Remember the Past, But Always Be Present

I absolutely LOVE working with kids because it gives me a legitimate reason to keep up with pop culture. If it wasn't for children, I may very well have succumbed to a life of "90s music stations and watching NCIS years ago. Not that there is anything wrong with either...

Today was one of those days that I was happy to be living in Virginia...71 and sunny at it's highpoint...at the beginning of February. I paid homage to the Beetle convertible sitting in the garage by washing her off, shining her up, and driving her around town with the top down in this GLORIOUS weather. At one point, Wil Smith's "Summertime" came on the radio, and it almost felt like summer (if you could forget about the fact that all the trees were bare). I have to admit that I probably did turn up the volume to a slightly obnoxious level at one point today. 

I bring this up because while I enjoy a '90's moment like that from time to time, I also work very hard to live in the present. Why? Because it is what the kids I work with on a daily basis are living in ALL THE TIME.  

It makes me cringe sometimes when teachers and staff members I work with reminisce on old materials they worked with, and wonder why they can't work with them anymore. Living in the now is a very important concept when working with children. It's all they know. The past is "old school" to them, and they treat it as history as opposed to nostalgia. While it is OK to be nostalgic about Cole Porter, Frank Sintra, The Beatles, Aerosmith, NKOTB, or Britney Spears...yes, Britney Spears; as educators, it is so important to have the ability to acknowledge the past, but live in the present. Your students live in the present. You need to be able to relate to them. There are actually organizations in corporate America that encourage it's staff members to to read People magazine. 

Take time this week to truly relate to your kids and the world they live in. You may actually enjoy it! 

Getting Ready For A Safety Audit, and Blogging About It!

The nice thing about preparing for a safety audit within a few months of starting a new job is that I get to learn my new building inside and out in record time. The audit performed by our school division is pretty comprehensive: over 130 pages of checklists and requests for artifacts. Ratings range from "fully implemented" to "not implemented". I actually spent a good chunk of my winter break pouring over these checklists to make sure I had all my ducks in a row for a successful safety audit.

Here are some things I learned in the process:  

Review your previous audit, even if it was from a few years ago, and criteria have changed.

• What were commendations and recommendations made by the audit team?
• Are there any recommendations that weren't acted upon? Why weren't they? 

Have a variety of different people perform a "pre-audit" of your building.

• People who don't visit your school on a daily basis are a great resource because they will look at the safety of your building from a completely different perspective. 
• Ask staff members to tour parts of the building they wouldn't normally go. You will be surprised with what they will notice!
• Talk with your parents and students. Get their thoughts on how safe they perceive their school to be. 
• Police and Fire Personnel – Many secondary schools have police contacts, but not everyone takes the time to include the local fire captain. Reach out to them. Invite them to tour your building and give them an open invitation to your safety committee meetings. These individuals can be especially helpful in making sure drill procedures and routines in place are appropriate for the situation. 

Keep your safety related artifacts in one location.

• Each section of the audit in our division has a page that tell us which artifacts the team will be reviewing.  Much of the time I’ve spent preparing for this involved gathering these artifacts. They include copies of facilities manuals, MSDS information, maps, protocols, and handbooks. Thankfully, most of these are available in an electronic format, and the school system allows us to share the artifacts electronically. I took these artifacts and loaded them to a Google site I created. This way, auditors only have to go to one location to look at our artifacts. 

Many school divisions perform safety audits of their facilities every two or three years. Safety protocols and procedures can be effectively reviewed on off years by maintaining an active committee tasked with making sure components of the protocol remain relevant. Keeping those components in a format that is easily revised (like Google Docs) is helpful when corrections/additions need to be made. 

So Much Data!

Data driven instruction is where its at. You give the assessment, analyze the data, find the strengths and weaknesses, and reteach/remediate based on your findings. It's a cyclical process.

A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with the math department chair, and we were discussing this process as we were laying the groundwork to help guide teachers in their development of growth goals for the coming school year. The process for this practice has traditionally been to look at the previous years' assessment data for last years students to determine the instructional focus for this year.

This process, however, has a flaw. What about results pertaining to the students you have this year? What about the progress those students made last year? What about what they are missing? Is that data important? Of course it is!

I did some serious thinking on the topic, and came up with this:

• Year-end assessment data is valuable. It's probably more valuable for teachers though. However, full state assessment data isn't usually available until mid July, and by that time, teachers are well into their summer vacation. In most cases, they don't even see this data until August when they are stressing about a new batch of students and getting their classrooms ready. If teachers are provided with this data before they left of the summer, they could develop a plan to address their own instructional weaknesses during the summer.  
• Pre-assessment data is also valuable. It's a valuable tool to help teachers determine what the students don't know. If teachers don't know their own weaknesses, however, how do they know if they are adequately prepared to reach this new group of students? 
• It is still relatively difficult to access and pull apart assessment data. For example, I spent a good deal of my Sunday afternoon trying to figure out what our exceptional education students were struggling with on our state assessment tests. I could easily find out what our entire school was struggling with, but that doesn't help me when I need to focus on specific subgroups or classes. What's up with that?

