Productivity Update

I have always been interested in improving my productivity;  I blogged about organization skills and tools nine times over the years.

Earlier this school year, I decided to join a Facebook group called Principal Productivity, Becoming a Productive Principal. I have been working on this for my entire principal career. Considering that there are more than 1,200 member of the group, I guess this is a widespread issue. Anyway, to get into the group, I had to write a productivity challenge statement. Here is what i wrote:

"Getting into classrooms and doing the other stuff later while still seeing my children everyday."

Over the past few years, I have gotten increasingly better at getting into classroom (more on that in another blog post). I get most fo the "other stuff" done at some point, and I see my children and spend quality time with them throughout the week. Now, I am not perfect at any of this, and some weeks are far better than others. Over time, I think that I have a decent record due to a bunch of strategies and tools/

To stay organized and be productive, I use a variety of methods.

• I keep my email inbox empty with liberal use of the snooze feature and with forwarding to a to-do program or Evernote. 
• I keep an Evernote doc going with next week’s staff email memo so that I can edit it quickly and get it out on Thursday nights.
• I keep a digital to-do list using Toodledo. The free version does everything I want, and they update frequently. I especially love being able to email items, schedule a future start date, and sync between devices.
• I also keep a physical to-do folder where I put a sticky on each paper identifying what actions I will need to take with that paper.
• My secretary/admin assistant passes papers that need my attention in “The Folder.” Most staff have learned that the folder is the best way to get a quick response from me. I look at the folder several times throughout the day and either act of stuff immediately (if it will be quick) or save it for later when the students are gone.
• I track longterm goals and projects in Evernote because I have been using it for years (there are frequently articles talking about other note apps and why they are better).
• My google calendars know more about me than anyone in the world - my wife included possibly. I share calendars with my secretary and my wife. This way, my two bosses can always know where I am supposed to be and add appointments for me.

Keeping all this going does take a little bit of time to maintain, and it has been worth it. This year has been one of the smoothest of my career with more documented classroom visits then ever before. I recently made another change so that I am spending longer periods of time in a classroom. I walk in with my to-do folder and my laptop (MacBook Air), then I sit somewhere in the room and work on whatever is pressing (or sometimes I get some old thing done). I stop my work frequently to listen to the classroom chatter and to ask students what they are learning.

All this is to say that time spent planning and organizing helps me to be more productive which helps me spend more time with the things that really matter.

Firing Positive Neurons: Gratitude at BCS

Throughout this school year, the BCS Faculty has been studying Teaching Kids to Thrive: Essential Skills for Success by Debbie Thompson Silver and Dedra A. Stafford as part of our work on improving the social-emotional skills of our students. At a faculty learning time meeting a couple of weeks ago, we discussed the chapter on Gratitude. After a debate about whether gratitude was in fact something that can be taught, we decided to heed the words from page 221, “When we purposefully practice gratitude, we are firing positive neurons.” We agreed that a couple of days later, at DENS (our weekly k-8 advisory groups) we would complete a simple gratitude activity mentioned in the chapter. Each student would write down something at school for which she is grateful. Then, we would post all the papers on a gratitude board in the hall.

Well, I’d forgotten that I was not going to be at school that Friday. Also, I forgot to prepare the activity (oops, too busy for my own good sometimes). Turns out, there were a number of other staff absences so we canceled DENS altogether that day. So, with this reprieve in hand, I put off creating the activity for a few more days. The following Friday, I was saved once again by the huge amount of staff absences this time of year; we canceled DENS again.

Finally, this past week, I remembered to create the papers, clear the bulletin board, and make a sign. The papers are simple: 1/3 of a page with lines, the BCS logo, and the words “At BCS, I am grateful for…” Since I had time before a Board meeting, I wrote a memo with the very simple instructions. Friday morning, I handed out the memo and the papers to all of the DENS staff (all teachers, most paras). They handed the papers back to me later in the day. I hung them in a brick-like pattern at the suggestion of Chloe.

All afternoon, students and staff stopped to look at the gratitude wall. No surprises, but I think the cook got the most mentions.

The kicker to all of this is that this week had been one of the toughest all year in terms of student behavior. The gratitude that we started the day with helped us end this hard week on a high note. I guess that all that positive-neuron-firing really works.

Coach for a Principal

This is likely the second to last post about the Waddington initiative. That said, I have learned so much about myself that it seems likely more ideas will surface in the future.

