I am so fortunate to be starting my third year as part of the School Administrator Virtual Mentor Program, #SAVMP, where administrators from across the country and around the world connect to learn and reflect through ongoing conversations and blog posts. This month, we're talking about the different ways we connect with our school community. You can read the entire #SAVMP prompt/post here. This year, I am so lucky to be connected with Sue Tonneson, a principal in Victoria, British Columbia! I love our conversations on Voxer-- they make my commute fly by!
From the #SAVMP blog:
The first question we are going to focus on is in based on the idea of creating strong relationships to build a solid foundation in your school. From our collective experience, we have seen many administrators focus on the idea of being “innovative” before focusing on the spending time with staff, students, and understanding classrooms. As George Couros would say, “Innovation is a human endeavor”, and it is important that we focus on these connections first. So here is the first question, whether you are a principal, vice-principal, or on any part of a leadership team:
“What are some ways you connect
with your school community?”
First, I LOVE this prompt. I truly believe that relationships must come first, whether you are talking about students, staff, or families. At our school, we have three things that we feel are our signature practices-- the things that make our school unique and special: PBL--Our project based learning approach, Assessment-- and all of the different ways we know students are learning, and Connected Community-- our focus on social emotional learning, and health and happiness, as perhaps our most important school initiative. Included in our connected community focus is also the use of technology to build relationships and to tell our school story to the community and the world.
How do we connect?
Face to Face is one way!
Drop off
Connecting starts in the parking lot!
I LOVE drop off. Rain or shine-- I cannot wait to greet our families and students!
We will even open your car door to say good morning!
Our custodians and teachers waiting to open car doors at drop off every day!
Walking to school!
Connecting with hugs
And at recess
Dancing!
Rainy day recess
Four days a week we start the day dancing!
Connecting in classrooms
2nd grade book club
small group math
Ashley Crane and her 3rd grade students
At meetings and professional development...
building relationships one meeting at a time!
STEM challenge with the staff from Stoneridge Elementary
4th grade collaboration between 2 schools!
Back to school PD= dancing as a staff!
Ro-sham bo tournament
Lego grade level challenge
Facebook, Twitter and Technology, oh my!
One of my favorite ways to connect with our school community is our Facebook page. This page isn't public- it's actually secret, and you have to be added to the group to post and view. This group now has almost 500 members, and parents , staff, and community members post every single day! Last year. when we were enrolling over 200 new families, the first thing we did was invite them to join our FB group- in hopes that they would really get a sense of how we are as a school community from joining. We loved being able to connect with and get to know our new families- months before they set foot on our campus. Many of our families use FB as their go to place to find out what is happening in our school. (I post every communication on FB, via Remind text, and on our school website-- trying to reach families where they are!)
Aargh!
Our counselor posting about Kind Kids Club & #socktober
Our City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby posts about community events!
I love posting from classrooms!
Parents posting! THIS happens every day!
Sharing about our school with Joe Wood and Brandon Blom --when I'm off campus at a conference!
Teachers post from field trips!
Spirit day posts by parents
Twitter
We love Twitter at our school! Teachers tweet out the awesome things happening in classrooms and these show up in the feed on our webpage, too. It's like Open House every day, and it allows our staff and teachers to see into other classrooms without ever leaving their class or office. Follow us at @staracademyncs and our #ncsstar hashtag. (We also use #ncsinnovate to connect all five academies at Natomas Charter School!)
Connecting can make every day feel like the best day!
I love to write. I need to write. And I haven't blogged since JULY. Actually, that's kind of true. You see, I write blog posts in my head all the time. When I'm walking, and driving-- inspiration is everywhere. And once in awhile a post makes it out of my head and onto the page. This post is inspired by two things I saw yesterday. One, a post by George Couros "Blogging Is Your Job", where he wrote,
"People may ask, “Why do you have to blog? Why not just reflect?”
When you reflect on your own, you are accountable to yourself.
When you blog, you are accountable to yourself and others.
Others need to hear your voice."
So, there was that post challenging me to make time to write. And there was also THIS.
Yes, that's Adam Levine and I was 7 rows up from the stage when this blog post started writing itself in my head. As I watched the concert, I couldn't help noticing how EVERYTHING I saw was a leadership lesson unfolding right in front of me.
