Ever felt overwhelmed juggling your calendar, emails, budgets, and data collection as an educational leader? Have you ever wished for a simple, effective way to communicate with your stakeholders? Welcome to another episode of the Compass PD podcast, where Dr. Hepburn shares personal experiences and proven strategies to help you navigate these challenges.
Brace yourself as the podcast starts with a deep dive into calendar management. Dr. Hepburn shares her experiences and tips on prioritizing tasks and adding work time, even teaching a lesson bi-weekly to understand your teachers' needs.
She discusses the power of communication and how strategic planning can aid every stakeholder within the system. From creating bullet-point newsletters to effectively using data, you'll discover how to leverage these techniques for success.
But that's not all; the podcast also tackles the often daunting tasks of budgeting and data collection. Listeners with gain tips for staying on top of budgets and gathering essential items for teachers. The podcast will explore how to handle feedback that might seem negative and manage email without letting it control your life. This episode is an engaging mix of personal stories and actionable insights that will revolutionize how you approach your educational leader role. Join us and be ready to upgrade your leadership game!
Class Visit Qualitative Data Example Questions
Ever felt overwhelmed juggling your calendar, emails, budgets, and data collection as an educational leader? Have you ever wished for a simple, effective way to communicate with your stakeholders? Welcome to another episode of the Compass PD podcast, where Dr. Hepburn shares personal experiences and proven strategies to help you navigate these challenges.
Brace yourself as the podcast starts with a deep dive into calendar management. Dr. Hepburn shares her experiences and tips on prioritizing tasks and adding work time, even teaching a lesson bi-weekly to understand your teachers' needs.
She discusses the power of communication and how strategic planning can aid every stakeholder within the system. From creating bullet-point newsletters to effectively using data, you'll discover how to leverage these techniques for success.
But that's not all; the podcast also tackles the often daunting tasks of budgeting and data collection. Listeners with gain tips for staying on top of budgets and gathering essential items for teachers. The podcast will explore how to handle feedback that might seem negative and manage email without letting it control your life. This episode is an engaging mix of personal stories and actionable insights that will revolutionize how you approach your educational leader role. Join us and be ready to upgrade your leadership game!
Class Visit Qualitative Data Example Questions
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Compass PD podcast. I am Dr Hepburn, the CEO and founder of Compass PD Today. Well, it's just me. If you've been listening to the podcast the last couple of weeks, you're going to notice that we've been thinking about the school district as a system and we've been talking about topics on different times of the year that different stakeholders within the system need to have on their radars and predictable problems they will face at any given time. Today, I'm happy to share with you that I am sharing information with district leaders in the curriculum instruction assessment department, often times like thinking about people who are working with curriculum and professional development. In some districts that might look like, there are several people who fill that role. Other districts that I work with, we have principals who are also the curriculum directors or the professional development leaders. We have superintendents who are in charge of all curriculum and professional learning.
Speaker 1:My hope for you today is that you're going to walk away with some tips that are beneficial to you and that you'll gain information that will set you up for success for now, the beginning of the school year. As I think about right now, august, everyone's gearing up for the school year. As a district leader who facilitates curriculum and or professional learning. I want to talk with you about some things that need to be on your radar, and as I was thinking through this, I thought about four big ideas, big topics that I think would be really helpful for me to visit throughout the school year. Let's set you up for success, so it's on your radar and you can be revisiting these topics as the year progresses. Those four big topics that need to be on your radar are your calendar, communication, budget and data.
Speaker 1:So let's first start out with the calendar. I want you to get a hold of your calendar right now and use that as an opportunity to highlight what you value. I think there's this old saying that you can tell what somebody values when you look at their checkbook and when you look at where they spend all their time, and that is so true. So when you think about your calendar, I want you to highlight things that you value, and some things that I think you need to make sure that you value are building visits and class visits, and the reason why I say it's really critical for you to have on your calendar on a regular basis that you're visiting buildings and that you're visiting classrooms is that that's going to be an opportunity for you to build relationships, for people to see that you care for you, to be visible and then know that you're a part of what's happening within the organization. As I go into schools, I really try to take a few moments to connect with the principals, with the coaches, and spend time with the teachers within that building In my calendar when I think about highlighting what I value.
