The Importance of being the LEAST important.

Last week, I began my sixth “Opening Day” as a high school principal with a calm confidence that this would be the BEST year ever! This sense of aplomb derives from the confidence I have in every faculty and staff member at St. John Vianney High School.

Prior to the year beginning I shared with the faculty and staff that the most glowing endorsement I can say about Vianney is that I am the LEAST important person in the building.  I wonder how many other school leaders feel the same way. 
How many are WILLING to be the least important person in their building? 
How many would stand before their public stakeholders and attest to such a statement? 

Well I do, and I will continue to do so.  I tell the parents of our students, the students themselves, our alumni, and even my graduate students.  At Vianney, I am the least important person. I attest to this belief with great valor.  It is my proudest accomplishment as a school administrator!

Nothing brings me more joy then walking down the hallways at Vianney and seeing our masterful teachers at work.  Their students engaged.  Frequent movement and activities occupying each classroom as they strive to educate young men on brain-based activities.  A warmth comes over me as I hear and see the relationships they  are building with our students.  Some intentionally, others unintentional, establishing a contentedness that will ignite a passion in students to help them reach higher levels of self-esteem, a closer relationship with our school community, and ultimately greater student achievement. 

Like artists, I wonder if my teachers are even aware of their magical and mystical moves.  Are they cognizant and intentional about the way they educate our students?  Are they appreciative of the gifts they bring to the classroom each and EVERY day?  Or is it just who they are?  Has it become second nature for them to care more, to do more, and to strive for excellence on a daily basis?

What I have come to love about Vianney is that we all have the opportunity to be a little part of something big because we truly are a family. I love this feeling of inclusiveness..

It’s this reality that drives me in my work and makes me hopeful for the current and future of education. Our “little” part is “little” only in the sense that it happens slowly, minute by minute, and typically in concert with the efforts of others with whom we work. The “big” opportunities we have to impact the future are the result of thousands of “little” efforts.

Across the country the last couple of week’s teachers, administrators and staff members have set the stage for yet another year together leading impressionable young people. I take great comfort in knowing that MANY impressionable adolescents are at Vianney where their minds, hearts, and souls are shaped by some of the finest role models in the history of education. These young men will go on to become our future. We will produce many noble citizens who go on to greatness. We will do so by seizing every opportunity to build strong relationships and to support students on their path to excellence.

At Vianney, we will do this both purposefully and intuitively, because our staff has fostered a culture of care which permeates our school. Individually and collectively, the care we have for our profession is palpable.

            At Vianney we are widely known for caring about our curriculum and—even more importantly—caring about our young men entrusted to our care.

             Again this year, each of us has a fantastic opportunity waiting: to be “a little part of something big”…i.e., playing a role in what our own future will look like! Because I work with the best teachers anywhere, I am confident that our students will make us all extremely proud throughout the year and later in life.

I’m thankful and blessed to be part of a faith-filled learning community like Vianney! Each day young minds are formed here.  The halls are full of future politicians, lawyers, actors, athletes, innovators, and religious leaders.

I mentioned in August and at the start of this blog—I have EVERY confidence this is going to be the BEST year in Vianney’s storied tradition of noted excellence.

My reasons are simple:

1.      Our students

2.      The returning and new faculty and staff members we have standing ready to teach them, guide them, and care for them.

It’s a GREAT Day to be a Griffin!

           

Lollipop Leadership

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to share my vision of "Lollipop Leadership" with the faculty and staff of St. John Vianney High School.  The idea of lollipop leadership is NOT my own, but was conceived after watching a TedTalk by Drew Dudley.

What motivated me to share lollipop leadership with the faculty and staff is still uncertain. Perhaps I've finally matured as an adult (unlikely), maybe having been a high school administrator for five years has shaped and changed my perspective on schools (more likely), or maybe this video spoke to me on a personal level, because I have often been the recipient of lollipop leadership.

As I watched Drew's TEdTalk it spoke to me. How many times in my life had someone saw something special in me?  How many times did a teacher, a parent, a friend, challenge me to do better, push me to achieve more, or demonstrate an unwarranted confidence in me?  A confidence I didn't even have in myself?

Reflecting on my high school and college years, and taking an honest look at my initial teaching and administrative career a harsh reality presented itself.  At my BEST I was (and remain) an average person.  I do not posses a high degree of intelligence.  Skills in athletics and the arts are lacking in comparison to my peers or completely nonexistent.  I have no silver bullets for school reform, curriculum design or parental involvement.

