Present

This year my one word is present. I think this is a word that I have been wrestling with for a few years. As a principal, husband, father, and for a number of years a student, I have tried and failed to juggle responsibilities and being fully present at home. I often would be thinking of the next thing I needed to take care of on my list and usually that would be work related or something to do with graduate classes. For most of the my marriage and the lives of my daughters I have been in school (Master's degree in Teaching and Learning, a two year ELL endorsement program, second Master's degree, and finally an Ed.D). I have gotten used to always being pulled in different directions and not always feeling fully present at home or at work. 

While in the Ed.D. program I thought I would focus and work hard to finish in a timely matter so that I could than focus on my family. While I was busy for three years in classes and with the dissertation my girls continued to grow. I realized that they are not little girls anymore.

Aleigh is now a 14 year old freshman and Caitlin is 11 and a 6th grader. I only have three years left with Aleigh before she goes off to college and Caitlin has entered the stage where peer relationships are important to her. I need to be fully present with them so that I can really listen to them. I need to understand their hopes and dreams so I can support them. I don't have the pull of classes or a dissertation to finish to be the reasons to not be present.

This word will challenge me this year, but I honestly believe that this word has been placed on my heart. I look at my girls I am so proud of them and who they are becoming. I just don't want to have any regret that I was not always present when I was with them. 

Thankful

Thankful is a word we often hear and spend time using during this holiday season. It is a word, that perhaps we should explore so that we have a better understanding of what it means and how being thankful can change your heart and perspective. Merriam-Webster's defines thankful as being glad that something has happened or not happened, that someone or something exists...

In doing a quick Google image search one can find dozens of images that contain quotes on being thankful or the meaning of thankfulness. Here is an example of one such image. 

In the book Unbroken, author Laura Hillenbrand describes the life of Louis Zamperini whose B-24 bomber crashed in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. Louis, along with three other members of the crew, were adrift on a raft for 47 days before being discovered by a Japanese ship. 

Louis shared a moment of gratitude he had while he was suffering from extreme starvation and dehydration. This short Audible clip gives a brief account of his gratitude. The first time I listened to his story I was amazed at how someone who was lost at sea and little hope for rescue could show gratitude. That someone in his situation could be thankful. 

His story and ability to be thankful for the peaceful ocean and serene skies reminded me of something I heard from Andy Andrews. He was giving advice to someone who was having some struggles and feeling overwhelmed in their situation. His response was for this person to be thankful and show gratitude. He shared that she should not focus her thoughts inward, rather outward. That she can change her perspective and thinking by writing thank you cards, perhaps one or two a day, to those people in her life that had a positive impact on her. This act of giving thanks would change her perspective and outlook about her circumstances.

Jon Gordon, like Andy Andrews, believes that the practice of being thankful can change your perspective. Here are two tips he shares on the practice being thankful:

1. Take a Daily Thank You Walk - I started this practice 15 years ago and it changed my life. Take a simple 10-30 minute walk each day and say out loud what you are thankful for. This will set you up for a positive day.

2. Say Thank You at Work - When Doug Conant was the CEO of Campbell Soup he wrote approximately 30,000 thank you notes to his employees and energized the company in the process. Energize and engage your co-workers and team by letting them know you are grateful for them and their work. Organizations spend billions of dollars collectively on recognition programs but the best and cheapest recognition program of all consists of a sincere THANK YOU. And of course don't forget to say thank you to your clients and customers too.

In Hacking Leadership, Joe Sanfelippo and Tony Sinanis, discuss the importance of writing positive notes to staff members and sending cards to family members. The idea of recognizing the work of teachers and staff members and thanking them for their commitment to their students is a great way to build a positive culture.

Jeff Zoul often mentions the idea of writing two personal notes every day to staff members. This has two impacts. The first is it shows that a leader recognizes the work that a teacher is doing and celebrates that work. The second is it brings joy to the leader who is celebrating the great things that are happening in the building. This act of thankfulness brings such a positive energy and impacts the culture in a huge way. 

This year I am challenging myself to practice habits of giving thanks. To spend time thinking of all the things that I am thankful for and to show appreciation. I am challenging myself to not only give thanks during the holidays, but to continue this practice throughout the school year. It is my desire that this practice of giving thanks will become a habit and eventually become a way of thinking that I will continually embrace. 

