Principal's Point of View

High Visibility

2019-03-07T17:55:00.000-05:00

I pride myself on being visible so that I know what is going on at my school.*

I stand at the front door or “the intersection” every morning to greet the students (my building has one long hall and one short, therefore, one intersection). I do lunch duty or just eat in the caf most everyday. I go out to recess on a regular basis. I cover the front desk as needed. I say goodbye to every child on their way to the buses each afternoon. Most importantly, though, I visit classrooms on a regular basis. I have been working on this habit for a number of years. Over the last few years, I can finally claim that this is something fully integrated into my practice as a principal. There are many ways to visit classrooms, so I decided to explain my visits to the BCS community. I recently sent this out as part of BCS Dates to Remember, the monthly newsletter:

You may wonder how I know about the hard work and learning that goes on. Well, unlike the principals that I had as a kid, I am rarely in my office for long (those of you trying to get me on the phone can attest to that). Instead, I spend tons of time in classrooms. I make three main kinds of visits to classrooms: 1. Super brief visits to deliver a message or talk to a student; 2. 45-minute long formal observations of the teacher; 3. 5-20-minute-long “Stopped by” visits. I track this last kind of visit with a short email to the teacher on the way out the door. As of February 21, I had conducted and documented 180 “Stopped by” visits. This comes to an average of more than 11 visits per teacher; or more than 16 on average for the full-time classroom teachers.

So, what do I do with all these visits? I give a small amount of feedback after each visit, but the real value is when it comes to decision making. With so much direct knowledge of what goes on in the classroom, I am far better able to make decisions about students, curriculum, staffing, and school-wide initiatives. I can have better conversations with teachers about the learning that I see.

So, frequent classroom visits are a very important part of being visible. Between giving feedback, building relationships, and making decisions based on real knowledge, visibility is a vital part of being a principal.

*OK, I say that I know what is going on, but I realize that might be an overstatement. I am more visible than most principals, and I still only see the slightest sliver of the teaching and learning that goes on. Let’s say each of my 180 visits lasts ten minutes, that is 3600 minutes. Add in the formal observations at 45-minutes each for an additional 180 minutes, and I am up to 3780 minutes out of 338,100 (7 hours (420 minutes) for 115 days for 7 core subject teachers). That is just a little more than 1% of the learning.

P.S. I do not wear the high visibility vest, but I sometimes think about it.

Cross posted to connectedprincipals.com

Report Cards at BCS

2019-01-27T16:25:00.002-05:00

We just sent home second quarter report cards.

I know that the look and feel of our report card is in transition. We are in the midst of switching to proficiency-based grading and reporting in grades K-8. At the same time, we switched to new gradebook software. We also changed from detailed Habits of Work in the lower grades to the Cross Curricular Proficiencies (CCPs). When combined with initiatives like student-led conferences, these changes are building to a new and improved system that will eventually give much more detailed information about learning and achievement.

When I read through every report card, I noticed that most students are making steady progress towards achieving the proficiencies (standards) that we’ve set. I am proud of the many students who scored a 3 or 4 on CCPs and on content proficiencies. It is clear that there has been lots of hard work. At our next awards assembly, we will role out the next version of awards for the Cross Curricular Proficiencies along with Perfect Attendance recognition and The Bear Necessities Awards (for consistent behavior that is Safe, Responsible, and Respectful).

Last year, I began my current practice of reading every report card and commenting on each. I first came across this practice at Andrew Middle School in Medford, Massachusetts. My principal there, Ralph Watson, used to take home all 600 (!) middle school report cards each marking period and comment on each. Well, I figure that if Mr. Watson can comment on 600 (!) report cards, I can comment on 107. So, each term, I add my comment for the student and parents. This is just one more way to remind families that the staff at BCS really care about the progress of each child.

Our entire reporting system, and all the changes we are in the middle of, are all about being able to track and report on student progress.

If you have any questions or comments about reporting and report cards at BCS, please email, leave a comment on this blog or Facebook, or just call me at school.

Productivity Update

2018-05-31T20:02:00.000-04:00

I have always been interested in improving my productivity; I blogged about organization skills and tools nine times over the years.

Earlier this school year, I decided to join a Facebook group called Principal Productivity, Becoming a Productive Principal. I have been working on this for my entire principal career. Considering that there are more than 1,200 member of the group, I guess this is a widespread issue. Anyway, to get into the group, I had to write a productivity challenge statement. Here is what i wrote:

"Getting into classrooms and doing the other stuff later while still seeing my children everyday."

Over the past few years, I have gotten increasingly better at getting into classroom (more on that in another blog post). I get most fo the "other stuff" done at some point, and I see my children and spend quality time with them throughout the week. Now, I am not perfect at any of this, and some weeks are far better than others. Over time, I think that I have a decent record due to a bunch of strategies and tools/

To stay organized and be productive, I use a variety of methods.

I keep my email inbox empty with liberal use of the snooze feature and with forwarding to a to-do program or Evernote.
I keep an Evernote doc going with next week’s staff email memo so that I can edit it quickly and get it out on Thursday nights.
I keep a digital to-do list using Toodledo. The free version does everything I want, and they update frequently. I especially love being able to email items, schedule a future start date, and sync between devices.
I also keep a physical to-do folder where I put a sticky on each paper identifying what actions I will need to take with that paper.
My secretary/admin assistant passes papers that need my attention in “The Folder.” Most staff have learned that the folder is the best way to get a quick response from me. I look at the folder several times throughout the day and either act of stuff immediately (if it will be quick) or save it for later when the students are gone.
I track longterm goals and projects in Evernote because I have been using it for years (there are frequently articles talking about other note apps and why they are better).
My google calendars know more about me than anyone in the world - my wife included possibly. I share calendars with my secretary and my wife. This way, my two bosses can always know where I am supposed to be and add appointments for me.

