New Beginnings

New Workday View

It has been 12 years since I have started the month of July as something other than an elementary principal. It has been an amazing journey that has allowed me to serve a few thousand students and over 300 staff members. As a principal I have been a proud Warrior, Eagle, and Sabre (the sword), as well as a Panther and Charger as a teacher for another nine years. It has been 21 Falls that started with kids and staff being excited to get into their classrooms and kicking-off the school year.

This fall will be different though. Yesterday I started a new position as a Principal Leadership Specialist for a Regional Center of Excellence. The new role will have me facilitating Professional Learning Communities, providing 1-1 coaching/mentoring, and/or providing large group professional development for principals in southern Minnesota. It will have me spending time in many different schools and districts across the southern third of the state, but I will not have a school building that I will call home. It will definitely be a different start to the school year as I will be functioning for the first time in my adult life from a home office (see new office view in picture above). I am excited for the new challenge, but will definitely miss the day to day relationships with students and staff.

As part of the new start, I am also going to re-brand this blog to focus on things I learned throughout the week(s) as I navigate my way through this new journey in life. The learning to be shared will be both professional and personal. Hopefully my ramblings will connect with others as leaders and parents, as well as provide an opportunity to ask others about their learning too.

Things I learned in the last month:

1. Saying Goodbye Was Hard--The last student day was much harder than I had ever expected. I have changed positions before, but I had always moved to a new group of kids. The emotional toll took a lot out of me and I was not prepared for it. Watching the buses roll for the last time brought tears and a ton of memories. The last staff meeting was equally as hard. I realized that I had spent more waking hours in Oak Ridge than I did at home. The staff was family! We experienced personal and professional highs/lows together. I chose the path of "Until we see each other again" instead of "goodbye."
2. My focus will need work--This is my first morning working from home as yesterday was orientation items with cooperative I will be serving and I have already been distracted by items within my house. The part that tells me my focus will need help is that my kids are not even here this morning! I would love to hear tips/pointers from others that work from home. How do you keep your focus on work tasks?
3. Family Rocks!--This is not really new learning, but it has been re-emphasized over the last two weeks. I was able to lock up my office at school over two weeks ago because we had worked really hard to get everything in place for next school year before staff left in early June and I had two weeks of vacation still available. I spent an awesome week in San Diego with my family. We were able to hit up many great places including Torrey Pines, Coronado Beach, the USS Midway, a Padres Game, Sea World, and Legoland. My kids were such troopers and really made the trip enjoyable for each other. Make sure you find balance because family ROCKS!

   

   Lynk Family Selfie Before Harbor Tour

Because of MESPA Principals...

Because I am running to be the Minnesota Elementary Principals Association (MESPA) Representative to the National Association of Elementary Principals (NAESP), I had the opportunity to speak at MESPA's 2019 Institute. The purpose was to share the impact that MESPA's Principals have had on me so that I can be better for our students, staff, and families at school, but also making me a better father and husband. I am running because I am eager to repay my debt to MESPA's Principals by being their voice on the regional and national level.

As I was presenting, there was only time to share a very small sampling of stories of how MESPA Principals have welcomed, supported, and uplifted me to improve me as a principal and person. The help has paid many dividends to the couple of thousand students and families I have had the pleasure serving over the last twelve years. As I did not get to all the stories I had hoped to tell at Institute, I will do my best to retell them here. This is just a very small sample of the support that has been received either directly or indirectly to support me as a principal. The theme is Because of MESPA Principal...

Because of MESPA Principal Jean Clark, I was welcomed into MESPA organization with a hand written note when I was in my first month in the profession. It was just what was needed as I was a young principal and was the only licensed administrator in the BOLD District on a daily basis as our superintendent had just been deployed on a military assignment. The offer of help and guidance was so appreciated and a much needed welcome to the group at the time.

Because of MESPA's New Principal Seminar, I met Eric Skanson and Abe Rodemeyer along with several other first year principals. We spent the day laughing about whose jobs we had applied and/or interviewed for the summer before. The bonds that were built are still used today. Twelve years later, Eric and Abe are still people I turn to when advice or a good laugh is needed.

Because of the Southwest MESPA Principals, especially Patti Machart, I was welcomed with open arms and given a voice early in the principalship. Patti was great about greeting me with a big smile and always asking me how things were going both professionally and personally. It was just what was needed to help a newcomer build confidence and grow. That type of support has continued on with the Central MESPA Division today.

