Ready to harness your leadership potential and kick-start the school year on a high note? Join your host Dr. Carrie Hepburn talk with Dr. Bridgett Niedringhaus to uncover the pivotal roles and responsibilities of school principals during the first integral month. This episode promises to equip you with a treasure trove of insights and practical strategies, from establishing strong relationships to mastering proactive problem-solving.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the art of efficient scheduling, the importance of safety drills, and the nuances of effective communication protocols, all aimed at making your first month of school a resounding success. Bridge the gap with administrative staff, as our guest Dr. Niedringhaus sheds light on crafting individualized goals for staff members while anticipating and navigating predictable challenges. Don't miss our insightful dialogue on parent communication schedules and the labyrinth of bus routes.
As we conclude, we explore the delicate balance of work and personal life, the joy of celebrating triumphs, and the art of delegation for heightened productivity. Tune in, and let's transform the education experience together.
Ready to harness your leadership potential and kick-start the school year on a high note? Join your host Dr. Carrie Hepburn talk with Dr. Bridgett Niedringhaus to uncover the pivotal roles and responsibilities of school principals during the first integral month. This episode promises to equip you with a treasure trove of insights and practical strategies, from establishing strong relationships to mastering proactive problem-solving.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the art of efficient scheduling, the importance of safety drills, and the nuances of effective communication protocols, all aimed at making your first month of school a resounding success. Bridge the gap with administrative staff, as our guest Dr. Niedringhaus sheds light on crafting individualized goals for staff members while anticipating and navigating predictable challenges. Don't miss our insightful dialogue on parent communication schedules and the labyrinth of bus routes.
As we conclude, we explore the delicate balance of work and personal life, the joy of celebrating triumphs, and the art of delegation for heightened productivity. Tune in, and let's transform the education experience together.
Hello, good morning. Well, it's good morning for us. I'm not sure about those of you that are listening right now, but this is Dr Carrie Hepburn and I am here with a Compass PD podcast. Today we are joined by my good friend and colleague, dr Bridget Neijinghaus. If you've been listening to the podcast lately, you notice that we've been developing the podcast with the school district as a system in mind. As a team, we sit down monthly and we discuss the different roles within the system principals, teachers, instructional coaches and curriculum professional development leaders and we talk about what needs to be on their radar at that time of the school year and predictable problems that they're going to face, and then we use all that information to create a podcast to share with you. So, just like we approach that thinking around the podcast, we do the same thing when we're in schools. We think about each part of the organization, the different stakeholders in there, how it works as a system, and we work to make sure that all of the work that we do complements one another within the scope and sequence of how your school year ebbs and flows.
Speaker 1:Today I'm excited because Dr Neijinghaus is going to share information with you, principals. Today's podcast aims to give you some ideas about the first month of school. So many of you have started school. You have kids in the building, the school buses are dropping them off and getting them back home safely Woohoo, which we know was one of the big goals that Dr Neijinghaus talked about last month. Get them in where they need to be, get them fed, get them home safely, and we are going to celebrate. So we're celebrating with you. Today's podcast builds on the information from episode 17, where Dr Neijinghaus really did a deep dive into talking about building your culture, welcoming your families, your staff and even more so. Today we want you to walk away with some information that's going to set you up for success and the predictable problems to help you be proactive rather than reactive. So welcome, bridget.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for having me again.
Speaker 1:It's going to be so much fun. As we think about those first few weeks of school, principals are preparing for September, if they start at school in August. Some are brand new, they haven't even started school yet, but most of our students are in schools right now. As a principal, as an administrator, what are some things that they need to have on their radars?
Speaker 2:So, as you mentioned, carrie, that next month you really want to build on what you've done the previous month. So you've already established some relationships, you've begun connecting with your community and all the people that support you and your building, whether that be at the central office level or in your community, some of the businesses, whatever. So we're going to start building on that, and so in September you're going to really kind of think of things as are they managerial or the instructional. Some of the managerial things that will really come up in the month of September schedules. So not that I've ever worked in the high school or middle school for any length of time, but I know that scheduling is still happening into those months, and so I know that, whether that's your guidance department that's really getting into scheduling, with students taking those parent phone calls, even at the elementary level, we look at things like class sizes in September. I remember one year it was September and we had to open another section of kindergarten, and so at that point I had to hire another teacher, I had to communicate with parents, choose students that could go into this new section, and so all of those kinds of things typically are happening like that early part of September, and so you really want to remember.