It is my sincere hope that you can be thankful for all of the blessings that you have in your life. 

Thank you

When I was a younger student I had a really hard time. I often felt lost and unsure of what was expected. I was that student who needed his shoes tied. Who needed directions stated multiple time. The student who always had that confused look on his face. Having a late August birthday and starting kindergarten as a four year old was not the greatest thing for me. I guess it became pretty clear as the school year progressed that I was not ready for first grade. My teacher and parents made the decision that I would spend half of my day in a developmental first grade class. I ended up with an IEP. Thanks to my mom who saves everything I still have the original IEP. 

I am amazed and thankful that in 1979 there was help and support for a student like me. A student who felt lost and confused. A student who needed more time and more practice. A student who needed someone in their corner. A student who needed a teacher that cared. I can't say thank you enough to Mrs. Peters. If it wasn't for her and early intervention I am not sure I would have been able to close the gap. Her time, patience, and care made such a huge difference. It changed my path. She believed in me. 

Thanks to Mrs. Peters I exited special education and joined my peers in second grade. I was able to move through the rest of my time in school with my peers without any further intervention. I went on to become a teacher, interventionist, student services coordinator.  And now I am a principal. I earned two master's degrees and an EdD. Mrs. Peters along with many other teachers pushed me to become the person I am today. Inspired me to move beyond what I thought I could do. These dedicated teachers made a huge difference. So thank you! Thank you for everything! 

I also want to say thanks to all of the teachers that spend time investing in their students. Thank you for building relationships with your students. Thank you for caring. Thank you for investing your time and effort to make a difference. Thank you for choosing to go the extra mile. Thank your for never giving up. Thank you for being a teacher. 

It is the Small Things

We often wait in life for those big dramatic moments to define who we are and how we want to be perceived. Moments like making the team, winning the big game, getting into the school of our dreams, graduating from that school, getting our first job, the first promotion, or receiving an honorary award. These moments that are substantial and meaningful are the moments that we want to remembered for and how we want to define ourselves. We work hard for these accomplishments and many times we wait patiently for their arrival. Yet, as we wait for the big moments life is happening and we often miss what is right in front of us.

We are moving so fast from one thing on our to do list to the next. We are so focused on getting things done that we don't always see what is right in front of us.  As a principal I start my day the same way. I am outside assisting with car drop off and then I come into the building to do the morning announcements. It is easy to not be fully present during these routines as I am thinking about how to respond to a recent parent email or needing to follow up with a student or teacher.

A few weeks ago I was reminded to stop and pay attention to the small things. The first thing that happened was a friendly comment made by a parent who was dropping of their child. She thanked me for being outside everyday and having a great attitude. I was caught of guard and quickly said thanks. Her comment reminded me of why I am out there everyday. To greet our students with a smile, fist bump, and encouragement.

The second moment that reminded me to slow down and to be present occurred during the morning announcements. One of  the speech paths in our Early Childhood program was promoting AAC (Augmented and Alternative Communication) awareness month. She asked if she could have one of our EC students lead the pledge using his device. I thought that would be awesome. When the day arrived for the student to lead the pledge I had a crazy morning and I almost forgot the student was going to be leading the pledge. His mom was there to take pictures and our district communications director was there to video the event. As I watched the student lead the pledge and saw the pride in his mom's face I couldn't help but get choked up. It was so awesome and it was such a great reminder that it is these everyday moments that mean everything to our students and families.

We won't be remembered for those big monumental events. We will be remembered for the small things. Those regular everyday moments. How we interact with those around us. How we encourage others to be their best. How we give opportunities for students to shine. How we challenge others to be their best. When we step out of the way and realize it is not about us. We will be remembered how we treated those around us in those everyday moments. 

Power of Relationships

We know that we can no longer work in isolation to meet the needs of our students. We need to be able to work together in order to plan for instruction, create engaging lessons, and to determine how to support all of our students. The movement from working in isolation to collaboration can be rather challenging. It means becoming vulnerable with your colleagues so that you can have honest conversations about your teaching practices. The thought of sharing your truth with others and sharing that you may be struggling with implementing a teaching strategy or that your students are not responding to your instruction can be overwhelming. We can play it safe and do what we have always have done in our classrooms. It is comfortable and often staying comfortable is what we like to do. However, staying comfortable means that we aren't growing and if we aren't growing our students aren't growing.

