Reflections

Yesterday was the first official day of "summer" for me as a 12 month employee. There are the usual deadlines to meet for July 1 (reports due to State Ed) but I was finding myself especially anxious yesterday. 42 weekdays? That's it? That didn't seem like enough time to do everything I had hoped to do. I printed (yes, old school) a calendar for July and August and started sketching in all of the commitments I had already made. NTI in Albany, check. NYASCD with Vicki Day , check. Two STLE workshops, one in July and one in August, check. CNYSEA with Shawn Hunziker , check. Those events already took 9 of the days I had for weekdays! A dear college friend of mine, Michele Simonetty, has her children create a summer list of to do events. Some are a big deal and some are smaller but still define summer. I've started a list with my son Sam. It includes at least 2 trips to NYC. We also hope to visit Cape Cod one of the long weekends of the summer. We will also spend ...

A couple of years back, I had heard the saying "Eat the Frog" but did not pay it much attention until this year. Eat The Frog is about facing the toughest parts of your day first. Some of my past habits included that massive to do list with the least desirable items usually being attempted last instead of first. As a leader, how I use my time each day is critical. One choice is to avoid the tougher conversations and possible conflict and work around them. A different choice is to have the difficult conversations, consider another viewpoint, give honest feedback and develop a plan to move on. Over the last month, I have had to eat the frog at least 6 times. Some of the conversations involved parents. Some involved teachers. Some even involved friends and family.  After these difficult interactions, I have usually felt some sense of relief and deeper understanding of some complex issues. In that moment, I chastise myself for not just eating the frog already! The ...

Twitter is really great for inspiration and reflection. It's also a really great tool for stealing --- ideas from others. Back on June 13, Tom Whitford posted a video about his school. Then a short time later, Christina Luce posted an adorable video of her class. Here are the links to their great videos created with Animoto: Celebrating Learning by Christina Luce Miller School by Tom Whitford With that in mind, I created a year end video for my team. It didn't feel right just ending the year with more words. I needed another way to show them how proud I am of them...of us....of our team. I am still tweaking it and learning about Animoto but here's a peek . Try it. It's easier than it looks. It was easy to collect the photos I needed thanks to posts on facebook and twitter all year long by staff. I have an even better one that I am working on with the other administrators in our district but it's not ready for release yet. My thanks to Tom, Christin...

I think one of the toughest tasks in a Principal's day is dealing with discipline. The definition itself even sounds awful: dis·ci·pline noun 1 . the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience. Training people and using punishment? June usually brings a slight spike in retraining needs in our school. As many of you know, our school implemented PBIS just two years ago. At the beginning of this initiative, historical data had over 600 office referrals being handled by the office. This year, to date, we have hit 100. For me, this is still too many, but our RSE-TASC support person (she is amazing!) has reminded me that this kind of progress is remarkable.  If you believe in old school discipline, you would likely not care for the way we approach it. In our school, we have identified behaviors that we believe to be teacher managed and those that we believe to be office managed. Teacher manage...

Surveys are a very useful tool in gathering feedback from stakeholders. Last week, an electronic survey was sent to my staff to gather thoughts about our PBIS program. Today, a paper and pencil survey will be given to all of our students to gather even more thoughts about PBIS and their general feedback about our school. I've been watching the electronic survey comments compile over the last week. Most of it is good, helpful information. Some of it is critical in nature but criticism, when well placed, can help us improve. I always include the option of open ended comments in surveys. Some of us have more to say than agree or disagree. As I was compiling the results this morning, one comment bothered me. In a way, that's a bad thing.  The comment really rubs against my own philosophy as a leader and educator. In another way, it's a good thing. It lets me know where I still have work to do -- very important work. I am looking forward to hearing from our students today....

When Seth Berg posted, Rolling Out The Warm & Welcome Mat , it was a reading that came at a good time for me. In the blog, he wrote about being too busy to really connect with his teachers on a particular day. I've found myself reflecting on it every since. I've also found myself more aware of similar mistakes I am making. What is about being a leader that makes the leader (and maybe even others) think we can't make mistakes? Why are mistakes even seen as mistakes? And when they are made, why are they misinterpreted negatively by some? And why do others even believe that negativity? We talk about encouraging risk taking and when some don't pan out, we tell teachers and students, the risk was worth it. Do we tell leaders the same message we tell others? This time of year is so stressful for teaches and administrators in NY. We are nearing the end of a school year where compliance requires us to finish up all the pieces of APPR: dot the i and cross the t. We...

Tonight was our 6th grade handbells, band and chorus concert. Shortly before the concert, I was jotting some notes to use to welcome the audience in our school auditorium. I was trying to find some magical words about why programs, like our stellar music program, are important in schools. You may never hear about our concert tonight. It may never make the news like state test scores or school report cards do. But, as I sat in the audience, I had some thoughts worth sharing. Our current sixth grade has 97 students enrolled. I asked our grade 6 band teacher how many students would be on stage tonight and he reported 70! That's 72% of our entire grade level! The groups that took the stage tonight included: Grade 6 Handbells  Grade 6 Handbells Class (students who are not enrolled in Music 6, Chorus or Band, can choose this class to take instead. These students are invited to participate in each concert!).  Grade 6 Band Grade 6 Select Chorus Groups (three groups!) Grade...

For at least 10 years, our Middle School has assigned a summer reading book to students. We have enough copies of the book to give each student the book before summer begins. If new students register in the summer, we also have books for them. Last week, during a short conversation with our ELA teachers, I shared with them that our students had some feedback about the books we choose. Earlier this year, we had read Wonder during our Principal's Book Club. The students in this group felt very strongly that the WHOLE school should read Wonder . (If you haven't read it, you should. It's a great book about acceptance and some of the struggles that go along with it.) I shared the feedback from book club students with our ELA teachers.  Together, they modified the student idea and have agreed to pick three books (a different one for each grade level) that are all based on a theme of acceptance or tolerance. Even with the modifications, this was still an incredible idea a...