I've been reflecting a lot lately on what it means to lead like a rockstar. And how it has nothing to do with flash or sparkle or being larger than life. At a recent CUE Rockstar Admin camp at Skywalker Ranch, a superintendent asked if we really want districts and schools to be filled with rockstar leaders. Such a great question, and it really got me thinking. In that moment, I realized that I may have created a perception that leading like a rockstar means something I did not intend. That you have to dance every day. That you need a disco ball speaker. That you need to go on a slide. These are things I do, but it's not really what leading like a rockstar is really about at it's core. But I couldn't really find the words to explain it.
Until last night.
And so, here is my reflection.
Leadership lessons from Maroon 5.
1. Be All In.
From the moment Maroon 5 hit the stage, they were all in for almost two hours straight. Intense. Focused. Passion and energy permeated the arena, all the way to the roof. As leaders, we need to be all in for our schools, and every day we need to bring passion and energy and an intense focus on our work so that we can make school the best we can for kids. Even when we are tired and feel like we can't. Last night's concert was the second to the last date on the entire tour, and the whole band was all in like it was the first night.
2. Focus on 100% Engagement
What does 100% engagement look like? Last night it was 19,000 people on their feet dancing and singing for the entire Maroon 5 show. "Isn't that what you do at a concert?" you ask? Yes, it is, but for the two opening acts, even with the flashing lights and sound, I actually don't recall seeing anyone on their feet, and certainly not the whole place. Why was it different with Maroon 5? Because we know and love the band and the songs! Isn't this when you get 100% engagement in classrooms? When kids know and love their teacher and are excited about the content? When it's being delivered in an engaging way? When the classroom culture is established so that all kids are all in for their learning? It doesn't have to be flashy, either. It could be 100% of kids fully immersed in books on the floor and around their classroom. Maroon 5 had us 100% engaged the whole time. All 19,000 of us. Unreal. A real-life, four C's, totally rad lesson plan rolled out before me. If only school felt like the video for Sugar when Maroon 5 crashed several weddings in one day!
3. Celebrate your crew.
My seats were actually somewhat behind the stage which gave me an awesome behind the scenes view- we could see the artists coming from below the arena, the movement of equipment, and even the fog machine. Behind the curtain, and on the stage, countless people were responsible for the incredible show- each with an important role. The kind of magic Maroon 5 displayed doesn't happen by accident, and is the result of hard work by a ton of people who we may never even see. In addition to the arena staff, there were at least 11 people on or around the stage, probably more, changing out guitars, pushing buttons, changing the lights, checking sound levels and playing in the band. Adam Levine celebrated his crew multiple times during the show, calling several out by name, and being sure we all screamed loudly to appreciate them. As leaders, we must celebrate our crew-- every person on our campus plays an important piece in the "show" we put on every day. Everyone --the maintenance team, campus supervisors, food services, office staff, the IT team, teachers, instructional assistants, parents, and students. How can we intentionally celebrate our crew every day? We need to show appreciation in big and small ways so that everyone feels valued and important. Little notes, a hug, a thank you, a complimentary email, or even a public shout out on your Twitter or Facebook can make a huge difference.
4. It's HARD work and it's worth it
At the start of the show, Adam had on a flannel type shirt. After about 10 minutes in he ripped that off and the crowd went wild! While everyone else was thinking about the fact that he had ripped his shirt off, of course I was writing this blog post in my head... and I thought about how when we are all in and bringing our best for kids, it is HARD work! It's messy, and although we don't necessarily get hot and sweaty like the band, we can sometimes be exhausted by it all. Did Adam complain that he was getting hot? No way! Adam took off his shirt, got comfortable, and settled in for the rest of the show. In reality he was in the midst of a two hour physical workout- all so we could have this MAGICAL experience. Our days can feel like a Maroon 5 level workout sometimes, but the kids are worth it! And we all have it in us to dig deep even when it's getting a little hot on the job :)
5. Every band needs a front man
When I think of Maroon 5, I think of Adam. He's the name I know, the guy in the spotlight. The rest of the crew is important, but every band has a leader out in front, setting the tone and having the conversation with the crowd. Last night it was Adam Levine, and in our schools it's usually the superintendent or principal who is the public face, the person who sets the tone for the whole school or organization. Being the front man means being vulnerable sometimes. Last night, during the encore set, Adam introduced his new song that had been released the day before and he talked about how he was nervous about that. Adam Levine nervous? I would never have thought that, but I love that he shared it. Sometimes it's tough to be in the spotlight, to be the front man. To be vulnerable. But we desperately need strong leaders with clear vision and big hearts and dreams to be out in front for our kids.
