The Assistant Principal Podcast

Show Notes, Episode 58: Supporting New Teachers with John SchembariAbout this show:We all know how critical it is to support new teachers, but do we actually know how to support them? Today we answer four questions:What do we mean when we say “new teacher?”How can APs build collaborative relationships with new teachers?What specific actions can we take to meet the personal and professional needs of early career teachers and How do we fit those actions into the crazy days of the assistant principalship?Between the podcast and our monthly micro-journal – Quadrant2, we’ve been investing a lot of time on new teacher support and for good reason. Today we will go another layer deeper with our special guest Dr. John Schembari.Notable QuotesJohn Schembari: “You don't need to be a friend but you do need to care and understand what the emotional needs of our students are”“”You really gotta know your students'' is what I am saying, and to know your students, you really have to have a relationship with them. You can’t stay behind your desk, so to speak, at a removed distance”“I get concerned when schools say “Oh, this new teacher can’t handle that yet””“I think administrators need to practice what they preach so teachers have models of the ways that they can develop these relationships with the various stakeholders”“How can we even expect our assistant principles to get into classrooms on a regular basis if the understanding for the need for that is not throughout the entire district administration”“New teachers, like all teachers, need support. And the number one way administrators can be showing support is to be present in classrooms beyond the formal evaluation”Frederick:“We really have to approach it in education that we are on the job training, that we are not bringing in finished products. and we always know that but i think we need to be doubled down on that and really be mindful about what is that 5-year process for nurturing and developing and helping our early career teachers”“New teachers, thankfully, don’t carry that attitude; they want administrators in the classroom, so the first way to build that relationship is just to be in the classroom, not to evaluate, not to correct, but to be there and be present. And you just investing that time, being in the classroom, shows that you care.”“When we observe, we’re collecting data. We’re collecting that data to support the teacher’s growth, that data is a tool for that teacher. So we can collect data and then go to the teacher and say “hey let's talk about what is happening. Here's what I am seeing, what are you seeing, what do you want to work on?””“I have never seen anybody leave a job in which they were growing, they were becoming more skilled, they saw themselves on a ladder developing and growing and had support around them to do that. People don’t leave jobs like that because those kinds of jobs are satisfying”Links:John Schembari’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnaschembariMy email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Monday:Relationships in the workplace take three basic forms:· Congenial: people share a social bond· Pragmatic: people share a professional bond· Collegial: people share professional and social bonds The problem with congenial relationships is that while they make people happy, they don’t help us achieve the organizational purpose. The problem with pragmatic relationships is that they only work well for some people. Collegial relationships thus have two elements – professional and social. The ratios of each will vary, but both are present. COVID laid bare the idea that work and life were separate, and if we don’t have a connection at both levels than we are missing something. TuesdayThe prerequisite is to actually care. We each have a story Three steps to caring:1. Recognize your own imperfections2. Appreciate diverse perspectives3. Learn the stories behind those perspectives Wednesday(Scott) The early steps of building a relationship are to be fully present, ask good questions, and listen. ThursdayBeing vulnerable isn’t safe, but here are a couple meaningful ways that you can share vulnerabilities:· Show that you are human but don’t complain· Ask for help that the listener can give· Share your dreams and what you are trying to get better at. FridayMy goal this week was not to educate you on relationships, but instead to give you some simple things that you can think about and act upon.· From this week, what is one thing you can act on?· Bonus: What have you done this week to build relationships with each of your ECTs?· What will you do next week? Takeaway· Building relationships should be intentional· Learn people’s stories by being present, asking, and listening· Be human, be vulnerable Two dangers:· Pragmatic (tasks over people)· Congenial (single dimensional) As leaders, we have an ethical obligation to serve our teachers, to help them grow, and to help them find joy in their work. We can do all those things better when we know their story and when they trust us. This wraps up this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast. Rating the podcast really does help other people to find it. If you have questions, ideas, or stories you’d like to share, please email me at [email protected]. If you’d like to find out more about what I’m doing to support assistant principals, you can head over to my website at frederickbuskey.com/theassistantprincipal. I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast. Cheers! On September 22, from 7-8:30 EDT, I will take you on a space trip that will lead us out of the black hole of urgency.In 90 minutes:· You will understand how the gravitational pull of gravity really works, which will allow you to use more effective strategies to escape it.· You will think differently, which will allow you to invest more energy into what you care about.· You will learn five strategies, which will help you achieve more by doing less.· You will learn one proactive practice, which will help you grow the people around you. This webinar is FREE to Quadrant2 subscribers and registration opens today! You can subscribe to Quadrant2 here.

Show Notes, Episode 55: The Black Hole of Urgency For many of us, our goals – our dreams – of leadership revolve around helping others:· By helping them gain skills,· By aligning systems so their work is easier and less frustrating, · By increasing opportunities, · And by building powerful collegial relationships. But those goals, dreams, intentions, slip away from us as we get sucked into the pull of the urgent. You are working harder trying to manage your time and be more efficient, but it's not working because time and efficiency are not the problem! Notables On September 22, from 7-8:30 EDT, I will take you on a space trip that will lead us out of the black hole of urgency.In 90 minutes:· You will understand how the gravitational pull of gravity really works, which will allow you to use more effective strategies to escape it.· You will think differently, which will allow you to invest more energy into what you care about.· You will learn five strategies, which will help you achieve more by doing less.· You will learn one proactive practice, which will help you grow the people around you. This webinar is FREE to Quadrant2 subscribers. You can subscribe to Quadrant2 here. We will send Q2 subscribers the webinar registration link on September 9, 2022. Links:My email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlSign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialeditionWebsite: www.frederickbuskey.com

Looking forward to episode 56: The Black Hole of Urgency!

Assistant Principal Podcast Five for Friday Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of August 29-September 2, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. We have many new subscribers, so I want to take a minute to emphasize a few points about how to get the most value from the daily email:1. Don’t feel like you need to read them every day. Putting pressure on yourself to read every day leads to associating the email with negative emotions and that is counterproductive.2. If you are short on time, look at the MVP and think about it on your morning commute (if you aren’t listening to this podcast!)3. The ideal way to use the emails:a. Make your coffee or drink. b. When you first open your email, find the daily message.c. Give yourself five minutes. d. Read the message. e. Reflect on it. f. Most importantly, think about how you can apply the message to your leadership during the day.4. I try to write the daily message so that there is something you can use each day.5. Bonus: If something really resonates, and you have a few extra moments, hit reply and share with me. The hardest thing about the email is not getting feedback, so if you appreciate what I’m doing, consider connecting with me. If you are consuming this podcast on our YouTube channel, consider leaving a comment. Recap… Stories that drove this weeks emails… Monday:Good leadership matters. Your leadership matters!Six dimensions (refer back to episode 1 of the podcast) TuesdayMVP: Support new people by building a strong relationship.What new teachers needBegin with relationships WednesdayMVP: “When a good person is in a bad system, the system will always win.”· Don’t stay· Aply somewhere else· Insulate yourself and unit ThursdayMVP: Leadership feeling complicated? The essential things are being purpose driven and building relationships. FridayLet’s reflect:· If you strip everything away, what are the essential elements of your leadership?· Do you have a concrete strategy for getting better at any of them?· Are you being intentional about growing other leaders? Takeaway· Leadership matters and leadership at every level of the organization matters.· Leadership is really hard.· But it is also simple: relationships and purpose. Everything else follows from that. This wraps up this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. Next week we are going to dig into this idea of building relationships, so I hope you’ll join me each day by reading the email or at least listening to this podcast summary. If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast. If you have feedback email me at [email protected]. If you want to learn about what I’m doing to support assistant principals, you can head over to my website at frederickbuskey.com/theassistantprincipal. I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast. Cheers!

Show Notes, Episode 53: Supporting New Teachers, August 30, 2022 About this show:In my teacher education program at The Ohio State University, I had two professors who literally wrote the book on managing students and spaces in physical education. Some of our student teaching lessons were taped, and the video was analyzed in six-second increments. Time was coded based on what a specific student was doing and the codes, as I remember them, were: Listening to content, listening to instructions, waiting, off task, and active learning time, or ALT. The goal was to have close to 80% of ALT time. In other words, students would be actively engaged in performing a task for 32 minutes during a 40-minute lesson. This required us as teachers to run highly managed spaces using concrete procedures. Notable Quotes and Content“The holy grail was ALT, active learning time. The goal was to run very tight lessons and have an extremely well-managed classroom with strong and effective procedures in order to maximize active learning time. This was my teacher ed preparation program.” “The problem is that very, very few beginning teachers went through a program like I did. The Big Idea: Three big rocks:· Classroom management· Curriculum management· Building relationships with school leadersBased on our collective experiences and in the literature The WhyGreat teachers = great schoolsCan’t have great teachers if you can’t keep them and can’t develop themEthical obligation to support and grow the people we serve ***Almost universally, teachers wanted more contact with their administrators*** “With your lowest performing teachers, the place to start might be making sure that they are putting the time into planning.” Challenges· Not having time is a false excuse (deal with them on front end or back end)· Having a clear game plan o What do you want to do?o Management, curriculum, relationships and presence· Taking a team approach Checking your own pulseWe are 1-3 weeks into the school year· Could you categorize your early career teachers?· More importantly, can you define what puts them into those categories and determine what they need most from you?· Are you supporting them and being directive, or are you making suggestions that are lost on overwhelmed 22-year-olds?· Do you have a team approach that is prioritizing ECT support? Next steps1. Build a relationship with your ECTs2. Have the courage to be more directive in supporting them3. Drive conversations with your ILT Summarizing (The big takeaway)· YOU need to support ECT, don’t put it all on your mentors· ECTs want you to be present and direct· Investing time is not an option – front or back Some help:· 10 Ways in 10 Days is a set of ten 10-minute activities to use with your new teachers in the first two weeks of school. If you aren’t sure of where to start with your new teachers, you can use these activities to start building relationships and providing procedural and curricular support. Even if you are a few weeks into the year, you can easily adapt these activities. In about the time it will take you to process three discipline referrals, you can help a new teacher get off to a much better start! Get a copy at https://mailchi.mp/9af27e09bca4/10waysin10days. Downloading will also sign you up for Qudrant2, our free bi-monthly micro-journal. Links:My email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlSign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialeditionWebsite: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of August 22-26, 202. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast. Recap… Monday:· Backpacking story· What do we mean when we say we can’t do something?o Don’t want too It is physically impossibleo It is not a priority· I’m going to monitor my “I can’t” statements, I hope you will as well. TuesdayInterview of Craig Martin Executive Director of the Bridge Boston Charter School in Roxbury (Boston) Massachusetts. The one takeaway - Play quote We put our heads down – need to reflect on who we are and to be kind to ourselves even when our actions don’t produce out intentions. WednesdayWater tanks capture excess capacity to use when needed. How do we do that in leadership?· Building the leadership capacity of others adds extra capacity to the system.· Creating standard operating processes allows us to do more accurately in high demand times.· Investing time in identifying root problems allows us to focus our energies more efficiently. ThursdayAnother podcast quote from Leigh Ann Alford-Keith who leads in Charlotte-Mecklenburg system her in NC. “It is a both-and, not either-or. You don’t have to think of engaging families or supporting your teachers. You can think of ‘how will engaging families support my teachers.’” Opposition is a sign of mis-alignment FridayBeautiful hike into the Blue Ridge Mountains, foggy hike out· I knew the view even though I couldn’t see· I trusted that I knew the path· But as leaders, how do we navigate? TakeawayThe tensions of leadership:· How do we build, increase, and then sustain our leadership capacity?· How do we know when to trust our knowledge and experience, and when to pause and be cautious?· How do we maintain clarity, not only of our own mission, but of the school’s mission, and the roles of all the people that make up our school community? While daunting, this week’s messages also offer us hope. The consistent message is that the power lies with us. We get to choose, and when we understand ourselves, we are better able to make choices that sustain not only our schools, but ourselves as well. This wraps up this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast. Rating the podcast really does help other people to find it. I’m always trying to improve the show, so if you have feedback please email me at [email protected]. If you’d like to find out more about what I’m doing to support assistant principals, you can head over to my website at frederickbuskey.com/theassistantprincipal. I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast.

