3 Simple Ways We Thanked Our Teachers Today

National Teacher Appreciation Day May 7, 2013

1. A letter to staff placed in every teacher's mailbox:

Dear Normandin Teachers,

This week is National Teacher Appreciation week (May 6-10, 2013) and an appropriate time for me to share how much I appreciate what you do. Recently our students participated in a survey about our school with a large majority reporting that they have teachers that are positive role models, who believe in them, and expect them to be successful. These student beliefs remind me of the quote "Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care" and there is clear evidence that you care!

Love, compassion, trust, empathy, discipline and accountability are the cornerstones of a healthy family and the foundation of the greatest schools. On a daily basis I witness our teachers taking the time to build relationships with our students, one child at a time. I would like to thank you for coming in early, staying late, buying materials with your own money, calling parents on your own time, paying for students' lunches, volunteering, correcting papers at home, making our students and other staff smile, offering a hug, loving what you do and being extremely good at it! I appreciate you all tremendously and value your hard work in the most difficult, yet fulfilling of all professions - teacher. I am proud and humbled to be your Principal.


Respectfully,

Bill

2. A breakfast celebration for our teachers from the Admin Team!

3. A small token of our appreciation hand delivered to each teacher by our Admin team

Sticky note holder/calendar

Cover States: Normandin Middle School "A Place Where Great Things Happen" 2013

The Journey from GOOD to GREAT

 

"I never worry about action, but only inaction"

 
In Jim Collins’ bestselling book “Good to Great” he points out that the enemy of Great is Good. He explains that we don’t have great schools because we have good schools – society is content with good.  It has always been my dream to work at a school that acts as a "home away from home"...a Great school!  As a former head football coach our teams were never satisfied with being good.  We equated being good to being average.  Most sports teams strive to be the best, to be Great.  My mindset is no different when leading a school.  Are you ready to take action? 
 

How do you move from being a GOOD school to becoming a GREAT school?

 

Have a Shared Vision:

 

"Vision at our school will not be empty aspirations, but obligations, deadlines & concrete accomplishments!"

Richard DuFour

I shared this quote form Richard DuFour with our staff on the 1st day we met and let them know that this was our school (Normandin MS) and we would collectively develop the vision and direction that would establish a path to GREATNESS.  As educational leaders we must believe that our schools can, and should be, the model school for the state.  In order to move to the next level, each school must build upon its strengths and face challenges head-on.  This complex task cannot be accomplished by any one person; it requires strong commitments from students, staff, administration, parents and community members.  Success is dependent upon the ability to work as a team and plan, implement and execute our shared vision.

 

**I shared the following questions/document with our entire school community.  These conversations become the basis for our shared vision.** 

Developing a Shared Vision - A Collaborative Conversation

Define GREATNESS:

 

 

 

 

 I really enjoyed the video from Nike above.  Greatness can be scary, uncomfortable, extremely hard work and pressure packed.  My father used to say "if being the best was easy everyone would do it." That is certainly true about Greatness.  The next step on the Journey to Greatness is asking the smartest people in the room (your teachers) what Greatness is and looks like at your school.  Remember, it may look different at every school.  I gave all our teachers colored index cards and had them work in small groups to define Greatness.  The results became the values our school uses to guide all decisions. 

 

 Defining Greatness Activity

 

 



Live & Breathe Greatness:

 



 Once a clear collective vision is in place and Greatness has been defined at your school you need to walk the walk.  It's starts with the Principal.  The Principal needs to model it, promote it, hold people accountable for it, and acknowledge it when it happens at your school - Celebrate it!!!  I often say enthusiasm is free and contagious, but so is negativity.  The choice is yours, which will you chose today?  The goal is to build capacity at our school in the form of student and teacher leaders, then getting out of their way.  We want everyone at the top of the mountain! Have fun becoming Great! 

 

Greatness is: (Please feel free to add to the list in the comment section) 