Speaker 1:I value attending PLCs. Depending on the amount of stakeholders that you support in content areas or grade levels that you support. It will depend on the amount of PLCs that you're really realistically able to attend. I worked in a large school district and realistically, I could attend one PLC a year with each of those groups that I supported in curriculum, instruction and assessment role. So if you're in a smaller district, you might have the opportunity to connect more often and I think that that's really nice. As you visit those PLCs, it's just to listen and to learn and to gather information.
Speaker 1:When I thought about trying to get a hold of my calendar, knowing that there would be so many different groups and committees and meetings pulling on my time, I really try to do my best to add work time in my calendar a minimum of eight hours per week, and that eight hours per week will allow you to take all of the work you're getting from all of the committees and all of the meetings and all of the feedback that you're gathering, to actually be able to think and work and analyze and study and do your best in a creative way. It's really hard when you're just trying to crunch it in, so adding work time to your calendar is something that I think would be extremely beneficial. I know what was for me, and when I said eight hours, I know that you're not going to get a full day, that during your work day that you're going to be able to just dedicate to work. I found that on Fridays, especially Friday afternoons, people really didn't want me in their building, and so it was a nice time for me to be able to do some work without interruptions, and then I'd try to get a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there throughout the week. Something else that, when it comes to thinking about your calendar, is, on a monthly or on a weekly basis, depending on your family and their schedules plan your late night that you're going to do each week, and I say plan it, because you're going to do it, and if you don't plan it, you'll find yourself staying late multiple nights and that leads to burnout and like a feeling of bitterness. So sit down with your family, look at all the things that are happening and decide which night is going to work best for us as a unit that I can stay late and get some work done without interruptions.
Speaker 1:Something else when I talk about highlighting what I value and using my calendar to do that, is that I taught in classrooms. So when I was, I was leaving professional development if we were learning about different instructional strategies. I was teaching those instructional strategies in different classrooms. I just taught one day a week. I'm not asking you to teach the whole day. I'm asking you to teach one lesson one day a week and if that feels overwhelming, try bi-weekly. Just start somewhere and see how that goes. I also would go in and teach when we had a new resource or we were trying a new instructional structure like method, those kinds of things. Within the content areas that I supported features knew that I would be reaching out and gathering some people who would let me come in and try the stuff. I really always felt like if I was asking somebody to do it, I should be willing to try it myself, and when I would go in and teach, sometimes it would go really great and sometimes it just didn't, and both times were powerful reflection tools for me on what was working or the amount of time that it would take for somebody to prepare for one lesson. All of that was a learning experience for me, but more than that, it really built street cred with my teachers. That was the kind of rumor that spread like rapid wildfire, like people would hear that I was in classrooms and teaching, and it showed them that I was in the trenches with them.
Speaker 1:I wanna give you just a couple of quick tips on how you can use your calendar as a tool. So not just highlighting what you value, but now using it as a tool that supports you and the big work that you're doing. One of the things that I did was set reminder notifications 15 to 30 minutes before a meeting. I also used it for project planning, so if I had a big project that was due or a big meeting that was coming up that I needed to prepare for, I would have different benchmarks along the way so that I could keep it on my radar. Some people I know didn't like using the calendar for that and they found creating task lists within like an outlet calendar was really beneficial for them. We use another. We use a resource that we pay for. It's an app called Asana and that's really nice for project planning as well.
