Before we get started, I have two quick announcements

1.     I’ve been hearing a strong interest in how to support beginning teachers. I went into some key practices last year in episodes 214 and 215, so if you are in the mode to think about how to support your BTs (and ECTs), give a listen to episodes 214 and 215

2.     The July 22 episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast we feature a panel discussion with myself and five assistant principals. Some are national/state AP of the Year awardees and others are just wrapping up their first year as assist principals. The focus of our discussion is being a first year AP! We would love to hear from you. If you have questions, topics, advice, or stories, please consider sharing. Please email them to me at [email protected]. I would love to be able to name contributors but will only do so if you explicitly give permission for us to include your name and affiliation. We are recording on July 15, so don’t wait.

Okay, now onto the episode…

Assistant Principal Podcast Content Episode Outline

Show title and release date: November 22, 2022

Show Description:

Last episode we looked at the flywheel through the lens of normative, or group, professional development. Remember, the flywheel refers to a set of practices that, when executed over and over again, build positive momentum that improves the organization and leads to fulfillment of the purpose. In a school, this translates to supporting teacher growth by providing professional development, following up with targeted observations that gather data about the implementation of the practices from the PD, and then using the data to drive the next PD session. Today we will look at how the flywheel changes when we focus on a specific teacher’s growth as opposed to developing a group of teachers.

Show Intro

Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. This is a content-focused episode. The content will stand on its own, but we will take a deeper dive into the topic in an upcoming issue of Quadrant2. Members of our APEx Community can expect to get support on implementing the ideas we are looking at and adapting them to their unique contexts. You can learn more about APEx and Quadrant2 at frederickbuskey.com/theassistantprincipal.

Celebrations:

Last week’s facilitation

The Big Idea

In last week’s flywheel example we supported a group of ECTs in implementing a beginning of class procedure. We taught the teachers the components of a good procedure and how to teach and reinforce it with their students. We collected normative data on:

• 3 steps of the procedure
• Number and quality of reinforcement statements
• Type of prompts used to redirect students
• Notes about the writing prompt

We aggregated that data noticed that the writing prompts were a weak spot. In talking with the teachers we learned there was a lack of clarity on what a good prompt looked like and how to write it, so that would be the next round of PD. This was all a normative process – for a group.

But what about the flywheel used for an individual teacher?

Example of Mr. Gale, weakness in store step and reinforcement (6/118). This leads us into a formative coaching cycle.

Other things to think about:

• Flywheel depends on infrastructure:
  • Scheduled ILT
  • Structured agenda focused on teacher development
  • Tracking teacher progress and focus areas (ep 14)
    • Normative, formative
    • Consistent feedback
    • PD planning
  • Scheduled observations
• Skills:
  • Adapting/creating targeted observation instruments
  • Recording data accurately
  • Leading conversations around data with teachers
• Trust your teachers to use the data and lead the process
• Group or individual
• The vision: Everyone is growing all the time
• One is better than none, a few are better than none
• If you aren’t there, begin with ECTs

Reflection:

• Where are you in this journey?
• What’s holding you back?
• How can your school get better if you don’t have a system for consistently growing your teachers?

Show Outro

That wraps up today’s content focused episode. We’ll be back next week with Dr. David Franklin who founded and oversees a wonderful FaceBook community for school leaders. I’m not a huge fan of FB, but David has provided a nice space for leaders to interact. That group is The Principal’s Desk. You’ll need to request access and if you decide to do that, please mention that you heard about the group on the podcast – that would be encouraging to both of us.

If you enjoyed today’s show, please subscribe and rate this podcast.

You can ask questions, make requests and give us feedback at [email protected]. We will be relaeasing an upcoming issue of our micro-journal, Quadrant2 focused on the Flywheel, so if you aren’t already subscribed you can go to frederickbuskey.com/quadrant2.

That wraps up today’s show! I’m Frederick Buskey and I hope you’ll join me next time for the Assistant Principal Podcast.