The school year is in full swing and although we are thrilled that students across the country and the globe are back in person, there is undoubtedly a lot of trepidation as educational and principal leaders navigate this difficult time. Not only are there ongoing, daily issues that we wrestle with because of Covid19, school leaders are simultaneously acclimating students and staff back to schools when much has changed. We are not the same as we were when Covid19 struck and the pandemic took hold.
Here at TheSchoolHouse302, we would like to think the educational community has grown. These months have revealed our resolve and our willingness to go to great lengths to reach and teach our students. We also recognize that in order for us to continue to grow and build a network of support, we need to fully immerse ourselves in social and emotional learning (SEL). The great news is that SEL is not new. The challenge, though, is making sure that it is integrated seamlessly within our school cultures and not a stand alone.
To do so, we created The SEL Blend to remind educators of the balance that must exist between the curriculum and the care side of our work.
The SEL Blend highlights four primary areas that are linked to SEL priorities and behaviors. For example, as much as we focus on our curriculum and adopt accelerated learning best practices, we need to be sure that they are coupled with care and kindness.
The Blend serves as a nice reminder about how we can weave SEL into our daily practices. But, we cannot be satisfied with just having this knowledge. The critical step is in making sure that what we are doing is having an impact. As John Hattie always says, “know thy impact.” To that end, we’ve created 6 ways to ensure that you’re building the SEL culture that your students and staff need.
In this episode, we break down the key areas that stuck out to us and why. Listen to the podcast to hear more about our 6 surefire strategies to develop a thriving SEL culture.
Assemble a Core Team
Improve Self-Awareness
Complete Certificate-Based Courses
Use a Table for Lesson Organization
Connect to Other Meaningful Work
Tap into Established Systems
T.J. further discussed the great work from Loreah Martinez and her Heart In Mind blog and book is an incredible resource. Our goal is to connect you to people and resources, outside of our own, to learn to lead better and grow faster. With this in mind, Joe tackled the benefits and sophistication of earning a credential or certificate. This is a powerful way to develop a train-the-trainer model. Lastly, T.J. reminded us of a great interview we had with Lavonna Roth and the terrific and FREE resources she has on her site.
Join Us for the Next Live Session of 302 Thoughts
This was our third live 302 Thoughts and we were thrilled with the turn out and look forward to our next episode on October 21th at 4:00PM EST. We are going to be talking about staying focused in a chaotic environment. Register today.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
What better conversation to have in August than the very best ways to engage students this school year. Our focus throughout this school year must be on the whole child–an academic intensity coupled with social and emotional development. You will hear us often say that our students need to know that our care for them is just as important as our curriculum. To ensure this focus, we developed the 6 Key Classroom Practices Model.
This model encompasses each necessary element that we must reflect upon, and, if needed, make a change to ensure that we are leveraging the practice to its fullest extent. In this fireside chat, T.J. begins by breaking down the model with details about how educational leaders, and, in particular, principal leaders, can use these 6 categories to ensure that student achievement remains our central focus throughout the school year. Each element is interconnected and strengthens the other.
In addition to breaking down this comprehensive model, Joe discussed the critical importance of capacity building. We rarely have a discussion on leadership and not discuss personal growth and capacity building at some point. One important result of a leader who embraces being a learning leader is that they are far more receptive to ideas and advances because they naturally see opportunities and possible connections to the overall vision.
Critical Ideas from our 302 Thoughts: A Deeper Dive
In light of time, for this podcast episode and live broadcast, we decided to hone in on three of the six practices that are simply a must in this post-pandemic educational world. They also provide a gateway for other practices to be used effectively. The first practice we delved into was the importance of an organized learning management system (LMS).
An LMS can serve a few very important purposes. As a software application, it is designed to turn virtual learning into a reality. But, we’ve also discovered that it is very effective at providing direction and organization for students and parents, even during in-person learning. We often discuss creating transparency between the classroom and the home, and teachers who excel at using an LMS truly create clarity for families.
Technical Tip: One aspect that we truly appreciate about an organized LMS is the connectedness it can have to what is being learned in the classroom. For example, with the ability to house information, teachers can create enrichment and remediation support directly tied to formative assessment results from class.
Another vital aspect of learning for our students this year will be our consistent use of methods to determine their Evidence of Learning. The reality is that due to Covid19, many teachers’ technological skills skyrocketed. Although we don’t subscribe to one primary tool to assess students throughout the lesson, we do believe in Madeline Hunter’s 10+2 method, ensuring that you’re checking for understanding on a regular basis throughout the lesson.