Speaker 2:When it comes to the movement of schedules, there are so many parts, there are so many people involved. You cannot over communicate enough during this time. So change is hard for people. So let's take the example I gave about the kindergarten class that I had to establish. After the school year had begun it was early September we sent out a letter to all the kindergarten parents explaining what was going to happen, explaining that we were going to be taking students from each class and giving an opportunity for parents to volunteer to have their child moved. I'll tell you, you don't get a ton of volunteers, you'll get a handful of volunteers that will move and then from there you have to explain to them that while volunteering is really great, there are some tough decisions that will have to be made, and here's why that overcommunication cannot happen enough with any type of scheduling changes. It affects so many people, it affects the lunch ladies, it affects everybody. So it affects the custodians because you're adding another classroom, it affects your art, music, pe teachers and for middle school and high school. If you are having to change schedules, you're having to communicate those schedule changes with so many people. So that's one of the managerial tasks that you'll really start seeing in September.
Speaker 2:Another that I want to talk about that we take for granted is the drill schedule. So you're going to start practicing your drills in September, and we all know that these are very important, and we have seen countless videos and accounts of school shootings or things where we've had to go into lockdowns and fires and all kinds of things, and so it's so important to practice those with our students, from the youngest students to the oldest students. We need to let them know that we have a plan. In Larry Lazat's research he talks about safety being one of those key features that we need to make sure we're providing for students, and so safety is both physical and emotional, and so we want to make sure, physically, our students are safe by helping them by practicing those routines. We also want to communicate that with our parents, and so let them know, especially those younger grades, at the elementary level I would send an email or some kind of communication that we're going to have drills for the first time, and here's the wording that we use, so that when the students get off the bus, they don't say, hey, guess what, mom, today we had an intruder.
Speaker 2:Well, no, we didn't have an intruder, but we did have an intruder drill. It'll save yourselves a lot of headache, a lot of heartache. It'll cut down on the phone calls that come flying in because there was an intruder and nobody communicated. Communicate that ahead of time, and so and we want students to be using the verbiage and parents using the verbiage that we're using For an example, we would say there's an active shooter in the building. If we were doing an active shooter drill and so I know that there's been some thought about we should come up with a code, and at one of the schools I was at, we actually did that. We came up with this code that Mr Smith and Mr Wesson were here, and so you know the Smith and Wesson we were supposed to be playing on that.
Speaker 2:Well, the kids don't know what that means and you have to remember, like you've got new staff, you've got substitute teachers. We need to call it what it is, number one. We want to call it what it is because we want the person that's possibly intruding to hear it and know that we know that they are.
Speaker 2:And second of all, that's that common language that we build. So again, you're communicating that with parents. Here's the language we use. Here's how we practice this. Please have follow-up conversations with your children at home. Couple managerial things that really, really are important as we get September underway.
Speaker 1:Can we pause there for just a moment? Sure how I want to pause there, because I think that on both of these managerial topics that you've hit, you talk about communication, and if communication is something that is difficult for somebody, what are some tips of you? Know, what I heard from you was explicitness. I heard from you an explicitness. I felt like there was a feeling of directness but also empathy for what it would be like in the different roles. So you know the example of schedules changing and empathy for the parents that you understand there are concerns when their child's schedules changing, but yet this is a decision that has to be made. So there's a directness, a firmness to the tone and an empathy. And then the explicitness of the language that we're using and that those drills and the importance of them and highlighting that they're important, are key.
Speaker 1:How did you? How did you learn that? How did you? How does some? How does one know to do that? Because it might be, I'm hearing you right now, but I don't really know how to do that. Well, and I know I just threw something at you that you're like oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, good questions, actually great questions. Let's talk a little bit about the scheduling. So I had the opportunity to work with our human resources department. Like we're going to add a section and so we were able to come together and collaborate about what that language would be and then never, ever, ever underestimate the power of a strong administrative assistant.
Speaker 2:We all need them like crazy, and so they can really really help with some of that. In my, in my experience, I've had administrative assistants that really helped with kind of smoothing some of those rough edges. Sometimes I could be really direct and not everybody can handle that directness, but it needed to be done and so I could give that to somebody else to look at, to smooth a little bit and still keep that direct message. And so I think it's really important that, as administrators, we know who our support system is and use them and use them well. You know we talk about support systems and interventions for students and we talk about supporting teachers. As administrators, we need support and so know who your support system is. Is that somebody at the central office that you can call and, even if they're not your person, can point you in the right direction? Is that somebody in your building? It should be both. You, like you should have multiple people. It could be a colleague in another building and just say like hey, have you ever sent out a communication about opening a new section? Would you mind sharing with me? Or hey, do you have a great communication that goes out when you do drills? Could you share with me, and so don't don't just think you have to go it alone. There's a great support network there for you that you can rely on.
