Positive Habits for Spending Time
How do you create habits around where you spend your time? We recommend you spend more time repeating effective practices as you develop habits of intentionality. We often share journalist, author, and speaker Malcom Gladwell’s (2008) ten-thousand-hour rule when discussing developing habits. His rule states that ten thousand hours of deliberate practice are needed to become an expert in something. This rule puts more stock in preparing for the achievement than the role of innate talent. According to Gladwell (2008), excellence at performing a complex task requires a minimum level of practice. As a school leader, you apply this practice of creating habits of intentionality by repeating your actions, and by being thoughtful and strategic about where and when you are visible and how you create space and time for conversations.
In Gresham, Oregon, Principal Kimberly Miles focused on creating positive habits in her role at East Gresham Elementary School. Principal Miles and her staff focused on continuous improvement by building strong collaborative teams and a focus on evidence-based practice. Academic success is the overall school goal, and during a three-year period, East Gresham had continuous steady growth in tested areas. Combined with this focus on academic performance, the staff of East Gresham decided to address school culture. A growth mindset became the order of business in the school, as building positive beliefs in both adults and students became a priority. As the school culture evolved, it became obvious that Principal Miles led this work with intentional practices. Not a day passes without her outside greeting every student on arrival. Informal conversations happen every day, both with students and parents when she is outside saying good morning. She has also developed a very consistent pattern of visiting classrooms. As soon as students are all in the building and morning announcements are completed, Principal Miles quickly heads to her classrooms. She is very intentional in what she wants to see; for example, she goes to her K–2 classes during their literacy block because she wants to observe and give feedback on a strategy that they have been studying together, like phonics instruction or guided reading group. Or she purposely goes to fourth and fifth grade during their writing block because writing is what their SMART goal is currently focused on, and she wants to provide feedback and support. When intervention block starts, you can find Principal Miles in classroom observing small-group interventions. She knows what she is looking for and is very purposeful in her observations and discussions with both students and teachers. She attends collaborative meetings and has intentionally coordinated some of her time and team time so all teachers could be together in the library every second week. During this time, she could meet with each team and share her observations. Karen had the opportunity to work with Principal Miles and her teachers for three years. In addition to the examples given here, Karen always left thrilled with the way in which Principal Miles modeled her vision with the intention of spending time where she should and practicing, over and over again, habits that create coherence. Karen knew that it was very obvious to the staff what the vision was and what really was important at East Gresham (K. Miles, personal communication, September 2015 to September 2018).
This chapter highlights that much of what we are asking you to be intentional about aligns with how you spend your time. As school leaders well know, there are only so many hours in the day, and that doesn’t seem to change no matter where we work in schools. School leaders often feel there is never enough time. Pressure to attend everything involving their students and staff can be immense. We will ask you one more time to reflect on where the best use of your time is and how much impact your presence will have at events both inside and outside the school. It is important to be present at events that involve students and staff, but trust your instincts to help you determine when you really should be there. Do not overlook your use of time as an authentic way to share leadership. You cannot attend everything—especially if you are a high school principal trying to support students in sports, drama, music, various clubs, and the like. It is very important that you have the energy and enthusiasm during the school day to lead the visionary direction of school improvement. Take time to consider who else can support these events on your behalf. Intentionally make choices about what events outside of the school day you choose to attend, picking those that will allow you the most opportunities for conversations, learning, and support. And finally, reflect on how to best know how you are actually spending time.
Reflection
Do you need to create a checklist to help you balance your visibility and ensure you spend time in places you are needed? Would the time log in figure 1.4 (page 14) help you? Or you might start by recording the school spaces you visit for a day. Where do you make intentional visits? How much time do you spend in your office? Have you been to the back corner of the schoolyard where all the trouble happens during lunchtime? What actions might you change to build more intentional visibility?
Wrap-Up
As you continue to read and use this book in your practice, we ask that you continue to create space and opportunities for sharpening your focus and making intentional decisions that guide your staff members on their PLC journey. With the templates in this chapter and your willingness to reflect as a leader, you have tools to do this. Wrap up your examination of gaining focus and acting with intention by completing the “Making an Impact in Eight: Achieving Focus and Staying Intentional” reflections (pages 32–34).
Making an Impact in Eight: Achieving Focus and Staying Intentional
The following eight ideas provide opportunities for further reflection and action. We provide five reflections on what great leaders do and avoid doing to gain focus, as well as three considerations for how to make an impact in eight minutes, eight weeks, and eight months to guide your leadership planning and practice.
