The Principal's Handbook

Reflecting on the Past School Year as a Principal
[00:00:00] In today's episode, I want to talk about how you can reflect on the past school year as a principal and what action steps you can take to move forward. That's all coming up next right here on The Principal's Handbook. 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 reflecting on the past school year as a principal, [00:01:00] and then what actions you can take to move forward and how you can create an action plan. We're going to be talking about reflecting on the past school year as a principal and creating an action plan to move forward.
Many times we don't take the time to properly reflect on the past school year, I try to do it as a principal throughout the school year, but it can be really difficult when everything is like, go, go, go. For me, I'm constantly doing things and you can get really busy and get into jumping on the busy bus.
not prioritizing things and just focusing on getting through what you need to get through. It's easy to get super busy. And if we don't reflect, then it's really hard to move forward in a way where we actually change because it takes time to reflect. And sometimes that can be hard. And as a principal, I have extra time that I am working in the summer where I don't have kids or teachers there.
So I definitely have the time to reflect. It's just easy. making sure that I do it in a meaningful way because reflection [00:02:00] really helps you see what is going well, what isn't. It helps you see where change needs to be made and reassess the things that you're doing. Reflection also is a great way to grow and learn through our own experiences.
We know from our experiences in education, if you were a teacher and you went, to undergrad for teaching, you reflected I even remember in my leadership program reflecting all the time because reflection is how you grow and it's how you learn. It's taking information in and then seeing how it resonates with you and how you took that information in and how you were actually able to utilize it.
So reflecting now in a practical sense is really important and I don't think we do it enough as educators. So think about yourself as a new principle. You know, I would think about myself and I would go through situations and I would handle things that went terribly wrong. I would handle situations and looking back, they did not go well, but without reflecting on them, I wouldn't have gotten better.
[00:03:00] You know, having those terrible situations and then reflecting on what I could have done better is how I don't do that over and over again. And how I've moved past those terrible situations. How I've become better at making decisions quickly because I've handled so many situations and reflected on them that now I'm able to do that.
Also, reflection helps us know ourselves better, right? When I reflect about a situation, I know how I handle that situation. So the more I reflect about things, The more I understand myself and how I respond to situations. Reflection is also a great way to get to know yourself and understand how you lead people, how you make decisions and you know, how you do things quickly.
And how you can learn and grow. I have a couple quotes for you today. So Hall and Simrell says, the more reflective you are, the more effective you are. And Margaret J.
Wheatley says, without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences and failing to achieve anything useful. [00:04:00] And so if you think about that. If you're going through your job as a principal and you aren't reflecting, you're not going to be effective. You're just going to create, like Margaret Wheatley says, all these unintended consequences, all these things that you never wanted to happen because you're not reflecting and being more intentional.
So I wanted to just have some conversation around
some things that you may need to reflect on this school year, because I know I always like to think about, okay, so I go through my head. What are the things I need to reflect on? And I do reflect on my goals, but there's so much that you do as a principal that it's hard to have that comprehensive list of all the things you need to reflect on.
So that's what I'm going to do today is I'm going to help you think about areas that you can reflect on. So first think about your operational system. Arrival in the morning, dismissal, lunch, recess. How did those processes go this year? Were they smooth? Were they efficient? What changes could [00:05:00] improve them?
I'm in an elementary school and sometimes it has to do with the number of recess monitors we had. Did we have enough supervision? Did Did we have too much supervision? You know, thinking through those things, who was doing lunch duty?
You know, these are all operational systems, things that we've had to think about before dismissal, getting kids involved in helping younger students find their bus, arrival, who's doing what duties and who's supposed to go where at arrival and dismissal. So these are all operational systems that you need to make sure you have in place.
And you also need to make sure. That you have them in place in a way that aligns with the school contract for teachers. Because for us, teachers are supposed to have an off day for duties. You just have to make sure that you're aligning your systems and supervision with the contract.
Also reflecting on your instructional leadership. Thinking about your presence in classrooms. I think principles being present in classrooms is so important. I I think it's really important for [00:06:00] multiple reasons. One, the kids see that I care about their learning because I'm in the classrooms and I'm checking up on them.
Two, it just helps them see me and kids will ask to talk to me. Teachers will ask to talk to me. It's just another way for me to be visible and present and available to people. But also it allows me to see the teaching practices and instructional practices that are going on in the building.
I pretty much know. What my teachers are doing and what they're teaching when I have a parent complain about a teacher. I have a lot of information because I'm going into those classrooms daily. I try to get in every classroom every day. It's probably more like four days a week out of five. It's a lot, but you know, I don't always get to every single one, but basically you need to think about your classroom presence.
