The Principal's Handbook

The Real End-of-Year Reflection Principals Need
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Speaker: In this episode, we're talking about the real end of year reflection that principals need. That's all coming up next on the Principal's Handbook.

Speaker 3: 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. I.

Speaker: Welcome back to the podcast. In this episode, we are talking about the real end of year reflection that principals need.

A couple years ago, , I did an episode on how to reflect on the end of the [00:01:00] year, so you could go back and listen to that. That's episode 41. , But today I wanna go through five different categories and we're really gonna focus on reflecting through those. Five different categories. So we are just going to jump right in and get started.

The first category I've been reflecting on right now is student outcomes, thinking about instruction. So what instruction looks like in. The building, I'm in KAK two building, so it's really based on reading and math. So I'm looking at our reading data. We don't have a lot of good math data to look at, but we have a lot of good reading DIBELS data that we look at.

So looking at what did the data show, how were students growing compared to the winter, compared to previous years and. What did I see happening throughout the building? So what were the teachers doing? , How were they teaching the curriculum? How were they collaborating with the curriculum?

What did our interventions look like? What systems were in place to help those struggling [00:02:00] readers? And then thinking about that with math, even though we don't have a lot of good building wide math data to look at. We had a new math curriculum, so what did I observe as I went into classrooms?

Where do teachers still need support with that curriculum? In our case, we are going to be implementing a math intervention. So , What do teachers need to make that math intervention? Be successful next year. So really thinking about the systems around your instruction and what that looks like.

, What are the things that worked well and you're going to double down on and keep doing? What are the adjustments that need to be made related to instruction? Maybe it's about. PLCs, maybe your building does professional learning communities, and it's about how are people talking about the data to actually improve instruction or maybe to make those PLCs work.

It's about bringing those common assessments so that people know, , what they're focused on in their teaching, and they're actually able to share instructional strategies. So. When you're thinking about [00:03:00] student outcomes, really focusing on the data, and it's really nice to have the opportunity when teachers are still in the building to dig into that data with them, talk about the observations with them of what they thought went well, what they think they need to work on next year.

We did this a lot through our otez, , , which is the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System. Those conversations that I'm having with teachers, those are really good conversations about where they need support for next year and what they wanna be working on. So as you're thinking about that, , record what those things are because if you're not documenting those conversations and writing it down, it's easy to start the next year.

Forgetting. What are the things that need to change regarding instruction? So that's the first area. The second area is behavior. So every year as part of PBIS, we track our behavior. I always like to look at and no matter what building I'm in, how was our behavior that year? So what does the data show [00:04:00] about the behavior?

What was the highest types of behavior, the highest incidents, what I gave out for consequences? What I observed from teachers, what teachers were saying about behavior. This is really big, and so for me, I want you to think about this from the data standpoint, but also think about it from a system standpoint.

So being in a kindergarten building, we've had a lot of talk about. Okay. Are these kindergartners acting a certain way because of COVID or is this just how kindergarten's going to come in? A lot of our kids don't go to preschool and they needed a lot of teaching of how to do school.

, And so I told teachers we just need to expect that's the new norm because we can't be surprised when kids come in and they're not ready. Instead, we need to make sure that we are teaching. Like they are preschoolers to start the year because that's how we're seeing them come in and that, and instead of getting upset or feeling like they should be at a different point, I think it's more important that we're practical about it and know what [00:05:00] to expect, and then have strategies in place.

So for example, for us with our behavior. We're really thinking about, okay, what systems do we need in place to help teach kids skills? So we're looking at different social emotional learning curriculums. We're looking at things that we can do to really support those kindergarten students as they come in.

And for you, maybe you're not in a elementary building, but maybe it's supporting freshmen as they come into high school. What systems need to be in place, but really thinking about. The systems, , what staff might need training on. I talked to a lot of principals where they might be trying to implement PBIS, but there's not a lot of beliefs around PBIS.

And so it creates , , a lot of tension between teachers and administration because the administration's trying to handle behavior from A-P-B-I-S lens, but teachers aren't there yet. So. That is important to know where your teachers are with behavior so that you can create systems, create professional development and professional learning that is really going to help your staff be more [00:06:00] successful this year.

So as you're finishing the year, just taking time to reflect, maybe if you have A-P-B-I-S team or some sort of behavior team that you can reflect with, but looking at that data and then seeing what are the things happening. Again, what worked? What are we doubling down on? But what specific adjustments do we need to be making to help support students next year and help support staff so that they feel more successful?

Okay, so student outcomes, behavior. The third thing to look at is your schedule. So you know, was the schedule working for you this year? When you think about schedule, some things that I think about are intervention times. This year in my school we implemented intervention time. So that was a big thing that we've been looking at for the schedule.

If you have PLC times where you are or some sort of collaboration time, , if you have gaps in coverage or you need more supervision. Where do you have the most behavior? Maybe it's having supervision during those times. , Maybe you [00:07:00] need more people out at recess. Maybe you need more people out on duty, whatever that is.

But what are the things that happened with the schedule that you feel like you need to change for next year? This is the perfect time to really think about that. Sometimes , with the schedule, what I've done is flopped. , Who has specials in the morning and has their planning time in the morning?

Who has it in the afternoon? In a K five building, I always like to have the older kids with their specials in the morning, , with the younger kids, having them in the afternoon. So that was something in my old school I had to change. So really thinking about the schedule, what worked, what didn't. And how you can make that better for next year.

