A First Year Principal's Reflection

I can’t count the number of lessons I have learned this year - 2014/15 Marked the first year I was a school principal, and as this year comes to a close there is something that sticks out above all the rest...my desire to be and do everything fell short.

Here is what I know...I want more than anything to be everything for my teachers and students. I want to have all the answers, know how to jump every hurdle, take all the right risks, and avoid all the mistakes...I did my best, I fought the good fight, I ran a good race, but in the end I learned a valuable lesson - I am only human. As it turns out...there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

You see, luckily, being human doesn't mean I am a failure, it just means I am not perfect...of course, as I wrote in a previous post, perfection means the learning stops, so it’s not all bad -

The learning curve that exists for a new principal is like nothing I have experienced before. As a teacher I would carry the weight of my students’ success on my shoulders - in elementary it was all 26 or 27, in middle school that number jumped to over 100 students...but as a principal, well...I now carry the success of both the teachers and students, a combined 820 people - all of whom I give my all to every single day.

In a previous blog post I shared how each day I work with teachers, students, and parents. Three separate groups, all with different needs, ideas, questions, and time needed. While I truly love working with all three parties, it’s not uncommon in one day to think about: Student success, teacher success, campus progress, changes coming, ideas to move forward, parental support, strength of the PTA, district and state testing, teacher needs, classroom management, student management, instructional coaching, professional learning, school budget, campus needs, building facilities, and so much more. Learning how to serve all three groups as a first year principal was quite a challenge...an amazing experience, but a challenge.

This year I had the privilege to experience wonderful moments of celebration, I felt the pain of heartbreak when mistakes were made, and I tried to focus on the success stories both small and large...I did my best, I gave it all I had, and yet...I can’t help but wonder if I could have done better or completed even more...

The year ended with what-if questions like: What if I could have found a way to spend more time with the students? What if I modeled the use of technology for professional learning even more? What if I had more time set aside for meetings? What if I didn’t take that risk and tried something different instead?

Of course, playing the game of “What If” only leaves doubt and angst - The truth is, while I may be only human, and lack any sort of true perfection - I was able to learn a ton, love my teachers unconditionally, support each teacher in his/her strive to be better, and offered encouragement and excitement each day.

While I may not have reached every goal I set in one year, there is no doubt this year was a success - not only did I learn a ton, not only did each one of our students get an amazing year of learning under their belts, not only did I build relationships with the amazing teachers I work with each day, not only did I begin to form a bond with my wonderful community and parents...I was also blessed to see 820 amazing, wonderful, brilliant faces come to school and learn together.

In the end - I look at it like this: One great year of learning down...and here is to praying for many more to come!

What Learning Should Look Like

This past week Christie Elementary had our very first Engineer Expo -

Imagine this...Kindergarten all the way through fifth grade spent two weeks tackling interesting challenges all based on one state standard of the teacher’s choosing…The teacher chose the guiding instructional standard, the students created the driving question, and while in collaborative groups the students engineered and presented products that amazed us all. It was a much-needed reminder that authentic student-owned learning is NOT measured by circling the correct letter choice.

In kindergarten they knew their four steps...Together they created marble runs, designed multi-leveled boats to carry passengers across flooding waters, and created a safe place for Humpty Dumpty to land so he wouldn't crack.

First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth - Every grade level, filled with collaborative groups engineering all types of products: Dog Massager, Sink Mechanical Systems, Instruments, Cars and Ramps with Limited Friction, Freezers, and SO MUCH MORE -

One day...two weeks in the making - and it was one amazing learning moment after another. Student after student excitedly shared with community members, teachers, parents, district leaders, and other students the creative things they designed and built together….

Students were collaborators, readers, designers, engineers, re-designers, learners from failure, writers, researchers, innovators, partners, friends, and public speakers to name just a few...what they weren’t? Letter bubblers...Why? Because The Engineer Expo started with one goal in mind...for students to own their learning, and I have never seen more engagement! I can’t think of a single time as a teacher, or administrator, where students were handed a multiple choice test and they cheered excitedly, talked about it at home, spent every waking hour working on it because they just didn’t want to stop, or made mistakes along the way as authentic learning opportunities...but that is exactly what I saw during the engineering process from EVERY student.

At the end of the day the students and teachers were equally tired, yet smiles were everywhere. I couldn’t help but think one thing...Now that is what learning should look like.

