Tag Archives: leadership

Posted on by

New Teachers: I’m Your Principal and I’m Here to Help.

booksIt has occurred a number of times over my career that I have supervised a first year teacher. I have always found something exciting about that. Typically, these individuals display hopeful enthusiasm combined with a measure of anxiety and an incredible amount of energy. Their youthful optimism and determination to make a difference inspires me to go the extra mile in helping to make their first year in the profession a highly successful one.

The degree of influence the principal exerts on the school-community is well documented. The principal of a new teacher is in a unique position to significantly impact on that person’s career. Nurturing these individuals takes time, requires a great deal of understanding, a supportive attitude, and sensitivity to the needs of the teacher while at the same time keeping the focus on student learning.

While every situation is unique, there are some essential functions that an educational leader must fulfill in supporting the beginning teacher:

Know the teacher’s learning style.

We talk about how students have unique needs and learning styles. Adults are no different. The best thing about having a conversation with teachers about their own learning styles is that they are likely more self aware on this topic than any other segment of the population. They know what works for them and possess the vocabulary to articulate it. As principal, I need to know how my teachers learn.  Only then can I effectivley support their professional growth and learning.

Build the Relationship.

When I am having a conversation with a teacher about professional practice, I want the teacher to see that I am completely invested in that discussion and will do whatever I can to enhance the classroom learning experience.

The foundation of any relationship is trust. The beginning teacher needs to know that you will tolerate “mistakes” with a view to using them as the basis of lessons on how to improve instructional practice. Help the teacher to see, through your actions, that your priority is to help that individual grow professionally. Prove it by always following through on the things you have pledged to do to achieve that.

Facilitate networking.

A beginning teacher is not likely to know of all the resources upon which they can rely. As I bring resource people into the school – consultants, co-ordinators, technicians, clinicians, and so on – I make sure they take some time to connect with the new teacher. It is not difficult to arrange for a 15 minute meeting where the individual can meet face to face with the teacher and explain his or her role in supporting student learning. I have found that these resource people are always grateful for the chance to make the teacher aware of their services, and it often proves to be the initial step in building a supportive professional relationship.

Creating mentorship opportunities and the chance to network with colleagues is an excellent way to support the beginning teacher. The well connected principal will exploit opportunities for collaboration between the new teacher and those from whom he or she can learn and seek support.

Articulate procedures.

Experienced principals know how important it is to have procedures in place to govern common every day school based practices. With time, they become our routines and we rarely give them second thought. Yet, new teachers don’t know the procedures for ordering materials, getting field trip approvals, submitting leave forms, and the dozens of day to day activities that we may take for granted. This is easily dealt with by creating a staff handbook that concisely details all of these routines. No teacher should feel lost when it comes to daily procedures; there is  no reason for this to ever cause anxiety.

Recognize that the beginning teacher may not be aware of the critically important role played by support staff. Ensure the teacher knows what he or she can ask of the school secretary or custodian.

Handle with Care

The above functions indeed apply to all teachers and not just those starting out in the profession. However, the needs of beginning teachers are amplified during that important first year in the classroom. As principal, you have significant influence on the direction of that person’s career. True educational leaders will seize the opportunity and create the conditions for success.

Posted on by

5 Things All Principals Must Do at Summer Break

lawn chairsIt is the end of the last day of school.  The students have left, staff is trickling out the door, and you can hear the school custodians hard at work moving furniture from the classrooms as they prepare for summertime cleaning.

What happens next is up to you.   You must be  fully prepared to provide leadership to make the upcoming school year a success.  To be able to do that, you need to take some important steps which should include the following.  As principal, what do you have planned for tomorrow?

1. Go home.

I know of school administrators who spend the first week or so of the summer break back at the school tending to duties associated with wrapping up the school year.  They will tell you that the lack of distraction in a generally empty building helps them to concentrate and be more productive.  However, I say that those tasks can and should be dealt with in the weeks and months leading up to the end of the school year.

Inefficient use of time during the school year can indeed contribute to a backlog of activities at the end of June.  Working into the summer is a poor solution to this.  Administrators should instead examine their own practice and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that the tasks they need to complete are done so in a timely fashion.

2. Avoid “drive-by” professional development.

Principals will frequently use the summer months to take a university course or attend a professional development seminar on a topic of interest to them.  That is a reasonable use of time as long as it is targeted PD related to their professional growth plan.

We are frequently presented with PD opportunities that are not directly related to our identified needs.  Sometimes, a PD activity simply sounds interesting. Is that enough reason to pursue such an opportunity?  If you are yearning for an activity, consider bringing balance to your life by engaging in something related to your own personal interests.  Never neglect your own wellness.

3. Disconnect.

Do you check and respond to work related email over the summer?  If so, consider the impact of breaking that electronic tether.

At the end of each school year, I respond to any email and leave the workplace with an empty inbox.  I am largely incommunicado over the summer, and when I return to start the new school year, I inevitably find that inbox to have collected an incredible number of messages.  My strategy is to move every single summertime message into a folder without reading a single one.  In each year that I have done that, I may have had one or two people referencing a message they sent over the summer which I then easily retrieve.  The rest did not seem to make a difference.