So did you spend enough time in classrooms observing and supporting teachers? Did you watch them teach? How many observations did you do? How many walkthroughs did you do? How many informal walkthroughs that were just part of you being present in the building did you do in [00:07:00] classrooms?
And then how can you increase your presence next year? My principal was super visible in the building. He came into my classroom and we were a small building, but two to three times a day and I at first was very nervous about that. But then I grew to love it because he knew me as a teacher and when a parent was mad he could support me.
He knew what I was teaching. When it came to observations, I wasn't really worried because it wasn't anything new. He was in my classroom all the time. It wasn't a big deal. I was really impressed because if he was at a meeting or he wasn't there, the kids would ask where he was.
And it's just because he was so present. And so that was one thing I took away with me when I became a principal. And I didn't know how teachers would respond to that. And. They loved it. They loved having a principal present in the building. I got so much good feedback because they love to show me things and talk to me when I was present.
And a lot of times they would say things like, I knew you were going to be in my classroom, so I waited to talk to you until you were here. So having that classroom presence is [00:08:00] really important. Think about how much you were in classrooms and how much you want to increase that for next year. Also reflecting on your state test scores and universal screeners that you give, what were the test scores like?
What do they indicate about the instructional strategies and areas needing improvement? And you need to look at more than one thing, because if I just were to look at my state test scores, I don't get an overall picture of the building, because I had some students who did terrible and some who did really well, and it doesn't necessarily show their day to day performance.
We also do map testing, we do a cadence testing. And so having those conversations with teachers, getting their input on how the students are doing and what they see day to day is really helpful. And then seeing what areas are students struggling that we need to improve. So we've really focused a lot on reading.
So getting those reading scores, we're able to see are the interventions we're doing working, should we continue what we're doing? We got a new math [00:09:00] curriculum. So it, we're was great to be able to see our scores with that math curriculum. Of course, knowing that when you get a new curriculum, your scores are going to naturally go down.
It takes about three years to implement something with fidelity. But checking through those test scores, seeing what areas you need to improve, and that can help you set building goals for the next year. Also reflecting on your professional development and teacher collaboration, so thinking about your PLCs, your professional learning communities, if you do these, how effective were the PLCs?
Or if you don't do professional learning communities, how effective were other teacher collaboration times? Maybe you have time on PD days for teachers to collaborate. But when they do have that time, what were the successes? What were the challenges? And if they don't have any collaboration time, then that alone is a challenge that you need to look at for next year.
Professional development. Was the professional development you provided effective? What did staff say? I like to give surveys after professional development and see what staff say about it. [00:10:00] How was it received by the staff? What impact did it have on teaching practices? This is another reason I love being visible in the building.
When we do PD, I like to see if some of those practices then are starting to get implemented after the PD. And you can see that when you're visible in classrooms. Also reflecting on parent and community engagement. Thinking about communication in general, how effective was the communication from teachers to parents and from the school as a whole?
For example, teachers communicate with parents daily about different situations, and then also. I communicate with parents as a building level communication through a newsletter. So what strategies do you have in place for communication? And we know there are teachers who are really good at communication and teachers who aren't.
So just having a gauge of how teachers communicate in your building, who is good at communicating, who's not. Are the majority of your teachers good at communicating with parents or not? What strategies worked well? What could be [00:11:00] improved? So one area we're improving in our communication is we are going to ParentSquare in our district next year because we were using ClassDojo, Blooms, Remind, all these different apps and we got feedback from parents that it's a lot to keep track of the different apps when every teacher is using something different.
So, thinking about that communication and what works for your parents and your community. Also, reflecting on school culture and the relationships in the school, so thinking about the school culture, how would you describe the overall school culture? What initiatives happened that positively impacted the culture and what areas need attention?
You know, did you see staff getting along throughout the year? Were there notable conflicts throughout the year or strong collaborative efforts? And it's really hard in education because you have to think about the time of year. I know at the end of the year, sometimes there can be more conflicts.
Usually in December, there can be more conflicts. So you have to think about the time of the year of when the conflicts are happening, but just think about it overall. How well did the staff get [00:12:00] along? And then think about those teacher student relationships. How was the relationships between teachers and students when you saw teachers interacting with students?
Are they understanding? Do they have empathy for students, and how did those relationships impact the school environment? And you, as the principal, probably see this the most when you discipline a student because, you know, Does the teacher support, I want the students suspended or do they support more restorative practices?