Unfortunately, we know that teaching and learning can be an isolating endeavor. Dan Lortie (1975) in his seminal work writes about the difficulty teachers have in changing their practices. He states that because teacher collaboration does not always play a role in teachers work that teaching can become isolating and individualistic. Professional learning communities were created partially to remove the isolation and individualism that exists for teachers in our schools. The very nature of professional learning communities requires teachers to belong to a community.  Teaching should not be isolating and individualistic, with teachers repeating the same practices and lessons year after year that  do not meet the needs of students.

One of the keys to schools becoming learning communities is the amount of social capital that is built between the members of the learning community. The concept of social capital was introduced by L.J. Hanifan (1916) to describe how schools in rural areas can be used as community centers. Hanifan alludes to the fact that individuals who are isolated end up helpless socially and that everyone has a desire to be part of a larger group, to satisfy one’s social needs. James Coleman (1998) describes several forms of social capital: obligations, expectations, and trustworthiness which is the idea that there is trust that obligations will be repaid; information channels where information can be acquired by use of social relations; norms and effective sanctions where individuals put the interests of the group before their own self interests. Don Cohen and Laurence Prusak (2001) define the concept this way “social capital bridges the space between people”.  Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan (2012) describe social capital in schools as the quality of the relationships an individual has with their colleagues and how that relationships influences expectations, trust, increasing one’s own knowledge.

It is abundantly clear that building relationships with other educators has an impact on the individual and organization. Bo Rothstein (2005) states that the amount of social capital in an organization is determined by the amount of the social networks that the individuals of an organization have and the degree to which the individuals trust their contacts. Everyone in the organization is responsible for creating the connections necessary for high levels of social capital.

Principals need to create an environment where teachers can connect with one another and talk about practices and where teachers have a voice and can participate in the decision making process around instructional practices and strategies that should be implemented.  Principals, also need to develop a culture where collaboration and relational trust are the norm. This appears to be the crux of a principal’s work, which is to lead the teachers in the ability to work together and put the interests of the group before their own self-interest. As a principal I constantly think about the importance of building relationships. I need to create the conditions for teachers to be vulnerable, to be honest, to build relationships with one another, and to create that strong social network. I also need to look for ways that I can support teachers as they work together to ensure that students are learning and growing.

In the recent reading I have been doing the idea of building relationships and relational trust have been jumping out at me.

"As leaders in education, our job is not to control those whom we serve but to unleash their talent. If innovation is going to be a priority in education, we need to create a culture where trust is the norm." - George Cuoros, The Innovator's Mindset: Empowering Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity.

"If we're truly concerned with doing what is best for kids, we must get out of our isolation and connect with others - in and out of our profession." Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome, Kids Deserve It: Pushing Boundaries and Challenging Conventional Thinking.

"Great principals never forget that it is people, not programs, who determine the quality of a school" Todd Whitaker, What Great Principals Differently: 18 Things That Matter Most.

"Educators, like any other professionals, need peer-to-peer interactions and reciprocal investments in order to grow and develop" Todd Whitaker, Jeffrey Zoul, and Jimmy Casas, What Connected Educators Do Differently.

Relationships can make or break the culture of a building. They influence how teachers work together, how they co-create, how they learn from one another. I urge you to spend time cultivating relationships, get to know the students and teachers in your building, understand their passions. Leaders need to support their teachers, provide space and autonomy for them to create, and celebrate their risk taking. Without strong connections, that social capital, it is hard to move a school forward. Cultivating relationships and building social networks should be the focus of our work if we want to truly impact students. 

Growing and Learning Through Change

Reading and reflecting on the quote "Change is an opportunity to do something amazing." I can't help but think about what has happened in my life the last couple of months, and the number of changes that have occurred. When I consider the quote, I think about how these changes are providing opportunities for some amazing things.  Most of these changes have been professional in nature, but their impact has be very personal. 

• Graduating in May with my Ed.D. has brought about a number of changes. My dissertation on principal practices that impact teacher collaboration led to opportunities to provide professional development for teachers and administrators on this topic. Finishing my doctorate has also  provided me with the opportunity to spend more time with my family. One of the best parts of my summer was discovering that both of my daughters have a love for thrill rides. So we spent many summer days at Six Flags Great America riding roller coasters. 

