School Administrators: Filling Your Vitality Bucket

Whether you are a school leader, teacher, or parent, you are on a mission to take care of people and help them learn to take care of themselves. At the school level, trying to get our students exposed to and proficient  at 21st Century skills is time consuming and exhausting. To be responsible for any type of leading takes energy and passion. Here are some things I use to keep filling my bucket:

• Family and Friends: Surround yourself with people you love and who love you. 

Spending time with my husband and children keeps me centered. My parents and other family members do the same. From traveling around the world to playing board games by the fireplace, they fill my bucket. Surrounding myself with people who I care about and care about me gets me through even the most challenging times. Filling each others' buckets is rewarding as well.

• Colleagues: Connect with people locally, nationally, or globally to collaborate. 

In this day, they do not need to be people in your building or district.Working with people we can relate to and learn from has been key to helping me through trying times. Their support and collaboration fills my bucket. I am lucky that I work with a great admin team. I have networks through Twitter and professional organizations that keep me moving forward to better myself and my building.

• The Kids: Focusing on the ones we do it all for is instrumental to filling our buckets. 

Students are the reason we do it. Focusing on their best interests. Letting their learning and accomplishments become our recognition and reward is what it is all about. When I see a student take pride in his or her work, earn a grade that they have been striving for, or even seeing a light bulb go off as they understand something new for the first time is priceless.

• Professional Organization(s): Find an organization whose mission speaks to you.  

This way you can not only get the support you need, but you can take a leadership role to support others.MEMSPA has been a resource to keep my bucket full.  MEMSPA has been a great avenue to helping me feel I am a value to others and the profession. I have also been able to establish networks of support, engage in activities and excellent professional learning.

• Good Health: You must take care of yourself before you can take care of others. 

No matter who you are, exercise and taking care of yourself helps re-energize you and fill your bucket. Also, a part of taking care of yourself includes getting enough rest and eating right.

• Mindset: Make the decision to be positive. 

Postivity and the decision to keep your bucket filled and filling others' buckets can keep you on the right track. This mindset has been vital to helping me through a great deal of professional and personally adversity. Mindset is everything.

5 Tips for Positive Student Outcomes

While it is not an easy, one-size-fits-all formula, several factors are positively related to middle school student success. 

1) Manners can go a long way.

Education is no different than business, retail, customer service, etc. The kinder you are, the more people will gladly help. Educators are exhausted personalizing curriculum, formative and summarize assessing, planning engaging and challenging curriculum to match state expectations, and trying to get to know sometimes over 150 students personally when only seeing them for 50 minutes a day. Students who use their pleases and thank yous, smile and greet their teachers, and offer to help clean up at the end of a lesson get noticed. It is only natural for well-mannered and kind people to get that back in return. When students respect their teachers and use such manners, it is easier to establish a bond.

2) Strong work ethic pays off. 

Students who exercise and demonstrate strong work ethic get both noticed and the benefit of the doubt more. Doing all assignments with pride and doing them well has several advantages: 1) it demonstrates to the teacher that the student is a hard worker and cares about his or her work and grade; 2) it proves to the student his or her ability and skills; and 3) it usually has a direct and positive effect on the grade for the class. 

3) Organization is key. 

This is difficult for some people, and learning how to do and/or improve it is a life skill that is needed to be successful. Organization includes prioritizing, time management, and categorizing. If students are struggling here, it is important to try out several systems to find one that fits their learning and doing style. My middle school children use two completely different systems than I, but they both have found great success. It is key that the student own the method. 

4) Commitment must be personalized. 

Incentives work for many kids, but when the desire to do well comes from within, success comes easier and tends to be more rewarding. When teachers and parents want it more than the students, they often get frustrated. Helping students see the benefits and success and sharing with them your own struggles and accomplishments is setting up a good foundation for them. 

5) Home support increases student chances of success.  Students need to be held accountable both at school and at home. Regular attendance is directly related to better academics. Just 10 absences has a statistically significant negative impact on a students' academics. The more a student is out of the classroom, the more opportunities for learning are missed. Parents who check grades once a week can catch issues before it's too late. Setting daily routines of a homework time and place is instrumental. Even studying with your students has both academic benefits and even connects the parent with his or her child during adolescence which can be quite challenging for students. 

All of these habits can become life-long skills for our students as they grow into adults. Our world can be a much better place with organized, hard-working, well-mannered people who are committed to doing well. 

21st Century Skills: Positive Direction for Students

MCS teachers are on year 3 with student 1:1 iPads and are becoming strong experts in teaching and developing the 21st Century skills. Traditional teaching is not preparing our students for their best options in this journey of life. With students walking around with computers in their hands, having access to just about any and all information, memorization of facts is an-outdated, unneeded practice. Knowing what to do with information, how to communicate it, how to work with others and problem-solve, and doing it all with creativity is what students need the most.

