Whew!

Today was the last step to completing EAD 269.  I met with the Deputy Superintendent of Sanger Unified and it was the one of the most challenging, yet exhilarating experiences of my career.  You know that the interview is going to be interesting when you go from riding in the elevator and seeing your interviewer’s face on a poster asking people to pay $250 a piece to attend his conference, to walking in to the interview room and having him announce, “I’m not an easy interview.”

After being bombarded with different questions and scenarios, I walked away feeling really good about the administrative journey I am going to be embarking on.  If I can survive that interview, and walk away with a smile, I can handle just about anything. 

Insights about the class:

1) Everyone should interview with Dr. Smith.  Wow!  The man is incredible, and I only met him for 20 minutes.

2) I liked the blogs.  I didn’t at first, and I doubt anyone except my group mates ever read them, but the blog really started to grow on me.  🙂  Never used Twitter though.

3) I enjoyed having the opportunity to meet different HR reps from local districts and hear what they look for in interviews.  It would have been great if they could have split off into small groups with us so they could ask us mock interview questions and provide feedback.

4) The FRISK lesson was very helpful.  If it’s one thing I’ve learned, if you are going to get rid of a bad teacher, document, document, document!

5) I would have rather had more class meetings if we could have gone into more depth about the other assignments.  It all ended up okay, but more instruction on what was expected for the capstone would have been nice.

Thanks for everything, Dr. Wise and Dr. Buster!

“That’s all Folks”

It is 7:45 p.m. and I am in my classroom, freezing to death because the heater shut off 2 hours ago.  But….I did not want to go home until I finished my capstone.  I knew that if I went home,  I would sit down and play with my now 15 month old baby girl (hard to believe it’s been that long since I was sitting in Dr. Roger’s class, hugely pregnant and so swollen I couldn’t wear shoes).  I knew I would have a glass of vino with my husband who I have gone without seeing for days at a time because of my horrendous school/work and his swing shift career.  And I knew that if I went home, I’d be hitting send at 9:59 p.m., barely meeting the 10 o’ clock deadline.  But now that I have submitted the last of the assignments for EAD 269, I feel such a relief and know without a shadow of a doubt that this has all been worth it.  I have built beautiful friendships with many of you, established a comradery amongst us that won’t be broken just because the course is over, and have learned so much about myself and the kind of educational leader I aspire to be. 

Thank you friends, it has been one heck of a ride.  Hopefully I will see you sooner rather than later.

Much love,

Beth

Show Me the Money!

This last assignment was one of my favorites, not because it was particularly profound, but because it was so practical.  I have been wondering for quite some time how administrators know how much money their site has and how to balance a budget. After talking with my GIS and completing this assignment, I feel much more comfortable with the whole idea.  Do I still have a ton to learn?  Defintely, but at least I have the basics down now.

Alas, ‘Twas the Last Class

November 4 and 5 marked the end of the 2-year, seemingly endless, always time-consuming, yet highly enlightening educational journey affectionately known as the Masters program.  

Our last Friday night session began, ironically, with a panel of people who could potentially begin our administrative careers.  Three highly esteemed personnel directors gave us wonderful insights as to what they feel is crucial in terms of hiring and firing employees as well as interviewing for positions.   I think it would have been really helpful if we could have done some mock interview questions with them so they could have provided immediate feedback to us.  With the interview for this class looming, I am still uncertain about what potential interviewers are looking for in a response for an administrative role and am nervous about the assignment.  Following the panels’ discussion and a short dinner break, CADA representatives spoke to the group and led us in activities that focused on communication and listening skills.  I was able to make an amazing contact to help begin a leadership club at my school site. 

Saturday culminated with a presentation on educational finance from Dr. Terry Bradley.  I honestly had little to no background information about how schools received their funding, but after Saturday’s class, I can say that I have a solid foundation built.  This lecture was helpful prior to beginning the budget inventory assignment for the class.  However, as the presentation came to close, I couldn’t help wonder, who teaches the administrators how to manage all of the different budgets, funds, and spending.  If I were hired tomorrow, I would be completely lost.  Hmmm?

Leadership Connectors:Putting It All Together

Over the past several weeks, we have had the opportunity to read Leadership Connectors by Hensley and Burmeister.  Throughout the text, I have gained great insight in to what makes a good leader and how to begin to establish the essential relationships with fellow co-workers, parents, students, and community members that will make the time as an administrator a success.

