The Principal's Handbook

Leading in Two Directions: Staying Present and Planning Ahead as a Principal
[00:00:00] In today's episode, I wanna talk about balancing the end of this year with planning ahead. 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. 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 finishing the year strong and starting next year.
Smart. While balancing the end of this year with planning ahead, we know as principals this time of year [00:01:00] can be really difficult as you're juggling being in the current year while also making decisions that impact next year. I've heard principals refer to it as you have one foot in next school year and one foot in the current school year, and that can be really challenging.
One, it can be challenging because. It's hard to stay present where you're at because you're so future focused and thinking about next year, but at the same time, there's so much happening at the end of the year that you really need to be in the present. There's a lot of testing at this time of year that I'm recording the podcast beginning of May.
In Ohio, at the beginning of May, we're wrapping up state testing. We're starting benchmark testing, . It feels like there's a lot happening. A lot of field trips, a lot of end of year events, and people are just getting ready for the end of the school year, but also planning for next year.
So it can be a stressful time of year. So today what I wanted to do was give you three tips for staying focused and finishing the school year strong. And then I'm also going to give you three tips for planning ahead with intention [00:02:00] for the Future school year. So let's start by thinking about the three tips let's start by talking about three tips to stay focused and finish the year strong. The first tip is to reconnect to your school's. Why? So revisit what your school's mission is, your values. Think about you at the beginning of the year when you are ready for the year.
You felt clear in your vision of what you wanted. This. School year to be how you wanted it to go. At the beginning we are so pumped for the school year. We have this attitude about the school year that this is gonna be a great year, we're excited, and at the end of the school year, it can be easy to kind of lose all of that.
So dig deep into how you wanna end the school year. Strong. Thinking about. How you started the year and thinking about that beginning of the year excitement and now that it's almost over reconnect with what you wanted the school year to be. What is your school's, why, what is your school's mission?
What is your school's values? And then how that connects with what you [00:03:00] wanted for the school year. And really sit with that and think about the school year and how it's going, and is it going in the way that you want it to go? And just be in. That why be in that mission of, , whether it's helping kids, making sure kids have a good experience at school, whatever your school's mission is really sitting in the why there and focusing on your values.
My second tip is to celebrate progress, not just completion. As we end the school year, there's a lot of data that comes up as kids are doing testing. There's a lot of things that happen through the school year, but I really encourage you to recognize growth and all of the wins that are happening and celebrate among staff students.
And really recognize those things that happen that are big and small. So even the small ones, take note of those. Share them with others. Think about the data. , think about academics. What, how has it improved? You could look at achievement, you could look at growth. You could look at certain populations and really see how the [00:04:00] data has changed over the school year.
You could look at behavior or your behavior. Referrals down for this school year? Did you have less office referrals or less physical aggression or, , is there an area of behavior that was maybe higher last year that's lower this year that you can celebrate? Celebrate the relationships you build with parents and staff?
I think this often goes on notice, but maybe there's a teacher that you were having a hard time with or a parent and you're proud of yourself for really building that relationship. That's something that you can celebrate. With maybe a close friend or with just even yourself journaling on that, reflecting on that and being excited that you were able to build that relationship.
But noticing how things have grown and progressed throughout the school year is really important for you and your staff together, but also for you on your own. Also celebrate with your leadership team. So what does that look like for you? Is it an assistant principal? Is it a. School counselor, maybe you are the assistant and it's your principal.
[00:05:00] Celebrate with your team. That brings people closer together, and it also acknowledges that you worked hard together. So use this as fuel to maintain morale through the final stretch, because sometimes the end of the year people are excited and other times you find that they're just ready to be done.
So really use that to keep morale high by just focusing on what had gone well during the school year. Of course, you wanna notice what can improve, and we'll talk about that too. But right now I really want you to think about what progress. Has happened this school year that we're really proud of. And then
prioritize relationships over task list.