Keeping all this going does take a little bit of time to maintain, and it has been worth it. This year has been one of the smoothest of my career with more documented classroom visits then ever before. I recently made another change so that I am spending longer periods of time in a classroom. I walk in with my to-do folder and my laptop (MacBook Air), then I sit somewhere in the room and work on whatever is pressing (or sometimes I get some old thing done). I stop my work frequently to listen to the classroom chatter and to ask students what they are learning.

All this is to say that time spent planning and organizing helps me to be more productive which helps me spend more time with the things that really matter.

Firing Positive Neurons: Gratitude at BCS

2018-05-20T18:37:00.001-04:00

Throughout this school year, the BCS Faculty has been studying Teaching Kids to Thrive: Essential Skills for Success by Debbie Thompson Silver and Dedra A. Stafford as part of our work on improving the social-emotional skills of our students. At a faculty learning time meeting a couple of weeks ago, we discussed the chapter on Gratitude. After a debate about whether gratitude was in fact something that can be taught, we decided to heed the words from page 221, “When we purposefully practice gratitude, we are firing positive neurons.” We agreed that a couple of days later, at DENS (our weekly k-8 advisory groups) we would complete a simple gratitude activity mentioned in the chapter. Each student would write down something at school for which she is grateful. Then, we would post all the papers on a gratitude board in the hall.

Well, I’d forgotten that I was not going to be at school that Friday. Also, I forgot to prepare the activity (oops, too busy for my own good sometimes). Turns out, there were a number of other staff absences so we canceled DENS altogether that day. So, with this reprieve in hand, I put off creating the activity for a few more days. The following Friday, I was saved once again by the huge amount of staff absences this time of year; we canceled DENS again.

Finally, this past week, I remembered to create the papers, clear the bulletin board, and make a sign. The papers are simple: 1/3 of a page with lines, the BCS logo, and the words “At BCS, I am grateful for…” Since I had time before a Board meeting, I wrote a memo with the very simple instructions. Friday morning, I handed out the memo and the papers to all of the DENS staff (all teachers, most paras). They handed the papers back to me later in the day. I hung them in a brick-like pattern at the suggestion of Chloe.

All afternoon, students and staff stopped to look at the gratitude wall. No surprises, but I think the cook got the most mentions.

The kicker to all of this is that this week had been one of the toughest all year in terms of student behavior. The gratitude that we started the day with helped us end this hard week on a high note. I guess that all that positive-neuron-firing really works.

Coach for a Principal

2018-04-29T10:50:00.001-04:00

This is likely the second to last post about the Waddington initiative. That said, I have learned so much about myself that it seems likely more ideas will surface in the future.

From February 2017 through October 2017, I was a member of Cohort 1, of the Margaret Waddington Leadership Initiative (MWLI), a collaborative effort of the Center for Creative Leadership and the Vermont Principal's Association. This piece is adapted from the reflective writing I produced about the MWLI.

As part of the MWLI, I was given access to a professional leadership coach. Mel reviewed the survey data about me before our first meeting in North Carolina. He came prepared with ideas about my leadership and some resources to help. These notes reflect my thoughts about each of our sessions.

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Live coaching meeting with Mel, Greensboro, NC

After a few minutes chatting about our lives, I expected the first coaching session to address my key leadership challenge about coaching teachers or my difficulty dealing with conflict and direct feedback. Instead, Mel caught me off guard with a discussion of my communication style. I had glossed over these results from the Skillscope 360; Mel had not. He told me that my extroversion might be getting in the way of listening. He suggested that I WAIT (think: Why Am I Talking). He gave me chapter 27 from FYI (Lombardo 2009) “Informing.” He suggested that I practice speaking in shorter sounds bites. I wrote in my notes, “How can I communicate more like USA Today rather than the New York Times?” This is summed up in remedy #4 from FYI.

We did talk about giving feedback towards the end of the session. Mel suggested that I sandwich my SBI-style feedback. Start with a statement that shows transparency of my positive intent and finish with an offer to partner with the teacher to work on the issue. Mel gave me copies of FYI chapter 12 “Conflict Management” and chapter 13 “Confronting Direct Reports” to review. These are closer to the leadership challenge that I had identified, but we spent very little time on them. The session ended leaving me lots to think about.

Coaching call with Mel, 60-minutes

When Mel and I spoke again in May, I was not focusing much on my growth or improvement. I was knee deep in a million things as the school year was winding down. Our conversation seemed forced and not too helpful for me. Mel advised me to communicate my role in building school culture and to be clear about my priorities. He suggested that I share my core values with the staff. Since I do this every August, I was unsure how this was going to be helpful now. We talked about clarifying norms for the staff, the Rules of Engagement between adults. This sounded good.

I spent a fair amount of time on this call talking about the hiring situation. Three veteran teachers had recently given notice that they would not return. One was a surprise, the other two had been looking for years.

In a follow-up email, Mel sent me a sample of Rules of Engagement from a school that consulted with in the past and wished me well in the hiring.

Coaching call with Mel, 30-minutes

What a difference summer vacation makes. This call was much more productive for me. Of course, I’d had a couple of small family vacations, time away from school, and the second face-to-face Waddington session. We talked a bunch about the opening faculty meeting that was working on at the time. We talked again about keeping things brief, “identify the headline and three or four ideas.” He reminded me that, “the introverts need time to reflect on the documents.” The piece of advice I latched onto was to use short stories to help folks remember the main points. I took this advice to heart when I introduced my User’s Manual with the generator story a few days later.

We talked for a few minutes about managing conflict. Mel sent me a document called Constructive Responses to Conflict to use when confronting poor performers. In this model, there are two main categories: active and passive. Active responses include Perspective Taking, Creating Solutions, Expressing Emotions, and Reaching Out. The passive responses are Reflective Thinking, Delay Responding, and Adapting. The idea here is to use the best response for the situation. I have been working through these ideas throughout the year and trying to remember to think through what kind of response I need to use.