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

 

As part of the MWLI, I was given access to a professional leadership coach. Mel reviewed the survey data about me before our first meeting in North Carolina. He came prepared with ideas about my leadership and some resources to help. These notes reflect my thoughts about each of our sessions.

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Live coaching meeting with Mel, Greensboro, NC

After a few minutes chatting about our lives, I expected the first coaching session to address my key leadership challenge about coaching teachers or my difficulty dealing with conflict and direct feedback. Instead, Mel caught me off guard with a discussion of my communication style. I had glossed over these results from the Skillscope 360; Mel had not. He told me that my extroversion might be getting in the way of listening. He suggested that I WAIT (think: Why Am I Talking). He gave me chapter 27 from FYI (Lombardo 2009) “Informing.” He suggested that I practice speaking in shorter sounds bites. I wrote in my notes, “How can I communicate more like USA Today rather than the New York Times?” This is summed up in remedy #4 from FYI.

 

We did talk about giving feedback towards the end of the session. Mel suggested that I sandwich my SBI-style feedback. Start with a statement that shows transparency of my positive intent and finish with an offer to partner with the teacher to work on the issue. Mel gave me copies of FYI  chapter 12 “Conflict Management” and chapter 13 “Confronting Direct Reports” to review. These are closer to the leadership challenge that I had identified, but we spent very little time on them. The session ended leaving me lots to think about.

 

Coaching call with Mel, 60-minutes

When Mel and I spoke again in May, I was not focusing much on my growth or improvement. I was knee deep in a million things as the school year was winding down. Our conversation seemed forced and not too helpful for me. Mel advised me to communicate my role in building school culture and to be clear about my priorities. He suggested that I share my core values with the staff. Since I do this every August, I was unsure how this was going to be helpful now. We talked about clarifying norms for the staff, the Rules of Engagement between adults. This sounded good.

 

I spent a fair amount of time on this call talking about the hiring situation. Three veteran teachers had recently given notice that they would not return. One was a surprise, the other two had been looking for years.

 

In a follow-up email, Mel sent me a sample of Rules of Engagement from a school that consulted with in the past and wished me well in the hiring.

 

Coaching call with Mel, 30-minutes

What a difference summer vacation makes. This call was much more productive for me. Of course, I’d had a couple of small family vacations, time away from school, and the second face-to-face Waddington session. We talked a bunch about the opening faculty meeting that was working on at the time. We talked again about keeping things brief, “identify the headline and three or four ideas.” He reminded me that, “the introverts need time to reflect on the documents.” The piece of advice I latched onto was to use short stories to help folks remember the main points. I took this advice to heart when I introduced my User’s Manual with the generator story a few days later.

 

We talked for a few minutes about managing conflict. Mel sent me a document called Constructive Responses to Conflict to use when confronting poor performers. In this model, there are two main categories: active and passive. Active responses include Perspective Taking, Creating Solutions, Expressing Emotions, and Reaching Out. The passive responses are Reflective Thinking, Delay Responding, and Adapting. The idea here is to use the best response for the situation. I have been working through these ideas throughout the year and trying to remember to think through what kind of response I need to use.

 

Finally, Mel reminded me of the importance of DAC. Specifically, Mel stressed the approach of affirming the vision (Direction) and connecting the dots for people so that they can see how their efforts tie in to the vision. This will increase a sense of urgency and Commitment. In the run up to the start of the school year, my own sense of urgency and commitment was at much better level, and this call was a good one.

 

Coaching call with Mel,30-minutes

Our final coaching call was another good one. We reviewed the work we’d done together since March. The key ideas have been: brevity in communication, more transparency helps subordinates feel comfortable, and some ability to be vulnerable and humble are key to effective leadership.

 

Another important leadership strategy took up the rest of the call. Mel referred to the concept of situational leadership. This is the idea that a leader needs to use different strategies depending on the person being supervised. I wrote in my notes, “A veteran will need some guidance and support while a newbie might need more direction.” This reminds me of the framework for supervision and coaching that Pete Hall (2008) writes about in Building Teachers' Capacity for Success. Situational Leadership and Hall’s book play roles in my approach to coaching that has become central to by Key Leadership Challenge.

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After these hours of coaching, I think that the real benefit for me might have come with further sessions. I was just getting started with Mel. In time, I may seek out more opportunities to be coached.

