Is it time to Unplug? At least a little bit...

Let me begin by saying that I am not an advocate for an unplugged lifestyle.  I have no plans of moving to a remote area in Montana that is 200 miles from the nearest cellphone tower and where homes get both their heat and light from a well maintained fireplace.  However, I would be lying if I did not say that I have thought at least once, that we have gone a bit off the deep end with our "connectivity."

I am a proud owner of an iPad, iPhone, laptop and a WiFi household.  I have accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google.  I blog, tweet, text, status update and "cyber-creep" as much as the next guy.  I can access every digital data point in my life from my phone and as long as I have a charge... I am always reachable.

Now that we have established that I can and that I do, the question is should I?  As I stated above, I am not going unplugged anytime soon.  I will not be living off the grid.  However, I have found myself recently feeling like something was not quite right, that perhaps something was missing, or lost.  

This past Monday I attended the Literacy for All Conference in Providence, RI.  One of the many sessions I attended was entitled, Teachers as Digital Writers.  The presenter, Kristen Hawley Turner (@teachKHT) showed us this video below entitled, Can We Auto-Correct Humanity?  Now there is a good chance you have seen the video as it has almost 8.5 million views at the time of this post, but if you have not I recommend taking three and 1/2 minutes to watch.

I have been thinking about this video a lot these past few days.  Some of my time thinking has been spent as a husband, father and friend.  In those times I have considered the messages I am sending to my children and my wife when I am home.  Am I connecting with them, loving them, laughing with them, embracing the short time we have together?  I have also spent time thinking as a leader.  I have challenged myself to examine my values and then compare those values to my behaviors.  

Leadership is about relationships.  Effective leaders take the time to build quality relationships with the people they work with, to build trust, to get to know their staff and let their staff get to know them.  This is because in order for you to lead, people must follow and people will not follow those that they don't know, feel don't know them and most importantly those that they do not trust.

As I have already stated, I can do my entire job from my phone.  I can send information in various formats, document student learning and teacher performance, stay up to date on current trends in education, approve budgetary expenditures and much more.  If I wanted to get really crazy, I could Skype or Face Time in for faculty meetings... quite frankly, the mechanics of my job could probably be done by a well programmed computer.  However, this is not what makes for good leadership, it is what makes for a good manager, and I aspire to be a good leader.

So it is important for me to remember to get out of my chair and talk with someone rather than sending an email, to ask questions about the lives of those I work with, to create opportunities for faculty to converse, and to sacrifice immediate access to information so that I can take a few minutes to talk with a student.

The irony that I am using a blog to share my thoughts on this topic and the fact that I will likely publicize it on Twitter is not lost on me.  All good things come in moderation and technology is no different.  So as a father, husband, friend and leader I resolve to put down my phone a little more often, to look up and to connect with my own humanity and the humanity that surrounds me.  

4 Things I Learned from Running a Ragnar

A little over a week ago, I participated in the "Reach the Beach" relay that started at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, NH and ended 207 miles later in Hampton Beach, NH.  The race is part of a series of similar races called Ragnar Relays.  The basic premise is that you work together as a team to cover the entire length of the course over 24-36 hours; one member of your team is always running.  This was my first time participating in one of these events.

Now to non-runners out there, you may be thinking I should have my head examined, but it was the most fun I have ever had in a running event.

During the drive home and the days that followed, I found myself reflecting a lot on the lessons that I learned in completing the Ragnar.  Some were simple and running related like bring ear plugs to help sleeping, stretch more, pack bagels, etc. Others were more philosophical and more directly related to my work in education.  As I distilled my thinking over the past week, I found that there were four major take-aways for me from completing the Ragnar.

1.  The individual is only as powerful as their team
A few years back I went to a presentation on PLC's by Rick and Becky DuFour.  Among the many concepts they discussed, one was regarding the mythology created by Hollywood about the "Hero Teacher."  Movies like Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, Coach Carter, and Lean on Me present the image of one individual taking on the establishment; the lone voice looking out for the best interests of students.

