A Room with a View!

This week my post is more of a reflection than anything else. Five years ago, if you had asked me where would be today, I NEVER would have told you leadership. A funny thing happened. After getting a new principal a few years ago, I decided that I was tired of us “spinning our wheels” year after year. I suggested we do a Read-a-thon as a fundraiser. I agreed to head it up, figure it out, get it rolling, and see what happened. What happened was $18,000! The most money we had ever raised in a fundraiser. That year I was awarded “teacher of the year.” Those two events alone gave me enough confidence and courage to believe in myself and think that I could make a positive change at my school. I then went on to become our instructional coach and was able to really see a change in myself and the way I looked at education. All that to say….the past two years have really taught me how to see the “bigger picture”; to see the school as a whole instead of a grade-level “part.” My eyes have been opened to so many things that I never realized as a teacher. There are days when I sit in my office and wish that a teacher could trade places with me; if just for a few days. What a perspective! As I read over the blog posts from the past few months, it seems as though we all have the same issues, problems, people, and challenges at our school. I didn’t think that was possible, but relieved to know that I’m not in this alone. I think that teaching has become such a challenging endeavor that we seriously need to look at creating opportunities for teachers to see the “bigger picture.” Leadership Quality is an excellent article about not just seeing the bigger picture, but ensuring that others see it as well. There is a story in this article called “The Three Stonecutters” (well worth the time to read). The story begs the question: are we just in this for our own individual purpose or is there a greater reason why we do the work we do? This article was very encouraging to me and reminded me why I am in my current position and how I should desire to share and take our work to the next level!

I think I actually have a good idea this time!

I realized while doing my literature review paper that the subject of my project may have hit on an untapped market in special education. It’s kind of exciting, so I wanted to share!

While doing the research for my paper, no matter what search criteria I put into ERIC, journals, blogs, Google, anywhere, I could not find many articles on my topic (using online tools for measuring progress for IEP goals and objectives). Which seems so odd to me since it’s 2015 and technology is such a huge focus in schools, and in education in general.

Funny thing is that one of the articles I found on ERIC also mentioned my exact same frustration, and those authors could not find many helpful articles either (Woodward & Rieth, 1997). Since they were searching 18 years ago, I find it highly ironic (and fairly disturbing) that in 2015 I’m having the same problem! It’s also pretty awful that this has been a frustrating part of a special ed teacher’s job for at least that long (although I’m sure this problem has been around even longer than that). Woodward and Rieth also frustratedly mention that online tools were not being utilized for monitoring goals and objectives progress, way back in 1997! And I’m sure that the tools they had available at that time pale in comparison to the ones we have at our disposal now. Certainly, in 18 years technology has advanced and a myriad of other tools are available for this particular use! However, it doesn’t seem that many people are using them for this purpose. Which, again, seems ironic.

All of this makes me excited, though! With all of the tumult and stressors I’ve been dealing with throughout this semester at work, it’s a nice cap on things to finish out this semester with something positive. Plus, I like the idea of being a trailblazer! Whether or not I actually am is kind of irrelevant to me. If schools are practicing a similar purpose to what I’m aiming to accomplish, there certainly is not much research being conducted along these lines. Or maybe it’s just not being published (since apparently it takes years to get something published). Still, it’s exciting to think that I could actually be doing something that will help thousands of special ed teachers and hundreds of districts. Let me dream!

Sssshhh!

I read an incredible article on Facebook a few months ago about introverts. Suddenly, the frustrations I have felt my entire life were clearly articulated and could be understood by all. Unfortunately, I could not locate the article but this one comes pretty close 11 things introverts want you to know. No I am not cold, aloof, a snob or sneaky, I'm just an introvert. I love people, having fun and am pretty adventurous (have you canoed the everglades, gone whitewater rafting, rock climbed or eaten alligator?) See what I mean?  Now what does this have to do with school leadership?

I find myself at work avoiding certain people and places (including the front office where my office is located). In some conversations I feel like I am being talked AT not talked to.  Some people go on and on about what I feel are menial things and it absolutely drains all of my energy. I find it rude to cut people off so I have a hard time ending conversations that have gone on too long. In some instances I start moving away or do my best to politely end the conversation. Sometimes, saying too much starts to distort the point and I leave the conversation with more questions than answers.