Technical Tip: If you want to track formative performance in your grade book and not necessarily assign a grade, change the weight of the formative to “0” so it doesn’t impact the overall average.
Lastly, we didn’t want to overlook the power of reflection for teachers. Not only is this a great way to learn and grow as a professional, we also tie this into the social and emotional well-being of staff. Recognizing how much growth we’ve all experienced in our profession is inspiring, and we need to continue to experiment, reflect, and grow within a learning culture in all of our schools.
Technical Tip: Create specific PLC time for reflection on very specific topics. In these instances less is more and be sure to effectively train the facilitator. Leading effective meetings and PLCs requires training. Don’t assume that because someone is a good teacher, or even an effective department head, that they can lead every conversation. For more on the power of teacher leaders and candid conversations, check out our book, Candid and Compassionate Feedback. The third section of the book is dedicated to teacher leaders.
Join Us for the Next Live Session of 302 Thoughts
This was our second live 302 Thoughts and we were thrilled with the turn out and look forward to our next episode on September 22nd at 7:30 EST. We are going to be talking about social and emotional learning and how to build a school culture that supports SEL for students and staff. Register today.
PS — If you have a topic you want us to cover or need recommendations on books to read in a particular area of leadership, just send us a tweet or an email.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
How School Leaders Should Be Thinking About ESSER Spending
Education is a people business–a community built on the premise that through excellence in teaching and learning students can and will learn. However, the road to learning is fraught with ups, downs, obstacles, and challenges. No one expected the tumult of Covid19. The path that we were on was shut down, and educators had to find a whole new route. We commend teachers, support staff, and school leaders for pivoting quickly and working tirelessly to educate students. But, we’re just getting started.
Now, months after the pandemic first hit, in an industry completely disrupted and upended, we find ourselves with an influx of money to help students in an accelerated fashion and to minimize the devastating impact of the pandemic. The big question looming is how best to spend our new ESSER funds?
For us at TheSchoolHouse302, we go back to where the greatest impact lies and that’s with people. Investing in our people first, developing their capacity, helping and enabling them to learn and grow so that they are better equipped, is the key to success. Below, you’ll find our model for investing in people–pay the people, get them what they need to be successful, and develop them as experts in their domain. We need to retool our thinking around money and how we use it. One tip for that is to consider that our staff are builders–builders of the future by teaching our students, supporting them socially and emotionally, and offering them unique learning experiences.
This is what we call a learning culture, and it’s why principals who want to build a learning culture need to think about all of their pots of money in these three primary buckets. This culture doesn’t just happen, though; it is a concerted effort to empower our teachers–as expert builders–for a sustainable and productive future. The alternative is to spend the money–new and old–on contractors, shiny new programs, and other stuff that simply goes away when the money runs out.
Using ESSER Funds to Invest in Your School’s Future
Administrators must ask, what investments will yield the highest returns? When considering staff members, be sure to have a 360° view, including administrators, instructional staff, support staff, and non-Instructional personnel. Schools need an all hands-on-deck approach, which we describe in great detail in our book, Passionate Leadership.
Professional learning should be dynamic, not only focused on equipping the educator with skills, but also diving deep into self-care and ways they can fill their own cup each day. There should also be a clear distinction between training and professional learning. There are incredible products that can definitely help students learn and assist teachers in the classroom. But, consider services and products that help staff to learn beyond training them to use a new tool–a new way to rejuvenate and get better at the work, now and into the future. We think highly of the following purchases that school leaders might make with ESSER funds because we believe that they can be impactful as we ask ourselves this critical question: what investments will yield the most sustainable returns?
Great educators are lifelong learners, but that doesn’t mean that they have had access to some of the most impactful experiences for lifelong learning, including a mastermind group designed to lead better. Check out Danny Bauer’s mastermind, Better Leaders Better Schools, and join a group. Also, get his new book and don’t miss our review of it.
An investment that we find captivating since it solves so many common problems in the classroom is Organized Binder. Organization, goal setting, productivity, and more are all skills, and as we seek to address unfinished learning, we need our students to be organized and ready for what we put in front of them.
We also dug into what is called the fitbit of education, TeachFX. Great teachers design lessons where the learners are the ones who are working the hardest within the classroom, not the teacher. Put simply, TeachFX measures teacher talk versus student talk. Check it out.
