The Assistant Principal Podcast

Imagine this: You receive only six emails a week. One is from your district office and provides all the info you need for the week. One is from your principal and provides all the info your teachers need for the week. The other four are from the PLC teams that you support and are copies of their meeting notes and action items. Almost no email, and none of it urgent. Just FYI stuff. What could you do with the extra time? On today’s episode, we examine your relationship with email. I’m your host, Frederick Buskey. The Assistant Principal Podcast focuses on the four themes of strategic leadership:· Prioritizing purpose over urgency· Dealing with problems instead of treating symptoms· Prioritizing progress over action and· Serving people ahead of completing tasks. Email is such a critical thing because it impacts all four of the principles of strategic leadership!· The way we typically use email today reinforces the primacy of the urgent at the cost of being purposeful.· Email does not lend itself to deep and meaningful analysis and conversation, so it is almost always focused on surface level symptoms instead of root problems.· Because email feels so urgent, we focus more on responding to email than actually using it to create progress.· Finally, email consumes a disproportionate amount of time and attention at the cost of human interaction and helping people grow. Today’s show is in response to my work with all of the assistant principals in the APEx program. If you don’t know what APEx is, you can check it out on my website at frederickbuskey.com/APEx. At the beginning of this school year, I asked the APEx APs to identify their three biggest challenges and, unsurprisingly, email was one of the winners. In further conversations, some common themes emerged:· Most APs receive 15-100 emails a day (with 50 being typical)· Categories that take up the most time include discipline, teacher questions, athletics, testing, MTSS/Special Education· Most APs scan email on their phones multiple times a day.· Seeing alerts and knowing that there are unread/unanswered emails in their inbox adds stress to many APs.· Many APs view the inbox as a to-do list· APs approach email differently, with some feeling that careful crafting and thoughtful responses are important while others respond to emails as briefly and directly as possible.· Most APs have a system for prioritizing email and use folders to manage their inbox· Many APs will use phone calls to respond to complex emails.· Many APs check email outside of work hours. I’m not an email expert and you can find tons of videos and recommendations on the Internet, so why bother listening to this podcast? Aside from my soothing voice and uplifting demeanor, you might want to listen because we will examine email through a strategic lens. If you look at typical email suggestions, they focus on responding to and organizing your email. This is like focusing solely on what you eat when you want to lose weight. Changing your diet is more complex than simply changing what you eat. Similarly, changing your email habits is about more than how you deal with the actual emails you receive. I’m going to assume that you are listening to this while you are traveling, but you may want to wait until you are in front of your email. It isn’t a requirement, but I will ask you to think about some things for which it might be handy to have your email in front of you. Of course, you could always listen to the podcast twice! As we get started, it might be good to remember that email is a relatively new invention. Remember how we started this podcast, imaging that we only received a few emails a week and that they were all informational? That wasn’t a dream, it was the reality twenty years ago. In 2000, if someone wanted something from you, they needed to either call, physically hunt you down, or leave a note. This is a profound thing to understand. As a tool for sharing information, email is unsurpassed. The fundamental problem with email, is that we use it for many other things for which it was not designed. Here’s a fun thing to try if you are in front of your email: Review your emails from the past day or two. How many of the requests or questions you received would people have asked if they had to call or visit you? My educated guess is not many. This highlights two critical issues related to email:1. While email started out being a communication tool, but it has become something else – a to-do list.2. Because it is a communication tool, email makes it very easy, too easy, for other people to add things to YOUR to-do list.When used inappropriately, which it often is, email becomes a way to add more work to people’s plates. Getting control of email involves three aspects:1. Changing your relationship with email2. Building complimentary communication systems3. Managing the email you do get Today we are focusing on the relationship aspect. We will dig into the other pieces in future episodes. Let’s dive

This is a special edition of The Assignat Principal Podcast inspired by some work I did recently with nine assistant principals as part of the APEx program. This podcast assumes that you are familiar with 5-mc. If you aren’t, you can go to frederickbuskey.com/resources and download a one-pager. This is a deeper look at the purposes and techniques of 5-mc. Purpose of 5-mc1. Help T become more reflective (by creating space)2. Show T that you value them (by listening)3. Help you understand what’s happening (by listening)4. Increase your listening skills (by not thinking about what you should say) It is easy and low investment – don’t make it more complicated, there are other observation formats for that. This is like hitting the Bojangles drive through, not sitting down to a meal in a restaurant. Similarly, 5-mc is an MVP approach. It is great, but it is only one part or step. Impact over time:1. T begin answering the questions routinely without you being there to ask them (become more reflective practitioners)2. T view you as a partner in their growth and they will seek you out3. You will become more proactive because you will consistently have better information sooner.4. Your ability to focus will increase and your mind will quiet down5. Change is gradual – this is not about getting teachers to change a specific practice, it is about getting them to be more reflective over the long term. If you are doing these things, you are not doing 5-minute coaching:· Trying to fix things· Trying to suggest things· Trying to make things better· Talking· Replying· Thinking about answers or next steps· You could use the questions as part of a more formal coaching cycle, but it isn’t 5-mc at that point.(Don’t tarnish the brand!) The most powerful, simplest, but hardest thing to do:100% attention, listening, totally present in the moment.· It is a gift of immeasurable value.· Time is finite, we can’t make more of it, so it is the most valuable resource. Your teachers know that, so when you give them your undivided attention, they know you are giving them something special.· It is hard because we want to think about our response or about other things we must do. By understanding that the presence is the value, maybe we can let go of our need to be thinking about other things. Multiple uses:· Reflecting on a lesson· A practice· A student· School culture· A school initiative· T socio-emotional health What to do with what you learn?· Pieces of information are data a points.· One purpose of 5mc is for you to learn more about what’s going on, which means you are collecting data· It is anecdotal and informal data· How do we use it?o Write it down after coaching is over, probably shouldn’t tell T you are writing anything down. Do not write while doing 5-mc, it makes it too formal.o Reflect on themes and patterns at the end of the weeko You can circle back later (hours or days) to follow up with more questions:§ “You mentioned x, can you say more about that?”§ “Would you be interested in having a conversation about Y?”o You can conduct normative observations in multiple classrooms to gather concrete data. Example, three teachers say they are having trouble keeping their focused lessons short. You can observe multiple focus lessons and look for patterns or wasted time (complex example)o Can do formative observations with specific teachers as a precursor to a coaching cycle. “You have mentioned in several 5-mc sessions that you wished you were asking deeper questions, would it be worth doing a coaching cycle on that?” On being transparent:· It can be awkward to begin 5-mc, especially if you are new to the school or don’t have a history of engaging teachers in instructional conversation, or don’t have a school culture that encourages it.· Br transparent: “I am working on my instructional leadership, so I am trying to do this 5-mc ting. It works like this: I ask you three questions, then I shut up and listen. It’s teaching me to be a better listener.” Please be patient with me as I work on it. Responding to certain things:· There are never surprises or things they would do differently: That’s okay. It is a sign that they either aren’t good at self-assessing or don’t trust you (or themselves)? Accepting their answers as valid, and being appreciative, will, over time, build trust and help them to become more reflective. The beauty of 5-mc is that it is a bit like yoga – you can start basic, but with continued practice even the same poses yield deeper more powerful results.· They ask for feedback: be honest – this is my gift to you, time for you to reflect on your own practice. If pressed, you can offer to come into their classroom later to observe something specific that they want.· Teacher wants to think more deeply and will get back to you: YES!!!! that’s a homerun because they are going deeper into reflection. Going off script:· You can drop one (or two) of the questions, but don’t add anything.