Road blocks, however, exist. People become confused or worried when change occurs especially when it is not the way it has always been done or is not an experience that matches their own. Teachers are trying to make shifts in practice that is based on better practice, but it someones is not always greeted with acceptance. I have witnessed this with both CCSS and standards-based grading.

The CCSS is about a shift in practice; it is about a common set of standards for students. I am not so sure why so much political controversy should exist over having set knowledge expectations for our students to learn. That could be an entirely different blog post. However, the notion behind the instructional practice of the standards is to encourage students to think for themselves and dig to a deeper understanding of information and analysis.

Standards-based grading is measuring student proficiency on a set of objectives. This method is extremely informative, individualized, and fits the shifts needed to teach 21st Century skills, but it too is not widely accepted because parents pressure educators to give letter grades--they way our learning was measured and the way we were compared.

Traditional practices are no longer preparing our children. What was good enough for us, is no longer good enough for our children. We need to evolve.

My favorite understanding of the student-centered verses teacher-centered approach stems from the paradigm descriptors by Huba and Freed (2000). While their research was based at the post-secondary level, these descriptors and student-centered practice is becoming widely used in both elementary and secondary classrooms. These practices fit the instructional shifts of the CCSS and the individualized and personalized instruction that more teachers are delivering to their students. In my dissertation, student-centered instructional practice (SCIP) is defined using Huba and Freed (2000) descriptors which were factored together in a quantitative study. SCIP involves 1)  giving students continuous feedback; 2) training and treating students as sophisticated learners; 3) making learning interpersonal; 4) using teacher-to-student and student-to-student coaching; 5) having students understand, produce, and identify quality work; 6) having students being able to apply what they have learned; 7) continuously include teaching and assessing; and 8) applying both general and subject skills. SCIP differs greater from the traditional approach of where the teacher is the giver of the information and the students passively obtain it.

Stakeholders, however, sometimes see SCIP, where the teacher is the facilitator of information, as the teacher being "lazy" or not doing his or her job. As one can see from the descriptors, this instructional practice is quite intensive to plan, implement, and assess. It is this method which fosters the 4Cs.

Here you can find the National Education Association's (NEA) Guide to the 4Cs which highlights the importance of teaching them, resources, and definitions.

Our educators are working harder than they have ever done before. They are preparing our children for jobs that we have no idea of their existence yet. Our educators are making learning more engaging, interactive, personalized, self-driven WHILE being evaluated, judged, dragged through social media for taking risks to prepare our children for the new world ahead of them, ahead of all of us.

21st Century skills are the new foundation--the new 3Rs--to make our students successful. Teaching, fostering, and facilitating communication skills, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking are all a solid foundation for this journey, and MCS educators and students are paving the way. This is a positive direction for our students. Be a part of the journey.

Positive Outlook on Today's Students

I'd like to think that my husband and I are raising our children right. They are good people. They know about work ethic, respect, and high expectations. They also, like all of today's youth, have never lived a life without technology. They have become accustomed to instant feedback, answers, and entertainment right at their figure tips. I have worried about my kids, both biological and students, when it comes to this sense of entitlement that seems present; however, during #thegreatkindnesschallenge, I have seen this a lot differently.

While our kids are entertained and used to us as parents socializing them, running them to countless activities, hovering over them, and keeping them as safe as we possibly can, they are learning about love, kindness, and connection.

The students and staff at MMS have been given a challenge this week. Builders Club and Manchester Voices have teamed up to encourage them to be kind to others. Students have embraced this challenge! In addition to all their kind deeds this week, they are working on service projects with their advisory teachers, and they spent last week participating in a CRC drive sponsored by PTSA. Our students are connected, kind, and want to help others. We have several student groups who do for others. Student Council sponsors our "Successory Program," which thanks staff members, and student incentive programs, which recognizes students. FUTP60 promotes student health. Builders Club does several charitable projects, including Kids Against Hunger. Manchester Voices sponsors our Diversity Day on MLK Day and our Variety Show in addition to countless other activities. This is just to name a few of our groups in our school community. I am seeing our students' greatness through caring for others, and this is a trait that will be valuable for the rest of their lives.

Now that's positive news for us all! We need caring and kind people leading us in the future.

Positive Power Perseveres

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” - Dr. Wayne Dyer

I have decided that I want more positivity in my life. Just by making that decision, positivity perseveres. As Dr. Dyer's quote suggests, we have the power to change our outlook and view of people, places, and things. One cannot do away with negativity completely. Being in education, I am faced with it trying to enter my positive bubble force on a daily basis, but choosing not to let it consume me has made both my professional and personal life better. Being an administrator means that I cannot make everyone happy. My mother, one of the most selfless, caring, and supportive human beings on this earth, reminded me when I first took the principalship to remember that if I made everyone happy that I wouldn't be doing my job or a good one at that. 

