The longer I am in administration, the less I realize I know. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just the pace of the position. Way back when, as a special education teacher, I walked into my Superintendent’s office to pick his brain about National Board Certification. I was intrigued and wondered what his thought about my pursuing it might be. I walked out convinced, by him, that I should look closer at the field of administration.
What? An administrator? No way. Well, never say never. I miss the classroom terribly but still remind myself that I took this leap because I wanted to impact more students and support more teachers than I was able to do as a Resource Room or Self-contained Special Education Teacher.
Fast forward 10 years through my beginning administrative years a special education coordinator to a PPS position and now to a shared Director of Special Education / Middle School Principal position. Last year, 2012-2013, was my first year juggling both roles. This was the year it became crystal clear to me, that there was so much to know. So much to keep on top of! One of the biggest supports for me this year has been support from other administrators. I can not fully explain the power of a network. I work in a small, rural, school district with a very small leadership team. There are 5 of us altogether. Each of us are wearing multiple hats and running in a lot of directions. We support each other on a daily basis as best we can.
My first network of support, outside of our district, started through an online book study. Our Network RTTT team had suggested administrators in our area read Leverage for Leadership by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo. Being slightly Type A (perhaps a future blog post), I read it. I loved it! It provided a supportive vision for teacher and school development that I was seeking. I used parts of it in my practice as a new MS Principal and I loved it. In gushing about the book to a connection at SAANYS, he suggested I offer an online book study for it. I agreed and now five sessions later, I am still learning more from the other administrative comments and reflections than I think they are learning from me leading the study.
During that online book study, one of the participants, Vicki Day (@VictoriaLDay65) , encouraged me to try out twitter. I was pretty sure twitter was that thing you used to keep up with movie stars and celebrities. Not so fast. Twitter has turned out to be a 24 hour hotline of support for this new principal. I have connected with positive, performing principals nationwide and they have become an incredible PLN (Professional Learning Network) for me. Each Saturday, I rise early to join a #satchat with other principals and we discuss important topics relative to education and leadership. After every weekly session, I find myself energized and full of new ideas to try or reflections to make as a result of the #satchat. Joining the #satchat costs nothing and I dare say it is better than almost any paid PD I have attended.
The best part about having a network, online and in person, is knowing you are not alone. We have huge responsibilities juggling so many initiatives at once. And while we hold no power to dictate the pace at which things are thrown at us, we can harness energy to at least try to do things right. The longer I am in administration, I realize there is so much to know and do and even more I may not know.
I am not sure how successful I will be at this blogging experience but know that I need to force myself to take this first step. Bear with me as I begin this venture.
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