Author: A Husband, Father and Principal with a focus on learning, leading and connecting with others.

If you are reading this, that means you are a leader that has a hunger to grow more to help your school.  Great Job!  My reflection recently occurred during a long run how my growth as a learner and as a leader simply came from three areas using social media.  I recognized that most of the inspiration, ideas, and strategies for this growth has been from my PLN through social media.  In today’s modern age, there are endless Twitter chats, Voxer chats, e-books to read, podcasts to listen, webinars etc….to learn from but I found that there are “Three aspects to focus on with social media in your growth” that can maximize your opportunity.

As I share these, I hope you recognize that this is for my current role and growth as a leader.  For leaders, it will vary to an extent based upon where he/she is at in their journey as a leader.

The areas that I found gave me the greatest growth came from the following three areas:

1. Culture – there are many great ideas out there from true practitioners on this topic. I encourage you to always learn and see if it can help drive your building forward. Culture and building it to focus on students while supporting your staff is the most important part of your role.
2. Leadership – Yes, all of us can improve and we must continually search for those innovate ways to connect to our younger teaching staff, students with different needs than in the past and how to reconnect our parents to our schools. Most importantly, learning how to develop others as leaders is how you make a great school!
3. Future Learning Experiences – To ensure that we are preparing our students for anything, it is essential that our classrooms develop skills in students NOW to prepare them for success. This includes instructional lessons, blended learning and the overall focus of how the learning experience occurs within your building.

As you learn new aspects and implement within your role, keep in mind the following progression to ensure quality implementation. It takes the following path:

• Learning new instructional approaches/strategies that apply to your role
• Apply those into your role by implementing that strategy
• Reflect upon its impact (did it serve the right purpose)
• Gather feedback from those that were involved in the new approach
• Revise your approach if needed for future use

Use your learnings to find ways to move your school forward.  This includes:

1. Embracing an open culture that stimulates learning
2. Narrow the focus of your school so the staff can deepen their learning on a few essential ideas (quality vs quantity).
3. Challenge each other to think about past practices and why those were used, how did it benefit learners and are there other options to consider that would better serve our learners?
4. Focus on strengths of staff and maximize their impact with your school community.

In short, we must continue growing and learning as the field of teaching/learning has changed so much.  It has helped me on social media to focus on those three critical areas, as they are the backbone of growth for me as a learner and leader. 

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts on ways you grow as a leader using social media.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

As we begin to start this school year, through the myriad of things leaders must grapple with, we cannot lose sight of the most important things.  That is empowering our students and providing them with opportunities for leadership in our schools.  Below are the 10 Ways our school community works on this important aspect. I hope by sharing, it provides some reflective practices for you that perhaps you can tweak in your school or implement to help your students.  By empowering our students and giving them leadership – we place students at the heart of our school and truly transform it to a student-centered school.

10 Ways to Empower Students and Provide Leadership Opportunities

1. Get to know your students – Yes, this sounds simple – and it is! But taking the time to getting to know your students by name and knowing their passions (and challenges), this helps them to feel valued and connected to your school. This is for teachers and administrators. For example, in the hallways, do not just say “hi”, say “Hi Sophia” – use their names and be sincere with your interactions as that will help students feel a connection to staff and the school itself.

      2. Tap into their passion – By knowing your students, think about how you can tap     into their passions within your school community that allows them to lead. For example, this past year I had the pleasure of getting to know students that were super talented with making videos (filming-editing-final product). Therefore, I enlisted their help on several occasions. This included filming different students in our front office about how “the classroom experience is motivating to them”. We interviewed and filmed enough students so that each teacher was represented and mentioned in the videos. We then showed the entire staff this video for professional development – very powerful for staff to see how their efforts are appreciated by students and valued.  These students also made videos of our assemblies and our traditions that we then put on our school website that helped to promote our brand!

3. Get their Feedback – We try to visit with our students twice each quarter thru what we call “Feedback Loops”. We do this during student lunches and invite students to join us. We ask questions ranging from academic challenges, to if they feel supported and valued and what suggestions they have.  Their input is so valuable and real – truly from their hearts.  This has allowed us to make significant improvements in many areas.

4. Listen to their needs and see trends over time – Changing our learning experiences to focus on things that can be hard to measure (ex. collaboration, communication, empathy) means we had to find a way to ask questions that allow us over time to see trends. The feedback discussions are awesome and very real. However, they do not involve all students. Therefore, to make sure we hear from all students we have developed a set of questions that we have all students respond to and we use these similar questions for many years so we can see trends in data over time. We typically do this 1-2 times each year to gather data and feedback. This is powerful as the trends in data can help inform us on so many deeper levels.