The truth is that in any organization, schools in particular, lasting improvement and growth is only accomplished through a group effort.  Professionals working together to identify areas of need, developing solutions to address those needs and collecting feedback on the effectiveness of those solutions has been proven time and again to make for sustained school improvement.

I had to rely on my teammates to properly prepare themselves for and execute their portions of the relay in order for us to be successful as a team.  Equally, they needed to rely on me to meet my responsibilities.  Only together, as an interdependent team, were we able to accomplish our goals.

2.  A little cheering along the way helps
In order to keep up with each runner along the course, most teams rent a van and leap frog
their runners throughout the course.  Collectively, over the course of the relay, each member of a Ragnar team has to run 20-30 miles. Runners may have to run in the morning, middle of the day or the middle of the night (or all three).  

There are times in those miles when you are really fighting yourself to keep going and you are feeling all alone.  Throughout the race, as I would start to feel like I couldn't take another step, I would come up to a string of vans pulled over to the side of the road.  The runners "resting" in the van would pile out of the van and cheer on all the runners as they came by.  Each time the cheering gave me a jolt of energy and helped propel me towards the end of my leg; I was filled with a new sense of determination and commitment.

As we progress through change within our schools, meet adversity and experience failure, it is important that we cheer each other on.  Let's be sure to celebrate each other's successes, support each other as we struggle and provide encouragement when we meet with failure.

3.  Pain doesn't hurt so bad when you are with friends
After each member of the team finishes one of their legs in the relay, they have a couple of minutes to stretch out, but quickly have to hop in the van and move ahead to the next transition area.  As you can imagine, 36 hours cramped into a van, occasionally hoping out to run 5-9 miles, can leave you with some sore and stiff muscles.

However, what I learned is that when you are experiencing this pain with a group of friends the pain is not that bad.  Together we found humor in our stiff and ginger steps down stairs, laughed as we groaned getting in and out of the van and distracted each other with a whimsical pursuit of moose along the course.

Laughter goes a long way in healing that which ails us.  It is important the we seek out opportunities to laugh.  Whether it be with our closest friends, our families or our colleagues we should all be sure to take sometime to see the humor in our situation.  I wholeheartedly believe the humor is almost always there, we just have to be willing to go and look for it.

4.  Celebration is sweeter with others and when it is truly earned
I have a fairly regular post-race tradition that involves the ingestion of some not very healthy food and an adult beverage made from water, barley, hops and yeast.  Never have those things tasted so good as they did at the conclusion of the Ragnar.  I contribute that to two factors: the company I was with and the nature of our accomplishment.

While it can be initially frightening to set ambitious goals (What if I am not prepared?  What if I fail?, What if my team lets me down?) the feeling of accomplishment is so much more intense when you know success came due to significant effort.  The sense of accomplishment is further exaggerated when you know that you were part of a team.

When others have experienced the same struggles, missteps, and hard work that you have, they can more readily relate to the significance of your accomplishment.  They know how ambitious the goal was and how impressive it is that you met that goal.  The short of it is, a party is more fun when you invite guests :)

Pass the Salt

Photo Credit:  Flickr.com

As the month of August approached, I started to think about opening day, specifically the first day for teachers.  For those of you that have followed earlier posts, you know that this school year signified a new beginning for me as I started a new year as principal of a new school.  You may also know that our district is undergoing some significant transitions over the next few years.

As I began to prepare my opening day remarks, I found myself thinking a lot about what the staff must be feeling about all the changes that were happening and going to happen.  Here they are with a new principal and assistant principal who are bringing with them a new schedule as the school transitions from being one of three K-8 schools in the district to one of three K-6 schools.  If that was not enough, they know that the school will only remain a K-6 for one year and then it becomes a PreK-2 school for the entire district.

As I began to explore the feelings of uncertainty, loss, anxiety and fear that are likely to be present among the faculty, I found myself reflecting on a moment from my own childhood.

I grew up in Orleans, MA which is a small town located on Cape Cod.  My parents' home was part of a collection of properties owned by members of my father's family.  These properties were located down a small dirt road and they "fell off" from the main dirt road in a series of tiered sections that decreased in elevation down towards a swamp at the far end.  It was a great place for a young boy to grow up.