Chapter 2
Establishing and Maintaining Organization
Organize, don’t agonize. —Nancy Pelosi
Which of the following scenarios feel better? You are spending a summer night at an outdoor concert. You are very impressed with how well organized it is when you arrive. There are lots of entrances open and plenty of places to buy food and drinks, and the staff are highly visible and ready to help. When you are ready to leave, you notice several gates that are open and well lit. Security personnel are there to keep the crowd moving, and when you get outside there are police to provide traffic support. All in all, it is an easy event to attend.
In another city the following weekend, a large crowd is attending a concert by the same musicians. Attendees stand in long lines for hours to get inside the venue. Once inside, they experience even more long lines to get food and drink. There are no garbage cans, so litter coats the walkways. The music is great, and when the concert ends, the stage lights go out. The field is suddenly dark, and the crowd becomes disoriented. The exits are few and far between, and when the people finally get outside the venue, there are cars driving among pedestrians. It is evident there is no concern for safety.
Both of the concert organizers promised attendees a great experience. The musicians performed the same show. Both cities had websites that advertised the benefits of attending, featuring amazing pictures and suggestions for fun opportunities in the respective cities. One city delivered on its promise, and one came up short in ensuring the overall experience for attendees was positive.
The difference was clearly in the organization. One concert had all the details taken care of, and the experience was well designed. The other concert, probably unintentionally, created chaos. When organization is not of the utmost concern in schools, a situation similar to the chaotic concert can ensue. When working in schools in which this second experience is predominant, we can almost feel it in the air. Confusion, anger, fear, and resentment manifest in the types of conversations administrators, teachers, students, and parents engage in.
How do you, as a school leader, begin to create systems and protocols to promote a culture that feels more like the well-organi
zed concert experience than the chaotic one? As a PLC, your school has already determined its fundamental purpose (mission) and considered what it must become to accomplish this mission (vision). This vision should include a school environment that is orderly, safe, and well managed so that learning can be the focus for teachers and students. School leaders must make this a priority and communicate this priority clearly and often.
In this chapter, we explore creating systems and protocols using practices that increase a sense of order, target school safety, and focus on trust, respect, and belonging. And we consider how leaders can avoid using mixed messages and choosing between focusing on organization versus instruction.
Creating Systems and Protocols
The concert planners for the well-organized event surely had a vision for the type of experience they wanted to provide, and they communicated that vision clearly and consistently to all involved in providing the experience. This vision guided the acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and actions for those working the event—what was tight and loose, as discussed in chapter 1 (page 9). For example, the concert planner likely communicated that it was unacceptable for any person to wait in line for more than five minutes and that the team should watch the lines carefully, opening more entrances if necessary. He or she also likely set up the support necessary for keeping the venue clean and safe and outlined expectations in those areas as well. Once staff and students are fully apprised of the tights, it is time to deeply implement, monitor, and adjust as needed in order to create the learning culture you visualize for your school.
Practices That Increase a Sense of Order
A good way to begin is by taking time to consider what practices would increase a sense of order. In this chapter, we want you to reflect on and understand we are not just talking about rules for behavior. We are referring to everyday routines and practices that create a feeling of organization. These take time to consider and create as part of your leadership work. For example, when you think about the areas of your school or times of day that cause the most frustration for teachers, are systems or protocols necessary to create a more coherent sense of order? Is there something missing in how this time of the day unfolds that could bring about more organization?
For example, does your school require all students to enter the school through one door in the morning? Has this practice created crowded hallways? Have you created any systems to control the chaos or ensure students are adequately supervised? Is the lunch room chaotic? Is it because there are more students eating at one time than the room can accommodate, or is there not enough time for students to be served because of a very long serving line? Is there a more efficient and effective system for your lunch time? Could this be reviewed for improvement? Do you have a stairwell that students typically congregate in without supervision? Is this where many fights or other problematic incidents occur? Is there a way to avoid these problems? Are there too many students in that hallway at one time? Is there adequate supervision? Do teachers not see this as part of their responsibility because they are not on duty?
Consider the following elementary example. In one large elementary school in Georgia, at the end of a very busy day, we remarked to the principal that there was a sense of calm. Students started their morning by entering the school in an orderly fashion. They were self-regulating of their behavior, knowing what was expected and, of course, there were teachers out in the hallways and doorways to greet the students and ensure their safety. The same calmness was evident throughout the day, and students did not seem to be reminded too often of the school rules. Turn back the clock to a year before. In the same school there was chaos. There were very few systems in place, instruction was ineffective, and teachers were not collaborating to improve their learning as teams. Back then, every time we visited we saw teachers totally frustrated with student behaviors, and students with very little control of how they responded to adult directions. There was a lack of consistency and knowledge of expectations, and the school always seemed to be in a state of panic. Triage was the norm.
