Recruiting Season

A few months ago, during one of my FMLA principalships, I attended a district principal's meeting where one of the principals stood up, almost in tears, and began to speak about how hard it was to be the principal of a Title campus, that it was harder than other schools (she'd know, her experience runs the full range of socioeconomic backgrounds) and it was very difficult to get teachers to stay and buy into the work that was happening. My apologies, I really can't remember the exact context of the comment, but I recall it very clearly because it was an emotionally charged portion of the meeting.  She was highly frustrated.

While every campus has its struggles and challenges, having taught at Title campuses, I'd tend to agree with her, but my brain immediately shot to what is the identity and brand of this campus?  Why do teachers want to belong, what makes this school an amazing place to be?  I also began to think about how we often speak of student engagement.  Is the difficulty or type of work any different than blaming video

Joy & Growth Mindset

What happens when the happiness doesn't come?

There was the key question from a message at church a few weeks ago.  Replace happiness with any type of word you like: success, promotion, healing, etc.  I've shared this with teachers and friends following tough conversations or in tough situations:  

How we respond to a situation truly defines us, not the situation itself.  Tweet this!  

I've had to remind myself of this quite a few times.  I'd venture to say that it is not a natural response to choose joy or to choose growth in failure or shortcoming.  At least for

Contagious Learning

Why do you do what you do?

In embracing the growth mindset through a disappointing Spring, I have recently asked a colleague and former supervisor to serve as my mentor.  This is a facet of my own growth I realized had been absent from my life over the last 5+ years.  I asked her explicitly to ask me hard questions that I hadn't thought about myself, I choose to ignore or that I refuse to answer myself.  I desired a new level of accountability in my growth and development as a educator as well as a person.

So what's the first thing that she asks me.  "Why do you do what you do?"  Should be an easily
answerable question.  My brain starts to filter through 14 years of educator experiences: beauty of

Mattering & Belonging

Enjoyed a great branding chat with some fellow Texas educators at the #txeduchat last evening.  Much of the talk centered around the telling of the story and the tools that help us take a driver's seat position in the telling and sharing of that school story.  These are positive first and necessary steps in developing and refining a school brand!

What is a brand?  If I take the things I've learned from Bernadette Jiwa and Marji Sherman (maybe they'll leave me some feedback!!) as well as the direction that Jamie Vollmer would like public education to move and improve in, it would be something like this:

Win Everyday

"We don't win today by reaching the masses, we win by becoming meaningful to the few." - Bernadette Jiwa

I see a current struggle of education in this quote. Political climate (idiocy) and large district bureaucracy where the the bottom line is a test score drive us to focus on one day, one assessment to show the world, nation, community that we are improving and/ or relevant and "deserve" the reward of funding and respect.  

I would assert that is trying to matter to people that don't matter (or at least don't deserve that much attention) What would it be like if we have laser like focus to the folks that do matter? Providing an experience that grows, engages and delights (love that word) that group and mobilizes and empowers them to speak.   

That way we win everyday!  In what ways are you remaining focused on the things and people that matter most?

Happy thinking!

B

School: Building vs. Body

Is your school a place to go, a building, or is it a group of people loving on kids and serving just
about the highest purpose there is?

Here is an awesome tweet for you:

The church is not a place you go to; it is a people you belong to. You need your church, and your church needs you.
— Rick Atchley (@RickAtchley) February 8, 2015

Six Edentity Questions

A school with a clear identity is one that people are drawn to, parents and professionals.  They desire to be apart and contribute to the amazing things happening .  A campus identity is instructional and curricular, of course, but we know that education is more than those alone and a successful school has some additional "intangibles' that set it apart from others.  I'm not talking about being different to be different or to put on a show, but special for kids' sake! How we choose to develop and refine that identity is important in how we relate to our community and how they relate to us.  Asking some key questions is important this process!

What are we passionate about? - Is there something as a campus that is an area of strength because of passionate pursuit of practice?  Do you have gurus on the campus (literacy, math, technology, etc.)

Five Big School Branding Questions

Deep down inside, I think we are clear on the need for connectedness within our school and our community.  We know we need to be close to the people we serve.  We understand that the power of relationship doesn't just work for us in the classroom, but for our campus as a whole as we do the important work we do each day!

PBIS and Your School's Brand

We just completed our 3rd marking period and it is always a great celebration as our school comes together to review what makes us Eagle Ridge PROUD and to honor students that exemplify those traits on a daily basis!  It's also great to see kids and teachers let their hair down a bit and dance and play.  Here are a few amazing highlights from the experience:

• 2nd PE award - certainly proud of the recipient, but I loved the spirit of the classmates that surrounded him.  They all jumped up,  congratulated and were so

How Are You Measuring That?

Success is how your customers feel. How are you measuring that? 