The infamous driveway

Heading down to my parents' home was one small spit of asphalt driveway coming down a fairly steep hill.  In the winter, the road was not plowed and this hill was always a combination of packed snow and ice.  My parents developed a very sophisticated (heavy sarcasm) approach for getting up the hill.  They would back into my grandparents' driveway, which was the furthest from the base of the hill, and build up as much speed and momentum as they could in attempt to climb the hill.  Sometimes they made it, sometimes they did not and they had to back down the hill and try again.

One wintry morning when I was about 8 we were headed off to who knows where.  My mom was driving the car and my two brothers and I were seated in the bench seat in the back of my mom's station wagon.  These were in the days before mandatory seat belts and car seats, so we were just along for the ride.

On the first attempt my mom was not able to make it to the top of the hill, so she began backing down.  Backing down a snow-packed hill in a boat on wheels with three rambunctious boys in the back seat applying the correct amount of brake pressure is no small task.  About half-way down the hill, the brakes on the car locked and we began to slide.  It is hard to see in the picture above, but on the right hand side of the driveway there is a steep hill that goes up to where my cousins lived.  As we slid backwards down the hill, the car went up that hill with enough force to push the car up on two wheels.

Here I was eight years old, sitting in the left hand side of the car watching the right hand side (and my two brothers) raise up into the air above me.  I remember it feeling like it was happening in slow motion, and as it was feelings of fear, anxiety and panic welled up in me... OH MY GOD THE CAR IS GOING TO FLIP OVER.  Just as I was about to scream out, my mother, as if asking someone to pass the salt, said, "I guess we are going over."  In that one moment, I went from panic to calm.  I remember thinking, "well if she is not that worried about it, I guess this is not going to be that bad."

The car paused in mid air, for what seemed like half a day, before gravity took hold and the car began to head back in the other direction and landed back on all four tires.  Without missing a beat, my mom continued to back the car down the hill into my grandparents driveway and went right back up the hill.  This time we made it to the top and were off to whatever the rest of the day held for us.  There was no discussion of the event, she just moved forward.

Photo Credit: Flickr.com

As I reflect back on this event, I find myself thinking about it from a different perspective.  Now as a parent, I find myself wondering what my mom must have been thinking in that moment.  Here she was with her three babies in the back seat of a car that was about to flip over; talk about being filled with fear, anxiety and feeling powerless to control something that could harm something so important to her.  However, she never let that show.  I think about what affect my mother had on me in that moment.  Her calm created my calm. She also showed me that failures don't define us.  She did not let her fear define her, nor stop her from trying again.  Instead she went right back up that hill.

As we, as a school, look to the year ahead it is important that we have an open and honest dialogue about our concerns and feelings surrounding the changes coming; however, it is important that we have these conversations among ourselves.  It is important that whatever we are feeling as adults, we are projecting calm, confidence and a positive outlook to our students and community.  THE STUDENTS AND PARENTS WILL LOOK TO US TO SEE HOW THEY SHOULD BE FEELING ABOUT THIS.  We have a significant power to effect the way our community will approach this change, and as Voltaire said (or if you are a Spiderman fan) "With great power comes great responsibility"  We have a responsibility to ensure a smooth transition for the sake of our students.  

As a leader, I know that this begins with me.  The faculty, students and parents need to know that they can count on me to remain calm, confident and positive through this next year.  They need to know that when things are moving quickly, tensions are high and questions dramatically outnumber answers that I will continue to approach our conversations as if only asking to pass the salt.

As we opened school this year, I asked my staff that when they are in their classrooms, feeling like it is all too much, that their car is about to roll over on its roof, I asked them to take a deep breath and make sure they are only asking their students to "pass the salt".  And that once the fear and anxiety have subsided, that they head back up that hill.

The Moving Target of Excellence

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In preparation for the start of the school year, we have been doing a significant amount of planning and preparation to ensure for a great opening day.  Among the many things I have been thinking about and preparing for is educator evaluation.  

