Week of June 29th
Hi everyone,
I am on a family vacation in Disney World so this is my excuse for being late with the latest blog posting. I hope your summer is going well. Over the weekend I will post the schedule for my second field visit on July 8th. Please call me on my cell phone since my new email has not been activated yet.
Post a comment on the following: Encourage the Heart. This concept is another Leadership Challenge. Thanks.
About Me
- Dr. Kevin Dwyer
- I taught for seven years at Field Middle School in Northbrook, IL. I was an assistant principal at Woodland School District 50 in Gurnee, IL for three years. I completed my doctorate from Loyola University Chicago in 2004. For the past five years I have been an elementary school principal. I currently serve as principal at Westgate Elementary School in Arlington Heights, IL
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ReplyDeleteWell stated Nick, someday I hope to take my kids to the happiest place on Earth. As we come to the end of this program, I can't help but think that a trip to Disney would be a nice celebration for the hard work that has gone into the last year an a half. One thing I know for sure is that I wouldn't have been able to finish this without the contributions of many of my family members. Disney would be a nice reward for the team effort they have given in supporting me in accomplishing this. If anything, it could set a good example that having the determination to accomplish extraordinary things (okay this program may not be considered extraordinary, more like the juggling of full-time work plus life & class) means that everyone gets to share in the rewards for their efforts. What better place than Disney to make people feel special. Hopefully it would inspire my children that hard work pays off.
ReplyDeleteAs far as how Encouraging the Heart is applied to leadership in a school setting, I think that it is something that is simply not done nearly enough as it should be. We are always trying to accomplish so much that we seldom have time to celebrate what we do get done. We are usually too busy moving on to the next thing. I think that as a leader it is your responsibility to frequently set goals with your staff and then to take the time to check on them so you can celebrate accomplishing these goals. I think that Everyone likes a pat on the back.
Throughout the cohort program we have continually discussed the importance of getting the faculty invovled in the decision making process and making them feel as part of the team. A part of this collaborative effort is to make the faculty feel like they are respected and valued. This is why it is important for administrators to continually encourage teachers. As a teacher, it makes me feel important and valued when I get encouragement from school leaders. Lane is a very large school with 250 teachers and without rewarding the faculty, we would not be very encouraged to put forth our best effort.
ReplyDeleteIt is also important to remember that a "forced" reward is not going to be effective. I have seen where administrators are trying too hard to reward a certain group and it seems phony. The faculty can see right through this and the reward could have an opposite effect.
Currently in my internship I am working with one administrator who I can tell is constantly encouraging the teachers, and she can get a lot of effort out of them. The other administrator expects this effort from teachers and does not give as much reward or encouragement. The school culture tells me that one administrator is more respected than the other.
I went to the 'happiest place on Earth' (funny Nick!)in January and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. My daughter was in awe! I felt like I was in the happy place leaving class last Tuesday & knowing that I was one internship meeting away from being finished!
ReplyDeleteEncourage the Heart- this made me think of Marzano and the Reinforcing Effort & Providing Recognition strategy. It is something that should be a priority for school leaders. Too often the theme of Effort & Recognition is geared only towards students and the staff are left feeling overworked and underappreciated.
I love it when someone expresses an interest in something and they are given the go ahead to try something new, use their creativity and work to improve the school. Our interests and passions change over time and giving staff the freedom to utilize those interests to enhance their job and the school is vital.
Encouraging the heart is something that in my experience I have found is more difficult than it sounds. In many cases, leaders believe that they are better at this than they actually are. The essence of "Encouraging the Heart" is making sure staff feel rewarded, recognized, and routinely re-fueled. While this sounds easy enough, there are many ways to do this ineffectively.