Because of MESPA Principal Tim Bell, I learned how incredibly cool principals can be in a student's eyes. While visiting the Chanhassen Dinner Theater, I was seated by a young lady and her mother at a shared table. As we were talking, I asked the young lady where she went to school. As soon as she said Five Hawks Elementary School, I commented on how I knew the principal was Mr. Bell. The look in the young girl's eyes was incredible as her principal must have been very famous because some random guy at a play knew her principal. How cool that must have been for her! It made me wonder if kids see all of us that way.

Because of MESPA Principals Brad Gustafson, Bret Domstrand, and Richie Kucinski, the fourth graders at Oak Ridge Elementary now make daily video announcements mostly on their own using TouchCast. They are able to do that because Brad, Bret, and Richie were willing to meet on a summer day to share stories and informal professional development with each other. It was just one afternoon, but it has had a tremendous impact on the students of Oak Ridge Elementary.

Because of MESPA Principals Patrick Glynn, Sam Fredrickson, and the other MESPA 21st Century Office Crew, there is now more time to be "Out and About" and in classrooms with kids. The learning from that crew has made me more efficient, able to prioritize better, and be more student focused. I have come to believe in 21CSO principles so much, that I now am giving back as a presenter myself.

Because of MESPA Principal Mark French, the climate and culture of of Oak Ridge Elementary have been forever changed for the positive. Mark introduced me to a Voxer and Twitter group called Principals in Action. It is a collection of principals from around the country that lean on each other for support and provide guidance. The group provides a daily opportunity to see and hear how others are doing things differently to be better for students. Mark also pushed me to add the #GoodNewsCalloftheDay to Oak Ridge. Just halfway through our first year making good news calls, we have already connected with 95 students and their families. The pure joy seen and felt by kids and parents is heartwarming. Some of the parents have never received a positive phone call in the middle of the day before. It is powerful!

Because of MESPA Principal Jessica Cabeen, I am a better father and husband. It is because of Jessica's work around creating balance in our lives as principals, that I have made tweaks to how I live when I am not at school. She is a champion for principals as parents and I am forever grateful to her.

Because of MESPA Principal Debbie Morris, I know I send my own kids to a school that has a principal that loves and cares for them. My children have such an advantage in life because Debbie has nurtured an environment that has allowed children to thrive.

Finally, because of MESPA Principal Dawn Brown I am at ease with this election as I know the MESPA Principals are in great hands no matter the outcome of the vote for NAESP Representative. I have learned and grown because Dawn Brown. She too is an outstanding voice for MESPA Principals.

This is just a small sample of the power that you all as MESPA Principals have had on those that I care for as a father, husband, and principal. I am forever in debt to the outstanding principals of MESPA and would love to represent you as the NAESP Representative.

Inspirational Videos

Each year at about this time I start to work on my back to school presentation for staff. I want that first staff meeting on the first morning to go well and I also want it to be inspirational. YouTube has made this task so much easier as you can pick a category such as curiosity or teacher inspiration and if as by magic, several videos pop up for you to look at. I have spent my morning watching videos trying to find the right one(s) to kick our year off right. Right at this moment I have such a sense of optimism for the upcoming year because of these uplifting videos. I am curious to know which videos any of you use.

Here are some videos I have used in the past and some I found this morning (several were recommended by George Couros on his Principal of Change blog):

How Quickly Things Change

Did You Know 2028 (Students entering 3rd grade this year will graduate in 2028)
Blockbuster Museum Offers Glimpse of Movie Renting Past-The Onion

Curiosity/Creating Spark

The Power of Why-Ted Talk by Simon Sinek
Three Rules to Spark Learning- Ted Talk by Ramsey Musallam
Little Girl Experiences Rain for the First Time
Motivational Short Story of Two Seeds

Inspirational

Every Kid Needs a Champion-Ted Talk by Rita Pierson (This is a must watch!)
Girl Takes First Ski Jump
First Follower: Leadership Lessons From Dancing Guy
Why Are So Many of Our Teachers and Schools So Successful-Ted Talk by John Hattie
Starfish Story
Top Motivational Video for Teachers-Speech by Jeremy Anderson

A YouTube Channel to checkout is INSBRIGHT.

