In collaboration with the Southern California Professional Development Federation (SCPDF), we hosted a workshop this week highlighting the connection and communication practices that are best supporting our school communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and distance learning. The goal? To share what we’ve learned about building and maintaining relationships during this time, and how we can continue to foster those connections whether we’re together in person or not.
Engaging students and families is always a focal point for educators, but especially now in the distance learning reality we’re living in. To dig into the question of how we truly connect and engage from afar, I spoke with inspiring educator, Alex Kajitani, who is also known as The Rappin’ Mathematician.
That was the essential question the surfaced in my conversation with Marco Torres this week. Marco is a friend and former colleague who is a master at using story to provoke new ways of thinking. In the times we’re in now with the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s especially important to be asking the right questions first instead of jumping directly to solutions. What is Marco’s tip for schools as we navigate the unknown together? Curate, cultivate and create.
Now more than ever is the time to fully step into our leadership and serve our communities in new, creative ways. We’re navigating uncharted territory, but we’re doing it together. As much support is out there, it’s also a time when many of us feel isolated and limited in our abilities to serve and support in ways that we would normally. For that reason, I’m sharing the infographic below that highlights 5 habits of intentional leaders to serve as daily reminders for you.
All educational institutions have safety plans in place, and a built-in communication plan is essential as well so that all information sharing is accurate and consistent. When preparing for a crisis, you can use this checklist to ensure you have your communication strategy, team and protocol in place ahead of time.
I caught up with Alan Daly this week and our conversation reminded me just how important our relationships are, particularly when it comes to making change in education. The more we understand our own social networks, the better we can leverage them for good. Ideally we’re doing this by expanding our ideas, perspectives and circles of connection within a system. As Alan says, system change is made up of small micro-experiences and micro-interactions that can fundamentally change systems. This is such an important reminder when change feels overwhelming or impossible!
This week I was thinking a lot about how we show up to the world and what we bring with us to the table every day when we come to work. Particularly as leaders, we set the tone whether we like it or not, for good or for bad, so I wanted to focus the theme for this week on authenticity. I also have a quick exercise to share with you about how we can stay a step ahead and be proactive in how we’re communicating with our communities.
The work of school administrators is inherently complex, demands hyper focus, and occurs at a break-neck speed. This reality has been proven to affect long-term job performance, lead to burnout and other health issues. Self-care for school leaders is becoming more and more important to help leaders confront theses challenges, and mindfulness has emerged as a centerpiece to this movement.
Living in a hyperconnected world it’s easy to lose sight of deep connection in place of quick day-to-day exchanges such as text messages, emails, social media posts – all surface level connection. We’re often moving so fast from task to task that we don’t even give ourselves the chance to connect more deeply.
You could say we’re always going through some sort of change – in our personal or professional lives. For that reason, it’s important to take the opportunity to ground ourselves, to find a way to center and give ourselves the space to re-focus and get the clarity we need to move forward in whatever direction that is.