Before getting bogged down in all the details of standards, rubrics, indicators, elements, time lines and forms, I decided to take some time to reflect on what an educator evaluation system means to me holistically.

In addition to being a principal, I still maintain a part-time job working as a bartender at a restaurant I have worked at for over 10 years.  One night last week, things were a little slow before the start of the dinner rush and I decided to process my thinking about educator evaluation  and write it down.  This mess of bullets, arrows and pictures are the result of that work.  The translation of that scribbling brainstorm follows.

The Why?

I started by asking myself what the big ideas are behind an educator evaluation system.  On its most basic level, the system is in place to provide a level of accountability.  As an institution that operates using public funds to serve the needs of the community, parents, students and tax payers need to have the confidence that those funds are being used to support quality principals, superintendents and teachers.

On a deeper level, a strong evaluation system provides a common language for what quality teaching looks like.  Just as when expectations are clear for students, clear expectations of quality teaching ensure that educators and supervisors are on the same page regarding what it means to be a proficient teacher, principal and superintendent.

Lastly, a quality evaluation system of any kind must be designed to promote professional growth.  All members of the system, along with system itself, must be developed upon the assumption that we can all get better at what we do.

The Two paths

As I think more deeply about educator evaluation I see two pathways that emanate from the principles I laid out earlier.  

The first is more concrete.  It is a pathway for the novice educator or the one that is under performing in his/her role.  Down this pathway the road signs are easily visible and there are clear directions for reaching your destination.  The rubrics allow the supervisor and educator to have a conversation around teaching and learning using a common language and common understanding about quality teaching.

The second path is a bit more nebulous.  What if an educator is doing a great job?  Does he/she need to continue to prove it?  If so, at what point does it just become an exercise in moving paper?  It has to be more than that, it has to be about continual growth.

Excellence is something that great schools continuously strive for, but never achieve.  This is because they understand that excellence is a moving target.  As soon as they arrive at a place previously described as excellent, great schools set new targets.

We all know that their are continuous advancements in the knowledge base that support our teaching.  School leaders must support experimentation and action research that is intended to better meet the needs of students.  They must also work with teachers to identify the level of success from these experiments and determine their value to the larger school community.

The Massachusetts Educator Evaluation System provides a mechanism to meet this need through the goal setting process.  The goal setting process and educator plan provides a framework in which great innovation can occur.  Additionally, it strongly encourages teams of educators to work together towards common goals.  There is no more powerful a mechanism for student achievement than groups of teachers working towards a common goal that is focused on the success of students.

A successful and lasting educator evaluation system will be one that provides a level of accountability to ensure a base level of competency, while (more importantly) supporting the continual growth of ever member of the system.  

Loose Change

Tuesday, July 1st, I was in the car on my way to work.  The first 30 minutes or so of the trip was no different than it had been for the past year; leave the house towards the highway, sip on my coffee as I pass the normal landmarks (beginning of the two-lane highway, Bass River Bridge, Burger King), listen to sports talk radio, and start to plan out the day ahead.  However, my trip this day would not end as it had each day the previous year.

 Instead, I was set to begin a new journey in my new home as the principal of the Forestdale School.  While only one exit different than my previous school, 4.4 miles down the road and still within the same school district, this day still signaled a significant moment of change for me.

I have not been a stranger to change.  In my relatively short career I have worked in four different school districts, six different schools, been a teacher and administrator at both elementary and middle school levels, had my job expand as part of two districts merging, and seen a few (said sarcastically) state and federal initiatives implemented.  In each instance, I have approached the change with excitement, a sense of ease and with no anxiety.  However, something about this change was different and I could not quite put my finger on it.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about why this change felt so different and have determined that the biggest difference this time is that I had not had that time to fully settle into my previous role before having to change.  Someone that I have a lot of respect for has told me that, "it takes at least three years in a new role before you can learn everything you need to in order to be effective at the level you want to be."  Having only been a principal for one year and then shifting to a new school did not provide me with the time to develop the appropriate comfort level in my first role.  As a result, my mind was not fully "open" to this change and I began to struggle with some of the common feelings associated with change; anxiety, loss, fear and unbalance.  However, this experience and sense of disequilibrium has afforded me the opportunity to think deeply about change and my role in guiding it as a leader.

