I'm so glad I am here!!

Week #1 complete!

As I wrap up the first week of my tenure as SPHS principal, where I actually had a building full of staff, all I can think about is how awesome it is here. We had a great day getting to know each other on Tuesday, where we began the process of developing a vision for our school. On Wednesday, we welcomed our new staff as a district and enjoyed an inspirational moment in the River Arts Center. Thursday, we gathered as a staff to hammer out some shared expectations over our 4 biggest behavior issues and a few other management issues were addressed before the start of the year. Today, I hope many of you took one last chance to relax and refresh before the marathon of the school year starts. I want every adult who works in the building prepared to give 100% when in front of students; that can only happen if you use your free time well.

I learned a lot about the SPHS staff this week. I learned that we really want to have fun doing an important job. I learned that we really want someone to give us permission to innovate and to support us and problem solve with us when those innovations go awry. I learned that we need to have a shared set of commitments to focus the tough work we are doing in a common direction. I learned that we need to spend some time engaging in conflict without making that conflict personal. And above all, I learned that we care deeply for our students and that we want to provide them the best possible education we can!!

The road forward will be difficult. We will have tough days and nights where the obstacles seem overwhelming. We will, all of us, question what we are doing. But when those moments happen remember the immortal words of Jimmy Dugan and carry on! If we do...we'll be great!

Favorite Learning Moment of the Week!

Back on August 1st, I read this blog "This is What Learning Looks Like (Ahem, Fun, That is...)" by Kristen Swanson. In it, Kristen has posted a picture of some people playing Jenga as part of a staff meeting. At the time I read this, I was deep in thought about how to start off our time together as a faculty. Particularly, I was looking for something FUN to do that would allow us to have a conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of our building; a conversation that would allow for every person present to have a voice.

As I looked at the photo, I noticed that it wasn't a standard issue Jenga set. I noticed that some of the pieces were different colors. So I asked Kristen about it. (You can see my question and her response in the comments below the post.) Her answer got me thinking that Jenga might be just what I was looking for. With each piece pulled out, the participant could comment on one of a series of questions tied to our activity.

However, as I thought about it, I began to worry about Jenga's ability to "do the job." One, it's a pretty small game, so in a large room it wouldn't be very visible to a large crowd. Two, how many players can you legitimately have engaged in Jenga? Our staff would have at least 80 people involved in the meeting and 80 people couldn't play Jenga, could they?

We solved the problem by creating Jumbo Jenga sets using sections of 2"x4" that were 12" long. (Thanks Troy Talford) And then we made 8 of them. Here are the ground rules we established for the game, above and beyond the rules for Jenga itself:

Establish teams of 6-8 players
Establish a "Task Master" and a "Recorder"
Play Jenga by removing pieces and extending the tower upwards.
Each player who successfully removes a piece and places it on top of the tower must answer a question about our school or comment on a previous player's answer.
They player who knocks the tower over must report a summary of the recorder's notes to the entire staff.

And here are the three questions we used:

What do I know for sure about the performance of our school and how do I know it?
What do I wish I knew more about the performance of our school?
Where are we failing our students when it comes to the performance of our school and why do you think so?

And here's the great work the game produced...

With a specific example

In our run through prior to the event, we had competitive games of Jenga that lasted about 15 minutes before the tower fell. So I budgeted 30 minutes for the activity, thinking that the additional conversation about our school would double the amount of time needed. Instead, the games of Jenga took almost 90 minutes!!! Why?

Two main reasons I think. First, staff members engaged deeply in the three questions and much more time talking about our school than they did playing the game. Second, instead of being competitive within the groups, we had competition between the groups. Thus the groups became supportive environments of group play, where all members helped all other members make good choices about removal and stacking. It was fascinating to watch and looked to me like staff had a great time.

I'd definitely encourage any educator to think about this activity as a lesson that engages learners, gets everyone talking, and encourages cooperation. It was super cool, from my perspective. I hope one or two of the staff will comment here, either confirming what I've said, or pointing out that I am full of crap. :-)

Things I am reading and thinking about this week

Honestly, I was pretty much too busy to read much of anything this week. I did finish a little pleasure reading: (not the whole book, I just put them to bed.)

Other than that, it seems appropriate that I maybe link to the videos that I embedded in my presentation to staff this week. Each of them communicates an essential element of what I believe we need to do more of in education.

I'll leave the interpretation of what those things are to each of you.