Finally, Mel reminded me of the importance of DAC. Specifically, Mel stressed the approach of affirming the vision (Direction) and connecting the dots for people so that they can see how their efforts tie in to the vision. This will increase a sense of urgency and Commitment. In the run up to the start of the school year, my own sense of urgency and commitment was at much better level, and this call was a good one.

Coaching call with Mel,30-minutes

Our final coaching call was another good one. We reviewed the work we’d done together since March. The key ideas have been: brevity in communication, more transparency helps subordinates feel comfortable, and some ability to be vulnerable and humble are key to effective leadership.

Another important leadership strategy took up the rest of the call. Mel referred to the concept of situational leadership. This is the idea that a leader needs to use different strategies depending on the person being supervised. I wrote in my notes, “A veteran will need some guidance and support while a newbie might need more direction.” This reminds me of the framework for supervision and coaching that Pete Hall (2008) writes about in Building Teachers' Capacity for Success. Situational Leadership and Hall’s book play roles in my approach to coaching that has become central to by Key Leadership Challenge.

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After these hours of coaching, I think that the real benefit for me might have come with further sessions. I was just getting started with Mel. In time, I may seek out more opportunities to be coached.

Image credit:

Coaching by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

Presentation of Impact: Generating a User's Manual

2018-04-22T18:02:00.002-04:00

The Presentation of Impact caught me by surprise; I totally forgot about it until I arrived at the October session. I remember sitting there thinking that I was screwed – although, I would score very high on the Fliegelman Procrastination Scale. I have often put things off until the deadline only to produce some of my best work. In the hour or two before dinner, I remember thinking that I will find a way to put this all together in time for the next day. Since I know that not preparing at all was a bad idea, I spent part of that evening going through the documents I’d collected at the various MWLI sessions. I decided to put my money where mouth is and tell a story (so many workshops over the last few years have emphasized using stories as a vehicle for delivering the message). I told the story a couple of months earlier when I presented my Owner’s Manual to my staff (much more about that later). When the time came, my group chose to sit in the small game room in the basement of the resort. The comfy chairs and relaxed atmosphere was just what we needed. Each of presented our impact statements. I went last and knocked it out of the park. My small group even clapped for me. Here, to the best of my recollection is most of my story:

When we moved into our 200 year old farmhouse, we bought a big chest freezer. Then we decided we needed a generator. I figured it would be no problem to get this thing started. So I put some oil in, and I put some gas in. Then I pulled the cord, and then I pulled the cord again. Then I pulled the cord again and nothing happened. Growing frustrated I wondered if the thing were broken. My wife handed me the owner's manual for the generator. Interesting idea; read the owner’s manual. Well, I used the owner's manual to follow the directions. I put the choke in the right place and turned on the switch. Then I pulled the cord and the generator started right up.

After the July Waddington session, I knew that I had to share what I’d learned about my leadership with my staff. I struggled throughout August to figure out the best way to share all this information during in-service. A couple days before in-service began, I came across a Blog about writing your own user’s manual. It was clear to me right away what I had to do. So I took the Waddington instruments, took notes on each item, and created the first draft of my user's manual. This first draft of the manual was long and very detailed. I realized that there were things missing that weren't covered in Waddington and things from Waddington that I didn't need to share in detail. Then it hit me, Mel, my mentor, had mentioned that I over-communicate, use too many words, and don't keep it simple enough. So, I pared down the user's manual, leaving it much shorter. I did keep the original work at the end in case anybody wanted to read it.

I went on after that to describe the process I went through of setting and revising my key leadership challenge. I also spoke about how I was already using that work to improve my school and my leadership (much of that is detailed further in this paper).

Silver Buckshot, Positive climate at BCS

2018-03-25T18:27:00.003-04:00

Creating a positive school climate cannot be done with a silver bullet. There is no one thing, that if we just implement, will “fix” a school’s climate. We can’t go to School Speciality and order the positive climate silver bullet.

Instead, creating and nurturing a positive school climate requires a Silver Buckshot approach. A wide variety of small strategies that together add up to positive school climate.

Here is most of what we do to ensure our school climate gets more positive every day:

Whole School Efforts (Tier I)

Bear Cave: Weekly Whole School Meeting
Daily Morning Meeting in each classroom (Responsive Classroom style)
DENS: Doesn’t Everyone Need Support. Small group, like advisory, six students from K-8 with one staff member, 15 minutes each week
Recognition and celebrations of meeting the school wide expectations, PBIS. We use a system of links to hand to the students. Then we fill a tube with spheres to track milestones around the building. We celebrate when the use is halfway and completely full.
Positive Postcards home. We are working on making sure that every family gets some positive words from the school/teacher.
Teachers eating lunch with students
CLAWS, Community Leaders Advising With Support. A scheduled time for students to share their thoughts about the school.
Social/Emotional Learning

Second Step
Teachings Kids to Thrive book study

For students who demonstrate some kind of need (Tier II/III)

Increased counseling. From 0.0 FTE two years ago to 0.6 FTE now
Student Support Supervisor/Para to work with students when they are sent out of class. Create behavior support plans
PAWS: Positive Action With Support, a Check-in, check-out intervention
Thorough investigation and reaction to reports of bullying and harassment
Track some classroom-level discipline data in addition to office discipline referrals

Staff

Staff raffles
Woohoo! Board in Staff Room to share kudos or ideas
Wellness Champions bringing staff wellness to the forefront
Chocolate at every FLT/Faculty Meeting
Sleuth Leadership Team: shared decision making
Transparency and honesty
Principal visibility: classroom visits of every teacher several times each month
Improving communication

Silver Buckshot references

I did not come up with the phrase “silver buckshot.” I heard it mentioned on a podcast sometime in January 2018, but I cannot figure out which one (I listen to a couple dozen shows during my commute). So, as much as I’d like to give credit for the phrase, I cannot. I was able to find a reference to the phrase “silver buckshot” all the way back to 2000 in an article about cockroach control. More common usage seems to start with a 2006 climate article from Bill McKibben.