I feel pretty comfortable with saying that we are in a better pace with instructional data than we were even a few years ago, but there is still a long way to go. Why should we have to wait until mid July to obtain data that would help teachers grow as professionals. In addition, the data we are using should also be able to tell us a little bit more than it currently does. I think of data I encounter in everyday life: my credit card statement, the gauges on my car, all those infographics I find on the Internet, and even my Starbucks app...they are all easier than what the majority of us are asking teachers to make sense of.

I've said this before, it is my responsibility as an administrator to make sure the teachers I work with have the tools the need to be successful. This includes providing access to data that doesn't take hours to unpack and understand. Until the data comes to us in a more straightforward format, I need to make sure it gets that way before it gets in the hands of the teachers. This way, they will have more time to create meaningful and impactful lessons based on what that data tells them.

My First "No Office" Day

In my "Personal Professional Goals" post, I mentioned one of my goals this year was to maintain weekly "no office" days. What I mean by this is that I try to spend the entire workday outside my office. Yesterday, I tried my first. Overall, I would consider it to be a success!

from www.connectedprincipals.com

Was it easy? No.

Was it worth it? Definitely!

Here are some things that made this experience completely worth it:

• I got into 22 classrooms! It was AWESOME! The kids were like, "Dr. Stacy, I saw you in tons of my classes today!" I also got a lot of "thank-yous" from the teachers. I had some tell me they  never had anyone come in to visit their class that early. 
• I got some GREAT data to share! As I visited each class, I filled out a brief walkthrough observation form. It allowed me to indicate whether or not I saw an agenda or objectives, and state that agenda. It also allowed me to check off the types of instruction I saw: whole class or small group. In addition, I looked for things like use of questioning strategies, type of learning activity taking place, and the learning environment. At the end of the day, I made a copy of each form, and put them in the teachers' mailboxes. I plan on sharing an overview of my observations with the grade level during our next PLC meeting. 
• All sorts of fabulousness was observed! Since I am new to the grade level I'm working with; and since we have a LOT of new electives teachers in our building (5 to be exact), I visited my grade level and the electives teachers who are new to the building. I got to see some great instructional techniques in action. I saw a great example of student folders in Google Drive being managed, excellent use of Class Dojo, and some really creative problem solving in our STEM class. I'm going to ask these teachers to share their strategies with their PLC during "Teacher showcase" time in the coming weeks. 

While there is LOADS more to share, I like to keep these posts fairly short. We are, after all, busy people!

Here are some things that made this "No Office Day" more manageable:

• I come to work early. I get to work about an hour before I need to be there. I use that time to answer emails, organize my plan for the day, and work on any "desk projects" (data gathering and analysis, scheduling, project research). 
• I have a plan on how I want to spend the day. Do I want to see a specific grade level or subject area? Am I looking for a particular skill? Do I need to see how certain students are doing? These are all things I have ironed out before I begin my day. 
• I carry my laptop. Just because I'm not in my office doesn't mean I have to be completely cut off. I use it for taking notes, looking up something online, and yes, checking email. 

Did I spend the entire day out of my office? Pretty much. I did have to go to my office to handle a student discipline issue, and I also had to call a parent. Once I finished those tasks, I was quick to leave and continue visiting classes. 

Can I do this every week? I'm going to try. I can see where I will make plans for a "no office" day only to have them thwarted by a issue beyond my control. However, I can also see this practice being something that will put me an a position to be more proactive rather than reactive when situations arise; and when I can be proactive, I feel more productive. 

Stressed About Your Packed Calendar? Try Changing Its Colors!

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at my Google Calendar, and feeling pretty stressed over the whole thing. Even though the school year hadn't begun, my personal and shared calendars were getting pretty packed with events. As I sat and stared at the calendar, I began to wonder what exactly was making me feel so agitated. It really wasn't any more jam packed than it had been in the past, but it was definitely irritating me.

Then I realized it wasn't the events that were stressing me out, it was actually the colors of the calendar that were stressful to me. Here is a snapshot of my calendar and shared calendars from this past week:

The colors used to represent everyone were hard on the eyes, and the colors didn't exactly scream serenity either. Because I really disliked my own color, I did some research on how to change it. You can find the directions for changing colors on the calendar by clicking here. 