It wouldn’t be an episode of 302 Thoughts without a book recommendation or two. We simply can’t ignore the expansive research found in neuroscience and how that impacts the classroom. As much as Joe tried not to mention a particular book, three titles were dropped quick:
One thing we learned after No Child Left Behind is that money is not the answer for sustainable outcomes if not used wisely. In fact, hiring more personnel and filling voids can lead to unwanted vacancies in just a couple short years. Invest in your people, help them develop and grow by asking them what they need and want. They are the professionals in the classroom and can provide tremendous insight.
PS — If you have a topic you want us to cover or need recommendations on books to read in a particular area of leadership, just send us a tweet or an email.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
Dear DE School Leaders,
We hope all is well with you.
This week, our friends at TheSchoolHouse302 are hosting a live event, much like their FocusED podcast, where they’ll be live for a conversation about school funding. They will be available for questions after about a 20 minute recorded chat. The topics covered this month: funding 101 for principals, including a framework for thinking about spending, how ESSER money should support capacity, and a product review of some of their favorite services and solutions right now.
We hope you can join us on Wednesday at 7:30PM EST. The registration information is below. Bring a friend.
302 Thoughts Fireside Chat — School Funding for Principals — Live Event — July 14th @ 7:30PM EST
July — Spending/budgeting/ESER funds — Danny Bauer
TeachFX
Organized Binder
August — Post-pandemic student engagement
Differentiation is the king — Dwight Carter
Each one is a bit redefined for users, like differentiation is really about outcomes
Grading
Sept. — The 10 surefire ways to build an SEL-focused school culture —
Taking Social-Emotional Learning Schoolwide: The Formative Five Success Skills for Students and Staff
by Thomas R. Hoerr
Oct — Richard Shell — 5 tips for amplifying your ambitious goals so that they are unstoppable
Conscious Code: Lead with Your Values. Advance Your Career
As the late Grant Wiggins wrote, “less teaching plus more feedback is the key to achieving greater learning.” This is as true for educators as it is for the students we work with. In this issue, we will explore the key characteristics of effective, actionable feedback—whether provided in the classroom, following a teacher observation, or during a coaching conversation—and how schools can create cultures of effective feedback and make the most of feedback for growth. Articles will look at feedback protocols and routines; evidence-based formative assessment strategies; best practices for differentiating and delivering feedback; and how to make feedback stick.
We live in a time that has been deemed the “information age.” Some argue that in the 21st Century we can be exposed to more information in one week than those who lived in the 17th Century would be exposed to in their entire lives. In many ways that makes our mere existence more challenging as we look to lead our schools effectively. We need discrete skills that enable us to process and filter an abundance of information. Knowing how to discern and weed through all of the channels in order to make sound decisions is a marquee skill of any effective principal. That skill needs to be coupled with another critical and complementary skill, which is knowing how to apply that knowledge in actionable and strategic ways.
Who is John Dewey and How Did He Impact the World?
Effective principal leaders know how to synthesize information and apply it to the unique needs of their schools.
This is what brought us back to the work of John Dewey this month. We wanted to study the claims that Dewey might have made about teaching and learning during COVID19. And, we explore this in our 302 Thoughts this month.
Taking what we’ve learned and experienced from the pandemic, we sought to embark on a tried and true classroom practice: problem based learning. We focus on the good that can come from such a tumultuous time in education. We wanted to add an abstract element to spark creativity, so we did our best to filter our ideas through the powerful lens of the great educational reformer, John Dewey.
Critical Ideas from our 302 Thoughts: Student-Centered Learning
Students and teachers need support in multiple ways and beyond just learning in the classroom. As humans we are confronted with challenges that stifle and limit teaching and learning. Great principals need to understand, recognize, and build support for students and teachers.
A Creative Way to Support Students
Affinity Groups
A Creative Way to Support Teachers
Faculty-led before or after school wellness classes (such as yoga).
Engagement is everything. Students need to be engaged in the classroom and teachers need to be engaged in their departments and the school as a whole.
A Creative Way to Engage Students
Require students to create questions, not answers, on what is being learned. Stoke their creativity.
A Creative Way to Engage Teachers
Ask them to specifically identify the professional learning experiences that they want.
Opportunities are found in the right mindset. Going through the last year and not learning from all of our trials would be an injustice to our school system.
A Creative Way to Provide Opportunities for Students
Continue to employ the various instructional tools and supports that helped students learn (stay tuned for our ESSER focused blog next month).
A Creative Way to Provide Opportunities for Teachers
Create ad hoc groups to determine the aspects of hybrid and remote learning that should not be discontinued.
Ultimately, it is up to us to decide if we will learn from the great thinkers and reformers of the past and capitalize on the opportunities of today, no matter what form they take. COVID19 was completely unexpected, and it certainly upended our educational system. Let’s take advantage of what we accomplished and the lessons we learned thus far.
