Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year...Day 173!! And Friday Focus!!!

Snow Day - 

I had started this blog earlier in the week, but now I am rewriting the opening paragraph as I sit at my desk in a near empty school on our first inclement weather day of the year. Empty schools, while nice for getting paperwork done, are boring, dysfunctional places for me. Without kids, and teachers, I can honestly tell you that I hate being in school. I know there are days where it has to happen, and I know there are days where I need to get the "business" part of running a school done, but I don't have to like it! Anyway, I hope that staff, students and families are enjoying this added day to your holiday break. We'll see you in 2014!!!

Mid-point?

In a school year, the semester split, in late January, is technically the middle of the year. But I have a hard time not taking time during the Holiday break as a more natural time for reflection and recharging. So, how am I doing? 

According to the staff's first evaluation of me, here is a "job satisfaction" break down:

Indicator	% Strongly or Somewhat Agreeing	% Strongly or Somewhat Disagreeing
Creates a healthy learning environment	96%	4%
Seeks input from a variety of sources for decision making	90%	10%
Supports a safe and orderly environment	98%	2%
Students know I care and am committed to their growth	96%	4%
Supports programing for all students	94%	6%
Communicates expectations for teachers for high quality instruction	94%	6%
Communicates that all programs are important, academic and co-curricular	98%	2%
Available for questions, reflection and support	81%	19%
Leadership team works well together	80%	20%
Leadership team provides needed coverage and support	88%	12%

I think most people would feel good about a survey that indicates that in all areas 4 out of 5 respondents agree you are providing the necessary support to the school. However, as you get to know me, you'll find out that when I give an evaluation like this, I spend very little time reflecting on what is going well. Instead, I obsess about the areas where people feel I am falling down. And even in the two areas where I scored 98%, I can't help but think about the one respondent in each of those areas who reports that, in their experience, my leadership is falling short. 

So, since I try to have a growth mindset, and encourage each of you to have one as well, I will try to focus on areas where I need the most improvement according to your feedback. In order the areas where the faculty would say I could most improve are:

• Leadership Team works well together
• Is available for questions, reflection and support
• Leadership Team provides needed coverage and support
• Seeks input from a variety of sources for decision making

Our leadership team, Shane, Laurie, Aaron and I, have been working to be more aligned since my first day in the district. These are complicated relationships between us and I do things differently than things have been done in the past here. I think we are coming together and it is an area of constant focus for us. Losing Laurie will inevitably change the dynamic of our working together, but we will continue to focus on our communication and teamwork. I hope that our end of year evaluations reflect that. If they do, great; and if not, we will be more intentional about this going into 2014-15. 

The other two areas, seeking input and being available to me are related. They are about accessibility and listening. Many of the comments are about the need to go through Marcia to schedule time with me, or about my distracted nature when someone drops into my office to chat with me. I am not good at stopping one task I am thinking deeply about to engage with someone. When my brain is focused on a task or on problem solving, I am deeply engaged. When asked "Do you have a minute?" it feels rude, and sort of untrue, to answer, "No I do not." So I will say yes most of the time. The problem of course is that I won't be listening to you with my entire brain...or even most of my brain. Unless your "Do you have a minute?" rises high enough on my priority list to overwhelm whatever it is that I am working on at the time, most of my brain is going to be engaged on that prior task; and that means that you are going to be dissatisfied with my response to you and I am going to feel like I haven't been effective at either thing. 

To eliminate this, I have tried to use Marcia as an Executive Assistant...to assist my executive functioning so that when you have my attention you have my whole attention. If this feels awkward to you I apologize, but I want to be wholly engaged in the issues you bring to me. I am not intending this to be an obstacle to getting your needs met or to avoid talking with you. If you would prefer, my calendar is a publicly searchable document in Google. You can schedule your own meetings with me. And please, if you do so, invite me to your classroom at a time that works. I'd rather meet with you in your room, closer to where learning takes place, than in my sterile administrative office. 

I hope explaining why I am asking for this will help more of our staff understand and accept that the structuring of my calendar is about making me more effective and more accessible, not less. I hope that pointing out that you have the flexibility to schedule your own meetings with me if you are comfortable with that does the same.  And maybe, for some of our staff, I just need to say the following: "I am willing to talk with you about any topic any time I am available in any place you care to meet. Moreover, I am excited to talk about education and learning and students with you. It is the passion of my professional life and I can't think of many things I like more than talking with educators about all things education. Please, please, please approach me with anything, even and especially if it is 'You are doing a crappy job of __________?' or ' Can you help me with_____?'"

The other thing I will be doing in the next few months, to help assure more staff feel I am accessible and responsive to your needs, is to stop in during times you are not with students, before or after school, or other times during the day. My goal here will be to give you a pain-free, uninterrupted time to share any thoughts you have and for us to continue to get to know how each other thinks. If you are busy working on something and would prefer not to be interrupted, please ask me to come back latter. (I don't want to do to you, what I am asking is not done to me with drop-ins. That would be sort of hypocritical, wouldn't it?)

Time away

Teaching is a stressful profession. As we head into the Spring, each of us will feel the pressure of getting our charges ready for the next stage in their journey, whether that is moving on to the next class or graduating from our fine school. These next two weeks are a natural and needed time for each of us to spend with family and recharge our mental batteries. Please take some time for yourself and your loved ones. Enjoy the holidays. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. 

Office Hours

Over the next two weeks, I will be in the office on Monday, December 23rd and Monday, December 30th. If you have need to speak to me, please stop in. Of course, if you need to speak to me any time, you can give me a call on my cell. 

Things I'm reading and thinking about this week:

Gratitude can Fuel School Transformation by Elena Aguilar
I like the idea that we can intentionally make ourselves and those around us feel better about what we do by making conscious decisions about how we respond to the events of our lives. I think we can all attest to the impact Cliff's positive attitude has on us; so can we do the same for others? I think so.

Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning by John Dunlosky
We've had a lot of talk lately here about how to help our students be more successful. Which has had me looking for ways to help and support teachers as they try to do just that. Here is an article that was shared with me, that while it is a little dense, has some great suggestions for how to improve student performance with some researched-based study strategies. Take a look.

More on the Immeasurable by Will Richardson
Only six words of this blog post are by Will. They are his comment on a statement made by Larry Cuban, another big thinker and blogger in American education. Basically, both are a reminder that many things we all believe are important in education, not the least of which is our relationships with our students, are not measured on standardized tests. And in a world where it seems like things that aren't measured are increasingly devalued, how long is it before the importance of relationships with kids becomes devalued? My unspoken question is what can we do about it? (Also, to mention that entire subjects that have historically been very important in American education, like Art, Music, Phy.Ed., to name a few, aren't measured on standardized test either.)

The Biggest Lie Students Tell Me (and how to turn it around) by Jose Vilson
I love this blog post by Jose. "I can't do this" is something I think we have all heard from many students. I heard it this week from a reluctant student when a teacher asked me if I would try to work with them on some math problems. We had a great conversation about it as it became clear to us both that the student was at least as competent at the work as I was. Keep striving to show kids the falseness of this lie they tell, even to themselves!!

How to Help Stressed Out Teachers by Joyce Dorado and Vicki Zakrzewski
A kindly member of our staff shared this with me in recent weeks. A few good tips here. (Not that any of us are stressed out.)

Cartoons: Parents and Kids at Home By Larry Cuban
On the cusp of holiday break, this blog full of cartoons about kids and their parents seemed funny and appropriate to share. Enjoy.