The Power & Impact of Connected Leadership

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We are talking about performance management on this session. So if you want to head to your workbook page 38 so you can follow along with Mitch's

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session. Uh so this is Mitch. We are so excited to have him. He is the principal at Deer Creek Mackinaw Community Unit School

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District 701 in Illinois. He leads by staying generally connected to his team.

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He's going to show you what that will look like day today. So, we'll welcome him for this session under the power and impact of connected uh leadership. So,

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Mitch, I'm going to stop sharing my screen and we'll let you go ahead.

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And Mitch does have a near pod presentation. So, that is in the chat, too, if you want to click on that link.

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Mitch, you had a turkey sandwich for lunch. Sounds delicious.

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Yes, it was. It was. All right. Well, very good. Well, uh welcome, uh to to this session of the power and impact of

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connected leadership. And yes, uh as Alyssa mentioned, I am uh the principal at Deer Creek Meackinaw High School. Uh we

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are a small rural district in central Illinois located right between Peoria and Bloomington.

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And so here we go, just a little and uh that you can see the code for the near pod there. and hopefully you'll be able to log in and there's a couple

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of interactive slides uh to participate in here uh during during the session.

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But I couldn't be more excited to uh share what is going on here at DMAC and and some of the things that that I

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try to do as a building leader and that we try to do here at DMAC to to build relationships and be uh truly connected.

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So just a little bit about me., as you can see there on the slide, we are an enrollment of 302 student high school students. That's 9 through 12.

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I've been in, uh, education for 33 years. Uh, and this is my 12th year as administrator going into my 13 13th year as

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an administrator., I started out as a biology teacher in in another rural

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district, uh, Hersher, Illinois, and came to DMAC and I've been a elementary PE teacher, high school driver ed teacher, high school PE teacher, junior

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high science teacher, and now, uh, assistant principal, athletic director, and now principal. So, uh, kind of run the gamut educationally and have given

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me a lot of great experiences. Uh, and then, uh, I have, uh, my wife. Uh we will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary here coming up in uh in a month and uh so that's very exciting.

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Then my son is a sophomore here at DMAC High School. So he goes to school with his uh his dad is the principal. So and then we have two dogs, Mercury and Ruby.

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And Ruby was a dog that we bought during COVID. I don't know if any of you were also uh one that picked up in addition to your family during COVID like we did,

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but uh there we go. So, well, let's dive into this. Uh, first thing just uh real quick, a question. What is one word that

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you would describe uh your relationship with your staff? And if we want to go ahead and uh drop that in. Let me go

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ahead and Here we go. You should be able to answer

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here shortly. There we go. All right.

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about 10 more seconds to drop that in there if you so choose.

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All right. Very good. I see. know. So, supportive, close, new and looking, positive, untied with an exclamation

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point, trusting, friendly, caring, growing, consistent, all of those

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things. Uh would anyone uh like to share uh why you selected that word or would your staff have chosen this chosen word?

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All right.

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Also in the chat, I just wanted to call out if you didn't get on an AirPod, you can use the chat, too. But someone said tight uh growing, building, and trusting. So, thank you so much as well.

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Very good. Yeah. All right. Well, uh yeah. So, let's let's take a look. So, we our word here at DMAC is uh is

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connected., and I'm going into my fifth year here as the building principal. And when I started this journey, I sat with my superintendent

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uh the summer before the staff arrived and we just uh were talking about how to uh start the school year, new principal,

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and just kind of setting a tone. And he brought to me a story from uh from the principal at Columbine High School. And you may I'm sure we're all familiar with

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with those uh events uh back in 1999. Uh and maybe you're familiar with with Frank's story, the principal there. But

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when they came back from that tragedy, he uh he brought a carabiner and he brought this analogy and this this

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symbol of connectedness because they were all going to be linked to those events and have to move forward together and he wanted to unify that school. Uh

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and so he started with with the carabiner and just uh said we are all linked. We're all connected uh and we want to make sure we take care of each

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other. And and that really resonated with me. We were fortunate enough to have gone through something uh like

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that. But I really like the message that that that sent as you think about a school. Uh and then I'm I'm a John

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Gordon uh fan. I read most I've read most of his books. if you're familiar with him, he's a motivational u speaker

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and and and author and he'll challenge you in January to pick a word, one word you know for your personal life, your

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professional life that would just kind of ground you and be your theme for the year and annually pick a new word. And so I coupled that story with with John

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Gordon, some of his influence he's had on me and uh chose uh this connected to be our theme here at DMAC. Uh and so so

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that's where where it really started uh four years ago. everything we do now involves strengthening the connections

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throughout our building and uh you know we we we we put that in front of our students. We put that in front of of our

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uh our staff in our cafeteria. It's a little picture on our ceiling. Uh can't really tell out of that picture outside.