Our district is in the midst of a significant change as we reorganize ourselves to best meet the needs of our students in an environment of declining student enrollment and a competitive school choice market.  Learning from my own recent experience, I know that many (if not all) members of our school community will experience some level of unease during this process.  While there is much uncertainty as we begin the next phase of this transition, there are a few things we can count on:

Change is coming

By this time next year, one of our schools will be closed and the three remaining schools will look and feel completely different than they did at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.  There is nothing we can do to stop this reality.  Just like the changing of the tides, it is going to happen and all we can do is be sure that we are not caught unprepared.  

We are in this together

These changes effect every single member of our school community in one way or another.  While some may believe this fosters chaos and that change should happen in small steps to small populations, I believe large scale change fosters solidarity.  It is easier to have empathy for our neighbor when we too are experiencing the same disruption in our life.  A good friend of mine shared an analogy with me that I think applies well here.  It is as if we are all launching boat from the shore.  Each of us has a hand on the boat, we are all pushing in the same direction and we all have the same goal.

Mistake will happen

This one by far is the most difficult one for me.  It is hard for me to admit that I will fail before I have even begun something; however, I do know that mistakes and failures are opportunities for learning.  We will face many challenges in this transition (and throughout the rest of our professional careers) and we will devise solutions to meet those challenges.  Some will work, some will not.  As long as we continue to take a problem-solving approach, as opposed to a problem-identifying approach, we will be able to learn from our mistakes and make the necessary improvements to guarantee our students the high quality education they deserve.  

We can do this, and do it well

Change is opportunity.  All great advancements have come throughout history when a group of people have challenged the status quo and looked for a "better" way of doing things.  We have an amazing opportunity which many educators will never see in their professional careers.  We have the opportunity to create two "new" schools.  We can work together to build every aspect of the school (configuration, community, culture, schedule, intervention, enrichment, professionalism, outreach, etc.) from the ground up and do so with a singular focus on the development of the best schools in the state.  

Engaged or On Task

Photo Credit: wordpress.com

I was fortunate enough to attend a professional development opportunity last month with Irene Fountas where we were discussing the role of a leader in literacy instruction. At one point in the day she asked, "What is the difference between students that are on task and students that are engaged?" She paused for a brief moment to let that ruminate and then moved on with the larger point she was constructing. I will be totally honest, I have no idea what she said for the next 4-5 minutes. This one seemingly innocent question had sparked a series of synaptic sparks that sent my mind racing. I have spent the last month thinking and reading about this question and have experienced a shift in my thinking.

One month and one day ago, I would have used on-task behavior as a synonym for student engagement. I would have said that the studenst being on task was the behavioral evidence that I could use to observe their engagement in the learning process. However, I now find myself asking that just because a student is busy, does it mean that she is actively learning anything?
I read this blog from Education Week where one of the thinkers interviewed gave this example:

Feel the difference between these two sets of instructions:"You're going to read the next three pages.  When you finish, you are going to answer the five questions that follow the reading." 

Vs. 

"When I tell you to begin, you will have 1 minute 45 seconds. You are going to read the next paragraph looking for the main point.  As you read, you are going to highlight any words or phrases that support what you believe is the main point. When you are finished, be prepared to share with a partner or with the entire class.  You may begin."

I could observe the students in both classes and say that they are on-task, but which two approaches are more likely to lead to active engagement by students?  In the second example, there is a more concrete, time-bound expectation for student thinking and action.  The task is in a smaller chunk which allows less opportunity for students to disengaged and there is an expectation that students will publicly share their thinking.  In one class period you could accomplish the first task with a group of third graders, or you could do the second task 3-4 times in the same period with different paragraphs.  Which would be a better approach for teaching main idea?  Which approach would likely have more students thinking, talking and writing about main idea?  Which approach would be more likely to result in learning that would last beyond that class period?