Show Notes, Episode 51: Who are you? With Craig MartinAbout this show:Last spring several of the assistant principals in our APEx group asked if we could work on how APs can influence school culture without over-stepping their boundaries. One AP noted that this could be especially problematic if you and your principal had very different styles. Back then I approached this as a culture question, but today I’m looking at it differently. Today, I’m thinking about this through two lenses. The first is authenticity: how do I do a job where everyone is watching me all the time, and make sure that I am true to myself? The second lens is sociological. If we were in a room together and someone introduced me as “a leader” you would not be surprised because I look the part. I’m a 6-2 white male in my late 50’s, I have a good speaking voice and I know how to engage with people. And yes, I coached football. In other words, I meet the societal expectations of what leaders look and sound like in our culture. But what about everyone else? What does it mean to be a leader in schools when you don’t look like me? How do you maintain your authenticity when the expectations of who can lead and how they should lead are still relatively narrow and rigid? Notable QuotesCraig Martin“To be authentic, in my opinion, means that you recognize in the spaces where you walk, you breathe, you lead, that you allow the pulses of the young people who are moving about, the teachers who are working with the young people, the custodians, the food service community, the parents, the community partners, you allow those pulses help you center on what you feel led to that important.”“People want to know you’re human, they want to know you care” “Being authentic is about, in my Opinion, being open to sharing parts of who you are in your human experience that connect and resonate with others”“Not all acts of vulnerability are created equal. There is a ladder within yourself that is unique to you.”“Sometimes the smallest moments are the actually the most meaningful for people when we talk about vulnerability”“Our kids know us”“In your ability as a leader, you have the ability to transcend what is most important. You have the ability to send signals to people on ‘this is what i believe in, this is what i am about.’ and people will find harbor with you, they will look to you for council and coaching and development. they will want to take those walks because they want to be in spaces where they feel safe, they feel affirmed, they feel seen, and they know they will be supported and loved.”“Be okay with not being okay, but consistently love on yourself. and thats a thing I have to keep doing. I have to keep reminding myself “I am loved, I am thriving, I am safe” but I need to keep filling myself with those kinds of messages and affirmations”Frederick“Authenticity is not about you, it is about how you relate to all of these other people, and authenticity involves serving, connecting, and supporting other people”“Our authenticity should remind other people of the best parts of us and the best parts of others”Links:Craig’s Twitter: @CraigCMartin12Craig’s Website: https://www.craigcmartinleads.com My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of August 15-19, 202. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of August 15-19, 202. We also celebrate out 50th episode by listening to five of our favorite outtakes from the pod. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast. Recap… E20 Change Starts from Within w. Dr. Gabby Grant MVP: Want to change your organization? Change yourself first.Dr. Grant is an authority on implementing restorative practices. When we asked her what the first step was in implementing restorative practices in a school, this was her answer:“The first step in understanding and implementing restorative practices is understanding how you handle conflict yourself… It isn’t authentic if the transformation doesn’t start from within and then spread out, it isn’t going to be sustainable…Change starts from within”This is a universal truth. The first step to changing our organization is to change ourselves. Implementation and application will always lag behind and remain inconsistent until we have made the change from within ourselves. Until we change, organizational changes will be surface and incomplete. E 21 Meeting the needs of new teachers with Mara Buskey, Leah Dowling and Kemberly Merritt MVP: Be more direct in giving feedback and helping people grow their skills. We asked first year teachers Leah Dowling and Kemberly Merritt about what kind of support they needed from their assistant principals: “The assistant principal, he held my hand and walked me step-by-step, this is how you do this… he cheered me on... and held my hand to make sure I got it. If teachers that came in could have that kind of support of someone that is going to give them that step-by-step guidance, it would give them a more secure feeling.” (Kemberly) “When they see us struggling in an area, they need to say, ‘here’s some resources, here’s some strategies’… there were times this school year that I didn’t realize I could have been doing better until February or March, wishing that I had known that earlier.” (Leah) We often get confused and think that directive coaching is only for low performers, but that isn’t the case. People want feedback! They want critical feedback! More importantly, they want that feedback to be followed up with robust and detailed support and training. Directive coaching is good coaching. Being directive can be reassuring, especially when everything is new. E26 Courage with Dr. Mary Hemphill MVP: Know your ethical line in the sand before ethical situations arise, not during. Dr. Hemphill is the Chief Academic Officer for the North Carolina Department of Education. We talked about being courageous as a leader and acting on your values. “When you are an Assistant Principal, and particularly when you become a Principal, you have to decide before you sign your contract, you have to decide before you interview, what hill you do you want to die on, what do you want to fight for, because when you are in a moment with a parent, or a board member, or a superintendent, that is not the time to make those decisions.” We think about critical ethical decisions being made in the face of a challenging situation, but Mary rightly reminds us that we usually make our ethical choices before the actual events ever unfold. I council people to be themselves in interviews and to put their values on display. Being authentic in an interview makes it much easier to be authentic in the job. On the other hand, if you are willing to bury your values in the interview, you will most certainly bury them in the job. E38 Just put the key in the door with Dr. Maddie Jurek MVP: To overcome leadership fears, just take the first step into the space.Dr. Jurek is an assistant middle school principal in South Carolina. We were talking aboutthe challenges of observing teachers who have more experience or teach in a discipline that you don’t understand when Maddie said:“The hardest part for me whenever I went in to observe those lessons, truly, was putting the key in the door and turning the knob to walk into the room. After I walked into the room I realized, I don’t have to focus on content here... I am here to focus on instruction, and there is a difference between instruction and content.” There are two great lessons here. The first step to leadership is often overcoming our own fears. We can spend too much time thinking about the negatives and how we aren’t qualified or don’t know enough but shutting down that negative thinking begins with stepping

Show Notes, Episode 49: The Instructional Leadership TeamAbout this show:This episode is titled THE Instructional Leadership Team. Why “THE Instructional Leadership Team” ? Why not the instructional leadership team? The fun reason is because I’m an Ohio State grad, and The Ohio State University sounds way cooler than Ohio State. But the real reason is because “THE Instructional Leadership Team” is the fundamental building block of school improvement. Most schools have instructional leadership teams, but fewer schools have “THE Instructional Leadership Team.” What’s the difference you ask? The answer is coming…Notable QuotesFrederick“In schools, the flywheel looks like this:We do professional development with teachers.We follow up on that professional development with targeted observations.We take the data from those observations and evaluate them in order to give us feedback in what our next professional development steps should be.When we do that over and over and over again, we create a flywheel that is focused on driving teacher development and continual teacher improvement”“School leaders have 2 jobs: Keep everybody safe, help teachers get better”“Teacher development is the primary path to school improvement and the foundation of teacher development is the instructional leadership team”“Things that define THE ILT:Sacred meeting timeAgenda focused on teacher developmentRole clarity of team membersMutual accountability”“Instructional leadership isn’t an add-on, it isn't a luxury, it isn’t optional. If you can’t find a way to have a functioning ILT that is laser focused on teacher growth, then you are hamstringing your efforts to improve your school”Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Episode 38, Dr. Maddie JurekQuadrant2 micro-journal subscribe link here