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It's it's painted. We had a student do that work for us over the summer.

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Painted our ceiling tiles. And then around that word connected is where we display all of the carabiners., and

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so when the incoming freshman come in, I'll meet with them day one. We give them a carabiner. We talk about this. We we I share that story and we just talk

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about from this point forward. We're always going to be connected. Whether you la you're here for one day and your journey takes you somewhere else or you

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go the full four years and graduate you'll be connected to us and you hopefully over the next four years at at DMAC or however long you're there you

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build these connections and you will will remember them fondly. Uh and so there's one carabiner in that ring

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that represents every student and then every faculty and staff member with within the building. And when their journey ends for whatever reason, if

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they if they move, if they graduate, if we have a staff take a different position or life takes them in a different direction, uh then we we hand

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them that carabiner as they leave as a symbol of the connection to Deer Creek Mackinaw High School and and the the deep

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connections that that you make. And so, not only is it for our staff to to be a centralized theme, but we we've

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pushed that onto our students as well, and they've they've really embraced that. It it a lot of times what I've seen now over four different years of

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graduations that it will be mentioned in a graduation speech about about the connections that they made and and how they're going to move forward.

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All right. So, what uh what does it look like here? So, here are some things I'd like to just talk to you about, like

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what what we're doing at DMAC to try to just foster this connected mindset

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and and build these relationships. And then we'll talk at the end kind of some of the results and what I think are the real real benefits that we're starting

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to see uh here. Uh so those are just the list of the eight things that we'll talk about that try to ped it down to

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fit the time frame and that I think are what we are most consistent at and and what I think have had the deepest impact uh on our staff.

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So we'll get into the first one here. Uh staff apparel. I'm not sure how the Zoom shows, but I have my t-shirt on today.

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Uh thought it was appropriate. Uh but we uh when we first launched this, we're like we got to have gear. Everybody loves swag. Everybody likes to to have

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those theme shirts. So, we we got these to to kick it off. and so then when we get new staff, uh new faculty, we we

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purchase them a shirt as well. And then we'll designate days throughout the year. Uh we we start the school year with them on uh day one. Uh it's just to

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as a symbol that uh we're a connected staff. We're going to do things together and take care of each other u and uh and and put our best foot forward each day.

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So, I think wearing apparel is a visible sign of of being connected., and we're all pulling pulling in that same same direction.

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Our boosters help us uh offset the cost if if you think about that the cost of that or or whatever available funds

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you may have., so uh there's the staff apparel.

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probably one of the coolest things I I think is has uh really been uh something that maybe sets us apart from other

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schools is this front door welcome. And this this is a co co holder. I don't don't know what co looked like in your

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school or in your state. Uh but here in Illinois you know it it presented a

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lot of challenges uh to us uh as far as keeping staying in session coming out of CO and so in in 2021 we were able to

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stay open if we followed some some different guidelines and uh one of those was we had to do uh uh checks and wellness checks as students came in to

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make sure that everybody was healthy to keep everybody healthy and and so every student came in and answered a series of questions questions and they

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came in and at first it was a pretty daunting task, but what we the staff that ran the the front door really started to realize is we got to see

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every student when they walked in the door and we got to have a conversation with them. I know it was a series of questions but uh you still got to have a

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a general conversation with them and we really saw great value in that. So when when that protocol went went away we

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Talked about how do we keep that going? How do we get to see every student as they walk in the door? bef and uh and just do a general check. And

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so we have you can see our our front entry. They've got we've got benches. We have chairs and it started out as we

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assigned a duty to be up in the front to greet. And what it evolved into is we now don't assign it because we have 8 to

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10 staff every morning that hang out here in the front. And they have great com. It starts with them because they're

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here before the students talking, having their own conversations, drinking your coffee, tea, whatever your morning energy drink is. And then as the