5. Peer Mentors –We have developed an opportunity for students to be peer mentors and directly work with other students that have needs that need support. These mentors take this as an elective class or do this during their Advisory time. For so many mentors, this is the highlight of their day where they find value and success.  This makes school relevant for them and it is heartwarming to watch how they succeed when they help others.  Kindness at its best!

6. Ambassadors – An area we learned from our students, they felt we could improve in how we welcome in our new 6^th Yes, we have an orientation day where the 6^th grade goes through their schedule but our students said they wanted more time to get to know each other (since they come to us from several elementary schools). Therefore, we formed our Eagle Ambassadors who are students in 7^th and 8^th grades that apply for this opportunity.  We have started an Eagle Camp where the student Eagle Ambassadors lead the 6^th graders through “get to know you” activities, Q/A sessions about middle school, and foster kindness and positivity.  Huge success in terms of helping 6^th graders feel more comfortable and the Eagle Ambassadors feeling like they are shaping our school.

7. Student led parent teacher conferences – The thought of having parent teacher conferences and involving the student in the conference is powerful! We all are here for students so why should we not have them there so they can be the lead in that conversation!  When students see/feel as if they are part of their education and not just that it is being done to them is powerful – true investment.

8. Student Showcase – As principal, I have 3-4 “Coffee with the Principals” each year where during the school day I meet with our parent community and discuss different aspects related to our school. We have started having our students (10-15 kids) actually demonstrate their classroom learning experience so parents see their presentations and products so the parents better understand student centered instruction and why the skills are so important.  Our kids are great at explaining why they do the things they do.  We pick random 10-15 kids and not the Eagle Ambassadors so more kids have chance to lead.

9. Student Voice/Choice – Within our student-centered instruction, our teachers have done a great job of incorporating “student choice/voice” into the lessons at appropriate times. This includes instead of just giving kids a test to measure learning, they give kids 3-4 options of demonstrating their learning (ex. video, skit, drawing, presentation) that is more relevant for kids and gets to their areas of interest.

10. Recognizing the Human Element – As we are all aware, societal and work force needs are changing due to computers and AI. Students must have the essential skills and the human element such as being able to be empathetic towards others, be able to be adaptable/flexible, responsible, kind, respectful, and resilient and committed. These are all essential for our students.  We have established our Eagles of Excellence recognition program where once each month we recognize 3 kids from each grade level that demonstrate a specific attribute like empathy.  The teachers choose them, administrators congratulate them and we take their picture and put in our main hall, include their names in our e-newsletter to parent community and announce to the student body.  We felt as a school if we truly cared about these non-academic skills, then we must teach them in our classes and celebrate them with our school community.

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about the ways you empower students and provide leadership opportunities.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

While the planning and organizing started in the past school year, the final weeks leading up to the start of the new school year always brings so many important details and emotions. This includes the feeling of passion, excitement and enthusiasm about the start of the year and helps all of us to remember why we went into education. However, due to so many meetings, external pressures and overwhelming emails/calls, this time of year can also be extremely busy. So the question becomes, “how do you gear up for the new school year” so you can be successful and keep your focus on the things that truly matter.

During my journey, I have learned so much from my PLN (ideas shared below come from among others Jimmy Casas, Beth Houf, David Geurin, Danny Steele, Bill Ziegler, William Parker). This collective group of educators have been valuable in my growth and allowed me to acquire new knowledge/skills while providing a soundboard to share ideas and methods.  I am grateful to their leadership to help others. I have also picked up many slogans, mantra’s, acronym’s and other valuable ways to help me remember key aspects of running a school community and how to strive for excellence during the busiest of times. The ideas that I share below deal with culture and leadership.  I hope this provides a way to help you remember to focus on the things that truly matter so you can develop as a leader, support the growth of others and help your students strive for excellence.  Here we go…….

1. Culture….Culture…..Culture

Of all things leaders build or create during a school year, the culture of the building is the most important. Leaders always need to be working on building the culture through building relationships with others, modeling the types of behaviors they want in their school, supporting teachers and communicating to parents.