A “Silver Buckshot” Guide to Cockroach Control

By: LT Daniel Szumlas, Ph.D.

Date Posted: January 22, 2000

http://www.japanupdate.com/archive/index.php?id=1242

Welcome to the Climate Crisis

By: Bill McKibben

Date Posted: May 27, 2006

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/26/AR2006052601549.html

Key Leadership Challenge

2018-03-14T14:48:00.000-04:00

A major component of the MWLI is the Key Leadership Challenge. The KLC is meant to give each principal a focus for the work in the program.

My Key Leadership Challenge has taken a few different forms during my time in the program. When I enrolled and listened to the webinar, I was thinking about student behavior and staff culture. We were having a pretty rough year in terms of discipline in the middle school. I was spending huge amounts of time supervising a new, struggling teacher. I wasn’t sure of the language, but I was pretty clear that my KLC would focus there.

By the end of February, it was clear that things had begun to change. A look at our discipline data shows that we were entering a quiet phase. My work with the struggling teacher had shifted completely from a combination of suggestion and building on reflection to a strategy of direction. I had to tell the teacher how to relate to students and how to handle discipline. With some new approaches in place, the behavior problems settled down. I realized that it was easy to direct a struggling teacher. My struggle was with the veteran teachers.

Most of the veteran teachers at BCS last year were pretty solid teachers. They each faced challenges, but those were pretty subtle. I found that I was having a hard time approaching those teachers with concrete suggestions for improvement. I was also not getting to the good conversations where teachers identify areas of growth.

When I got to North Carolina, I framed my KLC as:

How might I improve the practice of good teachers to increase student engagement in learning and to meet the needs of students through social emotional learning.

I tried too hard to connect this to my school vision (the ideas of engagement in learning and social-emotional learning). Feedback from colleagues was as muddled as my statement. Most of the comments were focused on how to improve the social climate of the school. I left North Carolina a little bit dubious of the benefits of the program; I didn’t feel like I had a good direction. While I wanted to blame others, I knew the reason was that I didn’t focus enough on my key leadership challenge.

In July, I had the opportunity to work on my KLC again. I learned from the assessments that “I would benefit from listening to those who are better at clarifying the problem to solve.” So, without meaning to, I worked in a small group of principals with somewhat similar challenges. Through our work together, we wrote a new KLC that we all decided to use. It was broader and more focused than my original.

Create systems to expand or enhance teachers’ capacity to engage all students.

These systems would include:

Having teachers act as accountability partners for each other
Creating an inventory of teacher strengths
Setting and meeting a goal of 2-hours each day in classrooms
Creating my own coaching model to use with teachers

I left the July session charged and ready to implement these new systems.

As reality and planning for in-service in August began to seep into my consciousness, I realized that I had some other systems work to implement first. I took a step back from accountability partners to strengthening the teams in the building. First, I agreed to rearrange the Faculty Learning Time and merge it with our building PLCs. For this to work, we spent a bunch of time in the fall on team building activities. I introduced my User’s Manual as a device for the PLCs to work on norm setting. The idea was for each person to think about how they operate, then for each team to write norms that might honor those needs. The feedback from teachers was positive and the work showed it. Throughout the fall, we devoted time to learning and problem solving in our PLCs.

Now that the Waddington program is over, I have reviewed my KLC a few times without changing it again. I still seek to build systems for teachers to expand or enhance their capacity to engage all students. I have altered some of the particulars to match reality, but my focus has not changed.

For a CCL book on the topic see this page.

Direction, Alignment, and Commitment

2018-02-28T15:59:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago, I finally heard the feedback that I needed to set a vision, or Direction, for my old school. It was time; I was finally able to feel confident setting a vision. My last year at that school was filled with my struggles to Align the staff and the programs to the vision. I knew then, and now have the words for the idea, that I did not have the Commitment of others to make this vision a reality.

Fast forward a couple of years and things are different. At my current position, I’d planned to set a vision for the school after my first full year (and a process of much listening and observing). The craziest thing happened – Brownington Central School was totally ready and waiting for a vision to be set before Christmas. I had to double check my assumptions, and the staff confirmed that they were ready. So, I launched the Brownington Bridge to the Future. This Direction is to use Social-Emotional Learning and Student Engagement in Learning to lead all of our efforts. Since it already fit with our mission statement, it was an easy sell. I think that the staff was pretty well Committed to this, so that leaves only Alignment to worry about. That will be my role as supervisor – make sure that we stay aligned to the direction.

A CCL book on DAC can be found here.

SBI for Feedback

2018-02-27T16:36:00.000-05:00

I really like the simple, straightforward approach to feedback that is SBI. Tell the person the Situation about which I want to comment, tell them the Behavior I noticed, and then tell them the Impact the behavior had. I struggle with how to put the impact onto students instead of on me for feedback that is not about interpersonal behavior. CCL teaches that the impact can be about me or others present. Since it can include “work outcomes” I guess that I can use it with teachers.
Here is an imaginary example (I have been using this with real teachers and worry that I would break confidentiality and trust with a real example):

Mrs. Jones, earlier during 6th grade social studies, when you told the students that they can choose the way they would be assessed, they got excited about this project in a way I haven't seen from them.

While this example seems a little stilted, the lesson learned is to be specific about the situation, the behavior and the impact when giving feedback.

Related Article
Feedback You Can Fathom

Teaching Principal Revisited

2018-01-29T20:41:00.000-05:00

I have been a full time principal for about ten years. A few years back, I took on teaching the sixth grade social studies class at the same time. I wrote a mighty fine blog about it: http://principalspov.blogspot.com/2012/11/top-ten-benefits-to-being-teaching.html. I was a social studies teacher before becoming a principal. During my first few years in the classroom, I taught sixth grade. Being a teaching principal was a good experience, but proved to be too difficult to try again.