How appropriate that the last chapter, “Putting It All Together,” ends with the retirement party for the young administrator we met at the beginning of the book.  As each of his colleagues came to the microphone to speak about Jeff, I began to think about what people might say at my retirement party.  Would people be able to tell funny, anecdotal stories about times we had shared together?  Would they be able to express their gratitude for my friendship or mentorship?  Would they be happy for me to be starting this new chapter in my life, yet sad to see me go?

As our journey through the Masters program draws to end, I am reflective of how much I have changed because of my newly gained knowledge.  I can only imagine how much more I will be able to change and influence in the years to come.  It is my hope that because of this academic adventure, those in attendance at my retirement party 35 years from now, will be able to share warm, funny, caring, and heartfelt farewell wishes after a lifetime of educational leadership and administration.  Only time will tell.

Face-to-Face Meeting Oct. 21 and 22

“It’s like taking a sip of water from a fire hose.” – Dr. Wise

Friday Night: Educational Law presented by Roberta Rowe from the law offices of Lozano Smith.   Very informative.  Lots of information presented.  I really appreciated the fact that we got a bound copy of the presentation because while I may not use most of the information in my current teaching position, when I make the move into administration, it will be a very handy resource to pull from.  My favorite parts of presentations like that are the stories of real cases that have been taken to court.  Sometimes I feel as though I live in such a sheltered bubble that when I hear about what the rest of the world is doing, I am literally taken aback and exclaim, “People actually sued someone for that?!?” or “They did what?  No….they…did…not!”

Saturday Morning: Meeting Management presented by Dr. Linda Hauser.  I was highly engaged in Dr. Hauser’s presentation and I think there were several of us who felt that if our school sites held meetings that followed the model presented, we 1)wouldn’t mind attending them, 2)would feel like something productive was coming out of it, and 3) would feel like part of a team and not minions being informed of decisions that have already been decided on our behalf without our input.  The morning flew by!

Saturday Afternoon: Student Discipline presented by Dr. Kevin Torosian. We were, again, given a valuable resource that we will be able to reference once we are in an administrative position.  After completing the suspension process paper early in the term, I don’t think I was still very clear about the whole process.  There is a ton of information and my site leader, bless his heart, did his best to give me the Reader’s Digest version of the whole thing.  I think that it would have been much more productive and helpful to have had the presentation by Dr. Torosian first, then a site leader interview to follow up on the presentation before submitting the suspension process paper.

Great fellowship with the cohort members.  We have become quite a family.  Can hardly believe we are almost done.

Organizational Tip #5

Classroom Decorating Idea

To help you remember all of the different borders you have in your collection, snip a small piece and hole punch it so you can put them on a book ring.  The next time you want to change your bulletin boards, you can simply pull out your sample ring to get ideas or to see if it’s time to go shopping for a new border.

Leadership Connectors: Trust

Well folks, like all good things, the Leadership Connectors are coming to an end.  The chapter was one of the shortest because as it stated, all of the other Leadership Connectors we have discussed thus far have led us to the chapter on Trust.

What an amazing thing trust is!  How amazing it feels to be able to trust someone and how devastating it is when we learn we cannot. 

Besides keeping all the previous chapters in mind, I thought the most poignant points were the bulleted lists of what to do and not do to build trust.

1) Greet each person you see every day, using their name if you can.  This lets people know that you are open and welcoming.  I try to meet at least one new student each time I am out on yard duty.  I have met some pretty amazing kiddos this way.

2) Curb the complaining. Sure it’s one thing to vent when you are having an off day, it’s another thing completely to complain all the time.  There is a woman on my staff that literally complains so much in the teachers’ lounge during lunch, that I stopped eating in there. Her negativity just drags me down.

3) Are your ears burning?  Though it can be sinfully fun sometimes, engaging in idle gossip truly has no value.  It makes you look horrible as a person and would really hurt someone’s feelings if they happened to overhear your snide remarks.

4) The Golden Rule: Treat others the way you would want to be treated.  Enough said.

5) Think before you speak.  To avoid putting the metaphorical foot in your mouth, think about the words that are about to spew from your mouth.  What are the ramifications for saying them? Is it worth it?