,, , Also thinking about intervention times, reading blocks. For us, we switch for reading, we differentiate our core reading blocks. And so even though our teachers are self-contained, they're switching during that time. If you're in a high school, maybe you're thinking about how to be more creative with your schedule or what.

Classes, , you need to add or get rid of. And so [00:08:00] scheduling, which is one of my least favorite things, can be something that you really reflect on and then think about how you can make it better for next year. So that is the third thing. The fourth thing is thinking about your staff and the culture. So where did the culture feel aligned this year?

Where did things seem like they were going well? Where did staff feel like they were on the same page and really collaborating and where did things break down? Okay, so I think this is a really good thing to think about. When you think about staff culture, where was there alignment and collaboration, and where did things break down?

I also like to think about , was there drama in certain areas and what can you do to help that? What can you do to create a more positive culture? Thinking about where you might have avoided hard conversations, , like I said, if there's drama or things that you need to.

Address, maybe gossip, things like that, that are killing the culture. Did you avoid it or did you lead through it? Did you have those hard conversations? [00:09:00] What did that look like? Okay, so again, what were the things happening related to. Your staff. A lot of this to me has to do with what initiatives are happening, the stress that teachers are feeling, and how you're supporting them during that time.

Also the dynamics of the staff. So it could be the case that you have staff at a certain grade level that might need to be separated. , Maybe they are just very negative and feed off of each other. Maybe you have teachers who, , you think would thrive if they were in a different grade level.

So really thinking about. Where people are placed, is it a good placement for them where they should move if that's, not a good placement for them, what that looks like in your building, but making sure people are successful and setting them up for success based on what you saw during the school year.

So we're thinking about student outcomes, the behaviors happening, the schedule, staff and culture. And then the fifth thing to reflect on that I think is so important that we avoid is your own leadership and your leadership [00:10:00] identity. So thinking about your leadership identity, I love. Talking about your 1.0 and 2.0 self.

I have a podcast episode that I'll link to this where I talk about the 1.0 and 2.0 self. But think about who were you as a leader this year. What are the things you're doubling down on as a leader? What are the things that went so well that you're going to make sure you do next year?

What are the specific adjustments that you need to make? What do you need to change about yourself as a leader? Think about each area, were you being reactive with behavior? Were you emotional about behavior? Did your emotions get the best of you in situations?

Like I said earlier, how did you handle staff conflict or the culture of the building? How did you handle difficult conversations? Is that something that you need to double down on? So really thinking about who do I need to be as I come into the next school year. I think this is a great conversation if you're going into a new role specifically.

I know many principals are staying in their current building, the great thing about being a principal is [00:11:00] every year is a great time to reflect, readjust, and become a new version of yourself at the start of the year. But if you are going to a new building, you really get that opportunity.

It's so powerful, and I don't think that people understand how amazing it is when you get the opportunity to go to a new building and you can think about all the things that you did at your last school, that you wanna be a different version of yourself, and you can just. Choose to show up as that new version of yourself in your new building.

So I think that's super powerful to think about your leadership identity. Think about your 1.0 self as who you are now and your 2.0 self as who you want to be. And you can think about that with behavior, with instructional leadership, culture, with the schedule, with having those hard conversations, with talking to parents and staff.

Who were you before and who do you wanna show up as? So really take some time to reflect on yourself as a leader and think about that. Think about what you wish you would've done differently in [00:12:00] your leadership and what you're going to do moving forward. Because so often we do reflect more on the actual things happening in our building, but not necessarily on ourself.

So really take some time to journal, to reflect on yourself and think about. Who you wanna be as you go into the next school year. It's not too early to think about that. As you end one school year, it's the perfect time to actually think about, the version of you that you wanna let go. So as you listen to this, I know there's a lot of things to think about, but really think about three areas that you want to improve going into next year.

When I think about things that I wanna improve in my building, I always focus on three goals for the year because it's too many. If you have, , five to 10 goals, I see that often where we have so many things to work on in schools and there's just too many, and then you can't sustain them. So I want you to think about what happened in each of those areas.

Which areas need to be improved the most? Is it behavior, , student outcomes, staff culture? Is [00:13:00] it your own leadership identity? Your schedule, what area needs to be improved, why it needs to be improved, what you're going to keep and what you're going to change, and really pick what that, those big shifts are going to be.

Because reflection isn't about critiquing yourself and being judgmental towards yourself, but it's really about what happened that you can learn from to move forward and make it better.

So remember, you don't need to have a perfect year. You just need to have a year where you reflected on it and you have a clear next move so that you know. what the things are that went well that you can focus on moving forward so that you're able to continue to learn and grow and move your building and your staff forward in a way that you're proud of and it's aligned to your goals and what you wanna see happen.

So I hope that you take some of these tips in this episode. I hope you go back, reflect on these five areas and really think about what went well. What you're going to be keeping and what adjustments you're going to be making [00:14:00] moving forward so that you can make next year even better. Because if you do this reflection every year and you just keep tweaking this year after year, you're going to see so many improvements.

, That's the thing about being a principal is. Improvement takes so long to happen, but it does happen tiny steps at a time. So take those adjustments from this school year, adjust them for next year, and move your building and your staff forward.