Building a Foundation for the Upcoming Academic Year
In my first year as a principal, I remember feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and nervous during the second half of the year. I was frantically attempting to fill teaching positions, ensure end-of-year programs were on track, and mitigate the fallout from what felt like the hundredth unexpected setback I was up against. It was hard to think more than the 48 hours ahead, and my passion and joy were quickly fading.
You see, I'm pretty successful at putting out fires. I do this by creating functional frameworks to decrease future fires. To create these frameworks I need devoted time to research, prepare and plan. This time is like nourishment for my work. It’s what sustains me to do the parts of leadership that aren’t always my favorite. That first year, there was a tipping point where the time to research, prepare and plan was dwindling while my response to fires and all the other areas was rapidly growing. Something needed to change.
As I entered my second year, I put a few structures in place that helped me to respond to the immediate needs of the current school year while carving out time to research and plan. One of the first things I did was to organize all the tasks, projects, and events that took place for each month. The most amazing assistant I ever had gave me this idea. She did this to help her stay organized and to accomplish her tasks. To get started, I looked at my calendar to see what I had worked on during each month. I also looked at the school calendar to include those items as well. This served several purposes: 1) It gave me one central place to go for all the “stuff” that would take place that month; 2) It helped me to stay on track and plan and prepare. My first draft of this document simply listed all of my tasks. Once I had it all written down I revisited it and added more details. For example, one task for the month of October was Report Cards so I included all the components of that task which I was responsible for such as, align writing report card indicators, write parent communication, and meet with new teachers about report cards. This allowed me to see all the pieces that it took to complete that task by October and then I worked backwards. Yes, I used some good old backward design. Some items were put on my September and August list. And some were things that I needed to complete during the summer. This helped keep me from experiencing a last-minute rush and reduced my chances of making mistakes.
Another structure I put in place was during the second half of the school year was schedule blocking. I blocked out time in my schedule every other week that was intentionally for preparing for the next school year. I scheduled this time during the day when I knew other people on my team were available to respond to the fires that came up. I also set the agenda for these blocks of time in advance to ensure I got to all the necessary items. Having this preset agenda also kept me from substituting the time to address an immediate need. I used the time to review academic data, research best practices, analyze student, staff, and parent feedback, and review challenges or successes from the school year. This allowed me to be more strategic in my decision-making and have ample time to gather and organize the necessary resources.
Having one foot firmly planted in the current school year while planning for the next school year helped me develop a thoroughly researched and solid plan that prepared our school for a successful academic year.
