Planning Around Priorities: How do we ensure our last days, first days, and all the days in between support what is most important?

Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. Book Study

Photo by Dorothea OLDANI on Unsplash

In the Greek philosopher Heraclitus’ words, “the only constant in life is change”. Within education, change can be exciting, it can be terrifying, but most importantly, it is necessary.

This spring was a time of change for me. I left a school community and leadership team that felt like home, and entered into my first principal position at a new school. My first months felt similar to walking into holiday weekend at Costco. Everywhere I looked there was competing information and endless possibilities. The “competing alternatives” within a school, be it within a familiar or new learning space, can feel overwhelming.

This is why Matt Renwick’s question in his book Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H.: 5 Strategies for Supporting Teaching and Learning, both hooked and centered me: “If you knew that your last day at your school was tomorrow, how would you decide to spend your time?” (p. 71). Having just gone through a change, I know last days and first days feel very similar. And every September offers another ‘first day’.

Organizing Around a Priority

With the chaos of the final month of school, I learned it is much harder to “walk the talk” on how to use your time, especially as a new principal. There is a real danger in falling prey to paperwork and managerial duties behind a desk. In Chapter 4, “Organize Around A Priority”, Renwick provides specific examples of how to balance managing and leading and how to be present and prioritize.

Sometimes it is not more of everything we need to do, but less, and focused on the important things – our priorities. Matt offers four key steps towards organizing around a priority that, regardless of your role, feels manageable:

• Step 1: Analyze and understand your current reality

• Step 2: Examine your beliefs about instruction

• Step 3: Engage in focused professional learning

• Step 4: Create collective commitments around promising practices

Step 1: Analyze and understand your current reality

People and relationships are always your first step. Understanding a school’s current reality can only be done with a strong leadership team. Matt describes a detailed process towards building a leadership team, including conversational-type interviews and transparency about the role of the team.

In my school board, our school leadership teams include the principal, assistant principal, and Learning Leaders - active classroom teachers who bring “street data” (Safir & Dugan, 2021) to each conversation. In seeking to understand my new school, our leadership team has been essential. They reveal what I don’t know to ask or look for, and help me clarify what I think I have learned.

Once your leadership team is established, Matt suggests creating a decision-making matrix and organizing data to better understand your context. He also clarifies when to bring in outside perspective. These examples highlight the practicality of Matt’s book, inviting me to celebrate pieces from my existing practice and suggesting next steps I can try as a new leader.

Step 2: Examine your beliefs about instruction

“We grow in our profession only when we become more critical about our currently held beliefs and regularly examine them through reading professionally, intentional reflection, and action. Education is constantly evolving, considering new studies and findings. To stay current, a mindset open to options seems necessary” (p. 82).

When staff understand the why, it is much easier to collaborate on the what.

In Alberta, we are about to implement a highly contested new curriculum in English Language Arts and Mathematics. Teachers have many beliefs around the new curriculums which will impact our individual and shared choices. Framing first day conversations around belief statements, with opportunities to explain why or why don’t you agree, is one suggestion Matt offers towards revealing and aligning beliefs within a school. An activity such as this would allow staff members to feel seen and heard, and provide a context to better understand and build priorities together.

Step 3: Engage in focused professional learning

A new principal, multiple new curriculums, and a new school year is a lot of new. Matt’s sharing of a sardine metaphor reassured and reminded me only a small percent of teachers needs to be on board for professional change to begin.

Utilizing teaching sprints (Breakspear) is an approach we use in our school district.  These are similar to the “opportunities to try it and apply it” (p. 83) that Matt describes, drawing on his previous work with staff around classroom libraries.  Understanding that “professionals need to physically engage in the change and experience it for the process of instructional change to occur” (p.83) reminded me of the importance to provide time to learn, time to implement, and time to reflect if lasting change is to occur.

For next year, this is where as a leader I have chosen to bring in an outside perspective as we embark on a Layers of Literacy pilot project focused on braiding together new curriculum, the Collaborative Response Model, and a deeper understanding of how to teach reading. Spaced learning across the school year will allow all of us time to “try it and apply it”, opening up safe learning spaces for both staff and student learning.

I am definitely going to add Renwick’s question, “What is safe enough to try?” (Kim and Gonzales-Black, 2018) as a way to support resistant staff (p. 85). I can see how the question could also be expanded for staff who are on board but feeling overwhelmed.

Sometimes it is not that we do not want to change; it just feels like our jars are already full. Renwick wisely reminds us to take time to celebrate each classroom to ensure equity and accountability.

What's Safe Enough to Try? A Conversation with Anthony Kim, author of The New School Rules

Step 4: Create collective commitments around promising practices

It is human nature to fall back into what you have always done.

This is why I particularly appreciated how Matt addresses this likelihood head on. It is a reminder of why taking time to gather staff perception data around identified priorities can support a school to stay on track. Matt offers some success indicators for resetting around a priority that over time may have become less visible:

• Can most staff members articulate the priority?

• What other areas of school improvement have benefited from the singular focus?

• Do you notice staff resource purchasing increasingly connected to identified priorities?

I suggest additional success indicators: noticing how common language around the priority becomes embedded within assessment, reporting comments, and staff and student’s everyday conversations. When our school was focused on using success criteria to improve achievement, I felt it was when the students began to use both the language and processes that I knew we had made real progress.

Planning For Your Next “First Day”

Early in Chapter Four, Renwick writes: “The only way we achieve success is together. There is no going it alone on these initiatives” (p. 73).

Whether we are a physically close, such as with a school-based team, or we are far in distance, like the educators coming together here to learn through this book study, we will always be better together. By setting priorities we can ensure that together we are all heading in the right direction. Thank you to Matt and the other contributors for another year of learning and a chance to grow together in service of students.

Heather McKay is a K-5 Principal in Calgary, Alberta. Over the past 26 years she has supported student learning as an Assistant Principal, K-12 Literacy Specialist, and classroom teacher with students from kindergarten to grade 9. She is passionate about literacy, equity and excellence for all. Outside of school, she cherishes time spent outdoors with her husband, three children and two dogs.