Image credit:

Coaching by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

Presentation of Impact: Generating a User's Manual

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

The Presentation of Impact caught me by surprise; I totally forgot about it until I arrived at the October session. I remember sitting there thinking that I was screwed – although, I would score very high on the Fliegelman Procrastination Scale. I have often put things off until the deadline only to produce some of my best work. In the hour or two before dinner, I remember thinking that I will find a way to put this all together in time for the next day. Since I know that not preparing at all was a bad idea, I spent part of that evening going through the documents I’d collected at the various MWLI sessions. I decided to put my money where mouth is and tell a story (so many workshops over the last few years have emphasized using stories as a vehicle for delivering the message). I told the story a couple of months earlier when I presented my Owner’s Manual to my staff (much more about that later). When the time came, my group chose to sit in the small game room in the basement of the resort. The comfy chairs and relaxed atmosphere was just what we needed. Each of presented our impact statements. I went last and knocked it out of the park. My small group even clapped for me. Here, to the best of my recollection is most of my story:

When we moved into our 200 year old farmhouse, we bought a big chest freezer. Then we decided we needed a generator. I figured it would be no problem to get this thing started. So I put some oil in, and I put some gas in. Then I pulled the cord, and then I pulled the cord again. Then I pulled the cord again and nothing happened. Growing frustrated I wondered if the thing were broken. My wife handed me the owner's manual for the generator. Interesting idea; read the owner’s manual. Well, I used the owner's manual to follow the directions. I put the choke in the right place and turned on the switch. Then I pulled the cord and the generator started right up.

After the July Waddington session, I knew that I had to share what I’d learned about my leadership with my staff. I struggled throughout August to figure out the best way to share all this information during in-service. A couple days before in-service began, I came across a Blog about writing your own user’s manual. It was clear to me right away what I had to do. So I took the Waddington instruments, took notes on each item, and created the first draft of my user's manual. This first draft of the manual was long and very detailed. I realized that there were things missing that weren't covered in Waddington and things from Waddington that I didn't need to share in detail. Then it hit me, Mel, my mentor, had mentioned that I over-communicate, use too many words, and don't keep it simple enough. So, I pared down the user's manual, leaving it much shorter. I did keep the original work at the end in case anybody wanted to read it.

I went on after that to describe the process I went through of setting and revising my key leadership challenge. I also spoke about how I was already using that work to improve my school and my leadership (much of that is detailed further in this paper).

Silver Buckshot, Positive climate at BCS

Creating a positive school climate cannot be done with a silver bullet. There is no one thing, that if we just implement, will “fix” a school’s climate. We can’t go to School Speciality and order the positive climate silver bullet.

Instead, creating and nurturing a positive school climate requires a Silver Buckshot approach. A wide variety of small strategies that together add up to positive school climate.

Here is most of what we do to ensure our school climate gets more positive every day:

Whole School Efforts (Tier I)

• Bear Cave: Weekly Whole School Meeting
• Daily Morning Meeting in each classroom (Responsive Classroom style)
• DENS: Doesn’t Everyone Need Support. Small group, like advisory, six students from K-8 with one staff member, 15 minutes each week
• Recognition and celebrations of meeting the school wide expectations, PBIS. We use a system of links to hand to the students. Then we fill a tube with spheres to track milestones around the building. We celebrate when the use is halfway and completely full.
• Positive Postcards home. We are working on making sure that every family gets some positive words from the school/teacher.
• Teachers eating lunch with students
• CLAWS, Community Leaders Advising With Support. A scheduled time for students to share their thoughts about the school.
• Social/Emotional Learning
• Second Step
• Teachings Kids to Thrive book study

For students who demonstrate some kind of need (Tier II/III)

• Increased counseling. From 0.0 FTE two years ago to 0.6 FTE now
• Student Support Supervisor/Para to work with students when they are sent out of class. Create behavior support plans
• PAWS: Positive Action With Support, a Check-in, check-out intervention
• Thorough investigation and reaction to reports of bullying and harassment
• Track some classroom-level discipline data in addition to office discipline referrals

Staff

• Staff raffles
• Woohoo! Board in Staff Room to share kudos or ideas
• Wellness Champions bringing staff wellness to the forefront
• Chocolate at every FLT/Faculty Meeting 
• Sleuth Leadership Team: shared decision making
• Transparency and honesty
• Principal visibility: classroom visits of every teacher several times each month
• Improving communication

Silver Buckshot references

I did not come up with the phrase “silver buckshot.” I heard it mentioned on a podcast sometime in January 2018, but I cannot figure out which one (I listen to a couple dozen shows during my commute). So, as much as I’d like to give credit for the phrase, I cannot. I was able to find a reference to the phrase “silver buckshot” all the way back to 2000 in an article about cockroach control. More common usage seems to start with a 2006 climate article from Bill McKibben.