Show Notes, Episode 47: From first year AP to AP of the Year with Dr. Tia Jones Pt. 2About this show:What does it mean to be an assistant principal? What is your job? What are the essential skills? One of the reasons being an AP is so challenging is because there aren’t really clear answers to these questions. Outside of busses, books, and butts, there isn’t a strong consensus for what makes a great AP. This is one of my motivations in starting this podcast – it sometimes feels like the assistant principalship is this ever changing role of mixed-up expectations, and that doesn’t seem fair. I hope through this podcast we can bring some clarity to the role and to the essential elements of being a great AP. Today, we have a wonderful guest who can help us do that.Notable QuotesTia Jones“You want to make sure that you build that capacity with your teachers, so that they can build it with their students, and not only with the students, but with the parents. The parents, that's the key.”“People won’t know what you need or what you’re interested in unless you say something”“One of the biggest things that has helped me personally and professionally is journaling”“Many of us, when we get up in the morning, we might look at the phone and some of us are on social media first thing. If you replace going to Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter, if you replace that moment in time to write a sentence about how you want your day to go, that is one change that you can make that can be positive for you in the long run”Frederick“We need to remember as assistant principals, most teacher ed programs don’t have parts where they have their intern teachers sit down and make phone calls to parents. They’re not taught that”“When you are at the district level and you have an AP comes to you and says ‘hey, I want to grow in this area, I want some help’, that person is now on your radar, because that is the kind of person you can grow”Links:Tia’s Foundation: https://www.empoweringjustice.org Tia’s Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/tiajonesed1Tia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-tia-s-jones-2ba62b29 My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 46: From first year AP to AP of the Year with Dr. Tia Jones Pt. 1About this show:What does it mean to be an assistant principal? What is your job? What are the essential skills? One of the reasons being an AP is so challenging is because there aren’t really clear answers to these questions. Outside of busses, books, and butts, there isn’t a strong consensus for what makes a great AP. This is one of my motivations in starting this podcast – it sometimes feels like the assistant principalship is this ever changing role of mixed-up expectations, and that doesn’t seem fair. I hope through this podcast we can bring some clarity to the role and to the essential elements of being a great AP. Today, we have a wonderful guest who can help us do that.Notable QuotesTia Jones“I always tell my students that my role is to make sure that you are safe, and that you are learning. Those two things are going to happen, and it is my job to make sure that happens. And i doing that, you are not only supporting the students, but you are also supporting the teachers”“Over the years I have learned that it is always about those relationships… what it comes down to is the relationships you build with your students, your teachers, as well as with your teachers. What I have learned is that a lot of things take care of themselves when you build those relationships”“One of the things I definitely try to do each and every time I talk with a student is making sure that I connect with the parent prior to the child getting home”“When we talk about the relationship piece, it doesn’t have to be just work. I want my teachers to know that I care about them at school, but that I care about them as a person. I want the best for them for home, as well as for what they do for our students at school.”“I would like for them to take away the intentionality. Being intentional about anything that you do, but when it comes to working with the teachers for the benefit of our students, being intentional with your time, being intentional with your actions, and being intentional with your relationships”Frederick“I think that one of the big transition points from being a new leader to gaining that experience and taking that step to being a great leader is realizing: I’m not managing my time, I’m managing my priorities. Which is a really cool thing because when you are trying to manage your time, your time is really running you, but when you can make that shift to: I am going to manage my priorities, now you are in the drivers seat”“Email can’t build the relationship, but you and I sitting here together talking, that builds the connection”Links:Tia’s Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/tiajonesed1Tia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-tia-s-jones-2ba62b29 My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Summary of the daily leadership emails from the week of August 1-5.

Show Notes, Episode 44: The Story That Drives MeAbout this show:Many of us have a story that drives what we do. We had a special teacher, or a great mentor, or even a horrible experience. Whichever it might have been, there is a story that is so deeply rooted in our psyche, that it drives what we do and how we do it. Today… my story.Notable QuotesFrederick“The problem is, what we focus on is the urgency more than the importance”“The first principle is focusing on purpose, or what is important.The second principle is focusing on problems, not symptoms.The third principle is focusing on progress, instead of big change.And the fourth principle is focusing on people instead of tasks”“It doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to be fighting discipline all the time, you don’t have to be buried in the urgent stuff all the time”Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 25-29, 2022.

Show Notes, Episode 42: The Curmudgeon with Nat EllisAbout this show:When we talk about teachers resisting change, we often conjure up images of the curmudgeon – the 30-year veteran teacher who hasn’t changed and refuses to “get with the program.” However, often times there are good reasons to resist change. Just as importantly, our veteran teachers can be great allies in building and improving school culture. Today, we learn from Nat Ellis, my favorite curmudgeon and a teacher whose passion and wisdom should inspire you.Notable QuotesNat Ellis:“Everything we did, we sat back and thought “is this what is best for the kids?” and that was our bottom line.” “How can I have the most impact with what I have?” “I had a principle that sat in his office sent emails. I never saw him.” “When I look at the principles that have a presence in the hallways, they have a better understanding of their building. So walk the classrooms, know the kids… its crazy how a 10-minute appearance makes a difference” Frederick:“There are a lot of things we need to change. There are a lot of ways we can improve and get better, but I think what we don’t realize sometimes is that every time we decide to do something, that means there is something else we can’t do.” “If we just go in a backroom as an administrative team and make decisions, we’re missing a lot of information” “My choices reflect my values. And the challenge for us is that when we are in that urgent zone just running around trying to get everything done, we aren’t intentional about the choices. We’re not going to get it all done, so stop and be intentional about where you invest that time.” Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

“Every day I do what I’m best at, and every day I do my best. Some days my best is better than others.” Paraphrase from BB King

Show Notes, Episode 40: Team Coaching with John WillisAbout this show:Today, I am joined by John Willis, the founder of the Teaming Edge. John is here with us today to explore Team Coaching.Notable QuotesJohn Willis“We’re not trying to fix anybody, because nobody is broken” “Team coaching is a team leader who has the expertise of the best practices in coaching to help a team meet their goal” “Once you are sitting down in front of the team, you are not coaching individuals, you are coaching an entity called the team” “Start by co-creating with the team, some powerful team agreements… I use the term team agreements or working agreements that help support not just how the team meets, but psychological safety and team learning” “The next thing I would do is co-create a shared purpose with the team” “If we have team members in a room and there is a team member who doesn’t have a role, we can pretend like they are a part of the team, but the reality is they are not included and they are a not a part of that team.” “When we ask ourselves ‘what do we need to learn?’ that gives us an opportunity to be curious and investigate what is going on right now in our industry that could help support us in this particular area” “Collective teacher efficacy has a tremendous impact on student achievement. So, just having a group of educators that believe that they have the resources, they have the knowledge, the skills, to come together to make a difference, they are more likely to make a difference. Now why is that? Because they are more likely to implement the things that will make a difference.” “When you believe you can make a difference, you are more likely to engage in the actions that leaders and teachers need to take in order to make a difference.” “If our teachers do not feel safe when we come together to meet, then we are not going to meet our outcomes” Frederick:“Especially now, we need to know what is happening in peoples’ lives, and we need to acknowledge that, so we need to get know our teachers.” Links:John’s websites: Theteamingedge.com or Johnwilliscoaching.comMy email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

If relationships, with others, but also with ourself, is really what it is all about, how should we be living? This weekend, and into next week, please be intentional about one thing: being fully present with others. Focus, ask questions, listen to the answers, look, smile, and laugh. Give 100% of yourself when you are with another person. Try it. It isn’t easy, but it is oh so rewarding.

Show Notes, Episode 38: Just Put the Key in the Door with Maddie JurekAbout this show:Yay! You finally found time to get into a classroom and do a big observation! You sit down, congratulating yourself for prioritizing, and the teacher and students dive into a lesson on quantum physics. Wait! What? Of course, this is an exaggeration, but most of us have found ourselves tasked with observing a teacher whose content we did not fully understand. We dive into this topic today with our guest, Dr. Maddie Jurek. Notable QuotesDr. Maddie Jurek:“The hardest part for me whenever I went in to observe those lessons, truly, was putting the key in the door and turning the knob to walk into the room. After I walked into the room I realized, I don’t have to focus on content here… I am here to focus on instruction, and there is a difference between instruction and content.” “Good teaching is good teaching, no matter the content of the classroom” “One of the most important attributes for an education leader is an attitude of being self-aware” “So often we get tunnel vision of what is going on right here in our schools and I might not be seeing what they are doing in another school that may be something effective that I can do AS n administrator in my building” “We can’t make excuses for their past experiences, but we can do our best with what we have now” “I really am not afraid to say ‘I don’t know’ when I don’t know to a teacher” “Don’t be quick to make a decision on something if there is doubt creeping in your mind” “Go in with the confidence that you have something to offer. You were hired for a reason” “I always encourage our APs here just to ask questions of their teachers and develop a more conversational rapport” “You have to take the plunge. You have to let yourself be uncomfortable” “Put the key in the door and step in the classroom, because so many times there are so many things that will prevent us from doing that” Frederick:“One of the switches that I advocate that we flip as administrators is understanding that our role is to grow great teachers. That’s how we improve our schools, that’s how we support our kids. And to do that, we need to support our teachers every step of the way” “We are asking you to do something important. And how do we know it is important? Because we are investing resources in creating the time for you” “We don’t have to do a flywheel for everybody. We can choose a grade level or we can choose a subject area” “Teachers can be feedback junkies, just like students can want stickers on their papers when you hand them back” “The most common practice that I see is that we do Professional Development and then we don’t follow up specifically on that PD” “To hear people from buildings that are different than yours, from districts that are different than yours, to hear the perspectives they bring can be really valuable, not because you need to change yours, but you may understand why you do what you do a little bit better” “If you never feel imposter syndrome, you’re not pushing your edge” Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the week’s daily leadership emails for the week of July 4-8, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast.