In terms of my leadership I guess this is two fold. First, I am having a hard time being "visible" when some people make me want to hide. I know that small talk is important to develop rapport and I really like talking to people. However, I want to be able to get work done and talk with a lot of different people throughout the day without having my time monopolized by a few individuals. Second, how can I be "heard" when I have difficulty "lecturing" people or demanding air time from more vocal people. Even when I was a teacher I never talked for more than 15 minutes at a time and saw myself more as a facilitator of learning allowing the students to work together, ask questions and move around the room. Doesn't the average person have a 7 minute attention span anyway?  

Okay thanks for your insight as always. I hope you enjoyed a much needed vacation. I am slowly emerging from solitary confinement (not really, I spent time with family) and looking forward to a fresh start.

Balancing Act

The latest difference I've noticed between leading a private school rather than a public school is the constant balancing act between my internal and external roles.  That is by no means to say that either (public school or private school leadership) is easier or harder than the other, just different.  I'm sure all leaders have their own balancing acts going on!  This is just mine.

By "internal" I mean the inner-workings of the school: operational management, instructional leadership for teachers, climate-building, classroom observations, facility maintenance, and keeping up any school-wide initiatives we've started.  

By "external" I mean the community and outside stakeholder aspects: fundraising, networking, getting our school's name on other people's radars, letting the world know we exist and are currently enrolling, finding school fairs to present at, diversifying our revenue streams, securing long-term funding, and cultivating community partnerships.

There's also a gray area in between the internal and external, where I also have to keep our school board informed, engaged, and activated.  I'm the connecting thread between the board and the school, so I have to make sure information flows freely between the two.  Getting the board engaged is a whole other struggle I will probably write about soon. :)

I am starting to understand why so many of the more established private schools that I've visited lately have so many administrators.  I used to think, "wow, those schools are so top-heavy," whereas I now see that running a private school is a lot like running a business, so there are more necessary administrative positions: development directors, operations directors, finance directors, community directors, general administrative directors... the list goes on.  Given the demands I'm learning that my position entails, and the many hats I'm attempting to wear, I wish there were about 4 more of me to share the load.

How do you all strike a balance?  How do you maintain sanity while wearing way too many hats?

Cross your fingers!

I am paid out of Title One, thus one of my yearly goals is to try and recover some if not all of my salary through grant writing. Sometimes I can, but usually I can't. The Governor's Office of Student Achievement is sponsoring Innovation in Mathematics grants (here it is for all parties https://gosa.georgia.gov/innovation-fund) for up to $150,000 - that would be about three Kolt Bloxsons. After reviewing the criteria, I knew exactly what I wanted to do but am saddened because I have only won a couple of grants and this is kind of a biggie.

My overall goal is to equip at least one teacher on every grade level at every school in my cluster with a Mathematics and Science endorsement. This strategy would not only increase the pedagogical content knowledge of each grade level at each school but it would also equip grade level teams with a persons capable of designing rigorous, standards-based matheamtics. This could be huge for us, and we kind of need it. By sponoring both a Mathematics and Science endorsement for my local cluster of schools (APS is operating on a charter system, cluster model with the clusters basically being high school feeders), my ultimate goal is to increase teacher retention by formally training them with endorsement classes, and improve student growth and achievement. Get it?

The problem I faced was that no one, not a single person wanted to help me write this grant :( so I feel a bit like David and Goliath and I am hoping that I did a decent job with my detailing of budgets (thanks  School Operations team for your support!) and long term action plans. If anyone would like to help or even give me feedback, I would truly apprecaite it. If not, well, cross your fingers! :)

Tired of Trying

Greetings colleagues,

Let me get straight to the point: What do you do when you are extremely frustrated with a passive-aggressive, slightly rude and curt administrator?

I know, I know.  I have done many of the things you will suggest:  Build Positive relationships,  request a meeting etc.  I originally felt this was a personal issue with me.  However, I am starting to realize that this is the way this administrator is.

Teachers walk on egg-shells just to keep his or her sanity.  However, I am big on respect and no matter what position I am in or what you position you are in, I believe in a working relationships and mutual respect.

I am to the point, I much rather you not speak to me (although this isn't possible) or I should seek other employment options.  