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students come in, then they're we're we're we're talking to them and they're talking with the teachers. And it just has become uh a a tradition that we have

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here at DMAC where we just I think start the day with building connections. You know, when you talk specifically to the staff, you're sharing stories of what

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they did at the night before. If there's a coach out there, how'd the game go? If there's a club sponsor, the band uh put the performance on. It's just a a way to

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stay up on what's going on and hear each other you know, and and and and connect in that way. So, uh just a great

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thing that came out of some tough times that, you know, around the country that we just really hang our hat on. And then on on Fridays we put music on and it's a

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it's a party uh for the end of the week. So

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the next thing handwritten staff notes. there's a there's a basketball coach. I don't know if there's any

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basketball coaches in this group, but there's Buzz Williams is a basketball coach uh coached at many different division one schools. and he talked

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about sending handwritten notes to all the people that once he arrived as the as a B college basketball coach. He he would send handwritten notes to all the

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people that helped him get there. And he and he continues to send these notes out to anybody that's influenced him and

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thanking them for getting him to where he was. And when I when I heard that story, I thought that was just uh really

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impactful to think about like thanking people for what they do for you. And so that's where this came from is and and whenever I can, I try to do a

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handwritten note. I know emails, quick and easy, those are really good, too.

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And so are text messages, things like that. But I think there's there's some power in in a handwritten note. And I can speak for me personally, when I

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write a note, I it energizes me. I feel uh like I'm getting uh re refueled when

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I do that. And I think and then when I receive a handwritten note, I think it just has a little bit more of an impact.

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So we I try to uh put uh intentional recognition of staff uh you know in the things that they do a variety I listed a

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few but there's so many things uh that we can put out there and so

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I try to do you know one to two every every two weeks uh you know depending on what's going on within our school and

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just recognizing the awesome things that are going on uh in our in our school.

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So, I think receiving handwritten notes causes staff to feel seen. I see you.

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You're you're in the grind. You're doing these things. I appreciate you and connected to that overall school environment.

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All right, here's another little uh little activity if you will. We'll test.

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You don't have to draw if you're not a big artist, but maybe just write down and the question will be, what is a quick picture you could draw to brighten

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someone's day? or what note of affirmation you could

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could put in someone's mailbox, slide it on their desk before they arrive or it's one thing you could do

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was some really Yeah, really really Yeah, coffee is really good. The art artwork is is really good as well. I like this. Thanks for the participation.

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Uh yeah, just a lot of lot of smiles.

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Just uh Hey, yeah, I see you. And just a smile to brighten your day.

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really good., so yeah, just a a a handwritten note I think go go goes a a long way., the other thing that I

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will do is uh at the beginning of the year we do a little survey., it's it

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started with uh with uh Alpaca. They would they provided a you could do a staff survey and tells you all of your uh your staff's favorite things and it

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gives you a little heartbeat of what everybody loves and what rejuvenates them. And so, uh, we've continued to do that. And so, now I have a list of

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people's favorite candy bars and snacks and things like that. So, when when I can, I'll I'll attach that with it as well, a little note. And, yeah, maybe

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there's that that little uh pick me up uh throughout the day. So, all right, the next one, Top Chief. Uh, we do a

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traveling trophy., interesting story behind this that the trophy that we use, we are the DMAC

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Chiefs. Uh, I was at a Third Sunday Market, which is like a flea market in Bloomington, Illinois. My wife loves to

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go., and I love to go with her and uh just looking around a table and and found a an old Chief trophy., so

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picked that up for $10 and we put a little plate on it says top chief. So now this is our traveling recognition

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and uh every uh SIP day and and and teacher institute day inservice day

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we'll have a staff meeting and we will pass this along. And so if you hold the chief you know that as we approach

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that next meeting together, you'll be passing it on to someone else and it's someone that has impacted you or someone that you want to just shine some light on for what they're doing in the school.

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And it is it's all faculty and staff. So I chose these two pictures because I think it's so awesome that the upper

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left is uh is an art response intervention pair professional that we have in our building. Uh, so she's

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working one-on-one with students as a as a as a pair professional and was recognized by the staff on the work that

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she's doing behind the scenes to help these kids succeed and give them the extra uh support that they need. And then the lower right, that's our head of maintenance and our head of facilities.