A “Silver Buckshot” Guide to Cockroach Control

By: LT Daniel Szumlas, Ph.D.

Date Posted: January 22, 2000

http://www.japanupdate.com/archive/index.php?id=1242

Welcome to the Climate Crisis

By: Bill McKibben

Date Posted: May 27, 2006

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/26/AR2006052601549.html

Key Leadership Challenge

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

A major component of the MWLI is the Key Leadership Challenge. The KLC is meant to give each principal a focus for the work in the program.

My Key Leadership Challenge has taken a few different forms during my time in the program. When I enrolled and listened to the webinar, I was thinking about student behavior and staff culture. We were having a pretty rough year in terms of discipline in the middle school. I was spending huge amounts of time supervising a new, struggling teacher. I wasn’t sure of the language, but I was pretty clear that my KLC would focus there.

By the end of February, it was clear that things had begun to change. A look at our discipline data shows that we were entering a quiet phase. My work with the struggling teacher had shifted completely from a combination of suggestion and building on reflection to a strategy of direction. I had to tell the teacher how to relate to students and how to handle discipline. With some new approaches in place, the behavior problems settled down. I realized that it was easy to direct a struggling teacher. My struggle was with the veteran teachers.

Most of the veteran teachers at BCS last year were pretty solid teachers. They each faced challenges, but those were pretty subtle. I found that I was having a hard time approaching those teachers with concrete suggestions for improvement. I was also not getting to the good conversations where teachers identify areas of growth.

When I got to North Carolina, I framed my KLC as:

How might I improve the practice of good teachers to increase student engagement in learning and to meet the needs of students through social emotional learning.

I tried too hard to connect this to my school vision (the ideas of engagement in learning and social-emotional learning). Feedback from colleagues was as muddled as my statement. Most of the comments were focused on how to improve the social climate of the school. I left North Carolina a little bit dubious of the benefits of the program; I didn’t feel like I had a good direction. While I wanted to blame others, I knew the reason was that I didn’t focus enough on my key leadership challenge.

In July, I had the opportunity to work on my KLC again. I learned from the assessments that “I would benefit from listening to those who are better at clarifying the problem to solve.” So, without meaning to, I worked in a small group of principals with somewhat similar challenges. Through our work together, we wrote a new KLC that we all decided to use. It was broader and more focused than my original.

Create systems to expand or enhance teachers’ capacity to engage all students.

These systems would include:

• Having teachers act as accountability partners for each other
• Creating an inventory of teacher strengths
• Setting and meeting a goal of 2-hours each day in classrooms
• Creating my own coaching model to use with teachers

I left the July session charged and ready to implement these new systems.

As reality and planning for in-service in August began to seep into my consciousness, I realized that I had some other systems work to implement first. I took a step back from accountability partners to strengthening the teams in the building. First, I agreed to rearrange the Faculty Learning Time and merge it with our building PLCs. For this to work, we spent a bunch of time in the fall on team building activities. I introduced my User’s Manual as a device for the PLCs to work on norm setting. The idea was for each person to think about how they operate, then for each team to write norms that might honor those needs. The feedback from teachers was positive and the work showed it. Throughout the fall, we devoted time to learning and problem solving in our PLCs.

Now that the Waddington program is over, I have reviewed my KLC a few times without changing it again. I still seek to build systems for teachers to expand or enhance their capacity to engage all students. I have altered some of the particulars to match reality, but my focus has not changed.

For a CCL book on the topic see this page.

Direction, Alignment, and Commitment

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

A couple of years ago, I finally heard the feedback that I needed to set a vision, or Direction, for my old school. It was time; I was finally able to feel confident setting a vision. My last year at that school was filled with my struggles to Align the staff and the programs to the vision. I knew then, and now have the words for the idea, that I did not have the Commitment of others to make this vision a reality. 

Fast forward a couple of years and things are different. At my current position, I’d planned to set a vision for the school after my first full year (and a process of much listening and observing). The craziest thing happened – Brownington Central School was totally ready and waiting for a vision to be set before Christmas. I had to double check my assumptions, and the staff confirmed that they were ready. So, I launched the Brownington Bridge to the Future. This Direction is to use Social-Emotional Learning and Student Engagement in Learning to lead all of our efforts. Since it already fit with our mission statement, it was an easy sell. I think that the staff was pretty well Committed to this, so that leaves only Alignment to worry about. That will be my role as supervisor – make sure that we stay aligned to the direction.