• When students come early & stay late...because they want to
• When there is just as much activity after school as there is during the school day
• When1st year teacher's volunteer to go into veteran teacher's classrooms to learn/share
• When veteran teacher's volunteer to go int 1st year teacher's classrooms to do the same!
• When teachers volunteer their own time before school, after school, during vacations and evenings to help kids
• When teacher's room discussions revolve around student learning & effective teaching-not bickering about everything wrong with the school
• When everyone takes PRIDE in the school: School PRIDE!
• When a staff meeting is replaced with a holiday party....because we all deserved it (and it's funner!)
• When teachers feel comfortable meeting with administration, having meaningful discussions and are actually listened to
• When the school is so clean visitors think it is brand new
• When you're welcomed with a smile
• When teachers & students run the school- organizing events, field trips & other activities that strengthen culture and make school feel like a home Spaghetti Supper Spooky Grams   College Family Night  Walk to School Day-Huge Success!! Mayor Visits  Students vs. Staff Basketball Game
• When the entire staff is appreciated - public and private thank yous go a long way
• When you start all meetings with "Moments of Greatness"-sharing examples of specific Great things going on at your school
• When you celebrate student success...often! - student of the month Heading for Greatness Breakfast  Attendance Champions Lion King Performance Recycling Fun!  Election Day Star  Soccer Success!  
• When you are comfortable getting to know each other Our Staff: 5 Quick Things 
• When teacher's organize visits from various Political leaders: Irish Leader Pat Doherty Visit  MA Congressman Keating Visits Normandin
• When student's are recognized Project 351 Perfect Scores!  Student of the Month  Poetry Contest Winners!   Scholarship Recipient
• When you have a Wall of Fame in the main foyer-and it's getting filled up!!
•  When guest speakers are welcomed and their message resonates! Jeff Yalden Visit Rocks!  Archaeology Comes to Life
• When communication is transparent: Start a School Blog! Normandin Middle School Blog
• When several teacher leaders are enrolled in graduate courses and/or Administrative Certificated course work. 

 

 

We have just begun this journey and have a long way to go, but I am proud we are willing to take that 1st step-have you? Will you?

 

 

 

Rigor Defined

I am an educator who has become overwhelmed with 21^st Century Educational jargon, while being underwhelmed with the clarity and specificity to what many of the terms actually mean.  My newest pet peeve is the overuse of the word "Rigor."  I have heard the word  mentioned at least 1 million times in the past 5 years.  I have found that if you ask 5 different people what it means, you'll get 5 different answers.  I finally did what any educated Principal would do when uncertain about the definition of a word.... I googled it!  I got 34,300,000 hits (well that narrowed it down!).  The first link listed on google was a Merriam-Webster site's definition of rigor: (1)harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment : severity. (2): the quality of being unyielding or inflexible : strictness. Do we want our curriculum, classrooms and teachers to be "inflexible, severe or strict?"  I didn't think so.  I will give google credit, however, as I came across an excellent article on rigor via @ASCD and written by Tony Wagner titled Rigor Redefined. 

 



 

So then I did what any educated Principal who wants the BEST answer to a question would do - I asked a teacher!  In fact, I asked our entire staff to define Rigor and what it looks like at our school.  The document below is our living draft, that will continuously be refined and improved as our collegial and professional discourse continues.  It is a baseline for our discussions on good teaching and best practice and will guide us on our journey to greatness.    

 

Normandin Middle School

-Academic Rigor-

Rigor is multifaceted, challenging instruction that encourages each student to reach his/her academic, intellectual potential.

Common characteristics of a rigorous classroom @Normandin:

 

• Student work is posted
• Folders/portfolios/notebooks evident
• Continuous momentum
• Active, relevant discussions
• Multiple tiered lessons
• Student ownership of learning
• Independent learning encouraged through gradual release of responsibility
• Students are engaged and on task in meaningful, learning activities
• Curiosity promoted by a safe learning environment
• Honoring varied learning styles through differentiated instruction
• Constantly pushing towards higher level thinking through continuous effective questioning which requires thought, reflection and critical thinking skills—Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Continuous, productive feedback provided by teacher
• Sense of enthusiasm and curiosity for learning
• Student collaboration
• Relevant vocabulary used in instruction and classroom discussion
• How skills and information can be applied to daily life, i.e. technology, science, history, math and literacy
• Classroom rules, procedures and routines are established
• Clearly stated lesson goals and objectives
• Clear academic and behavioral expectations are defined and reviewed by teachers on a regular basis

How are you defining Rigor at your school?  Please share!

 

Irish Leader Visits Normandin

 

Ireland's Sinn Fein leading member Pat Doherty visited Normandin Middle School on Friday March 15, 2013.  He spoke to our eighth-graders from Pod 8-1 about the struggle for Northern Ireland's independence.  Mr. Doherty took the time to answer ALL student questions and spent 1 on 1 time with students for more in-depth discussion after the event.  The visit reflected a truly authentic way to bring our social studies curriculum to life, while learing first hand about another countries struggles for independence.  We are very proud of our students and their ability to ask rigorous questions and participate in intelligent conversations with our guests. 

 

We would like to thank the following guests for taking the time to visit Normandin and particpate in this very special event:

• Mrs. Doherty
• School Committee members Dr. Fletcher & Dr. Finnerty
• Director of Mathematics Dr. Bonneau 
• Director of Federal & State Funded Programs Mr. Andrew O'Leary

A special thank you to Mr. Donnelly for organizing the event, along with Pod 8-1 teachers Ms. Sanders, Mr. Rosen, Ms. Freitas and Ms. St. Amand! Ms. Hinkley and students did an awesome job setting up the library to model a true "town hall" venue. Thank you to Ms. Aubertine for providing a wonderful spread of food and home baked goodies for our guests.  Our custodial team's efforts were unmatched in preparing for our guests-nice job.