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And our staff uh recognized the the work that they that they did. That one I believe came right after the summer and

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all the work they did as our buildings were closed for the summer and uh recognized all that. So it just it extends past our our certified staff in

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the classrooms. It goes to everybody. and it has really become a cool part of our staff meetings where they stand up and uh and pass that that trophy along.

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along those same lines, a little bit less formal than the top chief., again, any any staff meeting that we

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have, we take the first five minutes to give individual shoutouts and we just popcorn around the room. Anybody like to share something that's going on

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someone that impacted you, recognize someone that's supported you?, our opening day institute is about building connections and and and building trust

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and supporting each other. Uh, and we really talk about, you know, day one, it's easy. We're all energized. We're all excited for the new year, but you

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get to October, you get to February when when it's the grind, and you start to get a little irritable. Are we still taking care of each other? Are we still

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recognizing all the great things that are taking place and the the work that's being done? Uh, and so again, we just start and it's just interesting. Again, all of us are putting agendas together.

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we got a timeline to fill and you worry about well if I give too much time for staff to share out I'm not going to get

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to you know whatever curriculum maps assessment standardized testing all these things and I've just found like we're just going to take the time that

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it takes and if there's something I need to share out in an email then we'll share it out in the email but it's more important that we take care of each other in these moments and so this has

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been a great way to start our meetings so I think sharing and hearing stories of others creates connections again they're seen and amongst uh

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amongst then between the people in the room and it just energizes people even if you're not involved in the story you hear other people's story

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and of course games again uh there's a risk when you play games that it's going to bleed into time and uh again my

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roots are certainly I was a biology major I started in science but the majority of my career I taught PE so we were all about games and I'm all about

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games. I coached for a long time as well. but and my family's a big game gaming family, but we have brought

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this to to our school and we'll play we play games at every staff meeting. We just I find it I just it's just a

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non-negotiable with us that we have to take some time to have some fun and laugh at ourselves, laugh with each other. and and so

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The we started this year where we did name that tune with a slide whistle.

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They got a song and they had to play the song on a slide whistle and try to get their team to to guess it which was just

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uh hilarious and fantastic and again a lot of memories. And so I would encourage you to do staff games if

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you're not maybe you can't carve out every staff meeting like we do but it is it brings an energy. So when we do get to the heavy stuff, when you do get to

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the data crunching and you do get to some of these things in the trenches there, there's some we've we've lightened it a little bit. We've built some connections and now we can go do

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some of the hard stuff that education brings uh brings with it. So so yeah, game they're laughter fun memories. And

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what I found now already they're asking me what games are we playing on August 10th. That's our first day together.

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when we come back, what games are we gonna play? What's gonna kick this off?

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And and a lot of people dread staff meetings. We got games. They're running to the staff meetings. If if only for

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the games, that's that's great. Let's get here and do it. So, so there we go. So, here we go. Another little poll

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question for you. how often do you incorporate games into your staff meetings?

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And Hopefully this this showed up a little different. Are you able to Oh, yeah. There it is. It's going. Little poll action.

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I'm not able to select anything. Not able to select. Okay. Huh.

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Yeah, it looks like a few people are and a few people are not. But if you want to drop in the chat too, we can I can read it.

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Yeah, if you want to go and share your thoughts in the chat. A lot of sometimes maybe once a month.

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Sometimes. Sometimes.

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Sometimes almost always perfect.

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Another sometimes. Sometimes, but want to do always.

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Yeah. Mostly some. Mostly sometimes I'm seeing. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Good. Good. That's good to hear.

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Does any uh does anybody have a a game that that sticks out that they want to share?

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I have one that takes a little bit of work up front, but uh I created some

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some slideshows and I I named them like rules of school or or whatever you want to name them, but they had absurd uh facts and absurd pictures in them.

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And then I had two people get up and give the slides as if it were an inservice.

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And they just came up with, you know, ridiculous things because they didn't know what they were going to talk about until they saw the next slide. So, Oh, man. Great. Oh, yeah. I love that.

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Yeah. Thanks, thanks for sharing., yeah, I that uh I again, we we found games to to just really be a great way of connecting uh all of our our staff.

