Starting 2018 Right: My New Year’s Resolutions

Today I start my seventeenth year as a public school educator, my twelfth as a high school administrator. For many, the new year signals a rebirth. It is an opportunity to start fresh with a new idea, a new habit, or a renewed commitment to something designed to promote improvement. As I sit at my desk this morning, I feel inspired to share my new year’s resolutions in hopes that they may inspire you to start 2018 off right too!

●        I vow to promote opportunities for my staff and me to spend more time visiting classrooms. Classrooms visits, both formal or informal, are beneficial to both the host as well as the guest. I know as a principal it is important for me to get into classrooms as much as possible to help me understand the current reality of my school, but it is equally as important for teachers to go through the process.

There are formal ways to do this, such as the instructional round model promoted by ASCD. Bob Marzano explains that what the goal of instructional rounds is and what it is not.  “The goal of instructional rounds isn't to provide feedback to the teacher being observed, although this is an option if the observed teacher so desires. Rather, the primary purpose is for observing teachers to compare their own instructional practices with those of the teachers they observe.”

There are also less formals ways to stimulate peer to peer classroom observation, such as the #observeme initiative. To engage in this protocol, a teacher simply post a message by their classroom door inviting their colleagues to stop in and observe their room, with 3-4 questions that they are looking for feedback on.

●        I promise to learn more about the skills students will need to be successful in the future. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, but the next best time is now.” We certainly can’t go back and change the past, but we do have an opportunity now to improve our future. The fact is, for schools to be effective now we have to live in the future all the time so that we can help students master the skills they will need for tomorrow. The question often asked is, how do we do that when the world is changing so rapidly, it can be difficult to predict what tomorrow’s world will look like?

Recently, Alex Williams of the New York Times explored this topic in the article, Will Robots Take Our Children’s Jobs? Williams wrote about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and its potential impact on the job market: “Yes, robots have the potential to outsmart us and destroy the human race. But first, artificial intelligence could make countless professions obsolete by the time my sons reach their 20s.” This may sound dire, but think about how AI has changed just in the last few years. Most airline agencies rely on technology, not people, to help passengers check in for their flights and download boarding passes to devices. Most shoppers scan and bag their own items at stores (assuming they go to brick and mortar store at all!) Consumers call customer service lines when they need assistance and often never speak to a live person. If so many things are being automated, what jobs will be left for our current students when they reach the workplace?

The research tells us that to best prepare children for this unknown future, it will be work study practice skills like communication, collaboration, research, data analysis, problem solving, grit and determination, and way-finding that our kids will need most. Less important will be the actual content of our curriculum the dates, facts, figures, and other trivia that some of us spend far too much time focused on. Shifting our instructional and assessment models to promote student achievement in these work study practices is critical today. In this MultiBriefs Exclusive, I discuss ways that schools can begin to make that shift.

●        I vow to spend less time on email. My middle schooler Brady asked me the other day why “old people” (he was referring to me) like email so much. He went on to explain that his generation doesn’t see the need for it. At first I chalked up his response to a combination of being a presumptuous preteen to a lack of understanding for how adults conduct business and communicate. Then I started to think more about what he said and I realized, my boy is on to something big. I consider email to be one of biggest time monopolizers I have in my professional and personal life, and it has reached an unhealthy level. Here are some ways I plan to attack this problem this year:

1.       I will engage in more face-to-face communication. When someone emails me with a question, I will try my best to talk to them in person or call them on the phone. My hope is that this approach will eliminate the follow up emails that often result from an initial email.

2.       I will try to send fewer emails. It is logical to think that if you send fewer emails, you’ll receive fewer emails. This is the logic that Harvard Business Review’s Chris Brown, Andrew Killick, and Karen Renaud suggested in this article. To do this of course, I’ll have to think carefully about the emails I am sending and whether or not they need to be sent in the first place (or if there is a better way to communicate the message).

3.       I will make better use of team drives and team folders in Google. Our school moved to Google last year, and it has been an amazing transformation. While most of my staff members have become comfortable using their Google Drive, we still have work to do to develop a consistent approach to the use of shared folders to store common documents that we all need to be able to view and/or edit. This resource by Google can be a good way to learn more about the power of team drives.

I hope that my new year’s resolutions may inspire you as a school leader. I wish you all a safe and happy new year. Let’s have a great start to 2018!