So thinking about what do those relationships look like and how does that impact the school environment? And then principal teacher relationships, those relationships are so important. So how are your relationships with the teachers? What could you do to strengthen those relationships? I once got advice that you need to be spending the most time with your most And I think what a lot of principals do is they try to avoid those difficult teachers.
So just know that you need to be spending more time. I thought that was really good [00:13:00] advice. Also reflect on your expectations and communication with your staff. So clarity of expectations.
Were there certain expectations that you needed to communicate more clearly to your teachers or staff? Were there areas where staff seemed unsure of your expectations? And I would always find this when staff would come to me and say things like, Do you put their picture in the cumulative folder?
Or what are we supposed to do at the end of the year for cleaning up our room? Sometimes, I had that stuff all laid out and I could say, hey, go look in that bulletin I sent out. But sometimes, I realized when they'd ask me questions, I wasn't very clear on it and I needed to have clear expectations and just be clear on what I needed from staff.
Also reflect on personal well being and boundaries. So think about setting boundaries. How did you do setting your own boundaries, your personal boundaries, and maintaining those boundaries between work and personal life? Hopefully, you were able to set some boundaries. I think as principals, it is easy to get caught up in being on [00:14:00] call 24 seven, but you have to have some boundaries.
And what strategies helped and where did you struggle? So what were good things that you did to set boundaries and what were not so good things? So one thing this year I did to set boundaries was I took email off my phone. And sometimes people would make comments about that, but I looked at it like a healthy practice that I'm modeling for my staff.
I'm not going home to check my email. I said, if there's an emergency, you can text me. I don't need to be checking my email. So think about boundaries that you need to set for next year. And then how are you managing feelings of overwhelm and stress? How did you do that last year? What should you do next year?
What coping strategies were actually effective for you? So what do you want to do moving forward? What do you want to stop doing? You know, sometimes things that I did to manage my overwhelm and stress were come home and drink wine. That is not a great way to manage your overwhelm and stress. I have all the tools.
I know how to do this. I coach people on this, [00:15:00] right? But sometimes it's easier to just drink a glass of wine to manage stress Versus sitting and doing the meditation because I want to drink the wine but the meditation I have to force myself to do but once I do it, I feel better what are those things that you need to do to manage your overwhelming stress?
And then reflect on your habits and routines. So think about your school and your personal life. What habits and routines did you establish at school? And what habits and routines did you establish in your personal life? So for me, some habits and routines I had at school was that I loved at nine o'clock after I did announcements to have coffee.
Check my email and that's when I'd catch up and kind of plan out my day and then after that is when I got in classrooms and many times I got in classrooms at the same time each day, which it's not ideal. I'd love to spread them out. However, I do know if I don't get in classrooms earlier in the day, I'm probably not going to get in there because by the time recess comes, it gets busier [00:16:00] throughout the day.
And so if I try to do it earlier in the day, I'm more likely to do it. So what habits and routines did you establish at school? What habits and routines did you establish in your personal life? For me, I really focus on exercising in the morning, and that works for me. So that's something I'd continue. How did those habits and routines contribute to your effectiveness and well being?
Well, I know if I exercise in the morning, I got it done. Same with I know if I got in classrooms early, I got it done. I was able to do it. So that's how they contributed. So really reflect on that and then reflect on your challenges and solutions. So as a leader, what were the main challenges you faced this year?
How did you address them and what were their outcomes? I think of so many years where I've had leadership challenges and maybe it was trying to roll out a program or, , I remember having some issues with co teaching that was a big leadership challenge and, not liking how I handled it, but reflecting back, I reflected [00:17:00] on it and moved on so that I wouldn't do it again.
So think about areas you want to address and what you want those outcomes to look like. Also it's important to reflect on what challenges did the building face? What challenges did your teachers face? So for example, this year we had a very challenging year. One of my staff members passed away you know, we had never dealt with anything like that in our district.
I know other districts around us have, but we just haven't. And it was super challenging. Making sure I was supporting teachers and doing all of the right things by teachers and by kids. And so it was really a difficult thing.
In years past, we've had a student pass away. We've had, just all kinds of tragic situations, which if you're a principal, I'm sure you have as well. And those challenges are just hard on the building. And so those are things that you can think about and reflect on how would you do things differently.
So really reflecting on where the building had a hard time that year. [00:18:00] So once you decide what your challenges are and you really take time to reflect, then you can create an action plan to move forward. So I'm going to give you some steps to create an effective action plan. First, you're going to identify the key action for change.