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So, All right. And I I put I put staff

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newsletter in. I don't want to assume things. I I would imagine. So I, as I mentioned, my wife uh uh we're married

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for 25 years. I did not mention she's also an educator. She teaches uh uh honors biology at Morton High School in Illinois. And so we have lots of

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educational uh conversations. And I say that because I know that she receives uh you know an update or a newsletter from

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her her administration each each uh each week as well. But if if you're not doing a a weekly newsletter

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strongly encourage it. and you can make it, you know, what you want. but uh mine goes out every Sunday at 9:00 in

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the morning. and it includes these variety of things. Again, try to not

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just do the the tasks that are coming up and the informational items, but celebrate whenever we can. Again, rec

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recognize uh all the amazing things going on and the wonderful events that take place and the people that make those things happen. Recognize staff

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birthdays, keep people up so if if if you want, you can celebrate them on their day.

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And and again, this is one that has just it was surprising. I thought it was just kind of anformational thing.

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and now it has become just something everybody anticipates. Uh, in fact, I had my email compromised and so I was

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not able to receive emails for for 3 weeks., and whatever happened within some of our school here, Google wouldn't

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let you get back into anything for three weeks. And so I couldn't even start a new email. I just had to let it set. Uh

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so I couldn't send this out and uh it really kind of threw some people for a loop. They're like when is this going to come back out? When are we going to get

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our connected chief's newsletter? And so it's really uh become something that's dependent and I think it does form connections. Uh one clear communication

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and being informed uh keeps people connected through through important information. Uh, and then it it it's

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been kind of interesting because conversations start when people open that newsletter. Even if it's announcing a dress up day, then they're starting to

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plan those dress up days together within their their groups and and who wants to dress uh, you know, in certain ways. So,

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uh, I think in a way that uh, indirectly forms connected uh, connections, you know, even through just a simple

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newsletter that goes out every every week.

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social committee. Don't know if you have one. Uh we didn't have one in any formal sense, but in in uh maybe two years ago,

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second year as a building principal, I had staff uh come to me and ask if they could form a a social committee and kind

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of put some things together to do with the staff. I think that's one sign that when we get to the end, talk about like how do we know some of this stuff's working or what what are some signs? I

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think this is one of those is that they started to feel these connections or they see a need to even connect more and so I have a staff member that took

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the lead to just be the self the the social committee and started uh the these three things are are some of the

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main things. The secret chiefs it's if you you've heard of secret Santa that runs you know right up before Christmas.

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Secret chiefs is something that runs all semester for us. uh you put your name if you like to participate. You get assigned a teacher or another staff

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member and then throughout that semester you're you're being the secret Santa or the secret chief for the first semester,

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right? And it's just the expectation is you don't spend a bunch of money. Just drop a note uh drop a word of encouragement. If you want to put a little little something, little gift

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with it, you can. their favorite candy bar, their coffee, gift, small gift card, whatever. Uh, but it's just and it's just every month we we encourage

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people to do it once a month. Just drop in with your secret chief, put something in their room, put something in their mailbox, have somebody deliver something

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to them uh to energize them throughout uh, you know, the semester. And then at the end of the semester, we do the big reveal of who uh who had who and share

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the stories of how we kept it a secret or didn't quite keep it a secret. and they found out sooner than than the end

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of it. But uh that was that's been really uh a really good thing to watch our our our staff do that monthly

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potlucks. Uh this year we moved it to uh again on our SIP days we have uh and our

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TI days we do a special lunch. So each department takes a month. sorry about that.

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Got a little weather here in Illinois.

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So, uh, if you heard that, that was my weather alarm. But, anyway, so monthly potluck. So, every every department takes, uh, a month and they

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set the theme. So, if you want to do backyard barbecue as your theme, the department will take care of the main

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and then put out a signup genius Google Doc for the rest of the the staff to pitch in on the sides. And then on those

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staff date, we'll all eat the potluck, sit in the same room, and again just uh enjoy lunch together and and build

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connections. Uh and then, you know, staff parties and things like that are coordinated as well. so a big big uh

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big part of uh what's going on is that and the cool thing is that was led by a teacher and initiated by uh staff.

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All right. So I say all of those things.

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There's eight different things that we've done. How do we know? You know, with anything in education, it's hard to know ex there's so many variables that

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play into why things happen, whether it be test scores or or student engagement, student improvement, staff., so

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sometimes it's it's it's an undefined science, but here are some things that I think are pointing in us in the right direction that what we're doing is is

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working. Uh, I did take uh a lot of this from from the pulse survey. but uh our overall positivity rate this year was 78%. Last year it was 66%.