6) Listen more than you speak. The old love song says, “You say it best when you say nothing at all.” Are your words/thoughts/viewpoints/comments needed in the conversation or should you just bite your tongue?  Hmmmm….

7) Stay away from negative people, their problems, their messes, their ugliness.  I love this expression because it is just great advice for life.  Did your mother ever tell you to stay away from that one boy or that one acquaintence because “..no good could come from being around them.”? Negative people tend to have a way of dragging other people into their moodiness like a blackhole.  Better to just avoid them entirely.

8) Value others and their contributions.  Honor other people’s hard work and thank them for a job well done.  They are more likely to do it again!

9) Don’t share your personal problems at work. No one really wants to hear about your problems.  They are busy dealing with their own.  Plus, as the book points out, people tend to judge quickly.  One may make snap judgements about you based on information that may or may not be pertinent to current circumstances. 

10) Last but certainly not least, know when to eat humble pie and apologize.  Pride and ego can be a hard piece to swallow, but it is best to simply do what is right and apologize when you have blundered.  People will respect you so much more than if you try to schmooze your way out of a sticky situation.   

 

Leadership Connectors: Continuous Renewal

I liked how this chapter was organized by subtopic.  Continuous renewal reminds us to always be recharging our batteries, to keep finding ways for us to de-stress and take a mental vacation from our day-to-day grind.  To keep with that organizational pattern, I’ve decided to use it for my post this week.  Enjoy!

Key idea #1) Build relationships with your mind, body, and soul.  “The job of a leader should be one that brings you joy, excitement, and validation. ” I couldn’t help but wonder how many of our staff members, not even just leaders, are living by this motto.  If you longer love and find happiness in your job, maybe it’s time to reevaluate and find a different position- one that does make  you love to come to work each day. 

Key idea #2) Know when to fight and when to retreat.  How do you know the difference?  Experience.  The best way to gain experience is to observe, observe, observe.  The book says that observation is a great way to strengthen your knowledge base and increase your experience base at the same time.  This resonates true with lots of professions.  As teachers, we had to do several hours of classroom observation at the beginning of our coursework, then culminated with more in our student teaching positions. 

Key idea #3)  What is reflection and why is it so important?  Reflection is taking the few minutes to remove ourselves from the situation so we can look at it proactively, not reactively.  So many times we have reacted to a situation and then later regretted what we said or how we handled it.  Reflection helps us from having those feelings of guilt, regret, and/or embarassment.  My favorite suggestion for reflection: write each day.

Key idea #4) Emotions.  They get the best of us if we let them.  My favorite idea for how to keep our emotions in check: Engage in dialogue and reflection with a trusted friend.  Not a co-worker and no one affiliated with the school site.  Perhaps it’s a weekly meeting over coffee to vent about your week.  Perhaps its a cocktail on a Friday after work.  Whatever works for you.  🙂

Key idea #5) Finding balance.  Prioritize your family, health, and job.  Make time for each accordingly.  Organization is a must, though once you’re no longer organized or something new gets thrown into the loop, it’s hard to get back on track.  The ultimate, most amazing suggestion so far in this entire book…..hire a housekeeper!  That’s it.  I’m telling my husband that it was in a research-based book therefore we need one.  🙂  Woo hoo!

 

Leadership Connectors: Competence

Key idea #1) No one expects you to know everything.  It’s how you respond in a situation where you lack expertise that makes a difference.  If you avoid or run from a situation, your staff will soon realize that you will also run from difficult situations.

Key idea #2) Use your resources.  If you don’t know the answer, say, “I don’t know-yet!  But I will know soon.”  Then go find the answer!

Key idea #3) “Our mistakes and failures bring us to the next step in competence.”  This is what makes us better people/teachers/ learners/leaders.  We all learn from our booboos.

Key idea #4)  Love this quote from the mouths of babes. “I like my teacher, Mrs. Jackson.  She doesn’t yell at us; she just tells us what to do.”  We can get our points across without yelling and belittling.

Key idea #5) The Little Engine that Could model.  If you think you can accomplish the goal, you will continue to push and strive until you do.

Key idea #6) Create a Smile File.  We will all have our “I feel like a dummy!” days, and when we do, it helps to have a file that is full of pictures or letters that people have written to you that make you feel good when you read it.