Notes from our meeting 12/3/10

 Happy New Year, everyone!  Welcome 2011.  I apologize for the belatedness of these notes, but thought they might still be helpful to prime us for our January 26 meeting.  It felt great to reconnect with everybody in December!  Here's what I remember us talking about:

·      Regroup and Check in: What do you do to reset?  Answers included “go away.”  “Turn off the electronics.” “Declare Friday an email Sabbath.”

·      Continuing reflections on Fran Scoble’s visit: we revisited the list of core values that we said we bring to our work, and found ourselves talking about the importance of maintaining relationships and connection.  What does it mean to simply walk into a teacher’s classroom and say “hi, how’s it going?” . . . without an agenda attached.

·      Cultivating empathy and compassion: we engaged in an activity to cultivate these qualities from Resonant Leadership; imagining someone else’s day. 

·      RSA Animate of Philip Zimbardo’s talk, “The Secret Powers of Time.”  The discussion that followed focused for some time on how, absent active strategies, the pace of life, particularly with the volume of tech we deal with, will leave us feeling stressed and out of control.  Therefore we talked about placing limits on communication and cultivating right communication and some control over time: establishing guidelines and norms; slowing response time; not being “always on,” and yet being always available in the event on an emergency.  Ultimately the conversation turned to an optimistic sense that there is so much available to us, so many teaching modalities, and that it’s a both/and world: building "the functional equivalent of a dulcimer" and managing a Smartphone are skills we ought to be teaching in our schools. 

·      Interested in more RSA talks?  Go to YouTube and type in the search string “RSA animate.”  Fascinating!

·      Crystal broached the topic of focusing on mindfulness at our next meeting: it ties in with the later chapters in Resonant Leadership; and the sense of the meeting was that this would be a good direction. We may have the good fortune to be visited by UC Davis’ Erika Rosenberg, who runs the Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis, and conducts research on the effects of meditation on health and cognition. More news to come, but if you would like to explore Rosenberg’s web site, go to http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu/people/erikar; or the Mindful Schools Web site, go to http://mindfulschools.org/

Please comment here or email either Crystal or me if you have topics you'd like addressed at one of our meetings.  Thanks so much!

Why do it?

I greatly enjoyed the conversation and sharing of our December 3 meeting. However, it also reminded me of the stress and tangled problems that come with administrative work (I currently teach 5th grade, but I used to be Head of Upper School). I am looking into rejoining the administrative ranks. I am, therefore, curious to know the reasons (besides the impact on the paycheck) that you decided to go into administration. Also, with all the pressure and difficulties of the job, what keeps you going? In other words, wouldn't you rather be teaching? I would like to hear what you have to say.

Recess

I had a wonderful tour and visit at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Saratoga with Victoria last week. Thank you, Victoria! In my admissions role, I try to visit a few schools each year to tour and observe, ask questions, and learn about processes, successes and challenges. My time with Victoria was less about admissions and more about the total visit and the work we are doing together in our BATDC group.

After walking around, going in and out of classrooms, and talking about teaching and learning, we were able to chat a bit inside. No more than 10 minutes passed when Victoria, Lower School Director, was summoned to cover pre-kindergarten recess for an absent teacher! Without missing a beat, we walked outsde to the pre-k playground and spent the next 20 minutes watching the kids negotiate, socialize and play together on the wood chip covered playground. (They make the best sandy chocolate chip pizza, by the way!)

As literature such as Daniel Pink's "A Whole New Mind" and Stuart Brown's "Play" populate bookshelves in school classrooms and corporate America's high rise offices alike, I am reminded at the importance of taking "breaks" more often -- whether planned or interrupted. Although impromptu, it was refreshing to cover pre-k recess duty and continue our conversation on the playground. I also think it is so important that the kids see all adults (faculty, staff and administration) in a variety of places and capacities on campus. It was fun to engage with the four year olds, and eat their pizza too!

Respecting Others

"If you do not respect people, they will feel it from you." - Fran Scoble, from our meeting on 10/28

Ouch! This comment hit home. For most of my co-workers I have unqualified respect, but, if I am honest, not for all. I sometimes catch myself doing an internal eyeroll after a colleague's remark (or I wait until they leave, and then I really roll my eyes, sigh, scoff, etc.). I should not try to hide it: they can sense the lack of respect anyway.