• This school year I started my twentieth year in education. Each year brings a new chapter and changes. While this is my fifth year as a principal, it is my first year as the principal of Alice Gustafson Elementary School and Early Childhood Center. Being charged to lead another building in the district has already provided me with  many opportunities to do some amazing things. Before the year stated I intentionally read books on leadership and made the decision to implement what I learned.  My focus is on building meaningful relationships with staff and students. We have embarked on exploring Twitter as a staff through our Twitter Bingo Challenge, trying out Voxer as a new way to connect, and we have launched a whole staff  Kids Deserve It book study. 

• The last two changes were two things that I recently pursued. After years of lurking on Twitter and mostly following sports and other interests, I made the decision to connect with other educators by participating in a number of different Twitter chats. I have been amazed at how much I have learned, as well as the connections that I have made. In addition to becoming engaged on Twitter, I decided to be vulnerable and share my story through blogging. Blogging has allowed me to reflect and think about my practices and beliefs. This exercise  has given me the opportunity to share my story with educators from all over the country. I have also benefited greatly from the stories of other educators.  Sharing stories and experiences has provided me with new ideas to consider and wonderful ways to grow and innovate.  

The most important thing about all of these changes is that it has made me really think about how to provide amazing opportunities for our students. 

Belonging - why it is so important for our students

What does it mean to belong? To feel like you are connected with other individuals? To make those deep meaningful connections? To be a part of something that is larger than yourself? These are deep and profound questions that everyone wrestles with and seeks answers to during their lifetime.  Our students that walk into our schools and into our classrooms are asking the same questions. They are wondering if they will fit in with their classmates. They hope their teacher will be able to relate to them. They desire to have teachers that believe in them and push them to be better.

Some of what I remember most as a young student, is the unfortunate times where I felt like I didn’t quite belong. When I was in kindergarten I really struggled with school readiness. I was constantly behind, confused, and at times overwhelmed with following the directions. I don’t ever remember my teacher connecting with me, letting me know it was going to be okay, or even recognizing any of my strengths. I also remember having a challenging time in third grade. My teacher wasn’t very warm or welcoming. Her classroom management consisted of berating students when they made a mistake or didn’t follow a direction. I will always remember being scared going into her class. One time when I was a fourth grade student, I was told to go to her class and ask for some supplies. As I crossed the hall to go into her class I felt an anxiousness come over me. As I inquired about the supplies, I was immediately confused by her direction.  All of those feelings of intimidation and fear came rushing back, as she loudly and aggressively repeated her direction.  These two stories are simple examples of educators not creating safe and caring classroom cultures.  I think these examples highlight how damaging it can be for our students if we don’t create schools and classrooms where students feel like they belong.  

I am blessed to have entered into my twenty first year in education. I started my career as a classroom teacher in Tempe, Arizona. I will always remember my first class. I took over for a third grade teacher who retired early. It was late February and I was all of twenty two years old, and ready to take on the world! This particular class was housed in a portable classroom and was the farthest class from the office. I had heard rumors of about how out of control this class was and they had no or little respect for teachers. My first day with the students was a blur. Even as a brand new teacher, I immediately identified that there was no evidence of classroom routines;  students either sprinted back to class from our time in the computer lab or stayed behind and hid under the tables. For the remainder of that school year I spent time trying to figure out how to create positive relationships with the students in order to gain their trust. I learned very quickly that many of these students lived in an impoverished housing project in Phoenix.  They had parents who were incarcerated or addicted to drugs. These students were often left alone to fend for themselves. In fact this particular housing project was cut off from the rest of south Phoenix by an expressway on one side and a busy street on another. Many of these kids didn’t have that sense of belonging in their families and being cut off physically from the rest of the city didn’t create a sense of belonging to the community. My job for the rest of that year  was to build a class community, and perhaps the one place, where students felt like they belonged. In order to do that I played with the students at recess, I celebrated their learning of academics and behaviors, we played music in class, and we created a class t-shirt that each student was proud to wear.

I often wonder what happened to my students as I moved to back to Illinois a few years later. I learned more in the few months that I had that class than my four years at pre service teacher at ASU. I learned what it meant to build up a student's confidence, to believe in a student, to find out the awesomeness that each student possess. Most of all I learned how important it is for our students to feel like they belong. To feel like they matter. To have a place they can call home.