Speaker 1:Thinking about your calendar, connect your work calendar to your phone. Have it on there, because you're always going to have your phone on you and if you have that, set that notification set as a buzz versus like making a noise. It's not going to interrupt anyone and it makes sure that you are finishing up what you're working on or the meeting that you're in and allowing yourself the time that you need to prepare and be ready and present at the next one that you're getting ready to walk in. If you have the opportunity and are blessed to have an AA, you could have an AA go in and help you build your calendar. Some of the things that my AA could do was schedule. She would add scheduled meetings to that, like board of education meetings, district events that impacted my role. She went in and added all the professional learning networks that I was a member of and I want those in your calendar because you need them. Those are opportunities for you to talk with Jabba likes, with your peers, to learn from them and for them to learn from you. It's oftentimes the thing that we get and don't attend because we think we just don't have time, but it's sometimes the lifeline that you need Talk about things that you're struggling with and people that can relate to some of the struggles and the obstacles that you're facing, and oftentimes I found that in those meetings that's when we had some really great think tanks and I was able to walk away with some tips that would be helpful and beneficial for me.
Speaker 1:Final tip when it comes to your calendar is don't schedule every minute in your calendar for every single day. You need space. Space is a good thing. It allows for you to think, it allows you to create, it allows you to analyze and study. You're going to need space in your calendar for work and you're going to need space in your calendar because, I promise you, you will have pop-up, unexpected meetings.
Speaker 1:Let's move on to communication Now. Another thing on your radar I need you to be considering is communication. Did you know that it takes five to seven times for something to be communicated in order for people to remember it or fully understand it. So imagine that's like in a lot of organizations. Imagine being in an education where we have all of this different communication coming like, coming at us from all of these different stakeholders parents, community, school board, plcs, different buildings, all of the things. All of this information is coming in at you and a lot of times it's all different types of information on different topics. So if it takes five to seven times of somebody hearing and seeing the same thing again and again for them to understand it and remember it, imagine what it's like for an educator.
Speaker 1:So my motto and education is you cannot over communicate. It's stakeholders in education. So the teachers, the principals, the paraprofessional, the higher ups, the school board members that you support have a lot of information coming at them the same way that you do. So you need to create a communication plan that sets everyone up for success, create a system so that people know what to expect. That's one of the things that I found that was beneficial. So I used a couple of different things. My system included a couple of different things. One was newsletters and the newsletters were for everyone. You know teachers so oftentimes had information in the newsletters that was critical for teachers, like curriculum, instruction, assessment, priorities, dates, locations. Those were the kinds of things that I had in my newsletter and that also went out to administrators and school board. So it went out to all stakeholders in the organization. Then once a month I would have principal meetings. So I would meet with the principals of the content areas that I supported or the levels that I supported, and in those meetings they knew what to expect from me so they would get a higher level of information. They didn't need all the leads, all of the details. They needed to know like what were we seeing, what are some trends, what is the data saying? You know that kind of information. So they have a lot of information that was coming at them. What do they need to know that's going to support them, so that they can support their teachers in the work that they're doing. And then I had monthly meetings with coaches, and that was for me to help support them, as they were championing the curriculum and the instructional techniques, the professional development that was being implemented within our school district. Those systems met the needs of the different people In the administrator meetings and the coaches meetings. That also allowed me to get a gauge of pulse of what was happening, based on their perspective, when I created that system.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about newsletters for just a second. In that system, people knew when and how the communication was going to be delivered. So once a month the newsletter would come out. They could expect that it would be delivered on the first Tuesday of the month at 830. In that newsletter I had important things like topics for professional development, information regarding curriculum, important meetings, important dates, important locations where they need to be, the materials that they need. What their priorities were for that month. You know, based on priority standards and the assessments that they would be giving the purpose of the assessments, the deadlines for the assessments, the resources where they could locate that for the assessment. Like, I would remind them regularly go back to the newsletter, go back to the newsletter In PLCs, go back to the newsletter. All of that is in the newsletter. So every month I updated that. I'm not going to lie. It was a whole lot of work but it especially in the front end. But as time progressed it got better and it really did help people with them knowing what was going on. So they're they knew that the newsletter would have the information that they need. I highly recommend to you that when you create the system, to make sure that your system is easily accessible at a later date, so they're not going to be able to go back and easily find an email.