Consider the alternative of dealing with work related e-mail every other day over the summer.  If they do not make a difference, why would you allow them to divert attention from your summer break and interfere with your personal time?

4. Recharge.

Some people recharge by getting together with family and friends.  Others revel in the quiet comfort of solitude.  Most people fit somewhere along that continuum.  It is important that you determine what works for you and allow yourself the time to replenish your energy and rest your mind.

5. Plan your return.

Prior to the end of the school year, examine the calendar and pick a date for your return.  Be reasonable, and pick a date that is early enough to give you the time to adequately prepare for the new school year, but late enough to allow you to take full advantage of the summer break.  Selecting a reasonable target date helps you to clearly separate your summer break activities from your work activities.

Never underestimate the importance of life-work balance.

Your summer break is yours to use as you see fit, but do not think for a moment that you are more productive if you keep the focus on school administration over the summer.  There is no evidence to suggest working through the summer makes you more effective.  On the contrary, the most effective administrators are those that have established a healthy life-work balance and respect their own personal wellness.

That is an ideal that should be modelled for all.

Posted on by

Concluding the School Year: The Devil is in the Details

June_Calendar1I write “The Principal in Practice” to share what experience has taught. This is one topic you will not find in a textbook or typically offered as a  professional development opportunity: how to provide effective administrative management in ending the school year.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to create the definitive list of nut and bolt items that need to be addressed as June comes to a close, let alone how to clearly communicate the associated details to the people that need to be informed. That list would not make for particularly engaging reading, and perhaps that is why the topic receives little attention. Yet, overseeing the conclusion of the school year involves critical routine administrative tasks and as Principal, they are your responsibility. What procedures do you have in place to address functions like those listed below, and how do you ensure they are carried out?

Let’s get this cleaned up.

Pick a day and provide a flexible window in which to have teachers take their classes to carry out a locker and classroom cleanup. Co-ordinate this thoughtfully. Do not even consider having every student in the school go out at the same time and start cleaning his or her locker.  That is a recipe for pandemonium. Consult with your school custodians when planning activities related to cleanup and the collection and storage of learning resources.  They will thank you for it.

Streamlining school property management.

Every school likely has some kind of a system to collecting school property and comparing the inventory to that which was distributed earlier in the school year. If you don’t have a system, you are probably spending money to replace lost and damaged resources when those funds should be spent on something related to student learning. We have a system where lost or damaged items are accounted for and the details are sent to a staff member responsible for creating invoices that are in turn sent to parents. My experience is that an invoice for $200 worth of textbooks frequently results in the prompt return of said textbooks and significant relief for the school’s Learning Resources budget.

Dates, deadlines and who is responsible for what.

There are literally hundreds of tasks that need to be completed in winding down the school year. It is not possible to list every one of them, but a general calendar of activities keeps things on track.

Let’s examine one activity that all schools are required to do: reporting marks to the Department of Education at the end of the school year. To do this, office admin staff has to import and process data. That data is generated by teachers who carry out assessments. Those assessment need to be completed by a certain time in order to allow all of this to happen. I am in the habit of identifying specific dates and times for things to happen. It is not unreasonable to require that all teachers have entered all marks and comments into the reporting system by a certain time on a certain day. That timeline needs to be clearly articulated.

A word of advice: give yourself enough time to deal with the inevitable glitches. If your data is housed on a remote server that is also hosting data from numerous other school divisions, know that the server may be operating slowly at the end of June as it processes all that data. Also, remember that when things go wrong you will be on a waiting list for tech support. Factor such delays into your planning.

Let’s be perfectly clear on assessment.

Ideally, you are having ongoing conversations about student assessment and this topic accounts for at least a part of your school based professional development activities. However every school division has a policy around student assessment and you should draw teachers’ attention to it not only at the start of the year but just prior to each reporting period as well. There are so many procedures that teachers need to remember; a quick review of the expectations around student assessment prior to the generation of reports provides clarification and ensures implementation of proper procedure.

How to plan surprise-free graduation and awards ceremonies.

Whether you are planning a high school graduation ceremony or a school based awards night, someone is ultimately responsible for ensuring things happen as they should. As principal, you need to clearly articulate the tasks for which you are taking active responsibility and those which you are delegating to others. However, make sure you have some sort of accountability process in place for those tasks you delegate – some mechanism to assure yourself that the critical functions associated with planning these types of events are fulfilled.  Be aware that delegated tasks that are not attended to in a timely fashion will come back to you for action.  Assign tasks, attach detailed timelines, and follow up to provide support and address challenges as they arise.

Details, details, details: School Supplies and Fees lists.

Who has responsibility for updating and generating these lists? Does your school supplies list include obsolete items? Parents won’t know this and will purchase what you have placed on the list. Don’t waste their time and money by distributing a dated list.

Do parents know students may need things like headphones or data storage devices? Do they have any idea what cloud storage is and how to access it? I recommend your school supplies list is hotlinked to samples so that people have a clear idea as to what they should be purchasing.  The school supplies list is also a place to include your school division’s policy on “Bring Your Own Device” so that people who are purchasing technology for student use are making informed decisions.

