The Principal's Handbook

January Reset for Principals: Strategic Planning for the Second Semester
[00:00:00] And today's episode, we're going to talk about a reset for the second half of the year. So stay tuned.
Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work life balance, I'm Barb Flowers. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.
Welcome back to the podcast today. We're going to be talking about the January reset for principals and how to strategically plan for semester. Number two. Because we all go into the school year. We're excited.
We have new [00:01:00] goals, new initiatives, but it can be really hard to stick to them. Right. We have challenges that come up, , teachers who can be difficult or student behaviors that come into play and our perfect plan doesn't go as planned. And so the middle of the year, the second half of the year is the perfect time to really reset and make sure we're still in alignment of our goals and what we wanted to achieve. In the building with our staff, with students, or even your own personal goals. It's also a really good time to just reset your mindset and what habits you have going on for yourself.
So I'm excited today. , we're really going to dig into this mid-year reflection. Because it's the perfect time to see what's working. What's not working and you still have enough time to change it. Right. It's nice to look at the end of the year at what worked and what didn't. However, at the end of the year, Obviously, there's not time to change it for that school year, and then you're going into a new year.
So things change a little bit. So this is the perfect time to really evaluate what's working and [00:02:00] what's not, but then there's also time to make your plans still happen to make your goals that you wanted to achieve still possible to achieve. So how you can use this episode if you're driving or walking, listening to this podcast.
That's great. You can just kind of reflect in your mind. But also, I would suggest to go back to it because it's really helpful to put pen to paper and journal and reflect and take that time to really evaluate what you've been doing and what you want to do different because we all, when we evaluate and reflect on what we want to change, That's when the biggest changes in our leadership are going to happen.
So that's something I'd like you to do. , when you have time, if you're not doing it right now, So we're just going to go through different areas, reflect on those areas. And I just want you to really think about what you need to do moving forward in these areas. , first I want to talk about initiatives, . I want you to just sit down or in your brain, think about all the beginning of the year goals and initiatives you have.
And hopefully if you had goals, you wrote them [00:03:00] down, maybe their goals that you did with your building leadership team. And just think about what those goals are, what initiatives you had, maybe from the district, from the state, things that you had to implement and list all of those down. And I hope it's not too many, because remember when we have too many initiatives, we really don't have any initiatives because if there's too much, there's no. Way we're going to be able to accomplish it, but list out what you were hoping to accomplish this school year. And then I want you to write next to each one, which ones?
Gain traction. So mark, the ones, the initiatives, the goals. That gain traction that you saw progress and that maybe teachers were on board with, , you really see an impact happening in the school, which of those gained traction. And then right next to each one, which one's faded and why.
And I can think about this so many school years where I had too many initiatives or goals. And then there were always those goals that faded, because I couldn't keep up with all of them. [00:04:00] And once I couldn't keep up with them and they weren't on the forefront of my mind and I wasn't constantly working on them.
They just kind of faded away because it was too much. So pay attention to which ones those are and why, or maybe it's because you're having trouble getting staff on board, or maybe you need someone to help you lead that initiative. So really think about what was the problem with the ones that are fading away. And then I also want you to think about , what unexpected challenges emerge this school year, as it pertains to your goals and initiatives. Did you have staff super upset, maybe staff were, , not on board with something that you thought would be an easy sell to your staff, maybe. People were stressed out more than you thought.
Right? So what really happened with the goals and initiative? Sometimes for me, what would happen is I had this idea of what I wanted to do in the building. And then we'd come back to school and there might be an initiative from the state. That changed just a little bit, that caused more stress for the [00:05:00] teachers.
And so it was harder to implement the things I wanted to implement because they were stressed about these initiatives they had to do that were part of the state and felt very compliance-based right. And . Sometimes those unexpected challenges come up. , , I am in Ohio, , in elementary. There's been a lot with dyslexia laws.
So those have been challenges. And sometimes they gave us a lot of notice and we knew how long to we had to implement things. And then sometimes it felt like they would just bring us information and we had to implement it within that school year. One was picking a curriculum last school year. We had to pick a curriculum right away. , which just seemed very stressful.
And these are all challenges that just come up. And so you have a plan. You think, you know how it's going to go, and then you have to deal with these outside factors, these outside circumstances coming in and they create more challenges for you. The other thing I want you to think about is your data.