Speaker 1:I used an app called S'mores newsletter. I don't make any money, I'm not an affiliate with that. That was something that worked really nicely for me. I had used it when I was in the classroom and it was easy for me to start using that at a district leadership level. I paid the annual fee that went with that and it was easy for me to add images, whether they be pictures or links to different important documents. It was easy for me to do bulleted and numbered lists so that people could see priorities, and it gave me some really nice data I could go back in because everyone's email was uploaded into the system and I could see about how many people were like a percentage of people that were viewing the newsletters, the days that they were viewing the newsletters, the times that they were viewing the newsletters, the information that they found important within the newsletters. All of that was data that helped me support them better. So what was working and what wasn't working? I will tell you that you could go in and look at who did and did not view the newsletters and how long they viewed it. I did not use that part of the data and I don't recommend using that when if you choose a tool like this, because we never want to weaponize data, we have to work really hard to keep people feeling safe, and so I'm just really transparent that I could get that data but I don't. And the purpose of me gathering that data through that particular app, for example A. It was easy for me to use and then I could gather data on what they found valuable. I could notice trends across the district on what they value.
Speaker 1:Now let's move on to talking about the budget. I want you to think about your budget right now. I know it's the beginning of the school year, but I'm trying to set you up for success and we'll revisit these topics each month so you'll understand how it progresses as the school year goes. I want you to create a system that allows you to stay on top of your budget. I was really lucky. I had someone who would keep me up to date on my budget. They had the most up-to-date numbers for me at any given time, and I know everyone doesn't have that. So my peers in other districts that didn't have that they found that an Excel spreadsheet was really helpful for them, and I want you to start now, because in July you likely just spent a lot of money on subscriptions and on people coming in to speak and on new resources. So start now so that you have a really good understanding of where you are financially. If you start that now, most years what happens is around March or April. There are people who haven't used their budget money, and maybe you haven't used your budget money and there's this motto you use it or you'll lose it, right, and so you want to be prepared. So if you have that budget money leftover I'm gonna talk to you next about data.
Speaker 1:I want you to start keeping a running list of items that your teachers need to do their job successfully in their classrooms. So some of the things that I want you to be thinking about are do teachers have current and relevant resources? Do they have all the items that they need to implement their curriculum or the new professional development that we've been giving? Do they need materials for that? Do we have classroom libraries that are current and relevant? I remember my first year of teaching, I went out and put $5,000 on my credit card to purchase a classroom library, because all of the books I had all these people that were so kind with books right, and they are extremely generous but they were like their old books and it had different people's name on it. They smelled Some of them had been damaged and who I don't go to the library and want to read that. So how can I ask a student to be excited about reading and visiting my classroom library if I have all this old stuff in front of them? So I could talk in another podcast about interesting correlations between classroom libraries and the data that you're seeing on high stakes assessments. So if you find that that would be an interesting conversation, let me know and I'll talk with you about it.
Speaker 1:Some other things that you might be looking for that your teachers need are like manipulatives. Think about your special area teachers that always have their budgets cut and so they don't have the things that they need to be able to implement the curriculum, because the money's been taken from their budget and given to a budget that's in a tested area. Those are things that I want you to have on your mind when it comes to budget and, as the year progresses, start thinking about a ranking criteria for spending surplus and additional money on things that maybe you are ready. You're prepared, so thinking about. One of the things I would think about are how old are the current materials? How often is that budget area cut? What are the scores telling me? What's the data telling me that I'm collecting? So, so far, what I've asked you to think about on your radar is your calendar highlighting what you value, and then gave you some tips to use your calendar as a tool.
Speaker 1:We talked briefly about communication, creating your system so that people know what to expect, and you're communicating with different stakeholders, maybe in different ways, but everyone is getting that first newsletter communication that highlights all the kind of big stuff that maybe is more in the weeds for the teachers, who you don't get that time with individually. And then we talked about the budget and creating a system that you can start with now. And then I want you to think about data collection, and this is really important. This is really important because I need you to think about how can I use data to make decisions and how can I gather data to make decisions, and data is one of the things that we can use that will help us make wise decisions, and it's really important in our rules to be wise and not reactive. So we wanna be proactive, not reactive, and that's what I want this time with you to be to set you up to be proactive, not reactive.