We hope you like this month’s 302 Thoughts as we continue to discuss leadership and the impact that you can have on your community. Next month, we go live with our first ever open audience 302 Thoughts; we hope to see you there.
Stay tuned for more nuggets of wisdom, podcasts, books to read, reflection sessions, and the best resources for leading better and growing faster in schools. Follow us at dereka206.sg-host.com to join thousands of leaders who get our content each month. Send this to a friend.
As always, let us know what you think of this with a like, a follow, or a comment. Find us on Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, & SoundCloud. And, again, if you want one simple model for leading better and growing faster per month, follow this blog by entering your email at the top right of the screen.
TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple by maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
The school year, especially May, is a busy time of year for everyone. Add on to this reality the Covid19 pandemic and we are faced with a recipe of fatigue, frustration, and possibly a dollop of uncertainty. We want to acknowledge these feelings and actually put them on the table to be known. By acknowledging how we feel and what we are experiencing, we begin to exercise a level of control.
As Echart Tolle reminds us, “Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.” It is ok to be tired, to desire normalcy and desire a routine. Great principals understand this reality and use this energy to positively end the school year on a high note.
We know from Dan Kahnemann’s work that finishing the school year strong and successfully is paramount. No matter how challenging this year was, educational leaders have the ability to leave a favorable and lasting positive impression on all of their teachers. What is terrific is that regardless of how challenging the year was, these final moments are what will be remembered throughout the summer. Yes, this year has been tough but there is no doubt that this was a year of triumph, so celebrate.
Take note as we close out the school year to recognize the great things that have happened. Actually, take some risks and pull a page out of the book of Krasinki and feature Some Good News. Why not start a daily YouTube video featuring the terrific work that’s been accomplished.
In education, we live by a few unwritten and untold rules that bind us to a world of caution. We are not suggesting being reckless but rather demonstrating unbridled and unique appreciation and gratitude. We hold back because we worry about precedence and opinion, but now is not the time to sit back, but to step forward and truly appreciate others.
We are not in any way suggesting that this year wasn’t tough and that the road ahead won’t be filled with challenges. What we are saying is that at the end of the year we need to connect with everyone on the staff, continue to be consistent and present, communicate often, and celebrate!
We hope you like this month’s 302 Thoughts as we continue to discuss leadership and the impact that you can have on your community.
Stay tuned for more nuggets of wisdom, podcasts, books to read, reflection sessions, and the best resources for leading better and growing faster in schools. Follow us at dereka206.sg-host.com to join thousands of leaders who get our content each month. Send this to a friend.
As always, let us know what you think of this with a like, a follow, or a comment. Find us on Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, & SoundCould. And, again, if you want one simple model for leading better and growing faster per month, follow this blog by entering your email at the top right of the screen.
TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple by maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
Learn from Women Leaders: A Look Into Top Female Innovators
There is no substitute for effective leadership and taking the time to read and learn from diverse people from all industries only helps to expand a school principals’ ability to view complex issues through a broad yet critical lens.
We’ve discovered that innovation in schools can be limited by the culture of the organization. Fortunately, it is well within the scope of any leader’s reach to become more innovative by implementing a few key practices. Below is our School Innovation Leadership Model.
Topics We Cover Regarding Innovative Educator Leadership:
We discuss how to be innovative even during times of uncertainty and mass change. The Dual Pandemics of Covid19 and Racism have created opportunities to seize change and to be innovative in schools and the classroom.
We highlight that innovation can be incremental and that small adjustments can eventually make for major changes. We pointed back to Society Nine from our blog this month.
We talk about how values can create an environment that welcomes and embraces new ideas.
We hope you like this month’s 302 Thoughts as we continue to discuss leadership and the impact that you can have on your community.
Stay tuned for more nuggets of wisdom, podcasts, books to read, reflection sessions, and the best resources for leading better and growing faster in schools. Follow us at dereka206.sg-host.com to join thousands of leaders who get our content each month. Send this to a friend.
As always, let us know what you think of this with a like, a follow, or a comment. Find us on Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, & SoundCloud. And, again, if you want one simple model for leading better and growing faster per month, follow this blog by entering your email at the top right of the screen.
TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple by maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
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More Resources for You
Grab a Copy of One of Our Books:
7 Mindshifts for School Leaders: Finding New Ways to Think About Old Problems. Order it Here
Retention for a Change is an Amazon Best Seller and our Latest Book: Order it Here
7 Mindshifts for School Leaders: Finding New Ways to Think About Old Problems. 