2. Rome wasn’t built in a day

As leaders work on culture and transform schools for the future, we need to keep in mind that the change process takes a long time.  Climate can improve quickly and certain aspects of culture can change quickly to…but the habits and behaviors of all stakeholders takes time to change.  Give yourself some grace and recognize it’s the consistency, authenticity and passion you put into the transformation that will allow true change to happen.

3. Be Firm with your Principles but Flexible with your practices

Leaders must have a vision of how they want to engage their school community, collaborate and function to meet the needs of the students. However, how this is carried out can change from 1 setting to the next, one year to the next and requires leaders to be adaptable, flexible and meet the needs of their teaching staff and utilize their talents/strengths to strive for excellence.

4. Don’t focus on change as much as you focus on growth

All schools are rapidly changing to keep pace with the demands and how they must meet the needs of their learners.  The change process can be challenging for everyone involved. Therefore, it is important to support those involved and focus on new learning and skills and how they are implemented with students.  This will lead to empowerment and staff finding that they have grown as an educator from the improvement of their work.

5. Confidence is the most powerful thing a principal can give a teacher and a teacher can give a student

It is important to involve teachers in the professional learning, making school wide decisions and provide them feedback upon their classroom instructional lessons. This instills confidence that they are making a difference in students and their school – this leads to confidence they pass along to students.

6. Shout Praise, Whisper Criticism 

Educators care and believe they can make a difference – that is why at some level any teacher went into education.  Yet, in today’s difficult times, they face many challenges and at times, they make mistakes. When those mistakes happen, privately share the concern and steps for correcting the behavior. It is even more important that when they are trying to install new practices and skills, to celebrate the small wins, give them the “pat on the back” they deserve for their effort and growth.

7. Lead from you feet, not your seat

Leaders must model for staff and students what they want in their school. This includes building meaningful relationships, trying new digital practices and utilizing new professional learning approaches. This also includes being visible in car line, at recess, in classrooms, at lunches and attend student activities.

8. Be a Thermostat, not a Thermometer

Schools are a complex organization as the challenges that students and staff face sometimes creates tension or stress. During these moments, it is important that leaders model the calm and reasonable approach to situations so that it can be resolved and all involved develop trust in their leaders.  Leaders set the tone for their buildings in every interaction they have but this is even more important during those intense moments.

The role of a school leader is very complex and each day places different demands upon leaders.  While it is important to be efficient and take care of issues, it is also important that leaders are effective in their craft to help transform schools. By keeping in mind some of these slogans or ideas, leaders are able to focus on the things that truly matter the most.

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about the ways you gear up for the new school year in your role as a leader to focus on things that matter the most.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

During the past few years, I have spent lots of time learning from others, deepening my understanding of school practices, reflecting and putting this work into action.  I have relished the opportunity to lead a school and help shape the learning experiences for students while supporting our teachers and helping them re-discover their passion for working with students.  This journey is far from over, but it has occurred to me that I have been so busy learning and supporting others, that I also need to re-assess my vision as a leader for the school community.  As leaders, we must continually have a vision for our growth as well as the school community and the staff we support.  I am curious how you are “Setting your vision as a leader” that allows for continual growth and a balance in your life.

When I think of my vision as a leader, I use an analogy that I gained from others to help reflect upon the essential core values into my work for the school community.  This is simply from my perspective, but I hope by looking at these principles it will help you to think about the vision you are creating or working on for your school community.

Learn –   Educational practices are rapidly changing to meet student’s needs. It is essential that leaders make time to get better at their skills and learn from the true practitioners in the field and their best practices. I try to spend 5 hours a week on this learning, as it is paramount to grow my skillset both as a leader and for the school community.  We then must work with staff to provide professional learning that is relevant, engaging and meets their needs.

Engage – To help the school community move forward in one direction, it is imperative to connect with the parents and staff within the community. The learning should involve everyone and be visible as the backbone of our work.  Most importantly, engage the students and take time to get their thoughts/concerns, which will help guide our process.  Overall, when I think of engaging the school community, I try to focus on developing a sense of trust with stakeholders so that everyone has a vested interest in our work.

Adapt – Continuous change will happen in education, so as leaders we must continually adapt our growth to provide the support of others.  We must be flexible and be open to change when it occurs; including the vision we have for our school.  As David Geurin shares, “be firm with your principles but flexible with your practices”.  This message resonates on how we must continually adapt to meet changing needs.

Delegate – A single leader should not try to lead a school. Collaborative leadership and maximizing the strengths of others is essential.  This builds the confidence and their capacity to lead.