Show Notes, Episode 36: Parent Partnerships with Dr. Leigh Ann Alford-Keith About this show:“We talk a lot about social emotional learning and the whole child, but the whole child includes the family.” These aren’t my words. They came from today’s guest when she appeared on the show back on episode 25. We went on to discuss what a partnership is, and how teachers’ thinking needed to change. We concluded by noting that the first step in building better partnerships was to view parents as equal partners, not adversaries. It was a rich episode, but we only scratched the surface of parent partnerships. Today, we get below that surface with our very special guest, Dr. Leigh Ann Alford—Keith. Notable QuotesDr. Alford-Keith:“We talk a lot about social-emotional learning and the whole child, but the whole child includes the family” “If we tend to think of only events as opportunities for family engagement or strictly the conferences as opportunities for family engagement, then that is also a structure that is creating barriers, because truthfully, any day is an opportunity for family engagement.” “We have to be doing our diversity, equity, and inclusion beliefs work. That has to be a necessary component if you want to work on family engagement work, because you need to be able to have those reflections about what privileges you may have, your positionality, and what biases you may be having” “Many of us have been in meetings where the family’s input was not really solicited, and questions were not really asked, and the family was expected to agree passively with the educators at the table.” “We need to yield to families because there are things that they know that we don’t know. And I think of that most with culturally sustaining pedagogy” “It is a both-and, not an either-or. You don’t have to think of engaging families or supporting your teachers. You can think of ‘how will engaging families support my teachers’” “The community can lend knowledge that the educators don’t have” “You will have to prove that you seriously want their input” “Families don’t leave your school if they feel like a part of it. They leave your school because they feel like you’re not part of it” “Journal for Research on Leadership Education: Stanley and Gilzene, Listening, Engaging, Advocating, and Partnering (LEAP) A Model for Responsible Community Engagement for Educational Leaders” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/19427751221076409?journalCode=jrla “What structures in my school need to change so that we can partner with families?” “The parent is not mad at you. They are mad at you and you are a representative of the system” “As a school leader, you the person in the position to make adjustments to those systems in order to create a partnership orientation” “It is not about doing more, it is about doing it differently” Frederick:“The 6 dimensions of organizations is a really simplified model of organizations, that, if you think about a pyramid, the top of the pyramid is purpose and that is what should drive our organizations” “The work of leadership then is actually using change processes to create better alignment in your organization. If you really step back, that’s why we do change, that’s why we do leadership. It is all about the idea of creating an organization where our people, structures, and resources are all aligned with what we’re trying to do.” “I have heard a number of my special education friends talk about how much better their IEP meetings were the last couple years when they were having them remotely because parents felt much safer, because parents were in their home, they were much more comfortable, it was much less physically intimidating, and they were much stronger participants. And that’s a great example of something that we can do that is very simple” “The kids that are the most vulnerable are the ones that most need their families involved” “Every family has a history of interaction with the school system” “I need to invest in the community before I ask them to invest in me” Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

A recap of the week's five Strategic Leader emails. This week featured a sequence around the theme of "five things you can do now for a more productive fall." A bonus at the end is how I turned some negative thinking around to rewrite my own (flawed) story.

Show Notes, Episode 34: Persistent Growth with Emily Parks About this show: We are all teachers here, right? So, I can be honest, Right? We love all children equally and we have no favorites. That said, there are always those students who give us energy. They bring a passion for learning that inspires us to be at our best. I had those kinds of learners when I was a middle school teacher, when I was a professor at Clemson University, and I have them now as I work with APs in the APEx program. In fact, today’s guest is one of those special “students” because she is passionate about her learning, always brings her A game, and inspires me to be better.Notable QuotesEmily Parks:“If I want my teachers to grow and learn and be better, and I want my students to learn and grow and be better, then I have to learn and grow and be better” “Professional learning has to be a priority” “[5 minute coaching] gets them to be reflective without me trying to push them into being reflective” “One thing that I really liked about my APEx experience is that it exposed me to areas of leadership that I may have not realized on my own that I did need” “Keep on learning and keep on growing… the world is changing and education is growing and if we aren’t changing, we are going to get left behind” Frederick:“It isn’t about fixing stuff, it isn’t about making the world perfect, it’s just about making things a little bit better” “One of the things we can do better is to make our own learning and our own growth goals more transparent to teachers” “We can’t manage time; we have to manage priorities” “5 minute coaching:Start with a positive affirmation3 questions and then BE QUIET and that is the hardest part1. What else is going well?2. Were there any surprises?3. Would you do anything differently?” “APEx is a community without professional development, not professional development with a community” Links:John Maxwell: https://www.johnmaxwell.com/start-your-journey/Brian Mendler:https://www.tlc-sems.com/Brian-Mendler/ My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Link to the daily email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition

Show Notes, Episode 32: The Flywheel with Dr. Melissa Burns About this show:In Jim Collins’ Iconic book, “Good to Great”, he describes the flywheel. An organization’s flywheel consists of some core practices that, when executed consistently, drive organizational excellence. If you’ve been listening for a while, you ‘ve heard me reference the flywheel, but we’ve never done a deep dive. The basic flywheel for schools goes like this: provide professional development for teachers, follow up with targeted observations, use the observation data to inform the next round of PD. When we execute this cycle repeatedly, we grow great teachers, and great teachers equals great schools. Let’s be real, and let’s be clear – the flywheel is going to look different in different schools. This fall in APEx we will be focusing on building each part of the flywheel, so I thought it would be a good time to bring back Melissa Burns, one of our most popular guests, to talk about their instructional team and what that flywheel concept looks like in her school.Notable QuotesDr. Melissa Burns:“Use collaboration when working with others in your instructional leadership team. We have some fabulous, amazing leaders, teacher leaders, specialists, and administrators. Collaborate. It is the work of many that makes the difference.” Frederick:“Peer observation is one of the most powerful forms of professional development there is” “There are legitimate reasons why people are resistant to change. If they are resistant, that is telling us that either we haven’t helped them see what the real value is, or it is too much effort for the given value” Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 31: Prioritizing Your Own Leadership Development with Maria Werner About this show:Dealing with discipline, being the test coordinator, and taking care of a million things for everyone else. Somehow you find the time. But do you find – or make – that time for yourself? What are your strategies for nurturing your own growth? Today, Maria Werner talks with us about how she juggles school, kids, and even dogs, and manages to still prioritize her own growth. We also discuss how Maria has grown her leadership through APEx and some of her key takeaways. Notable QuotesMaria Werner:“I think that the beauty of education is that there is always opportunity to grow” “Stay in the now. I think that’s been a big piece of the puzzle” “My drive time is my reflection time… If I didn’t have it, I would feel like there was something missing… A lot of my management comes just that thought process” “First year is not meant to make waves, just ripples” “I have found that the way to gain buy in is, instead of delivering the message, it is engulfing them in it, making it interactive, so that they can see, first-hand, that it works” “Collaboration and mentorship are two of my biggest things that I rank the highest in my professional values and APEx covers both of those” “I don’t have an opportunity to collaborate or talk with other people that are serving in the same role that I am, so that collaborative piece is a big part of my love for APEx” “The one-on-one coaching that you have been able to provide me, I can’t put a dollar amount on that. You take me for who I am, and you know what I bring to the table, highlighting strengths and then pointing out where I could focus my improvement” “The figures and visual representations that you provide are directly what works for me. They are small, incremental things that I can see in my mind in the times that I am reflecting” “Delegate, delegate, delegate.” “Find those people in your building that are aspiring leaders and don’t be afraid to delegate those out.” “Any experience was one of value to me.” “Motivation equals value over effort is something in every instructional work team meeting, I brought up because in this COVID time and state of education as a whole, teacher motivation was lacking. “What do we value as educators? What does each teacher value in their role? And how can I as the leader minimize the effort it takes for them to accomplish that goal?... and then that motivation just… you can see it.” “That formula is something that I took back immediately and is actionable in all entities in our operations of our school building.” “Honing in on how a 5-minute experience with a teacher can have such a big impact and it only takes 5 minutes.” “I knew about APEx, I knew it was directly for assistant principals. So I went to the website, gathered as much as I could of giving that overview of what I would get from the experience and shared that with my principal who then requested the funds for the use of being part of the APEx program.” “Who do you collaborate with regularly and if you feel like you don’t have those people that pop into your mind immediately, try to build that because the collaboration piece has been some of the best professional growth that I have received.” “We are your mentors? If you just think your principal, start broadening who else you could be reaching out to and who else would be willing to mentor you. And then who do you mentor? Because it’s a pipeline.” Frederick: “That growth mindset starts with us, it starts with administrators” “If we are going, going, going, and we never create that space [for reflection], then that stuff is just flying around our brains all the time” ”We don’t manage time, we manage priorities” “A lot of people say ‘I want to be more balanced in my life’. There was one time when I really had achieved balance between family, and profession, and social life, And you know what, I was mediocre at everything” “I have moved from the model of balance to juggling, because when you’re juggling you get one thing up in the air, then you forget about it for a minute while you go to the next thing, and you are 100% focused on that one thing. And I think that is more the path to happiness and satisfaction because none of us want to be mediocre all the time” “Get away from the idea of balancing time, get away from the idea of managing time, manage your priorities and then juggle so that you are 100% focused in the moment” “This fall in APEx we are really going to double down on the instructional leadership piece” “We don’t have enough time, we don’t have enough money, but the other thing we don’t get enough of is attention. That’s what that 5-minute coaching does. It 100% of our presence as leaders with the people that we are serving.” Summary of Peer coaching (from 30-minute mark):· SC requires a mid-year SLO (teacher evaluation component) conference.· Admin provided opportunity for teachers to do peer observations as part of