Speaker 1:So when I think about data, I want you to be collecting data throughout the year. Before you spend money, before you do second order changes, before you make big changes to curriculums, before you buy new resources, create PD plans that are immediately we're gonna start doing this, or think about initiatives, I want you to collect a variety of data throughout the school year. I don't like when we make big second order change based on one year's worth of data, but at least it's something compared to nothing. I like for us to see trends over a couple of years, but I want you to start thinking now about the kind of data that you're going to need, how you're going to collect that data, where you will store that data and analyze it, and then who and how you're going to share it. A lot of this data that I'm going to be talking with you about is data that I would share at administrator meetings. Some of it I would share with coaches, depending on the situation, and then I would be sharing it with higher ups.
Speaker 1:So, whether it was our CFO or our superintendent or assistant superintendent, and sometimes you board of education if it was in more of a private setting, it's easy for us to gather quantitative data, like screening data, benchmark data, high stakes assessment data. You have a plethora of that, but, as I just talked with you about your calendar, I want you to think about additional qualitative data that you can gather, and this qualitative data will probably support the data that you're seeing. That's quantitative, but it helps tell a story, and I had different types of qualitative data that I would gather on class visits. So I had talked with you about making sure that you have opportunities for class visits. In the show notes today, I'll make sure that you have some questions that I would look at when I would go into a classroom that were on a survey in a Google form that was really easy for me to fill out, and then some other questions that would be on a survey if I was thinking from a professional development perspective, some look for's that I would be looking for Before I go do a class visit. I want to thank you for joining me. That is for data collection purposes.
Speaker 1:I was always transparent with the teachers I'm coming and these are things that I'm looking for and this is why I use this to make decisions regarding professional development. I use this to make decisions regarding where to spend money on resources. I use this to make decisions regarding curriculum, on what materials are beneficial and being used and have high engagement levels. So I was completely transparent with teachers because my job is to create, build relationships with them and support them in the work that they're doing, and I have to do that through strong relationships that are transparent. So look in the show notes if you're interested in different questions or survey questions that you can answer in a Google form. What to look for in a class visit, in a class visit.
Speaker 1:Some other data that I found that I was always looking for is to be on the lookout to build leaders in our district. I knew that me on my own could not sustain curriculum for all of the stakeholders that I served. It was not possible. I needed champions within the district, people that were really great at instruction with kids in front of kids, people who modeled those techniques, who built high engagement levels with their kids. I needed curriculum champions. I needed leaders and instructional strategies in all content area. I needed people who were doing the work well, those who were respected and that were getting results. So, as you're out and about, I want you to be collecting data names of people that can help fill these roles, who can be on your curriculum writing team, who can be in the train or model when you're implementing a professional development cycle, people that can be model. You could build lab site classrooms, and that would be a classroom that people could come visit. That the structures and the strategies are so tight that you can focus on the really deep learning. So I want you to be on the lookout for those things. Something that I always tried to do was find my replacements more than one. Yes, I wanted multiple people that I could build up and train them and provide them special professional development opportunities, share books with them, have conversations with them and have feedback. So I highly recommend that, as you're out there, gathering data names are data, too of people that can help champion this work.
Speaker 1:Let's move forward now, thinking about the beginning of the school year and some of the predictable problems that you're going to face, one of the things that will take up it will just take up a ton of your time is people having access to things access to documents in Google Drive or in your learning management system. Access to resources, not knowing their login information, access to information like they may not know. The curriculum changes, the professional development days, where they're supposed to be, the materials that they need are important dates, so be ready for that. One of the things that you can do is create a cheat sheet login for access to different subscriptions, access to different resources, things that are online, and so I worked with the IT department to create those cheat sheet login sheets and that was linked in my newsletter. That information regarding curriculum changes where to find it, reminders, important dates, even like a little calendar. I had all of that in my newsletter. So, thinking about these are gonna be problems that people are going to face. Set yourself up for success in this newsletter right now and have it all there, and when the emails start pouring in, send them to your newsletter, say, oh, good news. I address that in my newsletter, you can find it in this section, and then send the link to your newsletter. That worked for me and it started training people to go to the newsletter before they came to me. Okay.