Read more about the visit in the column by Mr. Steve Urbon here: South Coast today  

Defying Complacency

It's the time of year when the BIG C rears its ugly head.....Complacency!  What are you doing to overcome the temptation of being complacent?  Complacency leads to under performance and an inability to reach potential.  I often equate complacency with being average.  Average is not bad, but its not great either.  Some people are content with being average...I am not.  I have always been a big fan of using "self talk" to motivate myself.  I write down some simple goals and find ways to incorporate them into my daily life.  My goal to avoid complacency is to turn 10 of my simple philosophical  beliefs into action, modeling them for my staff, students and school community.  Please feel free to add to the list - let us know what you do to avoid complacency.

Complacency Defined

1. Find ways to say YES
2. Say WE more than I
3. Listen more than I talk
4. Give more credit than I take
5. Appreciate people! (hand write at least 20 thank you cards a week)
6. Catch people doing good (and let them know it)
7. Get to know people (what interests do staff & students have outside of school?)
8. Walk the walk (don't ask anyone to do something I haven't do, or am willing to do)
9. Go to battle (set high expectations for my staff, give them direction and stand behind them!)
10. Care! (Our school is our Home away from Home-I need to make it a safe, caring & loving environment)

Building Your School Culture...1 Relationship at a Time

 

The first two questions I asked myself as I prepared for my first Principal position were - 1. What is a successful school culture? and  2. What will it look like at our school?  I spent a great deal of time and energy putting my thoughts to paper.  The answers to questions #1 & #2 became the foundations of my personal educational core values.  I believe a successful school has a culture of personalization, collaboration and excellence.  I explain these in greater detail in my post Principal 100 day Entry Plan

I was confident in my personal vision of culture, but now needed to answer the most critical question of all - how do we build it at our school?  As a former coach I have always believed in establishing a family style atmosphere, emphasizing shared ownership and postive relationships.  My philosophies are inline with those of highly respected educational leaders Roland Barth and Todd Whitaker.    

"The nature of relationships among the adults within a school has a greater influence on the character and quality of that school and on student accomplishment than anything else."

Roland Barth

 

"It's people not programs"

Todd Whitaker @Toddwhitaker

I believe we build our school culture with people, one relationship at a time! 
I decided at our school it would start with our teachers.    

5 Simple Ways to Involve Teachers
in Building your School Culture:

 

1. Say Thank You!
• Have a stack of assorted thank you cards and share them with staff as a token of appreciation
• Purchase a variety of little "smiley guy" faces and trinkets & drop them in teachers mailboxes
• Say thank you in person (privately)
• Say thank you in public - at staff meetings, PTO meetings, public events & @school committee meetings
• If you're going to use email-send a thank you to the teacher and cc: their department head and the Superintendent
 
2. Show Appreciation!
• Nominate them for local, state and national awards-i.e: teacher of the year
• We held a holiday party celebration at our December staff meeting!
• We feature teachers on our school blog: check it out- 5 Quick Things
• I raffled off 2 "get out class free certificates" at our last staff meeting. The certificates are redeemable for me to come in and teach the class while teacher gets a well deserved break :)
• After a tough week, make it a point to let teachers out early!
• I bring in coffee, muffins and breakfast treats every Friday for our hard working administrative assistants
• Send cards for births, weddings and other celebrations
• Call and/or visit them if they are out for a prolonged time with an illness
• We have a "moment of excellence" at every administration leadership meeting and staff meeting to acknowledge all the great things happening at our school

     3. Involve Them!

• We thought it important to have one committee that EVERY teacher could participate on.  Our "Good to Great" committee has open enrollment. We are building our new RTI model with this committee!
• We have a weekly newsletter "The Friday Focus" that communicates clearly to our entire staff all the great things going on at our school. Check it out-Normandin MS Friday Focus. We send copies to our Mayor, school committee and central office personell.
• To connect with my new teachers (15+), I asked them to invite me in for a visit to their classroom on their terms (non-evaluative).  I wanted it to be a new lesson, a difficult class, a great new idea, etc. - their choice! After class we'd catch up on lesson and year. I always end with question- how can I better support you & help you succeed?
• When teachers come with new ideas....try to find ways to say YES!