Jiwa, Bernadette (2014-09-30). Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers (p. 73). The Story of Telling Press. Kindle Edition. 

Read this and it really struck me.  We spend so much time setting goals and being very quantitative
about the things we are focused on instructionally.  We set up formative assessment processes, we discuss data in PLC meetings, we put the data up on the wall and/or student binders and it tells a story of learning.  We plan interventions and hopefully take the time to celebrate success!!  All of these are great things!

8 Great Places to Pull Content for Your School Social Media Pages

If you read anything regarding highly successful blogs and/or social media pages, you will hear quality content is king!  There has to be something worth following for any person to return or  in some cases click unfollow or unlike buttons.  For your school's social media page, it is likely that information, celebration and C&I posts will keep most coming back as far as content goes.  There is little more satisfying to parents and families than getting to see the great things that are happening in their child's school.  It is also important to grow the opportunities for learning and engagement within your community.  So when it comes to growing your learning and engagement postings, it is important to have some go to resources.

This past few weeks I've been reviewing and updating our campus Paper.li to make that as valuable resource to our families as possible, I was reminded of some gems I had tapped previously to help curate content and led me to some other great resources as well.

District News Page - It is important that we are supporting the work of the larger organizition we are apart of.  Our district just completed education foundation grant awarding and it was fun to share those celebration with our fellow campuses and award winners!
Campus, State, National PTA Sites - ther are few greater advocate for the work schools do than the PTA so helping our campus group advertise events and celebrate the work they are doing is vital.  State and national organization accounts post many great resources for parents on how to support schools, their teachers, their students!  These are great to add to your feed!
Common Sense Media - these are the gurus of digital citizenship and they post great information for parents to support their kiddos in navigating the digital world!  You can also find them on the Facebook!
Graphite - the best description comes from their Twitter page: "Graphite, a free service from Common Sense Media, helps teachers find, understand, and share the best digital learning products available." While they do teachers are their focus, so many of their resources on apps and programs are very helpful to our families!
MyTownTutors - this groups entire mission is connecting parents with resources to help support their kiddos at school.  While their name does imply that their focus is tutoring, follow their feed and you'll see that they are more than just connecting parents with tutors!  Great folks there!
Teacher Help for Parents - this is a blog by a teacher turned stay at home mom that desires to keep parents informed and connected in the best way possible to support their students!  She has always posts some of the most helpful resources that we have passed along to our families!
#PTChat - this is the premier twitter hashtag for parent/teacher resources.  A quick search/link to this hashtag will provide a generous helping of resources for the campus and parent of any level student.  It is the brainchild Joe Mazza, their weekly Wednesday evening chat is frequented by Twitter greats such as Ted Huff, and Gwen Pescatore and is populated by parents, teachers and administrators
talking best practices and solutions for our schools!  Powerful conversations are happening here!
Pragmatic Mom - notice is link is to pintrest!!  Ha!   I have not seen too many things that aren't wonderful from her.  Based on the content she shares, Pintrest is an ideal platform for her.  You can also find her on the Twitter.  She is a great literacy advocate, so of course I am a fan!

I believe the greatest benefit in having great learning and engagement content is that it allows us to move towards empowerment and partnership with our families (see graphic).  If we want to be able to move our schools in the direction we know is best, we have to invest in educating and informing  the folks that spend the most time with our kids!

Happy posting!

B

#APrincipalsDay Reflection

Emergency drills with Kindergarten!

31 degrees and windy!  Brrr!

Wednesday, EdWeek, asked principals to share glimpses of their day with the hashtag #APrincipalsDay.  What a beautiful idea to help inform an upcoming highlight of principals that will be coming out.  I, being active on Twitter, even though I'm not a principal yet, jumped in and shared.
The day was highlighted with freezing my face off at morning duty, ARD/IEP meetings, some informal classroom visits, working with students during emergency drills, phone calls with parents, some assessment prep (joy!) and of course shuffling some paper!

TELPAS & 504s!

It reminded me:

I work with an amazing team!

• I love so many aspects my job!
• I understand the value & importance of the parts I don't love as much!
• Student success is won daily/hourly in the time spent, conversations had, partnerships created!
• Kids & teachers are awesome!
• The journey I'm on toward the principalship goal is worth it!

Hope everyone else found it as motivating and encouraging as I did!  What were some of your highlights!?  Share!

Happy Leading!

B

2014 Blog Review

2014 was certainly an interesting year professionally with many great highlights to celebrate as well as many great jumping points for continued growth and learning.  Over the last couple weeks, I've seen/read numerous posts with a blog review and since I have one that I am keeping current, I thought it would be a great idea to take some time to reflect and review.  Probably my favorite review I saw was from Jessica Johnson (@principalJ).  As well as sharing some thoughts and top posts, she shared a Wordle created from her blog RSS feed.  I thought this was a brilliant way to see if I was staying accountable to what I wanted by blog to be.  Was I staying true to my stated purposes and enhance the identity I wish to develop!?