Speaker 1:And then another predictable problem you will face are new initiatives and expectations. So I think, when you think about new initiatives and knowing what the expectations are, it's important for you to know that everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to be successful. So if there's an expectation of what resources are used, what assessments are given, what instruction looks like, you need to be crystal clear what is the expectation? And then, if an expectation or a new initiative is being added, what is coming off the plate? A lot of times you'll see teachers layer things and they're trying to do all of it and it's even more overwhelming. So, again, our job is to serve and serve them well. So, as you talk about what expectations or new initiatives are happening, if something's coming off the plate, explicitly state that. Or if something needs to stay on the plate, explicitly state that as well. So I just received a text message from a curriculum director and I have to share this with you because it's so exciting Compass PD. We are so lucky. We get these kinds of messages all the time from those that we serve. Dr Carey, you aren't going to believe it. We just received our IAR scores and we saw growth between eight and 13%. It's incredible. You might wonder what we did in that particular district, and in that district we unpacked standards and built proficiency scales alongside teachers, and the work wasn't fun all the time, but winning and feeling successful is.
Speaker 1:Finally, I want to talk about complaints, so any to and I really don't like that word, I just couldn't come up with another word feedback. Maybe we'll use feedback that isn't always positive or feels positive. These kinds of things are going to happen when there's high stress times. The beginning of the school year is a super stressful time. People are getting their classrooms ready, they're trying to help their new colleagues. They may have changed content areas or grade levels that they're teaching. They might be brand new to education. They're getting ready for open houses. They're trying to get their lessons started. They're being pulled for PLCs and building meetings and district meetings. So there is going to be a high stress level right now, and so you might hear a lot of feedback that feels like complaining, and what I want to encourage you to do is listen Really listen to find out what's causing the concern. Is it a lack of understanding? Is it a communication issue? Is it an overwhelmed issue Is it? They just want to be heard and use that information, this feedback for you on how you can serve them even better. So don't think of it as a bad thing. Think of it as what is this telling me? What need hasn't been met? That needs to be met and, as I wrap up today, I want to give you a tip, as a district leader, of something that I found extremely beneficial.
Speaker 1:I want to encourage you to take email off of your cell phone. Yep, I want you to keep your calendar on your cell phone, but I want you to ditch the email from your cell phone. I do not want email to rule your life. I don't want email to be the first thing that you look at in the morning and that it sets the tone for your day, and I don't want it to be the last thing that you look at at night and then it sets the tone for your lack of sleep. Schedule times two to three times a day for you to address email. So look at it and address it.
Speaker 1:There's nothing worse than sitting in a meeting and everyone's answering email and talking at the same time. It's rude and when we think about communication, a lot of times people aren't listening. They're not listening and so it just causes more problems. In everyone's defense, I understand that there's a lot I do, but I think we have to just say okay, I'm going to focus on it for 45 minutes, two to three times a day, and I'm touching it and moving it on. There's some programs out there that you can learn about how to touch email one time and move on.
Speaker 1:I don't know them. I wasn't good at that, but I did take email off my phone and it changed my mental attitude. I also took the ding off of the email so that I didn't have like these notification things that would set me into a spiral. I think that that's another tip that I would give as well. I want to thank you so much for joining me today. I hope that you found this information to be super helpful and it helps set you up for success for the beginning of the school year. If you didn't know, compass PD is a small, female-owned business. We have a big goal of impacting the learning of one million students, and one way that you can help us meet that goal is by sharing this podcast with a fellow educator. I wish you a wonderful year and a great day. Thank you.