A CCL book on DAC can be found here.

SBI for Feedback

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

I really like the simple, straightforward approach to feedback that is SBI. Tell the person the Situation about which I want to comment, tell them the Behavior I noticed, and then tell them the Impact the behavior had. I struggle with how to put the impact onto students instead of on me for feedback that is not about interpersonal behavior. CCL teaches that the impact can be about me or others present. Since it can include “work outcomes” I guess that I can use it with teachers. 
Here is an imaginary example (I have been using this with real teachers and worry that I would break confidentiality and trust with a real example):

Mrs. Jones, earlier during 6th grade social studies, when you told the students that they can choose the way they would be assessed, they got excited about this project in a way I haven't seen from them.

While this example seems a little stilted, the lesson learned is to be specific about the situation, the behavior and the impact when giving feedback.




Related Article
Feedback You Can Fathom

Teaching Principal Revisited

I have been a full time principal for about ten years. A few years back, I took on teaching the sixth grade social studies class at the same time. I wrote a mighty fine blog about it: http://principalspov.blogspot.com/2012/11/top-ten-benefits-to-being-teaching.html. I was a social studies teacher before becoming a principal. During my first few years in the classroom, I taught sixth grade. Being a teaching principal was a good experience, but proved to be too difficult to try again.

However, since December 4, I have taken on a 75-minute math class. You see, our 4th/5th grade math/science teacher is out on maternity leave, and the longterm sub I hired decided this was not the work for him. I have been unable to find someone to take the rest of the leave. So, we have been cobbling together the instruction for these kids. 

Our interventionist is planning and sometimes teaching the science for both 4th and 5th grades. She works with whatever daily sub we find to make sure the students are still getting some science. One of the special educators had been co-teaching 4th grade math and has taken over the full teaching of that class. That left only 5th grade math. The interventionist wasn’t available as she was busy teaching 7th grade at that time. The special educator had to deliver other services during that slot. That left us no other option but me.

I am loving it. I am learning tons and getting to know this group like no other in the building. I have earned some capital with the elementary teachers as I try to learn how to use Eureka Math (nee EngageNY). Had attended the training in August 2016 and had exposure going back a year or two before that. I thought I understood the program on a superficial level. Well, now that I have taught it for eight weeks, I can say that Eureka is not a script that any untrained person can follow. We need real teachers who understand math and math pedagogy to make sense of the program. We need real teachers who can assess where the kids are. We need real teachers to make real educational decisions.

I’m not sure I fit that description, but with some help and lots of trial and error, I am making it work. That said, I can’t wait for the teacher to return from her leave, and I’ll miss this class at the same time.

cross posted at Connected Principals

They Should Know Better...

They should know better than to:

Talk out of turn,

Argue with each other,

Ignore the rules,

Disrespect adults,

Give up quickly,

Choose so poorly,

(insert your least favorite student behavior here)...

... but they don't. 

They don't know better. Many students struggle to accept authority, think for themselves, or manage their own emotions. Students affected by poverty or the opioid epidemic are not getting many of the basic social-emotional skills they need. They don't arrive at our schools with the Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-making that we believe they need to be successful students and members of society (see CASEL, https://casel.org, for loads of info).

They need us, the adults at school, to teach them. Whether we teach them through a formal curriculum (such as Second Step), a classroom approach (such as Responsive Classroom), school wide expectations and celebrations (as included in PBIS), or in the "hidden curriculum" so many of us have always been sure to focus on, it is now a necessary part of many public schools to teach students how to get by in a community. Kindergarten teachers are chuckling now that the rest of us have caught up to them; they've been teaching the "hidden curriculum" for ever. The problem is that kids are starting school with so few of these skills mastered that it takes far more than one year to catch up. We have to teach social-emotional skills through the grades.

Many teachers start their career thinking that they will focus mostly on academic skills. People dream of teaching kids to read in first grade, divide fractions in sixth grade, or recite Shakespeare with high school juniors. When they hit reality and realize that teaching involves tons beyond the content, some teachers run with it. Other teachers start complaining that the students should know better. Well, they don't; it is our job to teach them. When we put in the time to teach Social-Emotional skills, fractions and Shakespeare are not far behind

cross-posted to Connected Principals