So really think back on your data. What attendance patterns are you seeing this school year? So go in. It's the perfect [00:06:00] time to see what students do you have missing school a lot, , if you have attendance meetings with parents who have you met with, who have you not met with, is attendance better this year?
Or is it worse? Really look at trends with attendance. Why are kids missing? , so that's one area to look at also behavior trends. We always tracked our behavior data through a Google form, but I know their Swiss data as well. I really, really encourage you to at least track your office referrals because I would track that. And look year to year.
Are we on track with what our behaviors were last year? Are they improving? , , which grade level has the highest incidents sent to the office? Many years that was kindergarten, which makes sense.
We've had classes where kids just didn't know how to play. Right. And so they were always being sent in that. We just had to have a lot of conversations about how do we play with each other at recess. So it's just, what is the behavior data telling us, you know, is it higher than normal? Is it lower? Are there [00:07:00] certain behaviors that we're seeing more and more of.
So look at that behavior data. It's a great time then to create plans moving forward, , to see how you can support your students. Also your academic indicators. So how does the data look academically? Did your fall and winter universal screeners look better if you haven't done the winter one yet you can look at that in January.
When you go back. , but look and compare that data. How much growth did students make from fall to winter? And really take time to dig into that. This is, these are great conversations to have with your building leadership teams. These are great conversations to have at professional learning communities. Anytime you can meet with teachers and use that data to drive what you're doing next.
And really look at it from a big picture. Of how is it changing year to year? Is it getting better? And then the other thing, , to look at with your data, which would be more qualitative data is your staff engagement levels. So, how has staff been this school year? Are they engaged in things that you're doing?
If you're doing a new curriculum? [00:08:00] Are they wanting to learn the curriculum? Are they engaging in learning about the curriculum or are they really resisting and pushing back? Has there been more or less staff drama? , are there any out of the normal situations last year? I had a teacher who had cancer. And it was terrible.
And so that was a really hard year with staff engagement because they were, , dealing with the loss of a colleague. , we've had years where, , we've had a really bad car accident, students coming back healing and things like that. And so. All those types of hard incidents. It does mess with staff engagement levels because we're human and we have to deal with the emotions of all of that.
And so how has that impacted what you're trying to implement in the building and how have you addressed those situations? How have you supported staff? How have you helped them feel more engaged in what they're doing? So these are all questions. To just dive in and really think about what you want to change moving forward.
Another area.
I think it's important for you to reflect on is your own [00:09:00] mindset and habits. So this time of year, as we go into the holiday break, it's really, by this point, when I would go into break, I would be so tired and ready for a break. And I was really good at disconnecting from school.
And I would take my break and just. , really re-energize myself, but what we have to really watch for signs of burnout. And I always like to tell people burnout it doesn't go away on its own. There are specific things we have to do for burnout, and I'm not going to get into too much about it, but there is an episode, a couple episodes ago on the podcast about burnout for principals.
So I've really encouraged you to go back and listen to that. If some of this is resonating with you, but some signs to watch out for is if you're really feeling disengaged, like it's hard for you to even engage in this reflection. 'cause you're like, I don't really even care. Right. When you get to that point where you're not even engaging in reflection. Because you're tired and you just feel like I don't have the energy to do this.
That is a sign of [00:10:00] burnout. , when you notice that your health is declining, maybe you're not exercising. You're not eating healthy, you're not sleeping. You know, you don't have any healthy habits. That can lead to burnout. And then also if you feel like you're just negative. And you've not been in a good space.
Maybe you're just, I've been in this place where I'm just annoyed. And somebody says something and I take it so negatively, right? That is a sign that you are in negative Headspace and you were leading to burnout. Really be mindful of that and know that if that's happening, there's more that you need to do.
When I faced my own burnout, I got coaching from a coach because. It does not just leave on its own time alone. Doesn't help burn out when you take the break and you're burnt out. If you're not doing things to help with burnout. When you go back from break, it's just gonna pick up right where it left off.
So I do just want to give you that caveat, and if you are struggling with burnout, I really encourage you to reach out. I would love to do a [00:11:00] consultation with you where we can talk about how you're feeling burnout, how you want to feel in your job and how we could get you there.
So I just wanted to say that as you're on your break and you're feeling burnout, watch out for those signs. The other thing I want you to think about that. I don't think we talk about enough and it really is kind of related to stress and burnout is your energy levels. So I didn't realize this and I've been doing more research and learning about it, but. My energy levels are directly related to people I interact with it's related to what I'm doing, my mindset, my thinking, I used to think my energy was only related to sleep.