As a newbie to the building, I spend some time actually trying to build relationships with the faculty and staff.  In doing this, I know who I can depend on, or who needs more encouragement, but one thing I cant do is be disrespected because you feel you are superior.

Tell me your thoughts.

Non-Negotiables

Three years ago when we first began this journey at McClarin with the School Improvement Grant, the admin team set up certain non-negotiables for teachers' classrooms. There were items like:

• Word walls
• Data Boards with results of diagnostic and mid-term along with goals for each class
• Standards Board with standard, EQ, opening, work session, closing, etc.

The coaching team (ELA coach, math coach, grad coach, IRR teacher, and School Inprovement Specialist) created a "non-negotiable" walk through template which was used to monitor teacher compliance. As the grant has progressed, we have moved into rigor and relevance and personalized learning. Through this process we stopped monitoring the non-negotiables and starting monitoring other things.

What has happened as a result? What gets monitored gets done! Suddenly teachers' classrooms are more rigorous and relevant, but the non-negotiables have fallen to the wayside. How do you balance monitoring what you need done with the time you have to get it done? I don't want to create a focus walk document that asks me to check off all the non-negotiables and look for rigor and rtelevance and look for personalized learning and everything else we need to see.

When do teachers internalize the need for the non-negotiables making them an everyday happening? We talked about their importance and reviewed the research and yet, they don't get done. We even built in an extra planning time for teachers this year after hearing them say they needed more time. It is just frustrating when teachers give up on the things that the school has decided are important.

Vantage Point

We don’t always agree. I get that. I have arrived at a point in life where I understand and appreciate agreeing to disagree with another person and it not negatively impacting our relationship - especially those relationship in the context of the profession.

Once we have come to some sort of agreement, regardless of how much each of us agreed or disagreed, every person involved in coming to the decision should abide by it. At the start of the school year, this was something that the leadership team agreed upon.

Unfortunately, it’s not what’s happening.

The question that I ask myself is: when I’m the principal, will I want someone to come to me when he/she is made aware that a group decision is not being abided by everyone?

Of course, I ask this because this is my predicament now, but it’s not an isolated incident so much as it is a recurring pattern. I am the one who is aware that the manner in which information is being disseminated to a specific department is not conducive to where the principal wants our school to go. Up until this point, I have made indirect comments to the principal regarding my observations; however, I have not explicitly stated that this person/group of people are not abiding by the leadership team’s decisions.

Perhaps if I was an AP I’d feel differently about sharing this information with the principal - or an AP - but as someone who is trying to move into administration, I have felt it best to just keep my mouth shut. When I am in a situation in which someone seems to be working counter to what was agreed upon, I do attempt to present to that individual a more positive spin on whatever's being discussed, but this does not always work to my advantage.

In regards to my question, I would want to know. I’m that type of person. I like to know as much as possible about every situation. Also, as a situation like the one mentioned deals with the culture of the school, especially one in which the principal is attempting to move the culture from toxic to healthy, I would want that information; in fact, Kaplan and Owings (2013) characterize a toxic school culture one in which “[a]dministrators and faculty are unwilling to change[,  and i]nterpersonal tone is oppositional and prickly” (p.14). I want to know what I’m working up against, not to even the score, but to know what I need to put into place in order to address concerns and/or diffuse situations. On the flip side, I also understand that sometimes those who readily share information, not necessarily in an attempt to stir the figurative pot, are perceived as tattletales. 

That being said, what would you want? 

Fun Factor

I'm keeping it simple this week and I'm posting about having FUN! Amid all the standards, evaluations, lesson plans, curriculum maps, budget restraints, discipline problems, parent complaints, standardized testing, student growth assessments, safety concerns, time and organization constraints, collaboration challenges, and a multitude of meetings there must be some fun added somewhere, right?

This week a colleague and I took on the challenge to "shake it up" at our school. We are on a mission to boost morale, build relationships, and just have fun every once in a while. We put together a staff Christmas party, a school wide door decorating challenge, and a family story night where students and staff come in their pjs, drink hot cocoa, eat cookies, and listen to holiday stories. Our principal has even agreed to be a reader! Hoping we don't crash and burn, but excited nonetheless!

Our goal: to show our students, parents, and staff that we care, that we want to be positive, and that in times of stress we want to be able to depend on each other to help stay afloat! I felt a little defeated this week, but I'm focusing my energy on creating some fun at work!