Engagement means agency for students.  It means that they are actively involved in and contributing towards the learning process.  It means that they are working hard; engaged students go home tired at the end of the day.  Engaged learning looks like a classroom where students spend the majority of their time thinking, talking or writing about content and/or ideas.  While teachers are presenting students with new information and coaching the learning process, they are not doing the thinking for the students or spending the majority of the lesson speaking at the students.  

Planning for Engagment

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The most important question we should always ask ourselves before planning a lesson is: "What exactly will the students know and be able to do, or do better, by the end of this lesson?"  Determining the learning objective and clearly articulating it for ourselves helps us to examine activities we have planned to ensure they support a student's active engagement in that skill.  The internet provides us with a plethora of ideas, ready made activities, and fully developed lesson plans.  However, as educators we are responsible for curating these resources and making purposeful decisions about their effectiveness in supporting our students' active engagement in learning.  A fancy worksheet downloaded of TpT that keeps kids busy at a center for 20 minutes, may be nothing more than a really fancy low-level activity that turns students into passive learners.  There is an expression that says, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig."  Let's make sure we are not dressing up any pigs.  Let's design lessons that engage students in higher level thinking like categorizing, evaluation and creating.  I discussed the idea of higher level thinking at the elementary level in an earlier post here.

Literacy: A Principal's Perspective

In the late 90's there was this television show that was a guilty pleasure of mine called "The Pretender."  The gist of the show was that there was this lead character, Jarrod, who had been a child prodigy.  In his adult life he was on the run (from some super secret cliche government shady organization) and he would hide in plain sight by pretending to be these other people.  One episode he would be a doctor who would end up saving someone's life in this miraculous surgery and in another episode he might be a race car driver that would help some struggling race team to win the big race and get a national sponsor.  Each episode was a new career that Jarrod had to master in order to successfully navigate the challenges he faced during that 60 minute episode.  During my first 8 months on the job as a principal, I see a lot of parallels between "The Pretender" and "The Principal."

Now let's be clear from the start, I am no child prodigy, I can't perform surgery and while I like rev the motor on my 4 cylinder Honda Civic... a race car driver I am not.  However, I have learned that a principal is expected to be a master of many different things.  In a given week the principal is asked to provide advice and/or make decisions on a variety of items that span a wide range of topics from the best approaches to teaching reading to a child with ADHD to the best way to change traffic flow in the building when your school will be used as a voting location.  While I accept and enjoy this challenge, it does often make it difficult to focus on any one topic for an extended period of time.  I recently had the opportunity to spend four days at Lesley University exploring the role of principal in the Literacy Collaborative Model.  This uninterrupted period of time helped me to deepen my own knowledge of what a quality system for teaching reading and writing looks like; it also afforded me some time to reflect on what role I can play in supporting that as a principal. From that reflection came four big ideas that will drive me moving forward.

Support your Coach

I have worked in several districts during my career in education, but this is the first time I have been lucky enough to work in a district that supports the funding for coaches.  While some districts may have coaches for particular content areas and not others (as we do), a coach's greatest benefit to a school is not in his/her knowledge of the content area.  Rather, a coach best serves a school through his/her ability to do three things: carefully observe pedagogy, ask questions that encourage reflection and support teachers (and principals) as their thinking continues to evolve.  The coach is able to provide this experience in a way that is not connected to a professional's evaluation.  The teacher does not need to worry about his/her job performance when meeting with the coach, rather the teacher has the opportunity to completely open himself/herself to the learning experience inherent in coaching.  In their meta-analysis for the book Classroom Instruction that Works, Marzano, Pickering and Pollock showed that specific and timely feedback that is connected to clear criterion has a dramatic effect on student learning.  It would be foolish to assume that this does not also apply to adult learners.  Every professional can benefit from the information, feedback and reflection that they get from the coaching experience.  Any educator who thinks he/she has "got it" has not truly considered what it means to be a learner.  Learners know that there is no end on the journey of learning.  Theory evolves, science makes discoveries, experiences are collected, children change, communities change and on and on... can we honestly expect we have learned it all when the "all" is constantly changing?  

