even produce as much as I can in short amounts of time. I am very sensitive to this in my faculty. Just recently, at a faculty meeting, I gave the faculty exit cards and asked them for their feedback about what I could "take off their plates." Their plates are very full, and I want to assist them in being productive also. The feedback we got was amazing, and I was able to provide several avenues for workload reduction. That was a very cool thing.

Time management is critical for strong leadership--without it, a leader can drown in the morass of multi-tasking. I am always jonesin' for the next app or tip that is going to lead me to increased productivity. If you have some tips, send them my way. 

Cross-School Collaboration

This past month, I had the pleasure of participating in my first ever cross-school collaboration. I had several times in the past been a part of vertical teaming between feeder schools where a middle school that feeds into a high school met and planned together or where an elementary school that feeds into a middle school met and planned together. This time, for the first time EVER, I was a part of a very exciting cross-school collaboration. How did that look? Well, two sister schools, Cherry Street and Oakland Terrace Elementary partnered up to work together. We spent the summer in a collaborative book study.

The book study was hosted at the home of Lyn Morris, our 5th grade math teacher. The idea to have it in someone's home was so clever. It really gave the venue a feeling of coziness and comfort. Teachers brought in breakfast items, and of course, the coffee pots were filled and refilled.

Lyn's Beautiful Home

The first thing that happened with the intermingling of these two faculties was that current relationships were encouraged. We got to see Lyn's lovely home. In the picture below, Lyn is showing us some of the labors of her garden.

Peppers from Lyn's Garden

Kim Nix and Paula Clements

Also, I saw current relationships revisited. Here, are two of our kindergarten teachers, Kim and Paula, sharing a Blueberry Pound Cake recipe.

Next, I noticed all the learning going on between these two groups. We spent two separate days at Lynn's home digging into the book. The book, Transforming High Poverty Schools into High Performing Schools, brought into focus the various traits of schools with under-resourced students and how the teams in those schools fostered them into high performing schools based on certain principles. Teachers had been asked to complete reading the book prior to the collaboration days. When we collected the data about the perceptions of our groups, across the board we recognized that people's perceptions about poverty... were all over the place. 

Here is a sample question and you can see our responses fell all over the map. The question wanted to know what the reader believed was the reason for the lack of parent involvement among children in poverty. The graph of the results demonstrates that perspectives were broad.

However, about mid-way through the first day, you could see our perceptions begin to unify and take hold. Here are the major points from the book that exposed what the HP/HP schools look like:

• Have high expectations for their students 
• Embrace and use all data they can get their hands on 
• Use data to focus on individual students 
• Constantly re-examine what they do 
• Embrace accountability 
• Make decisions based on what is good for kids, not what is good for adults 
• Use school time wisely 
• Leverage as many resources from the community as possible 
• Expand the time students, particularly struggling students, have in school 
• Do not spend a lot of time disciplining students in the sense of punishment 
• Make sure the kids who struggle have the best instruction 
• Ensure principals are important leaders but they are not the only leaders 
• Pay careful attention to the quality of the teaching staff 
• Provide teachers with the time to meet to plan and work collaboratively 
• Provide teachers with time to observe one another 
• Think seriously about professional development 

Full Group Debriefing

Full Group Debriefing

Our teachers then took action to transfer this learning back to our individual schools. During the final break-out session, teachers who had studied and analyzed the information with diligence contemplated how to share these critical elements with the rest of their school's faculty. Each school's study group developed an action plan for sustaining this information throughout the course of the entire school year.

This was a 100% positive experience. I have to say that Lendy Willis, who I consider a mentor, was brilliant in thinking up this possibility. Behind the scenes, Deniece Moss and Tammy Boyer helped make it happen! For both of our school's faculty, it was an endeavor of collaboration, BUT even more so, I believe it was an arena for creating support networks among educators. We are working harder than ever at both of our schools, and it is critical that we get some "wind beneath our wings" every once in a while. We need to have a shared experience -- knowing that we are not alone in giving every last bit of energy to improve the lives of children, especially our children in poverty.

I commend the faculty at Cherry Street Elementary and Oakland Terrace Elementary. Go Cheetahs and Orcas! Have a fabulous school year! I look forward to our next project together.

To all the other leaders out there, I recommend this experience of cross-school collaboration!