And I was confused because for years I've always gotten good sleep. , I sleep seven, eight hours a night. I sleep well. I exercise. So I'm like, why am I so tired? But what I realized is it's really not about just being tired. Tired like physically tired, but it's about my mental energy. And a lot of times what was happening was my negative thoughts was sucking [00:12:00] my mental energy. Also, , people were sucking my energy, right.
If I let them people's negativity would suck out my energy. That's why I was going home. So tired or I'd feel so tired. By two o'clock it was my thoughts about everything happening. It was really draining my energy. The other thing that happens is when you're feeling disengaged. That drains your energy.
So you have to work on different things. Sleep exercise, healthy foods. Those are all super important, but it's more than that. If you're feeling really tired. So that's something else I want you to think about as you're doing this assessment, , what does your daily energy look like? Are you coming into work and you're tired every day.
Are you crashing at two o'clock? , what does that look like? And if you are. What are your daily routines that work or don't work? , what does your sleep look like? What does your eating look like? , how are you using your time management? That's important because if we're doing too much, Where we're not giving ourselves breaks [00:13:00] throughout the day, that can mess with your energy levels. , what's your work-life balance look like if you're going home and working for five more hours, even if you're getting enough sleep, you might just be exhausted. You might be mentally exhausted from the job. So, what does that look like? , some people call it work-life integration.
Right? Same type of thing. How does that look? We're not talking 50 50 balance, but do you feel like you have enough downtime in the evening? Do you have hobbies that you enjoy? Outside of school or being a principal your life, right. Is that your whole identity and everything that you do? So these are all things you need to think about when you think about your energy and what takes energy from you. I also want you to reflect on your actual leadership style.
So how have you been communicating? I would get so frustrated with communication because I communicated in so many different ways to staff. But I also had to be open-minded to, did they use those communication tools that I was giving? How else could I communicate? That would reach them in a better way.
So [00:14:00] communication is a huge one and you always want to be thinking, am I over-communicating in my communicating enough? , because over communication is a good thing. We always want to over-communicate our parents complaining that they're not getting enough communication. You know, use that informal feedback. Also think about your decision-making.
Are you doubting your decisions? Are you making decisions in the way you want to? I have a free workshop about doubting your decisions. I think this is a huge thing in leadership because. If you're being questioned all the time from teachers or parents or students. It can make you doubt your decisions, but it's so important that you have confidence in the decisions that you make.
So I'll make sure that's linked in the show notes. , so make sure, you know, your decision making processes, you know, do you take time to make those decisions? Are you confident in the decisions that you make? So reflect back on this year, what big decisions have you had to make? What tough conversations have you had to have, and are you proud of how you did that?
. Or are there things that you want to improve?
[00:15:00] And then the other thing I want you to reflect on is team delegation. So the effectiveness of your delegation with your team, This could be secretaries. This could be teacher leaders. Um, you know, for me, I delegated, I had an assistant principal. I had two secretaries I worked with, but there's also the building leadership team.
So being comfortable, delegating to them or delegating to other teachers that you want to step up into leadership roles. Are you trying to do everything? When I was a new principal, I wanted to do everything. If someone had an idea, I'd be like, oh, I can work on that for you, because I just felt like they were so busy.
I have to protect their time. , however, I wasn't empowering them. And I was putting too much on my plate that I couldn't get it all done. . So we have to be careful with that and we have to delegate. Because people want to feel empowered. They want to feel like you trust them. To take on these leadership roles and get things done.
And then also as you. Also as you go into the second semester, think, have you done any surveys for feedback? Do you [00:16:00] typically do surveys? I really recommend I'm a big fan of just doing Google forms, sending them out to staff. I would do a lot of staff surveys for different things. , and January is probably a good time.
I have. I have always found that schools can be really hard to do surveys, especially when you're serving teachers, because we all know that certain times of the year are very emotional. And so if you pick a time of the year, that's very emotional. You might not get the best feedback from teachers because they're responding out of emotion versus what they see all the time.
So just be aware of that when you send out surveys. And so when , they come back from break, it's probably a good time to get information from them because they're coming back a little bit more rested. And restored. And then think about what other areas you can give feedback.