6. Nobody wanted to leave
After the last song of the show, the band exited the stage. People kept clapping and cheering, hoping for an encore. I saw lights flickering around the stage, and for a moment thought it was the lights of cell phones leaving the arena. I kept watching and I noticed that no one was leaving. No one. Everyone wanted more. As a person who has attended many, many games and watched arenas empty before the final buzzer just to avoid traffic, I was stunned. No one wanted to leave. The lights? It was cell phones lit up like lighters from the past signaling them to come back out for a song or two. We wanted more Maroon 5 magic. More passion. More music. This was perhaps the biggest a ha of the night for me. How can we make school feel like this for kids? That they love it so much they can't wait to arrive each day? How can we make our organization a place people will never want to leave? To really build culture in schools and districts you need to hire and retain the best people. I left last night feeling even more committed to being a leader who makes school a place that people love to be a part of, committed to building relationships with staff, students, and families as a top priority every day.
I never expected last night's concert to inspire a post about leadership lessons. There are REAL rockstars, like Maroon 5 and Adam Levine, and there are rockstar leaders. As I shared before, leading like rockstar has really nothing to do with a disco ball speaker or dancing with kids every day, although those are things that I do to set the tone in our school, there are SO many amazing school leaders out there who embrace rockstar leadership in different ways. Some are all in, being the front man, and doing the hard work in rolling out new technology in their school or working hard on analyzing data to inform instruction so that every student grows. Some are celebrating their crews by making phone calls home for awesome kids or writing positive notes to students. And all of them are learners- being inspired by and taking note of what others are doing in their schools and organizations so they can try the ideas in their own schools. I always say that the best things happening in my school are inspired by what I have learned from others. Even Adam Levine is inspired by other rockstars :)
"Are we there yet?" From the time I was little, every road trip, every plane ride, every vacation included this question. And when my kids were little, they asked it, too. Always focused on the destination which often seemed far away.
And then the other day I was hiking near Carson Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail with my husband with Showers Lake as our destination. And in my mind, I heard the question:
Are we there yet?
So focused on the destination, and yet all around me the most beautiful views you can imagine. As I stopped at to capture moments with my camera, it hit me. Life, and our work is about the journey. This summer has been an interesting one as I realized there is no real way for me to separate my life from my work-- my work is my passion-- and every lesson I learn along the way has meaning for me as a friend, a wife, a mom, and as a leader. And so, in spite of those who say educators have "summers off", I offer this-- learning can happen everywhere! Even on a hike. This blog post was composed mostly in my head along the 12.2 mile journey, and it was somewhere near the top of the mountain when we weren't quite there, unsure if we would EVER arrive at Showers Lake that the title revealed itself: Are we there yet?
Lesson #1: Look
Notice everything. The sky, the color of blue, the clouds, or in this case the magic of a cloudless day. The reflection of the water. The colors of green. And in our daily lives, notice the people around us, their eyes, their smiles, the expression on their face. Don't miss a moment.
Lesson #2: Listen
Quiet is powerful. As we hiked together, I listened to birds, and beetles, and the sound of the wind in the trees. Several times we stopped to cross streams which involved me, unbalanced, navigating across rocks.
And then I stopped to listen to the sound of the water. Click below to listen :)
We need to listen more to each other.
Lesson #3: Learn
In my life, I struggle with balance and technology can be overwhelming. But even on this hike I was exploring and learning with technology. The sound of the water I recorded with AudioBoom, a podcasting app, and the picture below is one of my first attempts at taking a 360 picture with the Google Street View app. And I even tracked our progress using All Trails and GPS so I would know IF WE WERE THERE YET! And after 6.2 miles in, we arrived. Yes! I don't think you can view them properly in a blog post, but I was so excited to learn how to do this! I TRIED embedding code below... can you see them?
Lesson #4: Laugh
Take time to be silly, have fun, and do things that make you laugh. It feels good! Selfies are fun.
Lesson #5: Conserve Your Battery
In life and in work, we have a limited amount of energy, just like our phones! Had I left all of my apps open and the internet on, I would have not been able to track our progress, to record the stream, or to capture images that I didn't want to forget. To conserve my battery while hiking, I always put my phone in airplane mode, which allowed us to hike for over 6 hours and never run out of power. So too, in life, we need to disconnect, to relax, to rest and recharge so that we can bring our best selves to our life an our work.
In this way, we can enjoy the journey, finish strong, and reach our destination!