Empower – By providing opportunities for others to learn and try new things, we are giving them chances to take risks, remove fear and provide innovate opportunities. This is true for professional learning for staff and then for students within the classroom as well.

Reflect – As educators, we learn by doing and trying new things. However, the learning is most impactful when we reflect upon that learning experience.  It is not important how a person reflects, but making that a consistent part of your work is essential as it helps to drive your behaviors, attitudes and efforts.  This reflection is needed for leaders but also for staff as they innovate and try new classroom experiences.

Serve – As I remind myself frequently, it is not about “me”, but rather what we can provide for our students.  In a larger scope, I think it is about what we can provide for our teachers and school community.  Servant leadership is modeling the behaviors we seek, empowering others to try new approaches to help others grow in their capacity and put the needs of the school above mine.

Reviewing these core principles help me to set a vision and a process for continual growth for our school community.  It has allowed me to set a vision on being “A Lead Learner that is future driven on helping students, educators and administrators collectively to grow and learn from each other.”  I encourage you to look at these principles mentioned above and how it applies to you in your growth as a learner for your school community.

I look forward to hearing from you and how you set your vision as a leader.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

As we are in the thick of summer, I hope everyone has already had a chance to get away for a few days or will have that chance before school starts back up.  Finding time to get away is so important for many reasons. This past week I had the chance to get away for several days with my family.  While I intended to “leave work behind for several days”, I actually had great insights into my leadership growth through the activities with my family.  Here is “what a vacation taught me as a leader”?

So our vacation consisted of several days of doing outdoor activities that was aimed to get us away from the hustle and bustle (and also the constant technology for today’s youth).  It allowed us to have fun in so many different ways in the great outdoors. While I prepared meals or was swimming with my daughters, I found myself reflecting upon their experiences and how it related to leaders and their journey to improve.  Here is what I learned:

I hope everyone finds time get away from work for a period of time this summer.  At some point, I also hope you reflect about that time with your family/friends as it can help us to learn new insights into the role as a leader.  Our journey never stops – be relentless to learn, grow, collaborate with others to help make our schools the very best.

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about your reflective thoughts from your summer vacation and how it applies to your role as a leader.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

As shared in an earlier post, from my perspective a key aspect in the growth of any person is the importance of reflection.  Despite my efforts to find time do this regularly, the pace of summer seems to allow for more frequent and in-depth reflection.  Recently, I was thinking of this past year – both the challenges but also the successes of our school.  While this year has had significant hurdles and challenges that had to be worked through, I also recognize that for our students it was (in my humble opinion) a very successful year.  As I reflected about “why”, I came to conclusions by asking myself “what do we learn from our students” and it allowed me to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for our learners.

While our staff strived and were successful in providing learning experiences for students that were engaging, involved high-level thinking, a focus on skill development in areas of communication-collaboration-creativity and were built on relationships- I recognized that our students demonstrated and displayed so many attributes during these learning experiences every day.    My learning from the students include the following observations:

• Positivity – Every day is a new day as they do not focus on the past failures but focus their energy on the present.
• Gratitude – They enjoy connecting with others and can easily smile and show their appreciation for others through words and actions.
• Mindset – They love to try new things – fail – try again – come close to the goal – adjust and then find success. Our students overall do model the importance of innovation and finding multiple answers to a problem.
• Learning is fun – They share their ideas in multiple formats and learn through just as many modalities. It is amazing to see how comfortable they are at learning new aspects ranging from making videos, playing games, picking up new skills…..they crave learning!
• Empathy – The many groups students worked in throughout the year displayed a “give and take”. They listened to other opinions, learned about others and used that information to make well-informed decisions in the best interest of the group.
• Human element – They display passion, heart and a relentless spirit in the pursuit of greatness. Whether it be the athletic field, the fine arts performance or a group of students completing a PBL – they amaze me with these attributes. They relate to each other, show compassion, build teamwork and communicate their ideas for the success of all.

My hope is that by understanding our learners regarding their hopes, goals, mindsets and habits – it will make me a better leader and help guide next steps in our building and in our work.

As I summarized these traits, I recognize that I need to do a better job of using these same characteristics in my learning, both individually and with our staff.  This will help create excitement, a sense of purpose, a common vision and help all of us further understand our “why”.  By establishing a stronger culture through connecting with each other and building trust, we will also then be able to better support our learners in our classroom with their learning experiences.   I have learned from our students that when you establish trust while building positive and productive relationships, communicate in a personable and engaging way, then you can change the culture and reach excellence!