The Problem with Perfection

When I was in school there was always one objective - get the right answer.

Seemed simple enough...want to seem smart? Be successful? Make your parents happy? Go to college? Well then...get the answers right, be as perfect as possible in each subject, each day.

Needless to say...I wasn’t a huge fan of school. There were times I tried to cheat, especially in Spanish class. There were times that I would fake being sick...always on a test day. There were times I was stressed, times I was bored, and most of the time I just wasn’t interested in what was being shared at the front of the room...Why? Because I wasn’t perfect at school, and I didn't want to be either.

I love to learn, I love to make mistakes and then learn from them...that’s why I loved the game Mario Brothers as a child...yes, the first one...because it was the mistakes I made and the “Game Over” screen that drove me to continue and start all over again. Somehow, the way I loved to learn as a child through making mistakes didn’t seem to translate to success at school. It was as if mistakes made were not acceptable, only perfection was….but here is the thing: There is a key problem with perfection...it means the learning stops.

I am not saying there is anything wrong with getting that perfect grade, or getting all the math problems right...but what I am saying is that it is in the moments of perfection that we are no longer required to learn and grow. So while as educators we push our students to find the right answer, I have to ask, how can we also create an environment that encourages mistakes to be made for real learning opportunities to take place?

In an educational world filled with the next big thing, it’s important to remember the little things we can already do in our classrooms today. Creating an environment rich with learning from mistakes all starts with this one word: “Why?” It’s then followed up with phrases/questions like: “What do you want to learn about?” - “It’s alright if you're wrong, it just means we get to try a new strategy.” - “How can we make that?” - “How ever will you solve that?” - “What are you interested in?” - “Looks like you have a great plan, but what if…” -

So often teaching sounds like this: “Alright class, to solve this problem...first you do this, then this, enter this formula, cut this paper on this line, cross out the wrong answer, then you have your answer...alright, your turn.”

Why do we do this? Don’t get me wrong, I am all for modeling, and I fully recognize there is a time and place for direct instruction...but let me throw out a challenge...just once, try having a lesson sound like this: “Alright fourth grade, I have a problem, and I am hoping you all can help me. My daughter wants a dog so bad, and I would love to get her one, but...I don’t know what kind to get. I need a dog that doesn’t shed as I am allergic, and it can’t be larger than 30 pounds. I also will need to build a house for it outside and need to figure out the design, as well as all the materials needed. Plus, I found this website with all kinds of items and prices for things I will need from the pet store, but I don’t know what all I need to buy or how much it will cost...do you think you all could help me? I was thinking if you all were in groups of four you could work together to get this puzzle solved. I need to find the right type of dog, materials and design for a home, and find the right items and total cost for all the supplies I will need.”

Now, there are a ton of better examples out there I am sure for a problem to be solved...but notice something...in order to be successful students will need to be able to read, comprehend, research, write, design, calculate angles/money/amounts, collaborate, engineer, and the best part of all...there isn’t one perfect answer.

Practice may lead to perfection, but learning comes from the mistakes we make along the way. If you can create an environment where mistakes are celebrated as part of the process of learning...well, you might just capture the imagination of your students, and from there...who knows, maybe they might actually take a risk, make a mistake, and learn from it -

What if we allowed students to solve problems they are interested in? What if we focused on the process and expected great results along the way? What if we gave our students the power to own their learning? What if we stopped looking for perfection in everything, and celebrated the moments we fall forward? What if...

Loved, Supported, and Appreciated

As a principal, it never ceases to amaze me just how many things I think about each day…Of course, it only makes sense...after all, how many jobs require three separate groups of people to all funnel through one office? Each day I work with teachers, students, and parents. Three separate groups, all with different needs, ideas, questions, and time needed. While I truly love working with all three parties, it’s not uncommon in one day to think about: Student success, teacher success, campus progress, changes coming, ideas to move forward, parental support, strength of the PTA, district and state testing, teacher needs, classroom management, student management, instructional coaching, professional learning, school budget, campus needs, building facilities, and so much more...but the one question I always go back to is this: Do my teachers feel loved, supported, and appreciated?