However, since December 4, I have taken on a 75-minute math class. You see, our 4th/5th grade math/science teacher is out on maternity leave, and the longterm sub I hired decided this was not the work for him. I have been unable to find someone to take the rest of the leave. So, we have been cobbling together the instruction for these kids.

Our interventionist is planning and sometimes teaching the science for both 4th and 5th grades. She works with whatever daily sub we find to make sure the students are still getting some science. One of the special educators had been co-teaching 4th grade math and has taken over the full teaching of that class. That left only 5th grade math. The interventionist wasn’t available as she was busy teaching 7th grade at that time. The special educator had to deliver other services during that slot. That left us no other option but me.

I am loving it. I am learning tons and getting to know this group like no other in the building. I have earned some capital with the elementary teachers as I try to learn how to use Eureka Math (nee EngageNY). Had attended the training in August 2016 and had exposure going back a year or two before that. I thought I understood the program on a superficial level. Well, now that I have taught it for eight weeks, I can say that Eureka is not a script that any untrained person can follow. We need real teachers who understand math and math pedagogy to make sense of the program. We need real teachers who can assess where the kids are. We need real teachers to make real educational decisions.

I’m not sure I fit that description, but with some help and lots of trial and error, I am making it work. That said, I can’t wait for the teacher to return from her leave, and I’ll miss this class at the same time.

cross posted at Connected Principals

They Should Know Better...

2018-01-15T21:07:00.000-05:00

They should know better than to:

Talk out of turn,

Argue with each other,

Ignore the rules,

Disrespect adults,

Give up quickly,

Choose so poorly,

(insert your least favorite student behavior here)...

... but they don't.

They don't know better. Many students struggle to accept authority, think for themselves, or manage their own emotions. Students affected by poverty or the opioid epidemic are not getting many of the basic social-emotional skills they need. They don't arrive at our schools with the Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-making that we believe they need to be successful students and members of society (see CASEL, https://casel.org, for loads of info).

They need us, the adults at school, to teach them. Whether we teach them through a formal curriculum (such as Second Step), a classroom approach (such as Responsive Classroom), school wide expectations and celebrations (as included in PBIS), or in the "hidden curriculum" so many of us have always been sure to focus on, it is now a necessary part of many public schools to teach students how to get by in a community. Kindergarten teachers are chuckling now that the rest of us have caught up to them; they've been teaching the "hidden curriculum" for ever. The problem is that kids are starting school with so few of these skills mastered that it takes far more than one year to catch up. We have to teach social-emotional skills through the grades.

Many teachers start their career thinking that they will focus mostly on academic skills. People dream of teaching kids to read in first grade, divide fractions in sixth grade, or recite Shakespeare with high school juniors. When they hit reality and realize that teaching involves tons beyond the content, some teachers run with it. Other teachers start complaining that the students should know better. Well, they don't; it is our job to teach them. When we put in the time to teach Social-Emotional skills, fractions and Shakespeare are not far behind

cross-posted to Connected Principals

Lunch and Recess, Positive Climate, part 5

2016-05-01T12:12:00.002-04:00

At many schools, the cafeteria and the playground are behavior hotspots. It stands to reason that those two places, during lunch and recess, will be the least structured. Less structure leads to bad behavior. Many principals shudder at the prospect of lunch duty and then spend the afternoon dealing with problems from the playground. That used to be me and Wolcott Elementary. Well, the playground used to be tough, the cafeteria has been easy for years.

You see, many years ago, the Wolcott teachers began eating lunch with their students; it was their duty instead of recess. Every day, every class is joined at their table(s) by their teacher or one of the specialists. The adults eat and talk with their students. The benefits are easy to see. The caf is humming but not loud. The adults and students are mostly calm. Small problems between kids get noticed right away and never become big problems. Teachers keep cliques from getting out of hand and loners from being too lonely. The Wolcott Caf is a civil place to eat.

So, while the caf has not generated discipline referrals for a long time, the playground has changed much in the last few years. Five years ago, there were frequent discipline problems that started on the playground. There small fights, arguments, frustrations over sports or friends. The Paraeducators that covered recess felt like the area was too large to supervise well. So, four years ago, we found a way to increase recess supervision by 50% -- we added one monitor to our old schedule of two monitors. This increase made a difference right away as more eyes-on led to earlier intervention.

A couple of years later, we noticed that the remaining discipline problems were mostly from the end of recess line up. The procedure was to line up each class, wait for quiet, then send in the best behaved class. The problems here were many. First, instead of calming down kids while they lined up, many kids fooled around in line, got in trouble, and re-entered the building more escalated. In their effort to get a quiet line, the monitors were also getting more upset (thus making referrals for things like dropping gloves in a puddle or talking too much at recess). The recess committee (the paras, the principal, and the counselor) agreed to stop lining up the kids at the end of recess. After a flawless pilot, we gradually spread this to all grades. Now, at the end of recess, on monitor goes into the driveway to signal that recess is over (and provide crossing guard services). One monitor leads the students into the building, while the third brings up the rear.

This last bit about splitting up the responsibilities of the monitors at the end of recess came out of a great process (in fact, much of our best change came from this as well). The recess monitors meet every week as a committee. We discuss rules, challenging student strategies, playground conditions and more. This year we spend some time carefully defining exactly what our Handbook means by "Active Supervision." Even though most of what we decided was already in place, having it all written out solved a few small problems and will allow new recess monitors to fit in even faster. We plan on including the document we created in next year's Staff Handbook.

These changes: building relationships with the kids, increased supervision, changes to procedures, and clarification of the responsibilies of the adults has led to a school with few recess discipline referrals and a peaceful cafeteria.

(Hmmm...relationships, supervision, procedures, responsibilies. Sounds like I am describing some sort of schoolwide behavior approach.)