Show Notes, Episode 30: Six Ways to Eliminate InterruptionsAbout this show:In a noisy world, is it possible to find the quiet necessary to do work that moves us forward? In this episode, we cover six suggestions for creating a saner and more productive leadership life Notable QuotesFrederick: “I have been out of higher ed for three years now, and I had just forgotten how disruptive and really how grueling it is to be faced with those constant interruptions, and not just the notifications and things, but being pulled from one task to another” “Turn off all email notifications on every single device that you have. Just turn it off, and never ever ever ever turn your email notifications on again. There is absolutely no reason.” “Never use email as a synchronous form of communication… it is not designed to be used that way and if you don’t use it for synchronous communication then you don’t need to have your notifications on.” “Identify 3-5 people and make sure their calls will always ring through, and then turn your phone on do not disturb” “When everybody can get ahold of you, you can’t get ahold of your work.” “When I create pockets of time where I can concentrate fully and not be distracted, I am going to be so much more efficient” Six ways to eliminate interruptions:1. Turn off all email notifications2. Never use email for synchronous conversations 3. Create a google doc to share FYI information4. Identify 3-5 people who have to be able to get ahold of you, program them in your phone to always be able to ring through, and then turn your phone on do not disturb5. For every minute of the school day, have one individual that is on call and rotate who that individual is6. Educate all stakeholders as to what you’re doing Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 29: Culture with Brad ColemanAbout this show:Culture. What is it? How do we shape it? Why is it so critical? You could fill an entire library with books related to culture and how leaders influence it. Or you could listen to this episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast with our special guest, Brad Coleman.Notable QuotesBrad Coleman:“it’s okay to complain and be frustrated, but you need to come with some solutions as well”“I tell our teachers, I tell our students, school is hard now, we have to find the good and celebrate it”“I don’t care who you are, everyone likes to be acknowledged positively”“When I take over a school, I flood it with acknowledgements and thank you’s… That’s how you change culture, with just little things like that”“Our teachers, if you would ask them here, we treat them well. We take care of them, not just on teacher appreciation week… we take care of them every day. And if we do that for our teachers, we expect them to do the same thing for the students, and they do.”“If the student struggles in reading, we know what to do; we have all of the data and all of the tools to teach the student how to read better. The behavior is the same, you have to re-teach those behaviors… we know consequences don’t change behavior. Relationships do, trust does, and that’s what we try to do”3 things to build culture: “community, consistency, and positive acknowledgment”“Leadership is in the details. I know we have to be really really big picture in the jobs that we do, but just like we ask our teachers to find the good in the classrooms and acknowledge the good, we’ve got to be very in tune to the details, because we can miss things very easily”“Culture is hard to build it, but its easy to lose it if you don’t pay attention to the signs”Frederick: “I’ve heard teachers so many times say ‘well I am not going to reward the kids for doing what they should do.’ Which is the complete opposite message of what you’re sending, which is ‘We definitely want to reward people for what they’re doing because that is how we reinforce that behavior and motivate people to keep going, especially when it gets hard”“Sometimes teachers talk about discipline, but what they really want is retribution because they are angry and hurt”“If we are going to remove a student from class, then we’re going to hold them accountable, but we are also going to be accountable for making the effort to make it right and get them back on track”Links:Brad’s email: [email protected] email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 28: The Ship is SinkingAbout this show:Imagine you’re on a nice little boat, floating along a gentle river or out on a calm lake. Everything is fine until you hear a gurgling sound. You look down and are astounded to see water pouring in from a how in the bottom of the boat. You grab your red Solo cup and begin scooping out water, but it isn’t enough. You look around for something to patch the hole with – nothing. As you look around despondently, you notice a faded plastic bucket floating your way. You manage to get ahold of it and redouble your efforts. Aided by the size of the bucket you begin to get the boat emptied and over the next few hours you alternate between bailing and rowing. The shore is getting closer. You may make it. Notable QuotesFrederick: “The way a lot of states are responding to the teacher shortage is to lower the requirements for being a teacher. That is going to open it up to more people, but those people are going to come in facing increased challenges with even less preparation. So, we have to assume at this point that teachers coming to us are underprepared.” “We have three holes: we’re losing teachers, kids are coming to us with incredible challenges, and the teachers we do have coming into the profession are underprepared.” “Right now, we don’t do anything differently for early career teachers as we do for all of our other teachers. We don’t have anything set as a system that lets us really focus in and tactically and strategically work with those folks, and we can’t do that anymore. We need to structure things in our building to allow us as instructional leaders to really focus and lift up our early career teachers” “I think it is time for us to think about [classroom] procedures as being something that is school-wide” “Five aspects to this ‘plastic bucket’ that we need to pull out of the water:1. Stop doing what we’ve always been doing2. Change the structures in our building to help our instructional leadership team focus specifically on supporting early career teachers3. Streamline procedures so that everyone is using the same ones4. Be more directive in our coaching with early career teachers5. Move from the idea of just supporting first to third year teachers to supporting them in their whole early career, 3-5 years out” Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 2: Why is Instructional Leadership so Hard?About this show:Have you noticed how many first-year teachers have trouble managing their classrooms? And if they never receive really good support, they become 5 and 10-year teachers who can’t manage their classrooms. And then they leave the profession. But guess what? We have a similar problem in the principalship. Most (not all) principals are not fully prepared to meet the challenges of instructional leadership. And if they never get really good support, their trajectories can mirror that f the teachers I just mentioned. This issue is the reason I started this podcast, the reason I do a daily leadership email, it is the focus of my trainings and courses, and it is at the heart of my APEx program. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know that instructional leadership is a common focus. Today, we are going to look at the problem of developing instructional leaders and some things I think we can do about it.Notable QuotesFrederick: “In a perfect organization, which does not exist, the people, the structures, and the resources are all aligned to the purpose, and to each other. And a perfectly aligned organization is a great place to work. Unfortunately, it is the nature of organizations to be in disalignment rather than alignment” “You have two basic responsibilities… Your primary job is to keep everybody safe. Number two is to improve student learning and outcomes for students. Now, you don’t teach students, so the way that you do that is by growing your teachers. In other words, you have two responsibilities: keep everybody safe and help your teachers get better.” “We can’t manage time, time is finite, there is only so much of it, there is nothing to manage. What we have to manage is priorities” “Really good instructional leadership is also about systems alignment” Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Are you living your leadership journey courageously? Before Dr. Mary Hemphill became the Director of Academic Standards for the North Carolina Department of education she was a passionate and innovative principal. Before that, she was an assistant principal with the courage to stand up for her convictions. The assistant principalship is loaded with values conflicts. How do you stay true to your values amidst complex power dynamics and competing interests? Mary helps us figure it all out in this week’s episode.

Show Notes, Episode 25: Parents and Community About this show:“We need to increase family engagement.” I hear this all the time. We know what we want from families, but do we know what families want from us? Today’s episode will take us beyond reading rallies and pizza nights and even beyond my favorite parent event - donuts for dads. Today we focus on what teachers can do to build stronger parent partnerships and how school leaders can support those partnerships. Notable QuotesDr. Leigh Ann Alford-Keith“We need to be addressing power dynamics that are present in the ways that our schools are set up. When we focus on events and when we focus on what we can do for families instead of what families can do for us, we are perpetuating the typical power dynamics in a school and that excludes a lot of our diverse families” “we want to provide culturally relevant instruction, but we don’t necessarily know about their cultures. And their families do know about their cultures, so if we engage their families as partners and there is information available to us, information that the family has about the way that their children learn or what is culturally important to them, that is not information we are able to have on our own” “If we aren’t seeing families as partners, we are missing out on really important information that could help us better educate their children” “We talk a lot about social emotional learning and the whole child, but the whole child includes the family” “Research tells us that effective family engagement increases teachers’ efficacy and they feel that they are better able to do their jobs” “Sometimes the parents come to us in a combative way because of their past experiences. Because they did not have the best experience in school, because they experienced being ostracized” “Even teachers who would never say ‘those kids’ will say ‘those families’. In fact, there are interesting studies that indicate that teachers’ perceptions of families become more negative in their first year of teaching because it is something that we indoctrinate each other into.” “There is a lack of trust between schools and families” “We want our schools to be community centers, and that’s why it hurts us when nobody comes to our events… if our events were surrounded around something related to a community goal… those events are well attended because they relate to community goals and what is important to the community” “Families know who respects them, who is coming from a place of genuine inquiry, who views them as a partner and who doesn’t.” Frederick“When we think about events, we are thinking about tasks. Partnerships are first and foremost about working with people in ways that grow all of the participants” “When parents come in and they are combative, they are advocating for their kid, and they are doing what they think they should be doing as parents... If we can see those actions as advocacy, then we are flipping the script from “this is an angry, uneducated parent” to “this is a parent who really cares about their kid”” “Looking at the school as a part of the community more than just the community being a part of the school is so important and is just a mind-shift” “Change begins inside and how we look at these things. And I think that is a message we don’t really like to hear because it feels kind of squishy… but that inner work is doing something, and sometimes that is the hardest work. And if you can’t flip your inner narrative about how you view families, then all of the other stuff, won’t be wasted, but it won’t have the impact” “Teachers have to be willing to be vulnerable. We have to be willing to say ‘I don’t have all of the answers’” Links:Leigh Ann's resources link: https://bit.ly/efe_docsMy email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

I’m asking for your help. I’ve put together an MVP (minimally viable product) training video and am looking for a few people to pilot it. In exchange for access to this mini-PD, you would be committing to the following: • Watching the video (about 45 minutes, but can be chunked into six parts) • Completing the feedback form (5-15 minutes) • Providing your email address knowing that I will not spam you but will provide you with updates on the project and updated materials The pilot will run from May 3-17, so you would have two weeks to watch the video and complete the feedback form. If you want to make this commitment, please email me ([email protected]). You will then receive an invitation to join my website as a member of the 4-patterns pilot group and will have access to the video. PLEASE – if you don’t have time to follow through, save both of us stress and pass on this opportunity. There will be others.