Speaker 2:When it comes to those drills, work with your school safety team. Who who are they? You know are those people at the district level that are checking on those drills and and and recording those and things like that, and let them give you tips. One of the things that we did was we had some problems with tornado drills, because we were a two story building and trying to get everybody on the first floor and safe, and so we were doing the best we knew how to do, and then, lo and behold, the fire department, through their resources, had somebody, came in, did an audit of our building and showed us the best places for us to wrap students, and so what a great, what a great thing. That's not my expertise. I could come up with every nook and cranny, but it wasn't my area of expertise, nor did I need to spend the mental energy on that, because somebody else could do that better than I could, and and so we have to remember, as administrators, we were not the only one. We have to rely on our resources.
Speaker 1:Thank you, that is incredibly helpful.
Speaker 2:So we also want to talk about what are some of the instructional responsibilities things that we really want to get rolling in September. I'm going to tell you the September is a great opportunity start goal setting. We really want our teachers to be goal setting with our students right. September is a good time. We've gotten maybe a few assessments done or collected some data, things like that. It's also a good time for goal setting for ourselves as administrators. You know administrators go through an evaluation process as well. Let's look at it from that lens as well. As just what is it that you as an administrator want to accomplish for your school that year? Of course, we know that a lot of times with our formal evaluations they want them to be tied to student achievement and how we're doing with our school improvement planning and things like that as an administrator.
Speaker 2:There are other things that sometimes are a goal for you. Like perhaps it would be we want to establish a community garden this year, and so if that's your goal, go back to Wiggins and McTai and what's that end goal? And do some backwards design and and set some steps for yourself to get there. You can do that with your evaluation goals as well. You know what are those goals that you have for yourself and then do that backwards planning. Do you want to get a book study up, maybe an optional book study, going with your staff? Okay, that's great. What's the information that you're hoping to focus on and then design backwards from there?
Speaker 2:Again, another great opportunity to talk about delegation.
Speaker 2:Not all of these things do you have to own, but you can talk about some of your own personal goals. Be transparent with your staff, let them know and then go through what you're going through and hear some goals that I've set for myself, because we need to be modeling what we hope that our teachers are doing and then what we're going to be modeling what they hope the students are doing. It's that whole trickle of act. So you want to get your own personal goals set and ready to go and then you want to start meeting with teachers and talking to them about their goals. The best way to go about that is trying to get someone on one time, or at the very least, start attending those PLCs and having some conversation about what the goal of the PLC is and how can teachers take the goal of the PLC and then individualize it for themselves so that they feel like they're not just coming up with something out of left field, but they're actually really in tune with what's going on with their grade level or their content area or whatever.
Speaker 2:You'll have those singletons that you still need to maybe have those one-on-one conversations with and talk to them about what their goals are and go from there. Again, we all have this evaluation tool that we're going to be using. Make sure that your teachers are very familiar with the tool. Your new teachers I'm hoping already by this point have at least been introduced to the tool, because those new teachers you're going to be looking at them probably a little more often and you're going to be looking at them pretty quickly. We talk about evaluation. We talk about things like do some walkthroughs, start getting some of those walkthroughs or learning walks where they're completely non-evaluative, but make your presence known in the classrooms. I just said non-evaluative and I'm talking about evaluation, because if the teachers are used to you being in their classrooms when you come in to do an evaluation, it's not going to be as disruptive. The students aren't going to be all off task because you've walked in, because they're used to seeing you, they're used to your presence. Get out and start doing some of those learning walks.
Speaker 1:I love that personal insight into this too. Getting into the classrooms where it isn't disruptive is really nice. As a teacher, one of the things that sometimes would be fun well, it was really fun for me is that, for those of you that don't know, bridget was my principal. When I was in the classroom teaching, bridget was my leader. Many of these things I've seen in action and it's fun to hear her share her wisdom and passion with principals. But sometimes she would come in and she never disrupted the class at all. The kids knew Dr Needringhaus was in and they didn't mind telling her all that they were up to and it was really fun.
