Leading Through Empowering #EdChat

This year, I started a new position at a new school. I had been teaching literature for 15 years in the same place, but I was ready to move on and tackle something bigger. You never know what a new job is going to look like, but I couldn't be happier about the decision I made. This is simply the best job for me in the entire world. Now, there are so many different reasons why this job is amazing. I could write about the fantastic teachers working hard every day to engage their students in new and creative ways. I could write about all of the support staff doing their best to help students before and after school to keep them moving in the right direction. I can even spend time writing about the amazing students that are willing to try new things in the Makerspace and fail proudly knowing it is not a big deal. I really want to write about the leadership of my school and how it is an example to others looking for the right way to engage their staff.

Imagine working at a job where the administration is not supportive, vindictive, cruel, and just not sympathetic to a teacher's needs to provide the best educational environment for their students. This is a position that some of you might not have to imagine. One example of a bad admin approach would be the "My way or the highway" approach. It does not work. It does not work when teachers are highly educated professionals that have years of experience teaching some of the top students in the state. Over time, teachers become demoralized and no longer want to be involved in anything if grief is the only reward for speaking out or suggesting alternatives. History shows us that fear will only get people to do what you want for so long before  everyone gives up trying. You can't manage people effectively through fear and intimidation. To get the most out of a staff, respect needs to be the number one feeling teachers feel whenever meeting with administrators. If that is not there, nothing else matters.

In my current position, I've had many different ideas on how to grow the Makerspace, integrate technology into the classroom, engage reluctant learners through code, and other things. Every time I brought up an idea to my administrators, it was always, "Ya, let's explore that" or "Ok, I trust you to make it happen" and even "You're the expert, you decide what is best". For some of you, those words might be confusing because your admin has never said them to you. I totally understand. I was washed over by this feeling of empowerment. I genuinely felt like I could make some changes and make a difference. Instead of worrying about the backlash or the stalling tactics or the bruised egos of people who didn't come up with the idea, I was able to share ideas and get to work because I was a trusted professional that is an expert in my field. It is the best feeling in the world. It was sad that it had been so long since I've felt that excitement and empowerment.

Leadership works through empowering others to be leaders. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and a leader helps other stand out and work on those weaknesses over time. By empowering your staff, you will get so much more out of them in the long term. It is silly to have to write this, but you actually do get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Leadership is about checking the ego and supporting others for the good of everyone. If you are more concerned about your image than the success of the staff around you, you are a terrible administrator. Sorry to be so blunt, but admins that carry themselves around as if they are better than their staff do not understand what real leadership is and are a cancer on any educational institution. Their antics can take years to clean up after they have left because teachers need to feel safe to trust again.

If you are an admin and you are reading this post, I have one simple question for you.

"If you are not empowering teachers to take action to be part of the school's community to make it better for all of the stakeholders, what are you doing as a "leader" of the building?"

If you are not sure how to answer that question, it might be time for you to think of a career change because you are hurting education.

NP

A Look at Leadership in the Middle School #EdChat

Moving to Middle School has been a fun adventure and I've had a chance to experience so many different things over the past two weeks. University Liggett School is filled with so many great programs and opportunities for students, it is hard to just focus on one, but here is one that really stands out to me from last week.

As a member of the 8th grade team, I helped organize the Leadership Days. Since this was my first year, I really just sat back and watched the amazing educators on the team whip everything together. I helped where I could and offered to run a Breakout Edu room for the students. It was a really amazing event and I just wanted to reflect on some of the things that stood out to me.

Reflection Time:

One of the things that I really loved was the built-in reflection time the students had after different aspects of the two days. After the Breakout, we made sure to use the discussion cards with the students and discuss what worked and what the obstacles where for them. In my room, the students started to give shoutouts to individual students who stepped up during the Breakout. They started the shoutouts on their own and it just made me smile to see the smiles on the students who were surprised to receive recognition for their help.

We also had time to reflect on the community service projects as well. We sanded and painted two sets of bleachers at a local park. It was a messy couple of days, but we were able to get the job done. We had a good conversation about work ethic, leading by doing, and the value of community service as a leader. It is important for students to know that as members of a community, it is crucial to be an active participant in keeping it nice for everyone. Donating time to make a difference in the community is a great way to show leadership. Students were able to make these, and other, observations when we gave them time to do so.

Lower School Connections:

Another aspect of our Leadership Days was connecting with the Lower School and doing some reading. It is a very simple thing to do that the young students loved and will remember. Having students model reading to young students and making connections is a powerful thing. Watching students smile as students gave them hugs of thanks was wonderful. The 8th graders even had a chance to see what it is like to try and keep a young student engaged for a short period of time. One students had to pull a little one out of a tree! Don't worry, everyone made it back in one piece and 8th graders and younger students walked away with some wonderful memories.

Upper School Connections:

During dinner on the first night, a few Upper School students stopped by to answer questions about what life is like after 8th grade. It was cool to see these students share their tips on homework, procrastination, and overall high school life with the 8th graders. As the 8th graders acted as role models for the Lower School students, the Upper School students had a chance to show the 8th graders what leadership looks like after Middle School. I loved seeing how the cycle of leadership is present from Kindergarten to 12th Grade.

Fun:

I wanted to end with this because I think it is so important. Being a leader is so much more than just hard work and tough decisions. You can be a leader and have fun too! We had some great team building games, played hide and seek in the school, roasted marshmallows, and just played on the playscape. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Giving students the opportunity to have some fun, be a little silly, and create memories is part of growing up and becoming the person you want to be. Leadership is just one aspect of that.

It was a great couple of days and I can't wait to debrief as a staff and see how we can continue to support the students and make an even better event for next year. 

.@Evernote For The Busy Administrator #EdChat

One of the big issues administrators need to deal with are regular teacher evaluations. Having talked with many admins, this is a very time consuming part of their job and many use different systems to evaluate teachers. I think Evernote is a perfect tool for admins to use while making their evaluation rounds.

Evernote allows the user to create specific notebooks that store the notes users create. A notebook could be created for a specific teacher and notes on that teacher can be entered into that notebook. On the day of the evaluation, the admin can arrive a few minutes early and take some pictures of the class setup  and save them directly into Evernote. The observation notes can be stored in Evernote and then later shared with the teacher before the follow-up meeting. A new note could be created and the follow-up meeting's notes could be stored and then later shared with the teacher as well. All of the information regarding the observation would be saved on Evernote and would be accessible from any device with the app or an internet connection.

This teacher's notebook would fill with different notes over the course of the their career. If the admin retires or leaves, the notebook can be shared with the next admin who takes over the observation duties. Evernote is also perfect to add those informal observation notes. If the admin sees something awesome the teacher did in class or the hallway, a quick note can be added to their notebook on that teacher that can be shared with them later that day. On the other side, if the admin notices something that needs to be addressed, it can also be added to the notebook and talk to the teacher about the specifics of the incident.

I also see Evernote as a great way for admins to store all of their meeting information. One of the main reasons it is so hard to get time to talk to an admin is because they are always in meetings. These meetings span from budget issues to discipline issues. Evernote is great for keeping many different notebooks for different topics. No longer are multiple notepads needed for different topics. The camera can be used to take pictures of handouts received at meetings or the Doxie Scanner can scan them into Evernote after the meeting. All of these different notebooks would be available at all time on a personal device or an internet enabled desktop.

The days of running around with different binders filled with tons of paper are over for the busy admin when they sign up and use Evernote. Any leader that is looking for a better way to organize their professional life needs to take a long hard look at integrating Evernote into their daily routine.