     4.  Get out of their Way!

•  Our teachers have started their own group called "simply sharing" that meets regularly to focus on ideas that will positively impact our school culture - the group successfully ran an indoor yardsale that involved students, parents and teachers to raise $ for our 8th grade class.
• A motivated staff is capable of bringing any school to the next level.  Our staff is responsible for bringing Ireland's Sinn Fein leading member Pat Doherty (Irish Leader Visits Normandin) New Bedford Mayor Mitchell (Mayor Mitchell Visit) MA Congressman Bill Keating (Congressman Keating Visit) to our school.  Our teachers hosted a community spaghetti supper serving 100's (Spaghetti Supper Story) and have brought in guest speakers such as @Jeffyalden (Jeff Yalden Visit), bullying prevention specialists, outside agencies, and so much more.
• Our staff has also secured close to $500,000 in grants for our school that they have written & participated in directly. Most recently we received the MA 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) Grant and are extremely excited for the opportunities it will bring our students. 

     5.  Trust them, Push them, Challenge them, Support them & Lead them! 

**You may be surprised at what such highly educated and passionate people can do when driven**

             

 
 
 
 

 

 
 

 

Principal Entry Plan-The 1st 100 Days

 

Why Have an Entry Plan?

 

I began developing Entry Plans many years ago as I applied for head football coaching positions.  I always believed the plan played an instrumental role in getting me the job, and guided me successfully through the initial challenges of the job if I was fortunate enough to land it.  An Entry Plan forces you to develop your vision, values, goals and beliefs as a leader.  It challenges you to research the prospective employer and postion, and if done right, puts you in the position of understanding the school, company or business better than some of the people on the other side of the interview table.  My Entry Plan is a living document that I reflect on weekly and adjust when necessary.  I highly recommend anyone interviewing for a leadership position to develop an Entry Plan.  If you are already in a leadership position an Entry Plan could easily be used to establish your new vision and assess your progress.  The Entry Plan below has guided me in my first 100 days as a new Principal. 

 

The Importance of an Entry Plan

In Jim Collins’ bestselling book “Good to Great” he points out that the enemy of Great is Good. He explains that we don’t have great schools because we have good schools – society is content with good. Normandin Middle School is a NELMS spotlight school that is primed for greatness. A clear, concise and intentional plan will ensure that the transition of principals is a catalyst for excitement, change and continued improvement. An Entry Plan serves as the principal’s review of the school; it demonstrates that he is a keen observer, an active listener and a proactive organizer. This document will provide our school administration, staff, students and community insight into my vision and thought process, and will outline my goals to aligning Normandin Middle School along a path of Greatness.  I have found the process of developing this plan insightful, challenging and rewarding.  The complex decisions involved in creating this plan were based on my fundamental core values as an educator and lifelong learner. My vision is to lead Normandin Middle School so that it is not only the best middle school in Massachusetts, but also the best school-period!

MY PERSONAL EDUCATIONAL VISION & VALUES

“VISION”

 

Our Normandin School community is a family. As educators we must treat each child as if they were our own. We must work together, support each other and realize that no one person is bigger than the school/family. We will all work hard, support one another and grow together. Our school is our family – success is a by-product of our commitment to working together and respecting each other.

“THREE POINT FAMILY VALUES”

1. BE THE BEST PERSON YOU CAN BE:

 

We must demand from each other that we be the best person we can be with regard to character, honor and integrity. Students, staff & administration must realize that their actions while members of the Normandin Middle School family are a direct reflection on the entire school.

2. BE THE BEST STUDENT YOU CAN BE:

 

Education is the meal ticket to success! Students must demand from themselves that they do everything in their power to succeed in school, while the adults do "whatever it takes" to ensure student success.  Students must strive to do their best academically and behaviorally-becoming leaders in our school.

3. BE THE BEST COMMUNITY CITIZEN:

 

We must commit to giving back to our community through community service learning. It is important that we understand and respect the great New Bedford history and contribute as model citizens.

ENTRY PLAN - CORE VALUES

 

Culture of Personalization:

 

Our school will be a “Home Away from Home” for students, staff, family and community. A

place where the climate provides personalized learning for every student, built on strong student, staff, family, business and community partnerships. A place where everyone is treated with respect, treated fairly and appreciated.

Culture of Collaboration:

Our school will be a place where students, staff, parents, administrators and community

members work together and take ownership in developing and maintaining a dynamic student-centered learning environment.

Culture of Excellence:

Our school will be a place where academic and personal excellence is an expectation for all. It must be our fundamental belief that all students can learn and achieve at high levels. It is our collective responsibility to ensure we do “whatever it takes” to prepare our students for the competitive 21st century global evironment.  We will celebrate our successes!

ENTRY PLAN – GOALS

1. Perform a needs assessment to establish our strengths and needs for improvement

2. Establish a culture of learning

3. Establish system for clear communication

4. Establish high expectations that are clearly defined and communicated

 

* This plan is a draft and is subject to change based on collaborated input from our school family

For the complete Entry Plan, including goal assessment, objectives, actions and timelines please click link below:

Bil Burkhead's 100-Day Principal Entry Plan