Atlanta in April!

My birthday was last Saturday, April 2, 2016 and I was fortunate to be able to check an item off of my "bucket list."  I was able to speak/present at a National Education Conference.

Several months ago, when I was still Principal at Speedway High School, I submitted a proposal to speak at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) annual national conference, on the topic of our Professional Learning Community (PLC) that we developed and refined over the last seven (7) years that I was at Speedway.  I found out this winter that my proposal had been accepted and my chosen date to present (the conference was April 2-4) was on my birthday!  To make it even better, the conference was in Atlanta, GA

The PLC is something I'm very passionate about at the high school level. Over eight years ago, two of my veteran teachers came to me with the idea of trying to put a PLC together.  We developed a proposal and gave it to our Superintendent and he approved of the idea.  So, for the last seven years as Principal, our staff met every Monday morning, from 7:50-8:40 am in our HS Library to make a commitment to excellence, focus on the process of teaching and learning, and create the best environment for our students to learn in.

I feel like the presentation went very well.  I presented not only the system that we used but also specific programs and improvements that came out of our collaborative time as well as specific data to show the positive impact our PLC had on our learning community over the seven year period.  I received a lot of positive feedback from the participants plus several requests for more information in the form of emails afterward.  It was a flattering and humbling experience and one I'm glad I was able to participate in.

So, one more item checked off and many, many more to go!

If you know me at all, you know I'm a huge fan of Abraham Lincoln.  I've taken the 5 quotes below from a young author, Kevin Choong (MotivationK).

5 Lessons You Can Learn From the Quotes of Abraham Lincoln

1.  Develop a Positive Mindset:  "Most Folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
2.  Prepare Yourself:  "I will prepare and some day my chance will come."
3.  It is okay to be slow, just keep moving forward:  "I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back."
4.  Don't wait for your dreams to happen, make it happen:  "The best way to predict your future is to create it."
5.  Be a generous person:  "Whatever you are, be a good one."

http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/5-lessons-you-can-learn-from-the-quotes-of-abraham-lincoln/

Five Great Quotes From Coaches

I'll apologize up front, I have a background in athletics.  Sorry.  That being said, some of the greatest influences on me have come from things I've seen, heard or been a part of through athletics.  Here are five of the best quotes I've taken from coaches:

1.  "Focus on the process, not the results"  John Wooden, legendary basketball coach from UCLA.
2.  "The difference between who you are today and who you will be in five years will be as a result of the books you read and the people you listen to."  Lou Holtz, football coach.
3.  "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender." Vince Lombardi, NFL Football Coach
4.  "Leadership, like coaching, is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you." Eddie Robinson, legendary football coach from Grambling.
5.  "Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve." Tom Landry, NFL Football Coach

The Evolution of the Principal;

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/the-principal-the-most-misunderstood-person-in-all-of-education/281223/

Leadership Tip of the Day (TOTD)

"Striving for excellence motivates you, striving for perfection is demoralizing."--Harriet Braiker.

I've always enjoyed this quote as a way to keep my perspective.  If you look at the second part of the quote first...perfection is elusive.  Often, when we think of excellence or success, we think that we have to be perfect.  Striving for perfection is setting yourself up for defeat.  The reason is simple.  Perfection cannot be attained.  Pretending that it can be, and making that your daily goal, will leave you frustrated, and eventually lead you to give up on whatever task you are trying to complete.

Striving for excellence is a different scenario.  You have to first decide what excellence is.  Webster defines excellence simply as "extremely high quality."  It doesn't say anything about being perfect or making no mistakes.  "Extremely high quality."  I can do that.  I can work hard and do my absolute best.  I can learn from trial and error to get better at any task.  Excellence can be attained.  The better I get at something, the more likely I will be motivated to continue to work at it to improve even more.
Malcolm Gladwell introduced the concept of "10,000 hours" in his book, Outliers.  He suggested that to become an "expert" in anything you had to put in 10,000 hours of practice or work.  You want to be a great writer?  Practice.  You want to be a great golfer?  Practice.  You must put in the work to be excellent.

Time to retrain your focus:  Don't worry about being perfect...work toward attaining excellence.  Be willing to put in the time to work toward "extremely high quality."

Lessons From The Geese 

by Dr. Robert McNeish (People with disabilities, parents, staff, businesses, etc., all need to work together. Synergy is the concept that when we all work together the end result is greater than if each of us acts independently. There’s a great deal to be learned from the teamwork shown in Lessons from the Geese.)

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an "uplift" for the bird following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% more flying range than if each bird flew alone. Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another. 

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the "lifting power" of the bird immediately in front. Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we will join in formations with those who are headed where we want to go. 

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position. Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership – with people, as with geese, interdependent with one other. 

The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging - not something less helpful. 

 When a goose gets sick or wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow their fellow member down to help provide protection. They stay with this member of the flock until he or she is either able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their own, with another formation, or catch up with their own flock. Lesson: If we have as much sense as the geese, we’ll stand by each other like that. 

Lessons from the Geese, was written in 1972 by Dr. Robert McNeish of Baltimore.  Dr. McNeish, for many years a science teacher before he became involved in school administration, had been intrigued with observing geese for years and first wrote the piece for a sermon he delivered in his church.

Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Shirtless Guy

This is a classic 3 minute video with lessons on leadership

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