Smiling Is a Super Power

     

Well, the school year is over, and we all made it safely to the end! As I look back on the many events that occurred, I would have to say it was truly challenging. The thing that saved me again and again was and continues to be my positive attitude. For example, there was a situation that occurred during the school year where I was speaking with some very hostile parents. They were seated in my office, raising their voices, and just plain mad.  I have asked office staff to be sensitive to such situations and to close my door when they hear folks get emotional or upset so that we can respect their feelings. Well, right on cue, Kathryn comes to my door and closes it for me. Can I tell you how much I appreciate my office staff!!!  Later that day, she said something to me that I will never forget. She said, “When I came to close your door, you were just smiling at these parents as they were yelling at you.”

     Well, I have to confess, keeping a smile at such times might be difficult, but I have found that it never fails me. As I recently read in Dan Kerr's blog entry on Connected Principals, “A smile breaks down barriers, it diffuses tense or contentious situations, it fosters positive intent, and it inspires a student’s or colleague’s perception of who you are and how you feel about them.”  Being positive is something I demand of myself and of my staff. School climate and culture grounded in positivity is one of the foundations of a great school.

     We have many more challenges ahead of us with the upcoming school year. AND, school grading and accountability can certainly put a spotlight on things that desperately need attention in the schoolhouse. Sometimes these needs might seem daunting, but keeping morale high and pressing on to positively face every obstacle are critical to surviving this job with a happy and healthy outlook.

     And when it comes to the children, your smile and your welcome greeting might be the only happiness that a student encounters in their life all day. I can walk into classrooms and tell where students are happy and into others where they are not. I can walk into classrooms where students love their teacher, and I can also walk into others where they fear their teacher. Practice smiling and keep everyone around you smiling. Do you laugh during your day? Look around you and find inspiration in the faces of the children you teach. Did you know that 1 smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 bars of chocolate? Click here to see a YouTube video about The Power of Smiling.

A smile is something you can’t give away; it always comes back to you.                    – Maya Angelou

                      

Inspired by dkerr’s blog entry, The Power of a Smile, April 21, 2013, Connected Principals

Practice What You Preach

Practice What You Preach
                                                    

As a first year principal this year, I set out with a lofty list of goals to move the school vision forward. Now, as I am nearing the close of the school year, I am beginning to reflect on how close I have come to the targets I set for myself and for the school. We have come very far in a short amount of time. I am beaming with pride about many areas where I have grown personally and where I have seen my faculty grow as well. While it is true, that some goals were not met, I feel confident that growth was made and that we will pick up where we leave off this year and continue to pursue advancement with the ultimate goal of student achievement in mind!

One area where we have ALL grown exponentially is in the area of data analysis. Technology has advanced to the level that I can track and analyze data on just about anything. Through various initiatives this year, my faculty has begun to analyze data regularly to the point of asking for more data on their students and designing student assessments based on student need. Further, many of our teachers are now triangulating data as a best practice. It has been so exciting to watch this growth. I even have one team of teachers who have requested planning days this summer to begin creating common assessments in order to better assess student progress with the newly implemented Common Core State Standards. The great part about this request is that the team asked me for leadership support instead of me asking them to “get on board” with a specific initiative. This is what makes leadership enjoyable…seeing your teacher leaders driving change.

I think the most unexpected growth I have seen this year is in the “thirst” for data analysis occurring all over campus. I have been modeling data analysis at every opportunity. For example, I place bar graphs of diagnostic data and mid-year data in our Cheetah Chronicle (our internal Monday memo) and in grade chair and School Advisory Council Meetings. Next, I embed behavioral data analysis graphs in most every faculty meeting. I also demonstrate to the faculty any time that I make a decision based on data. We had a bus/dismissal situation in the afternoons that I was able to use specific behavioral data collected from bus discipline referrals to convene a meeting with the transportation staff. We plead an effective case because our data was so strong. And…I monitor data on everything: enrollment data, student session results from the computer lab programs, behavioral data, achievement data of every kind, attendance data, lesson planning data, and even energy conservation data (quantitative data). I conduct data chats with the teachers and have them reflect on their own student data. Lastly, I survey the students and the teachers constantly (qualitative data). We just completed a bullying survey and are currently collecting data with a cross-section of teachers in a lesson planning survey. Analyzing the results and making sound decisions based on their interpretation is critical to our success. 

The teachers see me “practice what I preach”. Perhaps this makes them feel empowered that they can also analyze data to make sound decisions. Whatever the case, there appears to be a layer of data analysis on our campus that was not there when I first came to campus. As a matter of fact, I knew we were making progress when one of my teacher leaders asked to train the faculty on the use of reports in the SuccessMaker program. She was conducting her training about analyzing the data, and she said, “You know we are all about data here.” I know I was grinning from ear to ear when she said that.