Speaker 1:Sometimes she felt so comfortable in classrooms that when she needed to get back to her why or maybe it was a rough day I would notice Bridget would come in and she's like I just want to sit and be with kids, I want to listen to them learn and it really showed you she was vulnerable. But it really brought back the personal illness of the work that she was doing, because there are a lot of demands on the time and getting yourself centered with kids is a really great way To rejuvenate yourself and get back out there. I would tell teachers this all the time when I was working in curriculum the hardest job in education is the principal role, Because I see what they go through at administrative meetings and the pressure that's put on them and all of the demands, and then when they get back to their buildings, they have teachers and staff to take care of, students to take care of, a community to take care of, and so they have more pressure on them than I think any other role. And something that Bridget did when she talked about getting in there and making your presence known is that was one of her centering ways and it brought her joy and, be honest, it brought the kids a lot of joy to see her in there and it brought me, as a teacher, a lot of joy to see her in there as well.
Speaker 1:I don't think we can state enough the importance of the presence in the classroom and how much it brings. So you've given us lots to think about things that need to be on our radar. Now our time is to be thinking about the predictable problems they'll be facing at this time of year. So set them up for success so they can be proactive rather than needing to be reactive.
Speaker 2:Sure. So, as we talked about, some of those things that you're going to be working on in this month are changes in schedules, bus routes. Let's talk a little bit about bus routes. I know I love the bus drivers.
Speaker 2:And I hope the bus would really raise our hands and ever want to be a bus driver, because it is just a tedious job. It's. They have, oh my gosh, all the responsibilities. I have so much respect for the bus drivers, and so the routes change, and the route changes. They don't have a thing in the world to do with them. It's due to population, it's due to how many kids are on a bus, it's due to people moving in and out, and so it's just this uncontrollable thing, and so you just have to roll with it. Make sure that you know. We talked about, last month, establishing those good relationships with your bus drivers. Keep those going. Don't always wait to hear from your transportation department, because typically, the bus drivers already know before the transportation department lets you know. So keep those relationships open. Hop on a bus Good morning. Hop on a bus Good afternoon. Do you need a water? All these kinds of things. So one of those predictable problems, though, is going to be just that whole the changes in bus routes, the changes in scheduling. You know, keep your head above water. Surround yourself with people that can help with that. That is not the administrators. Die on a hill job. Find the people that can do that and do that well. So Carrie will tell you she's been it worked with me for years. I'm not a scheduler that is not my niche but I did find people that were passionate about the scheduling and actually understood scheduling, making sure that those people are always in the know as these changes are coming about, so that they can support you.
Speaker 2:And then let's talk some more about parent communication. So we talk about predictable problems and parent communication. If you're not communicating, you're getting communicated with by your parents. It's not that parent communication is a bad thing. It's that if you're doing your job well, you most likely will have to deal with less conflicts than if you are letting things slip. One of the questions Carrie asked is like how did I know to go about doing all these things? Cause I did it wrong. We all talk to students about failure is the best learning opportunity. I did things wrong and I learned what worked for my community. And so what level of communication did they need from me about all the changes that were taking place? What level of communication did they want from me about what was going on daily in the school, or weekly or monthly? And so you have to kind of set that up and establish what you're going to do and communicate that with your parents. So should your parents expect a daily newsletter? Should they expect daily newsletters from teachers? Should they expect it just from the office? How often should they expect to hear? Let them know like problem. Solve all these things now and let them know so that they can have a predictable schedule and find some people to help you carry out that predictable schedule, because again, you're not going to be sitting in your office typing up newsletters all the time. You're going to have people that you can delegate that to, that you can contribute to that, but others would contribute to as well.
Speaker 2:And then time, and so I want to just kind of wrap up this section with a talk about time. Time is friend or foe, right, we all need more of it. We love when we have it, but this balance that we need to find as administrators can be very difficult. I cannot communicate with you enough the importance of building a support system, building a team that you can delegate some things to, and then you yourself need to have times built into your day where you're doing things like this is my kid time, and so today my kid time means I'm going to be in kindergarten, because kindergartners are still transitioning to school and we've got some criers and the parents are crying, and so right now my time can be best served in kindergarten, and so that's what I need to do. If you're in kindergarten, then first through fifth aren't seeing you. They'll know you're going to send them a little. Hey guys, I'm here, just want you to know been trying to really help kindergarten get things up and going and try your best to get into some of the others, and when you're out front in the morning or if you're at breakfast in the morning or in the hallway where students come, students are seeing you. Teachers might not realize that how much students are seeing you, but you have to know that the students are seeing you and you're giving them some face time every day.
