As my Spring is quickly flying by, I've been working on balancing all of the exciting things that are happening in my family's life, my 4th grade classroom, my community and my personal life. While doing this I have started the mental transition and mindset of being a principal for the Griswold Tigers. As my mind has started to do this, I've begun to create checklists, notes, questions and to-do lists to ensure that my transition for the Griswold staff, students and community is as seamless as I can make it. As I've prepared I've asked myself, “What are my core foundational beliefs and what do I need to do so that my new staff and students can find the most success?”
Honestly, this question has more answers then I could ever write in a blog post. There will be things I never saw coming, experiences I can’t prepare for and challenges that nobody could have warned me about. With that said, at this point in my career I know and believe that if someone asked me to simplify it, I’d do it in 3 ways.
First – My main objective and first mission is to create an environment where staff and students wake up in the morning and can’t wait to be at school. Having the privilege of working at Treynor Elementary has taught me that if a student loves their teachers and loves coming to school the opportunity for a student to grow is endless. At the core of achieving this objective are relationships. It is my job for me personally to create relationships with staff and students that focus on trust and respect. As I’m building these relationships, it’s my belief that a teacher has one of the greatest gifts in the world and this is to create a relationship with a student that he or she may remember for the rest of their lives. It’s up to the teacher to decide how they want to be remembered and my job to provide the environment for it to be a positive memory.
My second core objective is to create an environment where the staff is committed to learning and growing. One of my favorite quotes is one I heard recently that went something along the lines of “I’m not saying what you’re doing doesn't work, I’m just asking if you are willing to see if we can find a way to get a better result”. This approach means you have to take risks and be willing to accept change, which are two of the most difficult things we as humans are asked to do. Having people willing to learn, share their thoughts, ideas and new learnings with others is the mark of people who are OK with taking risks and accepting change. Great ways to do this are through Twitter EdChats, blogs and most importantly from collaborating with the people around us.
My third objective as an educational leader is to work tirelessly to find student growth. Anyone who has spent any time around me knows I am not concerned with where the student was, what the teacher last year has said about a student or how far below proficiency a student is. My objective and driving force, as a classroom teacher has always been to assess students to find out where they are, and continually monitor the student to make certain that growth is occurring. As an educational leader I will be no different; help staff to assess, determine weaknesses, monitor growth and commit to making the necessary adjustments so all students can find success.
In a perfect world, this happens seamlessly. In the real world, the staff at Griswold Elementary and I will learn, grow and go through hardships and tireless days together. When the day is over though, it is always our job as educators to reflect back and ask if we've helped our students learn, so that they can be the leaders of our communities tomorrow.
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