Kristi Kahl/00-01/Diary Entry 7

Entry # 7: The Leader Needs Training, Too!

I have been tremendously lucky to work in a district that knows the value of and places a priority on professional development. Principal professional development.

To date, I have attended numerous workshops and institutes designed to help me grow in my role as school principal. Some of the professional development I've received (or will receive) since July, when I found out I was going to be a principal, includes:

-- The Essential Elements of Effective Instruction (3 days)
-- How to Use Powerful Positive Influence (1 day)
-- Data Driven Decision-Making (1 day)
-- Principals' Retreat (1 and 1/2 days)
-- Master Scheduling (2 days)
-- Discipline and Special Education (1 day)
-- Accountability in Action (four 1/2 day sessions)
-- Principal Cohort (three 1/2 day sessions)
-- Safety Training (1 day)

If you add up all of the whole and half-days, it equals about 14 full days of professional development. This does not include the possibility that I may be attending Understanding By Design, a two-day preconference offered at the annual ASCD conference in March.

All of this professional development has done three things: informed, inspired and overwhelmed me.

Each time I go, I feel much more informed than before I went. And more humble.

It can be a terribly frightening feeling to be the "boss" and at the same time be afraid that you really don't know what you are doing. The PD support helps you get through the fear.

The three-day Essential Elements workshop (which reviewed teaching to an objective and the Hunter lesson design model) gave me the language I needed to have conversations with teachers after I visited their classrooms. The data workshop allowed me to meet with my math and language arts department chairs and lead them through a process of reviewing our test scores and setting goals for the year. After recently attending a workshop on building a master schedule, I feel confident I will be able to approach the task with a much more solid foundation of knowledge about how to do it and what mistakes to avoid.

I get inspired when I attend professional development where other administrators talk about what they are doing. For example, during our cohort visits, three principals take turns meeting at one another's schools. We visit classrooms, talk about what we see and don't see happening, and share some common and uncommon struggles. My cohort consists of two very experienced principals working in schools with very different problems from my own. But hearing that even experienced folks share some of my same worries and challenges inspires me to keep going. They also provide me with the positive role models I need to grow as a professional.

All of this learning makes me see so many possibilities for what I could be doing as a leader. This is where the "overwhelmed" part comes in.

The more I learn, the more I realize I have so much more to learn. Sometimes I feel that I'll never be the leader I envisioned I would be. Plus, each day I am off campus is one more day that I didn't visit classrooms or talk to teachers and students. Each workshop brings a new three-ringed binder that sits on my shelf unread, waiting for the day I'll have that "extra" time to take it out and review it. (I'm convinced that day is never going to come!)

I've given all of this quite a bit of thought. I realize that even though I may not be able to do everything this first year, I've collected an important arsenal of resources that I will be able to use in the future. I also must admit that I have pulled out those notebooks on several occasions as I planned to work with one or more teachers or planned a meeting.

In time, I hope my staff will see the changes I'm making in our school and myself. If, at the end of this year, even one person tells me that we've made some positive changes, I'll know all of this learning has been put to good use. For now, I'm just going to finish my holiday shopping and pick a notebook to review over vacation.