And despite my shortcomings, here I am.  The principal of one of the finest Catholic high schools in the country. The leader of a school that has been recognized as a Top 50 Catholic High School by the Cardinal Newman Society for Academic Excellence.  A school that became only the 10th school in the country to be named a Model School by the Gurian Institute.  Each year I've been blessed to work with some of the greatest educators in the country and motivate them to be part of Vianney's mission of developing young men for spiritual, academic, and personal excellence in the Catholic, Marianist tradition.  At 29 years old when most people wouldn't dream of applying for a princiaplship at an established, high-performing school, I applied, and was selected to lead a remarkable school community. Two years later the faculty and staff of SCHS earned recognition as a  Top 50 Catholic High School! Along the way we held magnificent school carnivals, "Danced with the Stars," and collaboratively moved a school, from "Good to Great."

How is this possible? What was the "tipping point"?  In my examination of conscience it wasn't "one moment" but a lifetime of moments.  And it wasn't ONE person, but a lifetime of people who have shaped and developed the person I am.  Most of these people were NOT leaders by title, but lead by actions and their unfailing belief in me.

As educators across the state of Missouri struggle with budgetary constraints, political legislation, obstacles with school transfers, and the traditional day-to-day responsibilities of educating America's future, I wonder how many of them realize how critical they are in the lives of their students.  Can the third grade teacher in Ava, Missouri and the AP Chemistry teacher at Zumwalt even begin to comprehend the opportunity they have each and every day to transform lives?  Do they fully grasp that the influential transformation they are a part of has little to do with Common Core Standards,  ACT Benchmarks, and Curriculum Maps?

Will we all pause this year and seize the opportunities to develop students holistically?  To know them on a human-level? Will we max out each opportunity to expand a student's confidence level and self-esteem?  Will EVERY student in our schools know that they have not ONE, but MANY adults who believe in their growth, believe in their potential, and are willing to blindly trust and tirelessly work to help develop them in to the person they are meant to become in life? How magical would our schools be and what great leaps in student achievement would occur if educators across the state made a conscience effort to have a lollipop moment EVERY day?

How will you demonstrate lollipop leadership this year?
Will YOU make a difference in the life of a student today?

I think, I think (with apologizes to Peter King AND Kevin Walsh)

Recently I had the opportunity to prepare an in-service for my new faculty and staff members at Vianney. In-services in general are not "New" to me, this is my 6th year as a school administrator and I have over a decade of service to Catholic education in my rear view window. I've "sat through," participated in, and prepared a number of in-services.
What keeps circling my head is how different last week's professional development was compared to all the others. Specifically a quote from two of my new hires. The first from a veteran educator with 20+ years experience continues to haunt my thoughts, drive me to work harder for my faculty, and truthfully, at my core, really troubles me.

He said, "I just have to say that in my 20 years of education I have NEVER been to an in-service that has been more practical and useful than this. I texted my wife (also an educator) during break and told her I have PAGES of notes of things I'm going to do in my classroom. This is fantastic."

My initial reaction was one of happiness and humbleness. MANY hours of thought and preparation both by me, but also by a number of my faculty went in to creating this in-service. And YES that was my number one objective: "Make it practical; Give them something that can use tomorrow; Don't waste their time, they are busy professionals."

A similar quote was taken from the Facebook page of one of the new faculty members: "Today was AWESOME!!! I learned practical and realistic new techniques to implement into my classroom and met great new people...I don't know if I have ever said this before: today's professional development was amazing-honestly/no sarcasm! Go Griffins!!!"

Again, I was initially pleased, excited, thrilled by the response, and later came back to that pit in my stomach and that voice in my head asking "Tim, isn't it suppose to be this way?"

Since that time though I've become somewhat troubled by the statements of excitement from my new faculty members. I began to review the many in-services I've led as a school administrator over the course of six years (PSA: Reviewing the actions of a six year administration career can cause ulcers, anxiety, and bring downright fear to a person--night sweats are likely to occur). And I keep coming back to one simple question: "WHY AREN'T MORE IN-SERVICES/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SESSIONS PRACTICAL?"

As educational leaders if we are serious about being lifelong learners. If we truly value our faculty and staff as professionals, then why do we "teach" them in a manner that is the complete opposite of anything we would tolerate from them in their classrooms?

Particularly as educators who sat through the same mundane, horrific, BORING "professional development" in our careers. Why do so many administrators forget their past as classroom teachers and submit our faculty to the same lifeless in-services we dreaded. Isn't history suppose to be our greatest teacher????
The magazines, blogs, twitter feeds, and political activists love to pontificate on the need for education reform. I constantly read about declining literacy rates, higher poverty rates, and failing schools. But if we are honest with ourselves as administrators, the change and reform needed in schools is on the local level. Opportunities for engaging, practical, sustainable learning occurs frequently in our cafes, media centers, and lecture halls with our faculty. To paraphrase a famous quote "We need to be the change we want to see in the world."

I think, I think...