Speaker 2:The other thing with time that I can't stress enough is that while we all carry walkie-talkies or our cell phones, there are times that you need to not be on call, and so, even during the school day, determine what that's going to look like for you.
Speaker 2:If you are fortunate and you have an administrative team or an assistant principal, talk with them about this will be my time that I'm going to do X, and that could be learning walks, that could be evaluations, that could be a plethora of things that get you out of the office and amongst your students and staff. Your office stuff can be taken care of before and after school and I know that's really everything's so predictable right now because we have phones and we could just answer on our phones, because we have our many computers with us all the time. That's not healthy. That doesn't really give you the opportunity to be present for the people that you need to be present for. I want you to take time to sit down with an assistant principal or a counselor, or perhaps you have lead teachers or perhaps your administrative assistant that you can say I'm blocking out this hour and here's what it's for, and maybe you do that a couple of times a week so you can get out and about and be present for the people that need you to be present.
Speaker 1:I want to say thank you for that, because I believe that people need permission to turn off the walkie, to set down their phone and be present anymore. I don't think I've seen people having pulled in so many directions between the walkie and their phones as I have the last eight years or so. There's no time to think or build relationships or focus on the things that we find are important, and I think it's so wise to listen to Dr Neijeringhaus with this that work with your team and say this is a value. I deserve this and the people that I serve deserve this as well. So thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know the students that need that extra help. You're getting a walkie call for the suit. They're not going away year to year. You're always going to have that and so some years may be a little bit different than others, but it's not going away. So set a precedence, for I'm going to take walkie calls at this time where I'm not, and if you're not, who is? Because that's still an important key that somebody is there, that somebody is answering those calls.
Speaker 2:But it doesn't always have to be the head principal. It could be the assistant, it could be the guidance counselors getting involved, because there's some social, emotional things going on that they're interacting with. There are so many great resources even within our building. One of the schools I was at had a buddy program and they actually had staff members adopt students as their buddy, and so the principal and I, because I was the assistant, when the principal and I would have be going in different directions If there was a student whose buddy was in the building, we would try to release the buddy to go and touch base with the student and hopefully they've made those connections and develop those relationships that then they could be of help. And it doesn't always work out perfectly, but you have to start somewhere Right, you have to take some action.
Speaker 1:So we can't keep doing it the way that we're doing.
Speaker 2:We need to start with something and tweak it as we go, and let me just say this if, if every administrator in the building is running to the same problem or to the same situation, that's a problem. Yeah, you have just completely shut down your administrative powers and team to support the rest of the building.
Speaker 1:Yes. Well, coming toward the end of our time, like, what tip or reminder do you want to share with principals this month?
Speaker 2:So I have three tips a month of September, and I've talked about the first two. Number one is delegate. Don't shut yourself down. Delegate, find people that are better than you. What's the best school? You're not going to be able to do everything on your own. Find those people that you have that are better than you. That's why they're there. You're all supporting one another. Yes, number two is communicate. Remember you cannot over communicate. This is a great opportunity to, in September, to start establishing those strong communications with your parents, with your staff, with students. And then, I don't want you to forget number three celebrate. Celebrate the great community that you have, celebrate things that are going on and then involve your community, involve your parents and great things that are going on in your buildings and take time to celebrate those, because September can really kind of be a tough month because it's a long. It's a long month after Labor Day. It's a long month.
Speaker 2:We don't really break or anything, and so start looking for those opportunities to celebrate, whether it's individuals, students, staff, whatever. Start to celebrate.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, dr Neidring House. I want to just remind everyone that Dr Neidring House was with us kicking off the school year on the podcast, episode 18. No, episode 17. So go to episode 17, winning the school year insights from Dr Neidring House. And next week you're going to hear from Dr Fowler. She'll be talking with teachers about the importance of goal setting and, if you didn't know, compass PD has a big goal of impacting the learning of 1 million students in the 23, 24 school year. One way you can help is by sharing our podcast with others, and we would love for you to hit that plus sign, follow or subscribe, so that our podcast drops right into your soon, your listen to soon list and if you have anything you would love to hear, don't hesitate to reach out. Just go to our website, click the contact us and we will love to hear from you on feedback, on how, what you need and how we can make this better. Have a great day.