Improving climate and student behavior has been a major focus of the last few years at Wolcott Elementary. Now that the fruits of our labor have become apparent, it is time to share what is working. Our positive behavior data looks great, our numbers of discipline cases keeps dropping. There are many factors; this was another one.

Eagle's Nest, Monday Morning Meeting Update, Positive Climate, part 4

2016-03-23T18:55:00.002-04:00

Image from Penna Game Commission

Way back in September 2011, I wrote about Wolcott Elementary School embarking on a journey of weekly, all-school meetings. That fifrst meeting, held a few days into the school year was truly just the beginning. Since then, over the last five years, the all-school gathering has become fully integrated into our culture.

Once I showed the teachers the basic structure, I turned over the reigns. Classes started leading the meeting with a variety of curriculum presentations and performances. We started using the Monday Morning Meeting to reinforce the schoolwide expectations as part of our PBIS implementation. At every meeting, we celebrate birthdays and share the Wes Awards for student of the week in each class and the staff. We even introduce new students or staff to the whole community.

Years ago, a staff member, with student input, created a song, "Eye of the Eagle" (to the tune of Eye of the Tiger). We still sing it every once in a while at our weekly meeting. A couple of years later, we renamed the meeting, "Eagle's Nest" to tie it into the whole system of building school culture. Thankfully, Eagle's Nest has remained fully part of that culture. Recently, we had a snow day on the day we were to return from a vacation. When we did resume classes, the entire school community showed up for the meeting without being prompted.

Eagle's Nest, the whole school gathering, has been an important piece of our improved school culture.

Trust Your Boots

2016-02-28T12:12:00.000-05:00

It was a hot, humid June 17, 2000, group hike in New Hampshire's White Mountains. We were on the exposed ledge of the Welch-Dickey trail. For you non-hikers, exposed ledge means that instead of hiking in the woods on dirt, we were walking up bare rock - granite. Normally, this is no problem, but the humidity was high and the rock was wet.

Wet rock, when covered in algae or lichen, is very slippery. The granite on Welch-Dickey had nothing growing on it. Even wet, this rock still had plenty of grip to it.

Most of us hiked up the ledge with no problem. One hiker, a woman whose name I can no longer recall, was struggling. She felt like she would slip on the wet rock with every step. She began to slow down and lean closer to the rock. She eventually put her hands on the rock and tried to walk on all fours. It was slow going.

My buddy Erik and I tried to help the hiker, by alternating between physical assistance and words of encouragement. At one point, I tried to reason with her that the rock was not as slippery as she might be thinking. I told her that the treads of her boots were good rubber and would hold. I told her that she could trust her boots.

"Trust your boots," I kept telling her. "Trust your boots."

My encouragement didn't really work. We helped her get up the trail by taking her arm and sometimes even supporting her foot. She made it up, and eventually down, the mountain. The rest of the hike was not too memorable.

The words, however, have become something of a mantra to me. Trust your boots. Trust. Your. Boots. Erik and I joked about the phrase. I started using it on other hikes. I even made a sign that still hangs on my office wall. Trust Your Boots.

I'm not really a footwear fanatic, although I do love a good piece of vibram. The words, Trust Your Boots, have come to mean much more to me than just hiking advice. Trust your boots means to trust your preparation, trust your materials, your supplies, your colleagues, and sometimes your boots. Trust your boots has come to mean that it is ok to take a risk and carry on. Everything will be ok if only we just trust our boots.

So, I keep the saying on my office wall. Occasionally, a teacher or student will ask about it. Usually, I skip the story and ask what they think it means. Usually, I come around and tell them what these words mean to me. I get things going, build systems, teach procedures, delegate some decisions and then let it unfold around me. I trust my boots.

So, go out there and Trust Your Boots.

Cross posted to Connected Principals.

Trauma Informed: Positive Climate, part 3

2016-02-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

We do not let trauma be an excuse. Wolcott Elementary has become a trauma-informed school during the last couple of years. This means that our staff and our programs are designed so that those students suffering from trauma (whether it be the more benign traumas stemming from neglect or the more direct traumas related to violence) can be successful. First, we talk frequently about these issues; we’ve stopped complaining about kids, and we now focus on solutions. Most teachers and paraeducators have completed de-escalation/restraint training (CPI), about ten staff members have completed a two-day training on Functional Behavioral Assessments/Behavior Intervention Plans, we share articles and training materials, many staff have listened to presentations about the effects of poverty and trauma on the development of the brain, and we created the A-Team (a crisis response team to help de-escalate or restrain safely). All this work undergirds the behavior systems we have put into place recently.

Eagle Stamps: Positive Climate, part 2

2016-02-08T21:08:00.001-05:00

At Wolcott Elementary School, we are getting great results with the Eagle Stamp system.

Each day, the teachers and/or paraeducators will ink-stamp a chart for each student who meets the school wide expectations of being "Responsible, Respectful, and Ready in Thoughts, Words, and Actions.” If the child does not earn the stamp, the staff write a very brief note of explanation. The chart is sent home every day. Most parents sign the chart or write comments back. This high level of communication is time consuming, but has proven to be well worth it. Visits to the Nest (our version of a student support center) are down, and major discipline referrals have dropped dramatically. We also tied the data from the Eagle Stamps into a rewards and celebration system. We alternate between small, individually earned rewards (e.g. 30-minute game time, extra recess, or a cookie) and school wide celebrations (e.g. a hike on Mt. Elmore, ice skating, or Field Day). We have filled our Facebook page with photos of these great events.

The combination of daily behavior feedback and acknowledgement with a robust system of celebrations has helped to make our school climate much more positive.

7 Pics on Groundhog Day

2016-02-03T20:00:00.000-05:00

Last year, I posted a couple of videos that I created showing a snapshot look into a day in the life of school.

Here is the Groundhog Day edition of 7 Pics...

Last year's video can be found here.