Where will this take us for next school year? I firmly believe that next year we will begin to closely examine the results of data and make interpretations based exclusively on what works BEST for our students. For instance, the questions should become very narrow: “Is the intervention I am using increasing student achievement?” OR “Is there a better intervention for increasing achievement?” Data is a part of the educator’s life. Data provides powerful tools to help us fine tune our craft, and it is absolutely critical that the leader is examining the data for the school’s progress continually. My advice….PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH.

The Elation of Eight

Today I had the opportunity to sit in some refresher professional development. It was awesome and really got my mind moving in the direction of possibilities. The training was on the Common Core State Standards 8 Mathematical Practices. As I reflect about the things that I thought were exceptional about the training I would say:

1. The trainer  -- Cylle Rowell, our District Math Coach, is highly motivating. She has such a passion about math and a love for students that she makes me feel as if I want to go back to the classroom and teach again just to try some of the exciting strategies she is showing us. However, Cylle tells me that the change to impact student achievement starts with the school leadership. I just need to "look for" these awesome practices when I am observing instruction in the classroom. Also, I need to train the teachers and support them as they learn these 8 practices for themselves.
2. Resources -- While doing our "reporting out" in small groups, we were discussing key concepts of the practices, and I (Self-Proclaimed SmartPhone junkie) was Google-ing this and that to support our conversations. I came across an amazing, DID I SAY AMAZING, website that has videos of each of the practices and what they look like in the classroom. Each of the 8 practices is described as it appears for students and as it appears for teachers. The site is www.insidemathematics.org
3. Knowledge -- I had attended Common Core State Standards training at a CCSS Summer Institute, a Jacksonville one-day professional development and several minor sessions. Yet, I had been paying attention to the new ELA standards and not the math. Our district has been coaching me on the math standards, and I feel more confident about them each time I am exposed to them. But TODAY, I really felt like I made a huge leap in my understanding of the 8 mathematical practices and all the benefits of students learning in this manner. I feel empowered to help our students!
4. Ideas -- It just so happens that I have been working with my school CCSS team to try and build awareness of the standards for our entire faculty. One of my super epic teachers has suggested the idea of presenting a CCSS best practice at each of our remaining faculty meetings. We have been exploring how to do this, and then EUREKA, today I walked away from this training with at least 7 (I missed the chance to use 8 again- LOL) different ideas how to create awareness that start at the faculty meetings and go even further.

As you can see, I am ELATED about EIGHT. I am grateful for a district that invests in its leaders and its teachers, and I am excited about next steps in moving my faculty toward the CCSS goals. I encourage you to experience the Elation of Eight!

A Good to Great Remembrance

As I explained in an earlier post, I am trying to stretch my wings a bit and model the use of technology as a leader for my school. I am certainly enjoying the fun that Blogging has become for me. It is a good opportunity to reflect on my own learning as I grow a little more each day.

One struggle that I am having is MAKING the time to post the blogs weekly. Every day, I will think to myself, I need to post my latest Blog, and it gets pushed down the to-do list until I conclude my long day, head for the house, and go to sleep thinking..."I will do that tomorrow. I promise myself. I will."

My gap between posts has been weeks. Now that I am finally sitting down to do it, I think I feel guilty doing something so creative when there is so much real work to be done. What am I thinking? I have to cater to my creativity and the gift of ideation (A term from Strengthfinders). Even more important, I need to always reflect on the growth I am making--the progress toward my goals and how to make the move from Good to Great. I just ordered that book this week after hearing it referenced three different times by other educational leaders. It rolled in today from Amazon, and I couldn't put it down.

It describes effective leaders as those who look outside themselves for factors to credit when things go well--a mix of personal humility and professional will. I think back to the first real message I sent to my faculty, and it was through a VLOG or Video Log. I made one version and then made another and another. I labored over what to include in the video because I was so uncomfortable talking about myself, but I wanted to introduce myself to the faculty in a cool, technology-driven, and engaging way. In retrospective, I am glad that I have to exert myself to be out in front, because as this book tells me, it is okay to be humble. I should always credit others, even if it is purely good luck AND I should always accept responsibility.

As I close out this third Blog posting, I will post my video for a remembrance of that feeling of strain I sensed while doing something that could have been viewed as promoting myself. It was not self-promotion, but it was an undertaking of what I am doing tonight....modeling the use of technology as I etch my citizenship in the digital world.