What events or things at your school make your job fun? What things do your coworkers look forward to every year? What really lights your fire at work? Please share ideas that have been successful at your school. I'm looking to keep this going all year.

The following link is pretty basic, yet I think the basics are what's important in  Creating a Joyful School Staff!

Time Management Suggestion

A friend of mine challenged me a few weeks ago to do something in reference to time management, so I thought I’d pass it along to see if it can help anyone else. After explaining (okay…MAYBE I was complaining…but who’s counting! J), that I consistently feel like I don’t have enough time in the day or week to get the important things done, he suggested I take a little time to tally my daily and weekly activities from my calendar, and rank them by percentage of time spent to see where my time is going. At first, I balked at the idea, because, in my head, I know exactly how I spend my time. But, I did it anyway. Mainly thinking I would prove him wrong!

Well, I’m almost embarrassed to explain the results, but, I will definitely say this one thing: it’s not what I expected! It’s SO easy to get caught up in everything day-to-day, and think you’re focusing on what’s important that you also lose sight of the big picture. I broke my calendar down into these categories of tasks: administrative (discipline, admin meetings, etc.), special ed (IEP meetings, parent meetings, referral meetings, etc.), instructional (anything having to do with helping teachers or students), county stuff (county meetings/trainings, etc.), and miscellaneous (anything else). Special ed and county were the two biggest categories that ranked in my calendar for the two weeks I calculated. That’s where the vast majority of my time went for those two weeks. And after flipping through the previous months in my calendar, I’m sure the results would be similar if I would go back and calculate other weeks.

So I’m issuing an open challenge to everyone who reads this to do the same, calculate your calendar!

Dr. Kafele tried to tell me this in our first Twitter chat; however, it didn’t make as much sense to me then as it does now. He talks on pages 4-5 of The Principal 50 about being an “intentional” leader; one that is not “random, reactive, or haphazard.” This simple task of calculating my calendar really made it clear to me, in black and white (so I can’t argue with it), that I need to do a better job of intentionally organizing my time to NOT be random, reactive, and haphazard and to be more instructionally-minded. I organize my days/weeks with many meetings, and my time is always productive, whether it be meeting with a parent or scheduling time to debrief with a teacher. However, I need to think of how I can better use my time. It’s not that I’ve been wasting time or scheduling things that don’t matter in the overall scheme of the school; however, I need to get better at intentional scheduling. I can see that this will be a journey for me. After all, it took me almost two months to only partially grasp what Dr. Kafele meant. Maybe I’ll fully get it in the near future. So…until then…to be continued at a later date…

The 9th Leadership Standard

One major difference I've noticed between leading a private school vs. leading a public school is the necessity of fundraising for the organization's survival.  Fundraising is what I've come to refer to as the "9th Leadership Standard" that I have to keep in mind, in addition to the 8 LKES.  While Standard 4 (Organizational Management) emphasizes the importance of financial management, and Standard 8 (Communication & Community Relations) covers community involvement, fundraising seems to take both of those to a whole new level.  

As someone with an education background and not a business or public administration background, fundraising does NOT come naturally to me.  I feel pretty out of my element and in over my head.  Especially daunting is our 2015-16 fundraising goal of $300,000: the highest fundraising target in Cloverleaf history by five times.  This year we have to cover our usual operations deficit, plus an extensive unexpected renovation project on our new space.

It seems there's a common misconception out there that private schools are rolling in money since they collect tuition.  I am here to testify that that is not the case for all private schools!  Money is tight, and we have to scrape by.  Tuition does not cover the full cost of operating, so fundraising has to make up the rest.  We also want to lower tuition so that a high-quality special education can be available to even more students with disabilities, regardless of financial circumstances.

As I've been visiting other schools on a weekly basis this year and meeting with other school leaders, I received the helpful advice to "use my resources."  The school leader told me I don't have to know everything or be good at everything, because I can reach out to others in my circles that can help with the things I lack.  Fundraising is one of those things, so I was lucky enough to find out that one of our Cloverleaf parents has pretty extensive fundraising experience, so she agreed to chair our Annual Fund Committee.  A friend of a friend of our business coordinator is a professional fundraising specialist, so she volunteered 2 hours of her time to give us direction at our campaign kick-off meeting.  Thank goodness for the variety of skills in our extended community!  Wish us luck-- we have 2 months to raise $50,000 of our $300,000 goal-- it's going to be one whirlwind of an annual fund campaign!

