Teach Boldly

Years ago, I was blessed to be in a position to hold seminars with groups of educators designed to discuss and build leadership skills both informally and formally, internally – for the individual and externally for the school. As we discussed leadership skills and qualities, we would talk about new tools being put in our toolboxes as leaders. This year in Teach & Serve, I have decided to talk about many of those tools.

CREATIVITY

I used to have a poster on my wall reminding me of The Phrases that Kill Creativity and to not use them.

It was not big, perhaps 8.5 by 17 inches. I had received it as a handout at some professional development opportunity and made the poster myself. It was right over my desk. I literally saw it every day.

I can recite many of the phrases right now:

• Our school is different
• We have always done it this way
• I have outlasted leaders and initiatives, I’ll outlast you
• Wait until you’ve been here a little longer
• We tried your idea already. It didn’t work

When I feel these phrases on my lips – or sentiments like them – I try so hard to force them back.

Leaders are called to be creative or, if they are not, they are called to open doors of creativity for those they serve. 

Schools have been around for a long time, they will (despite predictions to the contrary) continue to be around in the future. But what they are, how they do things, what they accomplish – all of this must change, alter, live.

Leaders who develop creativity in their staff and schools serve the future. Leaders who put down creativity serve the past.

Do not live in the past. Push for the future. Be creative.

There are a great many things to be said about The Sound of Music and a great many things have been said about this family favorite. While it is based on a true story, there are plenty of details left out of the film. I am not here to harp on those that paint the film in a more negative light. I am here to point out one of the elements I rarely see mentioned:

Maria is a teacher. She may be a reluctant teacher, a governess forced into service, but she is a teacher nonetheless.  

And the students with whom she contends? That Von Trapp brood are truly terrors.

She wins them over. She wins the captain over. She wins us all over. 

Bravo, Maria Rainer (and Julie Andrews!). Bravo.

We never know the influence we have… While culture tends to promulgate the “those who can, do, those who cannot, teach” idiocy, there are hundreds of examples of brilliance and impactful teachers in reality and in pop culture. Every-other-week this year, I will share my brief reflections on Smart People Doing Smart Things be they in literature, in film, in music or in real life. Many will be teachers, but not all. Many will be fictional, but some will be real. All will be inspiring. Welcome to IntelliPop!

Years ago, I was blessed to be in a position to hold seminars with groups of educators designed to discuss and build leadership skills both informally and formally, internally – for the individual and externally for the school. As we discussed leadership skills and qualities, we would talk about new tools being put in our toolboxes as leaders. This year in Teach & Serve, I have decided to talk about many of those tools.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Real talk: there are many, many things “they” do not tell you when you apply and interview for a formal leadership position. One of the tools I find I should have considered more fully before stepping into my first formal role (I became a department chair in the mid 1990s) was problem solving. All these years later, when interviewing anyone for anything, I try to include a question about solving a complex issue. This is not my brainstorm, this is simply a good question to ask anyone as they join a staff and has come into vogue in recent years. 

I wish I had been asked this early in my career if only to then have begun to consider what a valuable tool problem solving is.

From being confronted by a veteran teacher complaining about “forced charity” when he snapped his wallet open to give me a five-spot for a colleague’s baby shower to developing a formal plan of teacher observation where there was none to dealing with a world-wide pandemic, the problems a leader is asked to solve are varied. Some are big, some are small, some are easily addressed, some are impossible to unravel, some are unimportant and some can break the back of your institution.

Leaders cannot say “that’s not my problem.” Ever.

Leaders embrace problems and problem solving is a critical tool in the toolbox.

I have come to understand that, as principal, I do not have to solve every problem on my own, but every problem in the school is my responsibility.

Years ago, I was blessed to be in a position to hold seminars with groups of educators designed to discuss and build leadership skills both informally and formally, internally – for the individual and externally for the school. As we discussed leadership skills and qualities, we would talk about new tools being put in our toolboxes as leaders. This year in Teach & Serve, I have decided to talk about many of those tools.

LISTENING

I had a leader once tell me “be sure you appear to be listening when anyone comes to your office.”

Nope. Good leaders actually and actively listen when people come to their office, when people stop them in the hall, when people speak to them in the parking lot. 

Listening is, as we all know, a very active pursuit. Listening and connecting with those who approach us are important tools in our work. Too many times, I have had people speak to me, but I have not actually listened to them. In those instances, I miss opportunities to help and opportunities to improve. I miss opportunities to lead. 

Leaders must hear. They must listen. This is actually not a tool to take out of the box every once-in-awhile, this is one that needs always be in hand.

In a fourth season episode of The West Wing, Donna Moss, a White House staffer with access, appeals to her boss, Joss Lyman, the Deputy Director of Communications, to recognize one of her teachers, Mrs. Molly Morello with a Molly Morello Day to indicate what an amazing influence Mrs. Morello had on Donna’s life. Joss puts her off, feigning disinterest in the question, but approaches the President in secret, supplying him with a memo about Mrs Morello and her lifetime of service in education. At the end of the episode, the President calls Mrs. Morello and has Donna explain what an influence the teacher was.

I dare teachers not to cry watching this.

Oh, to be clear: the episode was a tribute to the real Mrs. Morello who was staff writer Eli Attie’s teacher and who inspired him. 

We never know the influence we have… While culture tends to promulgate the “those who can, do, those who cannot, teach” idiocy, there are hundreds of examples of brilliance and impactful teachers in reality and in pop culture. Every-other-week this year, I will share my brief reflections on Smart People Doing Smart Things be they in literature, in film, in music or in real life. Many will be teachers, but not all. Many will be fictional, but some will be real. All will be inspiring. Welcome to IntelliPop!

Years ago, I was blessed to be in a position to hold seminars with groups of educators designed to discuss and build leadership skills both informally and formally, internally – for the individual and externally for the school. As we discussed leadership skills and qualities, we would talk about new tools being put in our toolboxes as leaders. This year in Teach & Serve, I have decided to talk about many of those tools.

WELCOMING SPIRIT

It seems appropriate, as we begin this new school year (students actually arrive on my campus tomorrow!), to start here. A welcoming spirit is critical to a leaders’ success. This is not only important at the beginning of a school year or a semester or trimester or a Monday morning. No.

Being welcoming to students, parents, faculty, staff, fellow administrators – to everyone – is important for a leader to succeed. Part of being a leader is engaging with people. If one does not wish to engage with and listen to and learn from, why did one become a leader in the first place?

In my experience, I can point to instances where I was less than welcoming, where my presence was off putting, where I did not provide a comfortable space for someone to interact with me. While I can point to reasons why these contacts happened in the manner they did (I was just out of a  “bad” meeting, I was tired, I was sick and so forth), the results of them were the same: those who did not feel welcomed did not as readily come back. They did not as readily engage. They did not as readily trust. 

Having a genuine, welcoming spirit is one of the tools that good leaders have. It is one of the skills good leaders employ. 

I hope having a welcoming spirit is one of my defining leadership traits.