And your task list right now during this time of the year is going to be super long, but you wanna make sure that you're being visible and you're available to the staff. If there's behaviors you're still there for them. Behaviors may amp up this time of year.
It always depends. Sometimes I feel like they do it for me, we're in Ohio. It seemed like it depended on the weather if kids could get outside and run around . But, this is a time that you just really need to [00:06:00] be available and really help teachers go over expectations and keep things as normal as possible.
Also when you're prioritizing relationships, use this time to strengthen trust and connection before summer break. If you're in your office always doing task, and then the end of the year happens and , it feels like you weren't really part of things, it really does, mess with the connection that you have with teachers before they leave for break.
Also make sure you're going to all the fun events that are happening and be part of everything. It's easy to focus on that task list and all of the things that you need to get done, but really focus on the fun. And I was guilty of this. I am a, hyper achiever, a person who wants to get things done, prioritizes things great with time management, but I wanna get things done right.
That's something I have to work on. And you have to remind yourself, especially this time when there's things that do need to be done, that relationship piece, that focusing on the fun is important. We need things in the job that we [00:07:00] can just enjoy, that fill us up, , that revive our energy, fill up our buckets.
You want those things that you're sitting in the gym maybe during an assembly, or you're watching kids and you think, this is why I do this job. I get to help, create these experiences and memories for kids. And so if you miss out on all those events, that's gonna be a huge thing that you're missing out on, and it's going to hinder relationships that you build with students and staff.
So I really, really encourage you to just focus on these fun events, be part of everything, and focus on being present throughout the building during this time of the year, even when your task list is super long. So now I wanna transition to three tips for planning ahead with intention. Okay, so tip number one, reflect before you plan.
Take a lot of time here to reflect, and I encourage you, I hope you're reflecting all throughout the year and getting teachers feedback all throughout the year and listing that, having some sort of system that you can go back to and [00:08:00] look at, your reflections. So for me, for example, I would reflect after each assembly or different activities that we had in the building and put it in a Google Doc so that I could go back and look at that later.
, and Make sure that I made changes before the next time. Because sometimes if something happened in October or November and you're reflecting on the school year in May, you forget that those things happen. So you wanna keep a running Google Doc or some sort of system that you're reflecting all throughout the year, so you can go back and see.
We always had an open house slash beginning of the year celebration. We would reflect on that. Right after it happened, I had notes. So as we were planning for that, in the summer, I could go back and think about what are the things we wanted to change. Also, you wanna use staff and student data to see what needs to be changed.
Is there a problem with the curriculum? What needs to be changed? And I'm not saying go get a new curriculum without planning with your staff ahead of time. I'm just saying looking at data to see what could be changed.
What PD needs to be [00:09:00] given for the next year? , what do you need to be doing to support teachers? Also, what hallway conversations did you have? Sometimes the best feedback are those conversations you just have casually in passing where a teacher mentions something that can be super helpful for making the year go smoother, or personal emails or notes that you get.
Also, if you have one, utilize your building leadership team. Use them to. Reflect on the school year, what went well, what didn't go well, and think about that together to see what can be improved. Also, end of the year is the perfect time to send out surveys. I really think doing them multiple times of the year is good.
But if you haven't done any surveys, do them now while you can collect feedback and share them with your staff, get information from your parents about, communication with teachers, communication in the building, see what their experiences are , and then also get information from your staff about your own communication and how things are going in the building.
What you can do better as a leader. Sometimes that can be really hard to get that feedback and it takes a lot of [00:10:00] vulnerability to be able to put that survey out. But I just really wanna encourage you, if you don't send out surveys to create some sort of survey that you can send out to both your staff and families.
And gather feedback that's going to help you plan better for the next school year. And then also, as you think about it, create times in the following school year that you can go through and gather feedback all throughout the year because you also have to think about when you're gathering feedback from teachers every time of year is different for them.
And so it depends on their mood, on the kind of feedback that you're going to get. If I give them a survey at a time of year, that's a high stress time of year. So if you're doing a lot of testing right now and you have people who aren't in the best head space, you might get some really negative feedback.
