FOCUS Walkthroughs

We all know that it is critical that we are training our teachers in the latest research based strategies to give them an opportunity to be great for our students. Pouring into a teacher the knowledge required to be successful helps ignite their passion, purpose, and pursuit of excellence. It is a fact that professional development is an important factor in student achievement. They also help improve a teacher's performance levels. Professional development opportunities should be ongoing and aligned with the district's and school's goals. It is important that we invest in our teachers. The investment have a return called student achievement.

So how would you know when your teachers need training? That's easy...visit classrooms and then provide feedback. Daily walkthroughs should be informal and are essential in being able to identify what teachers need to be their best in the classroom. Spend as much time in the classrooms as possible. Start your week with a list of at least 5 classrooms you will visit each day. Walkthroughs should be no longer than 5 minutes. Pick one or two focus areas and only focus on that during your walkthroughs. Your goal is to FOCUS on specific things that teachers can work on each week to become a better version of them.

In one of my PLN groups, I decided to participate in the 500 walkthrough challenge. That's right, complete 500 walkthroughs this year...in 180 days!  I decided to call these FOCUS Walks -nonjudgmental and non-evaluative opportunities for growth. 

Find a few things to focus your walkthrough on.
Observe your focus area of the walkthrough.
Create a list of strengths and weaknesses.
Utilize the students to share what they are learning.
Send the teacher specific feedback on the walkthrough

You can create a Google Form and use Autocrat to create a feedback form, leave a post-note, or leave feedback using your Rocketbook Everlast. Your feedback should be specific and over ways for teachers to grow professionally.

I decided to take our observations and break them down to use for the FOCUS Walks. Each week I will focus on a standard and integrate our district's CCRP to help grow teachers. Using the Google Form, I am able to use Autocrat to create an automatic feedback form to share with teachers.

#500walkthroughs

I am an aspiring educational leader. Please view my Educational Portfolio if you are interested in an innovative instructional leader to lead and inspire, feel free to contact me.

Copyright 2017 Felecia Young
All Rights Reserved

SOAR

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.”
- Harvey S. Firestone
Let’s face it, great teachers create great students. One of the most important duty we have as as administrator is creating great teachers.
Over the past few weeks I completed my first rounds of observations. I always make sure that I am as detailed as I can be as the observer. If we want our teachers to grow, we must give them the essential tools that they need.
Following observations it’s important we prove them with feedback. Your feedback should be specific and an opportunity to open a powerful dialogue.
I have tried Glow and Grow, SWOT, and other forms of feedback tools. This year I began SOAR (c). SOAR stands for
S - Strengths observed during the observation.
O - Opportunities for Strategies to Use. Instead of discussing negatives, share with teachers ways to grow or provide strategies to use that goes with school goals. This area you can provide books, online PD, webinars, activities, etc.
A - Area of Focus from PDP. Each year teaches write their Professional Development Plans. This is a great area for us to provide support and resources for teachers to accomplish their goals.
R - Recommendatios from Admin is the opportunity for the teacher to discuss ways we can assist them in thei growth.

It’s important that we remember:
“Personal growth and professional development require mostly being treated like an adult, which is pretty much the opposite of what happens in most workplaces. People need to be able to make decisions. To do that effectively, they need information and training in how to use it.”
- Jeffrey Pfeffer

I am an aspiring educational leader. Please view my Educational Portfolio if you are interested in an innovative instructional leader to lead and inspire.

Copyright 2017 Felecia Young
All Rights Reserved

Glitter Trails - Sparkle to Inspire

It's been a while since I have written a post, but I am back. The start of this school year as been overwhelming. During the start of the new year I find myself inspiring others to be their best, encouraging them to keep pushing forward, and motivating them.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” - Jack Welch

We all have this special magical dust that is ignited by our passion, purpose, and pursuit of excellence. This magical dust creates innovation that sparks excitement in all. My life’s experiences forced me to look at life through rainbow lens. It provided me with an opportunity to not only to make the impossible possible for me, but for those I lead.

It took every success and failure on my journey for me to become the leader I am today. It is this journey that I call my glitter trail. A trail that sparkles and left a little shine...also known to many as inspiration. My passion is inspiring others. It is my purpose, what I was put on this earth to do.

As andministrator I inspire others to be the best version of them, or at least I try to. When you have unleashed the creativity and talent of others and they are able to look through rainbow lenses knowing the impossible is possible...you have inspired them. Through my actions, my daily walk, I leave a little sparkle every I go...it’s called a glitter trail.

Leadership is the ability for others to use your actions to become a better version of themselves. How can you lead genuinely without being an inspiration? Through your leadership, your ability to inspire others is essential to their growth. Staff, students, and parents need to see your failures, because the lesson is in the strength you are using to win. THE FAILURES INSPIRES. It’s okay for them to see you struggle because the lesson in the dedication you used to reach you success. THE STRUGGLE INSPIRES. It’s okay for them to see you make mistakes because the the lesson is in your ability to try again. THE MISTAKES INSPIRES.

As John Quincy Adams states, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Your journey and every experience you have along the way creates your sparkle and shine.  Sharing your journey creates the glitter trail people follow to see hope in their own journey. Glitter trails inspires, motivates, and empowers others. So sparkle for your team!