Expanded Check-ins: Positive Climate, part 1

2016-01-30T08:32:00.001-05:00

Late fall 2015, Wolcott Elementary School began an expanded check-in program designed to make sure that all students are successful and feel a sense of belonging. Expanded Check-ins are a brief, daily connection between small groups of students and our behavior paraprofessional. Students are selected based on parent concerns, teacher observations, counselor recommendation, or patterns of behavior that suggest some extra attention is in order. A daily check-in will give students a chance for increased, positive connections and interactions – a cheery face with a few minutes to listen and give encouragement. This will give the group one extra dose of attention that should be enough to get them through their day.

On the Road to Proficiency-Based and Personalized Learning

2015-10-25T21:01:00.001-04:00

The following is taken from the draft of my November parent newsletter article.

Our Facebook page is awash in orange from Unity Day and our classrooms are full of student-centered learning. While we will never stop giving the culture of the school tons of attention, we are spending lots of time on increasing student voice and choice in service of greater engagement in their learning. You will hear more about various efforts such as increased reading stamina through allowing students to choose where and what they read, Personalized Learning Time that has begun to hone in on students' needs, and explicit instruction in how to manage a group discussion without letting anyone dominate. The independent skills and personalized habits of mind that we teach now will help our students for years as they navigate a proficiency-based graduation system in high school.

I am proud of the first few steps Wolcott Elementary School has taken towards implementing a Proficiency-Based and Personalized Learning program for students. So many of the pieces have been in place for years. So much is so familiar to the staff. We are now putting it all together. Over the coming months, I will certainly write more about our journey.

Proud PBIS Principal

2015-10-11T11:41:00.001-04:00

The following is a short note that I shared with the staff at Wolcott Elementary School.

I am so proud to be the principal of Wolcott Elementary School.

It is clear to me that in the last year or so, we have come together to make our school better for those students who struggle the most.

At the PBIS Leadership Forum, on Friday, I was able to share all of the work that you have done these last couple of years. It is a story of a staff that has made many systematic shifts at the universal level and beyond. More importantly, ours is a story of a staff whose thinking about struggling kids is changing in fantastic ways. I rarely hear complaints about behavior anymore; instead, I hear questions about why the behavior exists, and I hear adults reflecting on how they can do something different to meet the students’ needs. I’ve repeated several times in the last week the comment that came my way last year from an anonymous teacher: it seems like we only focus on behavior at WES. I now respond to that: we needed to, and it worked.

Now, we still spend time on behavior, but it is not our main focus. I am proud that we are once again in a place to focus on things like reading, writing, and math.

I am proud to be the principal of Wolcott Elementary School.

Note: please see the brief slide deck from a brief presentation at the Vermont PBIS Leadership Forum.

7 Pics in 10 Minutes

2015-02-15T18:00:00.000-05:00

Here is my first attempt at showing a glimpse of the great things going on at Wolcott Elementary School:

The Backstory
Inspired by Rob Ackerman's narrated slides showing a glimpse into his school, "10 Pics in 10 Minutes (or maybe 11)," I figured I could probably do that for Wolcott Elementary School. So, I got to work.

First thing was to figure out how to produce this simple video. Of course, I wanted to do this for free. I decided that whatever production process I used had to be simple and on my iPad (had to be iPad in order to be simple to create whenever and wherever). I tried to narrate a slide show in Keynote, Google Slides, and Haiku Deck with no luck (If those apps allow narrating, it was too hard for me to find). Then, I took a look at Show Me and Educreations. Both were already on my iPad and allowed me to do exactly what I wanted. Both were easy to use, but need expensive subscriptions in order to export. Well, exporting is the whole point. Being cheap, I did not want to pay either $50 or $100 for the subscriptions. I took a look at what else was out there.

I found Explain Everything after a brief search. For only $2.99 it does what the others do and includes all sorts of export options. Just what I was looking for. After only a few minutes playing with Explain Everything, I was sure that I would be able to make a short, narrated video like Rob's.

So, the next day, I wandered the building (as I often do) taking pictures on the iPad Mini I carry. Throughout the day, I would return to my office for a short time to work on the video. First, I made a new album on the ipad of pics that I might want to use. Then, I narrowed it down. I eliminated pics I took in 5th and 6th grade because they were lousy shots. I eliminated a few others that were blurry or just not-so-good. Finally, I was down to a few good photos.

I kept these seven pics in the order I took them and began to write down a little about each. Once I wrote out the rest of my scripts (about ten minutes to do this part), I began to record the audio for each pic. I got most in one take.

Once I was satisfied, I exported the finished video to the camera role of my iPad. Since I use Wolcott Elementary School's Facebook page to communicate with parents, I uploaded the file directly there. I also uploaded the video to YouTube for safekeeping.

And, voilá!

The incredible growing todo list

2014-12-29T11:29:00.001-05:00

So, I have this staff member at my school in a new position who still has a lot to learn about todo lists. I was checking in with her during the in-service before school, asking if she needed anything. She pulled this little piece of a sticky note out and showed me. I was amazed that she only had two things to remember to do, but I remembered that she was new and the students hadn't arrived yet. Then it hit me, here was a staff member using **scraps of sticky notes** to keep track of tasks. Aargh!

How could this be? This would have to be the least efficient task management system in the history of todo lists!

Once my heart rate returned to normal, I took a deep breath. Here I was, the digital principal, mister productivity himself staring at a one-inch square piece of sticky note of a todo list. I calmly suggested that my colleague think about a more efficient system. Did she want me to help her come up something? She told me that she would take care of it, that she was still figuring things out. Ok. I moved on to talk of the coming year.

A few days later, once school was in session, I was in the hall talking with the staff member. I asked how she was doing? Could I help her at all? She pulled out her hand from her pocket and showed me an index card with her new todo list. Well, her list had grown from two items to about fourteen. That seemed reasonable for the second week of school.

Hold on a minute, this was just that same as the sticky note only enlarged. Holy moly! Again, I nearly fainted. I asked if she was keeping up with everything. Sheepishly, she said something about having a little trouble remembering everything she had to do. Really! Again, I offered help getting organized. She said yes this time.