Hamster Wheel

My school has run successfully since being established 14 years ago. Very little needs to be changed or invented to keep the school running smoothly. With the HUGE exception of testing coordinator, my job responsibilities have been fairly simple to learn. I handle testing, discipline, community/university partnerships, new teachers, teacher observations and staff duties. I also handle other programs and responsibilities as they arise. We have very few discipline issues, and most of our teachers are experienced and effective. Some faculty members have been in education longer than I have been alive and many people have been a part of the school community much longer than I have. All this to say my school is doing just fine but therein lies the problem.

I see myself as a solutionist, an innovator, a creative genius (I know that's pushing it) but have found myself just spinning the hamster wheel. Some days faster, some days slower and some days with the help of my school leaders but everyday spinning the hamster wheel. Is this the plight of all administrators or is this just specific to my school? I find it very difficult to do the same things over and over. I change my recipes, my route home and my "favorites" quite often. I find the treadmill offensive, addictions absurd and repetition a complete bore. Is this the plight of all administrators or is this just specific to my school? Maybe my early teaching career tricked me into thinking everyday in education was a new adventure. I taught chemistry, biology, AP Biology, forensic science and scientific research (my principal and I made that up) in my first 4 years of teaching and then switched to 5th grade and 7th grade over the next few years. I assume most people prefer to have one prep and teach the same thing every year but I absolutely LOVED teaching different subjects and students and starting over!!

This year, the GSU program allowed me the opportunity to develop a new teacher support program to address an issue I noticed at my school. Maybe this is my chance to jump off the hamster wheel and dig my own trail in the sand. I can push this new teacher program as far as I am willing to take it (or until my leaders shut me down). Maybe I am the change I wish to see! The more I reflect, the more confident I am in my ability to stop waiting for fires to break out and start creating my own sparks. Maybe this situation isn't so bad after all. Just get off the hamster wheel and chart a new path!

I know this was just a rant but suggestions and feedback greatly appreciated!

What's the purpose???

Twice a month, the Leadership Team at my school have leadership meetings.  It comes up all the time that all content teachers are not on the same page with giving common assessments.  There are certain contents that give common assessment every 4 to 6 weeks as expected, those contents that give them once a year, and those that don't give them at all.  This is very frustrating to me, but I blame admin for not making everyone accountable.  If there are no checks and balances,  why would teachers do what is expected?  I know that valuable information can be gained from these assessment, but why is it that some teachers don't care.  I have to admit that I have been on a team that did not consistently give common assessments, and I always go feedback from my IST (Instructional Support Teacher) about not having common assessment in my data notebook.  I could do my own common assessment, but that would defeat the purpose of knowing how my students perform against other students.  How do we change this mindset of teachers that data like this drives instruction?  

Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

It seems every year, school districts seemingly change practices that leave school administration with their hands tied.  In addition, school administrators require some many demands of teachers that eventually leave them burned out and just trying to stay afloat.

As the new RTI/SST Specialist,  I have had my work cut out for me learning the everyday logistics of the position.  Not only that, I have also had the joy of trying to clean up the SST Process at the school, as well as support teachers in completing the Progress Monitoring Data.

In the same breath, I understand how overwhelmed, frustrated and bogged down they feel, however, I can not give anyone a pass because, I too, am trying to keep a job.  

I have exhausted my options to ensure this task is met.  I have given suggestions on how and when to collect the data, how small group time is a great time to collect data, as well as how to enter the data and be done with it.  I have sent personal emails and had face to face conversations with teachers about any support they may need or remind them to enter the data.    I have even sent my AP an email to send the teachers an email to remind them of their duties and responsibilities.   All was pointless.

Now I am stuck between a Rock and a Hard place... What to do?