Show your continuous appreciation for the things your team do.

Provide and invest in resources in growing your team.

Accountability

Recognize individual strengths and potentials of each person on your team.

Know your team on a personal level.

Lead by example.

Encourage your team to be take risks without fear.

I love being aN administrator because I have the power to inspire others. The best part of this journey for me is the sparkle. Along the way there will be some ups and downs, but it is important that you are celebrating through the journey to help keep the sparkle.

Copyright 2017 Felecia Young

All Rights Reserved

Leading Like A Pirate

One of my best reads this summer was Lead Like a Pirate. When I say this book had me on fire, it did. The words on each page was so inspiring and empowering. I felt connected to both Beth and Shelley.

This is a challenge to write a blog that talks about the treasures you found in the book and 5 things you will commit to doing differently this year.
Lead Like a Pirate will ignite a burning passion inside you to becomes impossible to extinguish. I've gotten so excited about leading it keeps me up at night. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning. The anticipation of what gifts you will receive makes you so excited you can barely sleep. As I anxiously await for my moment to lead, this is how I feel.

This year I commit to:
(1.) Creating  a school where my students and staff are excited to come in and not out. Creating uncommon experiences.
(2.) Making strategic and intentional decisions to ensure I am doing #1 and #2.
(3.) Providing 21st PD for staff to help them grow.
(4.) Dropping ANCHORS for my staff to always show my appreciation.
(5.) Leading Like a PIRATE!

This was such a powerful book and I'm so thankful I had a chance to read it. Their is inspiration on every page. I will immerse myself in the powerful words written in this book to ensure I'm being an inspiration to others.

An Open Letter to Educators

Dear Educators,

Our summer is slowly coming to an end. Some of us worked all summer preparing for our students. From lesson plans to opening day activities, we have been looking on Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Twitter to gather ideas. In your preparation, take the time to reflect on your WHY! Why am I in education?

Your answer to this question should be your daily driven purpose. It should be the foundation of your passion (Discover your passion.) and your pursuit for excellence. The 3 P’s! Write down your Why and post it everywhere as a daily reminder.

Knowing your WHY and having a vision of your purpose, passion, and pursuit will help you bring the best you to school everyday. I challenge you to use your purpose to drive every decision you make, passion to be a champion for every student, and your pursuit to excellence to persevere.

Bring an attitude to school each day that create an experience-riched atmosphere that will motivate and inspire students to want to be at school. These experiences should include holistic relationships, engaging lessons, and fun!  Create a school experience that will make our students want to be at school everyday.

Let your purpose inspire, your passion ignite, and your pursuit empower our students to excellence everyday.

Consciously make an effort everyday to bring your best you to school. Despite what we may be going through, our students deserve it! It is our obligation to provide our students with an educational experience that inspires them.

Here's a presentation to use with your teachers on discovering their WHY!
Know You Why Presentation

Felecia Young
fitinedu.blogspot.com
Twitter: @FITinEDU

Note-taking of the Future

I have spent the summer reading and listening to many webinars on my quest to growing professionally. As I read and listened, it ignited a burning fire inside me. My passion for my WHY grew even more.

As a 21st century instructional leader, I intentionally tried to find ways to take notes that allows me to model instructional strategies I can share with teachers in the classroom. My motto this year is Leading with Intentionality. I want everything that I do to be for a purpose.


My first few books I read was reading and note taking traditionally. Then I discovered Book Snaps by Tara M. Martin. I loved doing the Book Snaps and think students will find it enjoyable.

I also did he traditional, writing what I learned in a notebook...I created tabs and everything. That was not exciting....

I am a part of some wonderful PLNs and it was there that I heard of the RocketBook. OMG! Let me tell you that I was intrigued. I googled it and then went to Amazon to purchase. I was sold. In 2 days I got my treasure and I was in love.


There are different kinds and sizes. I decided to get the Everlast. The Everlast notebook provides a classic pen and paper experience. I chose The Everlast because it is  endlessly reusable and connected to all of my favorite cloud services. 

One pen came with it, but I purchase the colorful pens for about $10. When you write using any pen from the Pilot Frixion line, the writing sticks to Everlast pages like regular paper. But add a drop of water… and the notebook erases like magic.

The Everlast notebook is compatible with the Rocketbook app. That means before my notes go off the page they go online to destinations like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Evernote — perfectly organized. You know me, I send it to Google Drive!

I always wanted to do Sketch Notes, so I found myself listening to a few webinars and sketch noting all weekend. I was able to listen and doodle at the same time! #winning I scanned each page into the RocketBook app, it was sent to my Google Drive, and I wiped the marks away to begin again.




The Rocketbook for me is a great way to take notes, share them quickly, and you don't have to worry about looking for a notebook to find your notes. Just go to Google and you have them all the time. The app also files your pages, so you have them there and can share them to Facebook, Twitter, Messenger, and via email! Administrators, teachers, and students can benefit from the notebook from the future! I think I am going to order my daughter one. She will be in 9th grade and this would definitely help her organize her notes and prevent the clutter of multiple notebooks.

Digital Tools for the 21st Century Administrator

Digital Tools

for the 

21st Century Administrator

Register by clicking on the link: Digital Tools for the 21st Century Administrator Part 1