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So uh really really energized by the end of the year to to see where we were.

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and uh and then the the average overall from from the Alpaca surveys was 75. So we're a little above that. So indicate

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maybe we're doing some things to to keep that positivity rate because I think if you're connected you have a positive climate. we were designated in

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Illinois. We we have a school report card uh where you get designated as commendable or exemplary and we've

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been fortunate to be exemplary the last two years. Uh US News World Report were a top rated school. I think all those

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your staff are are energized and doing the work helping our students then perform. Uh top positive words you can see there committed connected accepted

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valued. and then our top negative words uh fatigued, drained, exhausted as we don't want to have any negative words

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certainly but I think when you look at again weighing which ones really hit home uh those are not normal. Those are

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those are doing the job, doing the task type things. You get concerned, right?

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When you see the you know, I don't feel unseen would be a word that would that may show up or I I feel

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disconnected or devalued, not valued, you know, those types of things. And I'm not saying those words don't show up throughout the year. They do. Please,

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I'm not going to sit here and say I never get those. When we do when I do get those, however, then it's a real search like who am I missing? Who's not

33:31

feeling connected? what can we do to really reach every everybody? because those words will show up, right? And you're like, I don't want anybody to

33:39

feel like they're not seen, not valued, or out of the loop. but overall, those those words aren't aren't the

33:46

biggest circle, which I think indicates that we we're we're capturing the majority of them to feel connected.

33:55

Few other things again, just some word.

33:57

These are these are things that were selected through that survey or things that our staff wrote in the seven and

34:04

eight are what somebody wrote., feeling motivated, continue learning, becoming the best educator I can be.

34:10

It's tough right now. Just admit it that there are times that it's tough. I feel supported, positive about where we are, what we're doing, where we're headed.

34:18

And those are some of the things again, is it working?, and and and what's

34:27

the power of of being being connected?

34:32

The other thing I did not put on here, I thought of it as I was preparing today is another indicator that I think was really cool is on Fridays

34:41

When when I'm here, it's getting ready for an event or something like that and you go out and you walk around.

34:48

So, we get out at 3 3:30. Our students or our staff are able to leave at 3:30.

34:54

And when it's 4:00 and you walk around, you still see pockets of teachers in the building on a Friday.

35:00

Just if it energizes me, it feels fills my heart cuz like everybody's running to the weekend usually and to to

35:08

be so comfortable here or want to be or connected with people that were here half an hour on a Friday afterwards and and that happens more times than not.

35:16

And so that that's another sign. I think we're we're doing some good things.

35:22

All right, one one last little uh the poll here. And I think you're going to do this in the uh in the in the activity afterwards. but I thought I'd just

35:31

throw this this might jump start that and may hopefully this will

35:42

and if it if you can't put it in the poll, go ahead and drop it in the comments if you want or just reflect on it.

35:51

Yeah, I think it it looks like it's not letting me No one's doing it. Huh?

35:56

Clicking it. I don't know. It's not letting me click anything. But yeah, if you want to drop in the in the chat, I'll read them out really quick.

36:05

And then we are coming up on time, Mitch. So, I'm going to have you finish up.

36:10

That's all that's all I have. Uh sorry if I ran long., but I appreciate

36:16

everybody taking the time uh to to tune in today. I hope you get at least one thing out of it. And uh certainly my

36:25

contact information. Let me go ahead and skip past that., does anybody have any questions?

36:31

Yeah, I'm going to read out a few. A lot of the games front door welcome are standing out the traveling trophy game staff notes, handwritten staff notes, one word.

36:42

Another idea said, "We have a wellness committee and we focus on staff wellness and offer free weekly Pilates, yoga

36:50

strength training, and things. It's been well received." Great ideas. Awesome.

36:56

Okay. I'm going to have Yeah. Grab Mitch's. Uh, if you want to screenshot that, you can. Or I will go ahead and

37:04

Obviously we'll we'll send this all to you as participants and make sure you have everything you need from the sessions., thank you so much, Mitch.

37:12

We appreciate it. We're going to go ahead and I'm gonna share my screen for a little feedback survey for Mitch., and Mitch, enjoy the rest of your day in

37:20

Illinois. Uh, thank you so much for your time today.

37:23

Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the conference. Appreciate the opportunity.