Kristi Kahl/00-01/Diary Entry 2

Entry # 2: The Honeymoon

I survived the first four weeks of school as a new principal and actually love my job. I believe this is what is commonly referred to as the "Honeymoon" stage. Everyone is being very nice, including me. Don't get me wrong, I am usually a nice person, but it seems as if we are all being especially kind and complimentary to one another right now.

School culture was the one thing I was most worried about when I started this principalship. It's not that there was anything wrong with the culture at the school, but I've never been in charge of leading so many people (there are 88 employees on the campus), and I was nervous about how my leadership style would be received.

My mentor, an experienced principal of many years, shared with me that she distributes her "beliefs" at the beginning of each school year as a way for her staff to get to know her. I liked the idea, and as all good educators do, I stole it and made it my own. Below is what I shared with the staff on day one. I titled it, "Some of the Things I Value and Believe."

I have a responsibility to serve and support the students, staff, parents, and members of the community of Hill Classical Middle School.
Learning cannot occur unless students and staff are in a calm environment and feel safe and respected.
Parents send us their very best children every day and depend upon us to teach them and nurture their souls.
Early and frequent teacher-parent contact creates a collaborative relationship that supports the child's social and academic growth.
Middle school students deserve an academically challenging, developmentally responsive, and socially equitable education.
Excellent teaching involves caring, skill, and a serious commitment to long-term and short-term planning.
Our students deserve to be taught in a way that causes them to learn.
A school needs more than one effective leader to be successful and the principal must foster and encourage shared leadership.
A strong school staff is reflective and honest, holding each other accountable and supporting one another in time of need.
The Hill Classical staff is unbelievably talented and devoted to improving student achievement.
I do not know everything and must learn from each staff member's unique expertise.
Everyone's time is valuable and should not be spent hashing and rehashing trivial matters.
If it isn't working, we should probably do something differently.
Accountability can be a good thing.
Each staff member needs to take ownership of student achievement and behavior.
Everything we do everyday has a positive or negative influence on our students.
Adults should model the behavior they expect from children.
Both children and adults deserve a second chance.

The staff was very responsive to this list of beliefs, and several have commented on actions that I have taken since Day One that seem to reflect these values and beliefs. So far so good But I'm not going to get too excited and think there still isn't a great deal of work ahead.

Working on "touchy-feely"

For example, I know I'm not a very touchy-feely person. However, I know that a certain amount of "touchy-feely" or if you want to get educational -- affective domain stuff -- is important. So I told the staff this. I said, "I'm not a very touchy-feely person, and if I seem a little too task-oriented at times, please don't take this personally." Yet I know that's not enough, so I finished with this promise: "I am going to make it my personal goal to be more sensitive to school culture and try my best to do things at each faculty meeting to show that I am paying attention to this stuff."

To make good on my promise, I am starting each faculty meeting by saying "Thank You" to individual staff members who went out of their way to do something for students, parents, or the school in general. They seem to be enjoying this, as several have commented on how good it made them feel. It forces me, too, to take notice of what is going on around me.

I also am doing what I call the Principal's Mousepad Award. It started when I had some extra mousepads, and thanked some staff at our Opening meeting, giving away a mousepad. They loved it. So now I give away a mousepad at every faculty meeting. Silly, but fun. I also give away a book or other item as a door prize, which is a drawing for those who came on time. Finally, I'm trying to inject some fun with an occasional activity. We had a faculty childhood photo contest, and this really got them talking and laughing. We gave out silly awards and made fun of each other. It turns out that maybe I like this touchy-feely stuff after all.

I have to continue to remind myself that this happy stage will likely be over soon. But I intend to enjoy it while it lasts. In between laughing about cute pictures, we struggle with looking at our test scores and figuring out what we need to do differently. When we aren't celebrating someone's hard work, we are working to recreate procedures to ensure school safety. The work never seems to end, but for now, we are happy to do it.

Some "first month" lessons

Before I end, I'd like to share some of the things I've learned this first month as a principal:

Don't schedule a faculty meeting, PTA meeting, and New Teacher meeting the first week of school. You'll burn out your teachers AND yourself...
Just because the Master Schedule prints out neatly in all of the boxes on one sheet of paper, doesn't mean all kids will have the classes they needed or asked for, and it doesn't mean all parents will be happy with you.
Supervising kids during lunch makes you hungry.
If you keep after them every single day, kids will eventually behave the way we expect them to because they get tired of hearing you repeat yourself. ("Man, she says that EVERY day")
You must really forget about fashion and buy some "sensible" shoes.

Next time: Talking to kids about school and the many changes we've made so far. I'll keep you posted.