Tips for Starting the New School Year

As both a teacher and principal I recognized the importance of starting the school year on a positive note. These beginnings say a lot about your school's culture and the relationships you want to build with students, families and staff. I'm always looking for good ideas that I can use or that I can share with my teachers. This week I received an online post from Edutopia (from the George Lucas Educational Foundation) that describes 9 tips for starting the new school year. They emphasize collaborative with families, with personnel in your school and with your own Personal Learning Network (PLN). I thought I'd pass them along and hope you find them helpful.

As always I'd enjoy hearing from you about other tips you have for starting the new school year on a positive note.

Tips for New (and Experienced) Principals

The start of another school year is rapidly approaching. When I was a principal I began every year with lots of anticipation and a little bit of anxiety. I always focused on assuring that my school was a welcoming place for students, families and staff. And I was always looking for new ideas for how to get the year off to a good start.

This week I found this blog post from The Connected Principal. It provides 15 great ideas for new principals but as I read them I found them to be helpful for experienced principals as well. So, I want to share them and hope you find them helpful.

As always I would welcome your feedback and thoughts about other tips you have for the beginning of the school year.

The Principal as Advocate

Whether you recognize it or not, you are an advocate, always advocating for your school and the resources you need to improve the educational experience of your students. Advocacy is often compared to public relations but is actually quite different. When a leader advocates for their school they are committed to providing information to stakeholder groups that will build support for their vision of a high performing school. It is a recognition of the importance of building networks and alliances to support their efforts.

One helpful tool is to build a "Key Communicator Network." The network, developed by the National School Public Relations Association includes several key steps.

• Bring together a small group of trusted people who know the community. Talk with them about those whom others listen to. They may not be in formal leadership roles but communicate regularly with lots of people (barber, cab driver, supermarket checkout clerk).
• Be sure and represent all segments of the community.
• Invite these people to join your communication group and then ask them to meet regularly with you to provide honest, objective, information about your school.
• Encourage them to keep their ears open for any questions or concerns community members may have about the school. It's always good to learn about issues early.
• Establish a way to maintain communication with the group consistently throughout the year.

The most effective leaders need, and build, a network of people who provide them with accurate, timely information about their school. These same individuals can also share information with the larger community about your school's successes and your vision for your school's success. The Key Communicator Network is one way to establish two-way communication with your community. I'd enjoy learning about other ways you've found to advocate for your school and its students.

School Leader's Guide to Social Media

The explosion in use of social media has impacted schools. While many focus on some of the negatives associated with its use, there is growing evidence that social media is transforming the way students learn and interact with others in the educational environment. Like all innovations, social media technology comes with challenges. But my co-author and I have learned from principals that social media has transformed the way students interact with one another and with the world around them. These changes have a profound impact on what schools can and must do to provide an effective education for twenty-first century students.

Because social media has tremendous potential to change the way we communicate, learn and teach, we believe there is a moral and ethical obligations to teach students how to use this technology effectively, ethically, and for the greater good.

In response to this belief J. Howard Johnston and I wrote a book for school leaders that provides a useful introduction to the world of social media in schools and offers useful strategies and tools that they can immediately use in their schools. It is available from Eye on Education (www.eyeoneducation.com) and is available in e-book format as well as in a soft cover edition.

We'd enjoy hearing from you about social media and how it has impacted your school.

A "Wiki" - Useful Planning and Meeting Tool

I must admit that I am a relative novice with social media but I'm an energetic learner and am always looking for tools that can help with some of the management tasks required of principals. Recently I've begun to use a "Wiki" for some of my classes and when I work with groups. Wiki is most often associated with Wikipedia but that is just one form of a wiki. A wiki is a website where any member can edit contributes, like projects that several people share, or for suggesting agenda items for a meeting. Some teachers use wikis in classrooms. While there are many uses, some use a wiki as a tool to have students share their work and gather feedback from others.

I created my classroom wikis at www.wikispaces.com, a site that allows you to create free wikis. They are easy to create and a useful place for a committee or other group to maintain their agendas, minutes and any documents related to the work. You can limit access to the site so that only members can contribute.

I've found wikis to be useful and would enjoy hearing from you about your experience with wikis or other social media tools used by principals.

Welcoming Homeless Students

The number of homeless children in US schools continues to grow. Much of the increase is driven by the uncertain economy. Families are dealing with joblessness, less access to medical care, increased hunger and greater instability in the family unit. The nation's official poverty rate is 15.1% (2010), the highest since 1997.

Often associated with urban areas, homelessness and poverty is prevalent in rural areas as well. Rural families headed by women have a significantly higher poverty rate, generally 10% higher than other families.

Homeless children have legal protection under the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act (1987). The law requires that state and local educational agencies assure access to school, despite one's housing circumstances. Homeless children can remain in their school of origin, even if they move into housing in another district. Schools must provide transportation to their original school and homeless students can enroll immediately even without the documents normally required of new students.

The National Center for Homeless Education offers some tips on creating a welcoming school for homeless children.

• Welcome the student like any other new student.
• Talk with your teachers about how to create welcoming classrooms.
• Identify the important information that parents/families will need.
• Maintain a supply of materials at school that are available for students who may not have them.
• Understand your obligation about accepting the student and providing transportation if needed.
• Talk with the family about what the student studied at their previous school.
• Establish a place that students can complete homework either before or after school since they may not have a place where they are living.
• Be sensitive to word choice when talking about homeless students, and their families, with others in the school and in your community.
• Model welcoming and respectful behavior.

Additional resources for creating a welcoming environment for homeless students are available from:

National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (www.naehcy.org)

National Center for Homeless Education at the SERVE Center (www.serve.org/nche)

Working with Generation Y Teachers

As Baby Boomer teachers retire and are replaced by members of Generation Y (born between 1977 and 1995) we have come to appreciate that Gen Y employees have a very different set of characteristics shaped by a far different set of life experiences.

They are . . .

• Highly educated, value education and attribute their success to education;
• Very comfortable using technology and expect it to be available in the workplace;
• Tend to be creative, innovative and self-confident;
• Committed to making a difference and contributing to positive social change;
• Want to be connected, updated and included and involved in their work;
• Desire relationships with co-workers and supervisors;
• Looking for opportunities for growth, challenging work and assignments and flexibility in work schedules;
• Possess collaborative skills, are committed to team-building and expect to be held accountable.

So, what are some strategies for working with Gen Y teachers? A report from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (www.tqsource.org) identified ten strategies. They include recognizing their unique qualities and how they differ from teachers born in prior generations. They also suggest:

• establishing a shared vision and goals with Gen Y teachers
• encouraging shared leadership
• creating a positive, supportive and welcoming school culture
• involve Gen Y teachers in decisions and welcome their feedback
• value the gathering and use of data about student learning and instructional practices
• providing open, honest and personalized support and mentoring.

I hope you find the ideas thought-provoking. While the tools are not new, the application to Gen Y teachers is different than it would be for Baby Boomers. Just as Baby Boomers changed American society, so will Gen Y. They hold tremendous potential for making a difference in the lives of American students. I'd enjoy hearing from you about your experience with Generation Y teachers.