I would love to hear from you on some of your favorites! Please share in the comments!

Solitude

Twice in the last week I have played 9 holes of golf  by myself. I am not one that normally likes to play golf by myself as I see it as a social time, but I had a enough time to squeeze in the 9 holes before the start of the golf league and my normal partners were not available. I actually found the time to be refreshing. I had plenty of time to reflect on items from work and home with no distractions. I had a few brainstorms that I was able to jot down on my phone and walked away feeling good and even played some decent golf.

It got me to thinking about how much time that I actually have in solitude with no distractions. As a the father of four and the principal of a 750 student building, I really do value the solitude! I feel better about my actions at home and school when I have time to process, reflect, and let things go. I am not always able to find the time to golf for the solitude, but I do have a commute that is just under an hour each way from school to home. It is amazing how often I get home and my stresses from the day have been placed aside for the short term. When I was a principal in Eden Prairie, I once told some co-workers that there was a tree just outside of Delano (the approximate half way point of my commute) that I would throw my stressors at on the way by and then pick them up again the next day. I rarely bring my school stressors home or my home stressors to school. The time to decompress, reflect, listen to podcasts or music, and preplan is pretty great. I need to find a better way to record my "aha moments" though as that is not always easy to do when driving. It would be better if I could find more time for solitude doing something I am passionate about more regularly, but for now the drive time will have to be enough.

I hope that you all can find time for yourself! I would love to hear ideas that you have for carving out the time and for keeping track of your wonderful brainstorming.

Lost My Way

I started this blog a shade under four years ago, but sadly I have not contributed to it in almost four years as well. It started out as part of a summer learning series as I first moved to my current position. I had great intentions of reflecting and writing more, but sadly I lost my way. It is easy to come up with reasons to not write, especially when one is the father of four great kids! It had been so long, that I had almost forgotten that I had a blog.

Yesterday I started to read Culturize by Jimmy Casas, and was reminded of the importance of writing. He shared the following:

• Be sure to share these helpful tips with your students or colleagues when it comes to writing:
• Start writing and keep writing your thoughts down on paper.
• Once you see your thoughts written down, you will be able to piece them together.
• Get the negative thoughts out of your mind and believe in yourself.
• Don’t be afraid of what others will think; everyone has something to contribute.
• Forget about what it looks and sounds like. Just write.
• It only takes one person to relate to your story. Honor your impact.
• Embrace your vulnerability. Give of yourself and don’t be afraid to share your story.
• Reach out to others whom you trust to “check you back into perspective.
• It is normal to experience writer’s block. It happens to everyone, even the best writers.
• Write for you. Reflection is powerful and necessary for individual growth.

Excerpt From: Jimmy Casas. Culturize. iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/culturize/id1341053060?mt=11

I have followed his advice and decided to fire up my blog again. I may not have anything earth shattering or deep to share, but at least I will be taking time to reflect and write again. 

This weekend while mowing my lawn, I was catching up on a series of podcasts by Brad Gustafson and Ben Gilpin titled UnearthED. I had about six episodes to catch up on, but luckily that was exactly how long it took me to mow my lawn. While I enjoyed all of the episodes and learned at least one thing from each of them, there was a quote from Simon T. Bailey in the episode How Education Leaders Can Effectively Disrupt the Status Quo that really stood out to me. Mr. Bailey was talking about how he often asks his kids what they want to grow up to be, but shared he should really be asking them, "What problem have you been created to solve?" What an amazing way of basically asking the same question, but putting it on a much deeper and meaningful level! I have been thinking about that line for three days now. How different would our students'/children's critical thinking skills be if we all took the time to reframe questions that way? It makes me wonder how often I ask the simple question instead of the deep one. Something for me to ponder for a few more days!

Collaboration Amongst Peers

I have had the privilege of being a principal in a small rural district (BOLD Schools-700 students), a large metro district (Eden Prairie Schools-9,000 students), and now a medium sized district (Sartell-St. Stephen Schools-3,000 students). One of the things I have found to be true at all three districts is that there are never enough principals to collaborate with and to learn from. We can always be reaching outside of our own district to learn from each other. I have been fortunate to work alongside some very talented people with skill sets that include relationship building, equity, curriculum development, climate and culture, and many other talents that are needed to develop our students and staff for life in the 21st century. With the additions of  Twitter, following blogs, Voxer, and listening to podcasts I have been able to connect with so many more talented people. It has been just amazing. We now have the ability to be connecting with school leaders from all parts of the world without much effort. It is simply amazing to think of all of the possibilities that building a Personal Learning Network(PLN) can do for us as educational leaders. If you are reading this blog, you are already well on your way to reaching out and trying to connect with others as there is not much of a following to this blog yet.