Show Notes, Episode 23: Testing Coordination with Carrie Prochaska About this show:April showers bring May flowers and May flowers bring…. Testing in schools! Many of the assistant principals I work with also serve double duty as test coordinators. It is a challenging job, but today’s show should contain some tips that make the job a bit easier. Notable Quotes Carrie Prochaska“I think it is super important that we are positive and supportive. We know how everyone feels about testing and we don’t make the rules, but we have to play by them.” “Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. A lot of the processes we do, work for every test” “Stay organized and don’t wait until the last minute to prepare” “Plan time during your workday that is going to be devoted to preparation, where you are not interrupted” “Give yourself some grace on testing days” “There is a purpose for this. We aren’t just testing these kids to death for no reasons. We use our state test scores to really delve into school wide strengths and weaknesses, grade level strengths and weaknesses, teacher grades and weaknesses, we use them to set our goals for the schools, teachers, and grade levels.” “I can’t think of anything that can’t be fixed” Frederick“When we talk about prioritizing purpose over urgency, we are also talking about systems, because without good systems we are trapped on the treadmill of the urgent. Systems allow us to work more quickly and with greater accuracy” “So many of us are used to multi-tasking and thinking we can multi-task. Multi-tasking erodes your ability to work effectively. If you can talk to your principle and close your door for an hour, hour and a half, you’re going to get three hours of work done.” “Test coordination is one way that we leverage our skills to help the school” Links:Carrie’s email: [email protected] email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 22: Growth Mindset About this show:If you have ever played buzz-word bingo, and had “growth mindset” on your card, you knew you odds of winning were good. But what is “growth mindset” all about? As an assistant principal, you probably already know where this is going. Yes, we want our kids to have a growth mindset, but if we can get our teachers to also have that growth mindset, then we will be in great shape!Notable Quotes Becca Silver“once we use the word ‘have’ we make it a fixed quality, no matter what we are talking about” “people have equated growth mindset with being enlightened and demonized fixed mindset” “we all operate in a fixed mindset sometimes and the goal is to start noticing when we do it” “Just because a teacher is doing well in their classroom and their classroom is under control doesn’t mean they are operating under a growth mindset. How do we know someone’s mindset? We listen to their language” “Mindsets are incredibly personal and they can be tied to our core identity. we are dealing with the way people think about themselves” “our neurons, when we struggle and persist, and eventually succeed, they actually get stronger… our brains get stronger when we persist through struggle” “We want to create a space where people feel safe to make mistakes… you want to ask yourself ‘do you as a coach or assistant principal create a psychologically safe space for people to struggle and make mistakes in your presence?” “There are three things that I always recommend if you want to create a growth mindset culture that need to be normalized… Those three things are: mistakes, struggle, and feedback.” “One of the most damaging things I see administrative teams do is only give feedback during formal observations… that builds a compliance culture.” Frederick“There are a lot of people that have built this whole narrative to convince themselves that they are worthy and they are good teachers and to open up and question that would be devastating for them” “When you’re working with somebody, especially when it is hard for them, you have to keep breaking it down into smaller and smaller pieces” “The structures of schools really aren’t set to nurture growth mindset in teachers and so if an administrator wants to change the culture to support growth mindsets, they have to change the system… First, we have to model what we are preaching, so we have to have that growth mindset. And I think we have to have accountability.” “Observation doesn’t mean the same thing to you as it does the person being observed” “If we want other people to be operating under a growth mindset, we need to be doing that as well” Links:Becca’s Website: www.thewholeeducator.comBecca’s Instagram: @thewholeeducatorBecca’s Twitter: beccasilver_eduMy email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlSign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialeditionWebsite: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 21: Meeting the Needs of New Teachers About this show:In today’s episode, guest host Mara Buskey leads us through a discussion with two relatively new teachers about what they need from their assistant principals, how they view leadership, and what kind of feedback and style of coaching best meets their needs. This is an inspiring episode that may yield some surprising but valuable insights. Notable QuotesMara Buskey “I can very much remember being a student and the intense feeling that would occur when an administrator would walk in the room. It was like immediately everything was on edge” Frederick Buskey “I think our default is collaborative; as educators we want to help people grow and we want that dialogue. I think that we need to be more directive more often, especially with newer teachers. And I don’t mean directive in a way of ‘you have to do this’ but directive in a way that ‘oh, I see that you’re struggling with this. Here, here are some things that can help you. Let me help you with this.” “your generation is fundamentally different in that you view feedback as something that is there to help you grow” “we can give feedback in different ways: just saying ‘oh you’re doing a great job’ doesn’t really tell me much… the most powerful feedback is very specific” “whether we are an administrator or a teacher, when someone makes a suggestion or has an idea, the first step is really to consider the perspective and to not say ‘oh no, that won’t work based on my perspective’ but to seek out the other perspectives” Kemberly Merritt “for teachers that come in, if they can have the support of someone that is going to give them a step by step guidance, it would give them a more secure feeling” “It is more resourceful to me if you come in and express to me ‘this is what you need to do, this is how this needs to be done, this is what you can use to do better’ versus telling me at a later time or at the end of the year… if you tell me now, I can correct it now.” “this year when [my AP] came in… he would come in and he wouldn’t even worry about me. He would talk to the students, he would sit at the table with the students… he would sit there and work with the students on what they were doing to make the students be more comfortable with him being in the classroom, and I didn’t see someone sitting in the back with a pen and paper writing, I saw someone that was engaging in the lessons with the students which made it a lot easier for me” “you have to have a relationship with your students to have a good year. That’s one of the things that I have expounded on. I start off my first week of school building a relationship with my students and then everything else follows” “I think all teachers are leaders because you are leading the students in your classrooms. They are looking at us as leaders, so I would say anyone that is teaching or guiding anybody I would consider them to be a leader.” “Leadership comes in all shapes, forms, sizes, and personalities, but the leadership that is given has to be accepted so that you can grow.” Leah Downing “tell me the things that I’m doing great, and then the things I need to work on and I can do better on, and then finish up with another way that I’m awesome” “one area I want to grow is looking at curriculum more big picture. What I mean by that is that I know my third grade standards, the things I need to teach them, and where they need to be at the end of the year. But I really have no clue what they do in 4th grade or what they do in 3nd grade… I know that if I have that big understanding of their math curriculum and their reading curriculum, I would be so much better able to support my students because I would better be able to pinpoint exactly where they’re learning the things that they have gaps in” “one important thing about leadership, particularly with classroom teachers or people who aren’t necessarily in a leadership position at a school, sometimes it can just be seen that there is a need and being the person to fill it or being willing to fill it” “its all about relationships. At the end of the day, all of us in a school building are working to build contributing members of society and relationships are at the heart of that.” Links:Frederick email: [email protected] Mara email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 20: Change Starts from Within About this show:The topic of this show is restorative practices, but the show title is the key to implementing such practices: Change starts from within. In this episode we take a detour from the common one-two-three approaches to kicking off a restorative justice program in your school. Instead, we focus on you. Or more accurately, we focus on getting you to focus on you? If the discipline approaches you are relying on aren’t working, then this podcast is for you. Just don’t expect a magic bullet or paint-by-numbers approach. The change will start from within. Notable Quotes Gabby Grant “Restorative practices in schools really focus on relationship building, a sense of community, while centering on accountability while repairing wrongdoing and harm. Versus a punitive punishment-based system that really focuses on individualized behavior that is rooted in punishment around shame and judgement that isn’t really focused on future behavior.” “One of the biggest pieces of a school that is implementing restorative practices is that there is a culture of trust and value that everyone present is a valued member of that community and school, therefore everyone has a voice in what happens to them in the discipline process” “The first step in understanding and implementing restorative practices is understanding how you handle conflict yourself” “If you want students to have open conversations, you need to be able to have them amongst yourselves first” “It isn’t authentic if the transformation doesn’t start from within and then spread out, it isn’t going to be sustainable” “This type of work transforms all facets of your life” “Change starts from within” Frederick “If punishment worked, you wouldn’t be inundated with referrals” “The system is really designed to extract student compliance” “The change will begin with you, Assistant Principals” “If you’re not willing to follow up on it, or don’t have the capacity to follow up on whatever you’re doing, don’t do it… If you can’t follow up on it and help them, all you did was put pressure on them” Links:My email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlSign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialeditionWebsite: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode X: Title About this show:Serving exceptional students can be one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of school leadership. In this episode Elizabeth Schumpert, Director of Student Support Services for Saluda County Schools, helps us gain some insights into supporting exceptional students and their families, and working with the variety of support services and personnel that make up part of the team that cares for exceptional students. Notable Quotes Elizabeth Schumpert“When the conversation turns tough, a lot of times the administrator should be the one to step in and help guide back towards smoother waters” “The more we support our special education teachers, the more effective they can be in the classroom” “Always keep in the forefront, that the student is first a general education student who just happens to qualify for specialized instruction” “Nobody wants to get that phone call that their child has a discipline referral, but a lot of times you just have to listen. And you’re going to hear that parent take a deep breath. And when they take that deep breath, now they’re ready to have that conversation” “You’re going to hear me use this word a lot, because it’s all about Relationships” “Its your job to represent what is best for that student and as long as that is in the forefront of any conversation, you can’t go wrong” “Remember that children with disabilities may have one or two disabilities, but they have hundreds of abilities, so focus on the abilities” Frederick“If we could get our APs to embrace the idea that we get into the meeting, and before we start the official stuff, let’s say something really positive about that kid and about the relationship we have with the kid. I think that would go a long way.” “Use the behavior intervention plan to get to the problem, instead of just the symptom” “Once we figure out the triggers, then we’re pretty close to figuring out what the root problem is and then we can start doing things” “It’s only punishment if it decreases the behavior” “Every IEP doesn’t have to end with a signed document. There can be good reasons and healthy reasons even to say, ‘you know what, we need more information, or we need to think more about this, lets come back and revisit this.’” Links:My email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlSign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialeditionWebsite: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode 18: The Math of Leverage About this show:The four principles of leverage, described last week in episode 17, can guide us to creating progress in our organizations. A key to progress is focusing on incremental progress as opposed to big changes to fix things. In today’s episode, we will apply leverage to a real school situation. Notable Quotes Frederick“If you invest 5 minutes a day in one of these teachers, over the course of a week we can probably make a difference” “One of the reasons that students are tardy to class is because class doesn’t start on time. Or you check into class and there’s nothing going on, so why hurry up to be there? So starting work at the beginning of class gives students more reason to get to class” “in the course of a day, if you get one less referral, that’s another 20-45 minutes that you get back… now imagine what we can do to support those teachers” “I would challenge you to go around and look at the classrooms that you get the most referrals from. I am going to bet that in most cases, 70-80% of those cases, those teachers do not teach bell to bell. That’s when problems are happening, during the beginning of class and end of class.” “We can’t necessarily make a teacher love kids and we can’t turn a teacher into a charismatic kid magnet, but we can give them very simple, concrete strategies to start building rapport with their kids” “Don’t go after it unless you’re willing to invest the time to follow up” “I want things to be immediately better for me, which means I get more time to invest in teachers” “There are problems all over our schools, there are teachers that need to get better, there are opportunities for growth, but our time is so limited. There are so many tasks facing you, just focus on one teacher and just focus on one thing for that teacher. Just make it a little bit better, and then once you’ve got that, then figure out where the next place is to go” “One teacher, one change” Links:My email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlSign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialeditionWebsite: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode X: Title About this show:Ever wonder why we are always driving change in our schools? Ever wonder why change initiatives rarely seem to produce the promised results? What if there was a better way? What if, instead of making sweeping changes, we just made tomorrow a little bit better today? If the concept of incremental yet immediate change appeals to you, then listen to todays show on the four principles of leverage Notable QuotesFrederickThe work of leadership is really the work to align organizations because when the people, resources, and structures are all in alignment with the purpose, then you have an effective organization that is making progress and that people feel good about working in. Leadership is inherently connected with change Usually what happens with big change is we don’t conclude it, it just kind of fades away and we get to abandonment, so we never get to the evaluation phase Instead of looking at all kinds of changes and being sophisticated, lets be as simple as possible. Motivation = Value / Effort Links:My email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlSign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialeditionWebsite: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Intro Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. This podcast compliments APEx, the Assistant Principal Exceleration program, but you certainly don’t need to be an APEx member to find value in the podcast. It’s just me today talking about the transition to being driven by the important, instead of the urgent. The beginning of today’s show will recap a couple of the frameworks of strategic leaderships. We will then dive into five strategies for being strategically reactive. Before we do that, I want to celebrate. The first episode of this podcast released in August 2021, with six additional episodes released sporadically prior to the new year. Beginning in mid-January we have released a new episode every Thursday and last week the show topped 1000 total downloads! We have listeners in 41 states and nine countries, so thanks to everyone for becoming a part of this community. I also need to give a big shoutout to the podcast team, which is a family affair. Editing each episode, uploading it and then working on the website is a lot of work and I could not produce a weekly podcast without Lance Buskey, who assumed all of those duties at the beginning of this year. Lance, your help not only makes this show possible, but the quality of your work brings something else – peace of mind. If you found this show via the daily email, Instagram, or LinkedIn, then you have Mara Buskey to thank. Mara has been instrumental in helping to spread the word. She brings a creativity and energy to our social media posts that I cannot match. And if you subscribe to our daily leadership email, you can thank Mara for that as well. She is also coordinating a special episode of this podcast that will feature a panel of first-year teachers discussing what they need from their APs, so you’ll get to hear her voice soon. Okay, to today’s topic. Back in episode 1 we talked about the Six Dimensions of organizations:PurposePeople, structures, resourcesExternal forcesInternal forces (culture) The degree of alignment within the organization determines how successful the organization is in fulfilling its purpose. The work of leaders is to increase organizational alignment. Increasing alignment leads to achieving purpose. It also improves internal forces, or culture.A fundamental challenge to doing the purposeful work of alignment is the way urgency drives our actions. In episode 14 we talked about the Eisenhower Matrix, which divides tasks into four quadrants: When we are driven by urgency, we focus on quadrants 1 and 3, at the expense of quadrant 2, which is the work of aligning systems and supporting teacher growth. This brings us to the two most important responsibilities of school administrators:1. Keep everyone safe2. Improve outcomes for students by helping teachers grow And since growth activities are primarily q2, in order for APs to become strategic leaders, they need to be able to escape the treadmill of the urgent. There are four keys to getting off the treadmill. The first of those is to act with intention on a daily basis. At the end of today’s podcast, I’ll encourage you to sign up for my daily leadership email, specifically because it helps you to set a leadership intention each day. But I digress. Ideally being intentional means being proactive, but even when we are reacting, we can become intentional by applying five strategies to become strategically reactive. Strategic reaction, applied consistently, will help us to slowly recapture some time to devote to quadrant two. More importantly, applying the five strategies conditions us to be intentional. When forced to react to a situation, you have five options for action. The actions are arranged hierarchically. Think of them as a sorting method. Try to apply the first action. If you can’t, move to the second option and so on. 1. Give it up. Ask yourself whether this is a necessary task. You may be surprised how many tasks are not important (quadrant 3). If it is not important, let it go. Items in this category include lots of email, especially the FYI types, some meetings, and paperwork. This is also an effective strategy for dealing with requests the appear mundane or capricious. 2. Give it back. Some issues are important to others but not to you or the organization. These shouldn’t be ignored as they can impact the invested party’s motivation. Think of these issues as monkeys. When someone tries to give you their monkey, give it back to them! You don’t need to care for other people’s monkeys. You can give monkeys back by:a. Acknowledging the concern and emotions of the monkey ownerb. Rephrasing the concern as you understand itc. Providing them with a task as a next step. This task could include: i. Further reflection on the root problem ii. Developing a list of options iii. Talking with others iv. Doing some research v. Scheduling