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about what you learned from your students this year?  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

As we enter summer, all of us are excited about the next few weeks or months.  This time of year is important for many reasons in the growth of leaders.  It may be that the pace of our work is different, perhaps we have time to connect with colleagues or we have time off from work.  The next few weeks are critical in the ongoing growth of leaders but the question remains – how do we grow as leaders from one year to the next?

As I think about my own growth as a leader, the summer months are so important and provide the following ways to grow:

Find time to rejuvenate – Yes, perhaps the most important thing to grow is finding time to get away from our work for periods of time.  Why?  This time away allows us to find balance in our lives and if leaders do not fill their cup, then they will not have anything left to lead the next year for students, staff, parents  or the school.  It may be vacations, fishing, spending more time with the family – whatever it is, those times allow us to not only relax (which is so essential) but also to find time to do deep thinking that may not be available during the busy time of year.

Find time to reflect – Reflection may be the most important aspect of growth for a leader.  We learn by doing but it is most impactful when we reflect upon the work we tried to implement.  The following reflective questions from George Couros and Connected Principals resonate for me:

• What did I do well this year?
• Where do I need to grow?
• What things will I challenge myself with next year?
• How will all of these answers impact learners we serve?

Find ways to move your school forward – As David Geurin shares, it is critical that we are future driven and instill in our school practices to develop in our learners the skills to be successful. From my perspective, this includes:

1. Embracing an open culture that stimulates learning to include aspects of choice/voice, getting feedback from students/staff, providing ways for learners to create-play-challenge through relevant experiences that include authentic audiences.
2. Narrow the focus of your school so the staff can deepen their learning on a few essential ideas (quality vs quantity).
3. Challenge each other to think about past practices and why those were used, how did it benefit learners and are there other options to consider that would better serve our learners?
4. Focus on strengths of staff and maximize their impact with your school community.

Find ways to continually build the culture – The most important aspect that impacts the school is its culture.  As Jon Gordon reminds us, leaders must always build their culture and it is achieved through the simplest but most impactful ways.  Take time and analyze how you can better:

1. Be Demanding without being demeaning – it is a fine line of growing staff thru “balance of pressure and support” but staff need to know you have their back as it relates to trying new innovative ideas and it is okay to fail forward – the key is they are trying new approaches to engage and make learning relevant for learners.
2. Unite the team – The greatest schools have the best cultures so as each school year begins with new staff – what ways will you unite the new folks with your existing staff to create a team vs a group of individuals?
3. Connect with the individual – The most important thing leaders can do is find time to get to know their staff and value their contributions. In this day and age, staff need to know they are valued for their work and feel if they are part of something special.

I am truly looking forward for a few days off to get away from the work this summer. However, the items mentioned above are ways that I will analyze my work practices this summer to help me grow as a leader and make a greater impact upon students and the school community.  In what ways will you grow this summer as a leader?

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts on ways you grow as a leader during the summer.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

The end of the school year brings many emotions for students, staff and parents.  Traditionally, it brings graduation or recognition ceremonies for specific grade levels. It may also bring going away parties for staff retiring.  Of course, the end of the year also brings so many endless but needed endeavors that close out 1 year and begin the next year.

As a school leader – what aspects do you take time to reflect and celebrate, with both your staff and you personally, that moves your school forward?  That simple question sheds a lot of perspective on what we are placing our time, focus and values on as a leader.

From my perspective for our school, the celebration includes:

• FOCUS – The “intentional steps” our staff took to help transform our classroom instruction from a traditional model to creating engaging student experiences focused on skills that leads to high academic achievement.
• POSITIVITY – The school climate we have created that is based on our interactions with each other through positivity and kindness that promotes a school community where students and staff feel they belong.
• TEAMWORK – A shared vision that is modeled by staff throughout the building that places an emphasis on “what is best for kids”.
• “IT TAKES A VILLAGE” – A strong partnership with the parent and school community that is established by being visible, accessible and communicating in a clear, consistent manner.
• EMPOWERMENT –  Giving our staff opportunities to help lead professional learning and be the change agents within our school.
• STUDENT LED – Creating opportunities for students to lead within our school day and giving students a voice in their school by listening to what they think is working and what needs changing so we can improve.