So what do you really want to change? You need to prioritize what that's going to be, because you might have five things you want to change. But you might only be able to do two things. Two or three things. So really think about what those are and determine what changes are the most urgent and are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck.
So you want to be really intentional about what you want to change. And then you want to set clear goals. So define your goal. Be specific about what you want to achieve. Instead of a broad goal, like I want to improve my communication with parents and teachers, aim for something more tangible, I'm going to increase the frequency of parent communication and teacher communication to weekly. So I have a [00:19:00] clear goal. It's a smart goal. So your goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
And we know in education, we do smart goals all the time. But setting those clear goals that you know that you'll meet. And then you need to make sure you shift your mindset and have an identity that matches what you're trying to do. So reflect on the mindset and beliefs needed to achieve your goals. For example, if your goal is to communicate more with parents and staff, then you really need to adopt the belief that I'm a great communicator.
Communication is a top priority for me. And you might not think you're a great communicator, but the more you think you're a bad communicator and you're not good at it and you don't do it often, that's how you're going to show up. So you really want to have the thought that you're a great communicator and you communicate often.
And once you're able to visualize that and see yourself as that person who's the great communicator, your self perception is going to drive those behaviors. So you're going to view yourself as someone who reaches out [00:20:00] And communicates with people often. And I have an activity that I do in my coaching practice where I help you determine your 1.
0 self. So where you are now, your 2. 0 self, where you want to be. And we bridge the gap between the two and it helps you reflect on the person you want to be and practice showing up as your 2. 0 self, because the more you can show up as your 2. 0 self and be the person that you want to be. You will become that person.
Then you need to develop actionable steps. So once you have your goal, you know, the type of person you want to be, you want to have actionable steps that you can complete. So create three specific steps for each goal, three concrete actions you can take. So for example, if I'm improving my communication, I'm going to schedule weekly updates.
And to do that, I'm going to set up a calendar reminder to send out a weekly email to parents and a weekly email to teachers. Then I'm going to have. Parent feedback sessions where I get feedback on communication from [00:21:00] parents, and I can see , what they're thinking about my communication. Same with teachers.
I'm going to get that teacher feedback, and then I'm going to conduct training sessions for teachers on how they can communicate with parents and on how we can communicate with each other. So giving them that training on communicating with parents and then making sure that they understand my communication methods with them, so that they know how we're supposed to be communicating together.
And as you create these specific steps, you want to make sure you monitor them. You want to track your progress and adjust as needed. You want to check in. So schedule regular check ins to see where you are towards your goal. And just create this feedback loop with your staff and with your parents where you're gathering insights and making more adjustments as you go.
Are the parents and staff reading the communication? Are they changing their behavior and showing that they're reading the communication? You know, whatever you're trying to get across. So take that feedback. And then the last thing is, celebrate successes, even if it's the smallest [00:22:00] success when it comes to communication, it can be really frustrating because I'll have teachers say, Oh, I didn't know about that meeting.
And we put it out in a remind it's on a Google calendar. I do weekly notes. So I have all these ways that I communicate it and they still might not know. And I think that's okay. That's not necessarily a me problem. That's not something I can control in that instance. I have all these ways I communicate it.
But I do get a small victory when someone's like, I saw on the calendar, we're having this meeting. And I get excited because I think, yay, they checked the calendar or they check the weekly notes. So celebrate those small victories and reflect on the growth and how that improves your parent communication and teacher communication as well.
So I hope that you found these tips helpful today. If you're a principal who's seeking to elevate your leadership and your well being and take it to the next level, I'm here to help you. My one on one coaching offers clarity. It's going to build your resilience and enhance your effectiveness
in your role as a principal, you'll receive [00:23:00] personalized support, insights into your strengths and areas for growth. So I could help you with a cycle like this, where we really look at your reflections and areas you're doing well and areas you need to grow. And then I'm going to give you practical tools to improve both your leadership and your school's performance.
I myself have experienced the power of life coaching and I'm eager to share life coaching with you. It is more than just principle coaching. It's about looking at you as a whole person and coaching you through your personal life and your professional life so you can be the best version of you and
show up and do great work at your school because you're focusing on you and you're focusing on your work. So for a complimentary session with me to explore your current challenges and future aspirations, reach out to me on Instagram at barbflowerscoaching or visit me at barbflowerscoaching. com. If you love this show, if you're listening on Apple, scroll down in your app and leave a review.
That's how people will find this show. But keep in mind, you have the power to shape your life according to the [00:24:00] mindset you choose. I hope you have a great week and I'll see you back here next time.
Music