While the advances of technology have helped broaden my PLN, it has been the face-to-face interactions with educational leaders that has helped me the most. I was fortunate to be in Eden Prairie as Michelle Ament (@mlament) helped take the outstanding iLearn@EP team to a new level and challenged us to start on Twitter. The Learning and Teaching Department under the direction of  Stephen West (@stephenWest731) and the Technology Department headed up by Josh Swanson (@swansonus) also took to Twitter to help with our work around Professional Learning Communities,  English/Language Arts, and the development of the iLearn initiative. It is the conversations with the people around us that help steer us to different educational leaders for our PLN and push us to go further in our journey.

Through my PLN, I was able to reconnect with Brad Gustafson (@gustafsonbrad) this summer. We had been a part of Southwest MESPA a few years ago while we both worked in the southwest corner of the state, but had not seen each other in a couple of years. I have been really intrigued with his work using TouchCast and Aurasma, but had not had the chance to attend an EdCamp that he was at to learn more about it. I had kept reading his blog (adjustingcourse.wordpress.com) and following him on Twitter to find out about the work. The best thing I did though was to connect with him personally and we were able to find an afternoon to meet. I drove in to his school and we spent the afternoon sharing about items that we both thought were really cool in our schools. I was able to learn more about augmented reality and how it amplified student voice and creativity. It was so much better to see it in person than it was to read about it. The face-to-face interaction is what I needed to grow in that area.

It is that day with Brad that brings me to a challenge for those of you that are reading this. It is summertime and we have more flexibility with our schedules than we do during the school year. Reach out to someone in your PLN that is within driving distance. Find a date and time that works for both of you (make it during lunch time as that is a good time to socialize) to get together. Spend some time sharing about what is going well in your school, what are some challenges you are facing, and what is something you are hoping to try for the first time this upcoming school year. I am certain it will be worth your time and effort!

New Challenges

It is day 2 in my new role as K-4 principal at Oak Ridge Elementary (ORE) in the Sartell-St. Stephen School District in central Minnesota.I am very excited to be part of this very successful district. I felt very welcomed yesterday when our new superintendent took time out of his first day to swing over to say hello. It was a very positive way to start at ORE and I look forward to the students, families and staff returning to the building after summer.

 Starting this blog is part of a Summer Learning Series designed by Todd Nesloney from Navasota Middle School in Texas. He originally started this challenge for the teachers at Navasota Middle School and it has grown through Twitter. I know I am not much of a writer. In fact, I would say writing is one of my weaknesses as a leader, as talking to you in person is my preference. If becoming a better writer is a goal however, I need to write. So, thank you Todd for opening your challenge up to the greater population and for asking us to take time to reflect. We will see if I can follow through by taking time to reflect on the happenings at Oak Ridge going forward.

I chose the title for this blog based on the PBIS slogan for ORE which is, "BE ON TARGET". Sadly I may have used up the first hour of my day trying to come up with something clever to name the blog. I thought of using The Lynk Letter or The Missing Lynk, but ultimately decided I did not want the blog to be about me. It should be about the students and staff at ORE and the amazing work that is being done here. It is my hope to use this blog to showcase the learning that students and staff are doing at ORE and throughout our district, as well as look for insight from others to meet the challenges that are presented to us.

Being new at a school, one has to learn the expectations and the culture to be successful. That is tough to do in the summer when the building is fairly empty for the month of July. Therefore I am thankful that the staff at ORE has established school wide expectations by using PBIS, and creating a common language for all students. I am able to find pamphlets, posters, and flyers throughout the building that share with students how to BE ON TARGET by being ready, respectful, and responsible in the different common areas around the building. The staff start the school year by demonstrating to students the expectations that are in place for them. Each area has a poster that defines what being ready, respectful, and responsible looks like and sounds like. These posters and flyers give a newbie a good sense of the expectations and culture of ORE.

Thanks for reading. I will try to be more insightful as I become better at being a blogger!