The Imperative of the Growth Mindset #SAVMP

photo by Dennis Flood

There is a great deal on the line with having or not having a mindset of growth that has a tremendous impact and potential for our community, both in the now and in the future.  In writing this post (which took a considerable amount of time...lots to think about here) I may have just stumbled across some new focus points for this new year.  Being challenged to dig a little deeper into the growth mind and how to promote that within my realm of influence, I've hit a couple key learnings as well as the summer read for our staff at Eagle Ridge!

Blogging Advice from a 4 Month Veteran

It has happened to me.  I knew it would, but the "when" was the only question.  That time when I think,"what do I write about?"  That great idea and thought to keep a list of thoughts as soon as I have them (which still works) is wonderful, but the problem is that pool is drying (-ied) up.

What's changed?  Reflecting over the last four months or so there are some things that are different.  Situations always change, but we know as leaders, we must be prepared, flexible and persistent in the things that are most important in our growth and work.

Your School's Story: A Bigger Purpose

It's interesting that the business branding and marketing scene is finally catching up with having a purpose bigger than a product or service.  We in education have had a lock on this as there are few greater purposes than educating and preparing young people for the future!  However, we have just done a really poor job of marketing it.  This is understandable as sharing what we do does not get the same priority as the doing what we do (it's quite a bit of work if you didn't know), but no longer in the world in which we live.  It is vital for a successful school to let their families and community know, see, share and tell the story of the great things happening at school!

Your School's Story: Created with Intention

Back in high school, I was not a fan of the English classes.  Diagramming sentences, old &moldy literature (although, I do remember thoroughly enjoying Lord of the Flies my freshman year) and writing papers on who knows what did not hold my attention and interest.  The literature bothered me more than anything, especially when we talked of satire, foreshadowing, symbolism, etc. because that indicated design and an intentionality in the writing and I didn't believe that anything the likes of Jane Eyre was planned.  For whatever reason, I was operating under the delusion that all those great literary devices happened by chance!

Your School's Story

Why do we tell stories?  Story telling has been a practice for generations throughout history.  Sharing, teaching, entertaining.   We sit around the dinner table with family at Thanksgiving and reminisce stories of the past.  When buddies from college get together we retell stories and share the new life stories that have come.  With Veteran's Day having just past, I always enjoy listening to veterans share their stories and experiences.   They are often thrilling and scary, but make me more thankful in the telling!  In many cases, the is how history was passed down, via the spoken or written story!  Christ spent his ministry telling stories that gave examples, clarified understanding and challenged thinking.  Among other things, His stories are what brought people to him because it was understandable and relateable.  In every one of these examples, at the very heart of the act of story telling is opportunity and desire to connect!

The purpose of stories is to bring people into connection and community.  That is what we should desire for our school's story to be and/or become.  The fact of the matter is that we don't have a story to tell unless our students and families are not apart of what we do.  We're not learning, sharing, growing, etc.  That is the nature of our business.  The story we tell must be one that inspires our students and families to become a part of and take part in the telling!

What are the elements of your school's story that draw people into community and help them find connection?

Happy telling!

B

Your School's Story: Rooted in Truth

I love the word "story".  Over the next few weeks I'd like to explore the idea of story and story telling based on this Bernadette Jiwa post entitled The Characteristics of Great Brand Stories.  I want to take her insights and place them in the context of schools and what it means for us as we share and develop our own school stories that ring true to the identity we wish to create!

For me, it was a word that came up when I opened Timberview Middle with Carrie Jackson in 2010.  It was a rough road, as most openings tend to be, but this was different.  As I shared in this post, we sat in our leadership meeting with some district folks and we came to the conclusion that there was a group of passionate people out there that were telling our story and we had no voice in it.  We had begun a journey to transform teaching and learning, but that disruption to the norm was not taken well and there was a very negative and one-sided story being shared.  We needed to be more involved and it needed to be rooted in truth.  We knew we had to tell a story that was about the great things happening on campus and it had to be authentic and bring people on board!

Feelings & Trust

Branding is not merely of differentiating products; it's about striking an emotional chord with consumers.  It is about cultivating identity, attachment and trust to inspire customer loyalty.   - Nirmalya Kumar

There is quite a bit to unpack here!  Maybe it is my nonbusiness brain, but I remember branding being a logo.  A graphic that identified who you are, creating an association between a symbol and what you do or sell.  Truly taking that ranching practice and making it work for whatever industry.  This quote as well as the writings of other marketing gurus makes branding almost necessary for schools.  Branding has moved quite a ways from the ranching practice to something very afftective in nature (which the cow would probably much prefer).