It’s hard being human. As much as I wish I could be...I am just not perfect. Sadly, not even close. I make mistakes, I change my mind, and while I try - I know there are days when I just can’t seem to find enough time to meet everyone’s needs...but I do my very best. My hope however, is even though I am not perfect, each teacher at Christie knows I love them, I truly support them, and I appreciate all they do for our kids.

So to each of my amazing teachers please allow me say:

I love you - I really do. I love that you work so hard to reach each and every child. I love your passion, your willingness to change, and to take risks. I love that you learn from your mistakes, model lifelong learning, and support your team no matter what. I love that you don’t come to work for the money, but rather to change one life at a time. I love that you never give up, never make excuses, and always try to improve. I love that you correct my grammatical errors in my emails, challenge me to be the best leader I can be, and provide moments in your classroom that amaze me when I walk through. I love your heart, I love your desire, I love your perseverance, and most of all - I love that even though you leave exhausted at the end of each day...you come back ready to do it all over again.

I am here for you - You have my support, and I will catch you when you fall...I am here to encourage you, to watch as you take risks, make mistakes, and model for your kids what learning really looks like. I am behind you 100 percent, even when you're not perfect...because I would never expect you to be, and neither do your students. I am here to listen, here to help, here to offer a shoulder or a pep-talk. I am here at every hour of every day, and I am here to serve you - for it is you who is making the difference. I am here to celebrate your successes both the small and large, because I am your biggest cheerleader, and I am so very proud of you.

I appreciate you - truly. Don’t think I don’t notice your car is still in the parking lot when I leave at 6. I see you coming in early and staying late...jumping on EdChats and updating blogs. Please know this...what you do each day, it’s noticed and appreciated more than I could ever express. I appreciate the time you put in, the tears, the frustration, and the triumphs. I appreciate how you are willing to help your team, parents, and students. I appreciate how you handle discipline problems, work to solve problems that come up, and carry the burden of others when you can. I appreciate how you always greet your students in the morning, cover for your teammate who is running late, and welcome that new student even though we are almost done for the year. I appreciate your willingness to follow my lead, even when it might seem a bit crazy. Most of all, I appreciate you for being you, and for choosing a profession that is often thankless.

Teachers...You change lives. You make a difference each day. You perform miracles. You provide hope. You build character. You give kids the power to make better choices. You change the course of history one child at a time. You are amazing...and it’s to each and every teacher that I say...from the bottom of my heart...thank you.

What's Your Classroom's Story? Why Every Teacher Needs A Class Blog

Everyone has a story. A path taken, opportunities missed, regrets from mistakes, and wonderful triumphant moments - In education though, it moves from every person, to every class. Every class has a story. Each teacher has his/her way of creating a unique and wonderful culture. This is especially the case in elementary school, where those 20-something kids are in the same class all day. Relationships are built, successes take place, and amazing things happen each and every day. So I have to ask, why aren’t more teachers sharing their stories?

At Christie, each teacher has a class blog. Why would we do this? Why would I ask such a thing from each teacher? Wouldn’t there be pushback? Wouldn’t they ask questions like: Who is going to read this? Why would anyone care what I have to say? The short answers...To share our stories, to increase transparency, some, yes, yes.

I would be lying if I told you that when asking each staff member to have a blog (updated weekly I might add) they all cheered. However, they all signed up...hesitant? Maybe. But here is the thing, we need to share our stories.

There are two things our teachers blog about: Classroom activities/learning, and the teacher’s personal learning along the way. Two parts...equally important for our parents, colleagues, and community.

Blogging our Activities/Learning: Miracles happen daily in schools. Students who never thought they could succeed do, teachers who thought the bar might be too high see students reach it, educational risks are taken, students make mistakes and learn from them, and kids build a self-efficacy that will last a lifetime. How can we not share this? How can we keep this to ourselves? Not only does blogging allow the sharing of ideas, but also the stories behind them. Teachers at Christie share activities taking place, lessons coming up, ideas for home, and pictures of great products along the way.

Sharing Your Learning: Having a PLN and utilizing Twitter is a great way to grow professionally. However, by blogging about their learning, teachers offer a transparent moment with other teachers, parents, and even students about their lifelong learning journey. “We want to create Lifelong Learners.” How many times has that phrase used in education? Yet how often do we model this? Blogging opens the door to not only learning from others, but also sharing our personal journey.

