Hey friends! I know this time of year is tough, but I also know that if you are an administrator, you are already looking towards next year. You have to be. 

So do you want to know the #1 way to guarantee growth for 2024-2025? Reflect on the current year and make a plan proactively – now.

In order to do that, I want to circle back to episode #4 that I did back a few months back and give you a few reflection questions to help guide your planning. Now, in that episode, we were looking at this thought process through the lens of vision-driven goal setting, but now I want you to do it in a reflective posture.

And remember this – there are so many moving parts on a campus that if goals weren’t achieved, it’s not a reflection of you as a person or even necessarily you as a leader. However, the time to pivot is now, and you have an incredible opportunity to lead your campus to these vision-driven goals proactively next year – if you start now. 

Friends, I know it can feel like educators are in survival mode for this rest of the year, but if you wait until the start of the school year next year to make a plan, or even until summer, it may be a little late. 

So why should you start now?

1. Get stakeholder input. If you reflect and plan now, you can get feedback and input from the teachers, students and parents who are involved in your campus right now. Here are few questions to consider going out to your stakeholders:
   1. What do you need to be more successful next year?
   2. What would make your job/communication/participation easier?
   3. What worked well this year?
   4. What professional development opportunities would you choose?
2. You have time to research and collaborate with other administrators who have overcome some of the challenges your campus may face. When you can determine the specific challenges that you and the stakeholders all agree need to be addressed, you can narrow your focus, research and even networking to administrators who have solved some of the same problems. I know you can feel like an island sometimes, but you’re not! When you give yourself time to gather ideas and plans, you’re not shooting from your hip trying to put out fires as they come.
3. You have time to book PD that offers solutions that teachers are looking for. We talked about this a little bit in the last episode, but back to school PD is already getting booked, and if you have a clear direction that you want to take your campus, along with the buy-in of the stakeholders, you want to be able to research and book that PD now! 

The idea is that you already have a vision-driven plan, complete with support and accountability built in, before the first day of school. This allows you to walk confidently forward, inspiring your stakeholders with your vision, and support your students as they start their growth journey Day 1!

And I’m just going to add this as a PD Service provider. The past couple of weeks, I have had the privilege to work with a new middle school. Now, it’s typically unusual to start coaching at the end of March and April, but the campus had funds, and we are planning to work together next year. So with these days, I was able to help a few teachers create a plan for growth for the rest of the school, meet several of the students and see the culture of the campus, and create positive interactions with the teachers so that the repoire has already been built and the work can start right away.

Also, I know a lot of companies, including mine, have spring sales on their resources. If you have money to spend in the budget right now, and again, you have a clear direction of where you want to take your students and campus next year, you don’t have to wait until July to purchase it. You can purchase it now, introduce it to the teachers this year, and then build capacity next year.

Ok so let me give you those reflection questions:

1. If your campus was running at the level you want it to be, what is happening in the classroom? What are you seeing the students doing? What are you seeing the teachers doing?
2. If your campus was running at the level you want it to be, what would the mornings look like- the very start of the day? How do the students feel about walking in the doors? How do the teachers feel about being there? How do the teachers and students react when they see each other?
3. If your campus was running at the level you want it to be, what is happening in PLCs or during planning time? What types of conversations are being had? What is getting done during these times? What do you see the teachers doing?

Now, depending on your campus, you may have additional questions, or even change these questions some, but it’s important to have a vision in your mind about where you want to take the campus.

Next, use data – both qualitative and quantitative, to determine where your campus is in each of the current areas. This would be a great place to get teacher (and student) input. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. When I look in most classrooms now, I see ___________________________________.
2. In the mornings, students/teachers seem _____________________________________.
3. During PLC meetings, the primary conversations center around _______________. The productivity in PLCs is _________________.

Now for the fun part – it’s time to make the plan for growth. In order to set a vision-driven goal, it’s crucial to determine the missing piece or the bridge that will get your campus from where it is now, to where you want it to be. I highly encourage you to walk through these questions with your teachers, or at least with a teacher group. The last thing you want to do is continue to make a plan that no one is on board with! After going through the vision of the best case campus, and the observations of where the campus is now, walk through these questions:

1. What is missing/needs to happen in the classrooms that we can control? (more engaging lessons, more processing time, academic dialogue, language strategies, processes/procedures). 
2. In the mornings, what is missing/needs to happen to increase the culture? (Teachers rotate duty, everyone standing at their doors, high five every kid, parents as greeters, music playing in the morning, administrator present to take care of dress code/behavior so teachers can be positive).
3. During PLCs, what is missing/needs to happen in order to have more productive and effective PLCs focused on student growth? (PLC minutes, template, PLC training for PLC leaders, scheduled, modeled)

Our business is called The Responsive Classroom because we believe that responsive in education is a game-changer. It makes teaching more effective and students more independent, and that starts with leadership.

I’d love to visit with you about how we can partner on your vision. If you’d like to see how responsive your campus us to see if this is a goal you want to set for next year, grab our free checklist, How Responsive Is Your Campus? You can do this in the shownotes or head to www.theresponsiveclassroom.org and grab it right there.

If you’d like to chat about back-to-school PD, head to the calendar link in the shownotes or email jenn@theresponsiveclassroom.org.

 How Responsive Is Your Campus?