Have a Good Life

 

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I was super excited to interview Chris Wejr. He is one of those principals that I have been following for a long time and his take on discipline and behavior is inspiring.

• Moving from a lower SES school to a higher SES school.
• If kids are driven by rewards, then they are across all areas.
• It is very easy to go too far with rewards, and focus only on providing rewards for kids to “get us through the day.”
• The problem with determining how to properly implement PBIS.
• The complexities of correcting a student’s behavior by giving them a reward when they behave correctly.
• How important it is to have sense of belonging to help students avoid negative behaviors.
• Strategies to help students who struggle with negative behavior overcome those struggles.
• It sometimes takes 2 years to get kids to overcome their struggles.
• How to buy yourself some time to make decisions and help get through the day to make sure you help kids who are struggling.
• The bouncy ball trick that worked for me every time after I interviewed him.
• The difference between a program and a system.

This is a great interview. Chris is amazing!

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

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Transformative Principal on Stitcher

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• Why are we going to let other people tell our story?

• What they believe in.

• Every choice they make is thoughtful.

• How Tony shares his story daily.

• Storify - An example of how Tony uses Storify.

• Cantiague Hashtag

• Video updates

• Touchcast app

• How he shifted brand management from him to the staff and the kids

• How to make sure the brand experience matches the brand promise. For example, here is an exchange between Tony and someone who knows what his school’s brand promise is:

  @TonySinanis @mrkempnz I know you do!! :) All groups are equally respected and treated at #Cantiague.

  — Lisa (@lisaodavis) April 17, 2014

• Transparency has changed the relationship between the school and community.

• PTA meetings have taken a new direction since they are so open.

• Build it from the inside.

• Faculty Enhancement opportunities instead of faculty meetings

• How to be a transformative principal like Tony.
  1. It’s not about you!
  2. Stay current on research.
  3. Don’t take yourself too seriously, but take the work you do seriously.

• What he has in his office to keep him focused on how to be the best principal he can be.

• Jericho Schools

You have to make sure the brand experience matches brand promise As the principal, you need to be learning the most.

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

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Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of interviewing Tony Sinanis. Little did I know, that he would be named the New York Elementary Principal of the Year! So, I interviewed him before he was famous. Tony Twitter is a great principal and one who is eager to share what he is doing well. He is also incredibly humble and self-aware. I hope you enjoy his interview. I sure learned a lot from him. Here is his BrandED podcast

• Tony discusses his background and how he is a first-generation college graduate, and not only that, he is working on his PhD and already has two Masters!
• Tony still keeps in contact with his first year’s class. Wow!
• Moving into his first school. Tony’s humility recognizing that he wasn’t the right fit for the school.
• Separating Tony the principal from Tony the Person.
• Recognizing that his cultural perspectives that were wrong for his school.
• The difference between white guilt and recognizing differences.
• Education is more than just the Common Core and High-Stakes Testing. We are disconnected from what the real world is.
• We try to make kids fit into this little box, totally discongruent to how the world works.
• He calls himself the Lead Learner, not the principal, because there is a real difference between the two.
• How Cantiague gives voice to the students.
• He demonstrates his learning whenever he can. He pushes himself out of his comfort zone as often as he can.
• The post about the term Lead Learner by Pernille Ripp

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

In the most recent episode of the Entreleadership Podcast, Christy Wright interviews Steven M.R. Covey about trust. Trust is an unseen force that is contagious. It can spread like wildfire. So can it's foil, distrust. Everything that you do as a leader builds trust or builds distrust. I've learned some important things about trust that were reinforced by listening to that podcast episode. Here are my seven tips for building trust.

1. Positive Intentions. As we learned in TP11 with Melinda Miller, it is very powerful to assume positive intentions. I've written about story lines before. We all have them, and when we assume the best in people we are able to have less stress, more productivity, and more happiness.
2. Start with Trust, Restrict as Trust is Lost. It is better to start with trust with people. When it comes to educators, we entrust them to be with students alone, all day long. If we just start there, that is a huge amount of trust. Some other forms of "accountability" that are popular right now are really demeaning when you compare how much trust we give them on a day-to-day basis. If you start to realize that you can't trust someone, then you can start reigning them in.
3. Release as Trust is Gained. If you do have a reason to distrust an employee, and they start to prove that you can trust them, celebrate that with them and give them a little autonomy back. That will help them understand that there is salvation, and they don't have to live fearing that they will never be successful.
4. Tell People where They Stand. One thing that is super scary is not knowing what your boss thinks of you. You shouldn't find opportunities to tear people down, but if you are concerned about people not having your trust, tell them. Tell them how they can earn it back, then let them earn it back. But don't distrust them and never tell them. This is a hard conversation, but every single time I have given negative feedback people with the intent to help, people have responded positively. When it is clear from how I communicate to them that they are never going to gain my trust again, they respond poorly. Pretty simple, yet very hard to do well. If you hold a grudge after someone has done what you required to have them earn back your trust, it is going to be so hard to overcome that so that they trust you again!
5. Be Willing to Let Go of What Doesn't Matter, for the sake of trust. When you delegate something, be sure to set clear expectations, but trust that the person is going to do their best and allow them some creativity to do what they want. You'll have much more success and they'll buy into it a lot more. For example, I asked a teacher to create a Teacher of the Year PowerPoint background for a movie I was going to create, and told her my idea, but let her do her thing. It came out way better than I thought it would, she got some great recognition, and I was able to let her shine. I didn't want a black background, but the color of the background didn't matter at all. What mattered was that she was able to create something amazing, and I was able to let her. There is no place for ego in leadership. 
6. Start with Why. Just because this is the last tip doesn't mean it is the least important. In fact, according to Simon Sinek, it is the single most important thing you can do. You inspire trust when you tell people why we are doing things. When the why is lost, people have no vision. To bring this full circle, Dave Ramsey (Entreleadership) often quotes Proverbs 29:18:

"Where there is no vision the people perish."

I hope these tips help you become a better leader and build trust with your faculty.

Have a Good Life.

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Transformative Principal on Stitcher

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I had the great pleasure to attend (and present) the UCET (Utah Coalition for Educational Technology) Conference this last Thursday and Friday. While it was a lot of fun, it was also ver powerful and transformative for me. I solidified some educational philosophies and had some time to actually think about what I am doing every day and how I am inspiring (or not) my teachers. George’s keynote was very inspiring, but it was also practical, and I love practical presentations. I loved meeting George after following him for so long. This was a great interview.

One thing that was really awesome was that he made me wait a few extra minutes to ensure that he had gone through and read every single tweet about his keynote, and replied to those that he felt needed a response. it was amazing to hear him say three or four times, "Just a minute, I need to get through all these tweets. There were a ton of tweets!" 

• His keynote called “Innovate! Create! Voice!” and what he was trying to communicate with that.
• The importance of creating and sharing with others.
• How he encourages teachers and principals to create and share.
• What the remix culture is about.
• Why it is important to focus on what is really helping kids.
• What it means to be a school teacher.
• If you don’t know what a hashtag and twitter are, you are illiterate. Why does George believe this?
• How you can leverage your network to make things happen.
• Why Twitter is about learning and sharing.
• How do we do things when our leaders aren’t on board, yet?
• We need people who are willing to push.
• The one thing you can do to be a transformative principal.
• Connected Principals ([#cpchat](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23cpchat)) and how to get in touch with him (follow him on Twitter: @gcourous)

Check out this episode!