Show Notes, Episode X: Title About this show:Dr. Melissa Burns is the principal at Sara Collins Elementary School in Greenville, South Carolina. Melissa is a remarkable principal and leader who balances wisdom and practicality. One of Melissa’s many superpowers is developing other people’s leadership. In the first half of this episode, we discuss the importance of developing teacher-leaders and how to do it. In the second half of the episode, Melissa provides some practical advice for how busy assistant principals can hone their instructional leadership skills. Notable QuotesDr. Melissa Burns“Teachers really listen to other teachers” “It is important to take the characteristics of particular teachers and help push them with their strengths” “day to day, we are provided so many opportunities and challenges that we just don’t know of and we can’t anticipate, but being calm and focused in the moment is important” 3 ways to stay calm under pressure: “I try to take deep breathes and stay calm myself, I try to involve others around me… and lastly, just know what you know and then what you need to figure out and learn” “Be in the classroom” “There are some things, at times, that I have to do that only I can do, and [I need to] let other people grow their leadership around me” “Put students first. That’s why we are here in schools. If you love your focus of the students being first and foremost for your priorities, then you might need to look at doing something else for your career or intentions” Frederick “Having Assistant Principals actually talk through with teachers what they’re thinking and their thinking process is so that they are making that leadership behavior and leadership decision making that more transparent to teachers and in turn help them understand leadership” “we tend to think sometimes that leaders have to be able to do it all, but especially when we’re talking about teacher leadership, they don’t have to do it all. So that idea that somebody can be a niche leader and can be really good at one thing… that doesn’t mean they can’t lead in the area they’re good at.” “teachers coming into classrooms now are coming into very different situations. The classrooms are more complex, they’re more diverse, but also there are social issues that they are being impacted with that we didn’t have to face when we were beginning teachers” “Melissa, you’ve been talking about other people and how you rely on other people. And when there is a tough situation, you don’t try to handle it all yourself, one of your first responses is “Who else do I need to involve in this?” and that’s why you’re a great principal. Because you nurture people so that they can step in and support those situations.” “Develop other people’s leadership and then when you are in a tough situation, make sure that one of your top strategies is getting help from other people. Its not designed so that you do it alone” Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

The Assistant Principal PodcastEpisode X: Tracking Teacher DevelopmentWhy does it always feel like improving teacher quality is an uphill battle? One big reason is that our schools are not structured to facilitate consistent teacher growth. Focusing on helping teachers to grow requires us to focus on the structures that can support growth first. In this episode we look at on important structure, the teacher tracking document. The teacher tracking document helps us to develop and document a coherent and consistent approach to helping individual and groups of teachers grow.Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today, I will walk us through how to use a teacher tracking document as part of a systems approach to teacher development.After listening to this podcast, you might want to head over to my website, frederickbuskey.com/appodcast, to watch the video. There are several key graphics that go along with today’s show that should help you. I will also include images in the show notes. Back in episode one I talked about the six dimensions of organizations. If we think about a three-sided pyramid representing an organization, the pinnacle is the organizational purpose. The three points along the pyramid’s base are people, structures, and resources. In the perfect organization, which doesn’t exist, the people, structures, and resources are perfectly aligned with the organization’s purpose.In the simplest terms, the work of leadership is improving alignment between the purpose, the people, the structures and the resources.Structures include buildings, the arrangement of space within those buildings, but also the rules, policies, expectations, and practices that shape our actions. A block schedule is a structure that is fundamentally different than an 8-period day. They exist for different purposes and if we try and teach during a block the way we did when we had 8 periods, it doesn’t work. Our skills need to align with our structures, and both need to be aligned to our purpose. When we ask people to work towards a specific purpose, yet we have structures that aren’t aligned with that purpose, it creates a situation in which people feel like they are constantly swimming up stream. Teachers experience this misalignment often:Teachers are expected to plan rich and powerful lessons, yet they have 30-minutes a day to plan.Teachers are expected to use formative assessments to inform their focus, yet we have pacing guides and benchmark tests.Teachers are expected to become masters of pedagogy, yet they work under pressure and expectations that make risk-taking difficult and reflection almost impossible.This misalignment makes it harder for teachers to excel at their core job and it increases pressure and frustration.As assistant principals, you are experiencing a congruent set of circumstances. The purpose of schools is to help young people develop agency over their lives and to become responsible democratic citizens. Or something like that.The roles of the principal and assistant principal are integral structures. School administrators have tow primary functions that are core to the purpose of the school: Keep everyone safeCreate better outcomes for kidsHowever, we don’t teach kids and the #1 Influence on student achievement is the classroom teacher. So, the formula is simple:Better teachers = better student learning.Logically then, once we make sure that everyone is safe, our next priority is to focus on teacher development. If better teachers = better student learning then, outside of safety, the most important things we do are the things that help our teacher to continually grow.The challenge is that there is all kinds of stuff that gets in the way.Why does this happen? Because our structures are not aligned to our purpose.What has happened in many schools, is that while the stated purpose of the assistant principal is to contribute to the quality of instruction in the building, the unstated purpose has become to deal with all the issues that come up in day-to-day operations. Our school structures have followed suit:We communicate via email, which demands our constant attention.We carry walkie talkies so we can always be reached.We accept that interrupting what we are working on is part of the job.We use a narrow set of observation practices that are more aligned to accountability than to teacher development.The cumulative impact of these mis-aligned structures and purpose has a profound impact on how we lead:We mistake urgency for purpose in our day-to-day behaviors, so the important purposeful work of teacher development gets displaced by urgent tasks. There are tasks that are both urgent and important- especially those dealing with safety. However, there are many urgent tasks that are less-important or not important. For example, the parent newsletter, school social