PLNs are the new PLCs - but that only works when you share digitally. PLNs are only successful when you are sharing your learning, as well as taking in the learning of others. At Christie we are willing to share, willing to try something new, and willing to step outside our comfort zone...and here is the best part...we are sharing this journey along the way.

So why does every teacher need a class blog? To share their classroom story, and to share their personal learning with others.

Make no mistake - Every week may not bring a literary work on a professionally epiphany that has changed the course of education as we know it...but it will deliver a small piece of the class journey. One week might simply say: This week we reviewed area and perimeter, wrote a story with the letter C, and learned how to get a boiled egg into a glass vase using a match… While the next week might bring a story of how a class came together to help a classmate through a difficult challenge. Both are important, just in their own way.

Miracles are happening, children are learning, wonderful moments are taking place...at Christie, we want to share these moments. It’s as simple as that -

The Teaching Challenge

There is no question that teaching is a challenging profession, teachers today are asked to education 20 to sometimes 40 students at a time, while making sure that each child is seen as an individual. David E. Kelley created a legal drama that aired on ABC from 2004 to 2008 called Boston Legal. During the third season of the show, Shirley Schmidt (played by Candice Bergen) gave a closing argument that tells the challenge of teaching quite well. In the episode, a teacher was being sued by a child’s parents because the child died of a nut allergy while the teacher used her cell phone in class. According to the episode’s transcripts, Shirley Schmidt used the following closing argument:

Lawsuits are about allocating burden. For example, we want our cars to be safer, so we hit the manufacturers with a judgment that makes it more cost-effective to install the airbag. The problem here, as Ms. Bixby correctly states, is we have more and more special needs kids going into our public schools, combined with an unprecedented escalation in auto-immune diseases, autism. The peanut allergy alone has doubled in recent years. So, who do we heap this responsibility on? Who else? The teachers. The average annual starting salary for a teacher is $32,000. For that, we ask them to teach, police, provide emotional and social guidance. In some schools, they actually have to clean the toilets. Now, let's throw in healthcare.

This teacher, she works 65-hour weeks. In addition to her actual classroom duties, she teaches sex education to the older kids, she teaches a standardized test the school mandates in order to qualify for funding under the No Child Left Behind Act. She spends another ten hours a month meeting with parents. She supervises extracurricular activities, goes on overnight class trips, cleans and disinfects toys, coaches. She teaches fire drill safety procedures, healthy eating habits, she's certified in CPR, first aid, and food sanitation.

She is so overextended that when her own father had to undergo a life-threatening medical procedure, she couldn't be at the hospital. So she called on her cell phone to see if he had lived. Which he hadn't. She then turned away from her students, so as not to traumatize them with her grief, which as a teacher she was expected to internalize.

She has no savings ... no house. And today she's being sued because, without her knowledge, one of her students snuck a bite-sized candy bar containing traces of peanut into her classroom. Now she's being publicly blamed for the death of a child whose parents had the means to implement a multitude of safeguards. They implemented none of them except a teacher. Is it any wonder half our teachers are quitting the profession outright within five years? Never mind who's going to handle the epi-pen. Who's going to teach?

Wow…When I first heard this I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I just sat there on my couch, my mouth dropped open in amazement, because an hour long legal drama made a pretty decent argument. Shirley Schmidt is right; the list of responsibilities placed on teachers continues to rise, and when asked in an informal manner, fellow educators provided the following expectations/titles placed on them by their community leaders and families: Caregiver, support system, parent, guardian, advocate, identifier of educational needs and the solution for those needs, special education specialist, language barrier breaker, mind reader, counselor, nurse, a shoulder to cry on, an answer for every question, and so much more.

Teachers are asked to educate a room full of children, while at the same time making sure that each child’s individual needs are met. This by no means is a simple task, and requires teachers to have a strong understanding of all grade levels within their subject area. For example, in an average sixth grade language arts classroom, the reading level of each student can range from as low as kindergarten to as high as college. Remember, teachers are called to reach all students, so although the textbooks provided are created for an average sixth grade student, the material may only reach the needs of 40 to 50 percent of the students. Add this to special education needs, second language learners, behavioral issues, and different home lives, and you have the typical daily challenge for a teacher, and that is just one subject.

