The World Seems Complicated. Perhaps It’s Time to Be More Human

The World Seems Complicated. Perhaps It’s Time to Be More Human

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership
coach, DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. He can be
found at www.petermdewitt.com. Read more from this blog.

Education is a human endeavor. It is a sector and a function that relies and
thrives on relationships and the connections between people. We’ve known this
for a while with our students, emphasizing the bonds that are created between
peers and also between a teacher and their class. We seek positive school
climates and develop functions for students to grow and work together across
the school—from homerooms, to clubs, to peer learning. We also know it
instinctively in our gut. Learning takes place most often when our classes
feel safe, connected, and understood. We teach most effectively when we know
our students, not just who they are but how they learn, collaborate, and
respond.

The same applies—and it’s obvious when we state it—for our teachers and
principals. Staff work best when they have colleagues they can connect, share,
empathize with, and learn from. And the same applies for our school and
district leaders.

But for some reason, we have resisted the urge—or need—to help our school and
district leaders develop these relationships. We have maintained the old adage
that we must separate our personal side from our professional side. We have
ignored, or avoided, the need for our educators and especially our school
leaders to show their human side.

Recently, we worked virtually with a group of superintendents and assistant
superintendents across the U.S. on using empathy to improve communication
strategies and better engage with others, especially in challenging or
difficult situations. Judging by reactions, it wasn’t their typical
professional learning situation. It was less task-oriented and more
human-focused. In our 60 minutes together, we shared strategies and provided
opportunities for reflection and breakouts for partner conversations. At the
close of our time together, we invited these leaders to share a closing
thought, takeaway, or feeling. Several leaders chimed in with gratitude,
others shared a new strategy; however, the response that resonated with all
was from a superintendent who boldly shared, “Thank you, this was the first
time I exhaled all week.” This meeting took place on a Thursday afternoon.
Shocking? Or is this becoming the norm for school and district leaders who are
constantly putting out fires and working on a neverending to-do list.

The human side of school leadership can be overlooked, yet it is critically
important because it underpins the culture of a single school or an entire
school system. Get it wrong, and the impact can be far reaching. Get it right,
and everyone benefits. From what we are hearing from school leaders, it
doesn’t sound like we are getting it right. Here is just a small sampling of
reflections from leaders:

“I feel like I have to be everything for everyone and eventually when I can’t
do it all, I feel like I fail someone. I also take on things I shouldn’t
because I feel like doing so will preserve relationships which I value.”

School and district leaders may tend to overlook their own leadership
development, opting to divert budgets to their teams instead. If they do
invest in personal coaching support, experience tells us that it will
predominantly be geared toward supporting them in the day-to-day running of
their school—and is often delivered by other school leaders, typically retired
principals/head teachers rather than professional coaches. At BTS Spark, we
have coached over 16,000 school leaders and, as a result, have a strong point
of view and insights as to what supports leaders are asking for to help them
lead more effectively.

Every time we engage with a leader, our coaches work with them to establish a
shift they want to make in their leadership. In analyzing data from these
anonymized coaching conversations, we are able to uncover the shifts and areas
of supports leaders really need. This isn’t data coming from districts or
state mandate; this is data coming directly from school leaders. It’s personal
and deeply human.

While all feedback is insightful, there is a key theme emerging from leaders
at all levels within education. It’s the need to slow down, pausing to take a
breath, and reflect on how better to accomplish the work to be done, perhaps
by delegating some work or, better yet, empowering others to solve problems.

Over the past few years, our leaders have increasingly taken on more and more
responsibility, for more people, and for more concerns and issues. When
pandemic-related decisions had to be made, it often fell to school leaders to
make them. When learning and accessibility concerns were raised, it was school
leaders determining the solutions. At each step or month over the past two
years, an increasing number of issues have fallen onto the shoulders of
principals. And to cope—or try to cope and keep the school functioning—they
have avoided asking others and avoided displaying any uncertainty. Such an
approach can be admirable for the short term but ultimately flawed,
self-destructive, and unsustainable.

As we found via our MESSY Leadership research, the human side of leadership
was often the key missing piece to effective teams and successful schools
during the pandemic. Those who showed their human side, their concerns, and
vulnerabilities thrived along with their school teams during the past two
years. By doing so, they allowed others to step in and grow. They developed
stronger and more capable teams by distributing the leadership roles and
actions. When they focused on their human side, they and their schools
flourished. Our human side—our personalities, our likes/dislikes,
successes/failures, strengths/concerns—is what makes us US and should not be
dissected from our professional selves.

During November in the U.S., people’s thoughts and attentions move toward
festivities and connections. The Thanksgiving holiday, besides being a time to
give thanks, is also a time to reconnect with family, friends, and neighbors.
It’s a much-loved holiday not because of any gifts that are given (there are
none) but because of the personal connections that are renewed, reinforced,
and even started. It’s a time when we celebrate our human-ness and our
relationships.