So do that. I would still encourage you to do a survey, but just have an open mind that doing a couple throughout the year is always good because you can get, an idea if it's a trend or common theme, or is this just something that happens during that specific time of year. , my second tip is focus on the [00:11:00] things that need teacher input before they're gone for the summer.
So ask yourself, what decisions do I need to make before next school year that I need teacher voice? So think about your master schedule leadership roles that you wanna have in the building. Maybe what teachers need in the classroom or upcoming initiatives. I never like to bug the teachers in the summer, so you always wanna make sure that you know ahead of time.
What the things are that you need their input for. Save things that you can do on your own for summer. , use this time when teachers are in the building to collaborate with them while they're still available. So I would do PLC, you know, professional learning community schedules. We would do our master schedule.
I would look at committees for the next year, figure out who my committee chairs are going to be. , really think about what are the things that I need. Their input on, I would do the duty schedules for the following year so that they could help with before and after school duty, and then I could just give it to them, at the beginning of the year and have everything worked out at that time.[00:12:00]
It's also great to fill your leadership roles for the next school year, whether that's your building leadership team, department heads, you interview for that and figure out. Who is going to do what? Leadership jobs. So really getting teacher input before they're gone for the summer. And my last tip, tip number three, is save system design for summer.
So again, you wanna focus on things that you can do. Alone for summertime when it's quiet. And every principal has different contracts. I work with some principals who work year round, and then I work with principals who have the month of July off. Everybody's a little bit different, but no matter what your schedule is, most principals have some time that they're working, that teachers aren't there, and that is the perfect time to really refine systems in the building like.
Staff meeting structures. What communication do you wanna have for the next school year? How can you make communication better with staff, with parents? Maybe you wanna think about how you wanna be more organized with walkthroughs or observations, [00:13:00] what recognition systems you want for staff, for students.
You could work on your own. Time management. It's a great time to do professional development. The 60 day action plan for principals to help with time management. Those types of activities are great for summer, where you can just sit by yourself and really think through them without anybody bothering you or anybody coming in and interrupting you.
You can just sit and design those systems over summer or refine them. Also, your handbook. I always worked on my handbook over the summer, seeing what needed to be refined, what else I needed to make sure I communicated with staff. So really use that space to think deeply and design systems that protect your time and support your teachers for the year ahead.
And then another suggestion I have for you, create a running doc of all the things that you can work on in the summer. That are things that just you can do. So I would create a document if I was in my office and I would think, Ooh, I need to do this, but really I didn't need to do it right then.
I could do it in the summer and I could do it [00:14:00] while I was alone. It wasn't something I needed teacher help with. So that was something I wanted to wait on because right now, when you have teachers in the building, you really wanna focus on what they can help you with and getting their input. The worst thing is
when you're working on something in the summer, you need teacher input. They're gone for the summer. You don't wanna bug them. So try to think ahead of what are the things that you need teacher input on? Just remember, you don't have to choose between finishing strong and planning smart.
You can do both, but you have to do them with intention. So I really want you to reflect on what's one thing you can do this week to stay present and be in the moment with your staff, your students in the parents who come into the building. And what's one thing you can do to prepare for next year?
And I encourage you to share your thoughts with me on Instagram. Find me at Dr. Barb Flowers. I would love for you to find me and share your thoughts about what you're doing to prepare for next year. And if you haven't listened to episode 41, go back to that episode, reflecting on the past school year as a [00:15:00] principal and creating an action plan.
This is a great end of the year episode where I really talk about how you can reflect on the past school year and just take that information, put it in an action plan to make next year better. I hope that you found this episode helpful. If you love the show, if you're listening on Apple, scroll down in the app, leave a review.
This is how people find the podcast. So I really appreciate when people leave reviews and keep in mind you have the power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose. I hope you have a great week. I'll see you back here next
time.