I found it useful to make a list of the qualities I respect in co-workers and qualities I don't. It lead me back to my core values, and that lead me to think about the core values of those people for whom I have less respect. Why do they think this way? Why do they teach the way they do?

Fran was, of course, already there. Later in the talk she said, "Good leaders frame for others where their effectiveness is coming from." Much better than rolling the eyes.

From our discussion with Fran Scoble. What core values bring us to this work?

Commitments: what are the core values that bring us to this work?
The pull of daily urgencies takes us away from our core values.

Connect myself ethically and morally
Time to breathe, reflect and find joy
To well-being, and growth of students
Students-yes, but also to adults
Ongoing learner-grow and open mind
Create and sustain connection
Every student understood and valued as learner and person
Compassionate school
Children feel known, understood and cared about
Authentic relationships
Stewardship of the school
To do what’s right for kids
Increase willingness to take risks
Enter relationships with spirit of dialogue
Cultivate a culture of curiosity, hard work, compassion and respect from bottom to top: students, teachers, admin, parents
Supporting work of teachers with dignity, praise, time, money and honest feedback
Learn “Working with” rather than “telling.”
All children should be respected and loved
Encourage meaningful learning for students and colleagues-> value their contributions.

Challenge from Fran: what can you do to come from the place of your core values to deal with the annoying person who is always taking up your time? The person you feel least compassion for is the person you should draw on your core values for?

Test Blog Post from Email

Hi All, 
This YouTube video will show you how to post to the Students of Leadership blog
directly from email--and receive email notifications of new posts as well.
Cheers,
Karen



Karen Bradley, Ph.D.
History, Technology
Grade 11 Dean
Head-Royce School
Oakland, CA 94602
http://faculty.headroyce.org/~kbradley/

Note from our meeting 10/28/10

BATDC 10.28.10

Fran Scoble session on leadership

Many roles in career: Westridge Head of School; division head; English teacher; now certified as a leadership coach; someone who embodies on-going learning

Introductions and common themes from group: need for more reflective time; time to focus on what’s important vs. what is urgent; how to build relationships with challenging decisions; hybrid positions and ability to work with teachers and administrators; loneliness as an administrator; challenges when we think about being a head of school; challenges around change; challenges around teaching vs. administration—which is the direction to take in our career?; paradigm shift on how administrators are perceived; how to build coalitions and alliances with all constituents in a school

Fran’s reflections:

Ø  Most of us did not start out with certain jobs in mind. How many of us knew where we would be now 10 years ago? In a way, leadership can be accidental.

Ø  How do we learn to grow and change with the career arc—and what about when you feel that it’s not as rewarding. When your mind starts to shop around about changing your life, pay attention to it.

Ø  Pay attention to the voices in our lives, in our heads—what is our whole self? Need to pay attention to that and to ability to be “authentic self”

Ø  Like the concept of overall internal balance—need to balance parts of internal self not balance work vs. personal life.

Ø  Three big ideas to share for today:

1. Mission and alignment: What’s my personal mission statement? Core commitments are the path for finding alignment every day with our work. Work will be more rewarding with this in frong of mind-- ask self: What have I done today that reflects my core values?

2. Self-awareness: most of mistakes in leadership come from lack of self-awareness

3. Sustaining self as leader

Ø  Mission and alignment: Write about five core values that are at the center of the work I do.

Ø  Notes from the group on mission areas—stewardship of school; moral and ethical conduct; time to breathe, reflect, and find joy; ability to create a culture of curiosity, compassion, hard work, respect; supporting teachers with dignity, time, honest feedback; on-going learner; authentic relationships

•We need to put those who are most irritating at the heart of our work—these are moments that are most challenging. If we do not profoundly respect people, they know it.

•Are these core principles really part of who I am??? How can we make sure that our work is centered in our mission and alignment?

•What about if we have to work with people whose core values are not aligned with ours or the school’s? Need to resolve that tension.

•Power of a collective decision with people who are in alignment

•How do we not “fix” every problem, but rather allow the wisdom of the group emerge?