Reflections on Year Number Two

I have spent the month of July working on scheduling, preparing for the launch of our 1:1 Chromebook initiative, and reflecting on my second year as principal.  This is my second principal position.  So while last year was my second year here, I have now completed nine years as a middle school principal.  I have a theory, that year number two presents the most challenges. Here's why.  In year number one, there is a honeymoon period.  The faculty wants you to succeed and, as a new principal, hopefully you are putting focus on listening, learning, building relationships, and earning trust.  The first year goes by quickly and then the work truly begins.  That is not to say that work was not done in year number one.  It is just that in year number two, any improvements or ideas that are being implemented begin to take some people out of their comfort zone and either into a learning zone (great) or a panic zone (trouble). Words like "improvements" and "ideas" to a principal are often interpreted as "change" and "initiatives" by teachers with both of those words having negative connotations.

This is the balancing act that a principal must play out and why the time spent building trust and relationships in year number one is so crucial.  It is also why deciding on a path and developing a vision and a timeline for this vision cannot be done in isolation.  The vision needs to truly be shared by key stakeholders and be developed based on conversations and input from the faculty.  There is a chart about change in schools that is often used in leadership workshops.  It shows five factors for change: vision, skills, incentives, resources, and an action plan that all need to be in place in order for true change to take place successfully.  If any of these one factors is missing you end up falling short of success. No vision and there is confusion. No training to build up skills and there is anxiety. No incentive for how this change will improve things and there is resistance. No resources to make the change happen and there is frustration. No action plan and there is the feeling of being stuck on a treadmill.

After completing an entry plan and learning about your new school, there is a tendency to want to make many changes.  If you try to do too much too fast you end up in a situation with factions being formed and the classic division between teachers and administrators. The other issue that principals can become victim to is the death by initiatives that so many schools face and that I have blogged about in the past.  This is when you try to implement too many initiatives in one year. Leaders in schools must fight the pressure from federal, state, and local powers to do it all at once.

As I reflect on year number two for me personally, I end up with much room for improvement.  The year started off poorly due to the many initiatives.  We were transitioning from MCAS to PARCC for state assessments (another blog would be needed to share thoughts on this #lesstestingmorelearning). We had a new student information system for attendance, scheduling, grade books, etc.  We had a new software program for teacher evaluation and the evaluation system was only in its second year. We had a new assistant principal.  Not only a new person, it was a new position. We were implementing a new master schedule. While the schedule was developed by a committee of teachers, it was still new. Wow - talk about death by initiative.  This created the perfect storm.  Too many things pushing people way out of comfort zones and into a panic zone.  The bottom line was many felt overwhelmed.  I did too. We were missing the factors of skills, incentives, and a clear action plan. The vision was murky and not yet shared and while we had the resources, that certainly was not enough to lead to success. I heard myself doing two things frequently - apologizing and saying "if only we could press a reset button" and start the year again.

By early spring my focus turned to rebuilding trust, strengthening relationships, and facilitating discussions with the faculty about the year ahead.  What could we do to ensure that we were more focused, had fewer initiatives, and could take advantage of time we have to implement teacher-driven professional development that is focused on collectively improving instruction. I think we are truly on to something. http://goo.gl/6yJrNa

Year two was a challenge.  I think year two in any leadership position will always be a challenge. And, one can navigate that challenge and be set up for a successful third year.  As I reflect back on my most recent year number two, there is much I would do differently and there are also great lessons learned that will set us up to have the five factors in place for successful improvement.  One key is to try to connect initiatives rather than have so many different things that are not connected.  The umbrella of improving instruction is our focus. The required course to improve addressing the needs of English Language Learners and the 1:1 Chromebook initiative are directly connected to improving instruction.  With less focus on the PARCC assessment and all of our focus on improving instruction, we still meet the need to improve test scores as one measure of our work.

Year three begins and the lessons from year two are clear.  Less is more.  Focus is key. Teacher-driven professional development works. And away we go...