Have you gotten feedback from parents doing a parent surveys really helpful, , find out if they feel welcomed into the school, do they feel like they can communicate with you as a leader? Do they even know who to go to if they have a problem, you know? So get that feedback from parents.
And then also students, [00:17:00] especially depending on the age of your students, what feedback do you need from them? To move forward. So now that we have the reflections and you're really thinking about the school year so far, you're thinking about initiatives. You have, you're thinking about. Data, you're thinking about your own mindset, your own wellbeing, and your own leadership.
I want you to select two to three key focus areas that you want to focus on finishing this year strong. Okay. So there's a lot of things you can constantly improve, but I want you to focus on what are the areas that I really want to finish this year strong. This is what I set out to do this year. This is where I'm at, and I want to focus on this so I can finish strong.
Okay. So pick two to three focus areas. Then I want you to set realistic timelines for this. So what are those points going to look like by spring break and by the end of the year, or maybe you do monthly, monthly check-ins, whatever works for the goal and whatever works for you. And then also set realistic [00:18:00] expectations. I has a new principal.
What's the worst at this? I would say expectations that were way higher. , just in the fact that I thought I could get all these things done, but what I forgot is that it's not just me getting them done. I'm leading people to do it. And so it's not just like, do this task on your own,

. You're influencing, you're leading.
You're getting people on board. It's way harder than just that one. Just you. So think about that as you have these expectations and what you're working on, and as your action planning, this is a great conversation to have with building leadership teams. I always did my building goal setting with the building leadership team.
And it helped me move things forward because they were on board with what the goals were. And then they could communicate that we would communicate that with the staff at staff meetings, but they could also communicate it at other times. And it helped us all. Remember what we're working towards. So just think about that.
, and as you go back to school, then just really begin planning what you want that to look like. Maybe you need to plan how you want to [00:19:00] re-engage your staff, you know, how do you need to engage the staff the second half? How do you need to reignite their passion? Sometimes it's having a conversation with them about why they were a teacher in the first place.
I think it's so easy in education, especially now teachers are dealing with so much, so many teachers are getting burnt out that we constantly have to reignite. Their purpose and passion and remind them of the big mission they're working towards. , so what do you need to do to help your staff? How can you boost their morale?
What do you need to do to get them on board with the initiatives you're trying to complete for the year? And then also think about your communication planning. How can you be even better at staff messaging, parent updates, students celebrations. And as you take time to reflect, I want you to also focus on your wins.
You know, I talked about all these areas you can reflect on and think about in areas that are going well and what you want to work on, but always reflect on your wins and share those with staff. Staff need to hear those wins. [00:20:00] Look at what went well, look at what you've already accomplished this year and share that in January at your staff meeting. And if there are things you want to adjust, don't hold it against yourself.
So often what, I didn't complete a goal or when I didn't do something that I wanted to, I would beat myself up about it. But you have to realize that you were doing the best you could at that time with what you knew. And now, you know, more when you take that time to reflect, you know, more, you can adjust and you can do better.
Don't hold your goals against yourself. Don't hold the things. That you're trying to accomplish against yourself and beat yourself up and think I should have done more. I'm going to tell you from experience that doesn't do anything. When we come from a negative place and we beat ourselves up, it does not help us get better. Reflection is good judgment on ourselves.
It's not when we're constantly judging ourselves, it is not going to get better. . Think about how you would speak to your teachers. Don't speak to yourself different than you would speak to [00:21:00] your own teachers. When I spoke to my teachers, I wanted to be encouraging. I wanted to get feedback, but I also wanted to be encouraging.
So think about with yourself, get feedback from yourself, from your reflections. But then also be encouraging to yourself. So I hope you found this episode helpful. I hope you go into January feeling set up, ready to finish the year strong. You've got this. You're doing amazing things. And if you're interested in coaching, I would love to work with you.
I'd love to do a free consultation where we can talk about where you are now and where you want to be. And I can help you bridge the gap to get there. I love helping leaders. Improve their leadership, improve their wellbeing and really find better work life balance in all of it. So if you're feeling burnt out, you're feeling tired or maybe you want to level up.
Or maybe you want to level up, reach out to me.
I'd love to do a free consultation and see if we'd be a good fit to work together. And if you love the show, if you're listening on apple, scroll down in your [00:22:00] app and leave a review, keep in mind you have the power to shape your life. According to the mindset you choose. I hope you have a great week and I'll see you back here next time.
Mhm. Mhm.