Ms. Kolt "Are you seriously asking me about data right now?" Bloxson

Let me make one thing clear - I really love data. I mean I just like that it can reveal trends or findings that you might possibly overlook. I am also not the type of person who makes decisions based off of data alone, because I like to be well informed before any decision needs to be made. With that being said, we recevied our GA Milestones data back... No beuno. Here is a tidbit for you: in one grade leel, only 10% of our students were proficient in mathematics. 10% of the ENTIRE grade! That means 1 out of 10 kids is operating on grade level. The reasons why this bothers me so much is that my teachers are WORKING, they are tirelessly asking how can they improve, how can students be challenged, how can they get prepared?  And, I just want to pick their heads up today but the data makes that a little harder to do. So, I suppose I have to go back to the drawing board with our data. What standards did we miss? What domains were the lowest? How can I provide more professional learning opportunities? My mind is spinning looking for things to do and uncover but I think I know my next steps...

1. We have to start using common assessments.
Only in certain pockets are our teachers really collabroating, other than that they sort of work on their own islands. We have to get them to talk across the grade level and maybe even see what the others are doing. This will allow for standardization before standardization. It can also help produce a richer more reliable data set on our students. This brings me to step 2...

2. I can't be the only one who loves reads data.
They hate it. They see my charts and just look away. But, I think that has to do with how data has been used in the past. I suppose I have to be very upfront, clear, and obejctive with HOW I am using that data, invite them along to do it with me, and then support them as they do it alone. This being my second year at my school, I think that they feel more comfortable with me than they did previously. I think that this is my opportunity to strike!

3. Review my data and my observations together...
What trends across both the quant. and qual. do I see? How might they compliment or differ from one another? As a coach, I really get a chance to get in rooms and do some nitty gritty work. I just have to make sure that the teachers UNDERSTAND my findings to the depth that I do (a lot of times I think they think I am just that nerdy math chick).

4. Have an agenda and push it.
This is my work to own. I have to really find one thing, one area to focus on and push it for a while. I think I might be too scattered in my steps and things I want them to try and do. But, if I focus on one type of instruction, one task, one area and get them on board, I should be in better shape.

Thoughts folks?

Fish!

Who wouldn't want to work under the Fish! philosophy?! It's all about having a good time while at work, but have you worked in a high school recently? So many teachers can't step out of the box they are in and aren't willing to wear a different hat. We should all have a good time at work, but how do you balance the "party" atmosphere with the "professional" one?

My principal just wants everyone to have fun and enjoy their work. Can they do that and still promote learning and mastery of standards? Of course they can! The challenge is in transforming the culture from a drudgery to one promoting fun, engagement, and excitement about learning. I sit in teachers' classrooms and watch with horror as they speak with their monotone and lecture to their students when it can be so much more exciting. I wonder what happened to their enthusiasm for learning? What have we done that has broken them down to this? Our students, even more so than most, need teachers who are enthusiastic and passionate about what they are doing.

I love the students at my school. I love interacting with them on a daily basis and have built some strong relationships with them. I did that through my energy and enthusiasm for what I do. How do I rekindle a spark in teachers who just seem to be burning out?!

Improve or remove?

For the last few weeks I have been working with a teacher new to the school, the district, and the state. She reached out following her first TKES walkthrough, after which her department chair told her: “It was just horrible. Horrible! So horrible that we’re not going to count it.” I made sure, several times, that those words were the ones that actually came out of the department chair’s mouth, & she assured me that they were.

I spoke with the assistant principal responsible for evaluating the teacher, & she mentioned some areas of instructional concern with the teacher. I later sat down with the teacher & we prepared a lesson for her second walkthrough.

The assistant principal indicated that the second walkthrough was better, but still lacked in rigor & instructional strategies - the teacher received two threes and two twos. This crushed her as she has started to feel that the TKES process will be used to document her out the door.

With that being said, and thinking back on when we discussed the cost of hiring new teachers, I began to seriously question whether or not evaluations are used as a means of truly helping teachers to improve versus creating a paper trail to send them on their merry ways. From the perspective of this particular teacher, the evaluation process is not being used to help her improve - there are no specific strategies or explanations as to what they are  looking for. I’m left to question why this is, but I’m not sure if it is my place. I suggested that the teacher ask for that information when she met with the assistant principal and department head.

 Is it just my school’s culture that treats evaluations as a means of cleaning house? Or is the prevailing opinion regarding evaluations one that depicts them as a means of tossing teachers a lifeline? If we are trying to make the most out of our tight budgets, shouldn’t be be using evaluations as tools to help teachers learn?