It is interesting how the same students behave so differently when they understand expectations and have a principal who sees the need to establish practices and procedures that define the school culture. In our experience, when leaders create a culture with very clear expectations and students and staff understand and take ownership of their learning and actions, there are higher levels of engagement and motivation.
In this school, the principal accepted coaching and developed a stronger understanding of the work to be done. She walked her hallways and classrooms with us, looking at the school through a different lens to identify the areas of the school that were lacking order and seeing how classroom management and effective instruction were or were not present. She listened to teacher conversations with students (or noted the lack of conversations) and noticed that teachers were working in isolation.
Her action steps included developing a guiding coalition to support the changes the school would need to make. She understood that in order to develop practices that would increase organization and implement systems in the school, she needed others to understand the school’s current reality and help with the planning and next steps. Together, the coalition created a new system for student arrival and dismissal. They revisited the supervision schedule, especially for the lunch hours, and created a communication plan so that all staff, students, and parents would understand what actions would be taken and why. The guiding coalition also spent time during several meetings reviewing student achievement data and the need for effective classroom practice. They created a year-long professional learning plan focused on instruction and agreed that they would need an accountability plan of observation and feedback to support this work. The principal was happy to follow through with observation and feedback. Finally, they worked hard to create deep understanding of the PLC process and spent the year working to develop strong collaboration around student learning.
When we are talking with students and staff, it is very evident when the school vision and goals related to organization are clear. There is little to no confusion or chaos, and when asked, staff and students can communicate an understanding of what is expected and why. Staff and students appreciate this respectful communication, even when there might be some angst about the expectations.
Like with our friends in Georgia, in schools where we see opportunities for improvement, we usually identify a few root causes, including the following.
• Unclear expectations of students, staff, or both: Leaders have not taken the time to work with a guiding coalition to consider the overall expectations for students and staff. This may also indicate that school leaders have not reflected and considered their own vision for the school. The lack of clarity may be because there are no specified expectations, or that school leaders have not communicated them. Taking the time to discuss the expectations that are important to student success and how these should be made clear to all is necessary work.
• Lack of opportunity for students to self-regulate behavior: School leaders and staff have not recognized or have not given students opportunities to own their learning. This may indicate a lack of understanding by staff of the importance of student ownership. It may be necessary to provide professional development to staff to deepen their understanding of the impact of student ownership on student success. For example, teachers may need more information to build their understanding of how they can use rubrics and scoring guides to help students see what they must do to be proficient and how to score themselves on their work based on expectations. Modeling lessons for staff that include student rubrics and self-reporting of grades is helpful when working with staff to build stronger understanding of these instructional practices.
• Inconsistent application of expectations by the adults: It is often the case that school leaders have stated the expectations and even worked to create common understanding of what is expected but then implementation falls short. For example, w
hen walking from classroom to classroom or hallway to hallway in a school, one may observe very different academic expectations and student behavior. Some classrooms appear to have rules while others do not; students may be listening to their ear buds in one class and in another students are prohibited from using phones and ear buds. The same is true in hallways. Some hallways seem to have rules while others do not. Students might loiter in some where others are orderly spaces in which students pass through quickly. As important as it is to determine expectations and build understanding, it is critically necessary that leaders follow up and monitor what actually is happening in the school.
• Lack of adult visibility: One common problem we see in many schools is a lack of adults who are supporting noninstructional time. For example, when students are moving from class to class, do teachers expect to be out in the hallways supporting student safety? Do the adults in the building see their responsibility for all students at all times as part of their role, or does the school have more of a culture of “I take care of my students in my classroom and do my duties, but that is as far as my responsibility goes”? From time to time, leaders should review supervision schedules, ensuring that adequate supervision is provided in all areas of the school. By looking at where discipline issues come from, for example at lunch breaks, it may be clear to you where more supervision is needed.
• Too many students in a small, confined area: As simple as it sounds, there are times when schools are disorganized and chaotic because of “traffic” flow. For example, having only one lunch break for the entire school when the cafeteria space is too small or if food services is not able to manage so many students at once can be a recipe for chaos. Or, for example, if your school has narrow hallways, how many classes can comfortably transition through them at one time in an orderly and safe way? Or, having all students wait for buses in one small bus area can cause unnecessary havoc.
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