The weight of our future it placed on the shoulders of educators, yet there are still teachers being called “glorified babysitters.” The challenge is there for all teachers, no matter the school, the numbers of students, or the curriculum provided, the challenge is there. Teachers are asked to do nearly the impossible... The amazing thing? We strive to do so each day. Why? Because what we want more than anything is for every child to be successful. Every child to reach his/her highest potential. Every child to dream big and own his/her own learning. The challenge is there...but we are ready to reach it.

Faith Like a Child

As a Christian, one of the most difficult things I am called to do is have faith like a child. Whether you believe, like me, that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, or believe he was a prophet, or a guy, or even a fictional character in a story...the challenge is an interesting one: Faith like a child.

This past week I was awarded the opportunity to participate in a visioning institute meeting. During the meeting a video of Ken Robinson was played: Video - I had previously watched this video at least a dozen times, but what stood out most to me in the video was the information he shared about the importance of divergent thinking and it’s connection to creativity. During his talk he discusses a study that was done where 1,500 kindergarteners were tested on the genius level of divergent thinking...and what percentage of students scored on the genius level? 98 percent! Let me say that again….98. As the students grew older their scores dropped….why? Life, education, experiences, etc. all slowly take away the ability of a student/person to believe in anything without question. Enter the challenge: Faith like a child…

There is nothing quite like having a conversation with a group of kindergartners. If you have ever worked in the elementary school setting you know exactly what I am talking about. When simply asking a group of kindergartners what they would like to be when they grown up I was given the following answers: Doctor, artist, my mom, principal, and my personal favorite...a lion. Yup, a lion. Of course I had to ask why? The answer, “Well duh, because they are king of the jungle and I want to be king.”

Children enter education ready to become anything. They don’t see the challenges life will bring, they don’t see the hurdles they will need to overcome, they don’t see the curveballs life might send their way. The world is theirs for the taking, and there is nothing wrong with that.

How do we keep this alive? Better yet, how do we as principals, teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents maintain the belief our students have in themselves? Here is the truth: Life moves forward, and it won’t be long before our students begin to learn about barriers such as stress, finances, time, and other challenges along the way. In essence, it won’t be long before our kids stop dreaming about being a lion, and start settling for the future they feel is reachable, which in reality may just be the tip of the iceberg each child is capable of achieving.

So...what am I going to do? What am I going to encourage my amazing teachers to do? Love the journey, fail forward, risk big, believe in every child, and focus on self-efficacy.

If our students have any hope of reaching their kindergarten dreams they need to learn one key thing: It’s alright to fail, especially when we fail forward. I can’t count the number of mistakes I have made in my life. I am actually quite good at it...but you know what? I am alright with that. I embrace the fact that I am human and absolutely not perfect.

I truly believe there are countless students sitting in classrooms across this country believing there is no point in even trying because they know they are going to fail. Depression, frustration, self-doubt, and devastating life choices happen when a student believes he or she is a failure. So what do our students need? Simply put...their inner kindergartner, or more importantly - self-efficacy.

I remember my first round of parent-teacher conferences as if it was yesterday. I was 21 years old and wanted nothing more than to show how smart I was to each parent. I carefully wrote an introduction to articulate my educational background to each parent, and I am still haunted by my breakdown of self-efficacy. It went something like this: “Please know, one of the biggest goals I have as your child’s teacher is to ensure the growth of his/her self-efficacy. I want my students to have a good sense of who they are, and in turn, have a positive view of their own self worth.”

It wasn’t until my second to last parent-teacher conference that I had a parent say, “Do you mean self-esteem? Self-efficacy is a student’s belief in his ability to be successful, not a belief in his self worth.”

Apparently it wasn’t enough to just say, “I think you mean self-esteem, not self-efficacy.” Rather, I was given the definition, backed up with a face full of pity pointed in my direction.

Although the hit to my pride was pretty hard, I learned a valuable lesson, and it wasn’t to check my facts (although that is important). Even though, on that day, I did mean self-esteem, from that day forward I began to focus on self-efficacy. The definition I was given from that parent spoke to exactly what I wanted to do, to build up each of my student’s belief in their ability to succeed.

The challenge: Faith like a child. A kindergartner can be anything - and a person with a strong self-efficacy can as well. Knowing that...Could there be a better gift for a child then self-efficacy? It may not seem like much, but a student’s belief in his ability to be successful can mean the very difference between settling for the surface of life’s journey, or growing up to be a lion. And who wouldn’t want to be a lion?