Most importantly, it is critical to recognize that staff were willing to take risks to grow, and at times, we failed, but we learned from our experiences and that opportunity gave us greater insight into becoming stronger educators.

These aspects were shared with our staff as we reflected upon our journey from this school year and it clarifies the importance we place on that work and focuses our journey even more into next school year.

At the end of the year, everyone wants to start summer and rightfully so. However, it is also important that at the right time and in the appropriate manner, to share the celebrations through reflections that tell your story and how your staff have made the school year a success for students.  It is through these conversations that staff will truly recognize and understand the importance of what we celebrate as a school community.

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts on what you celebrate within your school community that moves your school forward.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

In recent times it seems that anytime someone has a situation that does not go the way they want, the first thing some individuals do is blame the other person.  This type of negativity and frustration have a direct impact upon how someone feels about their self-worth and their role in the work force.

If you relate this to education – it is an educator’s job to appropriately challenge students so they develop skills and understand how to be successful when things are not easy. It is through the support and encouragement of educators, that students develop the needed skills of problem solving, how to think critically, working with others, develop resiliency and grit and respect the ideas of others that are different than their own. Yet despite this work, too often educators feel the negativity from outside influences through email, personal conversations etc…  So how do we respond to Negativity?

As an educator who has been on the receiving end of very difficult conversations with others……I have developed a mindset (that I must remind myself to use often) that allows me to embrace these opportunities and work with all parties involved and move forward in the best possible solution.  So what is included in this mindset that I use?  It includes an understanding that:

• There are things outside of my control such as someone else’s actions, opinions, mistakes, feelings and words.
• Things that I can control include my attitude, effort, behavior and actions in response to these situations.
• When I communicate with an upset person, I try to remind myself to “listen before I act, reflect upon what they are saying, and try to understand the situation from their perspective”.
• When others “go low” and use negativity, I should “go high”, be positive, and remain optimistic.

As an educator and someone who reflects frequently, I have grown the most from difficult situations and how I responded to it. There have been times, after reflecting, that I could have done a better job. However, there are other instances where my response allowed for a productive solution and grew everyone involved closer together and gain an appreciation for each other in regards to how we were helping the students.  As a leader, I think it is imperative to always try to make the best of our work…………..every hour, every day of our job.  I also believe that sometimes it is the simplest things that help us to respond to negativity….it is our attitude and remaining positive and kind with our actions.

In summary, during moments when things are not positive, I hope you use the right mindset to work with other people by remaining positive and take that opportunity to help others find a successful solution. How we work with others needs to have enthusiasm, positive actions and kindness for others. As a leader, I remind myself that I must:

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts related how do you respond to negativity.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com

Each school inevitably gets very busy in the final weeks before students go home.  This includes finishing standardized testing, teacher and staff appraisals, finalizing up current budget and finishing the framework for next year’s budget, hiring staff (and saying goodbye to current staff leaving), completing transition documents for incoming and outgoing students…….  As you can see, the end of a school year gets very busy and time is not in enough supply.  The tasks listed above did not even include the typical school day happenings including building relationships and culture, conducting walk throughs and supporting staff, and encouraging students in their efforts as they develop into learners in a rapidly changing world.  With all of this work, the question becomes “how do we make it through the busiest times” as both internal and external forces are putting too many demands upon an already busy schedule.

From my perspective, and through reflection and previous blog work, the most effective way for me is to “focus on the things that I can control”.  As a leader, we must prioritize our work and know what must be done now and what can wait (and what may not get done and that is ok).  This prioritization allows leaders to focus on things they can control and truly focus on things that can make a difference in school…..supporting its people.

When we think of “focusing on things we can control” that specifically includes the following:

• Put others first and focus on the best in people
• Empower others to help make a difference
• Celebrate the successes of our work and embrace our failures
• Trust the people you work with….you hired them for a good reason – they are leaders too.
• Communicate often with short, clear messaging
• Make decisions on what is best for kids

When summer starts, there will be more time for some of the tasks that you put off that still must be done.  There will also be important time for reflection time for yourself and the importance of finding time to rest-relax-energize for the work in the upcoming year.  However, if we do not focus on things that we can only control, our work will not be a high quality that supports the most important parts of our school – its people.

Learn

Engage

Adapt

Delegate

Empower

Reflect

Serve

I look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts related to how “what you focus on” during the busy times in your role to remain effective.  Comment below or reach out to me at leadlearnerperspectives@gmail.com