I found a color I liked, but the color still didn't help enhance the scene. I then took a page right out of my art classes from middle school. I Googled hexadecimal color wheel images to determine colors which would compliment one another. After playing around a bit, I came up with a grouping of colors that was more pleasing to the eye:

These colors remind me of the flowers I have on my back deck in the fall; of calm, cool afternoons sitting outside with a good book. Perhaps when winter comes, I'll choose a different color palette. 

Could I have spent my time doing something else? Probably. However, I don't feel as stressed out when I look at my calendar anymore, and that makes a big difference in my perception of the day ahead. When I have a positive outlook on things, I'm more productive! A change in color can make all the difference in the world! 

Personal Professional Goals

At the beginning of each school year, I have to write a professional growth plan based on the goals of our school and school division. In addition to these goals, I also choose some personal professional goals to reach.

I had made a resolution at the beginning of the new year to maintain a Personal Learning Network (PLN) through Twitter. Prior to that point, I had done very little with Twitter or Personal Learning Networks, and I knew I really needed to. In the months to come, a whole new world of FREE professional development opportunities opened up to me. In fact, my personal professional goals for this year come directly from ideas generated through my PLN.

Goal 1: Maintain Regular "No Office" Days.

I am sincerely worried about the amount of change we are asking of our teachers this year. In addition to working with a new student database system which includes a new electronic grade book and method for posting assignments, we are also giving each one of their students a Chromebook. One evening, a member of #cmsk12chat mentioned the concept of "no office" days. Basically, select days to work outside the office. I'm hoping that in doing this, I will have a better idea of what is going on in classrooms. I'm hoping that by spending more times with teachers and students, I will be better equipped to accomplish my second goal.

Goal 2: Make Sure Those I Work With Experience Personalized Learning

As our school division implements so many new initiatives this year, there will be teachers who will embrace them and instantly thrive in their new teaching environment. Others will need some guidance to be more successful. There will also be a group who will struggle, who will need intensive support and coaching. Using "no office" days will allow me to gain a greater understanding of what our teachers need. I can then seek out resources to help provide them with professional development or coaching that fits their individual needs. I'm willing to bet I could pair them up with a PLN that would help them grow like I have. I know there will also be some tough conversations that will take place as a result of what I see, and that is why my final goal is so important.

Goal 3: Maintain Authenticity

One of my absolute favorite chats, #leadwithgiants, takes place on Monday nights at 7:00 p.m. They discuss trends in leadership. Back in June the topic was centered around authenticity. Being new to a building last year, I was afraid that I had lost some of who I was trying to fit in with the culture there. What I ended up realizing is that in order to best serve those I work alongside, I need to be true to myself.  I am at my most confident when I am true to myself. The teachers, students, and staff members I work along side deserve the very best from me, and I need to be at my best in order to give my best.

As you reflect on your upcoming year, be sure sure that the goals you set help your school and your division. However, make sure to set some goals which help grow yourself as well; because If you stop learning, those you work alongside aren't going to learn very much either. 

What is Your Most Productive Time of Day?

As long as I can remember, I have been a morning person. Sincerely, I can't remember many mornings when I have slept particularly late.

Sleeping late has rarely been an option for me. I took a job as soon as I could - age 11 or 12 delivering the Boston Globe before school. Later on, I worked at a bakery. The morning shift began at 5:30 for me on weekends and during the summer when I wasn't in school. This may have something to do with being an introvert. I energize by taking some time to myself. I may as well be productive during this time!

I was really glad that I was a morning person when it came time for me to attend college. One of the techniques for weeding out those who aren't particularly serious about becoming music majors is to make sure all required music classes begin at 8:00 a.m.

When I entered, the workforce, I quickly realized that not everyone is a morning person, and I used it to my advantage. Getting up at 5:30 in the morning allowed me to get at work earlier than most; and I got so much accomplished during those "wee hours" of the morning. People who arrived at work at the same time I did had a similar mindset. They were there to get stuff done.

I remember interviewing for a position, and the "time management" question came up. I responded by saying that as far as I'm concerned, time during the school day is not my own. It should be used to work directly with teachers, parents and students. Since my brain is basically fried at the end of the day, I actually put a daily task on the calendar that I refer to as "stuff" between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. This block of time is when I am at my best; and I save the most complex tasks for this time. Depending on the time of year, I may even come to work earlier. I rarely stay past 5:00 in the evening unless there is an evening event. That doesn't mean I don't pull out my computer to answer some emails or take a look at a project I'm working on.

As you begin this new school year, take a moment and consider how you manage your time. Are you taking advantage of your most productive time of day? If not, I recommend you do so. It could mean the difference from being good at your job, and being great at it!