As a principal it is my responsibility to ensure all my staff are taking advantage of the coaching experience.  If my coach is not running around like a chicken with his/her head cut off trying to get to all the people that want coaching appointments, then my staff is not growing and I am failing.  The staff and the coach need to understand how much I value the coaching experience and the value I place on it for our continued growth and success.  

Support your Teachers

While I do remember an episode when "The Pretender" was a teacher, the principal is not going to be teaching the students to read and write.  It will be the teachers in the building that do.  In the same book referenced above, Marzano, Pickering and Pollock found that single most important factor that affects student learning is the teacher.  So what does this mean for a principal?  It means that a principal's single most important job is to make sure his teachers are the best they can be and that they continue to get better.  This is not accomplished by hard-line tactics, negative evaluations and leadership by decree; however, it is also not accomplished by sitting in your office, hoping for the best and trusting that it will all work out.  A principal supports his/her teachers when he/she is seeking opportunities that will further teachers' knowledge, challenge assumptions about learning, create opportunities for teachers to meet, and develop common beliefs and understandings around teaching and learning.  He/she empowers them to be the professionals our students and families deserve and holds them accountable to those standards

Listen

Not to beat a dead horse, but the principal can't be expected to know all things.  However, the principal is the final decision maker in a school; therefore a principal is left with two choices: either make uninformed decisions, or ask some questions and listen to the people who know more than he/she does.  Knowledge presents itself in a variety of ways; experiences, schooling, reading and many other factors add to a person's knowledge.  A principal would be foolish to assume there wasn't something to learn from each person he/she came into contact with.  Therefore principals should take the time to listen to the thoughts, ideas and concerns of his teachers, parents, coach and interventionists.  Each person brings a unique set of experiences and their own perspective to each challenge the school faces.  When exploring the best way to schedule a literacy block, plan for intervention, monitor student growth or improve the quality of students response to writing the principal is obligated to not only hear the voices of the staff in the building, but participate in quality active listening that will allow him/her to deepen his/her knowledge base and broaden his/her perception, so as to make an informed decision that best meets the needs of students.

Model Learning

There is a quote from Albert Einstein that I love.  It states, "Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death."  The teaching of literacy is a constantly evolving paradigm; brain research, educational research and the day-to-day interactions between teachers and students continue to inform our practice.  The most effective teachers are and will continue to be those that understand that there is always more to learn about the science of teaching and that (like doctors, lawyers and accountants) teachers are professionals that must stay up-to-date on current thinking in their field.  I would not feel comfortable going to see a doctor who had not been to a conference or read a medical journal in five years, and nor should parents feel comfortable sending their child to a teacher that has not attended a conference or, taken a class or read an education article in five years.  As principal, it is important that I communicate this belief regularly and take the same approach to my own learning.  Of these four big ideas, this one comes the most naturally to me.  Whether it be leadership theory, literacy, math, changing the brakes on my car, or french braiding my daughter's hair I know there is a lifetime worth of learning in front of me.  I feel compelled to share this information with the staff in my building.  I find myself shooting off emails about a great video I saw on math instruction to my kindergarten teachers on a Sunday morning, or a thought provoking blog on "close reading" to my upper elementary ELA teachers on a Wednesday night (usually from a School Committee meeting).  I start getting antsy if I have not tweeted something on my Twitter account, not because I have a lot of followers (because I surely don't) and I feel like they are missing me, but rather that this is a sign to me that I have not been keeping up on my own learning.  I tweet what I learn, so no tweeting means no learning and that is not OK.
The locations from which an individual can access knowledge in today's world are endless.  Some of my favorites are books (yeah those things still exist), YouTube, Twitter, email newsletters, conversation, and TED Talks.  Regardless of where new learning comes from it is important for those of us in education to continue to seek it out, share it with others, challenge our own assumptions and reshape our perceptions.

I don't ever remember an episode where "The Pretender" ever assumed the role of "The Principal", but if he had I don't think it would have made for very good television.  And while Morgan Freeman played a compelling and motivating character in Lean on Me, I think the keys to fostering a school environment that supports students on their journey to literate life is best done through these four (no so Hollywood) ideas.