Does your school division have a policy on school fees? Are there user fees for consumable items in courses like Home Economics or Industrial Arts? Is the fee schedule current? These things can change from year to year, so consult with your staff so that parents receive accurate information.

This is not a meeting item!

I am a firm believer that anything that can be dealt with in a memo should be dealt with in that fashion. Do not waste valuable staff meeting time talking about any of the above, unless it is a matter that requires a discussion or a decision.

My practice has been to distribute a lengthy memo about 8 weeks prior to the end of the school year that deals with all the “administrivia” that is a necessary part of effective school management. Prefaced by a modest apology about the length that follows, it contains specific details related to year end procedures. Not only does it include critical dates and deadlines, but it clearly states who is responsible for what, to whom reports and documents are to be submitted, and where to find the resources to carry out assigned tasks. During those 8 weeks, I make notations about what worked and what did not, and use that as the basis for revisions that are implemented in subsequent years.

Deliberate attention = good practice.

Efficient practice is critical in saving time and bringing clarity to the complex task of successfully concluding the school year. As Principal, one ideally wants to spend one’s time on matters related to instructional leadership. However, there is more than one dimension to the principalship. Efficient practice will provide you with the time to focus on your priorities.

Ironically, it is the absence of sound planning that draws attention. Deliberate attention on effective school management where roles and responsibilities are clearly articulated contributes to a positive atmosphere and a successful end to the school year.

Posted on by

Intangible Leadership: 5 Ways to Provide “Soft Support” to School Staff

As principal, one has the potential to exert a tremendous amount of influence on the climate of the school.  An effective school administrator is keenly aware of the factors that can impact upon school climate that are too numerous to address here. Instead my  focus is on an overlooked factor to which I refer as “soft support” for school staff.

What I mean by this is that there are subtle ways that a principal can show school staff that they are valued and supported. I believe that many of these things are simply second nature for effective leaders.  Yet, there is value to taking the time to consciously reflect upon our own day to day actions with a view to improving the way we provide support to those with whom we work every day.

The best way for a school leader to provide such support depends a great deal on personal leadership style, as what works for one person may not work for the next.  However, these five would undoubtedly form a sound foundation:

  1.  Be visible. If you walk into a classroom and are noticed, that should be sign to you that you are not making anywhere near the number of informal visits that you should be making.  What should you do when you visit a classroom?  Ideally, you should go through all the steps of a “walkthrough” that is better described in other books and articles.  At the very least, you should connect with a student by asking what he or she is learning today.  Or acknowledge something that the teacher is doing and make a clear connection to student learning.  Ideally, people should be more surprised to see you in your office than in a classroom or the hallway.
  2. Listen.  If you have developed a good rapport with your teachers, you will likely find that they do not hesitate to seek you out to share something that is on their mind.  In my experience, this may be classroom related, but not necessarily.  Over the course of my long career, I have had staff members come to speak to me to discuss topics about which I never imagined they might seek my consultation.  I have always found that they don’t necessarily need answers from me, so I don’t usually offer them up.  Instead, I employ all the reflective listening strategies I have learned over the years and more often than not simply help the person answer his or her own questions.
  3. Do what’s right.  One Friday afternoon, I had a support staff member come to see me about her pay cheque.  It seems the employer miscalculated – an honest error that resulted in a cheque payable for slightly less than she had earned.  Being  late afternoon on a Friday, she meekly suggested she would wait to resolve the matter after the weekend.  I remember her reaction when I stated that this was simply not acceptable as she was entitled to the full amount right then and there. We immediately got down to the business of correcting the error.  She later told me that  making this issue my immediate priority showed her that her work was valued.  To me it was just the right thing to do.
  4. Find out what people are passionate about, then fund it.  I have had numerous conversations with teachers either beginning a new assignment or starting up a new program.  They invariably come to me full of creative ideas and a question: “What kind of a budget would I have to do this?”  My answer has always been: “Your job is to create phenomenal learning experiences for students, my job is to figure out how to help you make them happen.”  Nothing stymies passionate energy like a fixed dollar figure.  There is always a way to make the things that should happen a reality and when teachers are assured that they have your support for this, they are free to let learning, rather than budget, be the focus.  When you can channel that passionate energy into the classroom and teachers know they have your support in making things happen, everyone wins.
  5. Seize the moment.  From time to time there will arise opportunities for you to do some simple thing that speaks volumes about what you stand for.  The challenge is to recognize and act upon them.  I have always said that I will never ask anyone to do something that I myself was not prepared to do.  Whether it is recognizing how to stand by a teacher who is dealing with a classroom management issue, when to provide supervision support, or when to offer to be a silent observer at a parent-teacher meeting, experience teaches us not only what to do and when and how to do it.  Above all, never underestimate the power of the small gesture.

Leaders who believe that their role is to provide support to those around them tend to understand that they are only as effective as the people around them. It is through bringing out the best in others that we bring out the best in ourselves.