Want Vibrant, Engaged Teachers? Give Them Professional Freedom

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership
coach, DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. He can be
found at www.petermdewitt.com. Read more from this blog.

The pandemic unearthed a lot of opportunities along with all the hardships it
brought. One benefit was that it has made social and emotional wellness a more
mainstream topic across the board in education. As a result, teachers,
principals, and other school leaders seem to be carrying a little less on
their shoulders. With that weight lifted, they have been especially engaged
and energetic this year, but as the world returns to something like normal,
there is going to be tremendous pressure to go back to doing things the old
ways, even when they weren’t the best ways. How do we recognize that and work
to extend the longevity of the eagerness and energy that’s been returning to
campus?

Ulster Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) is a service district,
so all our programs are alternatives to traditional schooling. That gives us
some leeway to experiment that regular districts don’t have. Our districts
can, however, look to us and the approaches we use to see what works for all
students, making change a little easier for them.

At Ulster, the key to fostering a positive environment for teaching and
learning has remained the same before, during, and after the pandemic. We
believe our teachers are committed and capable educators and we give them the
freedom to prove it. Here’s what it looks like.

A few years ago, BOCES leaders and faculty had a meeting about New York
state’s Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), which has become a bit
of a touchstone for the ethos of our district. A lot of faculty expressed
concern about using the freedom they’ve been given to teach because if they
tried something and it didn’t work, they would be punished for it on their
evaluations and maybe even found to be ineffective.

Our superintendent, Charles Khoury, told them, “We hire professionals who come
to the table with professional learning, professional experience, and
professional judgment. Every teacher in every classroom makes hundreds of
decisions every single day. I want you to make those decisions based on what
you think is right using your professional judgment and experience. Each one
of you is the designer, manager, and leader of a learning space, and I need
you to be innovative in that role. I want you to figure out what’s right for
each student in your class and to do it, even if it’s new and it might not
work out.”

He told them that when any teacher is found to be ineffective, they would be
allowed to appeal and that he was the person who would hear and decide on
their appeal. And then he told them that if they were using their professional
judgment, he guaranteed that they would be deemed effective. Fear of being
found ineffective was stopping teachers from trying ideas they believed in, so
Khoury removed that barrier for them.

To be clear, though, this was not a blank check to let ineffective teachers
skate past accountability. Our job is to figure out who is struggling, why,
and then to help lead them past that barrier so they can begin innovating for
students again. We see the APPR as a tool for assessing growth instead of a
tool for identifying teachers who aren’t a good fit for our district. Blending
those functions doesn’t make sense, especially when we have an arsenal of
tools that can help us identify teachers for removal.

Empowered by Khoury, our teachers are building portfolios about their own
growth as teachers and learners that demonstrate that they are real students
of the institution. When teachers are students themselves, that trickles down
into the classroom and gives it a vibrant energy.

Our district is unusual, even among BOCES. We tend to do things a little
differently, and most of our teachers have never worked anywhere quite like
Ulster. To help make the transition smoother, we recently revamped and
extended our teacher on-boarding process to three days so that they can really
understand who we are and what makes our district unique. We on-boarded about
35 new teachers this year and received great feedback about this change.

In our morning meetings, we are trying to minimize email and focus on building
human connections. Our HR team and directors are pulling together clerical and
support staff cross-divisionally so people can begin building relationships
and connecting.

In other meetings that would previously have been only faculty, we are
including staff to help build community and make it clear that they’re part of
the team. Everyone who works in this district touches the lives of our
students, and keeping them in the loop by inviting them to meetings is a
simple way to make it clear that we honor that.

Building connections also extends beyond our campus. We have a detailed plan
to make sure leadership is able to meet other education professionals from
around the country. We want to make sure that our educators are not just
thinking about solutions within the box of Ulster County. Other people in
other places see different possibilities from what we might here, so we want
our people to explore and learn from people teaching in different contexts. We
are fortunate to partner with organizations like High Tech High, EL Education,
World Savvy and the Stanford d.School to collaborate, share knowledge, and
improve education.

An essential part of Ulster’s commitment to empowering teachers as the leaders
of their own classrooms is our dedication to ongoing equity work. Our team
discusses these issues confidently and with a willingness to learn and be
wrong. Nor are we shy about admitting the challenges of white leadership doing
belonging and equity work. If the traditional way isn’t working and we don’t
have the answers, Khoury’s willing to invest in looking beyond our district
for the best pathway forward.

I have felt the energy in our buildings this school year, and it feels great.
Our educators continue to prove us right—that they are professionals and in
the best position to decide what’s right for their students, and we work at
every level to set them free to exercise that judgment.