ReplyDeleteMany leaders have read somewhere, or perhaps believe in their hearts, that recognizing staff accomplishments is an important component of effective leadership. The problem is that when such efforts at recognition seem contrived, scripted, or overused, it does not have its intended effect and may have the opposite. The trick is to become and continue to be aware and genuinely appreciative of all that others are doing in their work. Recognition and praise seem to feel most rewarding and heart-encouraging when it is spontaneous, specific, and clearly genuine. Too often people praise others because they feel that they have to and it feels awkward rather than encouraging.
Courtney said...
ReplyDelete“Encourage the Heart” is one of the most important and crucial of the 5 practices. It cannot stand alone, but without the ability to make people feel needed, praised, and important, I believe an administrator will face many difficulties along the way. We are humans and as humans we have the need to feel important to others and to a cause. We like to see and hear the praises of our actions. We also need to feel liked and loved by others. It is hard for us to take failure lightly and often we can be easily discouraged by it.
An administrator needs to make sure that all members of the school community feel like they have been heard, that their voice counts, and that what they have accomplished has not gone unnoticed. As someone has mentioned before, we cannot over or under appreciate people, but we should find a happy medium. All members of the community should feel like they have accomplished something that made a difference. When people begin to feel underappreciated, it can show in their actions. When community members feel appreciated and needed, you will start to see positive effects from it. They will demonstrate better work ethics, be encouraged to participate more, feel the need to volunteer, become more involved, and be eager to try new things. For example, when a teacher feels like they are making a difference in a student’s life, they continue to work hard with all their students. They know what it feels like to have a student succeed and it becomes contagious. They want to see all students succeed. The same goes for their school.
This is especially important during times of change. As the RtI journey begins and continues to progress, administrators will need to “encourage the heart”. They will need to feed the emotions of people so that they want to accept change and will look forward to the immense fulfillment that success brings. I do believe that without “Encourage the Heart” you will notice a school community and culture begin to fall apart and in turn it will begin to negatively affect the success of the school.
For my internship I have been given a workspace near the administration office, so I am working "in the trenches" alongside with all of the secretaries. The adage that the assistants run the organization is absolutely true. The Assistant Principal's secretary has been fielding frantic phone calls because someone erroneously mailed out a form too early so some students know who their Adviser is and others don't. (This is a major issue among out families, such a terrible inequity!)
ReplyDeleteI remember when the realization dawned on me that school support staff didn't just take any job that came along and ended up at a school-- they could perform their role as a maintenance manager or administrative assistant in just about any capacity, they CHOSE to be in education. This was a powerful realization that the same reasons we aren't working in hospitals or at newspapers, in labs, or in the corporate world is the same reason they are here. Even though they do not get a classroom they are an extremely important part of the education process.
I think my school does take notice that this is a collaborative effort and "accomplishing extraordinary things is hard work" as the section states. Educating students could not be done unless these individuals felt a part of the team and I think the school does a great job of making them feel a part of this larger goal.
Now to back up my words-- a shout out to Delores, thank you for your help and the air high-fives when a schedule conflict has (finally) been resolved.
Disney sounds fun, but we went when our kids were 1 and 3, and the only thing I remember was lugging two strollers on and off buses several time a day after waiting long stretches of time for those very buses. My family is thinking Hawaii right about now... just laying in the sun with nothing but a slushy drink and reading for pleasure (not that Concordia our Concordia textbooks didn't provide enough pleasure).
ReplyDeleteI think the need for encouragement is obvious. Isn't that why people go to Weight Watchers and A.A. meetings? It is tough to do the job of a teacher, or an administrator for that matter. Teachers are especially isolated with very little adult contact from day to day. Just a few sincere words can make a huge difference, and unfortunately, many students and most parents just aren't going to give them to our teachers.
This blog has made me think that we need to keep in touch when we start our careers in administration ... our own little support network - so we can encourage one another. Maybe form a Facebook group or something.
Change is never easy, and I know that this summer as I have struggled with some life-altering decisions, Lori has provided a lot of words of encouragement that helped me immensely. Thanks Lori!!!