Staying positive means being grounded in something important. While many grounding features keep my life in check, my professional grounding comes from the students. Working with adolescents with one foot in the child world and the other in the adult word is a fascinating time of watching them learn more about who they are and what they want to become. Modeling positive attitudes and perseverance is important for their successful and happy lives as well. Deflecting negativity is not as difficult when I have student interests grounded in decision making.

Here are words of encouragement to make sure you stay positive:

1) Make a conscious decision to focus on positivity. Share that decision with others. If others around you are being negative, tell them that you choose to stay positive. Change or leave the conversation. Too many parts of our day are uncontrollable. We can only control what we do and how we respond to others.

2) Ground yourself. Whether it is spiritual, personal, or even justification on why you are doing what you do, have something that keeps you focused on what is important. It is easier to stay positive when you are fighting for what you believe is essential.

3) Count your blessings. It is easier to stay positive when you take each day to remember for what you are grateful. Try a gratitude journal and document five things each day that you have in your life.

4) Be contagious. Get others to join you in being positive. It only takes a matter of seconds for someone to bring your mood down. Do not let that happen. Make it your mission to change their attitude. If you can't change their mind, get out before their virus of negativity spreads.

5) Laugh More. It's easier to stay positive when you are happy. Surround yourself with funny people. Participate in fun events. Create fun meetings or activities for those around you. Laughing lowers stress and keeps your happy. Read the comics, follow funny Twitter quotes, etc. Try one of these:15 Funniest People on Twitter that Keep It Clean." Surround yourself with happiness. 

Make the decision now. You have the power to make sure positivity perseveres in and around you! 

What a Great Start to the New School Year!

Staying positive is easier when you focus on positive people, positive situations, and positive outcomes. For this blog, I want to focus on some of the positive influences and practices in our district.

First, it is exciting to have many of our initiatives and leadership roles being streamlined. For the first time in years, it feels like we are working smarter and not harder. Our main district initiatives are focused on student achievement through technology integration, curriculum mapping, and data to drive instruction which are all a part of the teacher evaluation systems AND supported by thoughtful professional development. This sets the framework for a successful year.

Second, the right, qualified staff members are falling into place. Starting the year out with three staff members down was a challenge, but I am very excited about the people we have to fill those positions. The building feels ready to tackle the new school year and make the best of it.

Third, staff and students are back with smiling faces. Being happy, having fun, and laughing are all key to being positive and in turn having a successful, rewarding school year. I will continue several initiatives and create new ones to continue to foster a culture of happy, positive employees and students.

• We will continue our "Caught Being Good" student program where teachers submit student names for being good. We recognize them on the PA system and give students a prize.
• We will continue our "Golden Apple Award" for staff who are team players and go above expectations for our students.
• We will continue our "Successory Program" where students submit slips for staff who have helped make them more successful.
• I will pass out positivity cards with personal notes of appreciation.
• I will send home postcards to students who stand out.
• I will encourage staff and students to laugh, enjoy education, and have fun.
• I will model positivity to all.

Here's hoping all those in the field of education have a positive and successful 2014-15 school year! 

Journey to Positivity

According to Merriam-Webster, positivity is "the quality or state of being positive." There are so many road blocks and detours to the destination of a positive outlook. People are more stressed than ever, children and adults alike. Stress and countless demands on us are major road blocks. Other barriers include depression, pain, negative surroundings/people, and shortage of resources just to name a few.

If one were on a journey or treasure hunt to find positivity, what would it take to get there? Obviously hope and confidence are important prior to starting any journey. One needs to believe that he or she can and will get to his or her destination. Others might just need faith. Certain skills are also needed. Some of these might be prior knowledge, but others are learned along the way. A sense of decision making and/or guidance are key for reading and following directions of the map (people and environment). How does a person determine his or her compass? This tool makes for a safer journey.  Resilience to all the obstacles one encounters would be helpful for a quicker and safer journey. For me personally, love and support our vital not only my destination, but my chance to live at positivity rather than just visit from time to time.

Not only is it important for us to achieve our treasure, but how can we go about helping others to positivity too? Just as negativity can spread, we can help positive mindsets breed better surroundings for all. I find it difficult to not get sucked into negativity when I am tired and stressed, and when we get a couple, family, or group of colleagues or students together who are being negative, a great deal of damage can be done. We must remind ourselves and each other not to cave in to this.

Many benefits exist for people who are positive thinkers. Mayo Clinic reports that benefits include increased life span, lower rates of depression, greater resistance to illness, and better coping skills during hardships and times of stress. 

It is important to help each other to overcome barriers and obtain these gems to a better life. Many travelers can exist in this journey of life. Who we chose to be can make a difference. Being the guide, coach, leader, caregiver, lover, supporter, motivator, and/or warrior cannot only get you to your destination, but it can also assist others. Threats along the path can prevent a person from arriving as well as cause others to lose their way. 

I will be trying my best to stay positive, to share my love, to offer support, and to fight evil along the way. Which traveler will you be?