Show Notes, Episode 13: What Makes a Great APToday I’m joined by Brenda Byrd, an Assistant Superintendent for School Leadership (and a former South Carolina Elementary Principal of the Year and a National Distinguished Principal). Brenda works for Greenville County School District in Greenville South Carolina. Brenda is here with us to talk about what makes an AP great. Notable QuotesBrenda Byrd“Gone are the days where you are mandating new initiatives across the board. It needs to be few and far between when we take that approach. We really need to start looking for those teacher leaders, those early adopters, who may be interested in doing work like that, and let them help you work out the kinks and look for those success opportunities.” “You do have to have effective practices with operational and management to be able to transition more into that instructional leadership.” “I think time management is one of the most important skill sets that effective leaders need to have, and that is so true for assistant principals” “You really have to manage your time well because if you don’t, then you are just in response mode all the time, you are just being reactive. You have to plan proactively to schedule your responsibilities. Start by scheduling the most important tasks because if you don’t, if those are left as an afterthought, like classroom observations, they’re not going to happen consistently” “Good intentions are just the beginning… you’ve gotta have develop systems to plan and execute your responsibilities” “A good portion of our job as administrators is responding to whatever the immediate needs are and we have to realize that those aren’t interruptions, that’s part of our job… and we have to be able to adapt and respond to those needs when appropriate.” “We need school leaders who model their own desire for professional learning” “Children who are willing to invest in them. Adults need people who genuinely care about them and who take the time to develop relationships.” “I was a principal at a large school, and I wanted to be sure that at some point during the year that at some point during the year that all of my staff members got a handwritten note. They didn’t know it, but I kept a little checklist of that just so I could keep up with that and make sure that I had shared some love and appreciation with each person through a handwritten note.” “Assistant principals need to ask for what they need” “You cannot underestimate the power of the relationship… if we don’t have relationships with students and the adults we serve, we can’t do the work” Frederick“When we think about our pipelines and our gap between assistant principals and principals, it’s that managing change and instructional leadership are two of the biggest pieces” “One of the things I see from assistant principals is that they are so eager to help everybody, that they overcommit and then they can’t follow through” “Lots of people have good ideas. But who is willing to do the work?” “Positivity is “it’s going great” when it’s not, optimism is “We’re going to get through this”” “the message to all assistant principals out there is: you’re interviewing everyday.” “The best people in our business are still working on their craft and still trying to get better and they are taking risks to get better… every AP and principal out there should be willing to take some risks to continue to grow and improve their craft” Links:My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Show Notes, Episode X: Title About this show:Today I’m joined by Becca Silver the founder and lead consultant at The Whole Educator. Becca has been posting some great stuff on LinkedIn, which is where we met. Becca is here to help us explore the AP – Instructional coach relationship. Notable Quotes Becca Silvers“Teachers are diverse learners, just like their students, we should not be giving out blanket coaching strategies” “Don’t treat people the way you would want to be treated, treat people the way they want to be treated. And that takes skill! It takes skill to understand how people want to be treated, right, listening skills, an ability to read people, emotional intelligence” “Some coaches don’t see themselves as leaders” “[instructional coaches] are not formal observers and evaluators, they are the champions of teachers, standing for teachers to be at their highest potential” “we need coaches to be able to work with people that aren’t necessarily like them” “during the pandemic and especially this year, you are seeing instructional coaches being pulled all over the place, they are covering classes, any catch all jobs that need get done… and it’s a total misuse of talent in the building.” “Brown’s definition of leadership: ‘A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes and who has the courage to develop that potential.’ And I see the coaches’ role being that.” “I think that coaches job is to help[ teachers reflect, be a partner in reflection, and there can be vulnerability in that… be the safe space for teachers to be vulnerable, to make mistakes, its safe to take risks here, and there is no formal evaluation at all” “how wonderful would it be for an AP to say “hey look, I am your thought partner here and when we are helping to grow teachers, we do this together, and I am here to support you and you are here to support me right? We are different parts of the body that surrounds and supports teachers” “Adults also operate on a growth and fixed mindset. A lot of the times when we have a teacher that is stuck. many times it is because they are operating under a fixed mindset” “Part of building trust is being transparent about our intentions, motive, and agendas”“Underlying all human behaviors are peoples’ mindsets and motivations, and we want to be sure that we are being trained ourselves to address people’s underlying mindsets and motivations when we want teachers’ behaviors to change” Frederick“One of the things that I am trying to help administrators come to the place on is that their role is to support teachers. As a principal or assistant principal, you have two jobs: keep everyone safe and improve student learning” “This is the problem right? That we can’t easily access models. We can talk about coaching models, teaching models, but when it comes to what should this relationship look like, it gets harder because there isn’t that stuff out there.” “Teach your teachers that you are there to support them” “people were promoted and put in these roles (instructional coaches) and not only did we not do a great job at telling the coaches what their job is, but we didn’t tell the administrators how to use them either, so there is this big disconnect” “the essential problem is that we don’t take a systems approach to growing teachers” “Traditional coaching is about doing, transformational coaching is about seeing” Links:Becca Silver at The Whole Educator: https://www.thewholeeducator.com/My email: [email protected] The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition Website: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

The Assistant Principal PodcastEpisode 8: Who Should I Coach? In this episode we look into the surprisingly complex question of “Who should I coach?” We examine the five ways that teachers grow, we overview what a systemic approach to teacher growth looks like in a school, and we answer the question. If you only have time to coach one or two people, then you can’t afford to choose the wrong person to coach. This podcast should help. If I can only coach one teacher, who should I coach? I’ve been working with the APEx assistant principals on coaching this fall. Knowing that people are very busy, we’ve been focusing on coaching just one person. In all honesty, it hasn’t gone that well. There have been some successes, but lots of stumbling blocks as well. What I am learning from this is just how complex coaching is. Of course, we can do very basic coaching without needing a ton of training, but every step carries its own complexities. Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today, we are taking a deep dive into one simple question – who should I coach? After listening to this podcast, you might want to head over to my website, frederickbuskey.com, to watch the video. There are several key graphics that go along with today’s show and watching this show after listening to it should increase the value many fold. I will also include images in the show notes. Before going further, please know that most of this podcast was written before I listened to Jennifer Gonzales’ Cult of Pedagogy podcast from October 19, 2021. I’ll include a link in the show notes, but her main point is that teachers are in an extra fragile state right now… now being the 2021-22 school year which, for many people, has been even more disruptive and challenging than 2020-21. Jennifer’s podcast has forced me to reflect on my message of growing people. So, I am going to go through the podcast as I had originally intended. At the end, I will share my current thinking on how to adapt the content to this unique and, I hope, temporary context. Okay, on with the show. There are three main things we need to consider to identify that one teacher to focus on:· First, what are the other avenues of professional development that teachers have open to them?· What system of supports does the instructional team provide for teachers?· What do you hope to gain from coaching? We’ll explore these questions and at the end of the podcast I’ll provide my generic answer to the primary question, “who should I coach?” Coaching does not happen in a vacuum. Coaching is just one strategy to help teachers grow. In the ideal world where resources are infinite, every teacher would benefit from highly personalized intense coaching. However, in the real world we need to view coaching as just one way to help teachers grow. To better understand this, let’s look at what I call the cube of development. The cube of development is simply a metaphor for the multiple ways that teachers can grow. While a cube has six sides, I’ve only identified five paths for teacher growth. Maybe I should call it the pentagram of development, but cube sounds much cooler and I’m sure there is one thing that I have missed. Feel free to email me if you know what the missing side is! The most common, and most powerful, way that teachers get better is through self-reflection and individual initiative. Self-reflection is the top of the cube. Good teachers routinely reflect on their practice and when they find things they want to improve, they look for resources, learn from those resources, and work to implement that new learning. However, many teachers are not as self-reflective as we would like. Let’s be clear though, that lack of self-reflection is usually not their fault. In fact, we could say the same thing about ourselves: most school leaders aren’t as self-reflective as we should be. And again, it’s not really our fault.I might dedicate a future podcast to helping teachers become more reflective, but for today I will just enumerate the challenges to being reflective:· Lack of time. If there is a magic bullet in education, providing more time for teachers to learn, plan, assess, and design is it.· Pressure and fear both inhibit reflection and there is lots of that going around.· The work that teachers do has become very fragmented. It isn’t simply a matter of prepping for three sections of English 10. There are so many other demands that not only cost time but which also fragment thinking and erode the concentration and focus required for deep reflection.· There is often little to no accountability or follow-up support for implementation beyond what the teachers can do for themselves. When I say accountability, I mean that in a positive sense. If we are going to put energy into learning something, then we should also put energy into supporting full implemen

Episode 7: Dr. Sam Sircey and Perspectives Today I’m joined by Dr. Sam Sircey, the Principal of North Buncombe High School in Weaverville NC.Sam is here with us today to explore perspective taking! Dr. Sam Sircey: “If we can’t get a new perspective, we can become complacent and compliant. That’s okay if we are only here to behave well, but we are here to learn.” “Faculty meetings – we are there to learn something.” “If we forget that they [students] want to be part of the discussion, then its’s not going to go well.” “The relationships my teachers have with their students is more valuable than the content. I’ve always known that, but I don’t think I’ve ever embraced that. “We need to start with what we can do before we can get to what we want to do.” “They didn’t need me [to be down in the weeds with them], they needed me to be the person who had the answers.” “The role of the AP is the most rewarding of anything. The principal role… isn’t that same ‘in the moment’ reward that you would get as an assistant principal.” “My feelings of accomplishment have more to do with what they [APs] do than what I do.” “Public school is a good place to be… what we do here has purpose, meaning, and value.” “Being a principal and assistant principal is hard – and worth every minute of it!” Frederick “I forget I have a mountain view until the leaves fall off the trees. As leaders, we can become accustomed to a particular view, so much so that we forget what other views look like.” “It’s the spirit of working together, which has to begin by acknowledging what the context is.” “Boundaries provide structure and structure provides safety. If I don’t know where the boundaries are then things are unsafe.” “You have established a leadership culture where we come together.” Links:My email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlSign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialeditionWebsite: www.frederickbuskey.comBlog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)

Today we are doing a coaching grab bag. Today’s episode was inspired by my ongoing work with assistant principals from several different school districts. With these APs we’ve already looked at different types of teacher observations (there are four), some basic observation tools, and some post-observation conferencing strategies. Last month each AP chose one thing to focus on helping a single teacher improve on. Earlier this week we unpacked their experiences and there was so much to talk about. Links:My email: [email protected] Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.htmlElena Aguilar, The art of Coaching, https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-art-of-coaching-effective-strategies-for-school-transformation_elena-aguilar/8984956/?resultid=4908afea-0d19-4a8d-adb5-3f2c69e8a81d#edition=8265430&idiq=5291743 Link to a video of a teacher that is interesting to think about (this is not my video):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frK7UoNo8Og&t=8s