I wish that could tell you about how this staff member has become a digital pioneer and a productivity trailblazer using Evernote and an Apple Watch or Google glass and a chip embedded in her brain.

It turns out that this staff member wasn't interested in any high tech task management. She settled on a good old fashioned notebook and pen system. Now, whereever she goes, so goes the notebook. What she writes down, she remembers to take care of. Nearly four months later, it still works. And that, after all, is what matters most in a todo list.

What do you use for managing your tasks? Digital or analog list maker? What works for you?

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The students win when it is RC v. PBIS

2014-12-18T20:03:00.001-05:00

As part of a class I am currently taking, I was asked to read and respond to an article (https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/sites/default/files/pdf_files/RC_PBIS_white_paper.pdf) that discussed how Responsive Classroom (RC) works with Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS). This assignment was perfect for me as both approaches are in heavy use at my school.

Instead of writing something new about the relationship between RC and PBIS, I figured I would just publish my assignment.

PBIS and the Responsive Classroom Approach article: Reflective Question

Both PBIS and Responsive Classroom fit well with my philosophy of education (my complete statement can be found here: http://principalspov.blogspot.com/p/philosophy-of-education.html). Essentially, PBIS, RC, and I all agree that it is up to the teacher to change the environment to support student success. We all agree that positive approaches work and "that punitive or ‘get tough’ strategies can be counterproductive and are harmful to children." Over time, my philosophy of education has shifted to include student behavior into the belief that all children can learn and be successful.

The complementary approaches of PBIS and RC are focused on supporting all children to find success. The article explains that using RC can help with a successful PBIS implementation. While RC does not provide meaningful systems for intensive behaviors, it does provide the foundation for the Universal Tier of PBIS. Classroom environment, rule creation, teaching and reteaching procedures and behaviors, and positive adult language all work together to set the stage for students to be successful. RC fills in some of the ‘how’ in the PBIS system.

These two systems are in-sync with one another. Staff who are fully trained in RC (as many Wolcott staff have been when at JSC) are primed for work in a PBIS system. The small differences (language v. material reinforcement, universal v. leveled tiers) are surmountable when some flexibility and creativity are applied. Those staff who truly adhere to either can usually adapt to use the other. The challenge is not whether RC and PBIS fit together. The challenge is helping staff evolve their thinking from punitive to positive, from reactive to preventive. Together, RC and PBIS support my philosophy that all children can learn and succeed.

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The Three Questions

2014-12-06T15:55:00.001-05:00

No, this is not a discount Passover story (ask a Jewish person about the FOUR Questions). This post is about the Three Questions that I asked staff at the very first faculty meeting of the year.

I've been collecting feedback in a variety of ways from the staff since I began as an administrator. Last year, I happened upon a set of questions that many families use during weekly family meetings (my family started this process at the same time). I decided that these questions can work very well for the school family. So, in August, I asked every staff member to write answers to these three questions:

What things went well in our school last year?
What things could we improve in our school?
What things will you commit to working on this year?

The answers were very instructive. Some answers will seem obvious to anyone who has ever worked in a public school. Others are quite particular to Wolcott Elementary. Still other answers are actually highly personal.

Right away I noticed that the responses are filled with contradictions. For example, there were four comments about how staff interactions went well last year and seven comments about how we need to improve staff community. Six comments about improved behavior/PBIS last year and eight saying we need to improve those areas.

I was particularly pleased that one of the main areas indicated as needing improvement (behavior/PBIS), was an area that we spent a lot of time on over the summer. I spent four days with a team of staff in July and another day in August preparing a whole set of changes to our behavior and celebration systems.

And, of course, there are the perennial areas such as communication. Please see my previous post for ways that I am working on improving communication for staff.

And now for the responses themselves:

I left out the personal commitment answers from question three because many were too easy to identify the author.
Within each question, I loosely grouped responses together. Blanks equal personally identifying information.

What Went Well Last Year?

Celebrating children
Children seemed happy and valued
School spirit

PBIS
Having _____ available for behavior interventions and guidance
Extreme behavior challenges seemed to be under better control with use of interventionists and _____

Last year I was with an amazing teacher that taught me so much
Collaboration among faculty and staff went well last year
Working with the people I get to work with
People seemed to get along better children and adults

We designed some changes that will bring us to the next stage
Decisions to change thing up and head out on a path to improvement

LLI now in k - 3
Math interventions and planning

Music
Art collaboration with classroom teachers
Spring/ winter concerts with Kristin’s leadership and talent
Art integration / art shows and music performances

1st grade parent involvement and k - 2 evening events
ASP! More tech integrations
I didn’t hurt myself!!!

What We Can Improve?

PBIS / expectations and procedures
RC and PBIS
PBIS
Consistent discipline
Behavior / school climate
Consistency in student behaviors/ expectations

Authentic celebrations of success [academic, behaviorally, social]

Our focus on academic excellence celebrating academic achievement

Community building between faculty and students

Our community feeling among staff [more parties, get togethers, camaraderie]

We need to find new ways to respect each other

We need to improve on gossip among staff

Negative energy

To make all staff [not just faculty] feel equal

Kindness

Communication with all staff
Communication
Communication
We could improve our communication with each other
Communication between coworkers is something that could improve
Better communications

Lunch choices
Becoming more organized
Noise control from hallways/ classrooms that student’s complain about as distracting
More planning time
Quieter ______ classes for more focused work
Curriculum - vertical align, dynamic inst., celebration

I conducted a follow-up staff survey in early November and got lots of good feedback about the new behavior/PBIS initiatives. There were also a few comments about how good the climate was among staff. I will return to this sort of practice again and again as we continue our work.

How is your year going? What needs to improve? What will you commit to improving in your practice? Please leave comments below.

Cross posted to Connected Principals.

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